May 20
Weekly DeFi Report-Goblin Town v2
2022–5–20
Summary
Crypto continues to consolidate and holding up relatively well despite volatility backdrop in macro. Consensus of ‘sell the rip’ continues. It’s also worth noting that put/call ratio for Bitcoin open interest hit a 12-month high of 0.72, indicating bearish sentiments among investors. Funding remains choppy around zero, further reinforcing market indecisiveness.
Entry from TradFi incumbents into crypto continues. Just last week, Nomura confirmed their first-ever trade of crypto derivatives and said that they will be establishing crypto subsidaiary; Meta filed trademarks indicating crypto and digital payment systems, just after trialling NFT integration on Instagram, its subsidiary; Robinhood is entering into DeFi space as well.
In the last 7 days:
- Outperformers in the Top 100 (aside from non-UST stablecoins): SOL (+17%), ATOM (+16%), XMR (+21%), HBAR (+19%), EGLD (+18%), MANA (+56%), ZEC (+22%), KLAY (+26%), GRT (+19%), ENJ (+20%), GALA (+23%), CHZ (+27%), LRC (+25%)
- Underperformers in the Top 100: DFI (-5%), HT (-1%), LUNA (-89%), QNT (-7%), CVX (-13%), WAVES (-4%), OSMO (-6%), CELO (-11%)
In the DeFi space, TVL numbers are mixed across chains but largely in line with underlying token prices. Tron (+17%) and Solana (+6%) have seen increase in TVL, whilst Avalanche (-9%) and Fantom (-27%) have seen drops in their TVL. In terms of activities, headlines and actual activities remain
Next up: deep dive
Robinhood to launch DeFi Wallet
- More about the wallet: Robinhood announced at Permissionless Conference that it would be launching a Web 3 wallet in the form of a standalone application from Robinhood’s existing stock and crypto trading platform, with functionality similar to other non-custodial wallets such as Metamask.The launch is expected to be at the end of the year. What could really be attractive is that the firm plans to cover gas fees (!!!) by engaging with third-party liquidity providers and that Robinhood would not be taking profit cut in the short-term while it tries to break into the market.
- Robinhood & Crypto: Robinhood has been one of the first major stock brokerages to offer crypto trading; most recently, FTX announced that its founder (SBF) acquired 7.6% stake in the company, and that its US entity (FTX.US) would be expanding into zero-fee equities trading whilst not taking payment for order flow unlike Robinhood, and also allow retail investors to buy stocks with stablecoins such as USD Coin.
StarkGate Alpha Goes Live on Mainnet
- What is StarkGate (not Stargate): StarkWare’s first version of StarkNet bridge, which allows users to bridge ETH (for now) between Ethereum and StarkNet. Currently, the Alpha on Mainnet has 2 limitations to reduce the risks involved, including bridge TVL and maximum amount in each transaction from L1 to L2
Ernst & Young deploys supply chain tracking on Ethereum Layer 2
- What’s the deal: EY launched new supply chain traceability and inventory management solution on Nightfall, a Layer-2 Ethereum blockchain developed in conjunction with scaling solution Polygon
Coinbase enters liquid staking competition
- What’s the deal: Alluvial, the software development firm developing the liquid staking protocol, has collaborated with Coinbase Cloud and Figment to build the first enterprise-grade liquid staking protocol. Currently, the top liquid staking service providers are Lido (behind stETH), which pretty much has a monopoly over ETH liquid staking (85%). Can Coinbase pull a USDC in this nascent market?
Following: Big Money Raises
Nansen acquired Ape Board for undisclosed 8-fig sum
- More about the acquisition: Nansen acquired Ape Board, a tool that allows users to track their portfolio across a very comprehensive set of blockchains; Ape Board will become the starting point of a new free-to-use portfolio tracker that will be integrated with rest of the Nansen’s features
