Stacked Insights Newsletter, 06.25.21
💂♂️ Binance banned in UK
🐂 Bulls pushing a swift recovery
🤔 What's up with the Internet Computer?
🇬🇧 Binance banned by UK, warned in Canada & Japan 🇬🇧
Binance got pummeled by regulators over the weekend.
In the UK, Binance is now banned after regulators with the Financial Conduct Authority deemed it "not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK."
The ban is yet another serious blow to Binance's global expansion efforts after the exchange was similarly forced to withdraw from the province of Ontario, Canada.
In that instance, Canadian regulators declared Binance in violation of regional securities laws. Binance then took the preemptive step of closing up shop in the region rather than enter a protracted legal battle to keep serving Ontario residents.
Similarly, Japanese financial authorities warned Binance that it's skirting local regulations by serving Japanese residents.
If the sudden glut of crypto exchange vs. lawmakers has you worried for the future of digital assets, remember that this confrontation has been years in the making.
13 years to be exact, if you go from the year Bitcoin's whitepaper appeared. Regulators are scared by the prospect of assets _they can't control__. Similar regulatory showdowns occurred during the dot com boom.
These crackdowns aren't the first, won't be the last, and are just a bump in the road toward the global ubiquity of crypto 🌎
🧲 Bulls take aim at $40K🧲
After weeks of truly bullish dumping, BTC's plunge below $30K might have finally satisfied the bear gods.
BTC made two runs over the $35K mark before backing off slightly each time. Right now, we're hovering in the $34K region without much drama.
To be clear, Bitcoin is worth $34K y'all. That's WILD — and don't you let pessimistic bears tell you otherwise. Remember that only a year ago we were all stoked about $9K...
But we also know that $35K isn't BTC end game. In the near term, $40K is the obvious resistance both technically and psychologically.
IF bulls push BTC back above weekly resistance, $46K is next before the airy heights of $60K. This scenario is all contingent on the strength of a potential move above $40K, but should bulls get through with gusto, a full-blow reversal is __finally_ on our hands.
🤷 WTF happened to Internet Computer ($ICP)?🤷
Internet Computer, perhaps better known as Dfinity, debuted in the top ten crypto projects with little warning.
Crypto Twitter immediately lit up with Insane Clown Posse memes as they wondered what ICP was and how it had accrued so much value seemingly overnight.
Dfinity started as an alternative to Ethereum in 2016 when it received significant backing from top-tier venture capitalists to the tune of $160+ million.
The project's product, Internet Computer, is an internet-scale-and-speed decentralized blockchain infrastructure intended to replace entire stacks of intermediaries between people and the web, such as AWS.
After building hype over the years, Dfinity rewarded early supporters with a locked airdrop of ICP tokens vested over a year. After ICP started trading, tokens reached as high as $3K before the harsh market downturn began in May.
It's true that the entire market has sharply corrected, but no one has about-faced harder than ICP. The token is down over 95% from the highs, touching as low as $27 over the weekend.
Why is $ICP being dumped so hard? The easy answer is — maybe people just don't understand it. Or perhaps it was a new token that entered the market at the wrong time.
Blockchain analysts have dug up evidence that there's more at play. It appears insider wallets transferred large amounts of ICP to exchanges before dumping them for between $2—$6 billion🙀
Right now, Dfinity is in damage control mode as the project attempts to clear its name and ward off any speculation of early investors dumping on retail.
💂♂️ Binance banned in UK
🐂 Bulls pushing a swift recovery
🤔 What's up with the Internet Computer?
🇬🇧 Binance banned by UK, warned in Canada & Japan 🇬🇧
Binance got pummeled by regulators over the weekend.
In the UK, Binance is now banned after regulators with the Financial Conduct Authority deemed it "not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK."
The ban is yet another serious blow to Binance's global expansion efforts after the exchange was similarly forced to withdraw from the province of Ontario, Canada.
In that instance, Canadian regulators declared Binance in violation of regional securities laws. Binance then took the preemptive step of closing up shop in the region rather than enter a protracted legal battle to keep serving Ontario residents.
Similarly, Japanese financial authorities warned Binance that it's skirting local regulations by serving Japanese residents.
If the sudden glut of crypto exchange vs. lawmakers has you worried for the future of digital assets, remember that this confrontation has been years in the making.
13 years to be exact, if you go from the year Bitcoin's whitepaper appeared. Regulators are scared by the prospect of assets _they can't control__. Similar regulatory showdowns occurred during the dot com boom.
These crackdowns aren't the first, won't be the last, and are just a bump in the road toward the global ubiquity of crypto 🌎
🧲 Bulls take aim at $40K🧲
After weeks of truly bullish dumping, BTC's plunge below $30K might have finally satisfied the bear gods.
BTC made two runs over the $35K mark before backing off slightly each time. Right now, we're hovering in the $34K region without much drama.
To be clear, Bitcoin is worth $34K y'all. That's WILD — and don't you let pessimistic bears tell you otherwise. Remember that only a year ago we were all stoked about $9K...
But we also know that $35K isn't BTC end game. In the near term, $40K is the obvious resistance both technically and psychologically.
IF bulls push BTC back above weekly resistance, $46K is next before the airy heights of $60K. This scenario is all contingent on the strength of a potential move above $40K, but should bulls get through with gusto, a full-blow reversal is __finally_ on our hands.
🤷 WTF happened to Internet Computer ($ICP)?🤷
Internet Computer, perhaps better known as Dfinity, debuted in the top ten crypto projects with little warning.
Crypto Twitter immediately lit up with Insane Clown Posse memes as they wondered what ICP was and how it had accrued so much value seemingly overnight.
Dfinity started as an alternative to Ethereum in 2016 when it received significant backing from top-tier venture capitalists to the tune of $160+ million.
The project's product, Internet Computer, is an internet-scale-and-speed decentralized blockchain infrastructure intended to replace entire stacks of intermediaries between people and the web, such as AWS.
After building hype over the years, Dfinity rewarded early supporters with a locked airdrop of ICP tokens vested over a year. After ICP started trading, tokens reached as high as $3K before the harsh market downturn began in May.
It's true that the entire market has sharply corrected, but no one has about-faced harder than ICP. The token is down over 95% from the highs, touching as low as $27 over the weekend.
Why is $ICP being dumped so hard? The easy answer is — maybe people just don't understand it. Or perhaps it was a new token that entered the market at the wrong time.
Blockchain analysts have dug up evidence that there's more at play. It appears insider wallets transferred large amounts of ICP to exchanges before dumping them for between $2—$6 billion🙀
Right now, Dfinity is in damage control mode as the project attempts to clear its name and ward off any speculation of early investors dumping on retail.
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 06.29.21
🏈 Tom Brady teams up with FTX Exchange
🏎 Crypto.com is sponsoring Formula 1
🏄♂️ How to ride market trends
📸 Tom Brady becomes FTX equity stakeholder 📸
Who dares call this a bear market?
In yet another incredible twist, crypto now counts Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen as ambassadors after the couple inked a partnership with FTX Exchange.
The deal sees Brady become the face of FTX Exchange while Bundchen, his wife, will lead FTX in bettering its environmental + social practices.
As payment, the couple opted to receive equity stakes in FTX payment, signaling their belief in the long-term prospects of crypto adoption.
The marquee deal brings the total FTX has recently spent amassing highly visible sports deals to $350 million. Now, FTX counts the MLB, Miami Heat, Tom Brady, and Trevor Lawrence as partners in ever-widening marketing campaign.
Our only question is who's next? 🔥
🏎 Crypto.com is sponsoring Formula 1 🏎
This is what you want to see during a downturn.
While retail traders bemoan their losses from the highs, crypto projects soldier on, keep building, and ink the wildest partnership deals imaginable.
FTX has been on a tear with its ultra high profile deals, but what about this massive move from Crypto.com? The eponymous exchange/wallet/crypto hub just became a title sponsor for none other than Formula 1.
Yeah. Let that sink in a minute 🤯
Starting now, the Crypto.com logo will feature on the Aston Martin team car, so look out for it at the next Grand Prix events.
The deal — valued at $100 million — makes Crypto.com the official Formula 1 cryptocurrency & NFT sponsor. As F1 rolls out NFT prizes for racers and fans alike, you can expect some form of integration with the Crypto.com ecosystem.
Bullish quote of the day? Look no further than this gem from F1 comms director Ben Pincus:
"We will rely heavily on Crypto.com’s expertise as we explore the world of cryptocurrency, an area we are very interested in.."🚀
🌊 How to make the trend your friend 🌊
The market can flip from über bull to hopelessly bear within the blink of an eye — especially if you watch on a short timeframe.
Keeping up with by-the-minute changes makes it incredibly difficult to sniff out market trends unless:
👨💻 You're a quant trader ala Sam Bankman-Fried
😏 You automate trades using Stacked Trading Bots
No disrespect to SBF, but Stacked bots shortcut the route to repeatable success by tapping into the minds of the best crypto strategists around.
All you have to do is create a Stacked account (ahem...for FREE), then swing over to the Marketplace.
Once there, a treasure trove of automated trading strategies awaits you. Curious about the potential returns? Check the 12 month performances below...
🤪 Psycho Bot, +1192%
👑 Trend King, +1169%
🗡 Samurai Scalp, +199%
No matter your timeframe, there's a Stacked Trading Bot tuned and ready to go. All you need to do is get plugged in — but that's the easy part.
Head over to 👉 Stackedinvest.com👈 and get a FREE account.
🏈 Tom Brady teams up with FTX Exchange
🏎 Crypto.com is sponsoring Formula 1
🏄♂️ How to ride market trends
📸 Tom Brady becomes FTX equity stakeholder 📸
Who dares call this a bear market?
In yet another incredible twist, crypto now counts Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen as ambassadors after the couple inked a partnership with FTX Exchange.
The deal sees Brady become the face of FTX Exchange while Bundchen, his wife, will lead FTX in bettering its environmental + social practices.
As payment, the couple opted to receive equity stakes in FTX payment, signaling their belief in the long-term prospects of crypto adoption.
The marquee deal brings the total FTX has recently spent amassing highly visible sports deals to $350 million. Now, FTX counts the MLB, Miami Heat, Tom Brady, and Trevor Lawrence as partners in ever-widening marketing campaign.
Our only question is who's next? 🔥
🏎 Crypto.com is sponsoring Formula 1 🏎
This is what you want to see during a downturn.
While retail traders bemoan their losses from the highs, crypto projects soldier on, keep building, and ink the wildest partnership deals imaginable.
FTX has been on a tear with its ultra high profile deals, but what about this massive move from Crypto.com? The eponymous exchange/wallet/crypto hub just became a title sponsor for none other than Formula 1.
Yeah. Let that sink in a minute 🤯
Starting now, the Crypto.com logo will feature on the Aston Martin team car, so look out for it at the next Grand Prix events.
The deal — valued at $100 million — makes Crypto.com the official Formula 1 cryptocurrency & NFT sponsor. As F1 rolls out NFT prizes for racers and fans alike, you can expect some form of integration with the Crypto.com ecosystem.
Bullish quote of the day? Look no further than this gem from F1 comms director Ben Pincus:
"We will rely heavily on Crypto.com’s expertise as we explore the world of cryptocurrency, an area we are very interested in.."🚀
🌊 How to make the trend your friend 🌊
The market can flip from über bull to hopelessly bear within the blink of an eye — especially if you watch on a short timeframe.
Keeping up with by-the-minute changes makes it incredibly difficult to sniff out market trends unless:
👨💻 You're a quant trader ala Sam Bankman-Fried
😏 You automate trades using Stacked Trading Bots
No disrespect to SBF, but Stacked bots shortcut the route to repeatable success by tapping into the minds of the best crypto strategists around.
All you have to do is create a Stacked account (ahem...for FREE), then swing over to the Marketplace.
Once there, a treasure trove of automated trading strategies awaits you. Curious about the potential returns? Check the 12 month performances below...
🤪 Psycho Bot, +1192%
👑 Trend King, +1169%
🗡 Samurai Scalp, +199%
No matter your timeframe, there's a Stacked Trading Bot tuned and ready to go. All you need to do is get plugged in — but that's the easy part.
Head over to 👉 Stackedinvest.com👈 and get a FREE account.
Crypto.com Nederland: Veilig Bitcoin, Ethereum en meer dan 400 cryptovaluta kopen, verkopen en verhandelen
Koop, verkoop, bewaar en verhandel meer dan 400+ cryptovaluta op Crypto.com, een veilig en vertrouwd handelsplatform in Nederland.
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 07.02.21
🏦 George Soros is trading BTC
🤷 CeDeFi vs DeFi: Who has better yields?
😂 Congressman calls for blockchain 'backdoor'
🤴🏻 Billionaire George Soros fund is bullish on crypto🤴🏻
Add George Soros to the list of billionaires bullish on Bitcoin + crypto assets as a whole.
The famed investor built his epic fortune on ahead-of-the-curve gambles, including a legendary GBP short sale in 1992 that won him $1 billion overnight.
Now, the George Soros' personal investment fund is allocating resources to trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Here's the crux of the matter — nobody knows how the Soros Fund intends to trade BTC. So yeah, it's great they're getting in, but not if they're going to dump on us 😂
There's one big reason he isn't going to pull a repeat of his epic '92 short sale. Soros has donated over $32 billion to progressive causes throughout his life.
Combating wealth inequality is amongst his favorite causes. That's why his Robinhood approach of shorting bankers, then donating the money has made him the ire of financial elites.
It's likely he views BTC and other cryptocurrencies as a way to finally tackle — and even topple — the traditional financial institutions he's railed against for decades.
In any case, Soros' name is the latest in a long line of über wealthy folks dipping their toes in crypto. Recently, Ray Dalio, Carl Icahn, Ricardo Pliego, Mark Cuban, and...Elon Musk...have embraced Bitcoin.
🤔 Why are CeDeFi yields outperforming DeFi? 🤔
The days of high-flying DeFi yields seem to have dried up for now.
Whether you check out markets on Compound, Aave, or Curve, yields for popular stablecoins USDT, USDC, DAI, and GUSD are all returning between 1-2%.
For much of last year and 2021, those same platforms sometimes posted APY as high as 22% for stables.
But because DeFi platforms require supply to be utilized to offer higher yields, the current downtrend is making less people trade and, therefore, utilize less.
So, in a nutshell, less pool utilization = less returns for yield farmers 👩🌾
CeDeFi (centralized DeFi) platforms like Celsius, Coinbase, BlockFi, and Nexo have no such problem. They all offer fixed rate APY on stables ranging from 4% to as high as 10% depending on the asset.
Even though such yields are nowhere near what DeFi offered for so long, their consistency despite the bear-vibes market is tough to beat. How are they managing to outperform DeFi right now?
Both retail and institutional borrowers utilize CeDeFi platforms at higher rates than they do DeFi.
If you're searching for a reason, look no further than security. Nexo, Gemini, Coinbase, BlockFi, and Celsius accounts are all insured for millions of dollars. This extra peace of mind goes a long way when DeFi hacks happen daily.
However, DeFi platforms like Compound aren't taking the challenge posed by CeDeFi lightly. The protocol just announced Compound Treasury, a program for institutions to deposit USD stablecoins and receive a fixed 4% return.
🙄 Blockchain caucus chair says crypto needs a 'backdoor'🙄
You would think the co-chair of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, a government group dedicated to understanding & expanding the development of blockchain tech, would be...smarter than this.
