Sometimes, actually most of the time, it is difficult to distinguish between actual news and trolls in crypto. And so we have Flashbots, a startup that claims to remove the “negative impacts” of Ethereum’s controversial Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) practice, announcing a raise of $60 million at a billion dollar valuation. According to the startup,… Read More Notes 7/29: MEV Funding, Lightning Problems, and Tether Market Cap
Tokenization of securities and real world assets (RWA) is one of the promises of crypto. And tokenizing U.S. treasuries is a low-hanging fruit because the market for such securities is already liquid. According to rwa.xyz, the market value of blockchain-based investment products for treasury bills, bonds, and money market funds into tokens totals $614 million.… Read More Notes 7/17: Tokenized Treasuries, Lido and Binance Rewards
Decentralized finance (DeFi) was supposed to be the savior and next iteration of modern finance. Investors don’t seem to think as much. The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi systems has slumped from a peak of $178 billion in November 2021, when bitcoin price set a record, to $44.5 billion, as of this writing. It… Read More Notes 7/10: DeFi Total Value Locked Declines, Bitcoin Hash Rate Surges
Crypto’s profit-making method has snuck into mainstream markets through the SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisitions Company) crack. The world’s biggest crypto ATM operator, Bitcoin Depot, debuted on NASDAQ Monday and the price of its holding company, GSRM II, jumped by 12% in pre-market trading. Trading markets have low liquidity before they open and small orders can… Read More Notes 7/5: Bitcoin Depot, Ether Prices, LSD Tokens
Bitcoin price was supposed to climb higher today on the back of goods news about Bitcoin ETF filings and an options expiry. But it fell by more than $1,000 this morning to $29,770 this morning after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) deemed the recent bitcoin ETF filings, which were supposed to have pumped the… Read More Notes 6/30: Bitcoin Price Falls, Binance.US Discount, and Ethereum As Commodity
Bitcoin price remains ‘steady’ this morning after more turmoil last week. As of this writing, it is changing hands for $26,753.59, up roughly 1.5% from yesterday. But that steady hand masks turmoil in its ecosystem. Bitcoin Price’s Steady Turmoil According to analytics firm Glassnode, the amount of bitcoin held in illiquid entities has risen to… Read More Notes 6/20: Bitcoin Price Defies Logic and Demand, Ethereum Validator Mystery
For the most part, the relationships and dependencies in cryptocurrencies are make believe trades using worthless tokens. But they offer a good blueprint for how dubious assets can carve a path into the financial system and cause a crisis. The latest example of this comes from the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. Liquid staking platforms and… Read More Notes 6/16: LSD Tokens
It is time to take out the popcorn. The New York Attorney General’s office has handed documents related to its 2021 settlement with stablecoin issuer, Tether, to CoinDesk. The publication is said to be “reviewing” the documentation. Tether has never submitted its finances to a comprehensive audit; instead, it published attestations – snapshots of its… Read More Notes 6/16: Tether Documents, Ether As An “Other” Token, and Bitcoin ETFs Again
Slightly more than a month after Ethereum enabled withdrawals of staked ether on its platform, the landscape for staking presents a rosy picture on the surface. The numbers of staked ether and platforms offering staking services has multiplied. Ether’s staking yield, which was expected to decline after withdrawals, popped after the event. Underneath, however, the… Read More Ethereum Staking After Withdrawals
The end times are nearing for cryptocurrencies. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a case against Binance.com, the crypto world’s biggest exchange by trading volume, this morning. In response, crypto markets crashed. The magnitude of Binance’s operations became immediately evident. Bitcoin price, which had stayed above $27,000 over the weekend, fell below $26,000 after… Read More Notes 6/5: Bitcoin Price Crashes after SEC Filing Against Binance, Ethereum Staking
