Today’s thought of the day relates to the founder of Waves blockchain going on Twitter saying that his project’s token did not need futures markets and asking derivatives exchanges to delist the token as it is a breeding ground for FUD, and making money off short positions. This is interesting because any project that has a token essentially lends itself to financial games. Tradable assets are inherently speculative assets. You buy something with the expectation that you’ll at some point in the future be able to sell it to someone else at a higher price. That’s why everyone is here, because of the financial incentive. Futures markets let you do this in both directions, when price goes up AND down. So what’s right and wrong? This is part of a bigger conversation about the ethical role of futures markets in trading and the crypto market.
On one hand, futures markets have the potential to bring several benefits including increased liquidity, risk management, and improved market efficiency.
On the other hand, when profit is the incentive, you inevitably run into instances of market and price manipulation, where traders manipulate futures markets through practices such as spoofing or wash trading, which can harm other market participants and undermine the integrity of the market.
Daily Bullets:
- SBF signed extradition papers to return to the United States from the Bahamas
- A creditor committee presented a plan to resolve the Genesis and DCG liquidity issues
- Waves founder asked derivatives exchanges to disable $Waves token futures trading
- Bitcoin miner Core Scientific filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
- 3Commas denies accusations of leaking API data resulting in $14.8M in unauthorized trades
- Paxful marketplace removes ETH from platform claiming it has become a digital form of fiat
- Ankr aBNBc Token exploit due to a former team member inserting a malicious code package
- Market maker Auros defaulted on a $7.5M loan it took on Maple Finance lending protocol
- Free, playable, interactive mint experience for BAYC and MAYC holders coming January
- NBA Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen’s 1,000-piece NFT collection sold out in 77 seconds
Data:
TL;DR: Wave’s algorithmic stablecoin, USDN has de-pegged on multiple occasions this year with the most recent de-peg after an "investment warning" from South Korea's Digital Asset Exchange Association. Currently USDN is trading at about .50 cents. The Waves token itself is sliding to the depths of hell on all 3 pairs: USD, ETH and BTC. Waves is down 97% from its all time high which was just in March of this year. There’s also the announcement by the Waves founder that they’ll be launching a new stablecoin. Better luck next time?
USDN Stablecoin Depegged:
Waves Heading to Tartarus:
Now for a more expanded and detailed look at the day for those who like detail and sources…
Crypto News:
- SBF signed extradition papers to return to the United States from the Bahamas, a week after he was criminally indicted by a federal grand jury
- A creditor committee, which includes Gemini, presented a plan to resolve the Genesis and parent company Digital Currency Group’s liquidity issues, and to provide a path for the recovery of assets
- FTX has over $1B in cash. $720M in unconsolidated cash assets, $500M being held in U.S. institutions already
- Core Scientific, one of the world's largest publicly traded bitcoin miners, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Estimated assets and liabilities are between $1B and $10B. Still generating positive cash flow but not enough to repay debt owed on the Bitcoin mining equipment it leases
- 3Commas denies accusations of leaking API data resulting in $14.8M in ‘unauthorized trades’
- Elon Musk to resign as Twitter CEO and will only run software and server teams. Doge slumping
- Neobank Cogni debuted an in-app noncustodial wallet that aims to complement its existing banking services by enabling its users to take self-custody of their crypto after a KYC process
- Cryptocurrency trading firm Auros Global had $20M exposure to FTX, plans to resume regular operations after implementing a restructuring plan
- Announcing the 2023 ETHGlobal Season
Economic/Government/Regulatory:
- UK’s advertising regulator banned Facebook promotions for NFTs from Crypto.com and Turtle United which ran in July due to failing to explain the risks of investing in NFTs as well as not properly laying out transaction fees
- Cryptocurrency regulation in Brazil is poised to become law aiming to regulate providers of virtual assets
- Bitcoiner and podcaster Peter McCormack to pay Craig Wright, the Australian scientist who claims to be Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, around $1.1M in costs following their legal battle
Exchange News:
- Waves founder Sasha Ivanov implored exchanges such as Binance, Kraken and KuCoin to disable waves token futures trading to stop traders from shorting the protocol’s native token, amid a 40% decline in its price over the last two weeks