But apparently not. Bill Foster, a US rep from Illinois, said yesterday that blockchains need a 'crypto backdoor' that third parties, like courts, have access to.
The purpose of such a backdoor would be to retrieve crypto ransomware funds, unmask anonymous criminals using crypto, and reverse transactions due to fraud or user error.
To the last point, Foster believes a majority of people would want a way to reverse or recover transactions before holding significant funds on blockchains.
"I think for most people...they’re going to want to have that security blanket of a trusted third party."
🏦 George Soros is trading BTC
🤷 CeDeFi vs DeFi: Who has better yields?
😂 Congressman calls for blockchain 'backdoor'
🤴🏻 Billionaire George Soros fund is bullish on crypto🤴🏻
Add George Soros to the list of billionaires bullish on Bitcoin + crypto assets as a whole.
The famed investor built his epic fortune on ahead-of-the-curve gambles, including a legendary GBP short sale in 1992 that won him $1 billion overnight.
Now, the George Soros' personal investment fund is allocating resources to trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Here's the crux of the matter — nobody knows how the Soros Fund intends to trade BTC. So yeah, it's great they're getting in, but not if they're going to dump on us 😂
There's one big reason he isn't going to pull a repeat of his epic '92 short sale. Soros has donated over $32 billion to progressive causes throughout his life.
Combating wealth inequality is amongst his favorite causes. That's why his Robinhood approach of shorting bankers, then donating the money has made him the ire of financial elites.
It's likely he views BTC and other cryptocurrencies as a way to finally tackle — and even topple — the traditional financial institutions he's railed against for decades.
In any case, Soros' name is the latest in a long line of über wealthy folks dipping their toes in crypto. Recently, Ray Dalio, Carl Icahn, Ricardo Pliego, Mark Cuban, and...Elon Musk...have embraced Bitcoin.
🤔 Why are CeDeFi yields outperforming DeFi? 🤔
The days of high-flying DeFi yields seem to have dried up for now.
Whether you check out markets on Compound, Aave, or Curve, yields for popular stablecoins USDT, USDC, DAI, and GUSD are all returning between 1-2%.
For much of last year and 2021, those same platforms sometimes posted APY as high as 22% for stables.
But because DeFi platforms require supply to be utilized to offer higher yields, the current downtrend is making less people trade and, therefore, utilize less.
So, in a nutshell, less pool utilization = less returns for yield farmers 👩🌾
CeDeFi (centralized DeFi) platforms like Celsius, Coinbase, BlockFi, and Nexo have no such problem. They all offer fixed rate APY on stables ranging from 4% to as high as 10% depending on the asset.
Even though such yields are nowhere near what DeFi offered for so long, their consistency despite the bear-vibes market is tough to beat. How are they managing to outperform DeFi right now?
Both retail and institutional borrowers utilize CeDeFi platforms at higher rates than they do DeFi.
If you're searching for a reason, look no further than security. Nexo, Gemini, Coinbase, BlockFi, and Celsius accounts are all insured for millions of dollars. This extra peace of mind goes a long way when DeFi hacks happen daily.
However, DeFi platforms like Compound aren't taking the challenge posed by CeDeFi lightly. The protocol just announced Compound Treasury, a program for institutions to deposit USD stablecoins and receive a fixed 4% return.
🙄 Blockchain caucus chair says crypto needs a 'backdoor'🙄
You would think the co-chair of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, a government group dedicated to understanding & expanding the development of blockchain tech, would be...smarter than this.
But apparently not. Bill Foster, a US rep from Illinois, said yesterday that blockchains need a 'crypto backdoor' that third parties, like courts, have access to.
The purpose of such a backdoor would be to retrieve crypto ransomware funds, unmask anonymous criminals using crypto, and reverse transactions due to fraud or user error.
To the last point, Foster believes a majority of people would want a way to reverse or recover transactions before holding significant funds on blockchains.
"I think for most people...they’re going to want to have that security blanket of a trusted third party."
Looks like the Congressional Blockchain Caucus has a lot more studying on their hands before grasping the thing about third parties and blockchains 😉
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 07.21.21
🚀 Elon says SpaceX owns BTC
🏦 FTX raises $900m in funding round
🎨 OpenSea NFT platform snags $100m
🏟 Elon says SpaceX holds BTC & more at B Word Conference🏟
The Bitcoin-focused B Word Conference quickly gained hype in recent days as Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, and Cathie Wood all signed on as speakers.
Aimed at clarifying what Bitcoin is and how institutions benefit from holding BTC, the livestream crypto markets higher owing mostly to über-bullish statements by Musk.
At one point, Elon reconfirmed his holdings in BTC and DOGE but surprised the world when he admitted to owning ETH as well. Moments later, he outdid himself by confirming both Tesla AND SpaceX hold BTC.
If that wasn't enough, he also hinted that Tesla might resume BTC payments in light of Bitcoin miners hitting his 50% renewable energy mark.
"I want to do a little more diligence to confirm that the percentage of renewable energy usage is most likely at or above 50% and that there is a trend towards increasing that number. If so, Tesla will resume accepting Bitcoin.” ♻️
💪 FTX valued at $18 billion after largest raise in crypto history 💪
Say it's a bear market one more time, we dare you.
FTX Exchange just closed a historic $900 million fundraising round that values it at a whopping $18 billion.
The amount is 3x what Solana, Ledger, and Dapper Labs managed to come up with, signaling there's no shortage of institutional cash coming to crypto.
If you've seen the incredible pictures of FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried at his Hong Kong command station with 6 screens, endless snacks, and bean bags for stealing naps, you know he's been grinding for years.
Nothing summarizes getting at it quite like 24/7 commitment, and for SBF, all that hard work has come home to roost. Softbank, Paul Tudor Jones, and Sequoia Capital are just some of the notable names backing the exchange's bid to rival Coinbase.
👩🎨 OpenSea lands $100M funding to take NFTs mainstream👩🎨
Speaking of historic cash raises, NFT platform OpenSea just closed a $100 million funding round valuing it at $1.5 billion. The round comes hot on the heels of several outsized institutional investments into the crypto space.
Just in case you missed the action over the last 6 months, non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, have quite literally taken the world by storm. Damien Hirst, the closest living artist we have in stature to Dalí, said NFTs are "like the invention of paper."
The sports and gaming industries are especially into NFTs because of how they enable interactive digital merchandise markets. Polygon's Sandeep Nailwal believes NFTs in gaming will soon eclipse the film industry, the NBA, and other cash-infused industries COMBINED.
Think about that...
So it's no wonder Kevin Durant, Ashton Kutcher, Andreesen Horowitz, and Creative Artists Agency are all backing OpenSea's bid to make NFTs the blockchain gateway to the masses 🔰
🚀 Elon says SpaceX owns BTC
🏦 FTX raises $900m in funding round
🎨 OpenSea NFT platform snags $100m
🏟 Elon says SpaceX holds BTC & more at B Word Conference🏟
The Bitcoin-focused B Word Conference quickly gained hype in recent days as Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, and Cathie Wood all signed on as speakers.
Aimed at clarifying what Bitcoin is and how institutions benefit from holding BTC, the livestream crypto markets higher owing mostly to über-bullish statements by Musk.
At one point, Elon reconfirmed his holdings in BTC and DOGE but surprised the world when he admitted to owning ETH as well. Moments later, he outdid himself by confirming both Tesla AND SpaceX hold BTC.
If that wasn't enough, he also hinted that Tesla might resume BTC payments in light of Bitcoin miners hitting his 50% renewable energy mark.
"I want to do a little more diligence to confirm that the percentage of renewable energy usage is most likely at or above 50% and that there is a trend towards increasing that number. If so, Tesla will resume accepting Bitcoin.” ♻️
💪 FTX valued at $18 billion after largest raise in crypto history 💪
Say it's a bear market one more time, we dare you.
FTX Exchange just closed a historic $900 million fundraising round that values it at a whopping $18 billion.
The amount is 3x what Solana, Ledger, and Dapper Labs managed to come up with, signaling there's no shortage of institutional cash coming to crypto.
If you've seen the incredible pictures of FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried at his Hong Kong command station with 6 screens, endless snacks, and bean bags for stealing naps, you know he's been grinding for years.
Nothing summarizes getting at it quite like 24/7 commitment, and for SBF, all that hard work has come home to roost. Softbank, Paul Tudor Jones, and Sequoia Capital are just some of the notable names backing the exchange's bid to rival Coinbase.
👩🎨 OpenSea lands $100M funding to take NFTs mainstream👩🎨
Speaking of historic cash raises, NFT platform OpenSea just closed a $100 million funding round valuing it at $1.5 billion. The round comes hot on the heels of several outsized institutional investments into the crypto space.
Just in case you missed the action over the last 6 months, non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, have quite literally taken the world by storm. Damien Hirst, the closest living artist we have in stature to Dalí, said NFTs are "like the invention of paper."
The sports and gaming industries are especially into NFTs because of how they enable interactive digital merchandise markets. Polygon's Sandeep Nailwal believes NFTs in gaming will soon eclipse the film industry, the NBA, and other cash-infused industries COMBINED.
Think about that...
So it's no wonder Kevin Durant, Ashton Kutcher, Andreesen Horowitz, and Creative Artists Agency are all backing OpenSea's bid to make NFTs the blockchain gateway to the masses 🔰
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 07.26.21
☄️ Short squeeze launches BTC to $48K
🤤 Amazon poised to accept Bitcoin payments?
👮♀️ Tether execs face criminal investigation
🚀 Bitcoin hits $48K during epic short squeeze 🚀
Wow, just...much wow.
You literally can't EVER write off Bitcoin. Case in point, BTC just giga pumped from $29K to $48K on near record volume.
A move of this magnitude brings speculators out of the woodwork, all of them giving reasons why the pump happened. Forget all the conspiracy theories — this pump has a simple explanation.
It was a short squeeze, plain and simple.
Willy Woo and Crypto Quant absolutely nailed it by calling out the short squeeze set up as far back as July 23.
The TLDR version of what happened is:
👉 BTC on-chain metrics showed an inbound supply shock (not enough BTC on exchanges to meet demand)
👉 RSI breakout on the daily chart
These co-factors led to an explosive move up as thousands of short positions were eviscerated, creating an epic ride to the moon fueled by the tears of liquidated bears 🎯
❓ Is Amazon about to start accepting Bitcoin payments❓
Just in time for the short squeeze-induced fireworks was a report by City AM, a little-known publication, that Amazon is ready to accept BTC this year.
The report cited an insider at Amazon who stated the company has been quietly adding to its blockchain & digital currency strategy with plans to add BTC payments.
It's likely the report added extra thrust to Bitcoin's largest price swing in months. However, with the 'insider' being unverified, and City AM providing no additional evidence or details, the veracity of the report was instantly in doubt.
Further complicating the matter is Amazon's swift denial of the insider's comments in a follow-up by Reuters. While Amazon's spokesperson said the report was untrue, they signaled the company's stake in crypto by stating:
"Notwithstanding our interest in the space, the speculation that has ensued around our specific plans for cryptocurrencies is not true."
So, whichever way you look at this so-called insider's insights and Amazon's rebuttal, it looks pretty good for Amazon + cryptocurrency in the near future🔮
⚖️ Tether executives can't catch a break ⚖️
Tether catches an insane amount of heat from regulators.
That shouldn't surprise anyone because of USDT's position as prime crypto liquidity source. However, iFinex, Tether's parent corporation, has already proven its reserves in court when pushed by NYAG Letitia James.
This time, Tether execs are facing a criminal probe into bank fraud charges 😅 Investigators are looking into whether Tether hid its connection to crypto from banks during its formation in 2014.
At the time, Tether was a young startup and banks were FAR less friendly toward crypto than they are now — which is saying lots.
In response to the investigation, Tether execs have said they're working with law enforcement to clear the air.
USDT is still the largest stablecoin in crypto, so the matter is of obvious importance to investors. We'll keep you updated as the situation evolves 🧐
☄️ Short squeeze launches BTC to $48K
🤤 Amazon poised to accept Bitcoin payments?
👮♀️ Tether execs face criminal investigation
🚀 Bitcoin hits $48K during epic short squeeze 🚀
Wow, just...much wow.
You literally can't EVER write off Bitcoin. Case in point, BTC just giga pumped from $29K to $48K on near record volume.
A move of this magnitude brings speculators out of the woodwork, all of them giving reasons why the pump happened. Forget all the conspiracy theories — this pump has a simple explanation.
It was a short squeeze, plain and simple.
Willy Woo and Crypto Quant absolutely nailed it by calling out the short squeeze set up as far back as July 23.
The TLDR version of what happened is:
👉 BTC on-chain metrics showed an inbound supply shock (not enough BTC on exchanges to meet demand)
👉 RSI breakout on the daily chart
These co-factors led to an explosive move up as thousands of short positions were eviscerated, creating an epic ride to the moon fueled by the tears of liquidated bears 🎯
❓ Is Amazon about to start accepting Bitcoin payments❓
Just in time for the short squeeze-induced fireworks was a report by City AM, a little-known publication, that Amazon is ready to accept BTC this year.
The report cited an insider at Amazon who stated the company has been quietly adding to its blockchain & digital currency strategy with plans to add BTC payments.
It's likely the report added extra thrust to Bitcoin's largest price swing in months. However, with the 'insider' being unverified, and City AM providing no additional evidence or details, the veracity of the report was instantly in doubt.
Further complicating the matter is Amazon's swift denial of the insider's comments in a follow-up by Reuters. While Amazon's spokesperson said the report was untrue, they signaled the company's stake in crypto by stating:
"Notwithstanding our interest in the space, the speculation that has ensued around our specific plans for cryptocurrencies is not true."
So, whichever way you look at this so-called insider's insights and Amazon's rebuttal, it looks pretty good for Amazon + cryptocurrency in the near future🔮
⚖️ Tether executives can't catch a break ⚖️
Tether catches an insane amount of heat from regulators.
That shouldn't surprise anyone because of USDT's position as prime crypto liquidity source. However, iFinex, Tether's parent corporation, has already proven its reserves in court when pushed by NYAG Letitia James.
This time, Tether execs are facing a criminal probe into bank fraud charges 😅 Investigators are looking into whether Tether hid its connection to crypto from banks during its formation in 2014.
At the time, Tether was a young startup and banks were FAR less friendly toward crypto than they are now — which is saying lots.
In response to the investigation, Tether execs have said they're working with law enforcement to clear the air.
USDT is still the largest stablecoin in crypto, so the matter is of obvious importance to investors. We'll keep you updated as the situation evolves 🧐
Twitter
Willy Woo
9 more hours from daily close. If price holds these levels, RSI breakout will confirm. RSI leads price breaks with quite high reliability. Meanwhile on-chain fundamentals: supply shock is in play and only getting stronger. A short squeeze setup. twitter.…
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 07.27.21
🤔 What's going on at Binance?
👎 Senate banking committee bashes Bitcoin
🏦 The big crypto exchange you haven't heard of
🤯 Is CZ getting ready to leave Binance?🤯
There's been a crazy amount of changes happening at Binance — and almost ALL of them are because of regulations.
Regulators in several European countries, the UK, Canada, and Japan have all brought the hammer down on Binance exchange in recent weeks.
