Wrapped Bitcoin
$WBTC
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FIGURE: PEPE UNSHETH-ING ITS ETH TO SOLVE MULTIPLE DEFI PAINPOINTS Since the Beacon Chain launch in Dec 2020, Ethereum users could stake bundles of 32 ETH to secure the network in exchange for priority fee rewards. While these staked ETH[1] are ‘productive,’ many have opted against staking given its operational complexity and illiquidity. Liquid staking projects solve for this by managing validator uptime and offering liquid staking derivatives (LSDs) to...
ADJUSTING TO A POST-FTX WORLD A couple of weeks ago, we discussed several critical risk vectors remaining in the market and provided our take on each matter. Our near-term view was that it was more likely than not that most of the contagion from the implosion of FTX had been sifted through, but due to the unknown status of Digital Currency Group, investors might not be getting paid enough for...
RISK ASSETS RETREAT (FOR NOW) After several consecutive weeks of bullish price action across risk assets, we have seen markets pull back on both technical exhaustion and underwhelming global economic data. As we write this note, the global crypto markets have retraced 7.0% over the preceding 24 hours, with the most substantial drawdown occurring in the overnight hours upon the opening of equity markets in Europe. Ongoing concerns over the...
INFLATION EASES, MARKETS RIP The collective world briefly exhaled this week as inflation showed its first signs of cooling in nearly a year. On Wednesday, CPI surprised to the downside, as energy prices showed a month-over-month (MoM) decline for the first time since April. Topline CPI was 8.5%, below the consensus forecast of 8.7%, and lower than the 9.1% figure in June. The CPI basket was unchanged MoM, as the...
NOT-SO-PRIVATE KEYS This week started with a pair of high-profile exploits – the first of which came in the form of a bridge hack, as interoperable bridging protocol Nomad was hacked for $200 million. Ironically, the vulnerability appeared to stem from a known bug highlighted in a previous audit. Despite this, the Nomad hack furthered widespread skepticism surrounding multichain bridge security. To seemingly one-up Monday’s hacker, an entity on Tuesday...
FIGURE: GHO LAUNCHING AMIDST THE BLOWUPS AROUND IT Seeing the CeFi realm blowing up around us, it is perhaps pertinent to reflect and hammer the lessons into our collective crypto consciousness. Drawing from CeFi, DeFi and Everything in Between, it is clear now that Celsius, BlockFi, and Voyager Digital function as ‘CeDeFi,’ similarly to TradFi banking entities and are prone to the same weaknesses such as position opacity and human...
THE BLOODBATH The bloodbath that has persisted for the better part of the past seven months continued this weekend, with the market shedding an additional $200 billion in total market cap, falling below the $1 trillion mark for the first time since late 2020. Yesterday was the single biggest decline for bitcoin (-16%) since March 2020. At the time of writing (early morning hours of June 14th), there have been...
