Crypto Research

UPDATE ON THE MERGE Despite one of our potential catalysts for the year being struck down this week (the GBTC conversion to spot ETF), the prospects for a 2022 Ethereum remain intact. This weekend, ETH developers will attempt the second of three testnet merges on the path to mainnet Merge. Testnet merges are essentially dress rehearsals for the main event – the Merge of the Ethereum mainnet. The first testnet...

After a surprisingly large amount of funding last week, total deals dropped from 32 last week to 28 this week, and total funding decreased from $1,506M to $519M. Most sectors have declined since last week, with CeFi having the sharpest decrease of $956M to $47M. NFTs decreased from $155M to $5M, and Metaverse/Gaming fell from $103M to $12M. Despite these sector declines, DeFi had its highest funded week in months...

The SPX showed just minor downside follow-through after Tuesday’s reversal but might not immediately weaken down to prior lows ahead of the US July 4th holiday.   As mentioned, prices reversed on cue Tuesday due to a combination of Elliott-wave analysis with Gann analysis which provided price and time targets based on the prior June 16th bottom.  I expect that the next couple days might show prices attempting to stabilize and...

Over the past two weeks, we have seen the bear markets bringing out the worst in digital asset markets. While 3AC exemplified the opacity of CeFi dealings, not all DeFi protocols are transparent and immutable, despite users self-custodying their own funds.  We attempt to define and outline the differences and similarities of CeFi, DeFi, and the grey area in between. CRYPTO DEFI DIGEST: CEFI, DEFI, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

FIGURE: 3AC’S CONTAGION AFFECTING CEFI, DEFI, AND CEDEFI Over the past two weeks, we have seen the bear markets bringing out the worst in digital asset markets. Rumors of insolvency flew rampant in the face of volatility, affecting behemoths that were previously deemed ‘too sophisticated/large to fail.’ Celsius, which we covered in detail in The Tide Pulling Out, was one of the first to waver, fueling fears of contagion in...

Last week we noted that Three Arrows Capital (3AC), a prop shop headed by the once-beloved Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, was on the brink of exiting the industry. Well, if you have been following our daily market updates, you know by now that this did indeed happen, and 3AC unleashed chaos of leverage unwinds on its way out the door. In the past week, we witnessed yet another bout...