Hey, things aren’t looking so hot! Many such cases and the warning signs were there. Markets move up and they move down. I personally don’t see the use in getting worked up by whatever direction the market is moving. Just observe, plan, execute and live with the consequences. Very peaceful and freeing.
Or be a weak creature driven by your emotions. The choice is up to you!
Anyone need a good group to share ideas with and experience the ups and downs of the market together? I’ve got a discord group that I’ve been trying to pull active crypto people into. We need some fresh blood. Only requirement is that you’re willing to be active, contribute, be balls deep into crypto and here to make money. Apes together stronk. DM me on tweeter for an invite link.
- 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. The following is a look at the crypto landscape during the past week covering various sectors. Use these events like clues - let it tell you the larger overarching story of crypto -
Data:
Bitcoin:
The sellers have been selling! We dipped down to $19k. It was a nice echo bubble while it lasted and we had some good opportunities to make money before the rug was pulled out from under us. Makes sense. Risk sentiment has shifted to off mode - too much uncertainty out there and it’s likely to continue for some time. Macro isn’t going to clear up just like that. Best we can do is observe if any more big players will blow up and drag us down as forced sellers. Besides that, get comfy because it will take TIME.
Ethereum:
Et hirium fell to the $1300s. Shame! Then there’s the upcoming Shanghai upgrade which I’m expecting is going to be another sell the news event - similar to Le Merge. It is what it is.
Crypto Market Cap:
$916.98B, down from last week’s $1.028T. Not great! Psychologically, losing $1T looks bad but markets move up and down so it is what it is.
Stablecoin Exchange Reserves:
$23.504B, up from last week’s $22.702B - Curious mini lil bump. Unfortunately not enough to stop the market from nuking. Someone out there is at least hopefully buying discounted coins.
Stablecoin Total Market Cap:
$135.04B, up from last week’s $134.98B. Stablecoin market cap ever so slightly increased.
DeFi TVL:
$44.04B, down from last week’s $48.48B. Where are the DeFi bulls at?
Exchange Volume:
$187.96B for the month of March vs $878.42B total in February. Feels a bit light considering we’re almost mid March.
Dex Volume:
$15.14B for the month of February vs $77.23B total in February. On-chain activity has in general been rather subdued.
Ethereum NFT Volume:
$439.18M for the month of March vs $1.62B total in February. Will we still see continued crazy Blur wash trading? Those airdrops farmers have been busy dumping Blur.
Thoughts/Observations:
Monday:
Bitcoin and ETH coiling in a tight range. $22k and $1500 respectively. More SEC/regulatory FUD. Expectation is sentiment will remain iffy until next FOMC on March 22. Thought: was that all the echo bubble we’re going to get or will we see more fuckery before and after FOMC?
Tuesday:
Market begins sliding and looking iffy. Powell hawkish speech sinks markets lower. Bitcoin and ETH still within $22k and $1500 tho
Wednesday:
Looking rough out there. Bitcoin and ETH struggling and alts looking extra red. Silvergate shutting down sends the market lower. Crypto banking being affected isn’t great. Bitcoin struggling with $21k and ETH low $1500
Thursday:
Red market again. Jeez. Bitcoin $20k support breaks. Eth drops to $1400. Looking real ruff. Now Silicon Valley Bank is looking like it’ll collapse. ETH getting called a security. When it rains, it pours!
Friday:
Bitcoin now officially trading mid $19k and ETH falls to $1300s. Oh how quickly things can change! Quite the rough week for crypto. A lot of factors coalesced to bring brypto down. Stay strong, the sun will shine on us again.
