The King of Beer NFTs

Good morning. Inflation is the U.S. is officially not transitory. We've got coverage on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's comments, beer NFTs, virtual real estate, and more!

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. Powell Lays Groundwork for Faster End to Stimulus as Inflation Outlook Worsens
   Well, well, well, Mr. Powell, how the turntables. On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve Chairman backed of previous statements about "transitory" inflation and agreed that it was probably time to "retire that word." His comments at the Senate Banking Committee hearing indicated that the Fed is shifting their focus to inflation, which reached 6.2% year-over-year growth in October, the highest rate in the U.S. in 30 years. Inflation, combined with concerns over the latest COVID-19 variant, puts the Fed in a difficult position when trying to balance their goals of a tight labor market versus maintaining low and stable inflation. In November, the Fed approved plans to taper and ultimately end the $120 billion monthly asset purchases by June of 2022. But now it appears they are considering a more aggressive approach with Mr. Powell commenting that the program could end "a few months sooner" than previously expected. The Fed's moves will bear watching over the next few months given that many crypto, and especially bitcoin, investors have viewed these assets as hedges to inflation.
   
2. Three Arrows Backs Money-Streaming Mean DAO to Boost DeFi Payments on Solana
   Mean DAO, scored a nice round of funding ($3.5 million) earlier this week led by Three Arrows Capital, SoftBank, and DeFinance Capital. The DAO plans to boost Solana's (SOL) defi ecosystem with a money streaming protocol, which is a service that automates payment and banking workflows. For example, instead of paying your employees a bi-weekly paycheck, the Mean DAO protocol could be used to pay employees every hour and employees could then choose to automatically allocate a certain percentage of their salary to other protocols or swap it for other cryptocurrencies. Mean DAO is not the only player in the space. Another payment streaming protocol, Zebec, announced a $6 million funding round earlier this month.
3. Metaverse Real Estate Piles Up Record Sales in Sandbox and Other Virtual Realms
   Want that ocean-front property? The penthouse apartment? Well, be prepared to pay up in the metaverse just like in the real-world. On Tuesday, Republic Realm, a metaverse real-estate developer (yes, that is real), paid $4.3 million for "land" in the virtual world, Sandbox. This is the largest virtual real-estate sale ever publicized and reflects growing investor interest in real-estate in the metaverse. This sale broker the previous record, set just last week, in which Tokens.com paid $2.5 million for land in Decentraland's Fashion District. Tokens.com's CEO compared the purchase to buying land in New York City 250 years ago. The metaverse appears to be mimicking reality as firms like Republic Realm have built malls, charge rent, and deal with tenant complaints.
   
4. Coinbase Acquires Cryptographic Security Firm Unbound for Undisclosed Sum
   Coinbase announced their acquistion of, Israel-based security firm, Unbound in a blog post on Tuesday. The move expands Coinbase's multi-party computational (MPC) capabilities, a branch of cryptography that is used to allow multiple parties to evaluate computations without revealing any of their own private data. The crypto exchange company views the move as an enabler of "new features across [their] consumer, institutional and cloud products to participate in the cryptoeconomy," as well as a strategic move into Israel's technology community. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
   
5. Budweiser NFT collection sells out in an hour. 75% up for resale
   Budweiser dropped their first NFTs, called the Heritage Collection, with 1,936 unique digital beer cans selling out within an hour. The total sale was just under $1 million for the St. Louis beer company and it appears this is just the first step in "moving Budweiser into the metaverse." Around 1500 of the originally purchased NFTs are already for sale on OpenSea and some 400 have already been sold for around $2,000 each.
   

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.