Crypto Daily Sentiment, Vibe, Topic of the Day -
Monday, March 7th: Bitcoin bearish underside retest of 40k - very weak and sells off, closes ~ 37k. Lots of increased bearishness on the timeline. Evmos fumble continues - unfortunate because you only get one first impression. Coinbase blocks 25,000 addresses and people get spooked over Biden executive order which was already known but the language might change from stablecoin regulation to something about sanctions and national defense? Everyone still talking about skyrocketing commodities - nickel in particular shot up 90% based on Russia supply concerns. Charles Hoskinson under fire for fibbing about not dropping out of a Ph.D. program. Timeline feels hostile.
Tuesday, March 8th: Avalanche came out big dicking with $290m incentive fund for subnets. Evmos announces several days delay to address technical issues, postmortem to follow. Odd coins like Knc, Waves pumping. Random shitcoin memecoins also pumping and dumping- harsh out there. Bitcoin stayed in a tight range ~ 37-39k. Bearish timeline today. People continue speculating on how financial restrictions and sanctions on Russia will affect crypto. Emergence of privacy narrative talk after privacy coins xmr, zec, scrt pump - ft. Barry Silbert vs. Satsdart. Others say privacy coins pumping is bad news bears.
Wednesday, March 9th: Reminder: CPI print coming Thursday - expect volatility. Bitcoin pumperino past 40k and settles at around ~ 42k. All it takes is a little green and CT practically starts creaming itself. Luna is performing like a beast - ATH on Usd, Btc and Eth pairs. Do Kwon frisky on the tl. Near chart is also looking interesting. Juno and Osmo performing very strong still but doesn’t get as much attention. Metis getting attention. Biden executive order mostly a nothingburger. No new regulations. It was merely an order that directed agencies to study the impact of cryptocurrency on financial stability and national security and future CBDC - all that worry on the timeline for nothing.
Reminiscences of an Anon: Midweek Thoughts
With our most recent rejection from the 40k region for bitcoin, the markets continue in crab mode, retracing the sparse gains made early last week, with only a handful of alt daily charts looking good - with Luna leading. The timeline continues to be bearish while others eagerly sow their clout seeds, which they hope to harvest in the near future if the markets are able to hold this level and make another leg up. To recap, we've been in a downtrend since November, unable to reclaim any significant levels and keep getting zapped down every time we approach the 45k resistance area. Every time. The bulls just can’t find their balls. With all the macro and geopolitical uncertainty in the market, market participants remain unsure and we can see this by the obvious chop we’ve been experiencing. Fears that the US & EU regulators are also looking to impose tighter regulations in response to crypto becoming increasingly identified as a means to bypass international sanctions are also present. Plenty of bearish shit weighing down on the markets. On a positive note, despite being weighed down by almost constant negative news, we’re still closer to 40k than 30k right now. We’ve been holding up pretty well and haven’t touched the summer lows yet which is promising, all things considered. So there’s that. We’re still in a position to put in a higher low on the daily chart and potentially get a reprieve from this bearish stint - how high we go and for how long is another matter entirely.
Avalanche Subnets - The narrative in the room with us - but can we make monies?
Everyone and their grandmother has already been discussing Avax subnets to death for a while and they’re finally arriving, yay. I’ll forgo the technical explanations as there are many sources already available on the topic, instead focusing on other details around whether this can be a profitable investment - will the chain actually get any meaningful long term use going forward? Sure, the tech sounds nice.. but lots of tech sounds nice and the truth is that good projects don’t always make good investments. Think on that. There is also lots of competition already between alt layer 1’s and with the upcoming Ethereum merge and ZK technology to contend with, my question is will subnets affect price in any meaningful way? Without increased use and adoption, why would the price of the coin go up after all? There are lots of people currently debating the price impact subnets will have on the coin. The Avalanche Foundation came out swinging with a $290 million incentive program to spur on the growth of subnet adoption. The first subnet to receive incentives through their Multiverse program will be NFT gaming project DeFi Kingdoms, for which $15 million in incentives has been set aside. The last time Avalanche came out with their Avalanche Rush incentive program in August, it was definitely a bullish catalyst, however market conditions were different then, as we are currently in a bear(ish) market. The question is, is there any merit to this or is it just another narrative that will cool off once something shinier and sexier comes along?
