Crypto Says Screw the Hawkish Fed, Coins Pumping & Polygon BizDev Keeps Slaying
October 29th-November 4th, 2022
Jerome Powell’s hawkish Fed stance didn’t seem to be able to throw cold water all over our little crypto parade. Despite being in a bear market and no Fed pivot yet, we are still seeing coins popping off all over the place. Let’s take a peep at what’s been going on.
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TL;DR:
💭 Hopium - Examining the Pumps
💊 Top Bullets: Binance $500M Elon Twitter contribution, Do Kwon allegedly manipulated the price of LUNC, Fidelity Crypto commission-free trading, Stripe firing 14%, Galaxy Digital firing 20%, Chain x NBA Miami Heat partnership, MoneyGram to allow U.S. crypto purchases, Andre Cronjie returns, Revolut instant messaging NFT pfps, Mastercard crypto accelerator startups, Bakkt to acquire Apex Crypto
📊 Data Highlights: Total Crypto Market Cap: $1T, DeFi TVL: $55B, Nansen Smart Money % holdings in stables: 26%, Nansen Smart Money weekly inflows into WETH and WBTC, Monthly outflows outweigh inflows, Art Gobblers NFT 37.7k ETH volume, In the past month - Ethereum down 2.2% in NFT sales, Solana down 55% in NFT sales, ImmutableX up 40% in NFT sales, Polygon up 119% in NFT sales, Top 5 protocols by revenue: Ethereum, OpenSea, PancakeSwap, dYdX, Lido, Most active bridges by Volume - Polygon, Optimism, dYdX, Arbitrum
🏦 DeFi Highlights: Hodlnaut lost ~ $189.7M in Terra crash, MakerDAO co-founder dies, Matter Labs Layer 3 proof of concept in Q1 ‘23, Matter Labs deploying Aave on zkSync testnet, dYdX DAO moving towards subDAOs, ApeCoin DAO approved $4.4M bug bounty program, Boba Network integrates with BNB Chain, Revolut x 1inch “Learn & Earn” DeFi course, HUSD stablecoin peg lost, Solend $1.26M oracle attack, Rubic $1.2M exploit
🖼 NFT/Metaverse/Gaming Highlights: Meta integrating Arweave & Instagram Polygon-powered NFT marketplace, NBA Curryverse, Kraken gasless NFT marketplace, Dapper Labs firing 22%, GameStop’s NFT marketplace officially live, Immutable to enforce royalties+5% token unlock, Stepn developer zero-fee compulsory royalty NFT marketplace, Nissan NFT trademarks, Atari X initiative, Open Metaverse Alliance officially launched, Visa FIFA World Cup-related NFTs, Magic: The Gathering creators’ Blockchain Brawlers on WAX blockchain, Solana Exchange.Art launches “Royalties Protection Standard”
💸 Exchange Highlights: Deribit $28M hot wallet hack, Zipmex $100M rescue package for 90% stake, Binance potentially buying banks, Robinhood’s crypto revenue declined 12%, Huobi HQ moving to Caribbean, Bitmex fires 30%, OKX digital asset license in The Bahamas, FTX teases GameStop partnership, FTX new phone/email send function, Binance Ledger partnership
👨⚖️ Government, Regulatory and Legal Highlights: Singapore cross-currency transactions using Polygon and Aave Arc, IRS’s hundreds of crypto cases, Blockchain Association and Coinbase support Ripple Labs against SEC, Do Kwon $57M class-action lawsuit, a16z supports Ooki DAO case, Paradigm lobbying on Capitol Hill, Not Financial Advice not legally binding, MiCA bill may impact crypto influencers, Circle and Paxos Singapore licenses, Reserve Bank of India piloting wholesale digital currency
⛓ Crypto Highlights of the Week ⛓
Hopium
We’re supposed to be in a bear market aren’t we? Coins are supposed to be down and the Fed just reiterated their message strongly this week when they raised interest rates by 75 bps that we still have some way to go before a pivot can begin to take place. However the crypto markets have been shrugging all of it off and instead we’re seeing pumps all over the place. Let’s take a look at some of this week’s movers and the “reasoning” behind some of the moves.
