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Crypto Alpha Recap
01.05.2023: Circle introduce CCTP. JP Morgan buys First Republic Bank. Coinbase sues SEC. Blur is introducing a lending protocol. Magic Eden announces AMM.
A dull week is behind us. Only meme coins like Pepe captivated the mindshare of the market - up 4158% in 2 weeks at over $500M market cap now. Unbelievable. It’s still the same PVP as no new money is flowing into stablecoins, there is a steady decline in stables on exchanges, and volumes are decreasing as the price grinds down. The market is short on upcoming narratives. Spot volume in Bitcoin is steadily declining, so retail is no longer steering the ship. As institutions and traders more often use short-term derivatives like futures. Price often gravitates towards these liquidation pools when spot markets no longer dominate market dynamics. We are currently navigating through the $27K liquidity threshold (another one sits at the psychological barrier of $25K).
Macro: The economy is slowing, the financial system is wobbly, and the FED is expected to raise 25bps into a "likely" recession. Friday's data revealed inflationary pressures are still very much present, with PCE and core PCE rising 4.2% and 4.6% YoY, respectively. Meanwhile, the largest bank in the United States is set to expand further. JPMorgan has agreed to purchase First Republic, a transaction encompassing $173B in loans, $30B in securities, and $92B in insured and uninsured deposits. The FDIC and JPMorgan will shoulder the responsibility for any losses while benefiting from potential recoveries related to First Republic's loans.
Meme of the Day:
General:
Solana wallet Phantom is adding support for the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains.
Circle introduces CCTP (Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol). It enables USDC to flow natively across blockchains – unifying liquidity in Web3 and simplifying the user experience.
First Republic Bank plunges to record low as rescue plans prove elusive. After private rescue efforts failed, JP Morgan won the bidding to acquire the bank in an emergency government-led intervention.
ARK and 21Shares file for a spot Bitcoin ETF again.
Due to high prices, crypto entrepreneurs leave Singapore for Bangkok and Hong Kong.
Coinbase sues SEC to demand regulatory clarity on crypto. Cathie Wood's Ark Invest purchased nearly $8.6M in stocks afterward.
Cosmose, valued at $500M, ditch Stripe to adopt Near's crypto solution.
Genesis to enter mediation with creditors to continue restructuring plan.
Binance's $9B VC arm (up from $7.5B last year) keeps growing amid legal battles.
FTX published the fourth in a series of interim financial updates on Friday, showing they spent $86M through the end of March. $67M went towards legal fees.
DeFi:
LayerZero is live on zkSync Era and on Polygon’s zkEVM mainnet.
Wintermute hacker turns $160M heist into top liquidity position on Curve.
The back-end team of Certik audited Merlin rug protocol for $1.8M.
Uniswap surpasses $1.5T trading volume.
Since the Shanghai Upgrade, LSDs saw a $500m inflow, with Frax leading growth at 19%, surpassing 160k $frxETH deposits, followed by Rocket Pool and Lido.
DeFi protocol 0VIX was hacked for $2M in a flash-loan exploit.
NFTs:
Tensor rises to be one of Solana’s most active NFT platforms.
Blur is introducing Blend, a Peer-to-Peer Perpetual Lending Protocol which unlocks liquidity for NFTs.
Tiger Global cuts OpenSea valuation by 76%. It hit a $13B valuation at the height of NFT mania last year and is now valued at just $3B.
Yuga Labs appoints Epic Games and EA veteran as CTO.
Magic Eden announces AMM.
Backpack is now in public beta.
Sidenotes:
Polygon Labs announce bridge for zkEVM.
Dune major revamps with new API.
Ether.fi announce operation solo staker.
Swell is live on mainnet in public beta.
Vertex launches public mainnet on Arbitrum.
Funding:
Credora, a provider of institutional credit infrastructure that straddles centralized and decentralized finance (DeFi), has raised $6M in a strategic funding round that included S&P Global and Coinbase Ventures as investors.
Catalyst said it had secured $4.2M in its latest fundraising to bring liquidity to layer-1 blockchains.
Omni Network, the first interoperability layer for Ethereum, raised 18M from Pantera, Sparan, Hashed, and Jump.
Swedish startup Goals has raised $20M in series A funding to continue developing an NFT-based football game.
Dflow raises $5.5M to bring payment for order flow to crypto.
Thetanuts Finance raised $17M to expand and foster new partnerships.