The DeGen Bible to Financial Freedom - Vol.40
The champion of all online payment platforms, with the same simple click of payment, and the biggest digital payment structure, what's the point of doing stables? The Curve crisis was bailed out by the deep state people.
Week 2 August - 10 August 2023
Slowly, Steadily and more Robust - Mars Captain
🧠 Observations
- Paypal stablecoin usage please? The champion of all online payment platforms, with the same simple click of payment, and the biggest digital payment structure, what's the point of doing stables? Trendy? Or rug pull easier in the name of centralisation? We shouldn't be cheering for their launch. We shouldn't even care.
- The Curve crisis was bailed out by the deep state people. Shall we be assured that the contagion didn't spread systemically in the DeFi space? Or disappointed because of a lack of true decentralisation? Captain hesitates and can't make a comment on this.
- Base, Shiba Layer 2. Ethereum's narrative is settled. Possibly the industry will not be talking too much about Ethereum but every protocol built around its core. Ethereum, in a way, has become Bitcoin, in the industry.
💵 Stablecoin & Market Landscape
- Stablecoin market share remains high in reference to the total crypto market capitalization. 10.32% of stablecoin (125.5B) on 1.21T 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 1.21 T. Still hanging around on the 1T 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 Korean market is qualitative despite its small size. When we focus too much on the anglophone sphere, we often forget the charm of digging deep in local markets.
- Tether/USDT market cap has been declining across all exchanges. Thoughts?
- The last 6 months we witnessed layer 2s growth. Is Base late or is Base Coinbase's plan B in all of these regulation dramas? Or just some deep state pushing the volume and value?
- The other way to look at this is Binance & BSC, and its upcoming opBSC layer 2. In this regard, Coinbase skipped a layer one ecosystem and directly move to Layer 2. Wait, what about Cronos? Do we still hear about them...
- The chapter two of the alternative Layer 1s might very well start with Solana in the next bull market. By then, Solana will be the King of alternative Layer 1s, and "some" Solana killers will fight for the position of the queen, as ETH and BNB in EVMs. Please quote Captain if this does happen in 2 years by 2025.
- This data graph needs no comment nor explanation.
🔢 Index
Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index is 51 - Neutral
— Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index (@BitcoinFear) August 11, 2023
Current price: $29,427 pic.twitter.com/d6V6o5dewG
- All major research and data points showing very steady movements of Bitcoin. Nothing much to comment, but Captain thinks this is too high for such price level.
- Nothing much to comment on either, going very steady.
📰 Current affairs
Starfish Finance:
Chapter 2— Flip Your Zero to Become A Hero
A flip a day keeps the bill away.
Medium
Prediction Market — The First Game of Starfish’s Entertainment-Fi
Play to earn?
Medium
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
Medium
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.
CoinDesk
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.
Cointelegraph
BTC
Bitcoin Whale Michael Saylor Might Buy a Lot More BTC
MicroStrategy plans to sell up to $750 million of stock, possibly to acquire BTC. The price of bitcoin rose following the announcement.
CoinDesk
Tether is now the 11th largest bitcoin holder in the world
Tether has become the 11th largest bitcoin holder in a move that will spark intrigue and speculation about its ability to impact the market.
The Block
ETH
Nothing much for Ethereum this week
Layer 1s/ Major DeFi
Litecoin Just Had Its Third Halving—Here’s What That Means for LTC - Decrypt
The Litecoin “halving” event just happened. That means the supply of Litecoin, the 12th largest cryptocurrency, shrinks.
Decrypt
PancakeSwap Deploys on Ethereum Scaling Network Arbitrum in Expansion Drive
The decentralized exchange has joined several networks this year in the search for new users and revenue streams.
CoinDesk
Reddit Community Tokens Moons and Bricks Soar 50% on Kraken Listing
Kraken and Kraken Pro users can trade both coins against the U.S. dollar and euro in the spot market.
CoinDesk
Wintermute, a Major Trader, Is a Key Player in Arkham’s Controversial Dox-to-Earn Platform
The liquidity provider just withdrew 8 million of Arkham’s ARKM token from Binance, increasing its position by 731%.
CoinDesk
PayPal launches PYUSD stablecoin for payments and transfers | TechCrunch
PayPal is rolling out a stablecoin called PYUSD for payments and transfers, the company announced on Monday.
TechCrunch
Cardano Blockchain Transactions Jumped 49% in Q2 on Network Upgrades, New Users
Blockchain load — a measure of how much data is contained in blocks over a certain period — rose to 50% in the second quarter from under 40% in the first. It peaked at 81% in May.
CoinDesk
Huobi dismisses plunging stablecoin reserves as ‘FUD’
Spokesperson for Huobi exchange refuted claims that any team members have been detained by Chinese authorities
Blockworks
Coinbase Enlists Coca-Cola, Atari Ahead of Base Mainnet Launch - Decrypt
Coinbase has tapped Coca-Cola and Atari for giveaways ahead of the mainnet for Base, its layer 2 scaling solution, launching on August 9.
