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Apr 15 2021

Liquity Protocol attracts $1B TVL in just 10 days

The team behind Liquity Protocol — a DeFi project launched on April 5 — has attracted $1 billion worth of locked up value according to data from Dune Analytics.

From $0 to $1B TVL in 10 days

Here’s some charts highlighting Liquity’s growth so far: pic.twitter.com/qpSzRp0gZs

— Liquity (@LiquityProtocol) April 15, 2021

The Pantera Capital-backed Liquity is a Swiss-based decentralized and governance-free lending protocol that offers interest-free loans against Ethereum locked as collateral, with users required to maintain a minimum collateral ratio of 110%.

Loans are paid out in the protocol’s algorithmic stable coin LUSD, which is pegged to the value of USD at a one-to-one ratio. The protocol automatically generates LUSD to meet user demand, and so far has minted a supply of 480 million stable coins, with more coins being minted than burned each day.

The loans are secured by the protocol’s Stability Pool that acts as a source of liquidity to repay liquidated debt, and also by fellow borrowers collectively acting as guarantors of last resort. Users can earn money through the protocol by staking liquidity and earn revenue from issuance fees in LUSD and redemption fees in ETH.

Data from the mammoth 10-day run published via DuneAnalytics revealed that borrowing demand has rewarded stakers so far, with an average of roughly $240,000 of fees generated per day on the protocol between April 12 and April 14. The total staked amount edged past $720,000 on April 15, and the majority of users are keeping within a collateral range between 150-250%.

On March 29 Cointelegraph reported that the Liquity Protocol had closed its Series A funding round led by Pantera Capital with a $6 million investment, which included additional contributions from companies such as quantitative investment firm Alameda Research.

The decentralized finance protocol sector continues to push past its all-time highs, with data aggregator DeFi Llama showing that there is now $123.33 billion worth of total locked-up value in DeFi protocols as of today. In its short lifespan, the Liquity Protocol has pushed itself up to rank 26 in the top 100 DeFi protocols with $1.06 billion in TVL.

Liquity Protocol attracts $1B TVL in just 10 days

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: cryptocurrency · Tagged: data, debt, decentralized, decentralized finance, defi, DeFi lending protocol, ETH, ethereum, Fees, finance, funding, investment, lending, Liquity, money, more, pantera capital, revenue, staking, Twitter

Apr 11 2021

Solana (SOL) price rises as airdrops attract new users to the network

Over the past six months blockchain projects that have issued token airdrops have re-emerged. Most notably, the airdrops by Uniswap (UNI) and MEME will be remembered as recipients were rewarded with gains ranging from $20,000 to $600,000 simply for holding the tokens.

One Ethereum (ETH) competitor that has seen numerous projects launch with airdrops in the past three weeks is Solana (SOL), an open-source project that focuses on utilizing blockchain technology to provide decentralized finance solutions.

While Solana isn’t explicitly making a concerted effort to launch these projects, the protocol’s main decentralized exchange Serum (SRM) was responsible for the recent COPE airdrop which distributed 2,000 tokens to users who participated in the joint DeFi hackathon held by Solana and Serum.

After the airdrop, COPE eventually listed on Serum for $0.50 on March 30 and the price of the token surged to a high of $5.43 on April 11, rewarding holders with a $10,860 reward.

SOL/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

The success of the COPE airdrop prompted a series of token launches and airdrops with similar-sounding names including HOPE, ROPE and KOPE, whose launches on the Solana blockchain have coincided with a 55% rise in the price of SOL since the start of April.

Airdrops on the network may have played a small role in the recent price appreciation due to users needing SOL to receive airdropped tokens but this is not possible to ascertain based on the available data.

Interactions on the Solana blockchain, including the addition of new tokens to the Sollet wallet, require small amounts of SOL to complete the contract executions. Thus, users rushing to sign up for airdrops before they filled up would have needed to purchase SOL and fund their wallets in order to create new addresses for the airdropped tokens.

Analysts expect the airdrop trend to continue

For those worried that they missed out or that the ‘airdrop season’ is over, a recent tweet from Solana’s Twitter feed suggests that the Solana ecosystem is just getting started, meaning the likelihood of future airdrops remains high.