Why? Because Binance is a massive global crypto exchange they have no control over. To bring Binance to heel, they've ordered Binance to stop serving residents in their respective countries, amongst other measures.
In response, CZ, the controversial-yet-beloved Binance CEO, is making big changes at the world's largest digital asset exchange, including:
👉 Making Binance a fully regulated financial institution
👉 Potentially stepping down as Binance boss 😲
👉 Reducing max leverage to 20x & removing tokenized stocks
Another of the early changes felt by millions of users is the new daily withdrawal limit for unverified users. It's now down from 2 BTC/day to a tiny 0.06 BTC/day.
🏛 Senate Banking Committee's crypto hearing takeaways🏛
So...you probably didn't have much faith that a boomer senator roundtable on crypto would have a positive outcome. Which is good, because you were right.
Today, the Senate Banking Committee headed by Sen. Sherrod Brown made a great many assertions about Bitcoin & crypto at large, including these classics:
😂 "There’s nothing democratic or transparent about a shady diffuse network of online funny money."
🤣 "Crypto puts the system at the whims of some shadowy faceless group of super coders and miners."
🤪 "Cryptocurrencies: What are they good for? Nothing."
Suffice to say, the Senate Banking Committee has quite a bit of crypto research to do. But jokes aside, these people hold vast amounts of power over the regulations soon to affect digital assets — especially stablecoins.
The fear-mongering surrounding crypto is reminiscent of FUD campaigns from bygone eras, replete with overtones of reefer madness-esque ignorance about the basics of how Bitcoin works.
Thankfully, these were only hearings and give crypto allies like Hester Pierce and Sen. Jon Tester time to outline counterpoints behind closed doors and at later meetings.
Today's Senate Banking Committee hearing is a reminder that the long-dreaded era of crypto regulations is upon us. But as exchanges like Coinbase, FTX, Binance, and Uniswap all get their ducks in a row, we have full faith the transition to a regulated industry will be seamless and drama-free.
🐂 Bullish: the biggest crypto exchange you haven't heard of 🐂
The crypto space has seen traditional finance enter in droves as legacy institutions place long term bets on digital assets.
So it's no wonder that after Coinbase's $100B valuation and both FTX + Kraken valued at $20B, a cadre of deep-pocketed players wants in on the crypto exchange action.
Enter Bullish, a new $9B crypto exchange headed by former NYSE president Thomas Farley. Bullish is in test pilot phase but is expected to roll out a public version of its exchange product this year.
In early screencaps of the Bullish UI, it looks in line with what we've come to expect from Coinbase, Binance, and the like. Bullish isn't reinventing the wheel here.
However, where the exchange differs is its AMM offering. The Bullish AMM will incentivize liquidity providers to bring assets onto the exchange — though details on how those incentives will work are scant.
Its hybrid central order book + deep liquidity via AMM model is certainly unlike anything else currently on the market. And given it's backers include Block.one and Peter Thiel, we're not the only ones curious about how Bullish will play out upon public launch.
🤔 What's going on at Binance?
👎 Senate banking committee bashes Bitcoin
🏦 The big crypto exchange you haven't heard of
🤯 Is CZ getting ready to leave Binance?🤯
There's been a crazy amount of changes happening at Binance — and almost ALL of them are because of regulations.
Regulators in several European countries, the UK, Canada, and Japan have all brought the hammer down on Binance exchange in recent weeks.
Why? Because Binance is a massive global crypto exchange they have no control over. To bring Binance to heel, they've ordered Binance to stop serving residents in their respective countries, amongst other measures.
In response, CZ, the controversial-yet-beloved Binance CEO, is making big changes at the world's largest digital asset exchange, including:
👉 Making Binance a fully regulated financial institution
👉 Potentially stepping down as Binance boss 😲
👉 Reducing max leverage to 20x & removing tokenized stocks
Another of the early changes felt by millions of users is the new daily withdrawal limit for unverified users. It's now down from 2 BTC/day to a tiny 0.06 BTC/day.
🏛 Senate Banking Committee's crypto hearing takeaways🏛
So...you probably didn't have much faith that a boomer senator roundtable on crypto would have a positive outcome. Which is good, because you were right.
Today, the Senate Banking Committee headed by Sen. Sherrod Brown made a great many assertions about Bitcoin & crypto at large, including these classics:
😂 "There’s nothing democratic or transparent about a shady diffuse network of online funny money."
🤣 "Crypto puts the system at the whims of some shadowy faceless group of super coders and miners."
🤪 "Cryptocurrencies: What are they good for? Nothing."
Suffice to say, the Senate Banking Committee has quite a bit of crypto research to do. But jokes aside, these people hold vast amounts of power over the regulations soon to affect digital assets — especially stablecoins.
The fear-mongering surrounding crypto is reminiscent of FUD campaigns from bygone eras, replete with overtones of reefer madness-esque ignorance about the basics of how Bitcoin works.
Thankfully, these were only hearings and give crypto allies like Hester Pierce and Sen. Jon Tester time to outline counterpoints behind closed doors and at later meetings.
Today's Senate Banking Committee hearing is a reminder that the long-dreaded era of crypto regulations is upon us. But as exchanges like Coinbase, FTX, Binance, and Uniswap all get their ducks in a row, we have full faith the transition to a regulated industry will be seamless and drama-free.
🐂 Bullish: the biggest crypto exchange you haven't heard of 🐂
The crypto space has seen traditional finance enter in droves as legacy institutions place long term bets on digital assets.
So it's no wonder that after Coinbase's $100B valuation and both FTX + Kraken valued at $20B, a cadre of deep-pocketed players wants in on the crypto exchange action.
Enter Bullish, a new $9B crypto exchange headed by former NYSE president Thomas Farley. Bullish is in test pilot phase but is expected to roll out a public version of its exchange product this year.
In early screencaps of the Bullish UI, it looks in line with what we've come to expect from Coinbase, Binance, and the like. Bullish isn't reinventing the wheel here.
However, where the exchange differs is its AMM offering. The Bullish AMM will incentivize liquidity providers to bring assets onto the exchange — though details on how those incentives will work are scant.
Its hybrid central order book + deep liquidity via AMM model is certainly unlike anything else currently on the market. And given it's backers include Block.one and Peter Thiel, we're not the only ones curious about how Bullish will play out upon public launch.
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 07.30.21
😏 This is not a bear market
🤩 Crypto memes + influencers on the cover of Fortune
💳 Mastercard going all in on crypto
💪 This is NOT a bear market 💪
Don't let anyone tell you different. Here's why...
The narrative arc of every crypto market downturn is roughly the same.
1️⃣ There's a hefty trend reversal that everyone calls "healthy"
2️⃣ Relief bounces never arrive and the market capitulates
3️⃣ Choppy conditions ensue for months as traders lose interest
We're currently in stage 3, the point at which traders start becoming convinced it's a bear market. The logic for this is simple: they bought into the up only meme, so unless the market goes up, it must be a bear market.
But markets never travel in straight lines — and if you think they do, toggle your chart's time frame. We hear you referencing the similar price action in 2018, and to that we say follow the money.
Follow where the kingmakers like a16z, Coinbase Ventures, and Pantera Capital are investing. Read about the constant deluge of $100M+ funding rounds for layer one blockchains, NFT platforms, and DeFi protocols.
In 2017, a $150M raise was historic. But in 2021, $300M is par for the course. And now worldwide governments & financial agencies are REALLY paying attention to us, hence the regulations raining on our heads.
That means crypto is winning. This is the new internet being built before your very eyes. Any market downturn, especially the one happening now, is well worth staking your financial future on.
Stacked makes it easy to buy the dip like a pro, try us out for free 👉 right here 👈
🥳 Crypto memelords + influencers land on cover of Fortune 🥳
OK, so a lot of crazy things have happened this year and last. So many crazy things that it's easy to feel like crazy things are just normal now.
Case in point, some of Crypto Twitter's most well known memelords, influencers, and trolls have made the cover of this month's Fortune Magazine.
Designed by pplpleasr, the chief meme generator at PleasrDAO, the cover features Crypto Cobain, The Crypto Dog, Hsaka, Aave, Compound Protocol, Sushi, and Three Arrows Capital, amongst others.
Check it out over on pplpleasr's twitter account 👏👏
😮 Mastercard going all in on crypto😮
Earlier today, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach dropped an unexpected take during a conference call. Regarding crypto, Miebach said Mastercard "needs to be in this space."
The company is preparing its network for stablecoin support, a move that will give over 1 billion people access to crypto transactions. To make the move reality, Mastercard has so far partnered with stablecoin giants Circle & Paxos to roll out crypto cards.
Besides the obvious bullishness of supporting crypto transactions, the global company also announced Mastercard Start Path earlier this week. Start Path is an incubator program for crypto-focused startups.
😏 This is not a bear market
🤩 Crypto memes + influencers on the cover of Fortune
💳 Mastercard going all in on crypto
💪 This is NOT a bear market 💪
Don't let anyone tell you different. Here's why...
The narrative arc of every crypto market downturn is roughly the same.
1️⃣ There's a hefty trend reversal that everyone calls "healthy"
2️⃣ Relief bounces never arrive and the market capitulates
3️⃣ Choppy conditions ensue for months as traders lose interest
We're currently in stage 3, the point at which traders start becoming convinced it's a bear market. The logic for this is simple: they bought into the up only meme, so unless the market goes up, it must be a bear market.
But markets never travel in straight lines — and if you think they do, toggle your chart's time frame. We hear you referencing the similar price action in 2018, and to that we say follow the money.
Follow where the kingmakers like a16z, Coinbase Ventures, and Pantera Capital are investing. Read about the constant deluge of $100M+ funding rounds for layer one blockchains, NFT platforms, and DeFi protocols.
In 2017, a $150M raise was historic. But in 2021, $300M is par for the course. And now worldwide governments & financial agencies are REALLY paying attention to us, hence the regulations raining on our heads.
That means crypto is winning. This is the new internet being built before your very eyes. Any market downturn, especially the one happening now, is well worth staking your financial future on.
Stacked makes it easy to buy the dip like a pro, try us out for free 👉 right here 👈
🥳 Crypto memelords + influencers land on cover of Fortune 🥳
OK, so a lot of crazy things have happened this year and last. So many crazy things that it's easy to feel like crazy things are just normal now.
Case in point, some of Crypto Twitter's most well known memelords, influencers, and trolls have made the cover of this month's Fortune Magazine.
Designed by pplpleasr, the chief meme generator at PleasrDAO, the cover features Crypto Cobain, The Crypto Dog, Hsaka, Aave, Compound Protocol, Sushi, and Three Arrows Capital, amongst others.
Check it out over on pplpleasr's twitter account 👏👏
😮 Mastercard going all in on crypto😮
Earlier today, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach dropped an unexpected take during a conference call. Regarding crypto, Miebach said Mastercard "needs to be in this space."
The company is preparing its network for stablecoin support, a move that will give over 1 billion people access to crypto transactions. To make the move reality, Mastercard has so far partnered with stablecoin giants Circle & Paxos to roll out crypto cards.
Besides the obvious bullishness of supporting crypto transactions, the global company also announced Mastercard Start Path earlier this week. Start Path is an incubator program for crypto-focused startups.
Twitter
pplpleasr
hi CT just wanna thank @FortuneMagazine for letting me put a bunch of pepes and anons on their August/Sept cover lmao the digital version is already live but you can also find the physical magazine on news stands globally next week!! fortune.com/magazine/
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.02.21
🚨 Don't skip this special edition🚨
🏛 EVERYTHING you need to know about the crypto bills in US congress
1️⃣ US Infrastructure bill
There's an infrastructure bill circulating in US congress right now that you would ordinarily have little reason to scrutinize.
However, this bill ended up with provisions for the cryptocurrency industry unlike any other in US government history. It amends who the Tax Code can call a broker, applying the category to nearly anyone interacting with crypto.
Even if you don't hold crypto but merely validate networks, provide liquidity, or mine — the new provision still defines you as a broker.
Now, why is this a HUGE problem?
Because first, according to the IRS Tax Code, anyone falling under the broker scope must comply by supplying KYC data for anyone they interact with. Second, brokers report to the IRS on a broad set of crypto transactions.
Ultimately, the IRS expects to bank $28 billion from the proposed crypto reporting rules.
Under the proposed new rules, if you're a DeFi protocol or a mining operation, you MUST collect KYC info from anyone using your service.
Clearly, this level of forced surveillance goes against everything crypto, and DeFi in particular, stands for. 🙅🏻♂️
2️⃣ The good news? It depends on your perspective
Just hours ago, the NY Times reported that crypto industry lobbyists successfully had the language about brokers narrowed down. Now it specifies them as anyone “...responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person."
In other words, crypto exchanges. Is this a win? It sure doesn't feel like one if decentralized exchanges are, by law, required to collect KYC from us.
Besides, the language is still vague and could be interpreted to mean miners, protocol developers, and a whole host of people building/supporting blockchains.
After all, what is a blockchain besides a means of facilitating digital asset transfers? 🤷♂️
3️⃣ Digital Asset Market Structure bill
There's ANOTHER government bill designed to give the Treasury Secretary veto powers over stablecoins and a large say in how DeFi operates.
The Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act was introduced by Rep. Don Beyer out of Virginia. Beyer has made little to no noise about crypto until this bill, so his motivations for suddenly springing a wide-ranging and well-informed digital assets bill are unknown.
Under the bill, stablecoins MUST be permissioned by the Treasury Secretary, otherwise they're illegal to issue and/or use. It's that simple 🙅♀️
The bill also goes after anonymity-boosting services found around DeFi products like mixers (the bill calls these "money mule" services). If the bill finds support and is passed, it would likely ban such anonymity-preserving features 🙀
🚨 Don't skip this special edition🚨
🏛 EVERYTHING you need to know about the crypto bills in US congress
1️⃣ US Infrastructure bill
There's an infrastructure bill circulating in US congress right now that you would ordinarily have little reason to scrutinize.
However, this bill ended up with provisions for the cryptocurrency industry unlike any other in US government history. It amends who the Tax Code can call a broker, applying the category to nearly anyone interacting with crypto.
Even if you don't hold crypto but merely validate networks, provide liquidity, or mine — the new provision still defines you as a broker.
Now, why is this a HUGE problem?
Because first, according to the IRS Tax Code, anyone falling under the broker scope must comply by supplying KYC data for anyone they interact with. Second, brokers report to the IRS on a broad set of crypto transactions.
Ultimately, the IRS expects to bank $28 billion from the proposed crypto reporting rules.
Under the proposed new rules, if you're a DeFi protocol or a mining operation, you MUST collect KYC info from anyone using your service.
Clearly, this level of forced surveillance goes against everything crypto, and DeFi in particular, stands for. 🙅🏻♂️
2️⃣ The good news? It depends on your perspective
Just hours ago, the NY Times reported that crypto industry lobbyists successfully had the language about brokers narrowed down. Now it specifies them as anyone “...responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person."
In other words, crypto exchanges. Is this a win? It sure doesn't feel like one if decentralized exchanges are, by law, required to collect KYC from us.
Besides, the language is still vague and could be interpreted to mean miners, protocol developers, and a whole host of people building/supporting blockchains.
After all, what is a blockchain besides a means of facilitating digital asset transfers? 🤷♂️
3️⃣ Digital Asset Market Structure bill
There's ANOTHER government bill designed to give the Treasury Secretary veto powers over stablecoins and a large say in how DeFi operates.
The Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act was introduced by Rep. Don Beyer out of Virginia. Beyer has made little to no noise about crypto until this bill, so his motivations for suddenly springing a wide-ranging and well-informed digital assets bill are unknown.
Under the bill, stablecoins MUST be permissioned by the Treasury Secretary, otherwise they're illegal to issue and/or use. It's that simple 🙅♀️
The bill also goes after anonymity-boosting services found around DeFi products like mixers (the bill calls these "money mule" services). If the bill finds support and is passed, it would likely ban such anonymity-preserving features 🙀
NY Times
Cryptocurrency in the infrastructure bill: The industry won last-minute concessions. (Published 2021)
Cryptocurrency lobbyists had expressed alarm at the prospect of far-reaching scrutiny from the I.R.S.
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.04.21
🏛 Crucial updates about the congressional crypto bills
🤯 SEC Chair Gensler finally comments on crypto
🧲 ETH, NFTs and DeFi take the market higher
📜 Key last minute amendments made to crypto bill 📜
You know how lobbyists are usually a bad thing? Well, there are CRYPTO lobbyists too, and they're currently fighting for our rights.
It's incredible how far the crypto industry has come that now we have people advocating in Washington DC. That's exactly what CoinCenter, a crypto advocacy group supported by everyone from Grayscale to Fidelity, is doing.
Because of these advocates, a bipartisan coalition made up of Senators Wyden, Loomis, and Toomey has introduced an amendment to the new crypto bill about brokers.
As it stands, the crypto bill in congress casts a wide net over most participants in the crypto space by loosely defining who brokers are. If the bipartisan amendment mentioned above is accepted, brokers will EXCLUDE miners, validators, and software devs and instead will narrowly focus on exchanges like Coinbase.
At the end of the day, Coinbase IS a crypto broker. So it makes sense to have them play by the rules applied to brokers. But miners, validators, and devs are clearly NOT brokers by any stretch of the imagination.
CoinCenter is urging everyone with 5 minutes to spare to call your senators and urge them to accept the bipartisan amendment to who is/isn't a crypto broker.
Follow this link to save the future of crypto — you'll reach a human being within 2 minutes of calling ☎️
🤭 Remember when Gary Gensler looked promising for crypto? 🤭
For a second, Gary Gensler seemed like a god tier SEC chairman. He taught classes at MIT on cryptocurrency and had a history of positive, even enlightened, statements about Bitcoin.
So his first focused statements on crypto were awaited with quiet anticipation by many, and now that he's made them, nobody knows quite what to think.
For starters, Gensler says the SEC will aggressively regulate crypto markets using laws they already have. In other words, laws created decades ago to regulate non-digital assets will be applied to decentralized exchanges swapping synthetic assets, digital tokens, NFTs, and so forth 🤦♂️
Gensler went on to reiterate that stablecoins might be securities (despite the fact that they're designed to be, uh, stable), and that exchanges are probably dealing in unregistered securities.
On the bright side, Gensler made several positive comments about Bitcoin, calling it a real innovation, and signaling the possibility of a Bitcoin ETF. He also indicated, or rather reiterated, that Bitcoin is not a security.
Some, like Michael Saylor, believe Gensler's comments were positive for Bitcoin and that clear regulations will boost crypto markets. While that may be true, it also looks a lot like the powers that be want to train crypto to act more like traditional finance.
Where do you stand on Gensler's comments?👀
📈 Ethereum, NFTs and DeFi trading higher and higher 📈
Maybe it was Eminem, Coinbase, Pantera, and an ex Sotheby's CEO all investing in NFT platform MakersPlace. Or maybe it's Ethereum EIP-1559 upgrade on the verge of happening. No wait, could it be Robinhood's HOOD stock going 2x on Nasdaq?
Whatever it is, there's crazy bullish news and sentiment surrounding Ethereum, NFTs, and DeFi.
Platforms like Axie Infinity are approaching the 1 million users mark, Terra Luna's Anchor DeFi savings platform is posting a 20% increase in deposits, and THORChain is bouncing HARD after a series of exploits.
DeFi stalwarts like Compound and Uniswap have also posted double digit gains this week signaling investor confidence is returning to the space after months on the decline.
Moreover, NFT weekly trading volume surpassed $300 million for the first time as platforms like OpenSea did more volume in 2 days than in all of 2020.
🏛 Crucial updates about the congressional crypto bills
🤯 SEC Chair Gensler finally comments on crypto
🧲 ETH, NFTs and DeFi take the market higher
📜 Key last minute amendments made to crypto bill 📜
You know how lobbyists are usually a bad thing? Well, there are CRYPTO lobbyists too, and they're currently fighting for our rights.
It's incredible how far the crypto industry has come that now we have people advocating in Washington DC. That's exactly what CoinCenter, a crypto advocacy group supported by everyone from Grayscale to Fidelity, is doing.
Because of these advocates, a bipartisan coalition made up of Senators Wyden, Loomis, and Toomey has introduced an amendment to the new crypto bill about brokers.
As it stands, the crypto bill in congress casts a wide net over most participants in the crypto space by loosely defining who brokers are. If the bipartisan amendment mentioned above is accepted, brokers will EXCLUDE miners, validators, and software devs and instead will narrowly focus on exchanges like Coinbase.
At the end of the day, Coinbase IS a crypto broker. So it makes sense to have them play by the rules applied to brokers. But miners, validators, and devs are clearly NOT brokers by any stretch of the imagination.
CoinCenter is urging everyone with 5 minutes to spare to call your senators and urge them to accept the bipartisan amendment to who is/isn't a crypto broker.
Follow this link to save the future of crypto — you'll reach a human being within 2 minutes of calling ☎️
🤭 Remember when Gary Gensler looked promising for crypto? 🤭
For a second, Gary Gensler seemed like a god tier SEC chairman. He taught classes at MIT on cryptocurrency and had a history of positive, even enlightened, statements about Bitcoin.
So his first focused statements on crypto were awaited with quiet anticipation by many, and now that he's made them, nobody knows quite what to think.
For starters, Gensler says the SEC will aggressively regulate crypto markets using laws they already have. In other words, laws created decades ago to regulate non-digital assets will be applied to decentralized exchanges swapping synthetic assets, digital tokens, NFTs, and so forth 🤦♂️
Gensler went on to reiterate that stablecoins might be securities (despite the fact that they're designed to be, uh, stable), and that exchanges are probably dealing in unregistered securities.
On the bright side, Gensler made several positive comments about Bitcoin, calling it a real innovation, and signaling the possibility of a Bitcoin ETF. He also indicated, or rather reiterated, that Bitcoin is not a security.
Some, like Michael Saylor, believe Gensler's comments were positive for Bitcoin and that clear regulations will boost crypto markets. While that may be true, it also looks a lot like the powers that be want to train crypto to act more like traditional finance.
Where do you stand on Gensler's comments?👀
📈 Ethereum, NFTs and DeFi trading higher and higher 📈
Maybe it was Eminem, Coinbase, Pantera, and an ex Sotheby's CEO all investing in NFT platform MakersPlace. Or maybe it's Ethereum EIP-1559 upgrade on the verge of happening. No wait, could it be Robinhood's HOOD stock going 2x on Nasdaq?
Whatever it is, there's crazy bullish news and sentiment surrounding Ethereum, NFTs, and DeFi.
Platforms like Axie Infinity are approaching the 1 million users mark, Terra Luna's Anchor DeFi savings platform is posting a 20% increase in deposits, and THORChain is bouncing HARD after a series of exploits.
DeFi stalwarts like Compound and Uniswap have also posted double digit gains this week signaling investor confidence is returning to the space after months on the decline.
Moreover, NFT weekly trading volume surpassed $300 million for the first time as platforms like OpenSea did more volume in 2 days than in all of 2020.
Fight for the Future
DON'T KILL CRYPTO
Stop Congress from implementing total surveillance of the crypto-economy. Check the scorecard and contact your Representatives now!
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.05.21
🔥 ETH is officially a deflationary asset
🤯 Chainlink building a revolutionary bridge
🕹 Stacked adds one-of-a-kind NFT gaming index
📉 Ethereum EIP-1559 now live & burning ETH supply 📉
For months, the hype about EIP-1559, an Ethereum improvement built into the London upgrade, was all about gas prices.
Gas is currently sitting 45 gwei which, while not stellar, isn't too bad either. But really, the focus on gas costs post EIP-1559 was misguided since the BIG story is that ETH is now a deflationary asset.
In a nutshell, EIP-1559 is slowing the rate of ETH release into the circulating supply. At the same time, a mechanism for burning ETH from the supply is counterbalancing inflation, and sometimes surpassing that it to actually DEFLATE the ETH supply.
It hasn't even been 24 hours since the London upgrade successfully dropped and already, nearly 3,000 ETH has been burned.
Want to watch ETH being burned by the block? Check out this live dashboard tracking the action —> etherchain.org/burn 🔥
🌉 Chainlink wants to bridge ALL blockchains 🌉
Composability is a super important yet poorly understood DeFi concept. Basically, composability in DeFi refers to interoperability between different protocols, like Curve, Aave, and Sushi.
Take Convex Finance for example. Convex is built on Ethereum and gives Curve liquidity providers boosted CRV rewards when they deposit LP tokens on its platform.
Right there, you have stacked plug & play integration amongst Ethereum applications resulting in creative & profitable possibilities for users.
What if you wanted to experience the same level of composability between Ethereum and Solana apps? Right now, you can't do that because Ethereum & Solana can't communicate — yet.
Today, Chainlink announced a bridge called the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) that aims to make different blockchain protocols interoperable.
The key idea is that once blockchains sign on to the CCIP standard, they can work with each other. Chainlink cofounder Sergey Nazarov explains:
“Just the same way that different applications on Ethereum use each other, now, different applications across different chains can use each other."
For instance, in a CCIP world, DeFi apps on Solana can accept Polkadot, Ethereum, or BSC tokens as collateral, and vice versa. Clearly, the DeFi game is only beginning to heat up 😎
🕹 Stacked adds one-of-a-kind NFT gaming index 🕹
We heard NFTs are kind of a big deal.
So, we took the liberty of working with @fitchinverse, one of the world's foremost NFT experts, to create a truly gifted array of large + small cap tokens providing exposure to NFT game markets and digital land.
Dubbed the NFT Gaming Stack, you can set this index up for yourself within minutes in the Stacked Marketplace.
Right now, the NFT Gaming Stack is holding a bullish basket of AXS, ENJ, GHST, MANA, and SAND.
Axie Infinity is approaching 1 million users, The Sandbox is partnering with Jack Ma owned companies, and Facebook is betting its future on the metaverse.
In other words — please, think twice before fading this index 💪
Try the NFT Gaming Stack along with countless others by getting started for freeee right here 👉 stackedinvest.com👈
🔥 ETH is officially a deflationary asset
🤯 Chainlink building a revolutionary bridge
🕹 Stacked adds one-of-a-kind NFT gaming index
📉 Ethereum EIP-1559 now live & burning ETH supply 📉
For months, the hype about EIP-1559, an Ethereum improvement built into the London upgrade, was all about gas prices.
Gas is currently sitting 45 gwei which, while not stellar, isn't too bad either. But really, the focus on gas costs post EIP-1559 was misguided since the BIG story is that ETH is now a deflationary asset.
In a nutshell, EIP-1559 is slowing the rate of ETH release into the circulating supply. At the same time, a mechanism for burning ETH from the supply is counterbalancing inflation, and sometimes surpassing that it to actually DEFLATE the ETH supply.
It hasn't even been 24 hours since the London upgrade successfully dropped and already, nearly 3,000 ETH has been burned.
Want to watch ETH being burned by the block? Check out this live dashboard tracking the action —> etherchain.org/burn 🔥
🌉 Chainlink wants to bridge ALL blockchains 🌉
Composability is a super important yet poorly understood DeFi concept. Basically, composability in DeFi refers to interoperability between different protocols, like Curve, Aave, and Sushi.
Take Convex Finance for example. Convex is built on Ethereum and gives Curve liquidity providers boosted CRV rewards when they deposit LP tokens on its platform.
Right there, you have stacked plug & play integration amongst Ethereum applications resulting in creative & profitable possibilities for users.
What if you wanted to experience the same level of composability between Ethereum and Solana apps? Right now, you can't do that because Ethereum & Solana can't communicate — yet.
Today, Chainlink announced a bridge called the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) that aims to make different blockchain protocols interoperable.
The key idea is that once blockchains sign on to the CCIP standard, they can work with each other. Chainlink cofounder Sergey Nazarov explains:
“Just the same way that different applications on Ethereum use each other, now, different applications across different chains can use each other."
For instance, in a CCIP world, DeFi apps on Solana can accept Polkadot, Ethereum, or BSC tokens as collateral, and vice versa. Clearly, the DeFi game is only beginning to heat up 😎
🕹 Stacked adds one-of-a-kind NFT gaming index 🕹
We heard NFTs are kind of a big deal.
So, we took the liberty of working with @fitchinverse, one of the world's foremost NFT experts, to create a truly gifted array of large + small cap tokens providing exposure to NFT game markets and digital land.
Dubbed the NFT Gaming Stack, you can set this index up for yourself within minutes in the Stacked Marketplace.
Right now, the NFT Gaming Stack is holding a bullish basket of AXS, ENJ, GHST, MANA, and SAND.
Axie Infinity is approaching 1 million users, The Sandbox is partnering with Jack Ma owned companies, and Facebook is betting its future on the metaverse.
In other words — please, think twice before fading this index 💪
Try the NFT Gaming Stack along with countless others by getting started for freeee right here 👉 stackedinvest.com👈
beaconcha.in
Open Source Ethereum Blockchain Explorer - beaconcha.in - 2026
beaconcha.in makes Ethereum accessible to non-technical end users
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.09.21
🙀 Crypto amendment shot down at last minute
🎯 BTC rallies above $46K, is $50K+ next?
🎨 Why NFTs are bigger than DeFi right now
🤬 Crypto amendment shot down by Sen. Shelby of Alabama 🤬
Tense weekend-long negotiations over the future of crypto in America fizzled in the final hour. Sen. Shelby of Alabama prevented a vote on proposed amendments to the language used in the bill drawn up by a bipartisan coalition of senators.
The amendments would have narrowed the definition of crypto brokers to specifically indicate exchanges, not miners/validators/blockchain developers. But now that Sen. Shelby has nixed the amendment just ahead of Tuesday's vote on the $1T infrastructure bill, America may have just given up rights to the next greatest tech revolution of our lifetimes.
At this point, the only hope remaining for the amendment proposed by Sen. Wyden, Lummis, and Toomey, is if Shelby, an old conservative Republican with deep ties to the banking industry, changes his mind before tomorrow's vote.
Otherwise, because of the broad vagueness of who is/isn't a broker, the crypto industry is likely to build from friendlier countries with fewer tax and surveillance clauses than the US.
🚀 BTC on a mission to $50K+? 🚀
Bitcoin definitively broke through $45K resistance as all eyes turned to digital assets with US congress intensely debating a controversial crypto bill.
The notion that there's no such thing as bad publicity applies here, as mainstream media mentions of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general are at all time highs. Even though the crypto amendment was eventually shot down by a lone senator, BTC has handsomely profited from the spotlight.