Highlights:
Kucoin sued by New York's Attorney General and alleges ETH is a security
Silvergate Bank will halt operations and undergo liquidation
Crypto VCs urge portfolio companies to pull funds from Silicon Valley Bank
SEC believe Binance.US is operating an unregistered securities exchange
Binance.US to pay $1.3 billion in an agreement to acquire Voyager’s assets
U.S. DOJ appeals New York judge’s decision to approve Voyager’s sale to Binance.US
Coinflex rebranding to Open Exchange (OPNX), 3AC co-founder’s latest crypto venture
Mt. Gox registration and repayment deadlines postponed to April 6
Bankrupt Mt. Gox’s largest creditor, Mt Gox Investment Fund, plans to keep returned Bitcoin
Biden's proposed budget to include closing tax loss harvesting and double capital gains
Singapore police commenced an investigation into Do Kwon's Terraform Labs
Swiss bank Sygnum is seeing an increase client inquiries in light of Silvergate’s troubles
SEC shuts down investment adviser BKCoin Management in $100M crypto fraud scheme
SEC accuses Utah-based Green United of running $18M crypto mining scam
Only nine crypto firms have attained some kind of registration with the SEC
Gemini refutes claim JPMorgan is ending banking relationship
Amazon to launch NFT platform on April 24
Meta is working on a decentralized text-based app codenamed P92
Starbucks first premium NFTs - The Siren Collection: 2,000 NFTs will be sold for $100
Elon Musk has ambitions of making Twitter the world’s biggest financial institution
Kraken plans to launch its own bank despite a challenging regulatory environment
Tether denies WSJ allegations of falsified bank documents
FTX sues Grayscale and DCG, citing exorbitant management fees violated its trust agreements
Bybit introduces Mastercard-powered debit card after halting USD transfers
Circle made the decision to stop processing ACH payments for all of its partner companies
Grayscale appears to win opening salvo in Bitcoin ETF case vs SEC
Jack Dorsey's Block soliciting developer feedback for a bitcoin mining development kit
Scroll, an Ethereum L2 network that uses zk-rollups technology, raised $50M
New Uniswap wallet not available in Apple's App Store
Base integrates Chainlink for off-chain price feeds
10k Yuga Labs Otherdeed NFT holders to participate in 2nd gamified test of Otherside platform
ConsenSys opening its EVM-equivalent zkEVM rollup to public testnet on March 28th
Coinbase introduces Wallet-as-a-Service product to simplify web3 onboarding
Coinbase’s Base will likely feature transaction monitoring and AML measures
Shibarium blockchain to release its beta version for the layer 2 network this week
Binance NFT Marketplace now supports Polygon Network
MakerDAO proposes additional $750M U.S. Treasury purchase
Esports org TSM building its own crypto subnet on Avalanche
Yuga Labs’ TwelveFold Bitcoin NFTs draws criticism for auction model
Immutable reportedly trying to sell a certain amount of its IMX tokens to private investors
There is no Dune Token, there are no plans for a Dune token and there is no Airdrop
Cosmos approved proposal to launch v9-Lambda to establish first version of interchain security
The Sandbox is releasing 2,333 Gordon Ramsay avatars players can use as their digital identity
Crypto News:
Monday:
Silvergate Bank to release nearly $9.9M to BlockFi
Silvergate suspends Silvergate Exchange Network as company reels from crises
Binance recommends P2P as Ukraine suspends hryvnia use on crypto exchanges
Babel Finance plans to introduce a decentralized stablecoin to repay the firm’s creditors
Warner Bros backs Ethereum ecosystem as it migrates Blocklete Golf to ImmutableX
Snoop Dogg revealed as one of the co-founders of Web3-powered live streaming app “Shiller"
Gitcoin co-founder unveils ReFi incubator Supermodular
EOS EVM mainnet is slated for an Apr. 14 release
Multicoin Capital's hedge fund lost 91.4% last year
Decentraland Metaverse Fashion Week ft. Dolce & Gabbana, Tommy Hilfiger, COACH, Adidas
Bybit halts deposits via USD bank transfer, citing partner 'service outages'
U.S. Lawmakers reintroduce bill to force crypto miners to disclose emissions