☀️New Projects building on Solana@HedgehogMarket prediction markets platform@solstarterorg IDO platform@HxroNetwork derivatives protocol@cyrii_MM $COPE@StepFinance_ Position tracking@Media_FDN P2P CDN @PsyOptions options protocol@synthetify for synthetic assets$SOL $SRM pic.twitter.com/K1DN51R4DO

— S◎L mates ☀️ (@Solana_Mates) April 7, 2021

New users are the lifeblood of successful blockchain networks, and the use of airdrops continues to be one of the most utilized methods for drawing attention to fledgling projects and sapping liquidity from one protocol to another.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Solana (SOL) price rises as airdrops attract new users to the network

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: cryptocurrency · Tagged: Airdrop, Altcoin Watch, author, blockchain, cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency Exchange, data, decentralized, Decentralized Exchange, decentralized finance, defi, Derivatives, ethereum, exchange, Fees, finance, fund, Future, gains, Hackathon, investment, markets, more, opinions, p2p, research, reward, risk, Solana, Technology, token, tokens, trading, Twitter, uniswap, wallet, Wallets

Mar 28 2021

PancakeSwap (CAKE) aims to take a slice out of Uniswap’s DeFi dominance

Decentralized finance has taken a back seat to nonfungible tokens over the past month but this hasn’t stopped the top DeFi projects from developing and strategizing how to grow their ecosystems and market share. 

One project that has outperformed the field as of late is PancakeSwap (CAKE), the Binance Smart Chain-based automated market maker (AMM) that allows users to exchange tokens and earn a portion of fees through yield farming.

Monthly trading volume on PancakeSwap. Source: Delphi Digital

According to a recent report from Delphi Digital, several factors have played a significant role in helping the PancakeSwap ecosystem grow in recent months and analysts predict that the protocol will continue to be a serious competitor to Uniswap.

Users flee high Ethereum fees

Anyone who has tried to transact on the Ethereum (ETH) network in 2021 will have noticed the astronomical rise in gas fees which has been compounded by the rising price of Ether. 

Average Ethereum gas fee. Source: Etherscan

If you compare this chart of the average gas fees on Etherum with the chart above detailing the monthly trading volume on PancakeSwap, a correlation can be seen between higher fees and more activity on the DeFi platform.

While Ethereum fees were ballooning, Binance Smart Chain (BSC) emerged as a viable option thanks to numerous cross-chain bridges and low transaction costs. PancakeSwap is the largest, most established DEX on the BSC thus it benefits from the influx of users and Binance’s large user base.

Delphi Digital analysts identified Binance’s immense ecosystem as another major factor providing a boost for CAKE as its “vast network effect” comes from being the “biggest crypto exchange that’s typically the first choice for retail traders.”

Prospective users can gain access to the BSC by simply withdrawing their tokens from Binance to a BSC-supported wallet.

PancakeSwap could be a ‘perpetual vampire’

Delphi Digital also highlighted CAKE’s token economics as a significant factor for its future growth.

Unlike UNI and SushiSwap (SUSHI), there is not a hard cap on the supply of CAKE tokens which gives the platform the “ability to perpetually conduct targeted vampire attacks in order to attract liquidity and incentivize projects to launch on PancakeSwap’s AMM.”

The current weekly inflation rate for CAKE is 3.78%, which is significantly higher than UNI’s 2% yearly inflation rate.

Even with various deflationary measures implemented by CAKE developers, the “net emission is approximately 1,000,000 CAKE per week – which translates to 37% real inflation annually (or 0.7% weekly).”

According to Delphi Digital, PancakeSwap is aware of how the current inflation numbers look and the team announced a governance vote to change the emission schedule with the options to leave it the same, decrease it to 23.5 or 22 CAKE per block.

The option to reduce emissions to 22 CAKE, a 20% decrease, is currently favored to win and this would reduce CAKE emissions by 1,050,000. This would help to neutralize inflation while also allowing the project to keep its vampire attack capabilities in the long-run.