The million dollar question, will subnets affect price? A good train of thought lies in how many onchain games start looking at moving to redcoin chain. If what devs claim subnets can do can come to fruition, then game developers should theoretically become interested in building on avax, providing the bullish catalyst for both native coins, as many gamefi coins are currently useless governance tokens and by building and deploying on an Avalanche subnet, they can transition to making their coins have utility. Subnet validators will need to stake Avax, driving demand for Avax coin and subnet dapps can choose to use their own token to pay for gas fees, thereby driving demand for that token. A positive loop in theory. Another driving point is that the word modular is a current buzzword and Avalanche has been described by its devs as a modular blockchain platform where a vast amount of modular & non-modular blockchains can be built on the Avalanche platform with subnets. This modularity allows for another key subnet project focus - being able to craft regulatory compliant access to DeFi for institutional investors, a huge hindrance up until now for trillions of institutional capital that needs to adhere to AML, KYC, KYB regulations. The success of subnets should spell good news for the future of Avalanche - driving price for both protocol tokens in the short term at least. Again, all of this in theory. There’s always the possibility that the subnet launch or the upcoming Avax Summit at the end of the month could be a sell the news event. Always protect yourself and be careful. The crypto markets can be cruel.
Finally, a concern about Avax are the limitations of bridges and whether the infrastructure will be able to support interoperable subnets with interchangeable NFTs and game items. There are big hopes for what they can achieve but it’s important to remember this is all unproven still and has yet to solve interoperability problems. It’s important to never marry your bags or bias. I happen to like Avax but the most important thing about being in crypto is surviving. You’re most likely already aware that there is lots of debate out there on which chains will survive long term and there is a lot of competition.
I’m looking for active crypto people to join forces. Apes strong together.
You can reach me on twitter: https://twitter.com/TheoDelarosa_
- Time moves differently in crypto. Crypto is an intricate game filled with various players operating across multiple time frames and with varying agendas. Day in, day out, the pieces are moving all across the board. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Here’s a glimpse of what has happened so far this week in our little crypto bubble -
Coin News:
DeFi architect, Fantom Foundation technical adviser and Yearn.finance founder Andre Cronje has left the decentralized finance (DeFi) space reeling after deactivating his Twitter account. Cronje’s long-time colleague at the Fantom Foundation Anton Nell stated in a Sunday tweet that both he and Cronje were leaving the crypto space entirely. However, concerns arose about the fate of the roughly 25 decentralized applications (DApps) and services they have been operating up to now. Among the affected apps and services are yearn.fi, keep3r.network, multichain.xyz, chainlist.org, bribe.crv.finance and the new solidly.exchange.- source
Avalanche Foundation unveils $290 million incentive program to spur on growth of subnets. Gaming project DeFi Kingdoms is the first to be granted incentives under the new Multiverse initiative. Ava Labs is also working with a group of crypto investment firms to create a subnet that aims to give institutions compliant access to DeFi. Ava Labs, which helps drive the development of Avalanche, has partnered with Aave, GoldenTree Asset Management, Wintermute, Jump Crypto, Valkyrie, Securitize and others to build the subnet. Participants will be required to undergo know-your-customer (KYC) checks - source
Decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator KyberSwap has launched on the layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution Arbitrum network. The move puts Kyberswap on its seventh network or scaling solution along with Ether (ETH), Polygon (MATIC), Fantom (FTM), BSC (BNB), Avalanche (AVAX) and Cronos (CRONOS). KyberSwap joins SwaprEth, Balancer Labs, Curve Finance and SushiSwap as the DEXs available on Arbitrum - source
The Evmos team announced on the official Discord that the Evmos network upgrade has failed, and the chain will stop in the next 24-48 hours. No transactions will be processed - source
FTX now supports native Terra UST - source
Behance, the creative showcase platform owned by Adobe, announced on Monday that users can now connect their Phantom wallet to their Behance accounts and showcase Solana (SOL) nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on their profiles. Phantom is a Solana wallet built for decentralized finance, or DeFi, applications as well as for NFTs. QuickNode, a Miami-based Web3 infrastructure platform, helped build out this feature with Adobe on Solana - source
