Stacked

2021-08-19 02:12:00 Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.18.21

Market update: JPEG flippers lead the way
Sushi's Miso platform narrowly avoids $350M hack
Robinhood earning call reveals incredible stat

For traders, NFTs are the new altcoins

OpenSea, the definitive NFT marketplace, has just recorded $1 billion in trading volume for August alone — and the month isn't even finished.

The platform's year to date trading volume is up well over 76,000% to indicate the insatiable appetite out there for NFTs. As NFT hype continues exploding past every available metric in existence, it's clear not everyone is in it for the art.

Have you checked in on your favorite Crypto Twitter traders lately? If Punks, Penguins, and Squiggles are clogging your feed, just know those names aren't new altcoins — they're NFTs going for beaucoup bucks.

Big names like @HsakaTrades & Three Arrows Capital's @zhusu are buying NFTs heavily for both short flips and long term investments. After watching Crypto Punks go from little-known crypto art to NYC billboards, Sotheby's auctions, and 40 ETH price floors, it's impossible NOT to search for the next big thing.

Some are eyeing at Larva Labs' (creators of Crypto Punks) other project Meebits. However, for now, Pudgy Penguins and Axie Infinity are hogging the spotlight.

White hat hacker saves Sushi from losing $350 million

White hat hackers have made quite a few headlines lately. A white hat is a hacker who discovers vulnerabilities in code, then alerts the team about them before malicious hackers exploit them.

Late last week, a white hat hacker exploited Poly Network for roughly $600 million in tokens across three blockchains. As of yesterday, all the funds have been returned to a multisig wallet co-owned by the Poly team.

Now, another white hat hacker going by the name samczsun (works for Paradigm VC as a researcher) has just saved decentralized exchange Sushi from being exploited for $350 million.

As samczsun puts it, they noticed the massive $350 million raise for BitDAO on Sushi's MISO platform and dug into the code. Sure enough, they found a major flaw in the code putting ALL of the funds at risk of being stolen.

They alerted the Sushi team who quickly went about patching the flaw and securing the fortune. All in all, samczsun went from discovering the exploit to working with the team on a fix within five hours flat.

You can read samczsun's riveting write up of the events on the Paradigm blog.

Robinhood earnings call drops an incredible statistic

Robinhood just had an Q2 earnings call wherein they shared all the usual stuff — earnings, and so on. Nothing fun in and of itself, except for the insights about crypto trading.

In Q2 alone, 51% of Robinhood's $451 million revenue was generated from crypto trading. Apart from being a great sign of adoption, the amount is significant because in Q1, crypto trading only made up 17% of revenue.

Moreover, just a year ago, crypto trading accounted for a mere $5 million in revenue. Robinhood says this year's surge was caused in large part by DOGE trading, but something else caught our eye...

During Q2, the majority of new Robinhood clients did crypto trades — not equities Is this the flippening no one is talking about?

It just might be Open / Comment

2021-08-17 00:39:37 Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.16.21

Solana giga pumps into top 10 tokens
When Polkadot parachains?
$50K BTC is the target, but greed levels high

Solana is giga pumping — but why?

Solana ($SOL), AKA Sam Bankman-Fried's favorite blockchain platform, is up nearly 100% in the past 14 days and is now a top 10 token by market cap.

As one of Ethereum's top competitors, it's no wonder people are into SOL, but the current run is incredible by any standard. What's fueling the rise?

If you're like the rest of us, you start looking for news when a token pumps this hard. After all, some event, like a network upgrade, has to be behind the move, right?

In Solana's case, there isn't one update or announcement moving SOL. Rather, it's general enthusiasm for the project coupled with big moves in the DeFi sector.

Mango Markets, a Solana-based decentralized exchange touting lightning fast on-chain trading, raised $70 million in exchange for MNGO, its governance token. The Mango Markets effect on Solana's DeFi total value locked has been substantial — Solana now boasts nearly $2B TVL.

$2B is a long way from Ethereum's $80B+, but it's a strong start showing plenty of user demand for Solana. It also happens to be the most DeFi use anywhere outside of Ethereum.

