Read in the Digest;

• Google Pushes Deeper Into Blockchain and Crypto – Partners with Coinbase (NASDAQ:), Hires Paypal Vet

• Grayscale Fund is Down 30%, Whales Add 40k BTC in Last 2 Days

• Surpasses Visa’s Value Moved in 2021, JPMorgan (NYSE:) Calls High Gas Fee A Big Problem for ETH

• Makes Metaverse Debut with Pavia Launch

• CEO of Crypto.com Admits that 400 Accounts were Exploited in Hack

Google Pushes Deeper Into Blockchain and Crypto – Partners with Coinbase, Hires Paypal Vet

Alphabet (NASDAQ:) Inc.’s Google has ventured deeper into blockchain technology by forming a blockchain and distributed computing division. Led by Shivakumar Venkataraman, the new division will focus on “blockchain and other next-gen distributed computing and data storage technologies.”

Confirming the comment of Bill Ready, Google’s President of Commerce, that the company is paying “a lot of attention” to cryptocurrencies, Google has hired PayPal (NASDAQ:) veteran Arnold Goldberg to lead its payments division. The hire could see Google Pay expand its services to include cryptocurrencies.

Bill Ready explained that the move is part of Alphabet Inc.’s broader plans to partner with a wide range of financial services, including cryptocurrencies. One of such partnerships is with America’s leading crypto exchange, Coinbase.

According to reports, Google’s partnership with Coinbase will see the duo work together to develop a means of storing cryptocurrencies in “digital cards” while still having users pay in traditional currencies.

Flipsider:

• Jack Dorsey has criticized the entrance of megacompanies and venture capital firms to centralize the blockchain industry.

Why You Should Care

According to Bill Ready, crypto is something Google needs to pay a lot of attention to and evolve with it.

Grayscale Bitcoin Fund is Down 30%, Whales Add 40k BTC in Last 2 Days

The world’s largest institutional Bitcoin fund – Grayscale Bitcoin Trust’s (GBTC) – has seen its discount relative to the underlying cryptocurrency widen. The drop, which spans over the past two months, has seen GBTC hit a discount of 26.5%.

With Bitcoin hovering around $42,000, the GBTC would be priced at equivalent to $30,870. In 2022 alone, the $27 billion GBTC Fund has dropped by almost 17%, outpacing Bitcoin’s nearly 9% decline.

Flipsider:

• Despite the two months-long price drop, whales have continued to increase their Bitcoin holdings

• According to whale tracker Santiment, large Bitcoin wallets have added almost 40,000 BTCs (worth around $1.68 billion at Bitcoin’s current price of $42k) in the last 48 hours.

Why You Should Care

Despite the bears applying pressure, bulls have taken a stance to hold their stake – increasing the argument that bitcoin can be used as a store of value.

Ethereum Surpasses Visa’s Value Moved in 2021, JPMorgan Calls High Gas Fee A Big Problem for ETH

While Ethereum’s ongoing network migration was one of the project’s most talked about milestones in 2021, the smart contracts platform achieved even more. Moving more value than Visa (NYSE:) in 2021 is one of many unsaid milestones for Ethereum.

According to new reports, Ethereum moved approximately $11.6 trillion, outperforming the payment giant Visa, which moved $10.4 trillion in 2021. On the other hand, Bitcoin managed to move just $4.6 trillion in the same period.

Ethereum total transaction volume in 2021. Source: Josh Stark

Flipsider:

• Although Ethereum has made significant advances, JP Morgan has opined that the platform’s high gas fee and network congestion are a big problem.

• These led to a drop in Ethereum’s NFT market share from 95% to 80% – at the beginning and end of 2021, with being one of the growing NFT hubs.
• According to JP Morgan, if Ethereum continues losing its NFT and DeFi dominance, it could pose a big problem to Ether’s valuation.