DraftKings, a daily fantasy sports and betting company, is doubling down on its interest in the Ethereum sidechain Polygon by becoming an official official validator for the Polygon network. The B2B cryptocurrency company Zero Hash will be staking Polygon’s native token MATIC on behalf of DraftKings to make the betting company a Polygon validator. So far, DraftKings has seen over $44 million in NFT volume and released 116 sold-out drops - source
Ethereum Layer 2 Service StarkNet Goes Live on Alchemy, Promises 100x Lower Gas Fees. StarkNet relies on ZK technology to process masses of transactions quickly and cheaply. Alchemy isn't the only major crypto player to deploy StarkNet—Immutable, an NFT gaming startup that just raised $200 million, is counting on StarkNet to make its transaction-heavy operations affordable - source
L2 protocol Boba Network has announced that its hybrid computing solution has gone live on the Ethereum mainnet. Hybrid computing uses the technology that the computing process is not on the chain, and integrates smart contracts through off-chain computing to improve scalability - source
Play To Earn Platform WAM Launches Elrond Token Bridge For DeFi And App Integration. Gamers will thus be able to earn ESDT WAM tokens and further use them to join tournaments or own games, avatars, nicknames and other items, which are unique NFTs and can generate various passive income streams for their owners - source
Ukranian-Origin Crypto Waves Registers 2X Price Performance in Two Weeks. Waves, a proof-of-stake blockchain focused on providing infrastructure for dapps and smart contracts with fast confirmation times, has surged an impressive 97% over the past two weeks, going from $11.2 on February 28, 2022, to a peak of $24.45 on March 8, 2022 - source
The third-largest Bitcoin whale bought another 730 BTC at an average price of about $38.4K in the past two days alone. In total, the address has a balance of a whopping $5.3 billion, holding 126,341 BTC in total - source
Multi-pool decentralized exchange Minswap announced its debut on the Cardano mainnet earlier today. Its users are now able to deposit liquidity in exchange for rewards and to swap tokens in a decentralized way. Yield farming will become available on the exchange starting from March 14. Minswap went live on the Cardano testnet in September, prior to the launch of smart contracts functionality. However, its debut was mired in controversy due to the "concurrency" issue that prevents token swaps from going through. After facing backlash and attracting mockery from Cardano detractors, Minswap said that it was working to solve the issue - source
News:
In further signs of crypto adoption among the art world, a leading United States auction house will accept crypto as payment for a series of paintings. A Jean-Michel Basquiat collection is up for auction by Phillips, with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) listed as payment options. The showstopper 16-foot painting, Untitled, 1982, is “estimated in the region of $70 million” (roughly 1650 BTC or 25,513 ETH). It will go under the hammer in New York on May 18th - source
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) director of operations Brantly Millegan has been reinstated at the DAO following a month of debating by the community over controversial comments he made in 2015. According to a snapshot vote by delegate members ended Sunday, Millegan has won the right to retain his seat as head of operations by a margin of 5.88%. The vote to remove Millegan saw 1.4 million votes cast to retain the director versus 1.2 million in favor of his departure - source
SatoshiLabs, maker of Trezor hardware wallets, said it had stopped shipping to Russia immediately after sanctions were imposed. Satoshi Labs is based in the Czech Republic. Trezor sells more than 1 million hardware wallets - source
The leading US-based cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, has decided to block access to more than 25,000 addresses related to Russian individuals who are supposedly engaging in illegal activities. Further, the company has shared these addresses with the US government to “support sanctions enforcement.” - source
Global crypto derivatives and spot trading exchange FTX is expanding to Europe after receiving approval from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). The new venture, called FTX Europe, would offer leading products of the company to the European clients via a licensed investment firm across the European economic area. The new European venture is headquartered in Switzerland along with a regional headquarters in Cyprus. The global crypto exchange currently valued at $32 billion, is looking to expand its scope of services to new regions as well as fund and build nascent crypto ecosystems including such as GameFi and play-to-earn - source
Crypto exchange Binance officially announced on Monday the launch of Bifinity, Binance’s official fiat-to-crypto payment company, to connect crypto service providers with the traditional financial system. Bifinity supports more than 50 cryptocurrencies, including major coins like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), as well as popular payment platforms like Visa, Mastercard and others. The new crypto payment platform specifically allows merchants and businesses to adopt and provide crypto services to their customers via offering buy-and-sell crypto services as well as API crypto payments integrations - source