CAKE attempts to break above resistance

Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that since reaching a low of $8.30 on Feb. 28, the price of CAKE has made several attempts to break out to a new all-time high and at the time of writing the altcoin trades for $15.63.

CAKE/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, market conditions for CAKE have been favorable for some time.

The VORTECS™ score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity. A recent test of the system resulted in investment returns as high as 1,497% using specific strategies outlined in the report.

VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. CAKE price. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for CAKE turned green and registered a 65 on March 21, roughly six hours before the price began to rally over the next four days.

After the initial precise rise on March 22, the VORTECS™ Score continued to climb and reached a high of 81 on March 25, three hours before the price began to rally 36%.

Strong backing from Binance and low fees on BSC have PancakeSwap in an enviable position to attract additional liquidity from the Ethereum-based DeFi protocols as a practical solution to high gas fees remains elusive. Despite inflation-related concerns, analysts have suggested keeping an eye on this Uniswap competitor as the battle for DeFi dominance continues to unfold.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

PancakeSwap (CAKE) aims to take a slice out of Uniswap’s DeFi dominance

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: cryptocurrency · Tagged: 2021, altcoin, AMM, Analysts, author, Binance, boost, BSC, crypto, cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency Exchange, data, Decentralized Exchange, defi, DEX, digital, economics, ether, ethereum, exchange, exchange tokens, Fees, finance, Future, gas, Governance, green, inflation, integration, investment, market, markets, more, Nonfungible Tokens, opinions, platforms, report, research, retail, returns, risk, Sushi, SushiSwap, token, tokens, trading, transaction, Twitter, uniswap, wallet, Yield farming

Mar 27 2021

eGirls in the C-Suite: The ‘simposium’ storming crypto venture capital

One of the toughest puzzles in crypto is figuring out what to take seriously. 

On Friday, the DeFi Alliance — a decentralized finance startup incubator and accelerator — announced a list of 11 new members. Some were predictable, such as oracle provider Chainlink and VC stalwart Blockchain Capital, but one name stood out in particular: eGirl Capital, the social media menace and upstart venture capital outfit inspired by a horned-up Internet subculture.

The announcement prompted an industry-wide heavy sigh and rubbing of the eyes:

So @egirl_capital has joined the @defialliance what timeline is this lol. https://t.co/UWbsemV94t

— Qiao Wang (@QwQiao) March 26, 2021

eGirl members, such as Degen Spartan, are known just as much for their cogent analysis of crypto’s notoriously complex markets as they are for posting nothing but animated porn for weeks at a time. One member — perhaps one of the best and brightest on cryptoTwitter — dons the social medi persona of a Pokemon, Ditto, that has transformed into a couch so that people will unwittingly sit on them. The constellation of memetic touchstones animating these various comedic bits is too exhausting to summarize and likely worth an anthropological study. 

While it might be easy to pass the group off as a joke gone too far (by that standard the t-rex in Jurassic Park is a pet that got off-leash), eGirl has been included in some high-profile press releases of late. The group participated in a $4.9 million funding round for decentralized finance protocol Alchemix, and has also announced investments in Radicle and Unisocks. They’ll be releasing the first episode of a in-house podcast series next week.

As for their funding, in a question-and-answer document this reporter caught a glimpse of a figure prior to a committee decision to delete it and offer no comment in an effort to appear more “mysterious”; if accurate, it was staggeringly high.

Their arrival on the investment scene comes amid a period of professionalization and institutional adoption for crypto. Hedge funds that previously dismissed cryptocurrencies as a scam are now setting up trading desks. The assets are getting to be so boring that retirement funds are allocating money into digital currencies.

eGirl made it clear, however, that they’re willing (and perhaps eager) to lob a glitter bomb into the midst of the increasingly buttoned-up affair. As DAO and community growth specialist Pet3rpan put it:

“egirl/eboy aesthetic is a big fuck you to traditional ideals of culture of the last 10 years, we dont care that we aren’t cool.” 