So, suppose you consider that Cardano ($ADA) is currently sitting in the #3 market cap position without even having smart contracts enabled. In that case, the ongoing SOL value re-rating looks less bubbly.

Is Polkadot parachain release incoming?

Polkadot parachain slot auctions were touted as coming AFTER Kusama held its own auctions and implemented them successfully.

Well, Statemine, Karura, Moonriver, Shiden, Khala, and Bifrost are running live on Kusama after easily completed parachain auctions, meaning Polkadot should be all clear. But Gavin Wood, amongst other Polkadot devs, have been quiet about when Polkadot parachains are coming.

Polkadot envisions itself hosting billions, even trillions, in on-chain value. Given such lofty ambitions, you can't blame the team for working to guarantee network stability before going live with parachains.

This tweet by Polkadot plainly states that pending an external audit and the first successful Kusama auction + parachain launch, Polkadot is ready. Both conditions have now been exceeded, but there are still crickets from Polkadot

However, according to this blog post, one the above conditions are met, it's essentially fair game for DOT governance members to enact an on-chain vote that enables parachain auctions.

In other words, Polkadot parachains might launch any day now. We think they'll probably coincide with a rebrand currently underway by Koto. Once parachain auctions are announced, we expect $DOT tokens will experience a re-rating similar to the current $SOL run.

$50K BTC is the target, but greed levels are high

Leveraging market sentiment to inform your crypto trading decisions is a time-tested strategy employed by even the most sophisticated traders.

Sentiment has, time and time again, proven itself a worthy indicator of potential market moves to both the upside and downside.

Currently, the BTC Fear & Greed Index is registering a 72. That's score sits firmly in greed territory and has two noteworthy aspects:

It's acted as a stubborn line of resistance in the past
Greed is approaching ATH levels, usually a bearish signal

A potential conclusion to draw from current market greed paired with BTC's inability to conclusively break $48K resistance is the market might cool off soon. Periods of intense greed upward BTC volatility tend to break downwards but this time might be different. Open / Comment

2021-08-12 23:00:09 Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.12.21

The beginning of Up Only season?
Why crypto doesn't care about congress
Stacked + FTX debut auto compounding returns for lenders

All crypto markets getting SENT

After tense weeks in which crypto was in the crosshairs of US congress and regulators, traders have released a sigh of relief in the form of massive green candles everywhere.

As pointed out in our previous update, BTC firmly broke above the weekly downward line of resistance and is now sailing toward its next test at $48K.

ETH is outperforming BTC by quite some margin at +29% this week. That's well within mooning territory and has much to do with EIP-1559 turning ETH into sound deflationary money. Since the upgrade, nearly 30,000 ETH has been burned from the supply

Want to watch ETH become ultra sound money? Well then look no further than this sleek dashboard —> ultrasound.money

Similarly, DeFi is climbing nonstop & has added $35 billion total value locked since mid July. FWIW, DeFi's all time high is $90B TVL. Right now we're sitting at a solid $80B TVL — we wouldn't bet against a new DeFi ATH incoming this month.

And that all brings us to...the NFT market. Crypto Punk trading volume in the last 7 days alone is $110M+ with Bored Apes, ArtBlocks, and Meebits not too far behind.

All in all, the crypto market is back above $2 trillion and looks primed to climb higher

Why crypto doesn't care what US congress thinks

If Bitcoin rallying above $46K immediately after Senator Shelby of Alabama shot down the crypto amendment didn't quite spell it out, allow us.

Crypto doesn't care about US congress. Why? Because these are decentralized networks, unstoppable assets, and a global community.

We all know the US government is vying for backdoor control of blockchains. The Blockchain Caucus co-chair, US Rep. Bill Foster, said giving the US gov a backdoor is key to acceptance amongst regulators.

Clearly, that isn't going to happen. What's more, it really doesn't matter.

