$SAND in my pants

Good morning. It's our second edition of Altcoin Friday (patent pending) to close out the week! We've also got Wall Street attempting to move further into crypto, impressive Bitcoin network transaction volume, and a tweet from Tether's CEO to wrap it up. Have a great weekend!

What this is:
A "Top 5" of crypto, digital asset, and other blockchain related news sent to your inbox on a daily basis

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Top 5:

1. Goldman Sachs, Other Wall Street Banks Exploring Bitcoin-Backed Loans
   In the next three to six months it is likely that Goldman Sachs or another large U.S. bank will begin using bitcoin as collateral for cash loans to institutions. The expectation according to Coindesk sources is that most banks will leverage bitcoin futures products rather than get involved in the cryptocurrency spot market. While Wall Street is certainly behind in the crypto space, this move could lay the foundation for future moves into integrated crypto prime brokerage services.
   
2. Bitcoin Surpasses PayPal in Transaction Volume
   According to blockchain intelligence company Blockdata the Bitcoin network transacted on average $489 billion each quarter this year. That number is $187 billion more per quarter than PayPal, but still pales in comparison to the likes of MasterCard ($1.8 trillion per quarter) and Visa ($3.2 trillion per quarter). Blockdata estimates that by taking the average yearly Bitcoin price as a growth metric, it could take as long as 2060 for the Bitcoin network to process the same dollar value of transactions as MasterCard. However, in the chart below, they've also applied a significantly more aggressive estimate by using the 2021 growth rate and extrapolating out. That puts the Bitcoin network on track to equal MasterCard's dollar value of transactions by around 2026. Regardless of future growth, over $1 trillion transacted in a single year for a decentralized network that launched 12 years ago is impressive.

3. Altcoin Friday #2 - $SAND
Overview:
- Current price (as of this writing) of $6.42
- Market capitalization of $5.8 billion (39th overall)
- SAND is the utility token used throughout The Sandbox ecosystem as the basis of transactions and interactions
-  There is a finite supply of 3,000,000,000 SAND
- Built on the Ethereum blockchain

Purpose:
- To understand the purpose of the SAND token you first have to understand what "The Sandbox" is. From their website, "The Sandbox is a virtual Metaverse where players can play, build, own, and monetize their virtual experiences." In this world, put simply, the SAND token serves as money.

The SAND token has the following use cases (from Binance):

• Medium of exchange: Players can potentially collect SAND through gameplay, and subsequently spend SAND to play games, purchase equipment, or customize Avatar characters. Creators can spend SAND to acquire ASSETS and LAND. Artists can spend SAND to upload ASSETS to the Marketplace and buy GEMs for defining item rarity.
• Governance: SAND allows holders to participate in governance decisions. SAND owners can vote themselves or delegate voting rights to other players of their choice.
• Staking: Users can stake SAND tokens to earn rewards, as well as GEMs and CATALYSTs for ASSETS creation.

Additional Sandbox background:
Users can monetize their time on the platform, keeping 95% of SAND as revenue share, by:

• Selling ASSETS: Users can create and sell ASSETS on the marketplace as NFTs.
• Owning a LAND: Buy a LAND in one of the LAND sales. Players can then rent them or populate them with content to increase the LAND's value.
• Building Games on the Game Maker: Build and monetize games using the Game Maker on the LANDs that are owned by players.

Note: the Binance report on SAND can be found here. There's a lot more detail on The Sandbox economics, videos of ASSET creation, and images of the metaverse itself.

4. India to regulate, not ban, crypto: Cabinet documents
Earlier this month, the reports out of India were that the government was considering a bill to ban all "private" cryptocurrencies in favor of creation of their own central bank digital currency (CBDC). That news sparked a selloff on India exchanges, as investors looked to unload crypto before any type of ban was officially announced. According to newly obtained information from cabinet documents fears of an outright ban were an overreaction to vague language in the crypto bill being considered. The language in the bill indicates that investors will be given a certain time frame to declare their crypto holdings and must transfer them to exchanges regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The bill also clearly denies crypto any sort of legal tender status and seems to suggest that private wallets will not be allowed in the country.

5. Great tweet from @paoloardoino the CTO of Bitfinex and Tether. Happy Friday!

Top Sharers of the Crypto Top 5:
1. Cameron S. - New York, NY
2. Jake Y. - Greenville, SC
3. Lauren A. - Nashville, TN

Disclaimer: The information contained in this newsletter shall not be understood or construed as financial advice. I am not an attorney, accountant or financial advisor, nor am I holding myself out to be, and the information provided is not a substitute for financial advice from a professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation.