Crypto Flipsider News – Robinhood Shares Drop 15%, Won’t List SHIB, Wonderland Tied to QuadrigaCX Token Crash, Bitcoin Exchange Reserves at 3-Year Low, Sandbox Musical Metaverse, Fidelity Eyes Metaverse ETF

Read in the Digest:

Robinhood shares fall flat after quarterly report, SHIB listing hopes ended.

Wonderland co-founder reveals ties to QuadrigaCX, TIME token plummets.

Bitcoin balance held in exchange reserves fall to three-year low.

The Sandbox Working on a musical metaverse, Fidelity eyes metaverse ETF, Apple stock jumps with metaverse. investment.

Robinhood Shares Fall Flat After Quarterly Report, SHIB Listing Hopes Ended

Commission-free brokerage provider Robinhood has seen its shares tank by over 15% just hours since posting its performance reports for the last quarter. In the quarter ending December 2021, Robinhood reported a net loss of $423 million, or $0.49 per share.

According to Robinhood’s report, the company’s technology and administrative expenses increased, which took a toll on its performance. Despite posting an annual revenue of $1.82 billion, up 89% from the previous year, Robinhood’s net loss totaled $3.7 billion for 2021.

Speaking shortly after its Q4 report was published, Robinhood CFO Jason Warnick explained that the company has no immediate plans to list new assets. Warnick explained that regulators have warned them about listing unlicensed securities.

This comes as a huge blow to the Shiba community which had been eagerly anticipating a Robinhood listing. Three months after the Shiba Army kick-started a petition to see Shiba Inu (SHIB) listed on Robinhood, the community is yet to get their wish, and may have to wait longer still.

Flipsider:

Despite failing to get a listing on Robinhood, Shiba Inu has announced the launch of its own metaverse, dubbed the ‘Shiberse‘

Wonderland Co-Founder Reveals Ties to QuadrigaCX, TIME Token Plummets

In an unexpected turn of events, tokens linked to DeFi protocol Wonderland were hit with massive sell-offs after the co-founder and treasurer of the project was alleged to be Michael Patryn – co-founder of defunct Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX.

On-chain analyst zachxbt.eth took to Twitter to draw the connection between Michael Patryn of QuadrigaCX (the exchange that defrauded investors of over $170 million) and the pseudonymous treasury manager of Wonderland, claiming that they were the same person.

zachxbt.eth tweeted:

1/ This needs to be shared @0xSifu is the Co-founder of QuadrigaCX, Michael Patryn. If you are unfamiliar that is the Canadian exchange that collapsed in 2019 after the founder Gerald Cotten disappeared with $169m

I have confirmed this with Daniele over messages. pic.twitter.com/qSfWNnQPhr
— zachxbt.eth (@zachxbt) January 27, 2022

Following the reveal, Wonderland’s native token, TIME, has experienced a cumulative drop of more than 67% over the last 7 days. Additionally, its market cap has plummeted from over $1 billion down to $304 million as the token nosedived from trading at over $1,000 to just $331 as of this writing.

The 7 days price chart of Wonderland (TIME). Source: Tradingview

Other tokens in the Wonderland space, like DeFi loan service Abracadabra Money (SPELL), have seen their market cap drop from $645.2 million to $438.4 million. Popsicle Finance’s ICE token also plummeted from $98.9 million down to $50.5 million.

Flipsider:

Following the reveal, Wonderland Co-Founder Daniel Sestagalli, expressed in a blog post, “I am of the opinion of giving second chances.”

Why You Should Care

Wonderland, a project launched in September 2020 as a fork of the Olympus DAO, now sees its very existence threatened by its relationship to an infamous rug pull.

Bitcoin Balance Held in Exchange Reserves Falls to Three-Year Low

Despite Bitcoin’s floundering prices in 2022, on-chain data shows that Bitcoin exchange reserves have continued to decrease, hitting a 3-year low. This is a continuation of the decline recorded since the second half of 2021.

Bitcoin exchange reserves represent the total amount of BTC held in wallets of all exchanges. According to the tracker CryptoQuant, a total of 2.358 million BTC is currently being held across all the exchanges.

Speculative reasoning for why Bitcoin is continually being withdrawn from exchanges is that investors are becoming more confident in holding their bitcoins outside of exchanges, and in cold wallets instead.

Flipsider:

The price of Bitcoin hit another downswing as the Fed prepares to raise its interest rates in March.

Why You Should Care

Experts have made bullish predictions as more investors look to hold Bitcoin for longer periods.

The Sandbox Working on a Musical Metaverse, Fidelity Eyes Metaverse ETF, Apple Stock Jump with Metaverse Investment

One of the earliest metaverse platforms, The Sandbox, is looking to expand its reach by creating a music-themed metaverse. The Sandbox announced that it would be creating a musical metaverse by partnering with Warner Music Group (WMG).

In what is WMG’s first move into the metaverse space, it has also purchased an “ESTATE” within the virtual world. It explains that the ESTATE would become a hybrid between a musical theme park and concert venue where Warner’s leading performers could play.

As the metaverse continues to draw more attention by the day, Fidelity Investment has filed for a metaverse ETF. According to the filing, the ETF product would track firms working in the metaverse and crypto space.

Apple has now joined the growing number of companies looking to receive a metaverse boost. After the tech titan’s CEO, Tim Cook, announced that the company would be investing in the metaverse, its stock prices soared by as much as 8% up to $167.23.

Flipsider:

As the metaverse expands, experts have called for a constitution to prevent abuse and misuse of the growing virtual world.

Why You Should Care

Though still in its early stages, companies are embracing and building in the metaverse with increasing regularity, which would redefine the ways in which people interact.