A downward line of resistance holding BTC below $45K marked a line in the sand which, if broken, could send BTC sailing as high as $90K before the year's end. Sure enough, Bitcoin punched through the line in style, hurtling all the way to $46K before pulling back slightly.
With the BTC weekly printing solidly above the downward line of resistance, it's now up to bulls to keep the momentum through to $48K — a staunch line of defense for the bears🐻
🔪 PsychoBot ETH is finally here! Free for the first 200 — be quick! 🔪
Legendary crypto trader AltcoinPsycho just dropped his ETH trading bot on the Stacked Marketplace. The original PsychoBot is one of our most popular — and profitable — trading bots ever, so we're SUPER excited for this.
After 3 months of private testing, PsychoBot ETH has a 55% win rate + 153% ROI 👏👏
This bot is EXCLUSIVE and capped to the first 200 users on a first come first serve basis. The best part? It's FREE for the first 30 days with code ETH30.
Get in here quick 👉 https://app.stackedinvest.com/strategies/355/bot/purchase 👈
🙀 Crypto amendment shot down at last minute
🎯 BTC rallies above $46K, is $50K+ next?
🎨 Why NFTs are bigger than DeFi right now
🤬 Crypto amendment shot down by Sen. Shelby of Alabama 🤬
Tense weekend-long negotiations over the future of crypto in America fizzled in the final hour. Sen. Shelby of Alabama prevented a vote on proposed amendments to the language used in the bill drawn up by a bipartisan coalition of senators.
The amendments would have narrowed the definition of crypto brokers to specifically indicate exchanges, not miners/validators/blockchain developers. But now that Sen. Shelby has nixed the amendment just ahead of Tuesday's vote on the $1T infrastructure bill, America may have just given up rights to the next greatest tech revolution of our lifetimes.
At this point, the only hope remaining for the amendment proposed by Sen. Wyden, Lummis, and Toomey, is if Shelby, an old conservative Republican with deep ties to the banking industry, changes his mind before tomorrow's vote.
Otherwise, because of the broad vagueness of who is/isn't a broker, the crypto industry is likely to build from friendlier countries with fewer tax and surveillance clauses than the US.
🚀 BTC on a mission to $50K+? 🚀
Bitcoin definitively broke through $45K resistance as all eyes turned to digital assets with US congress intensely debating a controversial crypto bill.
The notion that there's no such thing as bad publicity applies here, as mainstream media mentions of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general are at all time highs. Even though the crypto amendment was eventually shot down by a lone senator, BTC has handsomely profited from the spotlight.
A downward line of resistance holding BTC below $45K marked a line in the sand which, if broken, could send BTC sailing as high as $90K before the year's end. Sure enough, Bitcoin punched through the line in style, hurtling all the way to $46K before pulling back slightly.
With the BTC weekly printing solidly above the downward line of resistance, it's now up to bulls to keep the momentum through to $48K — a staunch line of defense for the bears🐻
🔪 PsychoBot ETH is finally here! Free for the first 200 — be quick! 🔪
Legendary crypto trader AltcoinPsycho just dropped his ETH trading bot on the Stacked Marketplace. The original PsychoBot is one of our most popular — and profitable — trading bots ever, so we're SUPER excited for this.
After 3 months of private testing, PsychoBot ETH has a 55% win rate + 153% ROI 👏👏
This bot is EXCLUSIVE and capped to the first 200 users on a first come first serve basis. The best part? It's FREE for the first 30 days with code ETH30.
Get in here quick 👉 https://app.stackedinvest.com/strategies/355/bot/purchase 👈
Twitter
Altcoin Psycho
Some exciting news: My ETH bot is finally live after 3 months of private testing! API verified results so far: 153% ROI 55% win rate 3.55 Sharpe Capped at 200 users, first come first serve. Use the code ETH30 for a free 30 day subscription 🤝🖤app.stackedi…
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.12.21
🧲 The beginning of Up Only season?
🤷 Why crypto doesn't care about congress
🤝 Stacked + FTX debut auto compounding returns for lenders
🚀 All crypto markets getting SENT 🚀
After tense weeks in which crypto was in the crosshairs of US congress and regulators, traders have released a sigh of relief in the form of massive green candles everywhere.
As pointed out in our previous update, BTC firmly broke above the weekly downward line of resistance and is now sailing toward its next test at $48K.
ETH is outperforming BTC by quite some margin at +29% this week. That's well within mooning territory and has much to do with EIP-1559 turning ETH into sound deflationary money. Since the upgrade, nearly 30,000 ETH has been burned from the supply 🔥
Want to watch ETH become ultra sound money? Well then look no further than this sleek dashboard —> ultrasound.money
Similarly, DeFi is climbing nonstop & has added $35 billion total value locked since mid July. FWIW, DeFi's all time high is $90B TVL. Right now we're sitting at a solid $80B TVL — we wouldn't bet against a new DeFi ATH incoming this month.
And that all brings us to...the NFT market. Crypto Punk trading volume in the last 7 days alone is $110M+ with Bored Apes, ArtBlocks, and Meebits not too far behind.
All in all, the crypto market is back above $2 trillion and looks primed to climb higher 📈
😼 Why crypto doesn't care what US congress thinks😼
If Bitcoin rallying above $46K immediately after Senator Shelby of Alabama shot down the crypto amendment didn't quite spell it out, allow us.
Crypto doesn't care about US congress. Why? Because these are decentralized networks, unstoppable assets, and a global community.
We all know the US government is vying for backdoor control of blockchains. The Blockchain Caucus co-chair, US Rep. Bill Foster, said giving the US gov a backdoor is key to acceptance amongst regulators.
Clearly, that isn't going to happen. What's more, it really doesn't matter.
Whether old men in congress approve or not, digital assets will continue trading on uncensorable decentralized exchanges. Developers will continue building decentralized finance protocols and tools that give us what the bankers never could — financial freedom.
So, in this game, the real loser is the US economy shutting its doors to the crypto revolution. We're standing at the forefront of a technological tidal wave. Governments can either ride that wave or fight it, but we all know what happens if you do the latter 🌊
💸 Stacked launches auto compounding returns for FTX lenders 💸
If you've been lending on FTX Exchange, you've probably wished for a way to auto compound gains instead of tediously doing so yourself.
At Stacked, we're crypto traders, farmers, and investors too, so we go through the same feels as everybody else — which is why we built the ultimate tool for auto compounding FTX lending returns 😎
All you have to do is connect to FTX Exchange, click the Lending tab in your Stacked Dashboard, then lend from your FTX-connected Stacked account.
From that moment on, your returns start auto compounding while you sleep 🛌 If you're an FTX.us user, we're launching the same feature for you very soon.
Want to try the auto compound feature out for free right here, right now? 💰Try Stacked for 30 days FREE💰
🧲 The beginning of Up Only season?
🤷 Why crypto doesn't care about congress
🤝 Stacked + FTX debut auto compounding returns for lenders
🚀 All crypto markets getting SENT 🚀
After tense weeks in which crypto was in the crosshairs of US congress and regulators, traders have released a sigh of relief in the form of massive green candles everywhere.
As pointed out in our previous update, BTC firmly broke above the weekly downward line of resistance and is now sailing toward its next test at $48K.
ETH is outperforming BTC by quite some margin at +29% this week. That's well within mooning territory and has much to do with EIP-1559 turning ETH into sound deflationary money. Since the upgrade, nearly 30,000 ETH has been burned from the supply 🔥
Want to watch ETH become ultra sound money? Well then look no further than this sleek dashboard —> ultrasound.money
Similarly, DeFi is climbing nonstop & has added $35 billion total value locked since mid July. FWIW, DeFi's all time high is $90B TVL. Right now we're sitting at a solid $80B TVL — we wouldn't bet against a new DeFi ATH incoming this month.
And that all brings us to...the NFT market. Crypto Punk trading volume in the last 7 days alone is $110M+ with Bored Apes, ArtBlocks, and Meebits not too far behind.
All in all, the crypto market is back above $2 trillion and looks primed to climb higher 📈
😼 Why crypto doesn't care what US congress thinks😼
If Bitcoin rallying above $46K immediately after Senator Shelby of Alabama shot down the crypto amendment didn't quite spell it out, allow us.
Crypto doesn't care about US congress. Why? Because these are decentralized networks, unstoppable assets, and a global community.
We all know the US government is vying for backdoor control of blockchains. The Blockchain Caucus co-chair, US Rep. Bill Foster, said giving the US gov a backdoor is key to acceptance amongst regulators.
Clearly, that isn't going to happen. What's more, it really doesn't matter.
Whether old men in congress approve or not, digital assets will continue trading on uncensorable decentralized exchanges. Developers will continue building decentralized finance protocols and tools that give us what the bankers never could — financial freedom.
So, in this game, the real loser is the US economy shutting its doors to the crypto revolution. We're standing at the forefront of a technological tidal wave. Governments can either ride that wave or fight it, but we all know what happens if you do the latter 🌊
💸 Stacked launches auto compounding returns for FTX lenders 💸
If you've been lending on FTX Exchange, you've probably wished for a way to auto compound gains instead of tediously doing so yourself.
At Stacked, we're crypto traders, farmers, and investors too, so we go through the same feels as everybody else — which is why we built the ultimate tool for auto compounding FTX lending returns 😎
All you have to do is connect to FTX Exchange, click the Lending tab in your Stacked Dashboard, then lend from your FTX-connected Stacked account.
From that moment on, your returns start auto compounding while you sleep 🛌 If you're an FTX.us user, we're launching the same feature for you very soon.
Want to try the auto compound feature out for free right here, right now? 💰Try Stacked for 30 days FREE💰
ultrasound.money
Ultra Sound Money
watch ETH become ultra sound money
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.16.21
🚀 Solana giga pumps into top 10 tokens
🤷♂️ When Polkadot parachains?
🤑 $50K BTC is the target, but greed levels high
📈 Solana is giga pumping — but why? 📈
Solana ($SOL), AKA Sam Bankman-Fried's favorite blockchain platform, is up nearly 100% in the past 14 days and is now a top 10 token by market cap.
As one of Ethereum's top competitors, it's no wonder people are into SOL, but the current run is incredible by any standard. What's fueling the rise?
If you're like the rest of us, you start looking for news when a token pumps this hard. After all, some event, like a network upgrade, has to be behind the move, right?
In Solana's case, there isn't one update or announcement moving SOL. Rather, it's general enthusiasm for the project coupled with big moves in the DeFi sector.
Mango Markets, a Solana-based decentralized exchange touting lightning fast on-chain trading, raised $70 million in exchange for MNGO, its governance token. The Mango Markets effect on Solana's DeFi total value locked has been substantial — Solana now boasts nearly $2B TVL.
$2B is a long way from Ethereum's $80B+, but it's a strong start showing plenty of user demand for Solana. It also happens to be the most DeFi use anywhere outside of Ethereum.
So, suppose you consider that Cardano ($ADA) is currently sitting in the #3 market cap position without even having smart contracts enabled. In that case, the ongoing SOL value re-rating looks less bubbly.
⚡️ Is Polkadot parachain release incoming? ⚡️
Polkadot parachain slot auctions were touted as coming AFTER Kusama held its own auctions and implemented them successfully.
Well, Statemine, Karura, Moonriver, Shiden, Khala, and Bifrost are running live on Kusama after easily completed parachain auctions, meaning Polkadot should be all clear. But Gavin Wood, amongst other Polkadot devs, have been quiet about when Polkadot parachains are coming.
Polkadot envisions itself hosting billions, even trillions, in on-chain value. Given such lofty ambitions, you can't blame the team for working to guarantee network stability before going live with parachains.
This tweet by Polkadot plainly states that pending an external audit and the first successful Kusama auction + parachain launch, Polkadot is ready. Both conditions have now been exceeded, but there are still crickets from Polkadot 🦗
However, according to this blog post, one the above conditions are met, it's essentially fair game for DOT governance members to enact an on-chain vote that enables parachain auctions.
In other words, Polkadot parachains might launch any day now. We think they'll probably coincide with a rebrand currently underway by Koto. Once parachain auctions are announced, we expect $DOT tokens will experience a re-rating similar to the current $SOL run.
💰 $50K BTC is the target, but greed levels are high💰
Leveraging market sentiment to inform your crypto trading decisions is a time-tested strategy employed by even the most sophisticated traders.
Sentiment has, time and time again, proven itself a worthy indicator of potential market moves to both the upside and downside.
Currently, the BTC Fear & Greed Index is registering a 72. That's score sits firmly in greed territory and has two noteworthy aspects:
👉 It's acted as a stubborn line of resistance in the past
👉 Greed is approaching ATH levels, usually a bearish signal
A potential conclusion to draw from current market greed paired with BTC's inability to conclusively break $48K resistance is the market might cool off soon. Periods of intense greed upward BTC volatility tend to break downwards but this time might be different.
🚀 Solana giga pumps into top 10 tokens
🤷♂️ When Polkadot parachains?
🤑 $50K BTC is the target, but greed levels high
📈 Solana is giga pumping — but why? 📈
Solana ($SOL), AKA Sam Bankman-Fried's favorite blockchain platform, is up nearly 100% in the past 14 days and is now a top 10 token by market cap.
As one of Ethereum's top competitors, it's no wonder people are into SOL, but the current run is incredible by any standard. What's fueling the rise?
If you're like the rest of us, you start looking for news when a token pumps this hard. After all, some event, like a network upgrade, has to be behind the move, right?
In Solana's case, there isn't one update or announcement moving SOL. Rather, it's general enthusiasm for the project coupled with big moves in the DeFi sector.
Mango Markets, a Solana-based decentralized exchange touting lightning fast on-chain trading, raised $70 million in exchange for MNGO, its governance token. The Mango Markets effect on Solana's DeFi total value locked has been substantial — Solana now boasts nearly $2B TVL.
$2B is a long way from Ethereum's $80B+, but it's a strong start showing plenty of user demand for Solana. It also happens to be the most DeFi use anywhere outside of Ethereum.
So, suppose you consider that Cardano ($ADA) is currently sitting in the #3 market cap position without even having smart contracts enabled. In that case, the ongoing SOL value re-rating looks less bubbly.
⚡️ Is Polkadot parachain release incoming? ⚡️
Polkadot parachain slot auctions were touted as coming AFTER Kusama held its own auctions and implemented them successfully.
Well, Statemine, Karura, Moonriver, Shiden, Khala, and Bifrost are running live on Kusama after easily completed parachain auctions, meaning Polkadot should be all clear. But Gavin Wood, amongst other Polkadot devs, have been quiet about when Polkadot parachains are coming.
Polkadot envisions itself hosting billions, even trillions, in on-chain value. Given such lofty ambitions, you can't blame the team for working to guarantee network stability before going live with parachains.
This tweet by Polkadot plainly states that pending an external audit and the first successful Kusama auction + parachain launch, Polkadot is ready. Both conditions have now been exceeded, but there are still crickets from Polkadot 🦗
However, according to this blog post, one the above conditions are met, it's essentially fair game for DOT governance members to enact an on-chain vote that enables parachain auctions.
In other words, Polkadot parachains might launch any day now. We think they'll probably coincide with a rebrand currently underway by Koto. Once parachain auctions are announced, we expect $DOT tokens will experience a re-rating similar to the current $SOL run.
