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Going nowhere fast 🏃💨
For all the excitement around bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the cryptocurrency market has failed to make much headway since the launch of the first bitcoin futures ETF last week. The bitcoin price, after soaring in the run-up to ProShare’s ETF launch, has traded sideways since—even as the second bitcoin futures ETF is set to launch today.
The bitcoin price has failed to maintain its all-time high price with ethereum also falling back. … [+]
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Ethereum has also struggled to make headway, with its rally coming off the boil at just over the $4,000 per ether mark. Ethereum is flat on the last 24 hours. One of its biggest rivals, solana, is kicking off the week with a bang, however, adding 6% since this time yesterday and threatening to storm into the top five most valuable cryptocurrencies as measured by CoinMarketCap.
The meme-based dogecoin got a boost last night after Tesla
TSLA
Now read this: The ETF revolution is going to disrupt bitcoin
The future of Facebook
FB
FB
Metaverse metamorphosis: Facebook will this week outline exactly how it envisions its transformation from the world’s biggest social media company to a “metaverse” company.
Why it matters: Facebook, more than two years since announcing its now-hobbled libra cryptocurrency, is still searching for a way out of its advertizing-led business model that’s increasingly seen as toxic and a threat to political stability by governments around the world. Facebook had hoped the stablecoin libra, now rebranded and downsized to “diem” after central banks and regulators balked at the concept of a Facebook-controlled global currency, might offer it a new route to monetization that doesn’t depend on ever-increasing engagement. The metaverse is stage two of that plan that’s already been forced to divert from its roadmap. Cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain-based digital scarcity are all expected to play a role in metaverses as building blocks of the virtual economy.
Masters of the metaverse: The metaverse, a concept that was born in the sci-fi dystopia of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, has been described by Facebook chief exchange Mark Zuckerberg as a “virtual environment” you can go inside of instead of merely looking at on a screen. Zuckerberg will share his metaverse vision on the virtual stage of Facebook Connect this week.
The big picture: Facebook has lurched from scandal to crisis over the last couple of years, with the latest leaked documents showing the company has struggled to prevent the spread of misinformation and abusive content in India, fueling violence. Some two dozen news organizations have published—or will soon publish—reports based on documents leaked by whistleblower Frances Haugen.
From bad to worse: “We need to steel ourselves for more bad headlines in the coming days, I’m afraid,” Facebook VP of global affairs Nick Clegg wrote in a Saturday post to staffers obtained by Axios.
The bottom line: Facebook is under fire and needs a radical shift in its business model if it wants to escape being broken up or more closely regulated. The emerging crypto-economy could play a part.
Now read this: Inside the big Facebook leak
CoinMarketCap leak 📁
💧 CoinMarketCap, the popular bitcoin and crypto price data site that was recently acquired by crypto exchange Binance, appears to have suffered a large-scale data leak.
📧 Just over 3 million email addresses linked to CoinMarketCap accounts were reportedly being traded on hacking forums, according to data breach tracking site Have I Been Pwned.
🗣️ “CoinMarketCap has become aware that batches of data have shown up online purporting to be a list of user accounts,” the crypto price site said in a statement. “While the data lists we have seen are only email addresses (no passwords), we have found a correlation with our subscriber base. We have not found any evidence of a data leak from our own servers—we are actively investigating this issue and will update our subscribers as soon as we have any new information.”
Don’t miss: Crypto ETFs send bitcoin soaring but people are worried
The week ahead ✨
Frances Haugen, a Facebook whistleblower, will give evidence to a U.K. parliamentary committee today
Getty Images
👀 Look out for these crypto and crypto-related events this week…
🚀 Today, VanEck‘s bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) is set to begin trading in New York, following the launch of the first “historic” bitcoin ETF last week.
📢 The CoinAgenda conference kicks off in Las Vegas for the eighth time, featuring Caitlin Long, the chief executive of Avanti Financial Group and crypto billionaire Matt Roszak, the chairman of blockchain infrastructure company Bloq, amongst others.
👍 Social media giant Facebook will dominate the news agenda all week as whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies before the U.K. parliament’s internet safety committee today. Facebook will also report earnings after today’s market close and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg will reveal details of its metaverse metamorphosis and new branding at its virtual Facebook Connect event on Thursday.
📈 Tech earnings will dominate this week’s third-quarter reports, with Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft
MSFT
AAPL
🌍 This weekend, the COP26 climate summit gets underway in Glasgow, Scotland. Bitcoin and crypto’s eye-watering carbon footprint could be in for a kicking.
Now read this: Forget NFTs, I collect cashflows