Darius Askaripour and Darrach Campbell from Varys Capital had the opportunity to sit down with Saqr Ereiqat, Fabio Schlaf, and other members of the prestigious firm Crypto Oasis Ventures.
A multitude of topics were discussed, but most centered around directives for pushing the MENA region forward, aligned interests focused on the budding domestic community, and a shared desire to see this valuable asset class reach levels of retail adoption.
The Varys Capital team was beyond grateful for the opportunity to align itself with such a robust organization that was one of the earliest to support blockchain growth in the region.
Crypto Oasis is the name of the leading ecosystem of blockchain-centric organizations operating out of the UAE.
Blackrock Submits Spot Bitcoin ETF Fund Application to SEC, Other Firms Follow Suit
In a watershed moment of mainstream validation for Bitcoin, asset management firm BlackRock has submitted an application to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the price of Bitcoin. If approved, this fund could potentially be the first Bitcoin fund to be officially approved by the SEC, which could be the foot in the door to usher a properly regulated and accessible path to Bitcoin for Wall Street. Let’s look at how the application has progressed, and where it might go from here.
Liquidity is a necessary part of any financial market, and digital assets are no exception. Recent events, however, have caused an adverse effect on the availability of liquidity in the market; for example, the SEC has sued several asset exchanges and expanded the list of assets that it believes to be securities such as Binance USD (BUSD) and Cardano (ADA). Should these new regulatory actions take exchanges offline or force them to delist coins, this will further constrain available funds for trading. Here’s what will be needed to manage this new potential phase of the digital asset economy.
Although artificial intelligence has been a computer science discipline for many years, over the past decade there has been a revolution of fitting AI to work on graphic processing units of all levels, from enterprise-grade hardware down to common gaming-oriented peripherals found in home computers. This unprecedented level of access to the technology has enabled both solo enthusiasts as well as developer groups to bring their own AI-enabled offerings to the community.
Digital Assets Remain Correlated Despite Recent Events
In financial markets, correlations are commonly used to identify relationships between different assets and can be used as a measure of market risk. When it comes to traditional markets and digital assets, there is some debate over whether or not they are truly decoupled from each other. While some argue that crypto is becoming increasingly independent from traditional market movements, the truth is that it will take much longer than a few isolated events to demonstrate that decoupling. Recently, the rise in BTC price has been attributed to mistrust in traditional banks due to recent failures which has caused people to move their funds into cryptocurrencies for security and stability purposes. This could indicate that there is still a strong link between traditional markets and crypto despite its increasing independence.
How 2023 is Going to Rebuild the Digital Asset Sphere
It’s undisputed that 2022 was a succession of some of crypto’s worst news to date, as fallout from the FTX and Terra/Luna debacles along with other uncontrollable external factors sent markets into a nosedive. However, once the fallout settled, it revealed that not only did markets reach a floor higher than anyone would have expected considering the scope of the incidents, but that they would also find a way to claw back some of the losses that were sustained. Although we are only two months into the year, it’s clear that the stage is set for a roaring return in 2023 with some of the pieces already demonstrably in place.
Loizos Vasiliou (Head of Capital Formation) and Peak Phattararthanatnont (Venture Associate) attended the Sunset Mixer in Bangkok, Thailand, hosted by Metapack and Certik. It was an evening filled with stimulating conversations, idea sharing, and discussions on domestic growth within the blockchain industry.
Dubai Positioning Itself to Embrace the Rebound of Digital Assets
Despite the previous downturn in the digital assets market, there are a myriad of groups putting their weight behind them. Dubai, one of the seven states comprising the United Arab Emirates has made several moves over the past year, embracing the currency with open arms and investing heavily not only in regulatory framework and streamlining but also introducing itself as the social hub of the Metaverse.
Digital assets are finishing off an incredibly turbulent year with a bang, with both Bitcoin and altcoins finding new highs and old favorites climbing closer towards previous highs. Positive pandemic news in the form of extremely encouraging vaccine results was released which sent traditional markets soaring. Despite this, digital assets markets did not lose their edge, even though they were positioned as a safe haven asset to sit alongside gold over the prior year. The strides that digital assets were making in accessibility and investment levels over the year have finally paid off, which led to an explosive price gain once all the underlying factors were finally realized.
FTX and Alameda Research Go Bankrupt: What Happened?
Over the past two weeks, previously trusted exchange FTX has been rocked by a scandal where it was discovered that customer funds from FTX were misappropriated and funneled to quantitative investing firm Alameda Research. Following this news, a crisis of confidence and subsequent liquidity crisis struck the exchange, sending a shock throughout the digital asset world that had previously already endured similar turmoil earlier this year following the collapse of LUNA.
