Lido Finance Launches v2 Upgrade, Institutional Infrastructure Continue to Attract Funding and Partnerships
Market Update
- Markets saw a retracement as retail sales data for April came in lower than expected, triggering fears of weak earnings from retailers. $SPX and $NDAQ slid 0.3% and 0.6% lower than yesterday's close, while the $QQQ continued its ascent from nearly two weeks ago, up 0.5%. Digital asset markets saw a similar decline, with $BTC dipping below $27k for the second time in the past month, and $ETH trading at $1.8k at time of writing. Of the Top 100, $CFX (+22%), $KAVA (+22%), and $LDO (+16%) have been the top gainers in the past week. Conflux unveiled its regulatory-compliant blockchain sim card, Kava announced its impending mainnet upgrade, while Lido launched its v2 upgrade, expanded on further below.
- Lido Finance, the leading liquid staking protocol on Ethereum, has launched its v2 upgrade. The upgrade allows users to withdraw Ether (ETH) at a 1:1 ratio with staked ether (stETH), streamlining redemption of stETH for its underlying ETH backing it. It is made possible by introducing the Staking Router, which enhances the protocol's modular infrastructure and bolsters the network's decentralization. Over 6.1 million ETH (~$12 billion) is currently staked on Ethereum via Lido. Concurrently, bankrupt crypto lending platform Celsius transferred 428,000 stETH (~$780 million) in what many speculate to be a strategy to regain inaccessible ETH amid bankruptcy proceedings. The firm had previously faced challenges converting their stETH back to ETH due to liquidity issues.
- Despite ~$200m in outflows from digital asset investment products per CoinShares, infrastructure for institutional investors continue to attract funding and partnerships. Crypto service provider Matrixport partnered with custodian Copper to offer its clientele prime brokerage services. Specifically, Copper's ClearLoop product will be able to offer its institutional clients off-exchange settlement. River Financial, a startup offering zero-fee recurring orders, custody, mining, and wallet services, also raised a $35m Series B round. The funding round was led by Kingsway Capital, with participation from Peter Thiel, Cygni, Goldcrest, and Valor Equity Partners.
Daily Technical Strategy
Mark L. Newton, CMT
Head of Technical Strategy
The V2 upgrade for $LDO has resulted in this rallying sharply to test an area of key downtrend line resistance. Following price having bottomed at an exact area of key support based on its relationship to prior February peaks, LDO has outperformed sharply since 5/12/23. While it makes sense that better than average relative strength might occur ahead of the upgrade, there's no saying that the rolling out of the upgrade necessarily constitutes a "sell the news" type event. This area at $2.25 remains quite important for LDO but any act of exceeding this resistance, particularly coinciding with a big increase in volume, could be an important technical catalyst for why prices could push even higher. Resistance above 2.25 lies at 2.66, then $3.34, the latter (if tested) providing much stronger resistance than current levels. Overall, LDO's momentum is improving, but breaking out above its three-month downtrend could serve to fuel an even larger move higher in the weeks to come given improvement in technical structure.
Daily Important Metrics
|
All metrics as of May 16, 2023 12:39 PM
All Funding rates are in bps
Crypto Prices
| Symbol | Market Cap | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
 BTC | $523B | $27,016 | ↓ -1.66% | ↑ 63% | |
 ETH | $219B | $1,820 | ↓ -0.83% | ↑ 52% | ↓ -11% |
 ADA | $13B | $0.3663 | ↓ -1.31% | ↑ 48% | ↓ -15% |
 DOGE | $10B | $0.0720 | ↓ -1.04% | ↑ 2.58% | ↓ -60% |
 SOL | $8.2B | $20.72 | ↓ -3.23% | ↑ 109% | ↑ 46% |
 MATIC | $7.8B | $0.8401 | ↓ -3.43% | ↑ 10% | ↓ -53% |
 DOT | $6.3B | $5.28 | ↓ -1.97% | ↑ 21% | ↓ -42% |
 LINK | $3.4B | $6.66 | ↓ -0.13% | ↑ 20% | ↓ -43% |
 NEAR | $1.5B | $1.65 | ↓ -1.55% | ↑ 29% | ↓ -34% |
Exchange Traded Products (ETPs)
| Symbol | Premium to Nav | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
| GBTC | ↓ -39% | $14.86 | ↓ -0.91% | ↑ 79% | ↑ 16% |
| BITW | ↓ -57% | $10.37 | ↓ -0.77% | ↑ 93% | ↑ 30% |
| ETHE | ↓ -50% | $8.50 | ↓ -2.75% | ↑ 79% | ↑ 15% |
| BTCC | ↑ 0.15% | $4.96 | ↓ -1.78% | ↑ 64% | ↑ 0.62% |
News
MARKET DATA
Coin Telegraph Digital asset market shrinks as fund outflows reach $200M: CoinShares According to CoinShares, digital asset investment products saw outflows totaling $54 million last week. ... |
REGULATION
Decrypt.co EU Finance Ministers Give Final Go-ahead to MiCA EcoFin passed the Europe-wide regulation unanimously, meaning the new crypto rules will become law this summer. |
FUNDRAISING AND M&A
CoinDesk Crypto Mining Data Center Soluna Stock Surges After $14M Investment Deal The investment includes a $2 million loan and $12 million in equity. |
The Block Bitcoin services startup River Financial secures $35 million from Peter Thiel, others River Financial, a startup offering a range of Bitcoin-linked financial services, raised $35 million in a Series B round. The post B... |
NFTS
Decrypt.co Jack Butcher Brings New Riff on Popular Checks NFTs to Christie’s The 152-piece generative series inspired by Twitter verification checkmarks features matching physical prints from master printmaker Jean Milant. |
PRODUCT UPDATES AND PARTNERSHIPS
The Block Optimism plans mainnet Bedrock upgrade for June 6 Ethereum Layer 2 scaling platform Optimism will be offline for up to four hours on June 6 for the Bedrock upgrade. The post Optimism... |
CoinDesk Matrixport Integrates With Copper’s ClearLoop on Prime Brokerage Offerings The collaboration will see Matrixport integrating with Copper’s ClearLoop to offer its institutional clients off-exchange settlement. |
Decrypt.co Polygon-based Crypto Lender Atlendis Taps Fintech Banxa in New V2 Roll Out Uncollateralized lending protocol Atlendis is launching its V2, onboarding publicly-traded fintech Banxa as a new borrowing partner. |
The Block Lido Finance passes vote to activate withdrawals on Ethereum with v2 upgrade Lido Finance has upgraded to version 2, enabling users to withdraw ether from the platform. The post Lido Finance passes vote to act... |
WEB 3.0
The Block Animoca Ventures lead hopes console giants, not ponzinomics, will save web3 gaming One of the world’s most prolific crypto gaming investors hopes the experimentation of behemoths from the mainstream gaming industry will help fuel a recovery in... |
Reports you may have missed
We are finally starting to see some relief in interest rates and the DXY 0.00% following yesterday's FOMC meeting and the Treasury's quarterly refunding announcement. BTC 2.93% has rebounded from yesterday's low of $56.5k and is now trading just above $59k, while ETH 2.16% is attempting to break through $3k resistance. SOL 5.72% has outperformed, gaining 10% compared to BTC yesterday and is now trading just below $140. The market is showing decent breadth...
Risk markets were selling off before today's FOMC meeting where it was unanimously voted to keep interest rates steady. The Fed announced it would be reducing the speed of its balance sheet taper from $60 billion per month to $25 billion per month, a larger than expected reduction. Following the announcements and Chair Powellâs comments, yields turned sharply lower with the US10Y falling 9 basis points while equity indices rose....
We are witnessing a continuation of the recent weakness in crypto markets today, with BTC 2.93% now testing $60k, ETH 2.16% just below $3k, and SOL 5.72% dipping under $130. The broader altcoin market is experiencing even more pronounced declines, with very few names posting a green candle today. The market was pushed lower in the overnight hours following a disappointing debut from the Hong Kong ETFs (more on that below). However, this...
Investors will have a lot to digest this week, including various data releases such as consumer confidence, ADP Employment, JOLTS, and non-farm payrolls. Likely more important is the FOMC meeting and Treasury Quarterly Refunding Announcement (QRA), both set for Wednesday. Equities are gaining to start the week with the $SPY and $QQQ both up approximately 0.30% as the DXY 0.00% (-0.44%) slides after the BOJ intervened to support the Yen against the dollar. Crypto assets are struggling so...