Wall Street mega-bank JP Morgan has co-developed a private, permissioned version of the ethereum network. Called Quorum, the platform was developed in partnership with ethereum startup EthLab, and it is one of the first projects to come out of a working group within the bank known as the Blockchain Center of Excellence. JP Morgan has no plans to monetize the work, but rather intends for the project to act as a vehicle for connecting with developers in the open-source community. The project could serve as a first step toward building a system that could connect private institutions via distributed networks - source
Publicly traded crypto mining company HIVE Blockchain Technology has signed a deal to buy ASIC chips from semiconductor manufacturer Intel that will be used in their new custom mining devices. HIVE arranged for the new devices to be made by a third-party custom design manufacturer that will integrate the Intel chips into new air-cooled Bitcoin (BTC) mining devices. HIVE expects that the new devices will nearly double its aggregate Bitcoin mining hash rate from 1.9 to 3.8 Exahashes per second (Eh/s). They will begin arriving ready for use starting in the second half of 2022 - source
VanEck, an investment firm with almost $82 billion in assets under management, has submitted an application to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the launch of a new exchange-traded fund that invests in gold mining and Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies. The fund will focus on securities in an index that reflects the performance of gold mining and digital assets mining firms. It would not invest in cryptocurrencies directly or through derivatives. In November, the SEC denied a VanEck ETF that would have bought BTC directly - source
Europe Crypto Regulations Set to Move Forward—Without Bitcoin 'Ban'. The European Parliament's Economics Committee is scheduled to vote on MiCA on March 14. MiCA was delayed to rework language about a potential "ban" on Bitcoin mining and proof-of-work blockchains. What remains of the bill, originally proposed in September 2020, is still a hefty package of regulations covering stablecoins and crypto services - source
Financial services company Santander said it will offer a new type of loan in Argentina, backed by tokens based on agricultural commodities. In a March 7 blog post, the Spanish multinational said it was partnering with startup Agrotoken to offer loans for the agricultural sector. The loans are backed by tokens tied to grains like soy, wheat and corn. Agrotoken offers stablecoins that each represent a ton of stored grain. These include soy (SOYA), corn (CORA) and wheat (WHEA). Each token's value is pegged to the price of each commodity in US dollars - source
The United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, a bureau of the Treasury Department, has warned financial institutions to consider crypto as a possible means Russia may attempt to use to evade sanctions related to the country’s military action in Ukraine. U.S. and EU lawmakers have also been calling attention to the potential of Russia using crypto assets as the country’s options dwindle amid being cut off from SWIFT payments network and its major banks named on sanctions lists - source
Sygnum Singapore, a subsidiary of Switzerland-based cryptocurrency bank Sygnum, is expanding services after securing new regulatory approval from local authorities. The company announced Tuesday that Sygnum Singapore received in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to offer three additional regulated activities under capital markets services (CMS) license. The latest news comes shortly after Sygnum raised $90 million in a Series B funding round valuing the company at $800 million in early January 2022. The raise was led by Hong Kong alternative investing firm Sun Hung Kai & Co. and also included investors like Animoca Brands and Canada’s Meta Investments - source
Chinese police busts illegal crypto mining farm, seizes 190 miners. Guangdong province’s Development and Reform Commission confiscated 190 crypto mining machines estimated to be worth 5 million yuan. The Beijing government issued an outright ban on crypto mining operations throughout the country last year, citing their carbon emission goals and high electricity consumption by the crypto mining operations. The decision led to the majority of mining farms and industrial crypto mining operations to either shut or migrate to other nations - source
The finance ministry of Thailand has reportedly eased up crypto tax regulations to promote investment in the digital asset market. The changes to the tax regulations come just a few weeks after the government scrapped its early plans of introducing a 15% tax on crypto gains. The new tax policy exempts crypto traders from the 7% value-added tax (VAT) on authorized exchanges, reported Reuters. The revised tax policy would also allow traders to offset their annual losses against gains for their crypto investment - source