💰 $50K BTC is the target, but greed levels are high💰
Leveraging market sentiment to inform your crypto trading decisions is a time-tested strategy employed by even the most sophisticated traders.
Sentiment has, time and time again, proven itself a worthy indicator of potential market moves to both the upside and downside.
Currently, the BTC Fear & Greed Index is registering a 72. That's score sits firmly in greed territory and has two noteworthy aspects:
👉 It's acted as a stubborn line of resistance in the past
👉 Greed is approaching ATH levels, usually a bearish signal
A potential conclusion to draw from current market greed paired with BTC's inability to conclusively break $48K resistance is the market might cool off soon. Periods of intense greed upward BTC volatility tend to break downwards but this time might be different.
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.18.21
🤑 Market update: JPEG flippers lead the way
😅 Sushi's Miso platform narrowly avoids $350M hack
👀 Robinhood earning call reveals incredible stat
🎨 For traders, NFTs are the new altcoins 🎨
OpenSea, the definitive NFT marketplace, has just recorded $1 billion in trading volume for August alone — and the month isn't even finished.
The platform's year to date trading volume is up well over 76,000% to indicate the insatiable appetite out there for NFTs. As NFT hype continues exploding past every available metric in existence, it's clear not everyone is in it for the art.
Have you checked in on your favorite Crypto Twitter traders lately? If Punks, Penguins, and Squiggles are clogging your feed, just know those names aren't new altcoins — they're NFTs going for beaucoup bucks.
Big names like @HsakaTrades & Three Arrows Capital's @zhusu are buying NFTs heavily for both short flips and long term investments. After watching Crypto Punks go from little-known crypto art to NYC billboards, Sotheby's auctions, and 40 ETH price floors, it's impossible NOT to search for the next big thing.
Some are eyeing at Larva Labs' (creators of Crypto Punks) other project Meebits. However, for now, Pudgy Penguins and Axie Infinity are hogging the spotlight.
👨💻 White hat hacker saves Sushi from losing $350 million👨💻
White hat hackers have made quite a few headlines lately. A white hat is a hacker who discovers vulnerabilities in code, then alerts the team about them before malicious hackers exploit them.
Late last week, a white hat hacker exploited Poly Network for roughly $600 million in tokens across three blockchains. As of yesterday, all the funds have been returned to a multisig wallet co-owned by the Poly team.
Now, another white hat hacker going by the name samczsun (works for Paradigm VC as a researcher) has just saved decentralized exchange Sushi from being exploited for $350 million.
As samczsun puts it, they noticed the massive $350 million raise for BitDAO on Sushi's MISO platform and dug into the code. Sure enough, they found a major flaw in the code putting ALL of the funds at risk of being stolen.
They alerted the Sushi team who quickly went about patching the flaw and securing the fortune. All in all, samczsun went from discovering the exploit to working with the team on a fix within five hours flat.
You can read samczsun's riveting write up of the events on the Paradigm blog.
🎯 Robinhood earnings call drops an incredible statistic 🎯
Robinhood just had an Q2 earnings call wherein they shared all the usual stuff — earnings, and so on. Nothing fun in and of itself, except for the insights about crypto trading.
In Q2 alone, 51% of Robinhood's $451 million revenue was generated from crypto trading. Apart from being a great sign of adoption, the amount is significant because in Q1, crypto trading only made up 17% of revenue.
Moreover, just a year ago, crypto trading accounted for a mere $5 million in revenue. Robinhood says this year's surge was caused in large part by DOGE trading, but something else caught our eye...
During Q2, the majority of new Robinhood clients did crypto trades — not equities 🔥 Is this the flippening no one is talking about?
It👏 just👏 might👏 be
🤑 Market update: JPEG flippers lead the way
😅 Sushi's Miso platform narrowly avoids $350M hack
👀 Robinhood earning call reveals incredible stat
🎨 For traders, NFTs are the new altcoins 🎨
OpenSea, the definitive NFT marketplace, has just recorded $1 billion in trading volume for August alone — and the month isn't even finished.
The platform's year to date trading volume is up well over 76,000% to indicate the insatiable appetite out there for NFTs. As NFT hype continues exploding past every available metric in existence, it's clear not everyone is in it for the art.
Have you checked in on your favorite Crypto Twitter traders lately? If Punks, Penguins, and Squiggles are clogging your feed, just know those names aren't new altcoins — they're NFTs going for beaucoup bucks.
Big names like @HsakaTrades & Three Arrows Capital's @zhusu are buying NFTs heavily for both short flips and long term investments. After watching Crypto Punks go from little-known crypto art to NYC billboards, Sotheby's auctions, and 40 ETH price floors, it's impossible NOT to search for the next big thing.
Some are eyeing at Larva Labs' (creators of Crypto Punks) other project Meebits. However, for now, Pudgy Penguins and Axie Infinity are hogging the spotlight.
👨💻 White hat hacker saves Sushi from losing $350 million👨💻
White hat hackers have made quite a few headlines lately. A white hat is a hacker who discovers vulnerabilities in code, then alerts the team about them before malicious hackers exploit them.
Late last week, a white hat hacker exploited Poly Network for roughly $600 million in tokens across three blockchains. As of yesterday, all the funds have been returned to a multisig wallet co-owned by the Poly team.
Now, another white hat hacker going by the name samczsun (works for Paradigm VC as a researcher) has just saved decentralized exchange Sushi from being exploited for $350 million.
As samczsun puts it, they noticed the massive $350 million raise for BitDAO on Sushi's MISO platform and dug into the code. Sure enough, they found a major flaw in the code putting ALL of the funds at risk of being stolen.
They alerted the Sushi team who quickly went about patching the flaw and securing the fortune. All in all, samczsun went from discovering the exploit to working with the team on a fix within five hours flat.
You can read samczsun's riveting write up of the events on the Paradigm blog.
🎯 Robinhood earnings call drops an incredible statistic 🎯
Robinhood just had an Q2 earnings call wherein they shared all the usual stuff — earnings, and so on. Nothing fun in and of itself, except for the insights about crypto trading.
In Q2 alone, 51% of Robinhood's $451 million revenue was generated from crypto trading. Apart from being a great sign of adoption, the amount is significant because in Q1, crypto trading only made up 17% of revenue.
Moreover, just a year ago, crypto trading accounted for a mere $5 million in revenue. Robinhood says this year's surge was caused in large part by DOGE trading, but something else caught our eye...
During Q2, the majority of new Robinhood clients did crypto trades — not equities 🔥 Is this the flippening no one is talking about?
It👏 just👏 might👏 be
Paradigm
Two Rights Might Make A Wrong - Paradigm
Paradigm is a research-driven crypto investment firm that funds companies and protocols from their earliest stages.
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.25.21
🎢 After pullback, BTC bounce in progress
💎 Incentive programs launches $AVAX +500%
🤹 Fidenza NFT buyers turn 0.5Ξ into 1,000Ξ
🎢 BTC is bouncing after harsh pullback🎢
BTC had an exhilarating run as of late, pushing from $28K lows to just over $50K in a matter of weeks. So, when prices whipped back under $48K last night, the correction felt acceptable.
Consider that just before BTC went under $48K support, the Fear & Greed index registered an extreme greed score of 79. At this same point only one month ago, the index was showing a fear score of 26.
Clearly, BTC is pinging around between extreme poles, a signal that we’re likely to land somewhere in between. As we outlined in previous updates, BTC usually needs to decisively punch through resistance, otherwise, excessively leveraged traders get twitchy.
With the amount of greed still hanging in the market, you can count on copious amounts of irresponsibly long degens ready to bail at the first sign of trouble. In other words, this isn’t the moment to try and be a hero — let’s ride out the current indecision and see where the monthly close takes us.
💎 First Solana, now Avalanche is up 500%💎
It’s officially layer one blockchain season in the crypto world. After Solana (SOL) & Terra (LUNA) went on face-melting runs, Avalanche (AVAX) is joining their ranks in what can only be termed SoLunAvax szn.
Congrats if you were amongst the lucky ones to roll your SoLuna profits into AVAX — that was a bold move requiring a deft understanding of how assets are related. Having a feeling for which coins pump together is a subtle craft few possess.
However, had you been paying attention to Avalanche, the move up comes as no surprise. The pecking order of layer one blockchains goes:
Ethereum —> Polkadot —> Solana/Cosmos —> Avalanche/Algorand —> Harmony/Holochain/Near
That order isn’t set in stone but is how things stand now. Solana is set in fierce competition with Ethereum and, to that extent, has had hackathons, very public marketing strategies, and DeFi platforms go live.
The amount of liquidity being sucked into Solana DeFi like Mango Markets, Raydium, Serum, and FTX makes it essential for Avalanche to move now or be left behind.
In response, Avalanche announced Avalanche Rush, a $180 million liquidity mining program. So far, Sushi, Curve, and Aave have stepped up by launching markets on the platform, drawing in deep liquidity that’s also helping to revive Pangolin DEX (Avalanche’s Uniswap fork).
🤹 But do you own a Fidenza?🤹
The NFT market is on FIRE.
Flipping JPEGS is, in several respects, more fun than trading altcoins. Technical analysis, Crypto Twitter charts, and faceless coins all go out the window when you’re absorbed with discovering the incredible visuals and price floors of NFTs.
Not to mention the gains have been far juicier for anyone paying strict attention to the latest drops — especially those on Art Blocks.
Just a few months ago, NFT platform Art Blocks released a series by generative artist tylerxhobbs titled Fidenza. At the time, several of the pieces in the Fidenza run sold for as low as 0.58Ξ.
However, fast forward a mere two months, and Fidenza #313 has just sold for a staggering 1,000Ξ (~$3.2M). The original buyer profited nearly 2,000x on their original investment...so, the next time you’re complaining about NFT minting fees, it’s probably better to just ape 🦍
🎢 After pullback, BTC bounce in progress
💎 Incentive programs launches $AVAX +500%
🤹 Fidenza NFT buyers turn 0.5Ξ into 1,000Ξ
🎢 BTC is bouncing after harsh pullback🎢
BTC had an exhilarating run as of late, pushing from $28K lows to just over $50K in a matter of weeks. So, when prices whipped back under $48K last night, the correction felt acceptable.
Consider that just before BTC went under $48K support, the Fear & Greed index registered an extreme greed score of 79. At this same point only one month ago, the index was showing a fear score of 26.
Clearly, BTC is pinging around between extreme poles, a signal that we’re likely to land somewhere in between. As we outlined in previous updates, BTC usually needs to decisively punch through resistance, otherwise, excessively leveraged traders get twitchy.
With the amount of greed still hanging in the market, you can count on copious amounts of irresponsibly long degens ready to bail at the first sign of trouble. In other words, this isn’t the moment to try and be a hero — let’s ride out the current indecision and see where the monthly close takes us.
💎 First Solana, now Avalanche is up 500%💎
It’s officially layer one blockchain season in the crypto world. After Solana (SOL) & Terra (LUNA) went on face-melting runs, Avalanche (AVAX) is joining their ranks in what can only be termed SoLunAvax szn.
Congrats if you were amongst the lucky ones to roll your SoLuna profits into AVAX — that was a bold move requiring a deft understanding of how assets are related. Having a feeling for which coins pump together is a subtle craft few possess.
However, had you been paying attention to Avalanche, the move up comes as no surprise. The pecking order of layer one blockchains goes:
Ethereum —> Polkadot —> Solana/Cosmos —> Avalanche/Algorand —> Harmony/Holochain/Near
That order isn’t set in stone but is how things stand now. Solana is set in fierce competition with Ethereum and, to that extent, has had hackathons, very public marketing strategies, and DeFi platforms go live.
The amount of liquidity being sucked into Solana DeFi like Mango Markets, Raydium, Serum, and FTX makes it essential for Avalanche to move now or be left behind.
In response, Avalanche announced Avalanche Rush, a $180 million liquidity mining program. So far, Sushi, Curve, and Aave have stepped up by launching markets on the platform, drawing in deep liquidity that’s also helping to revive Pangolin DEX (Avalanche’s Uniswap fork).
🤹 But do you own a Fidenza?🤹
The NFT market is on FIRE.
Flipping JPEGS is, in several respects, more fun than trading altcoins. Technical analysis, Crypto Twitter charts, and faceless coins all go out the window when you’re absorbed with discovering the incredible visuals and price floors of NFTs.
Not to mention the gains have been far juicier for anyone paying strict attention to the latest drops — especially those on Art Blocks.
Just a few months ago, NFT platform Art Blocks released a series by generative artist tylerxhobbs titled Fidenza. At the time, several of the pieces in the Fidenza run sold for as low as 0.58Ξ.
However, fast forward a mere two months, and Fidenza #313 has just sold for a staggering 1,000Ξ (~$3.2M). The original buyer profited nearly 2,000x on their original investment...so, the next time you’re complaining about NFT minting fees, it’s probably better to just ape 🦍
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.26.21
🧐 After DeFi & NFTs, what’s next?
✈️ DAG into top 100 on USAF partnership
🔒 BTC locked in $43K to $50K range
🧐 Are DAOs the Next Big Thing in crypto?🧐
Former BitMex CEO and all-around chad Arthur Hayes once said the exceptional investor invest in heretical themes, and sells once those themes become orthodox.
In the last two years, DeFi stole the limelight from ICO-era utility tokens. Then, NFTs stole the show from DeFi.
When they first appeared, both DeFi and NFTs were heretical themes. Who would deposit liquidity in a decentralized protocol? Who would spend valuable ETH on a JPEG?
But now, DeFi is so orthodox that TradFi institutions embrace it. Ditto NFTs, with Sotheby’s, Visa, Budweiser, and even Arizona Ice Tea jumping onboard.
It’s at this moment the exceptional investor asks themselves: what’s the next heretical theme? The answer is DAOs.
Short for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, DAOs are poised to take the hype mantle over from NFTs. As NFT floors continue rising to levels that price out everyone but whales, fractionalized ownership via DAO-organized collective purchasing power becomes an obvious high IQ move.
However, DAOs aren’t just about fractionalizing shares of CryptoPunks. They’re humanity’s most powerful-ever tool for aligning economically empowered communities around shared interests.
It’s easy to imagine a near-future in which DAOs bootstrap liquidity for funding long-term strategies, such as pro-crypto legislation, climate defense, or anything else the community finds valuable.
As a DAOs treasury grows, the members governing it become increasingly powerful, which in turn propels the value of DAO-issued assets, like NFTs with governance rights attached.
Are you more of a visual learner? Check out Nouns DAO for a great example of how DAOs are shaping the future.
✈️ $DAG flying under the radar despite military contract✈️
Constellation (DAG) is a horizontally scaled blockchain platform geared toward enterprises interested in building blockchains and/or crypto assets. It uses a technology called Hypergraph to make transactions infinitely scalable yet nearly free.
After a rough couple of years, DAG has started printing in earnest and has just reached the top 100 tokens by market cap. While the rest of the market is busy playing hot potato between SOL, LUNA, and AVAX, DAG has flown completely under the radar.
Clearly, layer one blockchains and NFTs are notable trends throughout this market cycle. But it looks like DAG’s status as an L1 chain is going unrecognized, though not for much longer.
Earlier today, the Constellation team let slip that they’ve earned a contract with the US Air Force to provide blockchain security for sensitive military data. Essentially, Constellation will secure data between the Department of Defense and aircraft during live missions.