Polygon Polygon Polygon: Polygon business development team remains on fire. They’ve been making partnership after partnership during this entire bear market. We just saw that Meta/Facebook will be integrating Polygon, JPMorgan used Polygon to conduct its first live trade in conjunction with Singapore, Reddit “Digital Collectibles” popped off last week, Disney is partnering, Starbucks, etc, etc - it’s been a busy bear market for them. Chartwise: this bad boy bounced hard off it’s ~.30 cent lows back in June and has been holding up increasingly well on the back of all those big name partnerships.
Dogecoin: We can’t talk about pumps without mentioning the Twitter/Elon fueled DogeCoin rally. This massive rush of liquidity from the highly publicized Twitter deal arguably paved the way for some of the other pumps we’ve seen recently.
Mask is Musk? If you search tweeter dot com - you’ll see constant mentions of this pumping because Mask is spelled similarly to Musk and related to Twitter. Mask is protocol that allows users to send encrypted messages over Twitter and Facebook. It essentially acts as a bridge between the internet and a decentralized network running on top. So the Elon pump effect is still a thing in crypto
Coming hot off the news that Meta will be using decentralized data storage protocol Arweave to permanently store digital collectables from Instagram, this bad boy pumped ~ 50%. Not bad for a bear market.
BNB has been particularly interesting as its BTC and ETH pairs have spent the entire bear market climbing up and reaching new highs. USD pair is also finally starting to move. Binance has been making big moves recently - contributing $500M to the Twitter/Elon deal, considering buying banks and spreading their tentacles all over the world.
Other Notable mentions:
Fantom - pumped because Andre came back to Twitter
Loopring - recent launch of GameStop’s NFT marketplace powered by ImmutableX. The launch happens a few months after GameStop launched its NFTs on Loopring and people seem to be anticipating a flowever to LRC
OKB - Crypto exchange token - Obtained license to operate in Bahamas
Conclusion: The macro is still tenuous and uncertainty will remain for some time but in crypto, sometimes the apes just ape. Enjoy the profits if you’re able to book them.
💊This Week’s Top Daily Bullets 💊
Binance contributed $500M as an equity partner with Elon Musk to buy Twitter in hopes of using the social media platform as a “sandbox” to deal with Web 3 issues, according to the exchange’s chief strategy officer and CZ would be willing to join Twitter’s board of directors if invited
South Korea claims that the country’s prosecutors have obtained evidence to suggest Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon had once ordered an employee to manipulate the price of Luna Classic
Investment powerhouse Fidelity opened up a waiting list for Fidelity Crypto, which will offer commission-free trading of bitcoin and ether alongside traditional stock investments in one app
Payments firm Stripe is firing 14% of its workforce as layoffs continue at fintech and crypto companies
Galaxy Digital plans to lay off 20% of its staff; BitMEX plans to lay off 30% of its staff, and DCG has laid off 10% of its staff
Blockchain infrastructure company Chain announced an undisclosed-sum advertising and promotional partnership deal with NBA team the Miami Heat to become their “official Web3 and blockchain infrastructure partner”
Payments firm MoneyGram has added a service to its mobile app allowing nearly all U.S. customers to buy, sell and hold bitcoin, ether and litecoin and expects to grow those their selections over the coming year
Andre Cronjie returns to social media after a hiatus - updates his LinkIn to “Vice President of Memes at the Fantom Foundation”
Revolut's new instant messaging feature, which launched recently in the UK and the European Economic Area, will integrate NFT profile pictures, CEO Nik Storonsky said in an interview
Mastercard adds 7 blockchain startups to its crypto accelerator
Digital asset platform Bakkt, which has an interested in crypto staking and NFTs, is set to acquire crypto trading infrastructure firm Apex Crypto for $55M in cash, with another $145M in stock to be paid if time-dependent financial targets are hit
These are just our top bullets, want more? Check out our daily newsletter:
What’s your take on this week’s news? Anything interesting that you have to say about these stories? Did we miss anything that should’ve been included?
💰 Fundraising Highlights of the Week 💰
📊 Crypto Market Data Highlights of the Week 📊
Nansen Smart Money:
This is a nifty little way to keep an eye on how risk on or risk off “Smart Money” is feeling by how stabled up they are. Has been gradually slipping down since that little local top area in September. The more it slips down, the more they are hopefully slipping out of stables and in theory that money should flow into crypto but of course on-chain data is only one piece of the puzzle.
