Altcoins Begin To Climb The Charts As Market Turns Bullish

The announcement of another 25 basis points rate hike by the United States Federal Reserves did not impact the crypto markets greatly as Bitcoin and Ethereum continue to maintain a 1.5% and 5% increase in price respectively in January. On the other hand, it was altcoin season for tokens like Fantom (FTM) and ImmutableX (IMX) as price values saw an increase of 30% to 40% on average.

Market Optimism Drives Bullish Sentiments Across Three Major Regions

Market charts from cryptocurrency data intelligence Glassnode show that investors in the Asia-Pacific region, the United States, and Europe are showing positive sentiments towards Bitcoin and Ethereum, with US investors being the most bullish for both digital assets. On the other hand, Asia’s year-on-year supply is currently over 8.5% which is the most bullish the region has been to date.

Western Financial Institutions Push Crypto Prices With Spot Inflows

According to popular cryptocurrency analyst Willy Woo, he believes that the rise in Bitcoin prices are due to financial institutions in the United States and Europe moving funds into exchanges. According to his analysis, the activity peaks during trading hours in these two regions, and he speculates that these inflows are existing crypto funds were converted to stablecoins that bided their time during the downturn.

Fanzee Takes The Lead With Pioneer Staking Program On TON Ecosystem

The Web3 fan engagement platform Fanzee has launched the first-ever staking program which allows the staking of TON-based Jettons. The staking pool program is one of the first few decentralized finance projects on the TON network which is backed by DWF Labs, and we can expect more to come with avid community engagement on TON’s social media.

DWF Labs Partners With NFT Liquidity Protocol LENA Network

DWF Labs has partnered with decentralized peer-to-peer NFT liquidity protocol LENA network via a strategic investment to realize LENA’s innovative solutions and unlock the full potential of NFTs on Web3. The project aims to let users borrow ether (ETH) by using existing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as collateral, and they plan to expand their services to NFT fractionalization, derivative markets, multi-chain support and flexible risk lending with the investment.

TON’s Digital Wallet Is A Keeper With Its Latest Integrated Feature

Tonkeeper, the non-custodial digital wallet for The Open Network (TON), has recently launched a widget feature that allows users to buy and sell TON tokens through the all-in-one payment solution Mercuryo. This lets users purchase TON easily through the wallet, and the project has also launched a contest to commemorate the partnership which rewards 10 participants with unique ‘.ton’ decentralized identity addresses.

Bitcoin NFTs? It’s More Likely Than You Think

The minting of non-fungible tokens has always been inextricably linked with the Ethereum network or other blockchains except Bitcoin, but it seems the grandfather of crypto is having its moment in the sun with NFTs being enabled on the Bitcoin network. The newly launched Ordinals protocol inscribes satoshis, which is the native currency of the Bitcoin network, with arbitrary content which is effectively turned into a Bitcoin digital artifact like NFTs.

Federal Rate Hikes Fuel Bitcoin Price Sentiments

The price of Bitcoin spiked right after the United States Federal Reserves released its rate hike of 25 basis points. Fueled by the comments of the department chair Jerome Powell that the economy is currently trending towards disinflation, BTC price broke US$24,000 shortly after with the total crypto market cap climbing above the US$1 trillion mark to US$1.09 trillion.

Renewed NFT Interest Drives Trading And Lending On Popular Marketplaces

The increased activity around NFT development plus the market resurgence has led to a jump in NFT trading activity and lending in recent weeks. Polygon overtook Ethereum in terms of NFT trading in January with 1.514 million NFT trades, and the increased activity had the added effect of reducing NFT loan interest rates for lenders. Aside from the two networks, other NFT marketplaces like BendDAO, X2Y2, and Arcade also saw an uptick in trades.

History Comes To Life As Woodstock Takes To The Metaverse

The team behind the famous Woodstock Festival, often portrayed as a defining counterculture event, will be turning to the digital metaverse to preserve its historical significance while aiming to create a complementary physical space to possible festival events in the future. This initiative is just one of the many music festivals that are taking to the metaverse to reach a wider audience through digitalization.

Japan Aims To Revitalize Its Economy With Web3 Innovation

Web3 technology such as decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) could be the breakthrough Japan needs to kickstart its stagnant economy, according to its Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Despite recent crypto developments such as the pullback of Kraken and Coinbase from Japan, attitudes towards Web3 have not wavered with the country carrying out research on its digital yen and allowing NFTs to be issued to regional authorities.

Major Web2 Companies Starts Hiring To Bolster Web3 Capability

Despite the glum outlook from tech companies in the recent months, it seems there is a renewed interest amongst certain Web2 companies to start building their portfolio of Web3 services. Amazon Web Service has been spotted hiring for Web3 Go–To-Market specialists to manage their growing number of blockchain companies or nodes utilizing their services, while major auction listing platform eBay is looking for a crypto counsel to join their NFT platform, KnownOrigin.