Crypto Great | Bitcoin | DeFi

2022-07-12 14:03:47 Binance CEO Faces Flak Over “Irresponsible” Uniswap Tweet, Here’s Why
https://bit.ly/3nRPBbb Open / Comment

2022-07-11 12:42:18 ​​Mirror Protocol (MIR)

Mirror Protocol is a DeFi protocol built on the Terra blockchain that enables users to trade synthetic assets that mirror the prices of real world assets.

In our January issue we covered Mirror’s proposal for whitelisting Chainlink Oracles pending a community vote. Late last month, the proposal passed successfully.

Oracle feeds play a crucial role in the DeFi ecosystem, particularly in synthetic assets that are pegged to real-world assets.

For Mirror, the Chainlink integration will upgrade its oracle mechanism to secure the issuance and liquidation of mAssets (Mirrored assets). This mechanism assures any asset data brought on-chain is relayed in a secure and reliable manner.

This will allow more synthetic assets for the Mirror protocol, whether it’s commodities, cryptocurrencies, or even forex pairs.

As Mirror provides more synthetic assets, the platform’s usage should increase in-step, which makes us bullish on the long-term price appreciation of MIR tokens. However, as we covered in last month’s issue, Mirror protocol is still facing some legal issues it needs to resolve, MIR tokens are poised for a pump in price if we see a positive outcome. We’ll keep you updated as the situation evolves. Open / Comment

2022-06-29 15:05:53 Lido (LDO)

Lido is a multi-chain liquid staking solution. It allows individuals to stake through its platform and receive tokens as collateral that can be used in other DeFi ecosystems.

While the broader market has experienced volatility, the Lido token is up over 100% from its February lows. One factor helping boost LDO’s momentum is the rising popularity of liquid staking as we get closer to Ethereum’s merge to Proof-of-Stake.

Prior to liquid staking, token holders had to choose between earning rewards through single staking on the network and removing them from circulation, or putting them to work in DeFi protocols through paired liquidity pools. With liquid staking, investors can benefit from the best of both options by staking tokens to help secure the network along with the ability to earn a yield in DeFi by pledging staked assets as collateral.

If Lido adds multi-chain assets for liquid staking, it could open the door for further price appreciation for the platform’s native LDO token.

Furthermore, as the cryptocurrency ecosystem continues to embrace Ethereum’s transition to Proof-of-Stake, liquid staking is likely to rise in popularity, which may result in further future gains for LDO. Open / Comment

2022-06-21 12:24:00 Celo (CELO)

Celo gives anyone in the world with a smartphone access to decentralized financial services. In early February, the Original Celo Treasury (Ocelot) was announced.

Ocelot is a multisig collective focused on research, development, emerging markets, and community growth of the Celo ecosystem. Multisig wallets are cryptocurrency wallets that require two or more private keys to sign and send a transaction. This makes it possible to sign documents as a group and adds an additional layer of security.

Ocelot has already received 3,000,000 CELO (approximately $10 million) from the Celo Ecosystem Treasury.

With this new funding and focus on development, holders can expect to see more products launched on CELO, which will lead to a resulting rise in users and price. On April 3, Celo proposed to move to a Layer-2 architecture. Celo also proposed a new way of executing that vision: an incentivized testnet for Celo. The incentivized testnet, known as Mezcal, will be launched in three phases.

The Mezcal network intends to spearhead migrating Celo to a layer-2 ecosystem without worrying about Layer-1 consensus.

The move to Layer-2 allows the team to focus on improving Celo’s EVM without worrying about validators or scalability at the consensus and data availability layer.

We’ll share more information on Mezcal in the coming months. This roadmap has the potential to both fulfill Celo’s DeFi for the people mission, and to drastically improve the underlying architecture needed to sustain it. Open / Comment

2022-06-14 11:47:00 Curve (CRV)

Curve Finance is a decentralized exchange optimized for swaps between stablecoins and versions of wrapped bitcoin (wBTC/renBTC). The protocol also gives liquidity providers steady revenue.

In February’s issue we explained how the Vyper contract might act as a potential catalyst for Curve tokens. And last month, Curve passed a proposal to add a new gauge for funding the Vyper smart contract development.

Maximum emissions of 2 million CRV will be directed to the new gauge to award the Vyper Team.

Motivations for supporting Vyper research and development include:
1. Vyper supports around $18 billion in DeFi. Funding it allows for more security in Curve’s contracts.
2. Vyper’s development benefits decentralized protocols beyond Curve. Other notable beneficiaries include Yearnfinance, BadgerDAO, and Lido, among others dependent on Vyper.
3. Anything that improves Vyper improves Curve. Having an open funding source from Curve DAO for its development is like having a research and development budget for Curve.
4. Funding Vyper positions the DAO as a funder of public goods.

We expect that emissions could potentially lead to:
1. Hiring a full-time team.
2. Vyper community grants.
3. Increased awareness by sponsoring events and hackathons.
4. Increasing tooling support.

Curve will collaborate with the Vyper team on determining how the funds will be used similar to its current grant submission template & present it to the Curve DAO for further information on the scope of projects funded. We will continue to update you as these events unfold and remain bullish on Curve’s token price. Open / Comment

2022-06-07 11:57:00 Ren (REN)

Ren Protocol enables users to transfer assets between blockchains without relying on centralized entities.

Last month, the Ren protocol surpassed $10 billion in volume in just under two years. This is a healthy indicator of usage growth on the protocol despite market volatility. It’s what gives us conviction to continue holding Ren for crypto’s next bull cycle.