Whether old men in congress approve or not, digital assets will continue trading on uncensorable decentralized exchanges. Developers will continue building decentralized finance protocols and tools that give us what the bankers never could — financial freedom.

So, in this game, the real loser is the US economy shutting its doors to the crypto revolution. We're standing at the forefront of a technological tidal wave. Governments can either ride that wave or fight it, but we all know what happens if you do the latter

Stacked launches auto compounding returns for FTX lenders

If you've been lending on FTX Exchange, you've probably wished for a way to auto compound gains instead of tediously doing so yourself.

At Stacked, we're crypto traders, farmers, and investors too, so we go through the same feels as everybody else — which is why we built the ultimate tool for auto compounding FTX lending returns

All you have to do is connect to FTX Exchange, click the Lending tab in your Stacked Dashboard, then lend from your FTX-connected Stacked account.

From that moment on, your returns start auto compounding while you sleep If you're an FTX.us user, we're launching the same feature for you very soon.

Want to try the auto compound feature out for free right here, right now? Try Stacked for 30 days FREE Open / Comment

2021-08-10 01:07:55 Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.09.21

Crypto amendment shot down at last minute
BTC rallies above $46K, is $50K+ next?
Why NFTs are bigger than DeFi right now

Crypto amendment shot down by Sen. Shelby of Alabama

Tense weekend-long negotiations over the future of crypto in America fizzled in the final hour. Sen. Shelby of Alabama prevented a vote on proposed amendments to the language used in the bill drawn up by a bipartisan coalition of senators.

The amendments would have narrowed the definition of crypto brokers to specifically indicate exchanges, not miners/validators/blockchain developers. But now that Sen. Shelby has nixed the amendment just ahead of Tuesday's vote on the $1T infrastructure bill, America may have just given up rights to the next greatest tech revolution of our lifetimes.

At this point, the only hope remaining for the amendment proposed by Sen. Wyden, Lummis, and Toomey, is if Shelby, an old conservative Republican with deep ties to the banking industry, changes his mind before tomorrow's vote.

Otherwise, because of the broad vagueness of who is/isn't a broker, the crypto industry is likely to build from friendlier countries with fewer tax and surveillance clauses than the US.


BTC on a mission to $50K+?

Bitcoin definitively broke through $45K resistance as all eyes turned to digital assets with US congress intensely debating a controversial crypto bill.

The notion that there's no such thing as bad publicity applies here, as mainstream media mentions of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general are at all time highs. Even though the crypto amendment was eventually shot down by a lone senator, BTC has handsomely profited from the spotlight.

A downward line of resistance holding BTC below $45K marked a line in the sand which, if broken, could send BTC sailing as high as $90K before the year's end. Sure enough, Bitcoin punched through the line in style, hurtling all the way to $46K before pulling back slightly.

With the BTC weekly printing solidly above the downward line of resistance, it's now up to bulls to keep the momentum through to $48K — a staunch line of defense for the bears

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2021-08-06 02:13:10 Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.05.21

ETH is officially a deflationary asset
Chainlink building a revolutionary bridge
Stacked adds one-of-a-kind NFT gaming index

Ethereum EIP-1559 now live & burning ETH supply

For months, the hype about EIP-1559, an Ethereum improvement built into the London upgrade, was all about gas prices.

Gas is currently sitting 45 gwei which, while not stellar, isn't too bad either. But really, the focus on gas costs post EIP-1559 was misguided since the BIG story is that ETH is now a deflationary asset.

In a nutshell, EIP-1559 is slowing the rate of ETH release into the circulating supply. At the same time, a mechanism for burning ETH from the supply is counterbalancing inflation, and sometimes surpassing that it to actually DEFLATE the ETH supply.

It hasn't even been 24 hours since the London upgrade successfully dropped and already, nearly 3,000 ETH has been burned.

Want to watch ETH being burned by the block? Check out this live dashboard tracking the action —> etherchain.org/burn

Chainlink wants to bridge ALL blockchains

Composability is a super important yet poorly understood DeFi concept. Basically, composability in DeFi refers to interoperability between different protocols, like Curve, Aave, and Sushi.

