The Weekly Wrap - 03 September 2021

1. Sotheby’s auctions BAYC NFTs

The Facts:

• Sotheby’s, one of the largest art brokers worldwide, is selling Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs.
• 202 NFTs will be auctioned over the course of a week, ending September 9.
• BAYC NFTs were developed by Yuga Labs; the cheapest BAYC NFT is currently available at a price of 40 ETH (ca. $150’000).

Why it’s important:

• Sotheby’s move into the NFT market is the second time that a player in the traditional art market enters the NFT space after Christie’s sale of Crypto Punks.
• In general, profile picture NFTs have attracted significant communities around them.

2. Twitter tests tipping with Bitcoin Lightning

The Facts:

• Mobile developer A. Paluzzi leaked a screenshot showing a potential future integration of Bitcoin Lightning for tipping on Twitter.
• The tweet got additional credence by Twitter Product Lead K. Beykpour simply retweeting with “⚡?“.
• Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is a vocal Bitcoin supporter.

Why it’s important:

• This would expose millions of Twitter users to the possibility to use Bitcoin Lightning.
• The capacity of Bitcoin Lightning has doubled over the past four months, potentially indicating renewed interest.

3. SEC files complaint against BitConnect

The Facts:

• The SEC has filed a complaint against BitConnect, which infamously collapsed in early 2018.
• This follows earlier action that the SEC has taken against promoters of BitConnect.
• The SEC accuses BitConnect of defrauding retail investors out of $2 billion.

Why it’s important:

• BitConnect was an allegedly fraudulent investment scheme running from 2016 through 2018 that promised high returns on investment through trading bots.
• The BitConnect case highlights the importance of staying vigilant as an investor in crypto and conducting one’s own research into the legitimacy of a project.

4. Arbitrum One launches

The Facts:

• Arbitrum One, a second layer scaling solution for Ethereum, has announced the launch of their smart contracts on the Ethereum mainnet.
• With the official launch, Arbitrum opened up to the public and the whitelist was removed.
• Various DeFi-related and other dApps have already integrated with Arbitrum.

Why it’s important:

• With Ethereum’s currently high transaction costs (mostly fueled by the NFT craze), L2 scaling solutions such as Arbitrum could reroute some of the demand for block space.
• Arbitrum is not the only available L2 scaling solution – others are being worked on, such as Optimism, StarkNet and zkSync.

5. BIS announces cross-border CBDC prototype

The Facts:

• The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is working with the central banks of Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa on a prototype platform for cross-border CBDCs.
• The goal of the platform is to allow direct interaction between the involved central banks and to reduce settlement times.
• Cross-border capabilities and advantages of internationally coordinated “multi”-CBDCs have been studied in a previous report by the BIS.

Why it’s important:

• A cross-border CBDC could come with significant cost savings and challenge current infrastructure.
• Strategically, such a multi-CBDC might also challenge the potential dominance of a digital yuan in the region.

In other news

• Celo and Fantom launch DeFi incentives (via CoinDesk)
• Cardano launches smart contracts on testnet (via Decrypt)
• FTX US acquires crypto derivatives exchange LedgerX (via The Block)