MAJR News: Yuga Labs does $560M in NFT sales with BAYC Metaverse mint, Otherdeeds.
Historic day for the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project generating ~$900M in NFT sales volume since Saturday's mint, Argentina's largest bank provides crypto services, Solana goes down for 7 hours
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MAJR NEWS BRIEF
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Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU was importing between 3 million and 3.5 million barrels of oil a day from Russia, sending just under $400 million in payments daily.
Videos
In this episode, Raoul Pal breaks down his view, which is far from consensus on this important topic. He covers everything from the economic risks and the future of inflation to his views on all the major markets, including bonds, stocks, crypto, and everything in between.
Top Stories
BITCOINBitcoin Downtrend Intact; Support at $37K
Bitcoin is currently priced at ~$38k with support at $37k. It’s been trading sideways in a consolidation pattern for the last few months. Large long-term buyers have been accumulating larger positions, while retail investors have largely sidelined. Technical analysis indicates that a large move could be around the corner, but in either direction - a breakout or a breakdown.
MAJR Take: Don’t try to time the market, bitcoin is currently in a buy zone and especially if the price breaks down into the low $30k’s or below. Dollar cost averaging is a great strategy during these times.
Argentina's Largest Private Bank to Offer Bitcoin, Ethereum Trading
Banco Galicia, the largest private bank in Buenos Aires, Argentina is launching crypto services that allows customers to trade and custody - bitcoin, ether, USDC and XRP.
WisdomTree CEO: We Will Be First to Bring Passive Investing to the Blockchain
WisdomTree, a fund with $80B in AUM is rolling out its blockchain-native financial services app called WisdomTree Prime. The mobile app will allow customers to easily access passive investments across bitcoin, ether, blockchain enabled funds and tokenized versions of assets like gold.
More on Bitcoin
After Eight Years, Wikipedia Stops Accepting Bitcoin and Ethereum Donations
Michael Saylor, Jack Dorsey Among Bitcoin Heavyweights Defending Mining in Letter to EPA
Tesla ‘Believes in the Potential of Digital Assets,’ SEC Filing Reveals
CRYPTOBored Ape Creators Slammed for 'Nightmare' Ethereum NFT Land Drop, 'Tone Deaf' Response
The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) development company, Yuga Labs launched their Otherside metaverse NFT this past weekend, called “Otherdeeds.” First, it was the largest NFT mint in history doing $561M in NFT sales for Yuga Labs and $900M total sales volume. However, the NFT community and BAYC token holders were disappointed in how things played out. The biggest complaints were - bad mint execution and poorly written smart contract without any gas optimizations ($180M in gas fees alone), many failed transactions despite having whitelists and poor response from Yuga Labs - blaming Ethereum and demand for the bad mint experience.
10 Ways BAYC Could Have Improved Its Land Sale Contract and Minting Mechanics
ApeCoin Plummets Double Digits After Metaverse NFT Land Sale
OpenSea Just Set a New Daily Trading Record of $476M in Ethereum
OpenSea just a set a new single day trading record, $476M in ETH. This was largely due to the BAYC Otherside metaverse mint which yielded $319M in Apecoin. OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace saw a 40% increase in trading volume in April with nearly $3.5B worth in ETH.
MAJR Take: Yuga Labs doing wild numbers and proves on why NFTs and communities can be such a game-changer. However, this kinda feels like a top within the NFT marketplace given the bearishness in the macro markets.
Seven-Hour Solana Crash Blamed on Bots Swarming Candy Machine
Solana (SOL), a top alternative layer 1 protocol known for fast transaction times went down this past Saturday for 7 hours due to high bot traffic. The bot traffic came from an NFT minting tool called Candy Machine, which was sending 4M transactions per second. The recent outage reminded users of the 17-hour downtime that occurred on Solana in September.
MAJR Take: Blockchains are supposed to be secure and resilient because they’re decentralized, however, Solana has sacrificed security for speed. This is a perfect example of how this plays out in the real world and shows you how early we are with no clear winners.
More on Crypto
Fireblocks adds support for Terra as it sees 'record breaking' institutional demand
Coinbase Changes Listing Policy for New Tokens After Allegations of Front-Running
Square Enix Sells Off Tomb Raider and Three Studios to Fund NFT Games
MACROTreasury Yields Briefly Top 3% Ahead of Fed Meeting
The yield on 10-year Treasury notes topped 3% for a second straight day before slipping back to 2.969%, compared with 2.995% Monday. Yields, which move inversely to bond prices and are a reference for borrowing costs throughout the economy, have shot to their highest levels since 2018 in anticipation of higher interest rates. Fed officials have begun their two day meeting to confirm monetary policy going forward. They’re expected to announce a 0.50% increase in rates and shrink their balance sheet. They’ve already indicated that they will let $95B in securities mature each month starting in June ($60B in Treasuries and $35B in MBS).
The Hot Housing Market Makes the Fed’s Inflation-Fighting Job Even Tougher
The housing market is hot and doesn’t want to cool off despite higher home prices and increased mortgage rates. The median selling price of a home was 15% higher this March compared to a year earlier. The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage reached 5.1% at the end of April, up 2% from the start of the year. Existing home sales fell by 2.7% in March - lowest level since June 2020. Inventory of unsold existing homes in the US fell to its lowest level in decades, with under 1M homes available.
Home Buyers Rushed In as Mortgage Rates Rose, Boosting Housing Prices Across U.S.
Venezuela Reins In Dollarization in Risky Bid to Revive Bolivar
The use of the US dollar has increased in Venezuela over the years due high inflation in its domestic currency, the bolivar. However, due to extreme demand for the countries oil exporters, the country has slapped a 3% tax on purchases made with the dollar to improve demand for the bolivar.
More on Macro
MEDIARaoul Pal's Masterclass on Recession & Inflation
Bitcoin and crypto adoption is here to stay. Don’t let your friends and family miss the opportunity of a lifetime. For more breaking news and updates, follow us on Twitter @majr_daoWe’ve moved some content behind the pay wall. Subscribe to receive all our research and analysis.This is not financial advice. Please do your own research. Investing in bitcoin and cryptocurrency comes with risk. The information presented in this newsletter is for information and entertainment purposes only.