The DeGen Bible to Financial Freedom - Vol.39

Week 25 July -  1 August 2023

LTC halving to BTC halving - Mars Captain

🧠 Observations

• The Curve crisis contagion has been stopped early before going out of control. In the last 365 days, we have seen the charm of DeFi for its on-chain transparency and potential to fix or break the protocol preemptively. There is something worrying though, the on-chain data and transparency in TVL & price oracle make it easy for whales to calculate the costs to fix/break. We have seen this in LUNA and FTT.
• $PEPE, $BEN, $PSYOP, now we have $BALD, though it didn't last for too long. The meme economy is an essence of the crypto world. Let's not jump to the conclusion that they are all rugs. Learning & understanding the soul of a viral and contagious meme distinguishes a native web3 project from traditional web2 ones. The Starfish team has been DYDR-ing a lot and looking forward to applying our research some time soon.
• Captain has been following a lot on BSC and Pancake, the latter is the first blue-chip DEX to share their revenue to the community. Being the queen of EVM, BSC has interesting projects like the latest Hamster GG. As the multichain Layer 1 narrative dims, we should revisit high TVL EVM ecosystems for growth.

💵 Stablecoin & Market Landscape

• Stablecoin market share remains high in reference to the total crypto market capitalization. 10.22% of stablecoin (125.8B) on 1.23T crypto market.

Reminder: Mid-NOV 2021, this percentage was around 4ish% with a 3T total MC. Now we are at 10ish% with a 1ishT total MC.

• Now at 1.23 T.  Still hanging around on the 1 T level. Going steady.

Reminder, June and Nov 2022 witnessed a bottom of 800ish B MC vis-a-vis the market’s top in NOV 2021 at 3T.

Infographics

• The problem about stables since the fall of LUNA is that the market now "mis"-understands stablecoins as fiat, and thus, only collateralised stables, AKA, digitised fiat, would investors have confidence. Anything with a value bearing asset minting mechanism would recall the memory of LUNA. WDYT?

• The king and queen are swapping their position, with the rise of Base?
• The real interest here is to compare retail participation (Arbitrum) vs Optimism (Institution). This time looks like the retail market is very dried up.

• Essentially, spot market is where everyone is fighting for a slice of the cake. The US underlying dominance, if represented by Coinbase, is much less apparent than most thought...
• The Kimchis, Huobi and OKX are not to be underrestimated, frens.

• In a way Azuki's self destruction a couple of weeks ago resembles FTX's dear genius Caroline's infamous saying, "we will be happily buying $FTT at 22."
• Crypto Punk holding relatively steady. In this industry, speaking less is speaking more. Attracting less dumping pressure is already a great bullish signal.

• There is more than we can imagine about $JPY's bond yield. The bank of Japan is literally informing the market that they will not be changing their monetary policy. Does it remind you some DeFi protocols that are modelled on central banks' behaviour? (In Captain's mind, he can think of Pancakeswap for now, despite being a long time fan.)

🔢 Index

• This index hasn't been moving much in the last month. It represents a high BTC dominance and confidence, though doesn't mean the market overall is bullish.

• CBBI has been consistent with the fear index.

📰 Current affairs

Starfish Finance:

Chapter 2— Flip Your Zero to Become A Hero

A flip a day keeps the bill away.

MediumStarfish Finance

Prediction Market — The First Game of Starfish’s Entertainment-Fi

Play to earn?

MediumStarfish Finance

Starfish Finance is Live on Arbitrum for its new chapter in Entertainment-Fi

Starfish Finance is listed officially on the Arbitrum portal. https://portal.arbitrum.io/?search=starfish to check out Starfish Finance

MediumStarfish Finance

Starfish Finance II - Attack of the (Dapp) Clones

Far beyond Earth and millions of miles past the moon, there’s a planet where Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and NFT-Fi meet on an interoperable network. First observed in 2022, the world known as “Starfish Planet” is home to degens, hodlers, frens and a starfish named Sean.

CoinDeskCoinDesk Staff

Starfish Finance: A cross-chain DeFi, NFT-finance platform on Astar Network, a Polkadot parachain

Starfish Finance is a pioneer project in the Astar incubation project and the first decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible token (NFT) finance platform on Astar Network.

CointelegraphCointelegraph

BTC

Nothing much this week

ETH

Nothing much this week

Layer 1s/ Major DeFi

Avalanche Foundation to purchase tokenized assets with $50 million fund

Dubbed “Avalanche Vista,” the program will consider assets across the full liquidity spectrum including equity, credit, real estate and commodities.

The BlockMK Manoylov

Tether reports $850 million net profit for second quarter

Stablecoin issuer Tether said it had a net profit of $850 million in the second quarter in its latest attestation report.