Take Convex Finance for example. Convex is built on Ethereum and gives Curve liquidity providers boosted CRV rewards when they deposit LP tokens on its platform.

Right there, you have stacked plug & play integration amongst Ethereum applications resulting in creative & profitable possibilities for users.

What if you wanted to experience the same level of composability between Ethereum and Solana apps? Right now, you can't do that because Ethereum & Solana can't communicate — yet.

Today, Chainlink announced a bridge called the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) that aims to make different blockchain protocols interoperable.

The key idea is that once blockchains sign on to the CCIP standard, they can work with each other. Chainlink cofounder Sergey Nazarov explains:

“Just the same way that different applications on Ethereum use each other, now, different applications across different chains can use each other."

For instance, in a CCIP world, DeFi apps on Solana can accept Polkadot, Ethereum, or BSC tokens as collateral, and vice versa. Clearly, the DeFi game is only beginning to heat up

Stacked adds one-of-a-kind NFT gaming index

We heard NFTs are kind of a big deal.

So, we took the liberty of working with @fitchinverse, one of the world's foremost NFT experts, to create a truly gifted array of large + small cap tokens providing exposure to NFT game markets and digital land.

Dubbed the NFT Gaming Stack, you can set this index up for yourself within minutes in the Stacked Marketplace.

Right now, the NFT Gaming Stack is holding a bullish basket of AXS, ENJ, GHST, MANA, and SAND.

Axie Infinity is approaching 1 million users, The Sandbox is partnering with Jack Ma owned companies, and Facebook is betting its future on the metaverse.

In other words — please, think twice before fading this index

Try the NFT Gaming Stack along with countless others by getting started for freeee right here stackedinvest.com Open / Comment

2021-08-05 00:43:02 Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.04.21

Crucial updates about the congressional crypto bills
SEC Chair Gensler finally comments on crypto
ETH, NFTs and DeFi take the market higher

Key last minute amendments made to crypto bill

You know how lobbyists are usually a bad thing? Well, there are CRYPTO lobbyists too, and they're currently fighting for our rights.

It's incredible how far the crypto industry has come that now we have people advocating in Washington DC. That's exactly what CoinCenter, a crypto advocacy group supported by everyone from Grayscale to Fidelity, is doing.

Because of these advocates, a bipartisan coalition made up of Senators Wyden, Loomis, and Toomey has introduced an amendment to the new crypto bill about brokers.

As it stands, the crypto bill in congress casts a wide net over most participants in the crypto space by loosely defining who brokers are. If the bipartisan amendment mentioned above is accepted, brokers will EXCLUDE miners, validators, and software devs and instead will narrowly focus on exchanges like Coinbase.

At the end of the day, Coinbase IS a crypto broker. So it makes sense to have them play by the rules applied to brokers. But miners, validators, and devs are clearly NOT brokers by any stretch of the imagination.

CoinCenter is urging everyone with 5 minutes to spare to call your senators and urge them to accept the bipartisan amendment to who is/isn't a crypto broker.

Follow this link to save the future of crypto — you'll reach a human being within 2 minutes of calling

Remember when Gary Gensler looked promising for crypto?

For a second, Gary Gensler seemed like a god tier SEC chairman. He taught classes at MIT on cryptocurrency and had a history of positive, even enlightened, statements about Bitcoin.

So his first focused statements on crypto were awaited with quiet anticipation by many, and now that he's made them, nobody knows quite what to think.

For starters, Gensler says the SEC will aggressively regulate crypto markets using laws they already have. In other words, laws created decades ago to regulate non-digital assets will be applied to decentralized exchanges swapping synthetic assets, digital tokens, NFTs, and so forth

Gensler went on to reiterate that stablecoins might be securities (despite the fact that they're designed to be, uh, stable), and that exchanges are probably dealing in unregistered securities.

On the bright side, Gensler made several positive comments about Bitcoin, calling it a real innovation, and signaling the possibility of a Bitcoin ETF. He also indicated, or rather reiterated, that Bitcoin is not a security.

