Crypto Investments Weekly – Oct. 22–28

Top investment deals across the crypto sector over the last week (Oct. 22–28, 2022):

MakerDAO plans to move 1.1 billion USDC into Coinbase custody

MakerDAO, the issuer of DAI stablecoin, is reportedly moving forward with a proposal to onboard an account to Coinbase prime and transfer about $1.1 billion (33% of its USDC) into custody. The platform could earn around 15 million USDC in annual revenue by moving assets to Coinbase, MakerDAO says.

ECB raises interest rates again, cuts bank subsidies

The European Central Bank (ECB) raised interest rates again on Oct. 27 and put the reduction of its bloated balance sheet on the agenda, but said “substantial” progress had already been made in its bid to fight off a historic surge in inflation. Further steps are almost certain as unwinding a decade’s worth of stimulus will take it well into next year and beyond.

Premier League lines up £30 million-a-year digital tokens deal with Sorare

English football’s top flight is lining up a £30m-a-year deal to sell digital tokens to fans after talks with a rival provider collapsed. The Premier League will hold talks with its 20 clubs to discuss a proposed multi-year contract with Sorare, a Paris-based start-up.

Meta’s metaverse division reports a $3.67 billion quarterly loss

Meta revealed that its Reality Labs metaverse division lost over $3.6 billion in Q3 2022, compared to $2.63 billion at the same time last year and $600 million more than expected.

According to the quarterly report, the project lost a reported $2.8 billion in Q2 2022 and over $9.43 billion year-to-date.

FTX hints at the potential acquisition of Coinbase

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is hunting for more acquisitions for his crypto trading platform FTX, and Coinbase could be a target. Bankman-Fried went on to bring up Coinbase when asked about future acquisitions, noting that the trading platform has 20 times the number of users of FTX. He said while FTX has a higher number of hyper-involved crypto traders, Coinbase has some broader appeal that FTX could use.

“In this market, there are a lot of opportunities we’re seeing that we didn’t see last year,” he said, alluding to the collapse in the crypto market this year.

Binance helps Elon Musk buy Twitter with a $500 million investment

Binance has confirmed its role as an equity investor in Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. The world’s largest crypto exchange revealed it has invested $500 million as one of the equity co-investors to fund the $44 billion buyout of Twitter Inc. Most of his co-investors are funds such as Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management, Andreessen Horowitz, and Brookfield.

Binance also said it is creating an internal team to help Twitter fight bot accounts using blockchain and crypto technology.