Welcome to Crypto Buzz by Kalkine TV, I’m Sage today’s episode will
talk of sanctions and the impact of the Russian-Ukraine conflict on crypto.
We’ll look at WAVES and ANCHOR Protocol and how they are still gaining through the bearish
phase as well as commemorate International Women’s Day 2022 by introducing GIANT Protocol
led by Ms. Suruchi Gupta plus how NFT’s are aiding social causes.
It's been about 12 days of conflict in the Ukraine as Russia continues it’s invasion. 1.5 million
Ukrainians have fled the country the U.N. has advised and with Russia and Ukraine being major
global suppliers of commodities such as energy and wheat, the spin-off experienced in the commodities
market has been hard not to notice. Especially at the petrol pump, with prices being at record
levels. Russia is also the 3rd largest crypto miner and has about $200 billion of crypto
holdings. With many businesses and economies releasing their ties with Russia, crypto included.
It will be interesting to see how much longer the Russian mining enterprising can continue against
the current backdrop. Most mainstream crypto media outlets are preparing for a bearish phase on the
cusp of further blows to the market coming from the Russia Ukraine conflict. The agnostic aspect,
this is it’s ability to be used for good or malign purposes is also in the spotlight. With Russia
being cut off from SWIFT banking network, and economic sanctions being utilised as a weapon
of mass destruction on Russia, causing the Rubel to crash by 30%. With Bitcoin and Ethereum both
surging close to 10% last week, after global economic sanctions prevented the
Russian Central Bank to use it’s reserves of foreign currencies to stabilize their markets.
Could crypto still offer Russia alternative routes to evade sanctions? Ukrainian minister of digital
transformation Mykailo Federov made a request via Twitter, to the major crypto exchanges to block
not only Russian and Belarusian politicians but also the ordinary people from transacting. It was
reported by Computerworld. However, Avivah Litan, vice-president at Gartner told Computerworld,
““Contrary to popular lore, cryptocurrencies are not a haven for anonymous law-breakers. In fact,
because of smart blockchain analytics, it’s easier to follow money trails on blockchains than it is
on legacy payment networks, however a circuitous route they may take,” We wait with bated breath,
to see the further impacts on the market this unfortunate was will have in the near term.
From the US, sanctions on the crypto sector are the buzz,
an executive order is being signed off by President Biden this week,
instructing all departments to further study how the crypto sector could be regulated.
At present no action is being recommended although in February the U.S. Department
of the Treasury highlighted the risk NFT’s pose for avenues of money-laundering, especially
facilitated by the high-end art market. NFT sales volume totalled over $40 billion in 2021,
compared to just $94.9 million the year before, DappRadar reported. It showed significant growth
of over 2500% in a single quarter during 2021. The U.S. treasuries study outlines that the price
of NFT’s are determined between the buyer and seller and not the market, Cointelegraph reported.
Despite Steve Wozniak the co-founder of Apple sharing his praises for the most popular crypto
by marketcap saying that Bitcoin is "the only crypto that's pure-gold mathematics."
In an interview with Business Insider. Bitcoin is still facing a bearish slump,
with the downward signals continuing. If the panic selling continues as investors shy away from the
riskier assets a break of the existing support levels down to $30k is not out of the picture.
Analysts at fxstreet have shared. Today the price of Bitcoin is $38,650 up 2.2% in the last 24hrs,
it is down about 10% over the last 7 days down about 7% over the last 30 days and down 25%
over the last 12 months. According to Coingecko.
Ethereum the 2nd most popular crypto by marketcap is still 46% up over the last 12 months, however,
it is sitting close to it’s existing support levels of $2500. With a dip below this not being
out of the question too, as the movements in BTC and ETH can seem to echo each other. Weiss Crypto
analysts predict a big move from ETH as it is the most popular crypto for developing Dapps with it’s
ERC-20 tokens. With the Metaverse and augmented reality still having a strong dialogue around it,
especially since Facebook changed it’s name to Meta Inc. But whether the move for Eth will be
up or down is still in contention, for ETH to turn bullish again it would need to break the
key resistance level of $2900 to confirm the breakout, Weiss crypto also shared.
Today the price of ETH is $2552 up 1.2% over the last 24hrs
over the last 7 days it is down 12.6% and over the last 30 days it is down 15.5%
We’ve now reached the time for a short break after
the break we’ll look at women in crypto to commemorate International Women’s Day,
Waves and Anchor Protocol as well as how NFT’s are helping social causes.
@@@@@@@@@@
Welcome back after the break. Conferences are the meeting of the minds and quite often great things
come out of them. Such as the founding of Black Women in Blockchain Council, (BWBC) founded by
in 2018 inspired from her attendance of the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami. July 2021,
saw the BWBC partner with ConsenSys an Ethereum software company. This will enable the launch of a
program to train 500,000 Black women globally, via online services in blockchain developing by 2030.
Odeniran told cnbc The initiative will roll out in the third quarter of 2022.
More information can be found on their website:
BWBC’s website: https://bwbc.io/blockchain/. Entry fee is USD$25.
On the same theme the Forbes 30/50 Summit is concluding in Abu Dhabi,
9th March and will be advancing projects in commemoration of International Women’s Day,
namely FEARLESS. A new girl’s initiative backed by Encantos,
namely Anna Maria Chavez Chief Impact officer of Encantos, a global Web3 platform empowering
creators who help children learn. The project will launch an NFT collection with proceeds of their
sale going to organisations that work to increase opportunities for girls. Steven Wolfe Pereira,
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Encantos said in his own words about the venture,
“Less than 2% of all philanthropic giving goes to girls, less than $6.00 per girl.
People give more money to animal causes than to girl causes.
This needs to change now and there’s no greater champion for girls than Anna María,”
During this crypto slump many have been utilising
DeFi to make gains and store their digital assets to earn interest rates higher than ordinary
fiat savings accounts. One protocol that has been a shining star over the last 30 days
Anchor Protocol. With the protocol retweeting via their Twitter feed that the market cap for Anchor
has surpassed $1 billion in the past week, there has been a lot of activity and transacting
happening with the $ANC token. Anchor’s website states that it offers better yield with stable
attractive returns powered through staking from multiple proof of stake blockchain. It also shares
that Anchor provides frictionless access with no minimum deposits, signup requirements or freezes.
During the Asian mid-market session at the time of writing this report the price of
Anchor is $3.94 being 2.4% up in the last 24hrs, over the last 7 days it is up 12.9%
over the last 30 days it is up 178.8% according to data from Coingecko.