Join thousands of NFT traders who already start their day on CryptoSlam.
Well, as we said, it's a big day for NFT related news.
So let's kick off in China where there's been a call for regulations of NFTs.
China's Communist Party backed newspaper, The Economic Daily, has published an opinion
piece calling for tighter regulation.
The article says NFTS should be seen as a fintech product with community currency and
securities features rather than as a cultural and creative commodity.
It goes on to suggest that the introduction of a sandbox mechanism and putting NFTs under
close observation of regulators would be a viable approach.
Now, unlike cryptocurrencies, NFTs have not been banned in China, though they are now
often called "digital collectibles" in response to previous criticism in state media over
the NFT hype, the article reiterates that criticism as well as highlighting concerns
over the operation of resale markets.
Now, China's tech giants have already put in self regulatory measures, with WeChat shutting
down a number of marketplace accounts last week and Alibaba banning resales before an
NFT has been held for 180 days.
Now, despite all these harsh words, the NFT space is still a hot spot for many, with prices
for digital collectibles issued by the state owned Shanghai Securities News soaring in
second hand trading back in February.
Meanwhile, the long wait is over for many NFT fans hoping for cheaper transactions.
In a tweet, the world's largest NFT marketplace, Opensea, said that Solana NFTs can now be
traded in beta mode.
The marketplace explained that during beta mode they will collect feedback to improve
the Solana experience, adding that 165 collections are already supported with more to be added
every day.
But this much awaited development comes amid an overall slowdown in the NFT market.
Data from CryptoSlam shows NFT sales are down by at least 25% within the 24 hours to Thursday
morning Asia time.
And though NFT sales often go up as they are effectively cheaper when the crypto market
goes down, the crypto market is also in the red today.
More to come on that market action later in the show.
You can find those stories and more at Forkast.News.
Now to some good news for players of the massively popular play to earn game Axie Infinity, the
Vietnamese gaming studio Sky Mavis has raised US$150 million to reimburse users affected
by the Ronin validator hack last month and the move has resulted in a massive spike in
sales for the NFTs.
Forkast's Danny Park tells us more.
There's definitely a light at the end of the tunnel for victims of last month's massive
hack on the Ronin chain where the Axie Infinity game runs.
Affected users can now expect reimbursement from the game's maker.
Vietnamese gaming studio Sky Mavis as the company announced US$150 million fundraising
round led by Binance to offset the losses from the hack.
Other participants in the funding round include Hong Kong based Animoca Brands, A16Z, Dialect,
Paradigm and Accel.
Sky Mavis says it will reopen the Ronin Network Bridge after several weeks of thorough audits
and a security upgrade, while Binance will provide ETH withdrawal and deposit services
for Axie Infinity users and to boost user confidence.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao says validator set will be expanded from 5 to 21 validators
to ensure the security of the Ronin network.
That's after analysis of the attack found that the small number of validators for the
network had left it vulnerable.
The exploit on Sky Mavis' Ronin and Axie tile validator nodes resulted in the drainage of
173,600 Ethereum and 25.5 million USDC.
And according to data from CryptoSlam following the announcement, sales volume for the games
Axie NFT searched by over 350% in the last 24 hours to Thursday morning.
Asia Time.
For Forkast, I'm Danny Park.
Over in the broader market now, after a strong performance in March, Bitcoin has taken a
stumble falling over 4% to Thursday morning Asia time.
Even as crypto enthusiasts are gearing up for the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami.
Forkaast's Pradipta Mukherjee takes a look at what's driving all the market action.
Bitcoin made solid gains throughout the month of March, which carried on into early April,
but it fell overnight and was trading at a little over the US$43,000 mark as of Thursday
morning in Asia.
The turnaround followed the release of the US Federal Reserve minutes where officials
discussed their plans for shrinking the Fed's balance sheet.
That involves reducing the balance by US$95 billion a month and that we don't risk assets
globally, including Bitcoin.
And Bitcoin wasn't alone in the crypto space.
Ethereum, Terra, Solana all mirrored it, while Dogecoin fell almost 12%.
One expert says investors have been surprised at how aggressive the Fed's roadmap is.
Previously when they've started doing this, they've been somewhat timid and then had to
reverse but had very little ammunition to reverse with.
So they're going to be quite aggressive to start with, just in case they need to unwind
some of it.
Adding to that, the situation with Shanghai being in lockdown still and that's worrying
people not just about the growth in China, but also about the impact that has on supply
chains for a lot of other Asian countries.
And that at the end of the day, will make people really look at the risk rewards of
the investments that they're holding.
However, Ben Caselin of Crypto Exchange AAX thinks investors should not be overly concerned
because occasional downturns and rallies are of little significance.
Caselin says the overall fundamentals for Bitcoin are in good shape and that a shift
in sentiment would see a quick price recovery.
Meanwhile, over in Miami, the largest annual gathering of crypto enthusiasts, Bitcoin 2022,
is now underway where the city's mayor, Francis Suarez, has called for a pro-bitcoin president
to take office.
Tony Sycamore of City Index told Forkast that despite the hype over Bitcoin 2022, the inescapable
truth is that Bitcoin remains a risk asset and that the current risk backdrop is making
things increasingly tenuous for both equities and cryptocurrencies.
For Forkast, I am Pradipta Mukherjee.
And that's The Daily Forkast.
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Thanks for watching.
I'm Forkast Editor in Chief Angie Lau.
Until the next time.