EU keeps focus on NFTs in latest anti-money laundering bill draft
Coinbase purchases One River Digital in move into asset management business
India explores offline functionality of CBDCs — RBI executive director
Tuesday:
Vitalik Buterin made over 200 ETH from the sale of airdropped shitcoins
Voyager Digital judge won’t let SEC fine crypto advisers over bankruptcy
China to set up new financial regulator in major supervisory overhaul
Crypto banking firm BCB prepares U.S. dollar payments to plug Silvergate gap
TeraWulf Nautilus Cryptomine facility - first nuclear-powered bitcoin mining facility in the U.S
Bank of International Settlements develops cross-border retail CBDC payment system
Brazil's central bank launches experimental CBDC
Australian laws to regulate crypto and protect retail customers delayed until mid-2024
Thailand approved tax waivers for crypto companies that offer investment tokens in the country
Fourth consecutive week of digital asset investment product outflows
Luxury fashion brand Hermès asked a federal court to block NFT sales based on its Birkin bag
Animoca-backed Forkast Labs creates S&P 500 of NFTs index suite
The State Bank of Pakistan commissioned the development of a blockchain-based national eKYC
A online crypto scam in Egypt defrauded thousands of investors of around $620,000
Wednesday:
Binance's PoR system shows over $63B in reserves backing 24 assets
Sui blockchain developer, Mysten Labs, signs deal with Alibaba Cloud
China’s WeChat starts accepting CBDC payments
Coinbase sued by customer refused reimbursement for $96K lost in hack
Nansen launched Query, a product that provides programmable access to blockchain datasets
Crypto.com announced that Apple Pay is now available to all Brazil Crypto.com Visa Card users
Decrypt launched a real-time feed of human and AI-generated breaking news summaries
Getty Images and Candy Digital will sell rare photographs as NFTs
Game development studio LifeForce Games joining the user-generated content trend
Liquid staking protocol Liquid Collective launched on Coinbase Prime and Bitcoin Suisse
Despegar started accepting crypto payments in Argentina in partnership with Binance Pay
India imposed money laundering provisions on the crypto sector - mandatory KYC
AI artist to show NFT collection at Louvre
Sotheby’s and UnicornDAO host International Womens’ Day art auction
Thursday:
FTX reaches $45M deal to sell interest in Sequoia to Abu Dhabi's investment arm
Celsius Network has exclusive right to prepare for exiting bankruptcy until the end of March
Binance may become the first global crypto exchange to enter the Korean compliance market
Planet Hollywood deal with Animoca Brands to launch NFT club in L.A.
Airbit Club founders and executives plead guilty to $100M fraud scheme
BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes proposed Bitcoin-based stablecoin
Voyager agreement to reserve $445M after Alameda suit may decrease customer recoveries
Celsius allocates $25M for withdrawals and burns $500M in WBTC
Germany's finance watchdog hasn’t found any NFTs that can be classified as a security
Gate.io launching Visa crypto debit card in Europe
Bitstamp US partners with Prove Identity to offer document-free, rapid onboarding
Vitalik Buterin donated $15M for research into airborne pathogens
MAYC characters enlisted as villains for Dungeons & Dragons Web3 Game 'The Glimmering'
Immutable makes C-suite hires from Meta, Ava Labs
Bitget became the official sponsor of the Italian Juventus women's football team
UK FCA tightens control on unregistered crypto ATMs
Parataxis Capital new fund with a long/short relative value trading strategy and $25M to $50M
Friday:
FTX proposes $4M employee bonus plan
Justin Sun's two exchanges Huobi and Poloniex officially merged
H&R Block CoinTracker automatically adds taxes for crypto trades
Blockchain.com suspending operations of asset management arm, citing prolonged crypto winter
Whitehat hackers prefer Ethereum followed by Solana, Avalanche, Cosmos and Tezos
BRC-20 meme tokens being minted on Bitcoin via Ordinals
Huobi to discontinue NFT services on May 13
Coinbase introduces new web3 discovery surface