Largest Smart Money Inflows this week: We finally see Smart Money starting to move back into WETH and WBTC - they were reluctant to make any considerable moves during last week’s rally. However $20ish mil isn’t a lot of money for the big boys..
Largest Smart Money Outflows this week: 2 biggest coins seeing outflow are Compound USDC and Compound ETH.
Largest Smart Money Inflows this month: Looking at the bigger picture - on the monthly level, the most amount of smart money is flowing into WETH, stETH and Compound WBTC - again still not very impressive amounts, only $26M? That’s chump change for the big boys being tracked by Nansen’s smart money
Largest Smart Money Outflows this month: ~ $127M out of two types of USDC followed by WBTC, Compound DAI, and Compound ETH. Monthly outflows outweigh inflows
Nansen NFT Market:
Highest Volume NFT collections of the past week: Nansen has yet to integrate Blur Marketplace which is currently accounting for the bulk of the Gobblers volume. Gobblers has currently seen 37.7k ETH volume since launch according to Blur.
What would this Ethereum NFT market size chart would look like if Nansen integrated Blur already?
Bridges: Most active bridges by Volume - Polygon, Optimism, dYdX, Arbitrum
🏦 DeFi Highlights of the Week 🏦
A judicial report has reportedly revealed that crypto lender Hodlnaut lost around $189.7M due to its exposure to the Terra crash
MakerDAO co-founder Nikolai Mushegian dies at 29 in Puerto Rico. Curious rumors circulate surrounding his death
Matter Labs, developer of zkSync, is working on a Layer 3 chain called Opportunity - plans to release a proof of concept in the first quarter of 2023
In a unanimous vote, Matter Labs’ proposal to deploy Aave on the testnet for its Ethereum scaler zkSync has been approved
The dYdX DAO near future will likely consist of several autonomous subDAOs in the near future that each work on core functional areas of the dYdX protocol and are ultimately accountable to the dYdX community
The ApeCoin DAO has voted to approve a $4.4M bug bounty program with ethical hacking platform Immunefi, aiming to guard its upcoming token staking mechanism from hacks
Layer 2 solution Boba Network integrates with BNB Chain. SushiSwap will launch on the BNB Chain version of Boba Network as a launch partner
Digital bank Revolut partnered with DEX aggregator 1inch to introduce its joint crypto “Learn & Earn” course focused on DeFi
HUSD stablecoin peg lost - dropped to as low as $0.30. Huobi plans help users convert HUSD to USDT
Lending protocol Solend suffered an oracle attack on three of its lending pools resulting in $1.26M of bad debt. The attack targeted three lending pools that held Hubble stablecoins, Coin98 tokens and Kamino tokens
Cross-chain DEX service Rubic was exploited for over $1.2M after attackers gained access to the private keys of an administrator's wallet
🖼 NFT/Metaverse/Gaming Highlights of the Week 🖼
Meta is now using decentralized data storage protocol Arweave to permanently store digital collectables from Instagram. Instagram will also support a Polygon-powered NFT marketplace
National Basketball League megastar Steph Curry to introduce his own version of the Metaverse to the NBA’s 650 million fans - filing a “Curryverse” trademark application on Oct. 26
Kraken, the world’s sixth-largest cryptocurrency exchange, is launching its new NFT marketplace promising gas-less transactions - will initially host over 70 Ethereum and Solana-based NFT collections
Roham Gharegozlou, Founder and CEO of Dapper Labs, announced that the Web3 studio for blockchain games and NFTs, like NBA Top Shot has reduced its team size by 22% citing macroeconomic environment
GameStop’s NFT marketplace officially live. Built using the Immutable X Layer 2 scaling protocol, the platform will offer digital assets from major web3 games
Immutable is rolling out a product on Ethereum that it says will help enforce the payment of creator royalties. It will work as a community-governed whitelist and blacklist for smart contracts that honor royalty fees. ImmutableX is set to release $66M worth of IMX tokens in an upcoming token unlocking. A total of 110M IMX, representing more than 5% of the token’s total supply, will be freed from vesting
Three top executives at web3 gaming unicorn Mythical Games announced their departure. Those leaving include the startup’s co-founder Rudy Koch, chief operating officer and head of game studios and publishing
Nissan has filed 5 trademark applications for some of its most iconic car models like GTR, SKYLINE, and Z, claiming plans for NFTs + NFT-backed media, Online NFT marketplaces + Digital wallets, NFT minting, trading, storing software
Stepn developer Find Satoshi Lab is going against the creator royalty trend set by other NFT marketplaces with its own multi-chain offering called Mooar - with a zero-fee, compulsory royalty structure. Payments to artists will default to 2%, or within a 0.5% to 10% range, depending on what the creator chooses to set. No service fees but adopts a membership model, which costs $29.99 per month
