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CryptoCodex


	Good Tuesday morning. This is Billy Bambrough, getting you up to speed with the latest from crypto-land.

30-day crypto market snapshot

$49,639

$3,327

$2.89

$494.44

$33.86

$49.05

Dizzying highs 💫


	The cryptocurrency market is flying. But is it flying a little too close to the sun? The combined crypto market has added almost $1 trillion since mid-July. That's a lot of value and sooner or later investors will want to cash out. The bitcoin price has climbed almost 50% over the last month, while other major cryptocurrencies have made even greater gains. Cardano, now the third biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has led the major market higher this past 30 days, though some smaller tokens have climbed yet further. Terra, a blockchain protocol designed to ease global payments with crypto-linked, fiat-pegged stablecoins, has soared 300% and is now the 12th largest cryptocurrency by value on CoinMarketCap. Avalanche, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, has seen its value rocket by 340% over the last month, boosting it to 23rd. Elsewhere, move over safemoon, shiba inu and other memecoins, another flavor of the month has arrived. Shibavax, a community meme project on the avalanche network, launched yesterday and surged thousands of percent. But look before you ape: most of those other memecoins are struggling and have failed to rally along with bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies during the last month. Now read this: Is there a correlation between U.S. Covid cases and crypto prices? (Spoiler: there isn't)

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More NFTs than sense 🤡



	People are dropping millions of dollars on NFTs getty


	Get 'em while they're hot: After payments giant Visa yesterday revealed it had spent $150,000 (or 49.5 of ethereum's ether tokens) on a CryptoPunk NFT (non-fungible token), the digital collectibles began flying off the shelves. NFT WTF: For those living under a digital rock, NFTs are unique digital tokens that can be attached to almost anything and then sold via blockchain networks. While they don't represent any legal ownership, they convey bragging rights and many of the crypto nouveau riche think these digital collectibles will appreciate in value in the coming months and years. Are ya feelin' lucky, punk? In the direct aftermath of Visa's announcement, some 90 of the highly-priced CryptoPunk NFTs were sold, raking in around $20 million, it was reported by The Block. The CryptoPunk collection, an assortment of 10,000 pixelated humans, apes, zombies and aliens, were created by Larva Labs in 2017 and have become a fixture of the NFT social media avatar landscape. According to NFT tracker CryptoSlam, the highest CryptoPunk sale in history was $7.6 million for an alien Punk with shades, a pipe and a cap. Playing for keeps: Trading volumes of top NFT collections such as CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and Meebits have surged by over 300% in the past month, according to a Galaxy Digital report, citing data from DappRadar. Too much of a good thing? Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto trading company Alameda Research and Antigua-based crypto derivatives exchange FTX, has warned the recent excitement around NFTs could lead to huge adoption or leave investors bitter if there's a crash. "I still think that most people getting in don't know what it's going to look like, and frankly, you hear that from a lot of players," Bankman-Fried told CNBC in an interview. Are we early or late: "It's almost going mainstream faster than the mainstream understands what it is they're adopting, which is a weird phenomenon," Bankman-Fried said. "It could lead to just incredibly fast and giant adoption. It could also lead, frankly, to sort of a sour taste in people's mouth if there's a crash, and no one ever quite figured out what it was." ICYMI: Substack is now accepting bitcoin payments

Dispelling misunderstandings and misconceptions 🧙


	🪄 Dawn Stump, commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has tried to dispel misunderstandings and misconceptions surrounding the regulator's authority over crypto markets. ✨ In a statement yesterday, Stump laid out 10 "concise points" to clarify how and what the CFTC regulates. 🗣️ "The CFTC does not regulate commodities (regardless of whether or not they are securities); rather, it regulates derivatives—and this is true for digital assets just as for any other asset class," said Stump. 📌 Stump's statement comes after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler has been pushing to increase SEC oversight of crypto markets.

	Billy Bambrough
	Forbes Contributor

I am a journalist with significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business around the world. I write about how bitcoin, crypto and blockchain can change the world.

Follow me on Twitter or email me.

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