The BlockYogita Khatri

HamstersGG Faces Rug Pull Accusations

Thrill-seeking Investors Turn To Betting On Animal Racing Tokens As Crypto Markets Trade Sideways

The DefiantSamuel Haig

SHIB Devs Begin Testing Shibarium to Ethereum Bridge - Decrypt

The Shibarium to Ethereum bridge is one step closer to launch, and SHIB and other Doge-themed meme coins are reaping the benefits.

DecryptConnor Sephton

PancakeSwap to share trading-fee revenue with CAKE token stakers

Decentralized exchange PancakeSwap is set to share a portion of its trading-fee revenue with CAKE stakers.

The BlockYogita Khatri

Justin Sun, DCF God and Others Line Up to Buy Curve Finance Founder’s CRV Tokens - Decrypt

After selling CRV to a host of eager buyers, the Curve founder has repaid $9.2 million in Aave loans. But risks still abound.

DecryptNivesh Rustgi

Curve Finance Drained of $50M While CRV Token Sinks 12% in Latest DeFi Exploit

More than $100M-worth of cryptocurrency could be at risk due to a bug impacting Curve, a stablecoin exchange at the center of Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem.

CoinDeskSam Kessler, Danny Nelson and Shaurya Malwa

PancakeSwap Launches On ZkSync Era

Popular DEX Further Expands Its Footprint In Ethereum Ecosystem

The DefiantSamuel Haig

BALD Meme Coin on Coinbase Layer-2 Goes to Zero as Dev Pulls Liquidity - Decrypt

Bald, a meme coin which dropped yesterday on Coinbase’s Base, appears to be a rug pull after the deployer left with millions in liquidity.

DecryptMat Di Salvo

Twitter

NFTs

Meta Remains Committed to the Metaverse Despite $13.7B Loss in 2022, Mark Zuckerberg Says

Meta’s pivot cost the social media giant over $20 billion since 2021, but the company’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the firm isn’t giving up on the metaverse anytime soon.

CoinDeskSam Reynolds

Iconic Electronic Music Platform Beatport Launches NFT Marketplace on Polkadot - Decrypt

To mark Beatport’s Web3 launch on Polkadot, it’s issuing the limited collection ‘NACHTS’ from Berlin-based photographer Mischa Fanghaenel.

DecryptLiam J. Kelly

Reddit Launches More Polygon NFTs—After Already Minting 18 Million Avatars - Decrypt

Cool Cats and Aku are in the mix for the new Collectible Avatars NFT drop, with prices ranging from a couple bucks to $200 apiece.

DecryptAndrew Hayward

Tokenizing music royalties as NFTs could help the next Taylor Swift

Negative experiences in the music biz have seen artists like 3lau, Nas and The Weeknd turn to tokenized royalties for a fair deal.

Cointelegraph MagazineJonathan DeYoung

Yuga Labs Hopes to Rile Up Its Bored Apes With Latest Otherside Demo

The NFT mega-company has been hard at work building out a virtual playground for its Web3 community, and its latest live demo is aimed at bringing Bored Ape Yacht Club holders back to the center of its universe.

CoinDeskRosie Perper

Macro econ/ Regulations

Nigeria Is Altering eNaira Model to Promote Use of the Digital Currency: Central Bank

For many citizens, the central bank digital currency isn’t easy to use.

CoinDeskCamomile Shumba

DOJ Doesn’t ‘Intend to Proceed’ With Campaign Finance Charge Against Sam Bankman-Fried - Decrypt

The DOJ told the court Wednesday that charges related to political donations weren’t mentioned in the original extradition by the Bahamas.

DecryptNivesh Rustgi

China to step up policy adjustments amid tortuous recovery

China’s top leaders pledged on Monday to step up policy support for the economy amid a tortuous post-COVID recovery, focusing on boosting domestic demand, signalling more stimulus steps.

ReutersEllen Zhang

‘If I Die, Delete My Browser History’—OperaGX Makes Good on the Meme - Decrypt

“We’re wiping the slate clean and replacing your scandalous digital shenanigans with a totally fake version of your browsing past.”

DecryptJason Nelson

Is Sam Bankman-Fried Tied to a New Apparent Crypto Scam Called BALD?

On-chain data shows bald’s deployer contract has interacted with Alameda-linked wallets and was an active DeFi participant in the early days.

CoinDeskSam Reynolds and Shaurya Malwa

Bank of Italy Taps Polygon for Institutional DeFi Pilot

G7 Central Bank Wants To Explore Designs For Tokenized Securities

The DefiantSamuel Haig

Research reports/videos (DYOR)

What do I think about biometric proof of personhood?

Entering a Golden Age of Decentralized Stablecoins: What’s New?

Discussing major shifts in the DeFi stablecoin landscape, examining a spectrum of innovative projects and their impacts.

Ignas | DeFi ResearchIgnas | DeFi Research

Moai

(Any views expressed in the below are the personal views of the author and should not form the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation or advice to engage in investment transactions.) Bringing order to a parcel of our elegant but chaotic universe requires a combin…

Crypto Trader DigestArthur Hayes