Daily Digest - 8 March 2023

Headlines

▌Amazon will launch the first batch of 15 NFT series on the digital market, which can support credit card payment

Amazon’s upcoming NFT platform will launch the first batch of 15 NFT series on the digital market, which users can use in the United States through the Amazon Digital Marketplace, and will gradually expand to other regions, including Europe and the rest of the world. Additionally, the Amazon launch date has been pushed back twice and is now set for April 24, according to sources. The delay is due to the impact of FTX and the downturn in the global crypto market and crypto winter. Initially, only users in the U.S. will have access to the platform, but it will now be rolled out to other regions. Amazon is considering sending mass emails to Prime subscribers in the U.S. to promote the platform. However, it is unclear whether the Amazon token will be part of the transaction, as the back-end blockchain technology and the type of private blockchain Amazon plans to create remain unclear. Additionally, other sources suggest that Amazon's digital offerings also have a "phygital" aspect. Amazon customers will be able to buy fashion-oriented NFTs related to physical products like jeans and pay with a credit card like any other Amazon product. It is also said that the platform will focus on blockchain-based games where users can earn NFTs.

Policies

▌Powell: With proper regulation, stablecoins have a place

Federal Reserve Chairman Powell expressed real concerns about permission-less blockchains. This is not conducive to maintaining safety and soundness. It is important for the U.S. to have a legal framework around digital activity. With proper regulation, stablecoins have a place. That's a matter for Congress, not the Fed's job.

Cryptocurrency

▌Judge asks SEC to explain relationship between Bitcoin futures and spot prices

In response to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) rejection of Grayscale Investment’s application to convert GBTC into a Bitcoin spot ETF, the two parties have launched a court debate in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. The SEC believes that the Bitcoin futures ETF is more resistant to manipulation than the spot market, and uses this as one of the reasons for rejecting the Grayscale spot ETF application. Judge Rao questioned this, saying that the SEC needs to explain how it understands the relationship between bitcoin futures and spot prices, a future that is essentially just a derivative. They are together 99.9% of the time, so in the eyes of the SEC, what is the difference between the two? The SEC said that 99% correlation does not equate to causation, and futures data only refers to once-daily prices, not intraday prices. In the SEC’s view, the bitcoin spot market is indisputably decentralized, in stark contrast to bitcoin futures that are only traded on CME.

▌Data: 84% of Ethereum NFT transactions in the first week of March occurred on the Blur platform

According to data from The Block, 84% of all Ethereum-based NFT transactions occurred on the Blur platform in the first week of March, exceeding the high of 68% in February and 43% in January. This means that in just over two months, Blur has nearly doubled its market share, surpassing rival OpenSea. Additionally, the entire NFT market rallied alongside Blur in February, reaching its highest volume since May. Thomas Bialek, an analyst at The Block Research, said it was unclear whether the surge was sustainable or simply related to the incentives offered by Blur. Analysts said that in the near future, it seems likely that this fierce NFT market war will continue to intensify, with Blur needing to prove the durability of its approach and OpenSea to launch effective countermeasures.

▌Tensor plans to imitate Blur and launch "Season 1 airdrop" for Solana NFT traders

After completing a new round of financing of US$3 million, Tensor, the NFT market on the Solana chain, announced that it intends to follow the example of Blur in airdropping Solana NFT traders, and has launched a "Season 1 airdrop", according to its information on social media. Solana NFT collectors can claim free reward boxes proportional to their trading activity on the blockchain network, and anyone who has bought or sold Solana NFTs on any marketplace in the past six months is eligible to participate. According to data from Dune Analytics, the transaction volume of Tensor's Solana NFT soared to a single-day high on Monday, reaching 23,351 SOL (approximately US$486,000), with a transaction volume of approximately 2,800. It is reported that Tensor will launch a "Sean 2 airdrop" in the future, but it will only reward trading activities on its platform, not the broader Solana NFT market.

▌Report: Stablecoins could benefit from Silvergate's woes

A new study by digital asset data provider Kaiko found that Silvergate's decision to shut down its instant payment network may promote investors' adoption of stablecoins in cryptocurrency transactions. The study predicts that instead of depositing USD into an exchange that uses banking rails like Silvergate’s SEN, investors will deposit it with a stablecoin issuer to receive the stablecoin before transferring it to an exchange. Still, Kaiko said stablecoin issuers will still need access to crypto banks, so risk is now further concentrated.