Impressively, Ren Protocol achieved this colossal sum from just seven supported assets. Once host-to-host (H2H) assets launch on the Ren protocol, we project volume will surge even higher. As we wrote in our January issue, H2H is a new feature that allows Ren to support and bridge almost any asset on any blockchain.

This will allow users to bridge assets between host chains without having to release them first, and will lower both transfer time and fees for users.

RenBridge is even safer now with URL persistence and transaction history, to mitigate orders getting lost in transit. A persistent URL is an address online that causes a redirection to another web resource. Last year we saw a record $14 billion in crypto assets stolen, and with its increased focus on security we expect users to flock to Ren.

Additionally, if you used Renbridge anytime before March 1 you’re eligible to receive 50 million $CAT tokens in your metaversal accounts on Catalog.

In last month’s issue we explained why Catalog could become one of crypto’s biggest spot exchanges.

The first quarter of 2022 has been busy for Ren. As the team continues to build and release products, usage will follow and the price will rise as crypto enters its next bull cycle. Open / Comment

2022-06-01 11:47:00 ​​0x (ZRX)

0x is a decentralized exchange (DEX) liquidity aggregator. 0x is used by Web3’s largest wallet and aggregator protocols, including Matcha, MetaMask, ShapeShift, Zapper, DeFi Saver and many more.

There’s no better way for wallet projects to integrate liquidity, especially cross-chain. And there are a few catalysts in place for the coming years that are going to solidify 0x’s value. When mainstream users join this space, the first stop on their Web3 journey is often these popular wallets and aggregators. This list will continue to grow as projects begin to use 0x once they go cross-chain.

As the mainstream continues to expand, 0x will capture far more of these users. In-fact, this is already happening faster than we expected. Yesterday, 0x announced a partnership with Coinbase to power its new social NFT marketplace. By using 0x Protocol, Coinbase will provide better ways to discover, buy, and sell NFTs at the lowest transaction costs for users.

This will generate major usage of the 0x platform as Coinbase is the second largest crypto exchange in the world with over $200 billion in assets under management. As usage climbs so will the price of ZRX tokens.

Another catalyst we’re monitoring is 0x’s massive volume. Ox has captured market share without any incentives. In fact, on March 17, 0x surpassed $150 billion in all-time volume traded on 0x protocol.

We project that 0x will be the highest volume decentralized exchange within the next five years. It will become the infrastructure layer that other protocols operate on, and because of this, our analysis indicates that ZRX is an undervalued sleeping giant. Open / Comment

2022-05-27 11:47:00 ​​Illuvium (ILV)

Illuvium is both an exploration looter and auto-battler game rolled into one, where gamers can play-to-earn crypto rewards. Essentially, this means that users can explore to find valuable objects within the game, and it also features a strategy-based battle option.

Beta testing on Illuvium is underway, and users are helping developers optimize the game for mass adoption. You can read more about the testing process in last month’s portfolio update. Recently, in an effort to ensure maximized security for the V2 smart contracts, there were two external audits done on the code.

Additionally, Illuvium wants to incentivize its users by consistently working to improve. On March 31, Illuvium’s staking version 2 went live, and the upgrade includes improved features such as better gas efficiency and a refreshed interface.

Despite these advantages, claiming rewards can get expensive. To combat this, Illuvium’s new upgrade reduces the gas fees users pay by allowing them to claim rewards from multiple pools and revenue distributions all in one transaction.

100% of the vault revenue received from in-game purchases and marketplace transactions is distributed back to stakers as ILV. This will keep more value in the ecosystem, and the incentives for staking will drive demand for the ILV token. Open / Comment

2022-05-24 11:07:02 Stacks (STX)

Stacks is a smart contract platform that utilizes the Bitcoin network for security.

Last year, hackers stole $14 billion in cryptocurrency through hacks and security exploits. As security concerns grow in the crypto industry, we believe many users and developers from other platforms will make the switch to a bitcoin-native platform like Stacks.

On March 10, crypto exchange Okcoin announced a partnership with Stacks. The goal of this partnership is to launch Bitcoin Odyssey – a grant program with $165 million in funding. The project also aims to supercharge bitcoin adoption and ensure bitcoin’s place as the go-to blockchain for decentralized applications (dApps).

Ethereum has been the top blockchain for building dApps, but some bitcoin developers want to see that change… Stacks is positioning itself as the platform to get it done

The venture capital-backed project is good news for STX token holders. It means more capital is available to drive bitcoin adoption through Stacks, and as more users begin to use STX, the long-term price and volatility of the token should improve. Open / Comment

2022-05-19 12:24:00 ​​Helium (HNT)

Helium is a decentralized, wireless 5G network that’s owned and operated entirely by its users. Anyone with an internet connection can set up a Helium hotspot to expand the network and earn its native HNT tokens.

Last month FreedomFi, a firmware and hardware producer whose products are used to power Helium’s new token-powered 5G network, raised $9.5 million in a Series A fundraising round.

Some heavy hitters participated in the round, including Samsung’s Next venture arm and Qualcomm Ventures.

FreedomFi will use these funds to scale its decentralized network with Helium and lower the cost of 5G hardware. And while the FreedomFi-powered Helium 5G network is currently much smaller in scale than the original Helium IoT network, it could prove to be much more useful.

There are over 10 billion smart devices connected around the world, and 5G compatible ones are growing at a 100% annual growth rate.

If hardware costs drop, and HNT token rewards provide enough incentive to justify the initial buy-in, then the expansion of this decentralized 5G network could be immensely valuable. Seeing tech giants actively engaging and investing in Helium is validation of the project’s vision. This activity also furthers our conviction to hold HNT tokens for higher prices. Open / Comment