Welcome to Around the Blockchain, Huobi Learn’s daily rundown of the crypto markets.
Apple’s stock price shot up after CEO Tim Cook said during the company’s Q1 2022 earnings call that he sees “a lot of potential” and is “investing accordingly” in the Metaverse space. Apple (AAPL) had fallen by around 3% to around $159.22 during regular trading hours, but jumped up 8% to $167.23 in after-hours trading. During the call, Cook also highlighted that AAPL already had 14,000 apps in its App Store that were designed with AR developer platform ARKit, which could help users access the Metaverse.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has reportedly instructed the country’s ruling party, the AK Party, to conduct a “good and meticulous” study on cryptocurrency and the Metaverse as “it is a sensitive subject”. Party spokesperson Ömer Çelik said, “A forum will be held in the near future under the chairmanship of our president. The technological, philosophical, political and economic dimensions of these concepts (cryptocurrency and the Metaverse) will be comprehensively discussed.”
BSTX, a joint venture between tZero and Boston Options Exchange (BOX) Digital Markets, has finally received approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to operate a blockchain-based securities exchange, which will be open to both retail and institutional investors. BOX had first applied for a security token offering (STO) platform in 2020 but the SEC rejected its application then. The SEC said the approval was conditional on BSTX joining relevant national market system plans established to disseminate real-time market information; it will also require BSTX to be part of an intermarket surveillance group that will coordinate regulatory compliance.
Blockchain start-up Propy has launched an NFT platform in the US that will allow real-world properties to be bought as NFTs. The technology used to turn real estate into NFTs will be marketed to owners and brokers, starting with Propy auctioning two residential properties in Florida on 8 Feb. Propy says purchase records are placed on the immutable blockchain, providing access to legal documents signifying ownership, lowering buyers’ costs, and cutting the buying process to just a few minutes. If successful, buyers will get investment properties in Florida and own a US-based entity whose ownership rights are associated with NFTs. The company plans to scale this offering internationally, providing a single framework for buying property with blockchain technology.
Robinhood (HOOD) shares fell by nearly 13% to $10.12 during after-hours trading on Thursday, after the trading platform reported a quarter-on-quarter drop in crypto revenue from $51 million to $48 million. The company said it has “set aggressive goals” to begin allowing global customers on its crypto platform this year as it is a “big opportunity”. With regards to crypto staking and NFTs, Robinhood’s management said it was establishing its crypto team and observing the regulatory landscape, but did not go into detail about its future plans.
Show me the money
According to data from the Huobi Global, BTC rose during the night before falling again in the morning to 36,700. Trading volume was sluggish, with daily charts showing signs of a downward trend. ETH continued to fall overnight to around 2,370 amid sluggish trading volume, with daily charts showing signs of a down-trend as well.
BTC’s technical indicators are mostly neutral in the short term and selling pressure remains strong, after it failed to sustain a brief price increase from $32,900 to $39,000. Buyers will need to hold support between $30,000 and $37,000 to stabilize the pull-back.
Meanwhile, regulatory uncertainty weighing down the crypto market is keeping ETH below the $3,000 support, amid rumors that the US SEC is reviewing DeFi’s high-yield crypto lending products. Ether bulls are also trying to determine if the 24 Jan price drop to $2,140 was the final bottom in the current down-trend, which has continued for nearly three months. Ether bears, on the other hand, may require a gentle push below $2,400 to make $270 million in profit on Friday. Conversely, they would need an 8.4% price recovery from the current $2,500 to reduce their loss by 58%.
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