While the crypto world’s attention is transfixed by the decline in bitcoin price, Ethereum’s native token, ether, is quietly undergoing its own price spiral. According to analytics firm Glassnode, ether balances at exchanges are at their lowest level since 2016. The firm says that only 14.85% of all ether was held in wallets at… Read More Notes 5/26: Ether Supply Problems
When it was launched, Ethereum had a simple vision. It was to be a smart contract platform with low fees that settled transactions occurring on other applications. That idea is now a corporate money-making entity. Investors and stakeholders use the venue to boost staking rewards and prices for worthless tokens. Examples include the recent meme… Read More Ethereum’s Latest Bad Idea: Restaking
Lido’s stETH token has a liquidity problem. Lido uses the token to ensure liquidity for staked ether locked at validators. Thus, stETH acts as an ether substitute in transactions on decentralized finance (DeFi) even as the actual token resides inside a staking smart contract. The promise here is that stETH price will mirror that of… Read More Notes 5/24: Lido’s stETH Liquidity Problem
Bitcoin price rallied past the $27,000 mark yesterday morning but is back in the $26,000 range today. As of this writing, the cryptocurrency is changing hands at $26,923, down 1.2% from a day earlier. Amid regulatory crackdowns and investor defections in the United States, there is a sliver of positive news from Asia. CoinDesk reports… Read More Notes 5/19: Bitcoin Price Is Stagnant, Ether Use Cases Dwindle While its Staking Rewards Multiply
Bitcoin price is rebounding after last week’s lows. The cryptocurrency fell below $26,000 over the weekend but has recovered sharply. As of this writing, it is changing hands at $27,428.55, up 1.2% from a day earlier. The cryptocurrency’s price action has defied rational explanations in the past and this time is no exception. Choose Your… Read More Notes 5/15: Bitcoin Price Rebounds, Ethereum Staking Reaches Record Levels, and the Magic of Lido
Bitcoin price rose yesterday after the release of positive consumer price inflation (CPI) data and sparked hopes that it was making another bid for the $30,000 mark. But the slight increase in its price turned out to be false narrative. A familiar one of declining prices took over shortly afterwards. As of this writing, the… Read More Notes 5/12: Bitcoin Price, Ethereum Staking, and Withdrawing Ether from Lido
The average price to commit a transaction on Ethereum shot up amid hysteria for a meme coin last week. It remains high, as of this writing. According to data from online publication The Block, the average transaction price on the world’s second biggest blockchain is $15.63, up from $9.52 a week earlier. The total number… Read More Notes 5/7: Minting Profits from Ethereum’s Problems, Bitcoin Price
In the chill of depressed prices and volatility for cryptocurrency tokens, transaction fees for at the world’s two biggest blockchains, Bitcoin and Ethereum, are red hot. Average fees on bitcoin’s blockchain climbed to $7.25 last week per transaction on the back of frenzied demand for Ordinals – bitcoin’s version of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). A similar… Read More Notes 5/6: As Bitcoin and Ethereum Transaction Fees Spike, Validator and Miner Profits Multiply
In traditional finance markets, May is typically a month to sell and go away. Translated, this means that traders exit markets and prices drop. Before its trading volumes metastasized, crypto was an uncorrelated asset. It bucked conventional trading wisdom and rose in May for some years and fell in line during the others. With their… Read More Notes 5/2: Bitcoin Price in May, Ether’s Fantastic Yields
One of the few success stories of the debilitating crypto winter this year has been a surge in prices and valuations of tokens for staking platforms. Even as prices for top cryptocurrencies crashed, those for staking platforms have zipped higher on the back of enthusiasm for Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade. The upgrade, which enables investors to… Read More The Future of Liquid Staking Derivative (LSD) Tokens
Ethereum’s move from Proof of Work (PoW) to a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus system has slashed its energy usage. It has also boosted profits for stakeholders and validators in its network. A major source of those profits is a controversial algorithmic practice called Miner Extractable Value (MEV). MEV bots employ questionable and illegal tactics… Read More Are MEVs Necessary?