Crypto Trends Weekly Jan. 22 – 28

Breaking crypto news from the last week (Jan. 22 – 28, 2022):

Jan. 22: Trading platform Robinhood has begun rolling out crypto wallets to 1,000 customers. Users from the waitlist are allowed to send and receive their cryptocurrencies from Robinhood to external crypto wallets. By March, 10,000 customers will be testing the wallets before a broader rollout in 2022.

Jan. 23: The crypto market is getting growing attention from Google, as the company intends to offer wallets for cryptocurrencies. To this end, Google will partner with Coinbase and BitPay to “store crypto assets in digital cards.” The final goal will be to make Google Pay a comprehensive digital wallet.

Jan. 24: Fantom (FTM) surpassed Binance Smart Chain (BSC) over the weekend to become the third-largest decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem by total value locked (TVL), as the value locked on DeFi-focused projects built on Fantom surged 52% in the past week. Ethereum remains the top DeFi protocol by value locked.

Jan. 25: Bank of America analysts said in a report that stablecoin adoption and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) “are an inevitable evolution of today’s electronic currencies.” According to Bloomberg, analysts suggest that the United States is moving toward creating its own CBDC.

Jan. 26: Despite the crypto market’s latest sell-off, global NFT sales have hit new all-time highs with $8.6 billion worth of sales in January, dwarfing the previous high of $4.5 billion set in August.

Jan. 27: According to Bloomberg’s anonymous sources, Meta appears to be looking to halt its Diem/Novi crypto project, with company representatives searching for a buyer for its intellectual property. After three years of development and a raft of changes to its name, scope, leadership, and purpose, it seems like Meta’s trouble stablecoin project may soon come to an end.

Speaking at Apple’s Q1 2022 earnings call, CEO Tim Cook said that the company sees a “lot of potential” in the metaverse and invests in the technology. Apple is reportedly planning to launch its first AR/VR headset product as soon as this year.

Jan. 28: Alphabet’s Google Cloud has launched a new enterprise that will focus on blockchain applications in an effort for the internet giant to expand its services. The new team aims to accelerate customers’ efforts in the emerging blockchain and crypto spaces, the company explained. In this way, Google Cloud could accept payments in cryptocurrencies soon.