Crypto Report - Friday June 2nd, 2023
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Summary
U.S. Adds 339K Jobs in May, Blowing Through Estimates for 195K; Bitcoin Steady at $27K
Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank-Backed Taurus Deploys on Polygon Blockchain
Marathon Digital Mined 77% More Bitcoin in May With the Help of Its Software
Justin Sun Predicts Huobi May Get Hong Kong License in 6 to 12 Months
Sotheby’s Golden ‘Goose’ Sale and Mercedes Benz Puts NFTs in Motion
U.S. Adds 339K Jobs in May, Blowing Through Estimates for 195K; Bitcoin Steady at $27K
The U.S. economy exceeded expectations by adding 339,000 jobs in May, surpassing the forecasted 195,000 and an upwardly revised 294,000 jobs in April, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report. The unemployment rate, however, increased to 3.7% compared to 3.4% in April and against the predicted 3.5%. Despite the U.S. Federal Reserve's historic series of rate hikes since early 2022 in an attempt to curb high inflation, the strong employment market has remained largely unaffected. The Fed's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is set to meet on June 13-14, with markets divided on whether another rate hike will occur. This uncertainty has impacted bitcoin, which fell from nearly $30,000 to around $27,000, where it held steady following the BLS release. In terms of earnings, average hourly earnings rose 0.3% in May, lower than April's 0.4% and the expected 0.4%. Year-over-year, average hourly earnings increased by 4.3%, meeting expectations and slightly down from 4.4% in April.
Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank-Backed Taurus Deploys on Polygon Blockchain
Taurus, a digital asset infrastructure provider offering custody, tokenization, and trading of digital assets, has partnered with Ethereum scaling network Polygon to support staking and decentralized finance (DeFi) as tokenization gains momentum among financial institutions and large corporations. The Geneva-based firm secured $65 million in funding in February, led by Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank. Tokenization, which enables trading of real-world assets in a digital format, is attracting traditional financial institutions to the blockchain sector. JPMorgan executed live trades using tokenized versions of the yen and Singapore dollar on Polygon last November, while Bank of America reported that the tokenized gold market exceeded $1 billion in March. Taurus noted that most Tier 1 financial institutions are building capabilities to manage tokenized securities and require a blockchain-agnostic and token-agnostic infrastructure. As a layer 2 blockchain, Polygon processes transactions faster and at lower costs than the main Ethereum network, with plans to expand beyond Ethereum as an "internet of blockchains" that connects Ethereum-compatible networks while further reducing transaction costs and increasing speeds.
Marathon Digital Mined 77% More Bitcoin in May With the Help of Its Software
Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) mined 1,245 bitcoin in May, a 77% increase from the previous month, largely due to its proprietary software. The software allows the company to control machine output, uptime, and hash rate scaling. The increase in production was also attributed to a higher hash rate and transaction fees, which accounted for about 11.8% of the total bitcoin earned. Marathon's operational computing power rose by 9% to 15.2 exahash/second (EH/S). In early May, miners experienced increased revenues due to higher transaction fees driven by the popularity of Ordinals, a protocol that enabled added functionality on the bitcoin blockchain such as non-fungible tokens and memecoins. Marathon's production increase may be partly due to the company not running its machines at full capacity in April, leaving room for expansion in May. In April, the miner reported a 15% decrease in bitcoin production, citing increased network difficulty, luck, and curtailment activity. Compared to other publicly listed miners, Marathon produced the least bitcoin per exahash in April, with 50 bitcoin per exahash of computing power.
Justin Sun Predicts Huobi May Get Hong Kong License in 6 to 12 Months
Crypto exchange Huobi may obtain a crypto trading license in Hong Kong within six to 12 months, according to Huobi advisor and Tron founder Justin Sun. The exchange recently submitted an application to become a virtual asset service provider (VASP), which includes an 18-month grace period for regulators to approve or deny the application. However, Sun anticipates faster action from authorities. Huobi has moved its headquarters from Singapore to Hong Kong with plans to launch Huobi Hong Kong, as the city aims to establish itself as a virtual asset hub. Sun believes that other Asia-based crypto exchanges, such as OKX, Gate.io, Bitget, and ByBit, could follow suit. When questioned about competing with Coinbase and Kraken in Canada, Sun stated that Huobi has no intentions to operate in the country due to its strict regulatory requirements, instead focusing on "friendly jurisdictions" like the Caribbean, Hong Kong, and Japan.
Sotheby’s Golden ‘Goose’ Sale and Mercedes Benz Puts NFTs in Motion
Sotheby’s is set to auction off 37 rare NFTs from bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital's coveted Grails collection on June 15, including Dmitri Cherniak's Ringers #879 ("The Goose"), which is expected to fetch between $2-3 million. The first set of NFTs auctioned from the Grails collection brought in $2.4 million, with an additional $3 million from a private sale, totaling over $6 million so far. Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz NXT, the car manufacturer's Web3 arm, has partnered with Dutch artist Harm van den Dorpel and digital art organization Fingerprints DAO to create a 1,000-edition generative art collection that plays on themes of velocity and perception. The collection will be available through Fingerprints DAO's website via a rebate Dutch auction on June 7. Nike is also entering the NFT market by bringing its .SWOOSH NFTs to the EA Sports gaming ecosystem, focusing on creating immersive experiences and new levels of customization. This follows the release of Nike's first NFT sneaker collection last week, which generated $1.9 million in sales.
