An NFT fire

Gm, everyone. Around this time of year we could all use a vacation home in the Bahamas (we hear FTX's old HQ is free now). It doesn’t look like crypto is going to bankroll that dream quite yet, but there are parts of the market that are doing pretty well. Here’s to sunnier days ahead.

What’s on deck today: Polygon’s NFT business is hot, EU antitrust legislation may be a godsend for crypto apps, and John Ray III explains how FTX execs stole some customer cash.

—Angelina & Vincent

Props to Polygon’s NFT Game

Let’s mix things up a bit. How about some good news for today’s top story?

Even as the bitterly cold winter chills other NFT blockchains, Polygon’s fireplace is burning strong—so strong, in fact, that Polygon’s NFT market is setting some notable new PRs.

The stats:

• Daily first-time and returning buyers in Polygon’s NFT market hit an all-time high this month, according to data from Nansen. Meanwhile, Ethereum and Solana NFT users are decreasing on a weekly basis (Ethereum’s weekly user numbers dropped from 250k in late September to 183K today, while Solana NFT users dropped from over 160K to 60K in the same time period).

• Polygon’s NFT market currently boasts 10 collections with over 180K holders and four collections with over 500K holders. For comparison, Ethereum’s NFT market has four collections with more than 100K holders and just one over 500K.

• Polygon’s network activity is nothing to frown at, either. In addition to stable network engagement for all of 2022, Polygon has averaged just under 335K daily active users (DAUs) for the year (for a two-week period in October, Polygon even averaged a higher number of DAUs than Ethereum).

BTS: The key to Polygon’s success? Brand partnerships. Polygon was the blockchain of choice this year for mainstream brands such as Nike, Starbucks, and Reddit to launch their NFT projects. And the colossal success of Reddit’s Collectible Avatar NFTs played a particularly important role in the growth of Polygon’s NFT ecosystem—four of Polygon’s top 10 NFT collections are connected to Reddit.

Zoom out: Polygon’s partnerships show that venturing beyond niche crypto types and into the traditional brand space can pay off big time for NFT projects—especially in their efforts to onboard newbies to web3. But most of all, Polygon is positioning itself for strong adoption in the next bull run when the NFT hype resurges.

—Angelina

Antitrust Helps Crypto Fight Apple

Crypto could soon get a boost from the European Union’s most powerful antitrust legislation. The EU’s Digital Markets Act aims to break up closed digital ecosystems and level the playing field for third party app developers.

How that comes to life? Well, Apple is getting ready to allow iPhone users to download apps from outside the App Store, Bloomberg reported.

• Bye fee-licia: This likely means crypto app developers can say goodbye to Apple’s notorious 30% fees for app creators. In turn, that could open up a new world for crypto devs. Coinbase, for example, would be able to update its wallet app to include NFT sales.

• FYI, Apple previously demanded a 30% cut of all NFT sales…something it would have needed to connect to the blockchain to accept.

In addition to allowing iOS users to download apps from outside the App Store, Digital Markets law would force Apple to allow apps to use third party payment providers instead of going through Apple. This means apps could start facilitating crypto payments, including using NFTs as payment for various app functions.

What’s next: Right now, Apple’s plans are limited to the EU because that’s where the new regulations are, but if other jurisdictions follow the EU’s lead? Apple could become a much more crypto-friendly ecosystem everywhere.

—Vincent

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Who Stole the Cookie Cash from the Cookie Jar?

FTX execs. That’s according to recent developments from FTX’s new CEO, John Ray III.

In Tuesday’s congressional hearing (that SBF was also supposed to attend before he was arrested), Ray’s testimony outlined the details of the FTX collapse. We were ready for most of his revelations—corporate malpractice, no coherent record keeping, yada yada.

But: We learned of a corporate practice that was standard among FTX execs...embezzlement. While Ray refrained from naming names, we wouldn’t be surprised if SBF occasionally stashed some cash for himself.

Quotable: Ray explained that FTX’s embezzlement crimes weren’t particularly sophisticated—except in “the way they were hiding something, frankly, right in front of [customers’] eyes. This is just plain old embezzlement. Old school, old school.”

—Angelina

Crypto Job Board

• Blockrate consulting is looking for a freelance blockchain and DeFi research analyst.

• PwC is looking for a freelance fintech, banking, and capital markets tax manager, including for crypto.

• Chainlink Labs is looking for a freelance blockchain operations technical analyst.

In other news:

• Our fearless leader, Coinsider founder Kevin Ting, has published an epic and comprehensive guide with everything you need to know to short to hedge in crypto. Check it out here.

• New York banks now have to give notice before getting involved in crypto.

• Users now have to seek permission from Microsoft before mining crypto on its online services.

• France is considering a mandatory licensing regime for crypto companies.

• A new Senate bill would apply AML rules to developers and nodes.

• Hedge funds are shorting Tether betting that it will de-peg in the market turmoil.

And that’s what you need on your radar today in crypto. Reply to this email and let us know what NFTs you still have your eyes on. See you Sunday!