Atari is introducing the Atari X initiative, uniting all of its blockchain interests under one operation that will be funded and managed by the top-class economy. Atari.X launched their first NFT collection, and those who hold these assets can look forward to virtual and physical utilities
The Open Metaverse Alliance officially launched and opened membership to Web3 builders and sponsors. The association, which includes members like Dapper Labs and Yuga Labs, is pushing for an interoperable, blockchain-powered metaverse
Visa has become the latest major company set to cash in on FIFA World Cup-related NFTs — unveiling a charity auction for five NFTs ahead of the upcoming tournament in Qatar. The auction is in partnership with crypto exchange Crypto.com, with all auction proceeds going to Street Child United
The creator of Magic: The Gathering card game Richard Garfield has launched a new Player versus Player game for the NFT project, Blockchain Brawlers - a play-to-own game based on the WAX blockchain, created by Tyranno Studios
Solana-based fine art NFT marketplace Exchange.Art has launched a “Royalties Protection Standard” that will enforce creator royalties on secondary sales of NFTs that originate on its platform
💸 Exchange Highlights of the Week 💸
Deribit, the largest bitcoin options exchange by market share, lost $28M in Bitcoin, ETH and USDC in a hot wallet hack and halted withdrawals
Troubled South Asian crypto exchange Zipmex is close to signing a $100M rescue package with an existing investor in return for a 90% stake
Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao is looking into potentially buying banks as a way of bridging the gap between the worlds of traditional finance and crypto
Online trading brokerage Robinhood (HOOD) reported $51M in crypto revenue in the third quarter, down 12% from $58M in the second quarter
Huobi Global is planning to move its headquarters to one of the jurisdictions in the Caribbean due to the region’s “super-friendly” crypto stance
Crypto exchange Bitmex cuts 30% of its workforce and refocuses on becoming a leading crypto derivatives trading platform following CEO departure
OKX, the world's second-largest crypto-only exchange by trading volume, follows rival FTX and obtained a digital asset license in The Bahamas, where it plans to hire up to 100 people over the next 12 months
FTX teases upcoming partnership with GameStop
FTX has launched a new send function. Users can now send crypto (or dollars) to any email or phone number
Binance has partnered with Ledger, opening up more pathways for users to purchase digital assets, and increasing the growth of the Web3 ecosystem
👨⚖️ Government, Regulatory and Legal Highlights of the Week 👨⚖️
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) successfully completed a cross-currency transaction involving tokenized Japanese yen and Singapore dollar deposits using Polygon and Aave Arc as part of a pilot exploring the potential of DeFi applications in wholesale funding markets
The IRS’s Criminal Investigation division is building “hundreds” of crypto cases, and many of them will soon be public
United States-based crypto advocacy group Blockchain Association has come out in support of Ripple Labs amid its ongoing legal battle with the SEC, claiming the case could be very important for the future of the crypto industry. Coinbase has filed documentation asking permission to help Ripple Labs in its ongoing legal battle with the SEC
Terra co-founder Do Kwon faces a $57M class-action lawsuit in Singapore. The lawsuit alleged Kwon and others made fraudulent claims on UST
a16z the latest entity requesting to join the case against Ooki DAO, in which the CFTC alleges the DAO had violated federal commodities laws by offering illegal leveraged and margin crypto trading products to U.S. residents
Crypto-focused investment firm Paradigm will host its first public event on Capitol Hill on Nov. 16 to help policymakers better understand the Web3 technologies they’re attempting to regulate
According to several digital asset lawyers, the popular disclaimer “this is not financial advice” — may not actually protect them in the eyes of the law
The European Union’s crypto regulation bill, set to be made law following some additional steps, contains a section that could impact many crypto influencers
Stablecoin issuers Circle and Paxos, issuer of the USDP and BUSD, have received in-principle approval as a major payments institution license holder from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
The Reserve Bank of India will begin a pilot wholesale digital currency with the goal of reducing transaction costs and the need for collateral when trading government securities
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