Some, like Michael Saylor, believe Gensler's comments were positive for Bitcoin and that clear regulations will boost crypto markets. While that may be true, it also looks a lot like the powers that be want to train crypto to act more like traditional finance.

Where do you stand on Gensler's comments?

Ethereum, NFTs and DeFi trading higher and higher

Maybe it was Eminem, Coinbase, Pantera, and an ex Sotheby's CEO all investing in NFT platform MakersPlace. Or maybe it's Ethereum EIP-1559 upgrade on the verge of happening. No wait, could it be Robinhood's HOOD stock going 2x on Nasdaq?

Whatever it is, there's crazy bullish news and sentiment surrounding Ethereum, NFTs, and DeFi.

Platforms like Axie Infinity are approaching the 1 million users mark, Terra Luna's Anchor DeFi savings platform is posting a 20% increase in deposits, and THORChain is bouncing HARD after a series of exploits.

DeFi stalwarts like Compound and Uniswap have also posted double digit gains this week signaling investor confidence is returning to the space after months on the decline.

Moreover, NFT weekly trading volume surpassed $300 million for the first time as platforms like OpenSea did more volume in 2 days than in all of 2020. Open / Comment

2021-08-02 23:51:24 Stacked Insights Newsletter, 08.02.21

Don't skip this special edition

EVERYTHING you need to know about the crypto bills in US congress

US Infrastructure bill

There's an infrastructure bill circulating in US congress right now that you would ordinarily have little reason to scrutinize.

However, this bill ended up with provisions for the cryptocurrency industry unlike any other in US government history. It amends who the Tax Code can call a broker, applying the category to nearly anyone interacting with crypto.

Even if you don't hold crypto but merely validate networks, provide liquidity, or mine — the new provision still defines you as a broker.

Now, why is this a HUGE problem?

Because first, according to the IRS Tax Code, anyone falling under the broker scope must comply by supplying KYC data for anyone they interact with. Second, brokers report to the IRS on a broad set of crypto transactions.

Ultimately, the IRS expects to bank $28 billion from the proposed crypto reporting rules.

Under the proposed new rules, if you're a DeFi protocol or a mining operation, you MUST collect KYC info from anyone using your service.

Clearly, this level of forced surveillance goes against everything crypto, and DeFi in particular, stands for.

The good news? It depends on your perspective

Just hours ago, the NY Times reported that crypto industry lobbyists successfully had the language about brokers narrowed down. Now it specifies them as anyone “...responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person."

In other words, crypto exchanges. Is this a win? It sure doesn't feel like one if decentralized exchanges are, by law, required to collect KYC from us.

Besides, the language is still vague and could be interpreted to mean miners, protocol developers, and a whole host of people building/supporting blockchains.

After all, what is a blockchain besides a means of facilitating digital asset transfers?

Digital Asset Market Structure bill

There's ANOTHER government bill designed to give the Treasury Secretary veto powers over stablecoins and a large say in how DeFi operates.

The Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act was introduced by Rep. Don Beyer out of Virginia. Beyer has made little to no noise about crypto until this bill, so his motivations for suddenly springing a wide-ranging and well-informed digital assets bill are unknown.

Under the bill, stablecoins MUST be permissioned by the Treasury Secretary, otherwise they're illegal to issue and/or use. It's that simple

The bill also goes after anonymity-boosting services found around DeFi products like mixers (the bill calls these "money mule" services). If the bill finds support and is passed, it would likely ban such anonymity-preserving features Open / Comment

2021-07-31 01:06:37 Stacked Insights Newsletter, 07.30.21

This is not a bear market
Crypto memes + influencers on the cover of Fortune
Mastercard going all in on crypto

This is NOT a bear market

Don't let anyone tell you different. Here's why...

The narrative arc of every crypto market downturn is roughly the same.

There's a hefty trend reversal that everyone calls "healthy"
Relief bounces never arrive and the market capitulates
Choppy conditions ensue for months as traders lose interest

We're currently in stage 3, the point at which traders start becoming convinced it's a bear market. The logic for this is simple: they bought into the up only meme, so unless the market goes up, it must be a bear market.

