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Hey Waivly Crew! 🌊 OpenSea has closed a $300 million Series C round led by Paradigm and Coatue. Goldman Sachs believes Bitcoin will hit $100,000 within five years if more investors see it as an alternative to gold.

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Want more from us at Waivly? Join Waivly+, the premium Waivly membership with exclusive content, resources, giveaways, events, and so much more, all blended together into one super low-cost and quick to join subscription 🎉 Head over to our website and hit “Subscribe” to get onboard!

OpenSea raises $300M in funding

NFT marketplace OpenSea has closed a $300 million Series C funding round that values the company at $13 billion.

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OpenSea announced earlier this week that investors valued the company at $13.3 billion in the Series C funding round, over eight times higher than its previous $1.5 billion valuation in a $100 million Series B announced last July.

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Paradigm and Coatue led the round with participation from new and existing investors. With the funding, OpenSea aims to significantly improve customer support and customer safety, invest in the wider NFT and Web3 community, and expand its team.

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"We are committed to expanding the entire NFT ecosystem. This quarter, we are launching a grant program to give us the opportunity to directly support the developers, builders, and creators shaping the future of the NFT space," said CEO Devin Finzer. "Our ambition is to foster the scale and growth of the broader NFT ecosystem including raising the profile of emerging creators and investing in the people who shape the NFT space for the better today."

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The injection of capital will help OpenSea get ahead of the large number of rivals entering the NFT market. Coinbase, Kraken, and Blockchain.com are some of the many exchanges launching their own NFT marketplaces later this year.

Goldman Sachs predicts Bitcoin could hit $100k

According to Goldman Sachs Group, Bitcoin will reach $100,000 if it continues to take market share from gold as a store of value.

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Goldman analysts estimate that Bitcoin’s float-adjusted market capitalization is just under $700 billion. That accounts for a 20% share of the “store of value” market which is comprised of Bitcoin and gold. The value of gold that’s available for investment is estimated at $2.6 trillion.

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If Bitcoin’s share of the store of value market ever rises over 50% over the next five years, its price would reach just over $100,000, marking a compound annualized return of around 18%, co-head of global FX and EM strategy, wrote in a note on Tuesday.

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"Bitcoin may have applications beyond simply a "store of value" - and digital asset markets are much bigger than Bitcoin - but we think that comparing its market capitalization to gold can help put parameters on plausible outcomes for Bitcoin returns," Pandl wrote.

The Waves

👀 Vitalik Buterin talks the future of Ethereum

🏎️ Lamborghini teases NFT drop

🎮 Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian shares Web3 prediction

🧪 Everyone wants a Mega Mutant Serum

Hustle Special

The best New Year quotes to ring in 2022

“Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one.” - Brad Paisley

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“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.” - J.P. Morgan

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"Never underestimate the power you have to take your life in a new direction." -Germany Kent

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"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step." – Martin Luther King Jr.

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"Whatever it is you're scared of doing, do it. Make your mistakes next year and forever." - Neil Gaiman

Quentin Tarantino moves forward with 'Pulp Fiction' NFT collection

Legendary director Quentin Tarantino is going ahead with his Pulp Fiction NFT collection, despite a pending lawsuit with the film studio behind the movie, Miramax.

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Last November, Quentin Tarantino revealed that he will auction seven “secret NFTs” featuring uncut scenes from “Pulp Fiction”, along with bonus content that only the NFT owners can access, such as original handwritten scripts from the film and an exclusive audio commentary from Tarantino himself.

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Miramax quickly responded to the news by filing a lawsuit against the director, accusing him of breach of contract, trademark infringement, and unfair competition, according to court documents.

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While it seemed likely that the NFT auction would get cancelled, Tarantino is still going ahead with it. Tarantino and his partner SCRT Labs, the creator of a privacy-focused blockchain, will auction off the NFTs between January 17th and January 31st.

Pushing The Wave With Ledger

If you’re into cryptocurrency and own crypto assets, you need a secure place to store your coins and tokens. You probably already know that you shouldn’t store your crypto on an exchange due to potential hacks, not being solely in control of your crypto’s private keys, and for other reasons, and so a hardware wallet is the way to go and the best option to protect your private keys, therefore, you should make the move to a Ledger wallet.

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Ledger wallets are an extremely secure and premium way to secure, manage, and grow your crypto assets with their Bluetooth-enabled hardware wallets, and easy-to-use app which lets you manage your portfolio on the go. They let you manage multiple assets, buy, sell, grow, and exchange crypto, gain financial freedom by you being in full control and ownership of your private keys, and so much more.

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The wallets are really simple to setup, and to move your crypto over to, so there’s no reason not to secure your assets and take control of your cryptocurrency now and get yourself a Ledger device. You can manage 1800+ coins and tokens directly in the Ledger Live app once you’ve got your device up and running, so you’ll always have your entire portfolio covered.

Share The Wave

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*Waivly is an official affiliate of Ledger. See our Ledger Affiliate notice here

Goldman Sachs says Bitcoin may reach $100K

According to Goldman Sachs Group, Bitcoin will reach $100,000 if it continues to take market share from gold as a store of value.

Goldman analysts estimate that Bitcoin’s float-adjusted market capitalization is just under $700 billion. That accounts for 20% share of the “store of value” market which it said is comprised of Bitcoin and gold. The value of gold that’s available for investment is estimated at $2.6 trillion.

If Bitcoin’s share of the store of value market ever rises over 50% over the next five years, its price would reach just over $100,000,marking a compound annualized return of around 18%, co-head of global FX and EM strategy, wrote in a note Tuesday.     

"Bitcoin may have applications beyond simply a "store of value" - and digital asset markets are much bigger than Bitcoin - but we think that comparing its market capitalization to gold can help put parameters on plausible outcomes for Bitcoin returns," Pandl wrote.