DeFi downer

Stuck in a jar labeled "not to exceed $44K," Bitcoin at least managed to keep well north of $40K yesterday, even as U.S. stocks tanked amidst expectations for expedited Fed tightening.

After sinking to around $41,200 in the wee hours of Wednesday, BTC, as of 7:45 a.m. (EST), was back above $42K. Early morning news that consumer giant Procter & Gamble reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings jolted equities futures with traders encouraged by a multinational company's margin elasticity, or more bluntly put, its ability to jack up the price of diapers and laundry detergent.

Meanwhile, the German 10-year bund yield traded in positive territory for the first time in nearly three years as the era of negative yields in Europe cedes at least momentarily to the brute force of inflation.

Several major decentralized finance (DeFi) coins were slip-sliding away Tuesday into Wednesday.

Decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap's governance token led the losers. UNI, the 26th-largest coin in terms of total market capitalization, fell 8% to $15.75 as of 8:15 a.m. (EST). It hit an intraday low of $15.29, according to Decrypt.

And there were some others, as Decrypt pointed out. No. 21 Chainlink (LINK) lost 4%. Curve Finance (CRV), 77th-largest coin, was down 2%.

However, leave it to Loopring (LRC) to throw off the DeFi downer trend, as, wow, the native token of the "layer 2" crypto exchange (and 85th-largest coin) just shot up 9% in the past 24 hours.

In the biggest gaming deal in history, Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in cash. The technology giant's call of dibs on the "Call of Duty" maker is a bold shot across the metaverse, where people can work, play, socialize – and spend their money – virtually, online, or so companies like MSFT and its competitors are betting (Reuters).

Platforms such as Decentraland (MANA) decry central command of the burgeoning realm and represent the "green shoots" of the metaverse, said Alex Hamilton, Isobar UK's chief dispenser of insight, writing in The Drum, an online digital marketing magazine. Hamilton said he spent one week diving deeply into the Decentraland land-parcel-NFT platform, concluding that "it’s clear that the foundational technologies that promote ownership, deliver creative control and foster community are refreshing in a world where walled gardens often stunt digital innovation."

In the wake of today’s Microsoft/Activision news, MANA, 44th-largest coin, slipped slightly into the red (-0.7% over 24 hours). Since reaching its all-time high of $5.85 in late November, MANA has shed 52% of its value.

Meanwhile, Metahero (HERO), 170th-largest coin, rose 0.5% to a smidgen under a dime. HERO was recently singled out by FX Empire as among a handful of under-a-buck metaverse coins on which to keep an eye in 2022.

Saturday's Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption was among the most powerful geological detonations in decades, obliterating an uninhabited South Pacific island located 40 miles north of Tonga's capital, Nuku'alofa, while producing a shock wave that traveled around the world. Tsunami waves as high as 50 feet destroyed the coasts of several of Tonga's 170 islands; volcanic ash, steam and gas engulfed the entire Polynesian kingdom.

And on Sunday, Bitcoin booster and former Tongan lawmaker Lord Fusitu’a set up a wallet address and a link so people could donate fiat to help with the relief operations. Satoshis quickly started trickling in (Cointelegraph).

The Crypto.com breach that reportedly led to an alleged theft of $15 million worth of ETH would be unpleasant enough if it turns out to be the case, although, for now, the exchange isn't confirming the losses as it looks into what it calls a small number of reports of suspicious activity. Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek personally tweeted that all funds were safe.

But the losses could turn out to be steeper than what has been reported in crypto media, as in, closer to $33 million, according to an on-chain analyst at OXT Research (The Block).

Oh Canada! A new survey of 1,000 Canadians shows that more than two-thirds of respondents in the Great White North are interested in being paid in crypto in the next five years (Cointelegraph). One analyst involved in the survey said that despite evidence of Canada’s growing interest in crypto, the future remains cloudy; although there is separate data that shows small and mid-size businesses there are planning to accept crypto.