Drofa Comms stays on top of developments across financial markets and fintech, and our monthly reports make it easier to track the biggest news and the trends behind it. 

As technology evolves, talent and capital once concentrated in Silicon Valley are increasingly moving into crypto, blockchain, and Web3 ventures. Regulation is also accelerating. In the U.S., President Joe Biden directed federal agencies to assess the potential risks of cryptocurrencies and the prospect of an American digital currency (CBDC).

Below is a snapshot of the stories that defined March 2022 — from privacy coins and institutional fund flows to NFTs, regulation, and the ongoing migration of talent into Web3.

A Very Private Coin

Privacy coins are not so private this month. Monero had a gain of 7.6% and Zcash 46%. All major coins that use cryptographic techniques to preserve the privacy of both parties involved in transactions have recorded significant gains. The reason for this increasing interest in private coins are the sanctions brought up with the ongoing conflicts and regulations being defined around the world.

Spotify Is Inviting NFT To Dance

The music streaming platform Spotify might have plans to use NFTs as an extra income for artists who make their music available online. The opening of new jobs, focused on emerging technologies and Web3, indicates that the company is planning to grab a slice of the billionaire NFTs market and at the same time increase revenues destined to the artists that use the platform.

The Seven-Year Itch

After seven years at Revolut, Chief Revenue Officer Alan Chang is leaving the UK company valued at $33 billion to found a web3 startup with Charles Orr, who also worked for Revolut until 2020. According to Chang, his new company will be an intersection between renewable energy and web3. In the UK Companies House a new company called Fuse Supply was registered by Chang and Orr, on March 1. The executives are seeking to raise $100 million in fundings.

The Crypto Leaking

In March, cryptoassets witnessed more than $150 million in outflows, preceded by seven straight weeks of inflows, according to CoinShares. The first week of March, however, had inflows of $126.8 million. Bitcoin alone had the largest outflow of $103 million. Ethereum had outflows of more than $67 million. The year-to-date outflows of $51 million, or 1.2% of total assets under management. Altcoins, such as Ripple, Polkadot, and Solana, on the other hand saw inflows. The total cryptocurrency market cap, according to CoinMarketCap as of March 23 is $1.9 trillion.

It Is Vitalik Buterin’s Time

Considered the most influential person in crypto, Vitalik Buterin features in this week’s Time Magazine cover. Among other things, he talks about ambitious investors, ascending transaction fees, and the shameless displays of wealth that have come to dominate public perception of crypto. His quote on Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs resonates globally: “The peril is you have these $3 million monkeys and it becomes a different kind of gambling,” Buterin told Time. The whole article, however, is much more than comments on NFTs, follows his young life and exposes his expectations of how Ethereum can contribute to society.

The Snake-Oil Sibling Scam

A couple of siblings, known as the Barksdale’s, were accused of scamming over 20,000 investors, after selling for years that the Ormeus Coin had a $250 million crypto mining operation and monthly mining revenues between $5.4 million to $8 million. They were charged for defrauding more than $124 million through two unregistered fraudulent offerings and for misusing millions of dollars of investor funds for personal expenses, from 2017 until last December. In reality, Ormeus wallets were worth less than $500 thousand. They used social media, websites and roadshows to mislead retail investors.

Goodbye Silicon Valley, Hello Web3

As technology evolves, the great minds, workforce and money once concentrated in the Silicon Valley is now heading towards crypto, blockchain and web3 ventures. High executives from top companies are leading the exodus to the decentralised new world. And it is not only tech C-level executives that are migrating to crypto, as the traditional finance market is also experiencing this stream of talents globally. 

This movement has been intensifying since last year. The latest name was Sherice Torres who moved from Meta to a global internet finance firm Circle as Chief Marketing Officer. Another Silicon Valley veteran, Mike Cagney, co-founder of Figure Technologies which recently entered the rising crypto-backed mortgages industry. Meanwhile, Miami and NY are competing to be the new crypto capital in the USA to welcome those new migrants.

Crypto Heist

The second-largest crypto theft we have recorded happened to Blockchain Ronin, when hackers stole around $615 million worth of cryptocurrency from its systems. Unidentified hackers stole around 173,600 ether tokens and 25.5 million USD Coin tokens. Ronin is the basis for the popular online game Axie Infinity, which uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and is the largest collection of NFTs in historical sales volume, according to NFT data tracking firm CryptoSlam.

Prominent Names Heading To Metaverse

The metaverse is blooming with opportunities and those who did not join last summer, are going there this fall. Zaha Hadid Architects is designing a libertarian utopia city in the metaverse. Former Disney CEO Bob Iger is joining startup Genies, which owns 99% of the celebrity avatar market share and makes NFTs for Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group. Metaverse Fashion Week made its debut between 24–27 of March on Decentraland, with 50 brands on the runway.

Fintech’s Wonder Women

Your Juno, a women’s founded fintech company from London has raised $2.2 million (£16 million) to bring financial education solutions to empower women and non-binary people to have a better management of finances and investments. The company created by sisters Alexia and Margot de Broglie, in 2020, received the funding in a seed round led by InReach Ventures with a board of mainly female angel investors such as Rupa Popat, Elissa Grey, RaeHyun Koh, Pallavi Reddy and Emma Cohen to grow the platform globally.

The Long And Winding Regulation Road

The President of the United States Joe Biden signed an executive order instructing federal government agencies to assess the potential risks of cryptocurrency and to put in consideration the creation of an American digital currency (CBDC). The American Central Bank, the Fed (Federal Reserve), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other federal agencies will have a minimum period of 180 days to prepare a report to indicate new regulatory actions.

According to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, the current regulatory framework is not prepared for the digital world. Meanwhile, Massachusetts U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed a crypto sanction bill that caused animosity among crypto and non-crypto enthusiasts.

The European Parliament voted to start building a regulatory framework for digital assets, finally considering “proof of work” tokens to the industry’s relief. In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) asked over 50 crypto companies that work in that country to comply with advertisement rules until May 2.

Conclusion

March 2022 was a month of contrasts. Privacy tools and sanctions-driven narratives pushed attention toward coins built for discretion, while institutional flows turned uneven and the market digested risk-off signals. 

At the same time, Web3 kept expanding sideways, as consumer platforms tested NFT-adjacent monetisation, talent continued to migrate from legacy tech and finance into crypto firms, and regulators accelerated the work of defining what is acceptable, market by market. Overall, crypto’s cycle may swing, but the infrastructure, culture, and rulemaking around it keeps moving forward.