But markets never travel in straight lines — and if you think they do, toggle your chart's time frame. We hear you referencing the similar price action in 2018, and to that we say follow the money.

Follow where the kingmakers like a16z, Coinbase Ventures, and Pantera Capital are investing. Read about the constant deluge of $100M+ funding rounds for layer one blockchains, NFT platforms, and DeFi protocols.

In 2017, a $150M raise was historic. But in 2021, $300M is par for the course. And now worldwide governments & financial agencies are REALLY paying attention to us, hence the regulations raining on our heads.

That means crypto is winning. This is the new internet being built before your very eyes. Any market downturn, especially the one happening now, is well worth staking your financial future on.

Stacked makes it easy to buy the dip like a pro, try us out for free right here

Crypto memelords + influencers land on cover of Fortune

OK, so a lot of crazy things have happened this year and last. So many crazy things that it's easy to feel like crazy things are just normal now.

Case in point, some of Crypto Twitter's most well known memelords, influencers, and trolls have made the cover of this month's Fortune Magazine.

Designed by pplpleasr, the chief meme generator at PleasrDAO, the cover features Crypto Cobain, The Crypto Dog, Hsaka, Aave, Compound Protocol, Sushi, and Three Arrows Capital, amongst others.

Check it out over on pplpleasr's twitter account

Mastercard going all in on crypto

Earlier today, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach dropped an unexpected take during a conference call. Regarding crypto, Miebach said Mastercard "needs to be in this space."

The company is preparing its network for stablecoin support, a move that will give over 1 billion people access to crypto transactions. To make the move reality, Mastercard has so far partnered with stablecoin giants Circle & Paxos to roll out crypto cards.

Besides the obvious bullishness of supporting crypto transactions, the global company also announced Mastercard Start Path earlier this week. Start Path is an incubator program for crypto-focused startups. Open / Comment

2021-07-28 01:13:08 Stacked Insights Newsletter, 07.27.21

What's going on at Binance?
Senate banking committee bashes Bitcoin
The big crypto exchange you haven't heard of

Is CZ getting ready to leave Binance?

There's been a crazy amount of changes happening at Binance — and almost ALL of them are because of regulations.

Regulators in several European countries, the UK, Canada, and Japan have all brought the hammer down on Binance exchange in recent weeks.

Why? Because Binance is a massive global crypto exchange they have no control over. To bring Binance to heel, they've ordered Binance to stop serving residents in their respective countries, amongst other measures.

In response, CZ, the controversial-yet-beloved Binance CEO, is making big changes at the world's largest digital asset exchange, including:

Making Binance a fully regulated financial institution
Potentially stepping down as Binance boss
Reducing max leverage to 20x & removing tokenized stocks

Another of the early changes felt by millions of users is the new daily withdrawal limit for unverified users. It's now down from 2 BTC/day to a tiny 0.06 BTC/day.

Senate Banking Committee's crypto hearing takeaways

So...you probably didn't have much faith that a boomer senator roundtable on crypto would have a positive outcome. Which is good, because you were right.

Today, the Senate Banking Committee headed by Sen. Sherrod Brown made a great many assertions about Bitcoin & crypto at large, including these classics:

"There’s nothing democratic or transparent about a shady diffuse network of online funny money."
"Crypto puts the system at the whims of some shadowy faceless group of super coders and miners."
"Cryptocurrencies: What are they good for? Nothing."

Suffice to say, the Senate Banking Committee has quite a bit of crypto research to do. But jokes aside, these people hold vast amounts of power over the regulations soon to affect digital assets — especially stablecoins.

The fear-mongering surrounding crypto is reminiscent of FUD campaigns from bygone eras, replete with overtones of reefer madness-esque ignorance about the basics of how Bitcoin works.

Thankfully, these were only hearings and give crypto allies like Hester Pierce and Sen. Jon Tester time to outline counterpoints behind closed doors and at later meetings.