Solidus Labs introduced new Token Sniffer API subscriptions for larger clients
SWIFT to conduct more tests with CBDC
Dune rolling out SQL engine tailored for querying blockchain data
Coin/Project Updates:
Monday:
PancakeSwap V3 upgrade set to go live on BNB Chain in first week of April
v0 of privacypools.com is live on Optimism - sequel to Tornado.Cash
DeFi lending platform Iron Bank urged Alpha Homora to take ownership of its bad debt
Dan Harmon's still-unreleased NFT TV show 'Krapopolis' gets third season
Binance Futures will launch USDⓈ-M PERP perpetual contract
Binance Futures will launch USDⓈ-M TRU perpetual contract
OKXNFT marketplace launched Bitcoin Punks Ordinal NFT collection
Rollkit - The first research integration of Bitcoin as a data availability layer for sovereign rollups
Duality launches Multiplicity - modified Tendermint consensus enabling on-chain MEV capture
Pendle introduces cross-chain veTokenomics
Calimero launches private sharding on Near
Japanese gaming giant, GREE, chose Avalanche to build on for their big push into Web3
More than 100,000 received an airdrop of 34% of the total supply of ZigZag tokens
Manta Network wins Polkadot parachain auction #39
Magna, a token distribution infrastructure platform, is releasing an open-sourced airdrop tool
DeepBook to serve as a foundational liquidity layer on Sui
Wemade's new collateral-backed DeFi service
Introducing LongSwap - TWAMM = Time Weighted Average Market Maker
Solend V2 litepaper
HALO airdrop - tokens released linearly
Waitlist open for Web3Inbox: the messaging app for Web3
Tuesday:
Tender.fi - white hat hacker borrowed $1.59M in assets despite depositing one GMX token
Coinbase adding support for Liquid Staked ETH (LSETH)
VeChain whitepaper 3.0 - outlines new sustainable vision
New release for the Fantom mainnet — go-opera version 1.1.2-rc.5
Athlete NFT platform Blockasset is leaving Solana for Chiliz Chain 2.0
Berachain launches Polaris - enables integration of the EVM into any underlying consensus layer
Guild of Guardians, from Immutable Games Studio, partnership with developer Mineloader
MINA listed on KuCoin
Republic will acquire 10M ASTRA tokens from KYC platform Astra Protocol
Bluesky allows using domain names as handles
Damus Version 1.2.0 released on the App Store
Crypto trading aggregator LI.FI launches token bridge and DEX aggregator
Two new Tarot cores have been deployed on Kava
Lighter live on Arbitrum
Introducing Warlord - the first vote incentives index
The Aleo Faucet is live
Wednesday:
Compound III has been deployed to Polygon
Curve yield farmers deploy $60M on newly launched Conic Finance
Tender.fi hacker returns stolen funds, gets bounty reward
Core mobile has arrived for iOS
Introducing NEAR Mobile Wallet
Axie Infinity Origins Season 3 - Welcome to the Rare Era
ConsenSys 2nd commemorative NFT collection when the upgrade goes live late-March/mid-Apri
Overlay Protocol will open $OVL claim on March 7th
The NFT Gaming Company acquired AI assets of Voxpow to enhance digital gaming platform
Elusiv, now available on Solana
Improve ROOK Token Model proposal
Introducing Gitcoin Staked ETH Index (gtcETH)
EAS is live on Mainnet
Thursday:
DeFi platform Maverick Protocol unveiled its Uniswap rival DEX with Lido integration
Goerli is moving to Shapella
Trader Joe live on BNB Chain & updates to sJOE staking
Lido proposal to sunset on Polkadot and Kusama liquid staking protocols
Balancer proposal to deploy on Avalanche
Cardano’s DeFi TVL touches new all-time high of $341M
Gearbox V3 launching Q2, 2023
Iron Bank unpaused Alpha Homora’s accounts on Optimism, Avalanche and Fantom
NFT collection Quadratic Funding - Vitalik Buterin hand-signed documents
Mirror introduces Subscribe to Mint
Instadapp launches Avocado - next-gen smart contract wallet
Code Canvas will allow creators and collectors to mint and trade generative art NFTs on Solana
Stargate Finance will be delisted by Coinbase ahead of the platform's migration to version 2
Ceramic releases tool that awakens its ‘storage for web3’ protocol
SpiritSwap to introduce concentrated liquidity
Numoen V1.0 live on Celo and Arbitrum
