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Crypto Alpha Recap
04.05.2023: Coinbase launches international exchange. Amazon is set to launch its NFT marketplace. Axelar introduces General Message Passing. Sui Network officially launched on mainnet.
The surge of meme coins continues as Pepe and Floki got listed on Binance. Bitcoin dominance is still near ATH and hovering around the $29K level, as ETH is flirting with $2k. The Dollar is near a multiyear low as gold is about to make a new high.
Macro: The Fed unanimously decided to increase interest rates by 25bps, pushing the benchmark rate above 5%. This marks the first occasion since August 2019 that the target rate surpasses headline inflation. Powell emphasized that a rate reduction in 2023, as anticipated by the markets, is not included in the present outlook. Based on market pricing, the odds of a rate cut at the next FOMC meeting are up to 10% this morning.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls: +253K (estimated +180K); U.S. unemployment rate: 3.4% (estimated 3.6%) U.S. average hourly earnings: +0.5% (estimated +0.3%).
Meme of the Day:
General:
21 token unlocks are scheduled during May, which will release over $794M worth of tokens into circulation in total, according to Token Unlocks data. Optimism will release the largest amount on May 31 with over $329M worth of tokens.
Coinbase launches international exchange for institutional traders outside the US.
Gemini (Winklevoss twins) warns Barry Silbert that DCG is at risk if it cannot repay $630M to Genesis.
Crypto exploiters stole $93.4M from 41 exploits on crypto projects in April — averaging more than one exploit daily.
Hong Kong VC firm launches $100M blockchain fund.
DCG’s CFO steps down as crypto conglomerate repays $350M loan. Revenue is up 63% in Q1 2023 compared to the previous period.
Liechtenstein adapts blockchain laws to develop the crypto landscape.
Payment infrastructure company Stripe introduces fiat-to-crypto onramp.
DeFi:
Sui Network officially launched on mainnet. Initial supply is 5.24%, with 54% held by market makers and 40.5% by users. Public sale investors have had a return of more than 12x.
Curve Finance deployed its highly anticipated native stablecoin called crvUSD on the Ethereum mainnet.
Sommelier is going multichain (Arbitrum vaults) with Axelcore and its newly-minted Cosmos General Message Passing. Axelar's GMP supports a new generation of cross-chain applications combining Cosmos and EVM's best.
Liquid staking solutions (LSDs) such as Lido and Rocket Pool now have more total value locked (TVL) than decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
Wormhole introduces Connect: Integrate In-App Bridging in as Few as 3 Lines of Code. Drift Protocol, a Solana-based DEX, integrates Connect to enable users from various blockchains to participate in their markets.
GammaSwap, a DEX enabling perpetual leverage trading on any token, opened its beta testnet to the public.
Neutra Finance has introduced the nUSDC Vault on Arbitrum, employing a delta-neutral approach to produce high returns.
Yearn and Coswap present Dump Services - dump multiple tokens in one tx.
NFTs:
Magic Eden to refocus on Solana after upstart Tensor briefly takes its NFT marketplace crown.
Blur NFT loans surpass $16M in loans.
Amazon is set to launch its NFT marketplace by May 15.
Bitcoin Ordinals surge to 3M inscriptions. Over $8M in fees have been paid.
Sidenotes:
Astaria introduces beta launch with an NFT lending platform.
Eigen Labs provide updates on EigenLayer mainnet launch.
Argent launches the Starknet Xplore campaign.
ConsenSys’ L2 Linea adds loyalty NFT campaign to drive adoption.
Aave is live on Scroll testnet.
MoonPay pushes into retail space with new crypto app.
Rocket Pool DAO has proposed to reduce RPL emissions from 15% to 2%.
Funding:
FARE Protocol has raised $6.2M in a seed round led by Goat Capital – the firm managed by Twitch founder Justin Kan – and C Squared Ventures.
Entendre Finance raised $4M in seed funding.
Tangem AG, a leading provider of secure hardware wallet solutions, has announced an $8M investment round.
Credibly Neutral, a new crypto venture capital firm, has raised $5.5M from several investors, including Solana and Polygon's co-founders.