The Philippines to launch pilot CBDC implementation. Currently, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have caught the eye of various countries, including the Philippines. In a joint event organized by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) — the Philippines’ central bank — and the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, BSP Governer Benjamin Diokno announced the rollout of Project CBDCPh, a pilot implementation of a CBDC for the country. According to Diokno, the project aims to improve “the payment system’s safety, resiliency, and efficiency.” - source
John and Tina Barksdale were charged Tuesday for alleged securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracies to commit both by selling a cryptocurrency called “Ormeus Coin.” According to a release from the Department of Justice, John Barksdale misrepresented that Ormeus Coin secured a $250 million mining operation and accrued more than $5 million in revenue each month, despite the coin never approaching such value. The alleged crimes occurred starting in June 2017, with Ormeus Coin reaching its peak market capitalization of $52 million at around January 2018. The Barksdales allegedly defrauded investors for more than $124 million through Ormeus Coin - source
Crypto.com gives users in excluded countries one week to repay loans. The decision by Crypto.com comes just within a month of BlockFi’s $100 million penalties for its lending products, as many speculate regulatory clampdown could be the potential reason behind the decision. According to the new policy, if users fail to repay their loans by March 15, their collateral will be sold and loan positions will be closed by the exchange - source
Goldman Sachs is connecting clients with Galaxy Digital's Institutional Ethereum Fund, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. An amended Form D filing from Galaxy Digital indicates that Goldman Sachs receives an introduction fee for delivering clients to the Galaxy Institutional Ethereum Fund - source
Blockdaemon, a blockchain infrastructure platform, has announced the acquisition of Gem, a pioneer of crypto onramp technology and digital identity services - source
FTX announced the launch of FTX Access, a platform for institutional investors. FTX Access will initially offer advisory services, index products, trade execution, analytical tools and capital introductions for institutional investors interested in gaining exposure to digital assets. FTX Access will then further explore offering custody, derivatives, structured products and other asset management products - source
The European Commission has said cryptocurrencies are captured by targeted sanctions adopted by the EU in response to the conflict in Ukraine—as well as Belarus’ role in facilitating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Commission’s new measures impose restrictions on 160 individuals, including 14 oligarchs and businesspeople involved in key Russian economic sectors - source
BitMEX co-founder Samuel Reed has pleaded guilty to violating the US Bank Secrecy Act, according to the Department of Justice. Reed "pled guilty today to violating the Bank Secrecy Act (the “BSA”) by willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an anti-money laundering (“AML”) program at BitMEX. Under the terms of his plea agreement, REED agreed to separately pay a $10 million criminal fine representing pecuniary gain derived from the offense," the DOJ said - source
Tracked crypto donations to Ukraine surge to $108M as Kraken, Bored Ape joins in. Two weeks into the Russo-Ukrainian War, donations continue to pour in from generous blockchain enthusiasts worldwide - source
Metaverse:
Yield Guide Games (YGG) has reached a milestone in terms of new scholars for the Axie Infinity platform and various other play-to-earn (P2E) games. Yield Guild Games reported 20,700 unique scholars in February, an increase of 8,500% since the same month last year when there were just 241. The milestone marks a “new record in the play-to-earn space,” said YGG in an announcement shared with Cointelegraph. The play-to-earn scholarships allow new players to borrow a team of Axie nonfungible tokens (NFTs) from the Guild. Their in-game earnings are then split between the player, the community manager and the YGG DAO - source
Digital asset exchange Zipmex has entered into a strategic partnership with Polygon’s gaming arm in an attempt to further the exchange’s metaverse ecosystem across the Asia-Pacific. The Singapore-headquartered exchange, which launched its metaverse Zixel last month, said the partnership with Polygon Studios would help draw in new users as part of its “long-term strategy” for future growth, according to a recent press release. As part of the deal, the Singapore-headquartered firm also said Polygon would be rolling out “new virtual experiences” via its metaverse as well as investing in the exchange’s native token, ZMT - source
NFT fashion hits the runway as designers launch in the Metaverse. Mainstream designers are debuting NFT collections in the Metaverse this year, demonstrating the future of fashion. While the Metaverse may sound futuristic, recent findings from technology research and consulting company Gartner predict that 25% of people will have spent at least one hour per day in the Metaverse by 2026. Gartner vice president Marty Resnick has also predicted that 30% of organizations worldwide will have products and services in the Metaverse by 2026 - source