Decrypt
OlympusDAO’s ‘Cooler Loans’ Could Mean The End Of A Bull Market Icon
Holders Will Be Able To Borrow 95% Of OHM Value In Stablecoins At 0.5%
Tokenized Coinbase Stocks Are Coming to Polygon Thanks to Backed Finance - Decrypt
Backed Finance has integrated Chainlink’s price feeds, onboarding a suite of tokenized assets to six different blockchains.
Decrypt
SHIB Surges 10% Over the Week Amid Push for Identity Service, Binance Integration - Decrypt
Binance added SHIB as a collateral asset, while its developers are working hard to shed the meme coin status.
Decrypt
Early Base Whales Have an Affinity for Meme Tokens, Nansen Says
The top 22 depositors to Base as of July 31 have allocations in a telegram trading bot token, several meme tokens and an on-chain casino token.
CoinDesk
1/ On BTC 2013
— 6529 (@punk6529) July 29, 2023
In Nov 2013, I wrote to my co-directors on the Board of Directors of a SNCO (Serious Non-Crypto Organization).
I was several months into my BTC journey and I thought they should learn about BTC.
I looked up the memo today and I will share the key parts below.
In 2016, several of my millionaire friends suddenly went broke.
— Edgy - The DeFi Edge 🗡️ (@thedefiedge) July 26, 2023
In January, we were popping bottles at Hakkasan. By the year's end, they asked if I knew if anyone was hiring.
I’ve seen this rapid rise and fall scenario play out constantly (especially in Crypto).
People earn… pic.twitter.com/Vr31qUUm0i
1/ Yesterday, several @CurveFinance pools were exploited.
— Delphi Digital (@Delphi_Digital) August 1, 2023
Curve founder, Michael Egorov, currently has a ~$100M loan backed by 427.5m $CRV (about 47% of the entire CRV circulating supply).
With $CRV down 10% over the past 24 hours, the health of Curve is in jeopardy. 🧵⬇️ pic.twitter.com/EKpQCkDs6W
Trader Joe is now live on Ethereum
— Trader Joe - Live on Mainnet (@traderjoe_xyz) August 4, 2023
Introducing Liquidity Book, the innovative and highly efficient concentrated liquidity AMM, to Ethereum ecosystem. pic.twitter.com/sW12IV0db3
NFTs
Gaming Giant Bandai Namco Launches AI Virtual Pet NFT Game - Decrypt
Bandai Namco Research and partners have rolled out a virtual pet game, joining other publishers like Ubisoft and Sega on the Oasys blockchain.
Decrypt
Macro econ/ Regulations
WSJ News Exclusive | Crypto Is Illegal in China. Binance Does $90 Billion of Business There Anyway.
Retaining its Chinese footprint will be crucial for Binance as it navigates a global regulatory crackdown that executives worry threatens its future.
The Wall Street Journal
FTX Proposes Exchange Reboot in Reorganization Plan
Some former FTX.com customers could opt to receive equity, tokens or other interests in the rebooted offshore exchange instead of a cash payout.
Unchained Crypto
Worldcoin suspended in Kenya, one of its biggest markets for sign-ups so far
Worldcoin has been suspended in Kenya — a market in which it has already signed up hundreds of thousands of customers.
The Block
Elon Musk: ‘We Never Will’ Launch a Twitter or X Crypto Token - Decrypt
The blunt declaration came after the Tesla CEO replied to a warning about scam tokens claiming to be affiliated with his company.
Decrypt
Chinese payment app giants start accepting Visa and Mastercard
Travellers to China can now use Alipay and WeChat Pay after the hugely popular mobile payments platforms moved to let people link international credit cards.
Hong Kong’s OSL receives license for Bitcoin and Ethereum retail trading
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission has given OSL a license for bitcoin and ether retail trading.
The Block
Crypto exchange Binance receives two licenses in El Salvador
Binance said it received two licenses in El Salvador, becoming the “first fully licensed” crypto exchange in the country.
The Block
Blockchain.com obtains major payment institution license in Singapore
The license allows the exchange to offer regulated digital payment token services to institutional and accredited investor customers, the company said.
The Block
‘Here to stay’: How crypto endures attacks from critics
The industry’s rebound underscores the challenge that Gary Gensler’s SEC faces as it looks to bring the business into the U.S. regulatory fold.
POLITICO
Asia’s Crypto Regulatory Clarity Contrasts With Disarray in US
Asian regulators have stolen a march on the US by clarifying crypto rules, exemplified by Hong Kong’s first licenses for trading platforms under the city’s new digital-asset framework.
Bloomberg
Research reports/videos (DYOR)
Tokenized Media is Reshaping the Internet - Blockstar
theLiJIA Library
Token incentives in a world of intents
Apps are integrating into the supply chain as evidenced by two major trends: the migration to app rollups and the adoption of wallet abstractions. In other words, apps are taking control of the origination and routing of transactions – using declarative user “intents” – to optimize the user experien…
Hair Is Money
Totally supercool and chilled VC investing in programmable assets, collaborative intelligence and other buzzwords.
M6 Labs
Daily crypto news and industry analysis.
What Crypto Can Learn From the Corn Economy
Single Origin: Token Economies Need a New Monetary Policy
Espresso