The DeGen Bible to Financial Freedom - Vol.44

Week 1 September -  7 September 2023

Friend.tech already past tense? LOL - Mars Captain

🧠 Observations

• Captain likes this MakerDAO - Vitalik politics. So the founder of the biggest blockchain economy infrastructure is dumping MKR to make a scene of discontent after MakerDAO declares to move to Solana? House of Cards, haha.
• If you do as much DYOR as Captain, you would laugh at the one-week long hype, notably, Friend.tech, XRP victory against the SEC, and stuff like that. People cried, we are so back, but such emotions are purely media click bait driven. Captain likes qualitative research mixed with data points. This way we see the whole landscape. It's not about what most people talk about in a day or a week. It's about the whole deep state engineering. Imagine some Indian genius built Friend.tech, but no twitter or Coinbase to shill it, would you even know about that and ape in? Social structure matters.
• Bear market is for builders, to test and QA innovations. Solana has been doing some exception low-key work these days and it's worth following their development. Shopify integration, Visa USDC settelement and even Helium's 5G network are all examples of mass adoption.
• Another sector worth watching is the upcoming Telegram Bot driven Web3 ecosystem. The TON foundation has opened grants and builders program. Shall the Starfish team ape in?

💵 Stablecoin & Market Landscape

• Stablecoin market share remains high in reference to the total crypto market capitalization. 11.48% of stablecoin (124B) on 1.08T crypto market.

Reminder: Mid-NOV 2021, this percentage was around 4ish% with a 3T total MC. Now we are at 11ish% with a 1ishT total MC.

• Now at 1.08T.  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

• This is amazing. It's not just about the shrinking of a CEX, but more about the consistency of the DEX, or essentially, DeFi. Users are either ossifying or maturing.

• If someone can do a comparaison between memecoin and NFT trading pattern, captain would love to see.

• Captain never liked Solana, though he's been following closely in the past 2 months. It's basically the king in non EVMs out there. If Solana continues to perform, the next bull market will be divided among BTC, ETH, and SOL.
• Plus, this week we see the new USDC Visa settlement on Solana, very interesting.

🔢 Index

• Next BTC ETF decision will be in mid-October. This index's relevancy is depreciating. Its correlation with the price level has become a bit off lately.

• Fairer index, but Captain still believes that it should go down 8-10 points lower to see the sentiment low point.

📰 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

BTC

| Greenfield

Greenfield is leading the $3.5M seed funding round into Stroom, introducing liquid staking tokens to the Lightning Network.

GreenfieldMarkus Hujara

No Internet? You Could Still Use Bitcoin on the Lightning Network - Decrypt

Researchers have come up with a new way to send Bitcoin over Lightning Network without Internet using a “mesh network”

DecryptAlyssa Hertig

ETH

Future Ethereum Upgrades Could Allow Full Nodes to Run on Mobile Phones: Vitalik Buterin - Decrypt

Planned Ethereum upgrades including stateless clients will help to decentralize the network, said its co-founder at Korea Blockchain Week.

DecryptNivesh Rustgi

Layer 1s/ Major DeFi

Binance to Cease BUSD Support in 2024 Amid Legal Turmoil

Binance’s official statement communicates that the phasing out of BUSD support will occur gradually, and the transition will be completed by February 2024, coinciding with Paxos Trust Company’s acquisition of BUSD.

Soumen Datta

Lira-Backed TRYB Token Becomes World’s Second-Largest Non-Dollar-Pegged Stablecoin

BiLira’s TRYB stablecoin is pegged to the lira (TRY) and 100% backed by fiat reserves held in Turkish banks.

CoinDeskOmkar Godbole

Visa Promises Faster Credit Card Payments With USDC on Solana - Decrypt

Visa is now using Circle’s USDC stablecoin and Solana to make settlements quicker, according to a Tuesday announcement.

DecryptMat Di Salvo

Uniswap passes first vote to expand its v2 DEX beyond Ethereum

Uniswap DAO’s preliminary vote to make v2 DEX multichain looks set to pass as the community is keen to capture market share from unsafe copycats.

DL News

Vitalik Buterin Sells MKR Tokens as MakerDAO Co-Founder Pushes for Solana-based ‘NewChain’ - Decrypt

The Ethereum co-founder sold $580,000 in MakerDAO’s MKR tokens, as the stablecoin platform plans a new Solana-based appchain.

DecryptNivesh Rustgi

TON Ecosystem Evolved: Introducing Telegram Apps Center (tApps Center)

The TON Ecosystem is evolving, introducing a new tApps browser for Telegram-based bots, apps, and games. Explore the tApps Center now!

