There’s never a dull moment on the blockchain. Here’s what you need to know this week:

Bitcoin

$96,156.37



0.47%

Ethereum

$3,349.15

陋

0.79%

Tether

$1.00



0.05%

XRP

$2.22

陋

0.28%

Solana

$186.55

陋

3.09%

Dogecoin

$0.32

陋

1.83%

See the latest prices

MARKET BYTES

Bitcoin prices swing as U.S. election approaches

It’s been a rollercoaster ride for bitcoin so far in October. Less than two weeks ago, BTC was sitting near $60,000. Prices then steadily climbed to just below $70,000 on Sunday, before dipping this week to around $66,000.

Market watchers peg some of the volatility to uncertainty over the upcoming U.S. elections. 

Meanwhile, spot BTC ETFs added $2.4 billion in inflows in the six days ending on October 18, with the asset class crossing the $20 billion mark one day earlier. 

Here are three more market stories you should know about…

SEC approves BTC ETF options trading 

The biggest driver of the 2024 crypto rally was the arrival of spot bitcoin ETFs in January, which spurred a new wave of crypto investment from Wall Street and beyond. Now, even more institutional capital could be poised to flood into crypto. 

On Friday, eleven spot BTC funds received SEC approval to allow the listing and trading of options — a form of derivative that allows traders to buy the right to purchase or sell an asset at a specified price in the future. (The biggest BTC fund, BlackRock’s IBIT, had already received the agency’s greenlight.)

For big-money institutional investors, options are important because they allow for strategies that manage risk and potentially amplify returns. As a Bitwise analyst explained to Decrypt, “Options generally lead to an increase in trading activity, prompting better price discovery alongside more liquidity.”  

• Wen options? The next step in the approval process involves another regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). But according to a research note from Bitcoin firm NYDIG, spot BTC ETF options trading could begin as soon as the end of the year.

Tokenization continues to transform markets

Financial institutions are making major investments into the tokenization of real-world assets from stocks and T-bills to real estate and artwork. 

Why? Because tokens running on smart-contract compatible blockchains can make transactions faster and cheaper, while also creating new opportunities — for instance, fractional ownership of Airbnb rental properties.

BlackRock and Franklin Templeton already have tokenized funds worth around $500 million each. And more players continue to enter the space. This week, British pension-fund manager Legal & General, which manages a staggering $1.5 trillion in assets, is exploring ways to tokenize its flagship fund. 

• Stable stakes… The most common tokenized real-world assets in current use are stablecoins, which payment giants from Visa to PayPal have expanded into recently. This week, online payments firm Stripe announced a $1.1 billion deal to acquire the stablecoin platform Bridge (which was founded by two former Coinbase employees). The deal, pending regulatory approval, would be one of the biggest in crypto history. 

Market watchers are split on impact of the U.S. election

With the Nov. 5 election approaching fast, analysts remain divided on the potential impact of either candidate winning.

A new report from Citi posits that a Donald Trump victory and GOP sweep of both chambers of Congress would be the “most bullish” possible result for crypto because it could lead to more favorable regulation.

Meanwhile, major crypto figures Mark Cuban and Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen suggest that Kamala Harris would be better for markets, with Cuban noting that Harris is “'night and day away from Biden and far ahead of Trump” on crypto. 

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink doesn’t think the election will make a major difference for bitcoin or other markets, and that in any scenario, “Utilization of digital assets is going to become more and more of a reality worldwide.” Meanwhile, hedge-fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones says that no matter who wins “all roads lead to inflation” (a scenario that has him bullish on BTC).

• Are markets (and voters) also agnostic? According to Bloomberg, options markets behavior suggests traders believe BTC will be eyeing “$80,000 by the end of November no matter who wins the U.S. presidential election.” And a recent Coinbase survey found that nearly three quarters of crypto voters say that crypto and blockchain legislation should be non-partisan and that both parties should back crypto-friendly legislation. The survey also found that ninety-five percent of crypto owners are likely to vote in the upcoming election, with 1 in 8 crypto owners living in a battleground state. (Nationwide, 52 million Americans have owned crypto, according to 2023 Morning Consult data.)

GAME CHANGER

Is crypto gaming ready to go mainstream?

For years now, gaming has been touted as one of the crypto industry’s biggest potential use cases, with $9 billion of venture capital having been poured into onchain gaming since 2015, according to Messari. 

But so far, few games with onchain components have caught on in a massive way, and the category has grappled with a reputation for building products that aren’t that much fun to play.

That might have changed this month, however, with the early-access release of a new battle royale-style game called “Off the Grid,” which was an instant hit on the Epic Games Store.