- Binance reportedly used by a Mexican-based internationally-operating drug cartel to launder millions of US dollars - and the exchange helped the authorities identify the suspects
- Coinbase registered with the Central Bank of Ireland as a Virtual Asset Service Provider
- Veles Finance, a no-code platform to build automated trading bots, is officially integrated with Huobi
- Australian crypto exchange Swyftx and share trading and superannuation platform Superhero canceled their planned $1B merger due to the government turning up the regulatory heat on the crypto industry
- Binance will remove and cease trading for: ANC/BNB, ANC/BTC, ANC/USDT, MIR/BTC, MIR/USDT, TORN/BTC, TORN/USDT, YFII/BTC
DeFi News:
- Peer-to-Peer crypto marketplace Paxful removes ETH from platform claiming ETH has become a digital form of fiat thanks to its switch to proof-of-stake
- Ankr aBNBc Token exploit: a former team member inserted a malicious code package. The team is working with law enforcement to prosecute this former member
- Crypto market making firm Auros defaulted on a $7.5M stablecoin loan it took on the Maple Finance lending protocol. Auros filed for bankruptcy protection last month after losing $20M on FTX
- SafePal, one of the leading crypto wallet developers, has integrated support for The Open Network (TON). SafePal users will now be able to store and send the native $TON token within their hardware and software wallets
- Avalanche Core integrated Coinbase Pay, giving users more ways to deposit cash to convert to crypto for use on Avalanche, Ethereum, and many other blockchain networks
NFT/Gaming/Metaverse News:
- Former Chicago Bull and NBA Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen’s 1,000-piece NFT collection sold out in 77 seconds
- Jimmy the Monkey - Free, playable, interactive mint experience for BAYC and MAYC holders coming January
- Web3 gaming company Metaverse Game Studios announced the launching of Angelic on Immutable X. Metaverse Game Studios is established by the developers of prominent games, including Diablo, League of Legends, and Far Cry
- Lamina1, the metaverse-focused layer 1 blockchain is launching the Lamina1 Ecosystem Fund (L1EF) to provide Web3 builders with a capital-raising tool for their open metaverse ventures
Fundraises:
- Utopia Group raised €10M, in a deal led and advised by Asterius VC, for the launch of its first collection of NFTs, Utopia Avatars - @UtopiaAvatars
- NFT display and interaction hardware provider Viide raised $1M in the seed round with a valuation of $15M from a group of investors that included JDI venture, LYVC, and the founder of Canaan - @OddOwlClub
- Tonsnipe $100,000 private seed round to build a Token presale tracking and NFT aggregating platform on the Ton Blockchain led by Slowave - @tonsnipe
Early Stage Projects:
- Y2K Finance - Official TGE launch of $Y2K (and $vlY2K)
- Social Coop Limited, an entity affiliated with Mask Network, a protocol that allows users to send encrypted messages and cryptocurrency transfers across social media, acquired Pawoo.net, one of the largest instances/servers on social media site Mastodon. Japan-based Pawoo is the second largest instance, which is another term for an internet server, on Mastodon with around 800,000 users
- Texture Flash Loans on Solana live
Research/Reads:
- Decrypt’s 2022 Crypto Project of the Year: Polygon - source
- Crypto Startup Ideas 2023 Edition - source
- HashKey Capital: What are the opportunities for WEB3? What is the difference between WEB3 and WEB2 - source
- 4 legislative predictions for crypto in 2023 - source
- The Block - 2023 Digital Asset Outlook - source
- DeFi Ecosystem Landscape report - source
- The Staking Ecosystem Report - source
- Optimism 2022: Year in Review - source
- NEAR Foundation Transparency Report : Q3 2022 - source
Crypto Twitterverse:
1/3 Over the past couple of weeks a number of @3commas_io users have reported unauthorized trades on their CEX accounts.
3Commas blames it on “phishing” but I now have verified a group of 44 victims who’ve had $14.8m in total stolen.
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt)
Dec 20, 2022
1/ We all love #GMX, but there’s some stuff you should know:
1. The $GLP price and AUM value is wrong.
2. Delta Neutral Strategies built on GMX are potentially at risk.Here’s the proof...
— Batch Brew Coder (@BatchBrewCoder)
Dec 20, 2022
Clarifying on this issue
GMX contributors received a report on Immunefi that there were at times a deviation of the price of GLP from the price it should be at
1/n twitter.com/BatchBrewCoder…
— GMX 🫐 (@GMX_IO)
Dec 21, 2022
Some cool charts from BlackRock's 2023 Global outlook 👇
1/
— Alex (@thiccythot_)
Dec 20, 2022
1/ End-of-year review of algorithmic stablecoins 🧵
— Ignas | DeFi Research (@DefiIgnas)
Dec 21, 2022
Did we miss anything or is there anything you want to discuss? We’d Love to hear your feedback and engage with the community! Feel free to leave a comment and let us know your thoughts on the Crypto market!
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