If the US military believes Constellation & blockchains at large are secure enough to handle such sensitive data, then it’s a reaffirmation at the highest levels that blockchain is the future infrastructure for all the world’s data.
🔒 BTC stuck ranging between $43K & $50K🔒
BTC put bears on notice after running to $51K last weekend. But a change of fortune has BTC on the backfoot & struggling to reclaim the all-important $48K level.
As such, BTC has re-entered the chop zone — a price range with extreme magnetism between several potential supports and resistances. Without a significant break to the upside soon, the likelihood that BTC crabs sideways within the range before plummeting grows.
An important level to watch is $43K should BTC get that low. Earlier this year, BTC tapped $57K before falling to $43K. Then, it bounced hard before going on to a high of $63K.
🧐 After DeFi & NFTs, what’s next?
✈️ DAG into top 100 on USAF partnership
🔒 BTC locked in $43K to $50K range
🧐 Are DAOs the Next Big Thing in crypto?🧐
Former BitMex CEO and all-around chad Arthur Hayes once said the exceptional investor invest in heretical themes, and sells once those themes become orthodox.
In the last two years, DeFi stole the limelight from ICO-era utility tokens. Then, NFTs stole the show from DeFi.
When they first appeared, both DeFi and NFTs were heretical themes. Who would deposit liquidity in a decentralized protocol? Who would spend valuable ETH on a JPEG?
But now, DeFi is so orthodox that TradFi institutions embrace it. Ditto NFTs, with Sotheby’s, Visa, Budweiser, and even Arizona Ice Tea jumping onboard.
It’s at this moment the exceptional investor asks themselves: what’s the next heretical theme? The answer is DAOs.
Short for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations, DAOs are poised to take the hype mantle over from NFTs. As NFT floors continue rising to levels that price out everyone but whales, fractionalized ownership via DAO-organized collective purchasing power becomes an obvious high IQ move.
However, DAOs aren’t just about fractionalizing shares of CryptoPunks. They’re humanity’s most powerful-ever tool for aligning economically empowered communities around shared interests.
It’s easy to imagine a near-future in which DAOs bootstrap liquidity for funding long-term strategies, such as pro-crypto legislation, climate defense, or anything else the community finds valuable.
As a DAOs treasury grows, the members governing it become increasingly powerful, which in turn propels the value of DAO-issued assets, like NFTs with governance rights attached.
Are you more of a visual learner? Check out Nouns DAO for a great example of how DAOs are shaping the future.
✈️ $DAG flying under the radar despite military contract✈️
Constellation (DAG) is a horizontally scaled blockchain platform geared toward enterprises interested in building blockchains and/or crypto assets. It uses a technology called Hypergraph to make transactions infinitely scalable yet nearly free.
After a rough couple of years, DAG has started printing in earnest and has just reached the top 100 tokens by market cap. While the rest of the market is busy playing hot potato between SOL, LUNA, and AVAX, DAG has flown completely under the radar.
Clearly, layer one blockchains and NFTs are notable trends throughout this market cycle. But it looks like DAG’s status as an L1 chain is going unrecognized, though not for much longer.
Earlier today, the Constellation team let slip that they’ve earned a contract with the US Air Force to provide blockchain security for sensitive military data. Essentially, Constellation will secure data between the Department of Defense and aircraft during live missions.
If the US military believes Constellation & blockchains at large are secure enough to handle such sensitive data, then it’s a reaffirmation at the highest levels that blockchain is the future infrastructure for all the world’s data.
🔒 BTC stuck ranging between $43K & $50K🔒
BTC put bears on notice after running to $51K last weekend. But a change of fortune has BTC on the backfoot & struggling to reclaim the all-important $48K level.
As such, BTC has re-entered the chop zone — a price range with extreme magnetism between several potential supports and resistances. Without a significant break to the upside soon, the likelihood that BTC crabs sideways within the range before plummeting grows.
An important level to watch is $43K should BTC get that low. Earlier this year, BTC tapped $57K before falling to $43K. Then, it bounced hard before going on to a high of $63K.
nouns.wtf
Nouns DAO
One Noun, every day, forever. Nouns DAO is an experiment on the Ethereum blockchain.
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.31.21
🔥 L1 chains keep mooning, DOT & KSM next?
⚔️ NFT price floors correct slightly
🎨 Why hype for 1/1 NFTs is building
🎲 L1 chains keep mooning — are DOT & KSM next in line?
Layer 1 blockchains Solana, Terra, Cardano, and Avalanche have pumped for weeks, only hitting the brakes temporarily before launching again.
What’s driving the bullishness behind the ongoing L1 chain renaissance?
During the earlier phase of this year’s bull market, layer two scaling solutions like Polygon, Optimistic, and Arbitrum were the main focus of a community seeking cheaper fees and faster transactions.
But now, L1 chains themselves are back in the spotlight as traders bet on every chain not called Ethereum in hopes that they can produce the developer/end-user experiences we’ve all been waiting for.
Solana’s ecosystem is growing, Avalanche launched a $180M incentives program, and Cardano promises to finally switch on smart contracts.
Polkadot (DOT) and Kusama (KSM) were notably silent through the rush on L1 tokens until today. Both are seeing double-digit % gains as Kusama’s next round of parachain auctions goes live, giving speculators the impression that Polkadot’s parachain launch is imminent.
Should expectations about Polkadot parachains continue building, a large wave of profits from SOL, LUNA, ADA, and AVAX trades might flow toward DOT & KSM.
📉 NFT market corrects amidst signs of froth
So far in August, NFT collections and projects have gone up in a more or less vertical line. Anyone who bought even a semi-respectable drop over the last few months is likely in heavy profit.
It comes as no surprise, then, that an NFT price floor correction is not a matter of if, but when. After all, CryptoPunks floor went from ~30 ETH to ~137 ETH in a matter of 10 days.
Today, trading volumes for Art Blocks, Bored Apes, Mutant Apes, CryptoPunks, Meebits, and newcomer Creature World are all down significantly, with Meebits taking the cake at -77%.
If you subscribe to the view that CryptoPunks = BTC for the NFT market, the current floor at 115 ETH is hovering near the psychological 100 ETH hurdle. However, given that many NFT collections are in the hands of diamond-handed DAOs, NFTs might face limited downside compared to utility tokens.
🎨 Why hype for 1/1 NFTs is building
Even if 10,000 series NFT projects are seeing a slowdown in trading volume, that doesn’t tell the whole story for the blazing NFT market.
1 of 1 NFTs found primarily on Foundation, SuperRare, and Zora are seeing increased interest as NFT collectors look to original works limited to single editions.
Foundation, in particular, crossed the $100M sales mark while SuperRare monthly sales went from $4M in July to $22M in August. Their sales volume still pales in comparison to OpenSea, which recently crossed $1 billion — but still, it’s a start.
Collecting NFTs has much to do with acquiring rarity, just as collecting anything always has. A 10,000 CryptoPunk collection is scarce compared with the demand for them, but nothing says rare quite like 1 of 1 does.
The switch toward 1 of 1 collecting might have started with a generative artist from Panama.
Itzel Yard, who goes by @ix_shells on foundation, became the highest-selling female NFT artist when her piece Dreaming At Dusk sold for a cool $2 million.
Now, demand for her art is visibly growing, evidenced by the steady increase in asking prices for her secondary market-listed work.
🔥 L1 chains keep mooning, DOT & KSM next?
⚔️ NFT price floors correct slightly
🎨 Why hype for 1/1 NFTs is building
🎲 L1 chains keep mooning — are DOT & KSM next in line?
Layer 1 blockchains Solana, Terra, Cardano, and Avalanche have pumped for weeks, only hitting the brakes temporarily before launching again.
What’s driving the bullishness behind the ongoing L1 chain renaissance?
During the earlier phase of this year’s bull market, layer two scaling solutions like Polygon, Optimistic, and Arbitrum were the main focus of a community seeking cheaper fees and faster transactions.
But now, L1 chains themselves are back in the spotlight as traders bet on every chain not called Ethereum in hopes that they can produce the developer/end-user experiences we’ve all been waiting for.
Solana’s ecosystem is growing, Avalanche launched a $180M incentives program, and Cardano promises to finally switch on smart contracts.
Polkadot (DOT) and Kusama (KSM) were notably silent through the rush on L1 tokens until today. Both are seeing double-digit % gains as Kusama’s next round of parachain auctions goes live, giving speculators the impression that Polkadot’s parachain launch is imminent.
Should expectations about Polkadot parachains continue building, a large wave of profits from SOL, LUNA, ADA, and AVAX trades might flow toward DOT & KSM.
📉 NFT market corrects amidst signs of froth
So far in August, NFT collections and projects have gone up in a more or less vertical line. Anyone who bought even a semi-respectable drop over the last few months is likely in heavy profit.
It comes as no surprise, then, that an NFT price floor correction is not a matter of if, but when. After all, CryptoPunks floor went from ~30 ETH to ~137 ETH in a matter of 10 days.
Today, trading volumes for Art Blocks, Bored Apes, Mutant Apes, CryptoPunks, Meebits, and newcomer Creature World are all down significantly, with Meebits taking the cake at -77%.
If you subscribe to the view that CryptoPunks = BTC for the NFT market, the current floor at 115 ETH is hovering near the psychological 100 ETH hurdle. However, given that many NFT collections are in the hands of diamond-handed DAOs, NFTs might face limited downside compared to utility tokens.
🎨 Why hype for 1/1 NFTs is building
Even if 10,000 series NFT projects are seeing a slowdown in trading volume, that doesn’t tell the whole story for the blazing NFT market.
1 of 1 NFTs found primarily on Foundation, SuperRare, and Zora are seeing increased interest as NFT collectors look to original works limited to single editions.
Foundation, in particular, crossed the $100M sales mark while SuperRare monthly sales went from $4M in July to $22M in August. Their sales volume still pales in comparison to OpenSea, which recently crossed $1 billion — but still, it’s a start.
Collecting NFTs has much to do with acquiring rarity, just as collecting anything always has. A 10,000 CryptoPunk collection is scarce compared with the demand for them, but nothing says rare quite like 1 of 1 does.
The switch toward 1 of 1 collecting might have started with a generative artist from Panama.
Itzel Yard, who goes by @ix_shells on foundation, became the highest-selling female NFT artist when her piece Dreaming At Dusk sold for a cool $2 million.
Now, demand for her art is visibly growing, evidenced by the steady increase in asking prices for her secondary market-listed work.
foundation.app
Itzel Yard (@IXSHELLS) | Foundation
generative art, experimental music, quests for parallels.
based in Meta-Panama
based in Meta-Panama
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 09.03.21
🤾 Send all markets: BTC prints $51K
😧 Uniswap under SEC investigation
👉 This is why Loot NFTs are mooning
🧲 BTC tags $51K as crypto markets get SENT
It’s a rare day when everything across the board well and truly goes for it.
Well, today was one of those days.
Bitcoin printed $51K and Ethereum hit $4K in the midst of an NFT rush. At the same time, layer one blockchain tokens like SOL, DOT, KSM, AR, FTM, and ATOM continued seeing a positive re-rating by investors + traders alike.
In some respects, DeFi tokens are all that’s missing from the run. They’re in the green, to be sure, but their gains pale in comparison to L1 chains. However, Solana DeFi projects are getting time in the sun, with MNGO, REN, and RAY running the charts.
On the NFT side, NFT platforms are performing strongly as expected. While bigger projects like THETA, ENJ, AXS, and CHZ have cooled slightly, smaller-cap projects are flourishing. SAND, UOS, ILV, NFTX, and DG are all posting a minimum +20% increase.
Going back to market leaders BTC and ETH, both met heavy resistance at $51K and $4K respectively. With Labor Day weekend in the US beginning, a lull in trading action might be on the cards.
Should BTC retrace as far back as $46K this weekend, and considering BTC typically underperforms in September, expect a deeper pullback to set up a very bullish autumn.
🙀 The SEC is investigating Uniswap
Earlier this summer, SEC chief Gary Gensler made it abundantly clear he has no idea what DeFi is about. To prove the point, the SEC is now investigating Uniswap DEX.
More accurately, the SEC is investigating Uniswap Labs — in other words, the team behind Uniswap. That’s worrying on several levels, but above all, the SEC wants data on how people use Uniswap to trade/invest and how Uniswap markets its exchange.
It’s likely the UNI governance token is also making the SEC uncomfortable. The token enables holders to govern a vast multi-billion dollar cross-border exchange & might someday entitle them to revenue share.
The funny thing is, if Gensler knew the first thing about DeFi, none of this would come as a surprise, nor would it be cause for stifling American technological innovation.
However, in all likelihood, the unfriendly and unnerving environment around blockchain startups being cultivated by the US government will likely push teams abroad. The result? A net negative for American tech entrepreneurship, intellectual labor, and a lost foothold in the future of the web.
👩🏫 What are Loot NFTs? They’re weird — but definitely cool
Loot NFTs have stormed to the top of NFT sales charts but hardly anyone understands what they are. Neither did we at first — until we looked deeper.
Created by Dom Hofmann, Loot NFTs are nothing more than random text lists of future/fantasy adventure gear. Once more to be completely clear...if you buy a Loot NFT, all you’re getting is a randomly generated list describing imaginary, well, loot.
So why are they selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars each? Because Loot collectors are betting the lists will come together to describe an NFT/blockchain/metaverse game of the future built in real-time by communities.
Some have called Loot NFT Improv — a description both apt and exciting.
What will Loot become? No one really knows, but the point is collectors get to decide. Until now, NFTs/collectibles/games were premade, meaning the universe had been decided by creators ahead of time.
Loot = collectors ARE creators. Is this a paradigm in the NFT world? Probably, yes. At least Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin thinks so, saying the Loot project “has it right.”
🤾 Send all markets: BTC prints $51K
😧 Uniswap under SEC investigation
👉 This is why Loot NFTs are mooning
🧲 BTC tags $51K as crypto markets get SENT
It’s a rare day when everything across the board well and truly goes for it.
Well, today was one of those days.
Bitcoin printed $51K and Ethereum hit $4K in the midst of an NFT rush. At the same time, layer one blockchain tokens like SOL, DOT, KSM, AR, FTM, and ATOM continued seeing a positive re-rating by investors + traders alike.
In some respects, DeFi tokens are all that’s missing from the run. They’re in the green, to be sure, but their gains pale in comparison to L1 chains. However, Solana DeFi projects are getting time in the sun, with MNGO, REN, and RAY running the charts.
On the NFT side, NFT platforms are performing strongly as expected. While bigger projects like THETA, ENJ, AXS, and CHZ have cooled slightly, smaller-cap projects are flourishing. SAND, UOS, ILV, NFTX, and DG are all posting a minimum +20% increase.
Going back to market leaders BTC and ETH, both met heavy resistance at $51K and $4K respectively. With Labor Day weekend in the US beginning, a lull in trading action might be on the cards.
Should BTC retrace as far back as $46K this weekend, and considering BTC typically underperforms in September, expect a deeper pullback to set up a very bullish autumn.
🙀 The SEC is investigating Uniswap
Earlier this summer, SEC chief Gary Gensler made it abundantly clear he has no idea what DeFi is about. To prove the point, the SEC is now investigating Uniswap DEX.
