Why Stocks Are Dropping Thanks to Governments and Shopify’s NFT Beta Program

Big drops again last week, but it’s the entire tech sector feeling a burn this week. It’s expected that the NASDAQ is going to be down this week.

A big part of these drops are because the Federal Reserve met Wednesday and policymakers decided to accelerate the pace of bond-purchase tapering and signaled three rate hikes in 2022.

Also, The Bank of England unexpectedly announced an increase in interest rates, and the European Central Bank said it would wind down an emergency bond-buying program.

On Wednesday the senate held a special hearing that was called, “Stablecoins: How Do They Work, How Are They Used, and What Are Their Risks?”.

The goal was to discuss the regulations of stablecoins, as some people believe they aren’t truly stable.

At the meeting, Senator Brown of Ohio said, “These tokens can crash, with crypto markets diving by almost 30% in one day. History tells us we should be concerned when any investment becomes so untethered from reality. Look at the 1929 stock market crash.”

Executives from many of the platforms turned out to argue the case for digital currencies and stablecoins, citing how they have helped empower women as well as helped minorities in this country.

After a day of back and forths, the Senate seemed to maintain their position and felt that stablecoins are “not in compliance” with existing Know Your Customer, Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism standards.

Meanwhile this week, Brazil has advanced its own crypto bill to the Senate in an effort to put it into law.

The Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of Brazil has approved Bill 2303/15, which aims to bring clarity to cryptocurrency regulation in the country.

The goal is to create a new entity there that oversees virtual currencies. The language of the bill does not say specific coins or tokens, just uses the language virtual currencies. It does, however, say that it does not include a virtual version of their fiat currency.

The bill also includes stricter penalties on crimes committed with crypto. It says that illegally managing cryptocurrency portfolios for third parties will be classified as a type of embezzlement and would be punishable by four to eight years in prison and fines.

Now it’s time to shift our focus over to the world of NFTs.

If you are interested in cashing out on the NFT market but don’t know where to begin – Bitwise Asset Management has launched a new index fund on Dec. 16th.

With the NFT explosion, and the market recently passing $10 billion in trading volume, Bitwise saw a strong opportunity.

Their CIO Matt Hougan said, “New frontiers in the art are rare. Entirely new artistic mediums are even rarer,” adding that NFTs have emerged as the first digitally native medium for owning art and collectibles, “with enormous potential for meaning, value and use in our increasingly digital world.”

Bitwise Blue-Chip NFT Index Fund is now available to qualified investors for private placement subscriptions. The minimum investment is set at $25,000.

In other news, Shopify has added the ability to create and sell NFTs to its marketplace.

Currently, you are able to mint using Ethereum, Polygon, Near, and Flow. This feature is only available to Shopify Plus merchants as a beta test.

If you want to integrate the GigLabs NFT application into your Shopify Plus account, you should contact GigLabs directly for further information.

Yesterday we mentioned Melania Trump’s NFTs and her crazy eye artwork. They also announced it would be minted on Solana, and would accept payments through Moonpay.

Well, both of these companies were quick to deny any involvement in the project or associate with Trump.

Moonpay quickly tweeted out, “A recent Bloomberg story named Moonpay as a partner to a new NFT effort by Former First Lady Melania Trump.

The story is factually incorrect as MoonPay has no official role in the effort.”

A Solana representative also said, “to avoid any confusion… her [Melania Trump] choice to use the Solana blockchain was completely organic and this project is not part of any Solana-led initiative.”

The founder of Quantum Economics, Mati Greenspan, told Yahoo Finance, “Herein lies the beauty of open-ledger technology like Bitcoin, Ethereum or Solona.”

“I can understand the hesitancy of these platforms to associate with certain politics, but the fact is Melania doesn’t really need their permission to build on their platform.”

So I’m glad I wasn’t the only one worried about being associated with the story of her NFTS.

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Resources:

US stocks fall as Fed policy headwinds batter tech sector

Senate hearing on stablecoins: Compliance anxiety and Republican pushback

New Cryptocurrency Bill Advances to Senate in Brazil

Bitwise launches NFT index fund for accredited investors

eCommerce giant Shopify enables merchants to mint and sell NFTs on its platform