Crypto Research

FIGURE: GMX BLUEBERRY CLUB MEMBER AND STFX PEPE ATTRACTING RETAIL LIQUIDITY TO THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE UNDER THE GUISE OF EDUCATION In our last issue of DeFi Digest (On Tokenomics), we acknowledged that multiple projects with weak tokenomics have performed well in the past. This points towards the prevalence of narratives driving price action, even nine years after Bitcoin was birthed. Instead of lamenting on this or waiting until fundamentals become consistently...

ANNUAL OUTLOOK RECAP Yesterday, we held our annual outlook call, in which we discussed the carnage of 2022 and reasons to be optimistic about 2023. Below are some highlights, but we invite you to review the entire deck and watch the webinar. BOTTOM IS IN FOR THE MAJORS We think that the majors have seen their absolute cyclical lows. This rationale is supported by (1) the nature, magnitude, and duration...

Despite a cold start in the first week of 2023, funding has ramped back up, increasing from just $7M in the first week of 2023 to $65M and $186M in the last two weeks, respectively. The majority of this funding came from Web3 and NFTs, which accounted for roughly $80M each week. There were also four Web3 and NFT related venture funds the past two weeks, totaling a massive $1.85B...

Traditional markets opened higher despite the headline risk of more layoffs within the tech sector. Google parent company Alphabet announced 12k layoffs, joining Amazon (18k), Microsoft (10k) and Meta (11k). Reflecting the market's confidence in leaner tech's lower OPEX, SPX, QQQ and NDAQ are trading 0.8%, 1.5%, and 0.3% higher than yesterday's close. Digital asset markets are also continuing their leg up after perceiving Bitzlato's money-laundering charges as a no-event on Wednesday...

Stocks are continuing to slide today, extending this week's pullback. The Dow retraced January gains down 0.8%, while the S&P and Nasdaq fell 0.8% and 1.1%, respectively, still in the green for the month. Concerns the Fed might overtighten and cause a recession have begun to overshadow positive developments of falling inflation. Mixed comments from Fed officials yesterday also muddied the Fed's rate path outlook. Lorie Logan and Patrick Harker...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Click Here for the full report.Since late 2021, crypto markets have struggled in the face of a challenging macroeconomic background highlighted by rampant inflation and geopolitical conflict. Asset price drawdowns were exacerbated by a violent unwind of unhealthy leverage in the space, which revealed outright fraudulent behavior among some of the industry's most prominent figures. Despite these headwinds, crypto VC funding remained strong in 2022 and set a...

FIGURE: A TEAM OF PEPES CONCOCTING THE PERFECT TOKENOMICS Tokenomics (a portmanteau for token and economics) represents the monetary policy of tokens that directly contributes to their price fluctuations. In bull markets, tokenomics were given utmost priority, sometimes constituting full theses for investment decisions. When the euphoria wears off in the bear, however, founders and market participants are left realizing that tokenomics can delay a weak project’s demise, but cannot...

Stocks are gaining following the highly anticipated December consumer prices report. The CPI report was in line with economists' expectations that inflation would decline, falling 0.1% from November but still 6.5% higher than last year. The S&P 500 gained 0.51%, while the Nasdaq was up 0.50%. Equities have been pushing up this week as the market anticipates the Fed may begin to slow its pace of rate hikes in response...