Whitehole Finance testnet is now live
Introducing Polynomial Power Perps (P³)
Introducing Escher, a platform for the fine art edition landscape
Introducing viem – a TypeScript Interface for Ethereum
Friday:
Aave aims to disincentivize borrowing, lending of BUSD stablecoin
MakerDAO founder calls for rebranding of DAI stablecoin
Huobi $100M liquidity fund to protect against precipitous drops of the HT token
Convex expands to Polygon
Aave begins first phase of token recovery rescue mission
Web3 music platform Audius implementing NFT gating feature for exclusive artist access
Binance Futures will launch USDⓈ-M LQTY perpetual contract
Worlds Beyond partners with Mysten Labs to build next-generation virtual experiences on Sui
Digital securities platform DEFYCA releasing tokenized private credit protocol on Avalanche
AI-Powered HUMAN Protocol goes live on the MultiversX mainnet
SushiSwap new rewards program in partnership with popular subreddit r/CryptoCurrency
Hedera blockchain exploited
GQ Magazine NFT drop flops
Security flaw when MPC wallets interact with Starknet-based apps such as dYdX and Fireblocks
Aavegotchi community voting to end two-and-a-half-year contract sale of native GHST token
Bitcoin game developer THNDR Games releasing play-to-earn mobile game Bitcoin Blocks
CryptoGPT, a ZK layer 2 blockchain issuing GPT token
Introducing Merkl, a new paradigm to incentivize liquidity in concentrated liquidity AMMs
Buffer Finance binary options live on Polygon
Sodium, the first Hybrid Liquidity lending protocol, is live
Kaustinen testnet is live - verkle testnet
Taiko roadmap
SelfKey’s DAO releases whitepaper
Fundraises:
Monday:
Digital asset exchange DigiFT raised $10.5M Pre-Series A
TokenPocket strategic investment in Litra Finance
Tuesday:
Scroll, an Ethereum L2 network that uses zk-rollups technology, raised $50M
Launchpad-powered NFT trading platform Coresky raised $6M
Non-custodial bitcoin platform Relai raised $4.5M at $20M valuation
Tensor raised $3M for Solana-focused NFT trading platform
Wednesday:
Believer, a new approach to gaming, raised $55M from Lightspeed, A16Z,
Kresus, a web3 superapp for the everyday consumer, raised $25M
Redemption Games raised $7M as an independent studio after AppLovin spinoff
On-chain messaging app, OpenChat, raised 5.5M in a community-driven crowdfunding sale
TON fundraising platform Tonstarter raised $1.5M in a seed funding round
Startup nealthy raised $1.3M in pre-seed to simplify NFT and crypto investing
Over-C raised £1M to build insurance industry-focused blockchain-based risk solutions
Divly raised $400K to make crypto taxes easier
BitValue investment in Spield Algorithm
Moonrock Capital strategic investment in Octo Gaming
Thursday:
Alpha Sigma and Transform Ventures partner on new $100M crypto-focused funds
Matchday, a soccer-centric Web3 gaming startup, raised $21M in seed funding - Lionel Messi
Vantage raised $21M Series A to help companies manage and optimize cloud infrastructure costs
Crypto payroll startup Toku raised $20M led by Blockchain Capital
Web3 developer tools provider Cubist raised $7M in seed funding led by Polychain Capital
Layer 1 blockchain Shardeum raising $5M in a strategic round at a $250M token valuation
Web3 email solution EtherMail raised $4M from veteran venture investor Tim Draper
Friday:
Proven, working on zk proof of solvency raised $15.8M round led by Framework Ventures
Violet launched Mauve DEX and raised $15M backed by Coinbase Ventures & Brevan Howard
Web3 art platform Wild raised $7M seed funding led by Matrix Partners
Stablecoin designer Gyroscope raised $4.5M in seed funding co-led by Placeholder and Galaxy
Stablecoin issuer ECSA raised $3M pre-seed funding. Y Combinator and Arca participated
Research/Reads:
Ordinals could reach a $5B market cap by 2025 | Bitcoin Inscriptions & Ordinals - source
Create an optimal and attractive exchange that shares the Real Yield from several sources | How to gamify an exchange? - source
WuBlockchain | The Death Spiral and Way out of Silvergate Bank - source
Aims to reassure dapps, DAs, sidechains, bridges and chains alike | Summary of EigenLayer’s Whitepaper - source
