NFT Collector Borrows $8M Against CryptoPunks
Pseudonymous crypto art collector 0x650D secured a loan of $8.3 million using his valuable NFT collection. The NFT owner had scheduled an auction of a set of CryptoPunks NFTs at an event hosted by Sotheby’s. However, minutes before the auction he changed his mind and applied for a loan.
This loan is reportedly the biggest ever made against non-fungible tokens, according to Decrypt. Previously, the record amount borrowed against an NFT collection was $8 million in March 2022. That particular loan was also backed by a CryptoPunk Collection that included 104 tokens. Both loans were processed by NFTfi, a platform that provides loans against valuable NFT tokens. NFTfi gets its liquidity from a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called MetaStreet.
The NFT collector borrowed over 8 million dollars in DAI stablecoin with a 90-day repayment window and 10% APR. The event marks the biggest example of NFT collectors leveraging their valuable collections without parting ways with their assets.
Tesla, Block, Blockstream Build All-Solar BTC Mining
Bitcoin Development Company Blockstream has begun the construction of its all solar-powered BTC mining facility in Texas in cooperation with Tesla and Block (formerly known as Square).
Blockstream confirmed the partnership in 2021, after Block pledged $5 million for the initiative. The solar mining facility will reportedly use photovoltaics and battery packs developed by Tesla. Per official updates, the facility will be completed by the end of 2022.
Using Tesla’s 3.8-megawatt solar array and 12-megawatt battery, the data center will have a mining capacity of 30 Peta hashes/second.
Hash rate is a metric that describes the computational power used by the Bitcoin Network. According to the metrics disclosed by Blockstream, the new mining facility has the potential to generate 4.1 BTC per month.
While Bitcoin mining giant.Riot Blockchain is building a 300-megawatt mining operation on a 100-acre site in Washington, Blockstream is not seeking to develop the biggest Bitcoin mining plant in the United States but to develop a site that runs entirely on renewable resources.
Blockstream founder, Adam Back, says, “This is a step to prove our thesis that Bitcoin mining can fund zero-emission power infrastructure and create economic growth for the future.” The company plans to host a public dashboard that will show a live feed of its power output and BTC production.
BTC Outperforms Market by 1645%
Bitcoin’s price performance in the five year period ending in 2021 has dwarfed the top traditional market indices in terms of return on investment. The premier cryptocurrency has achieved an average ROI of 1645% from 2016 to 2021.
Bitcoin’s ROI was 1978% higher than Dow Jones’s, 1734% more than the S&P 500, and 1221% higher than the NASDAQ. This data further cements the idea that BTC is one of the best investment vehicles in the current economy.
A calculation of Bitcoin ROI compares the average return of the cryptocurrency against traditional asset classes in a specified period.
Since 2021, Bitcoin has seen multiple bull runs and touched an all-time high of $69,000. On 11th April 2022, the asset was trading at around $42,000. For context, the market capitalization of the global equity market is $112 trillion, while Bitcoin’s market cap is nearly a trillion dollars.