The Sandbox metaverse announced its partnership with NFT community World of Women, or WoW, to launch the WoW Foundation. A $25 million grant from The Sandbox will help fund the foundation over the next five years. The mission of the WoW foundation is to amplify female representation in the NFT and metaverse spaces. Both The Sandbox and World of Women currently rank within the top 20 collections of all time in terms of trading volume on OpenSea - source
Solana NFT marketplace, Magic Eden has announced a partnership collaboration with popular sporting entertainment platform Overtime to launch an NFT collection proposing to enhance fan engagement and exclusive experiences. The partnership is orientated around the 2022 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, a national college championship conference often referred to as March Madness, and considered one of the largest sporting events in the U.S. assets will be minted on 11th March, and that “extended bracket utility (whether that be access to games, meet and greets, special events and competitions, exclusive content, AMAs and special launches) will be available after the completion of the tournament.” - source
Chevron is Bringing Virtual Renewable Energy to the Metaverse. Branded NFTs + crypto-collectibles, Virtual gas and fuels, Virtual convenience store products, Virtual renewable energy products - source
Pizza take-out chain Papa John's (PZZA) is planning to give away nearly 20,000 non-fungible tokens (NFT) to customers in the U.K., shrugging off a previous warning from the country's advertising regulator about its dalliances in the crypto world. The collection of 19,840 NFTs has been minted on Tezos and takes the form of nine different pizza delivery hot bag designs.The NFTs will be dropped on several dates in early March.This is not Papa John's first foray into the world of crypto and blockchains - source
LimeWire, formerly a peer-to-peer music sharing service, will be relaunched as a music-centric NFT marketplace. The platform is set to launch in May, and plans to release its own token later this year. LimeWire will begin with music NFTs and related collectibles—such as digital artwork and videos—from musicians, but plans to gradually expand beyond that initial theme. The curated platform will also release its own token later this year. The firm has yet to confirm which blockchain network it will use - source
The Crypto.com exchange announced the airdrop of its "The Moment of Truth" nonfungible token (NFT) collection featuring Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James to 5,550 randomly selected viewers of its Super Bowl commercial. Those who found and scanned a hidden QR code that appeared 10 seconds into a conversation between present-day James and his apprehensive teenage self could enter to win a limited edition NFT. The collection consists of instant snapshots of behind-the-scenes moments from the making of the Big Game spot - source
The investment arm of Thailand’s fourth-largest bank by total assets has set up shop within the metaverse built by Animoca Brands’ subsidiary The Sandbox. SCB 10X of the Siam Commercial Bank has become the second major financial institution to establish itself within the virtual world, following JP Morgan’s lounge opening on Decentraland’s platform last month. Visitors will be able to navigate through three separately crafted environments to attend virtual events, join the investment arm’s product demonstrations, share a working space and interact with attendees from around the world - source
Opensea daily volumes dropped from $250M to just around $70M, representing a 72% drop in daily volume from its peak - source
Defi:
According to DeFi Llama data, the TVL of Fantom network dropped by 21.16%, of which Solidly dropped by 44.61% and Solidex dropped by 45.22% following the Andre Cronje news - source
A council formed by traditional finance conglomerates American Express, Discover, Visa and Mastercard welcomes a decentralized finance (DeFi) banking firm to a forum of participating organizations that help to improve payment data security worldwide. Scallop, a regulated DeFi banking app, recently announced its entry to the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). According to the DeFi firm, it will be working with the PCI SSC by assisting in the ongoing development and adoption of the PCI Security Standards - source
Argent, a London-based startup, launched a new crypto wallet that aims to cut down the costs and environmental impact of interacting with DeFi systems. Argent said that more than 500,000 people had signed up to a waitlist to use the layer 2 account built on zkSync, an Ethereum-focused scaling solution. It began giving customers early access to the layer 2 account in October - source
The CVX team had to make a new lock contract due to a newly discovered vulnerability in the existing contract. Millions of tokens that were thought to be locked for up to 4 years are suddenly unlocked - source