More accurately, the SEC is investigating Uniswap Labs — in other words, the team behind Uniswap. That’s worrying on several levels, but above all, the SEC wants data on how people use Uniswap to trade/invest and how Uniswap markets its exchange.
It’s likely the UNI governance token is also making the SEC uncomfortable. The token enables holders to govern a vast multi-billion dollar cross-border exchange & might someday entitle them to revenue share.
The funny thing is, if Gensler knew the first thing about DeFi, none of this would come as a surprise, nor would it be cause for stifling American technological innovation.
However, in all likelihood, the unfriendly and unnerving environment around blockchain startups being cultivated by the US government will likely push teams abroad. The result? A net negative for American tech entrepreneurship, intellectual labor, and a lost foothold in the future of the web.
👩🏫 What are Loot NFTs? They’re weird — but definitely cool
Loot NFTs have stormed to the top of NFT sales charts but hardly anyone understands what they are. Neither did we at first — until we looked deeper.
Created by Dom Hofmann, Loot NFTs are nothing more than random text lists of future/fantasy adventure gear. Once more to be completely clear...if you buy a Loot NFT, all you’re getting is a randomly generated list describing imaginary, well, loot.
So why are they selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars each? Because Loot collectors are betting the lists will come together to describe an NFT/blockchain/metaverse game of the future built in real-time by communities.
Some have called Loot NFT Improv — a description both apt and exciting.
What will Loot become? No one really knows, but the point is collectors get to decide. Until now, NFTs/collectibles/games were premade, meaning the universe had been decided by creators ahead of time.
Loot = collectors ARE creators. Is this a paradigm in the NFT world? Probably, yes. At least Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin thinks so, saying the Loot project “has it right.”
Twitter
vitalik.eth
@MacaesBruno I think the @lootproject philosophy has it right: pretty much anything that anyone creates "exists", what matters is to what extent other people build upon it.
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 09.07.21
✂️ BTC gets a $10K haircut
🙅♀️ Cardano smart contract testnet fail
💥 Steph Curry is the new face of FTX
🥊 BTC loses $10K in a single candle
Every now and again, BTC is subject to what's called a flash crash.
For the uninitiated, a flash crash is an absurdly aggressive price drop usually triggered by an overleveraged market. They’re always harrowing to witness, and definitely a rush.
The lead-up to today’s flash crash saw market-wide bullishness with peak vibes going off everywhere you looked.
❌ Reese Witherspoon tweeted about buying ETH
❌ NFTs punched way above their weight on OpenSea
❌ El Salvador sat on the brink of BTC adoption
❌ Apes longing longs driving an overheated market
All of that, paired with BTC unable to convincingly pierce resistance, led us to speculate in our previous update that the market would imminently correct. Now that we’ve seen some of the froth come off, where to from here?
Analyst dave the wave impressively called this BTC top — along with the two previous ones. His view is BTC is following a fractal from earlier this year and was due for a drop. His view corresponds with that of S2F boss Plan B who earlier this summer called for $43K BTC in September.
As a reminder, Plan B’s S2F model is predicting $100K BTC at a MINIMUM before 2022. We tend to believe it 😎
😅 Cardano’s smart contracts fail in testnet
Cardano’s Alonzo testnet was supposed to be the showcase moment for the platform’s smart contract capabilities. Despite being several years late to the smart contract game, Cardano CEO Charles Hoskinson has defended the platform, saying several years were needed to make them bulletproof.
However, with the launch of Minswap, the first dApp on the Alonzo testnet, the frailty of Cardano’s smart contracts was immediately apparent. Minswap was quickly forced to shut down its testnet after a matter of hours when several users interacted with its smart contracts at once.
The Minswap teamed pointed to a “concurrency” issue that restricts the number of transactions per block to one, hence why several interactions were enough to render Minswap unusable. For reference, allowing concurrent interactions with the same smart contract (i.e., >1 txs) is a feature by design of other blockchains, like Ethereum, hosting high-volume DeFi applications.
Cardano uses a modified version of Bitcoin’s UTXO to track user funds that Satoshi likely never envisioned being used as the basis of high throughput concurrent transaction processing. In contrast, both Ethereum, Solana, and nearly all other layer one blockchain platforms use an account-based model enabling multiple users to interact with fully on-chain decentralized apps simultaneously.
At the moment, the Cardano community is calling the concurrency issue FUD. But with smart contracts going live to Cardano mainnet on Sept. 12, the world will know soon enough whether Cardano has a real issue on its hands — or not.
🎤 Steph Curry is OFFICIALLY an FTX ambassador
First, Steph Curry bought a Bored Apes Yacht Club NFT. Minds were blown 🤯
Then, Curry followed up with dropping into the BAYC Discord, asking Crypto Twitter for financial advice — and finally, becoming an FTX ambassador and equity holder.
Those are serious moves into the crypto space from an NBA legend prone to making the right calls. It also comes on the heels of FTX’s previous ambassador + equity deal with Tom Brady.
Clearly, FTX recognizes crypto has long had a marketing problem. Despite the abundant wealth within our ecosystem, getting crypto out front and center amongst the masses has been trying.
FTX’s strategy of partnering with some of the most visible athletes in the world is not only bold but seems to be working, too. Just months ago, FTX was at best a top 15 spot exchange. Now it’s entrenched in the top 5 along with Binance, Coinbase, Huobi, and Kraken 😤
✂️ BTC gets a $10K haircut
🙅♀️ Cardano smart contract testnet fail
💥 Steph Curry is the new face of FTX
🥊 BTC loses $10K in a single candle
Every now and again, BTC is subject to what's called a flash crash.
For the uninitiated, a flash crash is an absurdly aggressive price drop usually triggered by an overleveraged market. They’re always harrowing to witness, and definitely a rush.
The lead-up to today’s flash crash saw market-wide bullishness with peak vibes going off everywhere you looked.
❌ Reese Witherspoon tweeted about buying ETH
❌ NFTs punched way above their weight on OpenSea
❌ El Salvador sat on the brink of BTC adoption
❌ Apes longing longs driving an overheated market
All of that, paired with BTC unable to convincingly pierce resistance, led us to speculate in our previous update that the market would imminently correct. Now that we’ve seen some of the froth come off, where to from here?
Analyst dave the wave impressively called this BTC top — along with the two previous ones. His view is BTC is following a fractal from earlier this year and was due for a drop. His view corresponds with that of S2F boss Plan B who earlier this summer called for $43K BTC in September.
As a reminder, Plan B’s S2F model is predicting $100K BTC at a MINIMUM before 2022. We tend to believe it 😎
😅 Cardano’s smart contracts fail in testnet
Cardano’s Alonzo testnet was supposed to be the showcase moment for the platform’s smart contract capabilities. Despite being several years late to the smart contract game, Cardano CEO Charles Hoskinson has defended the platform, saying several years were needed to make them bulletproof.
However, with the launch of Minswap, the first dApp on the Alonzo testnet, the frailty of Cardano’s smart contracts was immediately apparent. Minswap was quickly forced to shut down its testnet after a matter of hours when several users interacted with its smart contracts at once.
The Minswap teamed pointed to a “concurrency” issue that restricts the number of transactions per block to one, hence why several interactions were enough to render Minswap unusable. For reference, allowing concurrent interactions with the same smart contract (i.e., >1 txs) is a feature by design of other blockchains, like Ethereum, hosting high-volume DeFi applications.
Cardano uses a modified version of Bitcoin’s UTXO to track user funds that Satoshi likely never envisioned being used as the basis of high throughput concurrent transaction processing. In contrast, both Ethereum, Solana, and nearly all other layer one blockchain platforms use an account-based model enabling multiple users to interact with fully on-chain decentralized apps simultaneously.
At the moment, the Cardano community is calling the concurrency issue FUD. But with smart contracts going live to Cardano mainnet on Sept. 12, the world will know soon enough whether Cardano has a real issue on its hands — or not.
🎤 Steph Curry is OFFICIALLY an FTX ambassador
First, Steph Curry bought a Bored Apes Yacht Club NFT. Minds were blown 🤯
Then, Curry followed up with dropping into the BAYC Discord, asking Crypto Twitter for financial advice — and finally, becoming an FTX ambassador and equity holder.
Those are serious moves into the crypto space from an NBA legend prone to making the right calls. It also comes on the heels of FTX’s previous ambassador + equity deal with Tom Brady.
Clearly, FTX recognizes crypto has long had a marketing problem. Despite the abundant wealth within our ecosystem, getting crypto out front and center amongst the masses has been trying.
FTX’s strategy of partnering with some of the most visible athletes in the world is not only bold but seems to be working, too. Just months ago, FTX was at best a top 15 spot exchange. Now it’s entrenched in the top 5 along with Binance, Coinbase, Huobi, and Kraken 😤
Twitter
Reese Witherspoon
Just bought my first ETH! Let’s do this #cryptotwitter
Stacked Insights Newsletter, 09.10.21
✂️ Solana is the real deal
🙅♀️ Bored Ape NFT collection nabs $24M
💥 Mastercard takes big step toward crypto
🤴🏻 Solana gains clout and value — how high can it go?
The Solana hype has hit new levels in terms of price AND mindshare. Let’s address both.
Last night, SOL crossed the $200 barrier with absolute ease. It’s clear buyers are targeting much higher, and they’re not wrong. Looking just ahead of SOL on the charts, BNB and ADA are still billions ahead, giving Solana bulls clear targets.
If you’re looking for a parallel, look to the BNB run earlier this year. From January to May, BNB melted upwards, going from $40 to $661. Where will SOL stop? For clues, let’s turn to the mindshare aspect.
The early narrative around Solana was its connection to/support from the Sam Bankman-Fried FTX + Alameda empire. If you’re growing a new crypto ecosystem, it obviously doesn’t hurt to have staunch support from someone in possession of a money cheat code.
After all, who can forget this EPIC tweet that captures SBF’s conviction 😂
Since then, Solana matured, held hackathons, raised $300M, and started hosting DeFi apps/protocols like Mango Markets, Raydium, and Solanart. Suddenly, investors realized there’s finally a live alternative to Ethereum.
What’s more, Solana development is mostly done in Rust, a widely-used programming language. Compared to Ethereum’s esoteric Solidity lang, Rust is already part of many a dev’s skillset — especially those building on Polkadot.
The excitement surrounding Solana has led to a breakdown in blockchain maximalism as the true beginnings of a multichain future appear. If SOL bulls take aim at the #3 spot inhabited by ADA, prices will reach well north of $300.
🦍 Sotheby’s Bored Ape YC sales smashes estimates
Sotheby’s highly anticipated auction of 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs sold for $24M, decimating the firm’s $16M estimate. At about $250K per Bored Ape, someone out there paid a steep premium well above the going secondary market rate.
Recently, BAYC NFTs have averaged ~$160K per, but it’s doubtful the Sotheby’s buyer is overly concerned with the price discrepancy. If they part the collection out, rare apes included in the package will more than make up for the ground lost on more common ones.
But given the rapid appreciation of NFTs overall, coupled with the view that Bored Ape YC is the Ethereum to CryptoPunk’s Bitcoin, it’s likely the BAYC floor will quickly eclipse $250K anyhow.
Additionally, the auction included six vials of mutant serum and doesn’t account for the value accruing to existing apes via future NFT drops & other BAYC membership benefits. So ultimately, the purchase didn’t require too much analysis for anyone deeply embedded in the NFT game these days.
🏦 Mastercard acquires CipherTrace in bold step toward crypto
Earlier today, Mastercard announced it had acquired CipherTrace, a blockchain analysis and risk intelligence firm. The move enables Mastercard to scan and track cryptocurrencies across blockchains to ensure compliance.
Mastercard’s buy-in might come as a surprise if you haven’t followed the company’s recent statements. Earlier this year, Mastercard declared it was testing USDC stablecoin payments with an eye toward settling them for USD on its network.
Eventually, Mastercard will offer native support for stablecoins and CBDCs but doesn’t expect to do the same for cryptocurrencies like BTC & ETH. Despite those doubts, the CipherTrace acquisition points toward a broader strategy aimed at a range of cryptocurrencies.
✂️ Solana is the real deal
🙅♀️ Bored Ape NFT collection nabs $24M
💥 Mastercard takes big step toward crypto
🤴🏻 Solana gains clout and value — how high can it go?
The Solana hype has hit new levels in terms of price AND mindshare. Let’s address both.
Last night, SOL crossed the $200 barrier with absolute ease. It’s clear buyers are targeting much higher, and they’re not wrong. Looking just ahead of SOL on the charts, BNB and ADA are still billions ahead, giving Solana bulls clear targets.
If you’re looking for a parallel, look to the BNB run earlier this year. From January to May, BNB melted upwards, going from $40 to $661. Where will SOL stop? For clues, let’s turn to the mindshare aspect.
The early narrative around Solana was its connection to/support from the Sam Bankman-Fried FTX + Alameda empire. If you’re growing a new crypto ecosystem, it obviously doesn’t hurt to have staunch support from someone in possession of a money cheat code.
After all, who can forget this EPIC tweet that captures SBF’s conviction 😂
Since then, Solana matured, held hackathons, raised $300M, and started hosting DeFi apps/protocols like Mango Markets, Raydium, and Solanart. Suddenly, investors realized there’s finally a live alternative to Ethereum.
What’s more, Solana development is mostly done in Rust, a widely-used programming language. Compared to Ethereum’s esoteric Solidity lang, Rust is already part of many a dev’s skillset — especially those building on Polkadot.
The excitement surrounding Solana has led to a breakdown in blockchain maximalism as the true beginnings of a multichain future appear. If SOL bulls take aim at the #3 spot inhabited by ADA, prices will reach well north of $300.
🦍 Sotheby’s Bored Ape YC sales smashes estimates
Sotheby’s highly anticipated auction of 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs sold for $24M, decimating the firm’s $16M estimate. At about $250K per Bored Ape, someone out there paid a steep premium well above the going secondary market rate.
Recently, BAYC NFTs have averaged ~$160K per, but it’s doubtful the Sotheby’s buyer is overly concerned with the price discrepancy. If they part the collection out, rare apes included in the package will more than make up for the ground lost on more common ones.
But given the rapid appreciation of NFTs overall, coupled with the view that Bored Ape YC is the Ethereum to CryptoPunk’s Bitcoin, it’s likely the BAYC floor will quickly eclipse $250K anyhow.
Additionally, the auction included six vials of mutant serum and doesn’t account for the value accruing to existing apes via future NFT drops & other BAYC membership benefits. So ultimately, the purchase didn’t require too much analysis for anyone deeply embedded in the NFT game these days.
🏦 Mastercard acquires CipherTrace in bold step toward crypto
Earlier today, Mastercard announced it had acquired CipherTrace, a blockchain analysis and risk intelligence firm. The move enables Mastercard to scan and track cryptocurrencies across blockchains to ensure compliance.
Mastercard’s buy-in might come as a surprise if you haven’t followed the company’s recent statements. Earlier this year, Mastercard declared it was testing USDC stablecoin payments with an eye toward settling them for USD on its network.
Eventually, Mastercard will offer native support for stablecoins and CBDCs but doesn’t expect to do the same for cryptocurrencies like BTC & ETH. Despite those doubts, the CipherTrace acquisition points toward a broader strategy aimed at a range of cryptocurrencies.
Twitter
SBF
@coinmamba I'll buy as much SOL has you have, right now, at $3. Sell me all you want. Then go fuck off.