TON BlogTON Foundation

Former Celsius CEO’s home and assets ordered frozen in criminal case

Assets across multiple financial institutions and a home in Texas belonging to former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky have been frozen.

The BlockSarah Wynn

DeFi Deposits on Base Soar as Yield Farmers Plant Aerodrome Harvest - Decrypt

DeFi deposits on the Base network hit a new all-time high thanks to liquidity mining incentives from decentralized exchange Aerodrome.

DecryptNivesh Rustgi

Tether’s Stablecoin USDT ‘Has a Peg Stability Problem’, Claims Analyst - Decrypt

One possible solution would be for Tether to reconsider its redemption fee and minimum redeemable amount, says a Kaiko analyst.

DecryptAndrew Asmakov

USDC To Expand Native Support To Base and Optimism

Deployments Come As USDC Seeks To Reverse Declining Market Share

The DefiantSamuel Haig

Twitter

NFTs

OpenSea Unveils Standards For Redeemable NFTs

Marketplace Aims To Simplify Process Of Offering Perks To NFT Holders

The DefiantTarang Khaitan

Adidas Creates Residency for NFT Artists With Plans for Physical Collabs - Decrypt

Sportswear and lifestyle giant Adidas is partnering with artists on NFT drops and other products, kicking off during Korea Blockchain Week.

DecryptStephanie Hirschmiller

Bored Ape Creator Giving Away Bitcoin in Ordinals Puzzle Game - Decrypt

Yuga Labs has launched a 13-week puzzle-solving competition around its TwelveFold Ordinals, with Bitcoin prizes available for players.

DecryptPedro Solimano

Amazon Is Giving Away Free Gaming NFTs—Here’s How to Claim - Decrypt

UPDATE: Amazon Prime subscribers can now claim a new champion character for Mojo Melee, along with other NFTs. Here’s how.

DecryptAndrew Hayward

Macro econ/ Regulations

China court declares virtual assets legal properties protected by law: Report

China imposed a blanket ban on all crypto-related activities and banned foreign crypto exchanges from offering their services to mainland customers

CointelegraphPrashant Jha

Report Reveals 88,200 Millionaires Built Wealth Through Cryptocurrency – Bitcoin News

Out of the world’s 56.1 million millionaires, a notable 88,200 have earned their fortunes in cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin NewsJamie Redman

The Relationship Between Bitcoin and Interest Rates Is Breaking Down: Arthur Hayes

The steepest Fed rate hike cycle in decades should have killed bitcoin and other risk assets, but a new relationship between the two are forming, Hayes argued in a Tuesday keynote at the ongoing Korea Blockchain Week.

CoinDeskSam Reynolds

SEC Delays Spot Bitcoin ETF Decision for All Applicants Including BlackRock, Fidelity

The regulator has now announced delays for all six of the new ETF applications.

CoinDeskNikhilesh De

Crypto Casino Stake Targeted in Reported $40M Exploit

Cyvers’ platform describes the exploit as being related to a “private key leak.”

CoinDeskOliver Knight

Vitalik Buterin co-authors paper on Tornado Cash alternative

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin co-authored a research paper on a privacy protocol named Privacy Pools.

The BlockVishal Chawla

Research reports/videos (DYOR)

The ‘Fidelity Mafia’ Behind Big Crypto

Some of the most prominent players in the digital-assets space cut their teeth at the mutual-funds powerhouse Fidelity Investments.

The Wall Street JournalVicky Ge Huang

New trends in decentralized exchange applications; exploring the design space

New trends in decentralized exchange applications; exploring the design space This article aims to raise awareness in the blockchain ecosystem about the ways in which decentralized exchanges (DEX) in Ethereum can evolve in the near future. It focuses on presenting design ideas for applications, some…

The Flashbots Collectivesergio

| Greenfield

We at Greenfield believe that blockchains and tokenization will transform global capital markets via an emerging internet-native financial system.

GreenfieldMarkus Hujara

September Effect: Definition, Stock Market History, Theories

The September Effect is a calendar anomaly that refers to historically weak stock market returns for the month of September.

InvestopediaFull Bio

Here Are The AI Celebrities You Can Date Right Now - Decrypt

Forget dialing 1-900-Mix-a-Lot. A Telegram account and more than a few dollars can get you a virtual girlfriend or boyfriend experience.

DecryptJason Nelson

Decentralised.co

Stories with depth, insight & data covering all things Web3.For builders. By builders. Click to read Decentralised.co, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

SubstackSiddharth

writing/docs/2022-05-30_the-risks-of-lsd.md at main · djrtwo/writing

Collection of writings. Contribute to djrtwo/writing development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHubdjrtwo