Visa Settling Cross-Border Payments on Solana, Coinbase Expands Tender Offer
Market Update
- Equities show mixed performance as oil prices continue their upward trajectory, potentially raising concerns over an inflationary burst. Interest rates are increasing across the board, with a more noticeable spike at the short end of the yield curve. The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) continues to rise, a near-term risk that has been a concern. Regarding macro updates, the next critical data to watch will be the U.S. Services PMI data due tomorrow and China's inflation data set to be released on Friday. Softer U.S. data coupled with more robust Chinese data could be a local peak for interest rates. BTC and ETH are relatively flat on the day. SOL is up over 4%, likely benefiting from Visa's recent announcement to adopt the Solana network (more on that below). Another notable outperformer is DYDX, which has been officially voted by its community as the native token for the dYdX app chain and is likely benefitting from that catalyst.
- Visa is broadening its stablecoin settlement capabilities by supporting Circle's USDC and the high-performance Solana blockchain. This move builds on successful pilot programs with merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei and earlier experiments with Crypto.com to streamline and speed up cross-border financial transactions. In the past, Visa used USDC on the Solana and Ethereum blockchains for efficient fiat payment settlements. The company can now receive and send on-chain funds to merchant acquirers like Worldpay and Nuvei. These acquirers can, in turn, distribute the USDC payments to their merchants, serving as a more efficient alternative to traditional interbank settlements. This step highlights Visa's dedication to utilizing blockchain technology and stablecoins to improve the speed and flexibility of international payments, making it one of the first significant payment companies to adopt Solana for real-time settlements.
- Coinbase has updated the terms of its cash Tender Offer for its 3.625% Senior Notes, raising the Maximum Tender Amount from $150 million to $180 million and extending the offer's expiration date to September 18th. Initially receiving lukewarm interest, the offer has gained momentum, particularly as interest rates have risen. Only $50 million in Notes were tendered originally, but an additional $211 million was tendered following the extension, bringing the total to $261 million. This surge suggests that investors are becoming less optimistic about the upside of Coinbase's debt, possibly due to rising interest rates. Conversely, the move also signals Coinbase management's confidence in buying back what they see as undervalued debt, thereby reducing their financial leverage. The offer stands at $675 per $1,000 in principal, a significant discount below par.
Daily Technical Strategy
Mark L. Newton, CMT
Head of Technical Strategy
ZRX looks increasingly more technically attractive following the success of 0x Protocol having bottomed twice near support at $0.15 which held initially in mid-June, and then on last month's retest in mid-August. Some minor stabilization has been happening in recent weeks. Yet, more strength is necessary to argue that 0x has officially bottomed in a way that can allow for a meaningful uptrend to get underway. Technically, its downtrend has been underway since April but has fallen sharply just since mid-July. In the bigger scheme of things, lows look near, but require a rally back over $0.20 which would bring about a rally back to test and exceed $0.26 on its way to challenge 2023 Spring highs just over $0.38. On the downside, any further pullback should yet again find support near $0.15, but breaches of this level would effectively postpone the rally while 0x tests $0.145, made last December 2022.
Daily Important Metrics
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All metrics as of September 5, 2023 1:18 PM
All Funding rates are in bps
Crypto Prices
| Symbol | Market Cap | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
 BTC | $502B | $25,748 | ↓ -0.53% | ↑ 55% | |
 ETH | $197B | $1,636 | ↑ 0.26% | ↑ 37% | ↓ -19% |
 ADA | $9.0B | $0.2573 | ↑ 0.19% | ↑ 4.24% | ↓ -51% |
 DOGE | $9.0B | $0.0639 | ↑ 1.30% | ↓ -8.83% | ↓ -64% |
 SOL | $8.3B | $20.38 | ↑ 4.80% | ↑ 106% | ↑ 50% |
 MATIC | $5.2B | $0.5605 | ↑ 1.98% | ↓ -26% | ↓ -82% |
 DOT | $5.2B | $4.25 | ↓ -0.16% | ↓ -2.18% | ↓ -58% |
 LINK | $3.3B | $6.10 | ↑ 0.90% | ↑ 9.79% | ↓ -46% |
 NEAR | $1.1B | $1.13 | ↓ -0.67% | ↓ -11% | ↓ -67% |
Exchange Traded Products (ETPs)
| Symbol | Premium to Nav | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
| GBTC | ↓ -20% | $18.50 | ↑ 0.14% | ↑ 123% | ↑ 68% |
| BITW | ↓ -44% | $12.20 | ↑ 0.08% | ↑ 127% | ↑ 72% |
| ETHE | ↓ -32% | $10.90 | ↑ 2.06% | ↑ 129% | ↑ 74% |
| BTCC | ↓ -0.24% | $4.70 | ↑ 0.43% | ↑ 55% | ↓ -0.31% |
News
QUICK BITS
CoinDesk BitGo Signs Strategic Agreement With Korean Heavyweight Hana Bank The Californian company will develop custody services and security solutions, local media reported. |
Decrypt.co Future Ethereum Upgrades Could Allow Full Nodes to Run on Mobile Phones: Vitalik Buterin Planned Ethereum upgrades including stateless clients will help to decentralize the network, said its co-founder at Korea Blockchain Week. |
MARKET DATA
CoinDesk Deribit Sees 17% Growth in Crypto Derivatives Trading Volume in August, Led by Options Options tied to ether recorded their highest volumes since March of this year, Deribit's Luuk Strijers told CoinDesk. |
Coin Telegraph Tether’s Ardoino says it’s now a top buyer of US Treasury bills, holds $72.5B The amount of exposure places Tether in the top 22 biggest holders of U.S. Treasury bills, ranking above countries lik... |
CRYPTO INFRASTRUCTURE
Coin Telegraph Visa taps into Solana to widen USDC payment capability The global payments firm has expanded its stablecoin settlement capability to include USDC tokens issued on the Solana... |
REGULATION
Coin Telegraph Japanese regulator seeks to scrap “unrealized gains” tax on crypto Financial Services Agency has proposed to change the tax code around digital assets in a bid to free domestic firms fr... |
FUNDRAISING AND M&A
CoinDesk Steve Cohen’s Point72 Ventures Leads $15M Fundraising in Swiss Fintech GenTwo The firm plans to use the funding to grow internationally and develop the company’s financial engineering platform. |
NFTS
Decrypt.co Sorare Launches AR-Equipped 3D Digital Football Player Cards The launch of Sorare's upgraded collectibles comes alongside a global scavenger hunt offering the winner a “once-in-a-lifetime” trip. |
WEB 3.0
Decrypt.co Watch-and-Earn Platform Myco Reveals Community Film Funding Program The Mycolab program will provide 65% of the funding for selected film projects that can raise the first 35% from the community. |
HACKS, EXPLOITS, AND SCAMS
Coin Telegraph Nima Capital goes dark after dumping 9M SNY tokens, community calls it VC rug The VC firm had received a grant from the project in return for locking $40 million worth of liquidity in SYN. ... |
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