NFTs for indie films, the SEC versus BTC ETFs (again) and more

News from the crypto world

It was another week the crypto market opened with extremely fearful market sentiment, as the Crypto Fear & Greed index was at 10/100 on Monday and at 17/100 today. The revival plan for LUNA by the Terraform Lab initially flopped at its launch, with the new airdropped LUNA tokens plummeting by 70% within just two days of the launch. Bitcoin and Ethereum started the week positively, with +3.8% and +5% respectively on Monday. The beginning of the week was positive also for Cardano, with ADA +12.76% up at €0.49. XRP, Dogecoin and Solana also started the week with positive percentage points as the overall crypto market is still recovering from the last weeks’ losses. 

NFTs and indie films

If you grew up watching your favourite movies on VHS or DVD, you were witness to how much the film industry changed over the last few years. One of the most significant industry developments was the introduction of streaming services such as Netflix*, and the second major impact may be the emergence of the indie film industry. Unfortunately, this sector has been struck hard by the pandemic and producers in the indie film industry have seen their share of struggles.

Film producer Niels Juul believes that Web3 might represent a solution for ensuring the survival of indie films. In fact, Juul created NFT Studios, a start-up selling NFTs to fund indie films production, and then the decentralised autonomous organisation KinoDAO, which uses governance tokens in the decision-making process. The project seems to be off to a good start: for its first film, “A Wing and a Prayer”, NFT Studios raised a $10M budget.

The SEC rejects carbon-neutral Bitcoin ETF by One River

Back in May 2021, the asset management firm One River proposed a carbon-neutral Bitcoin exchange traded-fund (ETF) to the SEC, the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Now, one year later and after postponing it in March, the SEC got back to One River with its answer: it's a no. 

One River proposed to have its ETF listed on the electronic securities exchange NYSE Arca but the SEC rejected the proposal due to a lack of investor protection - as they already did for other spot Bitcoin ETFs. 

This Bitcoin ETF would have been carbon-neutral as One River claimed to be committed to the purchaser and disposal of carbon credits to compensate for the emissions linked to the Bitcoin in the fund. 

Don’t miss this week’s video recap!

News from the stock market

Recent earnings reports:

• Victoria's Secret (VSCO): May 31

• GameStop (GME): June 1

→ Find out about upcoming corporate actions on Bitpanda

Stock market performance

The European stock market opened the week generally in the green, with the DAX*, FTSE* and CAC40* posting positive percentages on Monday. The week opened on a positive note for the emerging markets, with the BRIC stocks ETF*, tracking the 50 largest stocks of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), up almost 2.5% on Monday and the Emerging Markets Stocks ETF*, tracking the performance of stocks from emerging markets worldwide, up almost +1%.

The Asian stock market opened generally in the green, as China eases Covid restrictions and Shanghai plans to end the lockdown in June. For the US stock market, the week started on Tuesday due to a national holiday on Monday. Major US indices opened the week with a positive performance. 

JPMorgan is optimistic about crypto

Not long ago, Warren Buffett said he wouldn’t buy all the Bitcoin in the world for $25. But not everyone in the more traditional financial environment shares this sentiment. JPMorgan*, a giant of investment banking, has been openly exploring cryptocurrencies and the metaverse. 

In February, JPMorgan set Bitcoin’s fair-value target at $38,000, almost 30% higher than BTC’s current trading price. Now that the crypto market is going through some turbulent times, the investment bank is still on board. According to a note to its clients from last week, JPMorgan explained that cryptocurrencies surpassed real estate as its preferred “alternative assets” along with hedge funds. According to the company’s strategists: 

“The past month's crypto market correction looks more like capitulation relative to last January/February” 

and they expect that

“going forward, we see upside for bitcoin and crypto markets more generally”. 

Google backs ShareChat with $300 million funding  

In its latest funding round, Mohalla Tech, the parent company of ShareChat, raised fundings for almost $300 million from Alphabet*, Google’s parent company. ShareChat is a social media platform available in 15 Indian languages and currently has around 180 million monthly active users. 

The funding from Alphabet arrives amid a dramatic period for Indian start-ups: after raising $35b in 2021, the tech start-up space in the country had to face a critical slowdown in fundings. 

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Disclaimer

This article does not constitute investment advice, nor is it an offer or invitation to purchase any digital assets.

This article is for general purposes of information only and no representation or warranty, either expressed or implied, is made as to, and no reliance should be placed on, the fairness, accuracy, completeness or correctness of this article or opinions contained herein. *Bitpanda Stocks are contracts replicating an underlying stock or ETF. More information and the PRIIPs key information document (KID) are available at bitpanda.com.