Cryptocurrencies Brace For Winter, Virtual Adidas And a Bitcoin City

Cryptocurrencies survived one of the largest market shocks since the earliest days of the pandemic last week, with El Salvador a notable dip buyer, while investors decided not to share Adidas' excitement over a foray into the buzzy metaverse.

El Salvador's aspirations to establish the world's first "Bitcoin City," as well as Adidas' participation, were the only bright spots for digital assets in the week that saw major cryptocurrencies hammered by worries about the new coronavirus strain Omicron.

Bitcoin was down 0.5 percent on Monday, and it has lost nearly 17 percent of its value since hitting a high of $69,000 19 days ago. However, competitor cryptocurrency ether, as well as tokens related to the metaverse and decentralized finance apps, have performed better.

Adidas' decision made ripples after the German sportswear store announced in a tweet that it was working with Coinbase Global Inc, however Adidas stock did not participate in the celebration.

The German firm also purchased a piece of virtual land dubbed "adiVerse" in the blockchain-based environment The Sandbox, implying that it will develop it to provide virtual reality items, and this comes as it has warned of a sales impact owing to supply chain bottlenecks.

"That's significant because it foreshadows what will be available in the NFT sector in a few months: Adidas sneakers and other branded virtual garments, shoes, and items," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote.

According to CoinGecko, the price of SAND, a virtual currency used to buy real estate and other commodities, increased by 90% to $7.18 on the announcement, giving it a second surge since Facebook renamed to Meta Platforms Inc late last month.

MANA, the speculative currency used in Decentraland, the premier blockchain-based online realm, jumped 36% to $4.90. Non-fungible tokens are used to sell land and other goods on Decentraland (NFTs).

Apart from the selloff sparked by the revelation of Omicron, the largest headwind for bitcoin and ether last week came from an Indian government announcement of a plan that would prohibit most private cryptocurrencies transactions by the country's estimated 15 million to 20 million crypto investors.