The Yuga Ban Hammer ⛔️📈📜

Valko

The Yuga Ban Hammer ⛔️📈📜 Valko

Specs’ Insights

Yuga Labs protects NFT royalties ahead of Magic Eden's Ethereum marketplace launch

Top web3 studio is moving to protect creator royalties without ending support for transactions involving Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.

⌐◪-◪ → Yuga Labs just announced that they will no longer support marketplaces that do not support royalties for all creators. This means that their NFT collections will only be tradeable on marketplaces that enforce royalties, which they will enforce at a protocol level.

Note: this excludes BAYC, MAYC, Punks, Moonbirds, + some others.

This announcement comes in tandem with the launch of MagicEden’s new Ethereum marketplace (with royalty enforcement) which goes live today.

There are definitely mixed opinions on this decision from OG collectors. Beanie has already voiced his strong opposition, while NFTstats.eth suggests it could help Yuga assets.

Interestingly enough, it looks like holders will still be able to trade (fee free) on Blur, as these contracts don’t have the necessary functions to block certain marketplaces — unless Yuga forces migration to new contracts. With that said, future collections by Yuga will definitely be royalty-enforced, meaning they won’t be tradeable on marketplaces like Blur.

It will be interesting to watch Yuga’s NFT volume on Blur vs. MagicEden in the coming months. It will be very telling of what the market wants, which is almost always the lowest cost.

Are you bullish or bearish?

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New bitcoin ETFs surpass 300,000 BTC holdings in under two months

Daily net inflows exceeded $500 million on Monday as total net inflows reached $6 billion and bitcoin’s price surged.

⌐◪-◪ → The new spot Bitcoin ETFs just surpassed 300,000 BTC in assets under management, only two months after they went live, 47 days to be specific. Note: this excludes Grayscale’s converted GBTC fund.

To put this number in perspective, 300,000 Bitcoin is:

1.5% of BTC’s total supply of 21M1.55x MicroStrategy’s 193,000 BTC4x Tether’s 66,465 BTCmore than all public BTC miners combined

Zooming in, BlackRock’s $IBIT continues to dominate the competition with 128,000 BTC under management, with Fidelity $FBTC following close behind with 94,000 BTC.

There is no denying it, the spot Bitcoin ETFs have ushered in a new wave of Bitcoin investors and increased crypto demand across the board.

All in time for Bitcoin’s beloved halving in ~54 days.

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US Senator Ted Cruz Introduces Legislation to Ban a CBDC

Texas's Ted Cruz and other US Senators are set to introduce legislation to prohibit the issuance of a CBDC in the country

⌐◪-◪ → Republican lawmakers are working on legislation to ban the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The lawmakers, led by Texas’ Ted Cruz, say "The Biden administration salivates at the thought of infringing on our freedom and intruding on the privacy of citizens.”

This isn’t the first time Republicans have tried to ban CBDCs, and they aren’t alone either — Former President Donald Trump has already promised to ban the creation of a CBDC.

In my opinion, this is a critical battle line for crypto. The creation of a CBDC, paired with surveillance and social credit systems, could restrict access to money for anybody who acts against “the rules”.

It would create a world where the government could sanction you on an individual level just like they sanction countries that don’t obey “the rules”.

In an increasingly digital world, where paper money will cease to exist, independent digital currencies (like Bitcoin) are integral to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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Everything Else

⛓️ Crypto & DeFi

USDC market cap increased 14% in December, faster than rival Tether
Blast crosses $2B in TVL ahead of Feb 29th mainnet launch
Chart expert Peter Brandt raises BTC 2025 prediction to $200k
BTC hits $57k as spot ETFs post record volumes
JPEG’d DAO wants to bet 50% of $37M treasury on airdrop farming
Frax Finance to re-enable revenue sharing rewards in 10 days
Braiins becomes 1st mining pool to introduce lightning payouts
Tornado Cash suffers backend exploit, deposits & deposit data at risk
Lido crosses $30B TVL, and now controls 32% of staked ETH
Uniswap whale sells $1M of $UNI as price surged earlier this week
Uniswap teases announcement, keep your eyes peeled today

🏦 Wallstreet & VC

BlackRock’s spot BTC ETF breaks $1B in daily volume for the first time
Avail raises $27M seed round for modular blockchain from Peter Thiel
Initia raises $7.5M round for rollup-focused blockchain
Babylon raises undisclosed sum from Binance for BTC staking protocol

🏛️ Legal & Regulatory

Do Kwon to miss SEC trial start date due to delayed extradition
Craig Wright’s former lawyer says new Satoshi emails are fake
Crypto asset monitoring is a top priority ahead of the G20 meeting

🌎 Rest of the World

OKX expands to Turkey as part of global expansion plan
HTX withdraws Hong Kong crypto exchange application

🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse

Sandbox co-founder says future of gaming is user-generated content
Xai to launch staking rewards for their layer-3 ETH gaming network
Portal partners with FazeSway ahead of Feb 29 launch on Binance

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