The head of blockchain at JPMorgan says that most cryptoassets on the market are “junk”.
Umar Farooq, CEO of the investment bank’s blockchain unit Onyx Digital Assets, believes that real use cases for the technology are yet to fully present themselves.
“Most of crypto is still junk, actually; with the exception of a few dozen tokens, everything else that has been mentioned is either noise or frankly, is just going to go away,” he told a seminar hosted by regulator the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
“In my mind, the use cases haven’t arisen fully, and the regulation hasn’t caught up. I think that’s why you see the financial industry, in general, being a little bit slow in catching up.
“But when it does catch up… the large institutions who catch up to this are going to be absolute winners.”
JPMorgan has focused on building out its blockchain infrastructure rather than releasing products.
Farooq suggested that the Web3 movement is primarily focused on speculation rather than providing solutions.
“You need all of those things to mature so that you can actually do things with them. Right now, we’re just not there yet: most of the money that’s being used in Web3 today, in the current infrastructure, is for speculative investment,” he explained.
He expects users to turn to regulated financial institutions for “serious transactions” of large value: “You know that the government, the regulators and the entire financial infrastructure stands behind them.”
Crypto companies laid off 5,000 amid market crash
Cryptocurrencies have suffered a massive hit in 2022, losing $1.9 trillion in value since the height of last year’s rally.
Companies struggled to weather the storm and many had to make significant cost-cutting measures.
According to Layoffs.fyi data analysed by CryptoPresales.com, crypto companies laid off nearly 5,000 employees as the market started melting.
In April and May, crypto companies reported 235 job cuts. However, after digital coins slumped in June, the number of layoffs exploded. Statistics show that crypto companies let go more than 3,000 members of their staff in that month alone, or over 60% of the total job cuts to date.
In July, another 870 people working in the crypto industry lost their jobs, while in August, the number of reported layoffs dropped to 216.
Cryptocurrency shorts
The high court of the Central African Republic has denied the government’s plan to offer citizenship, land and valuable minerals to investors who purchase $60,000 of its government-supported cryptocurrency, the sango coin. It said the proposal is unconstitutional and “nationality has no market value”.
Forbes analysis of 157 crypto exchanges found that an estimated 51% of the daily bitcoin trading volume being reported is likely to be fake.
Facebook and Instagram users can now post non-fungible tokens and digital collectibles on their accounts by linking Web3 wallets.
Sweat Economy, an online fitness ecosystem and the team behind Sweatcoin – the most downloaded health and fitness app of 2022 – will host a Web3 token sale for its new cryptocurrency SWEAT on DAO Maker’s launchpad.
Cardano blockchain builder Input Output Global has funded a $4.5 million blockchain hub at Stanford University, the latest in a series of academic research outposts it has launched around the globe after University of Edinburgh, University of Wyoming, University of Athens and Tokyo Institute of Technology.
Singapore-based GammaX, building a hybrid crypto derivatives exchange, has closed a $4m seed round backed by StarkWare, Dexterity Capital, Alphanonce, Cobo, Genesis Trading, Kyber, Ledger Prime, Matrixport, Profluent, Uncorrelated and 01Node.
Solana blockchain analytics firm SolanaFM has completed a $4.5m seed round led by SBI Group’s Digital Asset Opportunity Fund. Zee Prime, Spartan Group, Mirana Ventures, Petrock Capital, K3 ventures, D1 Ventures, FT capital and 3Chaps also participated.
Crypto prices
The overall market cap of the more than 20,700 coins is at $994 billion at the time of writing (7am UK), down from $1.03 trillion on Friday morning despite a 4.4% rise in the last 24 hours.
Market leader Bitcoin – the original cryptocurrency created by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto – lost $1,000 from Friday morning to stand at $20,400 on Monday. BTC is 3% down on a week ago.
Ethereum, the second most valuable crypto coin – created as a decentralised network for smart contracts on the blockchain – dropped $80 to $1,580. ETH is 0.5% up over the course of a week.
Binance Coin is a cryptocurrency created by popular crypto exchange Binance to assist its aim in becoming the infrastructure services provider for the entire blockchain ecosystem. Its BNB token fell $7 to $289, leaving it 2% down over seven days.
The XRP token of Ripple, a payment settlement asset exchange and remittance system, acts as a bridge for transfers between other currencies. XRP shed 2c to 33c, with its price 1% down on seven days ago.
Cardano is an open source network facilitating dApps which considers itself to be an updated version of Ethereum. Its ADA token, designed to allow owners to participate in the operation of the network, fell 2c to 45c and is 1% up in a week.
Solana is a blockchain built to make decentralised finance accessible on a larger scale – and capable of processing 50,000 transactions per second. Its SOL token shed $2 to $32.63 and is 5% lower than its price a week ago.
Meme coin DOGE was created as a satire on the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies but is now a major player in the space. DOGE fell 0.4c to 6.4c and is 5% down over seven days.
Polkadot was founded by the Swiss-based Web3 Foundation as an open-source project to develop a decentralised web. Its DOT token, which aims to securely connect blockchains, fell 16c to $7.29 and is 1% up on its price a week ago.
Polygon aims to securely connect blockchains as a sort of decentralised internet. Its MATIC token gained 2c to 83c, while it is 4% up in a week.
Avalanche is a lightning-quick verifiable platform for institutions, enterprises and governments. Its AVAX token dropped $2.50 to $20.16 and is 8% down in a week.
To see how the valuations of the main coins have changed in recent times – and for round-ups of recent cryptocurrency news developments – click here.
For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.