You won't believe this NFT report 👇

Hey there, GM,

And welcome to Switch Daily!🤗

Not a long weekend, but it looks like the market is going to be kinder this time. So that should do, I guess. No?

Today we present to you,

• Market pulse

• An NFT report

• Creator's Spotlight

• Top stories of the day

• Meme to pull you through Friday

Market pulse 📈

The market is hole-ing up 🕳️

After experiencing a bullish session yesterday, the larger crypto market looks steady at the moment. However, the market is expected to be choppy today, as the US Fed Chair Powell will be addressing interest rate hikes and the global liquidity situation in Jackson Hole today. The total crypto market cap is drifting near the psychologically important $1 trillion level and is at $1,022 billion. The total crypto market cap is down by $40 billion for August.

Johnny Johnny, yes, papa! Stealing NFTs? No, papa 🤑

It’s Friday, boss! And we are here with another special story, and this time it’s a crime report😎.

On Wednesday, Elliptic, a risk management firm, dropped an extensive report on ‘NFTs and Financial crimes.’ They have uncovered some amazing facts on the shady businesses that happen in the name of NFTs. And that’s what we are going to be talking about today.

We all love NFTs, and we all love crime stories, so why not?

Let’s dig into some highlights of the report

• Nearly $100 million worth of NFTs were stolen between July 2021 - July 2022 alone. In July 2022, over 4,600 NFTs were stolen – the highest recorded so far.

• Since 2017, over $8 million of illicit funds has been laundered through NFT-based platforms. This represents 0.02% of trading activity originating from known sources.

• The largest NFT theft on record occurred in May of 2022, with scammers making off with just under $24 million. But nobody steals publicly like the Badmash company, do they? So, the actuals could be a loooot higher than the estimated number.

• The most valued theft among all others was a Cryptopunk. It was valued at $490,000 when it was stolen in November 2021. The owner of that NFT is probably poor by now 😅 — get it? Coz, NFT values dropped recently — no? Okay, chuck it.

• The value of NFTs stolen in June and July slumped due to the crypto bear market, but the number of NFTs stolen reached a new record in July. These trends emphasize that — Bull ya bear, scammers be scammers.

• Over two-thirds ($65 million) of the stolen NFTs constitute prominent NFT collections such as Bored Apes, Mutant Apes, Azuki, Otherside, and CloneX. Elliptic has identified 167 confirmed and publicly reported instances of theft of Bored Apes.

• People steal NFTs using various methods, but Phishing scams account for over 50% of the instances observed. These are the ones where you see influential people like Vitalik sending you a DM and asking for money.

Well, we wish that life was more like the Jhon Lennon song to:

🎶“Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man”. 🎶

Reality check. It is not! But we always have ‘DYOR’ to the rescue.

Creator's Spotlight🔦

Want to know if the Ethereum Merge is priced in yet? Watch this 👇🏽

Kya hai, Khabar? 🗞

🤝🏼MakerDAO lends out 100M DAI to a traditional US-based bank

Decentralized finance ecosystem, and traditional finance have come together in a first-of-its-kind collaboration. MakerDAO, a smart contract protocol built on Ethereum and the issuer of the DAI stablecoin, has formed a partnership with US-based Huntingdon Valley Bank for a credit facility. Read more.

💰Invesco launches metaverse fund

US investment management firm Invesco, which manages assets worth over $1.5 trillion, has launched a $30 million metaverse-themed fund. Read more.

🗓️Ethereum merge process to kick off on Sept. 6

The merge will be activated first on the Beacon Chain with the Bellatrix Upgrade, which is scheduled for epoch 144896 on the Beacon Chain on 6 September, which will set the rest of the process for the merge in motion. Read more.

💜Polygon founder raises $50 million for Web 3.0 development

Our very own, Sandeep Nailwal, the founder of Polygon, has raised $50 million for Symbolic Capital, a Venture Captal (VC) firm which is launching a startup fund devoted to Web 3.0 companies. Symbolic Capital plans to back companies developing dApps.

Twitter Gyan:

Meme ka mamla:

Well, that's a wrap for today!

Have a good weekend. See you Monday! 👋🏽