According to DeFi sleuth Zachxbt, 31 nonfungible NFT projects may be at risk due to “suspicious code.” In a lengthy Twitter thread published Tuesday, the DeFi detective first raised the issue of NFT project Thestarlab, which was allegedly compromised for 197.175 Ether (ETH), worth $580,325 at the time of publication. Zachxbt quoted fellow blockchain investigator MouseDev, who came to the following conclusion after reviewing the code behind Thestarlab. Based on this information, Zachxbt claimed to have uncovered 31 NFT projects that all contracted the same Fiverr developer to deploy the allegedly problematic smart contract - source
DAOs:
Polychain Leads $6.85M Investment in ‘Curate-to-Earn’ Project. KurateDAO is looking to use “cryptoeconomic games to curate the world’s information.” In the current model of internet databases, there is one moderator who decides what information gets to be published to the database. KurateDAO’s technology provides an infrastructure for content curation, with the process being divvied up into three roles: curators, scouts and viewers. Together, the three roles decide what information is added to the database - source
Raises:
Immutable has raised $200M in a Series C funding round led by Temasek. Investors: Mirae Asset, ParaFi Capital, Animoca Brands, Declaration Partners, Tencent Holdings and others. The NFT startup valued at $2.5 billion - source
Metaverse fashion brand Space Runners has raised $10 million in a seed round co-led by Polychain and Pantera Capital. Space Runners, which launched its first NBA Champions Sneaker Collection with former NBA champions Kyle Kuzma and Nick Young last December, began minting NFTs on the Solana blockchain, but now plans to bring its vision of a “fashion metaverse” to Ethereum and other chains. High fashion and prestigious wearables in the metaverse – an immersive environment composed of virtual worlds, gaming and decentralized commerce – is becoming a big deal, with Ethereum-based Decentraland due to host its first Metaverse Fashion Week later this month. Investors: Accel, Jump Crypto, Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu and Twitch co-founder Justin Kan
Espresso Systems, a scaling and privacy system for Web 3 applications, has raised $32 million in funding led by Greylock Partners and Electric Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital. Other participants in the round included Blockchain Capital and Slow Ventures. Espresso Systems is developing layer 1, or base blockchain, infrastructure to deliver fast, low-fee transactions by integrating a proof-of-stake consensus protocol with a zero-knowledge (zk) rollup mechanism that can bundle multiple transactions in a more resource-efficient way. The company’s Configurable Asset Privacy for Ethereum (CAPE) smart contract application is intended to offer creators customizable privacy regarding sender and receiver addresses and the amount and type of assets held or in movement. The elements can all be set to public, private or only transparent to select parties - source
Griffin Gaming Partners – one of the world’s largest gaming-focused venture funds – has raised $750 million to be focused on the industry, partially including the web 3 / blockchain-based gaming segment. Griffin invests in seed to growth rounds for game content, software infrastructure and social platforms, as well as gaming-related Web 3 companies. The gaming-focused venture fund now has over $1 billion in assets under management, largely focused on web 3 - source
Bain Capital Ventures, one of the world's largest startup-investment firms with $5.1 billion in assets under management, has announced the formation of a new $560 million fund that will focus on crypto-related investments. The fund closed in November and it has already invested $100 million in 12 undisclosed projects. Bain Capital Ventures has a history of investing in the crypto and blockchain sector, having previously backed companies such as BlockFi, Compound, and Digital Currency Group. The most recent fund BCV Fund I is the first of its kind from Bain Capital Ventures, focusing solely on the crypto market - source
Kado, a stablecoin payment infrastructure provider, closed its first capital raise for $5.4 million on Tuesday. The seed round was led by venture fund Hashed with participation from Race Capital, Circle Ventures, Collab+Currency, Republic Capital, PrimeBlock Ventures, 0xVentures, T&G Ventures, Skyvision Capital, Lunatic Capital, Contango Digital, TPS Capital, and a few angel investors including Blockworks Co-founder Jason Yanowitz. The funding will help Kado grow from the Terra ecosystem into other stablecoins, multichain worlds and markets, Andrew said. There is no public valuation at this time - source
WalletConnect, a web3 infrastructure startup that allows users to connect crypto wallets with decentralized applications via QR codes, has raised $11 million in a Series A funding round. Union Square Ventures and 1kx co-led the round, with Coinbase Ventures, Semantic Ventures, Zerion and others participating. WalletConnect is building two new protocols — a direct messaging protocol and a push notification protocol. The messaging protocol will allow all WalletConnect-enabled wallet users to communicate with each other and the push notification protocol will allow users to stay up-to-date with all blockchain activity for DeFi, DAO and NFT applications directly from their wallets - source
