Amazon’s on the blockchain

Good morning! Welcome to The Daily Moon. What’s in a name? Ask Riot Blockchain. The bitcoin-mining firm rebranded to Riot Platforms to hide its crypto links. The stock’s gained ~60% since then. Interesting.

The markets recovered. Bitcoin was above $18,000 and Ethereum headed to $1,400. Nasdaq rose in early trade. Back home, Sensex and Nifty ended lower amidst global volatility.

Is The Worst Over For ETH?

After weeks of volatility, Ethereum has settled in. The second-largest crypto token by m-cap is close to $1,400. It has rallied ~5% in the past 24 hours. So, is the worst really over for the token?

The bulls are inEthereum crossed the resistance level of $1,350 and raced upwards. This gave enough room for the bulls to work their magic. Bulk purchases and accumulation of ETH helped sustain the rally. Analysts estimate that if ETH moves past the resistance level of $1,450, the road to $1,500 will be a cakewalk.

FYI Resistance level is a ceiling at which the token price is not expected to increase any further. Breaking the resistance level indicates a bull rally.

A dominant forceETH gained ~12% in the past week. Its market share is up 3%. Simultaneously, Bitcoin’s dominance slipped by 0.8% to 39.2% since the start of the year.

Volumes surge ETH is being actively traded. We know this because the token saw a ~68% increase in trading volume in the past 24 hours. Maybe the buzz around the Shanghai update is working. The testnet is expected to launch in the next few weeks. But till then, over $22 million worth staked ETH is locked.

ICYMI A new innovation is WIP wherein Ethereum will use smart contracts to allow automatic bill payments. It wants to mimic bank accounts.

Avalanche, Amazon Partner Up 

Amazon has a blockchain debut. Its cloud arm AWS partnered with Avalanche developer Ava Labs to offer blockchain solutions. Through this tie-up, AWS clients can build applications via the Avalanche network.

So what? Amazon has over 1.4 million cloud customers and now it’ll bring these numbers to Avalanche. That is the reason why the token soared 30% just minutes after the announcement.

Tell me moreThe blockchain will soon launch the subnets or custom blockchain feature for AWS clients. In exchange, Avalanche’s dApps can use AWS to scale. Blockchain developers on Avalanche can also be part of AWS Activate and get access to cloud computing resources. This is the second cloud partnership for Ava Labs after the Alibaba Cloud deal in December.

El Salvador Has An Explosive Idea

Never a dull day when El Salvador and crypto get spoken of in the same breath. The country has passed a legislation that provides the legal framework for bitcoin-backed “Volcano Bonds”.

What is this about?The National Bitcoin Office of El Salvador (yes, that’s not a made up thing), tweeted about the Bill on Wednesday:

The law also created a body to regulate the new law and protect the rights of “digital assets purchasers”.

But what are these volcano bonds?These are $1 billion worth bitcoin bonds. $500 million of the bonds will be used for bitcoin mining and infrastructure. The other $500 million will be converted to bitcoin. El Salvadore’s president has been talking about these since March 2021. But kept getting delayed.

Essentially, the country plans to use these bonds to raise capital, pay its sovereign debt, and create Bitcoin mining infrastructure.

Investors Still Believe in Web3

The lack of noise about Web3 doesn’t mean things are silent. Investors are still willing to put their faith, and money, into the technology. A survey of a small group of venture capital firms had some interesting findings:

1. VCs are actively investing in the category

2. They feel Web3 is a potentially transformative technology

3. True, pathbreaking use cases aren’t here yet

Some VCs have called out trends such as building for Web3 developer tools and security. There is also some evidence to support the confidence in Web3. One estimate puts the amount of funding that went into blockchain and crypto projects in 2022 at $30 billion.

Those are big numbers. But we’re here. And we’re watching.

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