Crypto

• Price Movements: Huobi listed a token representing a claim on FTX’s debt, which briefly surged to as high as $100 before crashing to $13. 
• Market Liquidity: Coinbase trade volume is increasingly outpacing Uniswap’s, suggesting traders still prefer CEXs.
• Derivatives: BTC open interest remains flat despite heavy volatility. 

• The crypto industry was again shaken this week when news came out that the NY Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) had ordered Paxos to stop issuing BUSD, with an NYDFS spokesperson saying Paxos “violated its obligation to conduct tailored, periodic risk assessments and due diligence refreshes of Binance and Paxos-issued BUSD customers to prevent bad actors from using the platform.”
• Additionally, it was revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sent a Wells notice to Paxos, informing the company that the SEC is considering legal action against Paxos, alleging that BUSD is a security. (I’ve offered my thoughts on the regulatory aspect of this here.) 
• We’ve covered BUSD’s growth and market share extensively in previous Data Debriefs, noting that about 35% of Binance volume is denominated in BUSD and it quickly grew to the third largest stablecoin by market cap

• Last year, Coinbase had marketers purring when they spent their 30 second allocated slot during the Super Bowl with a simple floating QR code which redirected a reported 60 million people to their platform.
• That’s pretty good cost-per-click and marketers worldwide were pointing to it as an incredibly simple but effective campaign.
• This year, unsurprisingly, we saw very few crypto ads during the Super Bowl. The market is down and crypto companies are protecting runway.

• Price Movements: cbETH, Coinbase’s liquid staking derivative, started trading at a discount after news broke that the SEC had fined Kraken $30mn. 
• Market Liquidity: LocalBitcoins shut down after 10 years of service after competition and a prolonged bear market sapped trade volume. 
• Derivatives: ETH options markets look bullish but more volatile than BTC. 

• Wash trading was at one point a pervasive problem in cryptocurrency markets.
• Today, most major exchanges have strict anti-wash trading measures, which has drastically reduced the problem since the ICO-led trading boom of 2017-18.
• Yet, due to the relatively low barriers to entry for launching an exchange, this type of market manipulation is far from eradicated on lesser-known, unregulated venues. 

• Beijing’s city market regulator has warned the public to steer clear of firms promising big returns with little risk from investments in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse.
• The statement is the latest indication that China’s watchdogs are unlikely to change their stance on speculative investments like NFTs, a form of digital token, anytime soon.
• The latest warning comes less than two years after China outlawed cryptocurrency trading and mining, also seeking to stamp out rampant speculative investment in virtual currencies like bitcoin and ether.

• Investors will remember 2022 as the first real credit crisis that bitcoin and the broader crypto space have suffered. In historical terms, it was a significant year.
• The ensuing deleveraging eliminated many entities that got overzealous in the bull market and didn’t adjust their strategies to new market conditions.
• Almost the entirety of those now-insolvent entities were centralised conduits to the world of blockchain and digital assets. 

• Price Movements: DYDX has rallied 130% since the decentralized exchange announced they would postpone a planned unlock for the token. 
• Market Liquidity: BUSD’s market share has held steady since Binance admitted to mismanaging reserves.
• Derivatives: The open interest to market cap ratio suggests Optimism’s OP token is highly leveraged. 

• This piece was originally going to compare the average and median size of liquidity events – meaning any mint (deposit) or burn (withdrawal) to/from a DEX liquidity pool – on the most popular Ethereum DEXs: Uniswap V3, V2, and Curve. 
• There have been some excellent Twitter threads comparing DEXs and considering whether providing liquidity on Uniswap V3 can be profitable.
• But after taking a look at the Uniswap V3 liquidity event data, it became clear that I had to write about an under-explored and rapidly developing topic: just-in-time (JIT) liquidity.

• At long last — after months of rumours — Sorare and the English Premier League (EPL) have finally announced their exclusive multi-year deal thought to be worth £30m per year.
• For Sorare, this was the final piece to the puzzle. That final big deal in Soccer that they wanted to get over the line.
• Just over 4 years from inception, they now have deals in place with almost every top flight club and league in the world.

• What is Kyber Network and how does it work?
• The relatively old protocol might not be the most popular option with its meager $15 million TVL, but future updates have the potential to turn Kyber into a liquidity hub for the entire DeFi market.
• There are almost too many decentralized exchanges in DeFi, which contributes to a rising problem of liquidity balkanization.

• Are NFTs more than just pictures issued on a blockchain?
• There must be surely something more to non-fungible tokens, given that one sold for $69 million last week. Not an avid reader? That’s fine.
• You can also learn about NFTs in video format! Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have, for better or worse, expanded into new territory: mainstream circles.

• Even if the Tether FUD is only typical FUD, we still have to search for other healthy alternatives that help investors with hedging against the market.
• For some, algorithmic stablecoins are the best option and one popular project that stands out is Frax Finance.
• Without a shadow of a doubt, stablecoins are the most boring type of cryptocurrencies.

As of recently, Binance Smart Chain’s elusive PancakeSwap became quite popular among DeFi investors, reaching a level where it competes against traditional DEX options like Uniswap and SushiSwap.

Did PancakeSwap rightfully earn its fame and if so, how?

PancakeSwap is a decentralized exchange on Binance Smart Chain, one of Ethereum’s top competitors.

• Rocket Pool is undoubtedly the most popular name in the arena of Ethereum 2.0 staking pools, but how does it work and is it secure enough for beginners?
• Ethereum 2.0 is here, and everyone is now interested in making profits from their existing crypto assets by staking.
• Ethereum 2.0 is here, and everyone is now interested in making profits from their existing crypto assets by staking.

• Price Movements: BTC gained another 10% this week despite news that Genesis had filed for bankruptcy, with a reported $5bn in liabilities.
• Market Liquidity: Trade volume on the largest Asia-based exchanges fell to multi-year lows amid a tough regulatory environment in the region. 
• Derivatives: BTC open interest has dropped 25% as a short squeeze hits derivatives traders.