Cega Finance (“Cega”), the first decentralized finance (“DeFi”) exotic structured products protocol, announced today that it raised a $4.3M seed round led by Dragonfly Capital Partners with participation from Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research, Solana Ventures and more. Cega is building the next evolution in DeFi derivatives by bringing exotic derivative capabilities to crypto. Cega’s product is a decentralized application built on Solana that combines basic options (e.g. call/put) with advanced options characteristics to create packaged offerings for investors - source
Dallas-based cryptocurrency mining organization – Blockmetrix – disclosed it had raised $43 million in a Series B investment round. Thus, the company’s total venture funding reached $50 million. Blockmetrix intends to use the $43 million investment to secure over 5,000 cryptocurrency mining rigs and expand its endeavors - source
EthSign, a Web3 infrastructure startup, has raised $12 million in a seed funding round and all three units of the Sequoia VC — Sequoia Capital, Sequoia Capital India and Sequoia Capital China. Sequoia Capital India co-led EthSign's seed round along with Mirana Ventures. Other investors in the round included Amber Group, Circle Ventures, NGC Ventures, HashKey Group, and Matrixport. EthSign is an crypted version of DocuSign - source
Singapore-based decentralized finance (DeFi) services firm Cake DeFi announced the launch of a $100 million venture arm dedicated to serving as accelerators for Web3, gaming, nonfungible tokens (NFT) and other crypto initiatives. The newly launched $100 million venture arm, Cake DeFi Ventures (CDV), will fund crypto startups that complement the company’s core business. According to Cake DeFi, the venture firm “will be focused on investing in tech startups across Web3, the metaverse, the NFT space, gaming, esports and fintech spaces.” - source
Swim Protocol, a Solana-based protocol, has raised $4 million in a seed round led by Pantera Capital. Investors: FTX, Alameda Research, Coinbase Ventures, Solana Ventures, Jump Capital, Social Capital, GBV, Bonfida and others - source
Spartan Group — an Asia-based consultancy and venture capital firm — is set to close a new $200 million fund aimed at the metaverse, according to Jason Choi, a general partner at the firm. The new fund, which will close less than a year after Spartan announced its $110 million DeFi fund, will focus on projects building in the metaverse, specifically virtual worlds that support “digital ownership. Building off its experience with Axie Infinity, Spartan Group’s new fund focuses on three different layers of the metaverse: the infrastructure layer, the experience layer, and the ‘value add layer,’ - source
Calendar:
US CPI print - Thursday, 10 March - source
FOMC rate decision meeting - Wednesday, 16 March - source
Avax Summit Conference March 22nd - 27th, 2022 - source
Data:
Bitcoin’s correlation with the S&P 500 and The Nasdaq 100 fell to a two-month low last week. However, the shift lacked conviction as investors continued to rotate towards safety with bond yields falling dramatically, the U.S. Dollar surging and safe-haven gold rallying - source
The Short-Term Holder realized price is currently trading at $46.4k, and thus holds an aggregate unrealized loss of 15%. This metric is a reflection of all coins that were moved within the last 155-days - source
The HODLer Implied Price is currently at break-even ($39.2k), and reflects an estimate of 'fair value'. It is calculated by weighting the standard realized price by the degree of accumulation and HODLing behavior - source
The Realized Price is currently at $24.1k, and is the average price of all coins valued when they were last moved on-chain. Historically, this has been a very sound cycle support level, and suggests that the aggregate market is still holding an unrealized profit of 63% (heavily weighted by longer-term investors with a lower cost basis) - source
New Listings:
The Wasted Lands (WAL) Gets Listed on KuCoin. Deposits Effective Immediately (Supported Network: BEP20). Trading: 10:00 on March 7, 2022 (UTC). Withdrawal: 10:00 on March 10, 2022 (UTC) - source
Binance Futures will launch USDT-margined ANC perpetual contracts with up to 25x leverage at 2022-03-08 03:30 UTC - source
Aergo (AERGO), Aioz Network (AIOZ), Ethernity Chain (ERN), Golem (GLM), Highstreet (HIGH), Status Network (SNT) and Synapse (SYN) are now available on Coinbase and Coinbase Pro. Trading will begin on or after 20:00 UTC on Tuesday March 8, if liquidity conditions are met - source
Bullieverse (BULL) Gets Listed on KuCoin. Deposits Effective Immediately (Supported Network: MATIC) Trading: 13:00 on March 9, 2022 (UTC). Withdrawal: 13:00 on March 12, 2022 (UTC) - source
Disclaimer: not finanshy advice. These are just my thoughts and observations. Use this as an overview of the market sentiment, always do your own research, practice risk management and remember to stay hydrated and touch grass. Crypto is a harsh, cruel, zero sum game. Protect yourself.