Today's Senate Banking Committee hearing is a reminder that the long-dreaded era of crypto regulations is upon us. But as exchanges like Coinbase, FTX, Binance, and Uniswap all get their ducks in a row, we have full faith the transition to a regulated industry will be seamless and drama-free.

Bullish: the biggest crypto exchange you haven't heard of

The crypto space has seen traditional finance enter in droves as legacy institutions place long term bets on digital assets.

So it's no wonder that after Coinbase's $100B valuation and both FTX + Kraken valued at $20B, a cadre of deep-pocketed players wants in on the crypto exchange action.

Enter Bullish, a new $9B crypto exchange headed by former NYSE president Thomas Farley. Bullish is in test pilot phase but is expected to roll out a public version of its exchange product this year.

In early screencaps of the Bullish UI, it looks in line with what we've come to expect from Coinbase, Binance, and the like. Bullish isn't reinventing the wheel here.

However, where the exchange differs is its AMM offering. The Bullish AMM will incentivize liquidity providers to bring assets onto the exchange — though details on how those incentives will work are scant.

Its hybrid central order book + deep liquidity via AMM model is certainly unlike anything else currently on the market. And given it's backers include Block.one and Peter Thiel, we're not the only ones curious about how Bullish will play out upon public launch. Open / Comment

2021-07-27 02:00:06 Stacked Insights Newsletter, 07.26.21

Short squeeze launches BTC to $48K
Amazon poised to accept Bitcoin payments?
Tether execs face criminal investigation

Bitcoin hits $48K during epic short squeeze

Wow, just...much wow.

You literally can't EVER write off Bitcoin. Case in point, BTC just giga pumped from $29K to $48K on near record volume.

A move of this magnitude brings speculators out of the woodwork, all of them giving reasons why the pump happened. Forget all the conspiracy theories — this pump has a simple explanation.

It was a short squeeze, plain and simple.

Willy Woo and Crypto Quant absolutely nailed it by calling out the short squeeze set up as far back as July 23.

The TLDR version of what happened is:

BTC on-chain metrics showed an inbound supply shock (not enough BTC on exchanges to meet demand)
RSI breakout on the daily chart

These co-factors led to an explosive move up as thousands of short positions were eviscerated, creating an epic ride to the moon fueled by the tears of liquidated bears

Is Amazon about to start accepting Bitcoin payments

Just in time for the short squeeze-induced fireworks was a report by City AM, a little-known publication, that Amazon is ready to accept BTC this year.

The report cited an insider at Amazon who stated the company has been quietly adding to its blockchain & digital currency strategy with plans to add BTC payments.

It's likely the report added extra thrust to Bitcoin's largest price swing in months. However, with the 'insider' being unverified, and City AM providing no additional evidence or details, the veracity of the report was instantly in doubt.

Further complicating the matter is Amazon's swift denial of the insider's comments in a follow-up by Reuters. While Amazon's spokesperson said the report was untrue, they signaled the company's stake in crypto by stating:

"Notwithstanding our interest in the space, the speculation that has ensued around our specific plans for cryptocurrencies is not true."

So, whichever way you look at this so-called insider's insights and Amazon's rebuttal, it looks pretty good for Amazon + cryptocurrency in the near future

Tether executives can't catch a break

Tether catches an insane amount of heat from regulators.

That shouldn't surprise anyone because of USDT's position as prime crypto liquidity source. However, iFinex, Tether's parent corporation, has already proven its reserves in court when pushed by NYAG Letitia James.

This time, Tether execs are facing a criminal probe into bank fraud charges Investigators are looking into whether Tether hid its connection to crypto from banks during its formation in 2014.

At the time, Tether was a young startup and banks were FAR less friendly toward crypto than they are now — which is saying lots.

In response to the investigation, Tether execs have said they're working with law enforcement to clear the air.

USDT is still the largest stablecoin in crypto, so the matter is of obvious importance to investors. We'll keep you updated as the situation evolves Open / Comment