Since the beta launch on Oct. 8, the game — which was directed by “District 9” filmmaker Neill Blomkamp and will eventually have a crypto-powered marketplace for in-game goods — has racked up more than 6 million addresses on its testnet.

Could it be the signal of more to come? Here’s what you need to know...

“Off the Grid” was briefly more popular than “Fortnite”

The game, which is built on top of the Avalanche blockchain, hit the top of the “Most Popular Free-to-Play PC Games” list on the Epic Games Store upon launch, briefly outpacing popular titles like “Fortnite” and “Rocket League.” 

Despite the pre-release version featuring just one game map, “Off the Grid” peaked at nearly 900,000 daily active users and saw as many as 150,000 concurrent viewers tuned into various Twitch streamers playing the game during its first weekend, according to Messari. 

With the full release of “Off the Grid” later this year, users will have the option to mint in-game items as NFTs and trade them via its marketplace in exchange for the game’s forthcoming in-game token. (Users don’t have to engage with the blockchain aspect to play the game.)

Big players in the gaming industry are making onchain forays, too

While “Off the Grid” was developed by independent studio Gunzilla Games, some of the biggest names in gaming are pursuing similar products.

Sony, the maker of the PlayStation, is developing a layer-2 blockchain for Ethereum called Soneium, with the goal of creating “new use cases that can spark the interest of people who have never used web3 services,” such as protecting IP rights of creators, building new ways for creators to capture profits, and creating opportunities for creators to boost fan engagement.

Ubisoft, the developer behind the “Assassin's Creed” series, released the blockchain-based game “Champions Tactics: Grimoria Chronicles” on Oct. 23. The strategic role-playing game will allow users to own, trade, and use 75,000 unique digital collectibles.

And in March, “Final Fantasy” developer Square Enix released a blockchain-based game called “Symbiogenesis.” The game, which uses Ethereum and Polygon, enables users to collaborate and determine the game’s narrative and direction. 

Is the perception of onchain gaming shifting?

“Off the Grid”’s popularity could mark a shift in mainstream perception of blockchain-based games moving forward, say some industry analysts. 

Popular previous-gen onchain games like “Axie Infinity” had an outsized focus on “play-to-earn” gameplay, where users could earn cryptocurrency through repetitive mechanics, and user numbers often fell sharply once it became harder to earn tokens.

Game studios are wising up, according to Bryn Welch, a designer for the onchain trading card game “Gods Unchained.” Instead of building a game around an in-game token economy, Welch said, web3 gaming studios are prioritizing a different attribute: making a game that’s, above all, fun.

“Now the field is being saturated with quality projects people actually want to play,” said Welch. 

The bottom line…

Whether or not “Off the Grid” turns out to be onchain gaming’s first true breakthrough hit, VC firms still believe in the space’s potential for growth. So far this year, around $1.5 billion of capital has poured into blockchain gaming studios, according to DappRadar. 

And they are likely to be encouraged by the fact that, as Messari’s report put it, “the sector has finally achieved what some thought impossible: a truly AAA web3 game.”

NUMBERS TO KNOW

100,000

Number of transactions per second that Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin says the blockchain should be able to handle once it completes “the Surge,” Ethereum’s current network-scaling phase on its product roadmap, which kicked off with March’s Dencun upgrade. As CoinDesk notes, Buterin’s throughput goals “will be achieved through Ethereum’s rollup-centric roadmap, which combines Layer 2 scaling solutions … and data compression techniques.”

703

The number of exahashes-per-second reached on the Bitcoin network over the last week ending on Monday, an all-time high. Following Bitcoin’s “halving” earlier this year (which slashed BTC rewards for miners), its network hashrate (mining power) has continued to notch new highs. While competition is increasing, publicly-traded BTC mining companies recently reached their highest share of global mining power ever recorded.

100%

Amount that ApeCoin (APE) gained over the weekend after the Bored Ape Yacht Club-related token launched a new Ethereum layer 3 blockchain called ApeChain on Sunday. Apps available at launch included the memecoin generator Ape Express and a game called Top Trader.

SECURITY PSA

Avoiding customer support scams

As AI becomes more advanced, customer support scams are becoming even more common, and it’s important to stay alert. Some of the biggest threats to watch out for are: website spoofing, video deep fakes, and requests for personal financial info. In our latest blog post we’ve rounded up some quick tips to help you protect your assets from support scammers.

And remember: Coinbase Support can only be reached at the number 1 (888) 908-7930 or through our secure online help portal.

TOKEN TRIVIA

Approximately how many monthly active addresses exist across the crypto ecosystem?

Find the answer below.

Trivia Answer