An order-of-magnitude improvement wrt the usability of Ethereum | All about ERC-4337 - source
To create the decentralized web stack we need to scale without sacrificing security or decentralization | Karl Floersch's technical deep-dive on Superchain - source
Demystifying SNARK Jargon | zk-SNARK Concepts Explained Like You’re 15 - source
Stride, Lido, pStake and Quicksilver | Overview and Comparison of Cosmos Liquid Staking - source
Route 2 FI | How to survive in crypto long-term (without getting lucky) - source
Curve Wars intro | Introduction to the Principles and Architecture of Curve Stablecoin - source
Abundance of dry powder isn’t necessarily a cause for celebration | Crypto startups, beware the 'dry powder fallacy' - source
Nigerians are protesting CBDC and demanding renewed access to paper money, despite government incentives | Nigerians’ Rejection of Their CBDC Is a Cautionary Tale for Other Countries - source
Kaiko Data Debrief | The Future of Fiat On-Ramps - source
What do you as a portfolio manager do when stocks and other risk assets are dead? | The Big Gamble - source
Potential risks associated with nuclear energy may take a backseat to the capabilities of nuclear energy | Can nuclear energy bitcoin mining be a sustainable path? - source
A Story About How Banks Get Rekt | Silvergate Capital: What the Hell Happened? - source
Ava Labs CEO | AI Still Has a Lot to Learn—and Unlearn - source
Applications like Ordinals are the next on-ramp for Bitcoin adoption | Why Yuga Lab's Embrace of Bitcoin NFTs Is a Big Deal - source
New Order DAO | 2023 Crypto Thesis - source
Tradeoff between latency and reversion risk at the major stages in Ethereum’s current proof-of-stake consensus protocol | Bridging and Finality: Ethereum - source
Don’t Fund Long-duration Assets with Fickle Crypto Deposits | Silvergate Capital: Fall from Grace - source
A Step-by-Step Timeline | The History of Bitcoin NFTs - source
50% or even 100% + in annualized returns without directional market exposure? | Can you run a profitable delta-neutral strategy fully on-chain using perpetuals? - source
DeSci - permissionless capital formation for scientific research | The Future Of Medicine Is Tokens - source
Overview of blockchain nodes | Light nodes and their benefits - source
Demand and global adoption | Price, Not Intrinsic Value, Is the True Measure of Bitcoin’s Success - source
Opportunity for stablecoins and other financial-services providers | 4 Potential Winners of the Silvergate Unwind - source
Speech | Supporting Innovation with Guardrails: The Federal Reserve’s Approach to Supervision and Regulation of Banks’ Crypto-related Activities - source
Twitter:
Arkham Intelligence on GETH - source
Malicious contract explained - source
How to tell which presales will be successful on launch - source
Mt. Gox repayments and the effect on the market - source
Crypto catalysts to look out for in the month of March - source
a16z- & Peter Thiel-backed Eco lied, said it earned yield from "Goldman and Fidelity" - source
More airdrops - source
4 Trends of Liquid Staking - source
zkEVM refresher - source
FTX balance sheet - ~$5.5B 'liquid' assets & ~$11.5B customer liabilities - source
Kyle, founder of 3AC, said that OPNX will acquire all assets of CoinFLEX - source
Out of 100's of DeFi protocols/chains, only very few are profitable - source
Considerations for Mt. Gox creditors - source
Target 1% of 99% of transaction volume or 99% of 1% of transaction volume? - source
Latest on crypto in Hong Kong - source
49k BTC ($1B) from wallets related to US Government law enforcement seizures have been transferred to Coinbase - source
It's unlikely a Fed pivot is in the cards - source
General landscape of NFTFi - source
Hedera exploit - source
Arthur Hayes - "Dust on Crust" - how we create a crypto native solution to our current USD problems - source
Coinbase "Wallet as a Service” potential to bend the curve of global crypto adoption - source
ERC-4337 improvemes usability of Ethereum - source
5 reasons why young people should work in crypto - source
Silicon Valley Bank trouble - source
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