Anon currency, anon VCs, anon projects

Traditional venture capital organizations bring varying degrees of utility to a project besides money. Delphi Digital, for instance, can actively contribute to the architecting and engineering of the tokenomics and contracts of a protocol. Many offer public relations expertise and can attract significant publicity. 

So why would anyone work with an organization overwhelmingly peopled with anons? And, likewise, what do the anons think they can bring to the table?

“Crypto was started by an anonymous founder with strong pseudonymity built into the heart of the bitcoin protocol and all those who followed it. Bitcoin is stronger for it too,” said Eva Beylin, one of eGirl’s few ‘doxxed’ members and the director of The Graph Foundation. “[…] While egirl has invested in a wide range of anon and non-anon projects, anon funds funding anon teams can reverse this trend and bring back the privacy preserving qualities we all value deep down in our heart of hearts.”

eGirl member Scoopy Trooples, who is also a core team member for eGirl portfolio protocol Alchemix, noted that eGirl’s involvement was key in helping to generate ideas and refine the project’s wider vision. In a Tweet, they also thanked eGirl for bootstrapping liquidity, fostering insider connections, and promoting the project:

@egirl_capital for being quick to understand the concept of our application and providing ample funding for our initial sushi pool. Their investment thesis into Alchemix was a fantastic piece that raised awareness. Industry connections through them have also been instrumental.

— scoopy trooples (@scupytrooples) March 27, 2021

These benefits are derived in part from the wide range of backgrounds the various eGirls represent, and in part from the familiarity all members have with the ecosystem.

“eGirl is committed to supporting decentralized primitives for dapps and DeFi. We’re frequent users and contributors so we know first-hand what brings value to users and the community. Also, memes and anime.”

In some ways, their emergence feels inevitable: if traditional VCs are increasingly comfortable investing in anon teams and DAOs, why wouldn’t the VCs eventually go anon themselves?

“eGirl capital is merely the resultant product of a world where traditional limits and restrictions are finally being broken through,” said Twitter trader and personality loomdart. “We are reverting to a system with less hand rails, and while this may seem scary it lets true talent stand out, unhindered by historical ties.”

He followed this quote up shortly after with a message bemoaning it for sounding too much like a “battle cry from the war of the roses.” It was obvious, however, that he meant it.

eQueens

While eGirl may be the first popular example of an all-anon crypto VC, it won’t be the last. Given how they’re comparatively long in the tooth, the group offered some advice for enterprising frog avatars looking to form their own investment organizations, including members holding each other accountable with clearly-defined roles and taking time to develop sophisticated, high-conviction investment theses. 

“The nature of an anon decentralized collective is naturally to be very adhoc about things. While this may work in the early days, establishing norms and organizational structure to the collective will help the group to coordinate and persist,” they said.

.@egirl_capital will become the Berkshire Hathaway of our generation

this is an unrivalled investor dream team, books will be written, movies will be made pic.twitter.com/RiYYsuiecW

— John Dummett (@zoomerjd) March 21, 2021

The irony, of course, is that eGirl itself remains self-evidently ad hoc. When this reporter asked if it would be appropriate to refer to a member as a “partner at eGirl Capital,” the question set off a brief flurry of debate about whether “partner” entails legal connotations and if the word implied a formal hierarchy. Different members even offered contradictory answers as to whether or not the group can be considered a VC in the traditional sense:

“eGirl isn’t a VC, we’re simps. We’re a grassroots group of contributors that support projects with strong teams and visions. eGirl includes engineers, business leaders, product managers, meme creators, technical analysts and investors,” they said.

So what happens when the group finally decides what, exactly, it is? When the joke goes as far as it can, propelling the eGirls — whether in spite of or due to the anime, anonymity, and bad puns — into the same lofty echelons of success as the Alamedas and the Delphis of the world?

They offered a simple vision:

“First she is an eGirl, then she becomes an eWoman and later an eQueen.”

eGirls in the C-Suite: The ‘simposium’ storming crypto venture capital

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: cryptocurrency · Tagged: accelerator, Adoption, analysis, Analysts, Anime, Anonymous, bitcoin, blockchain, books, business, Chainlink, Community, crypto, cryptocurrencies, Culture, Currency, dao, dapps, decentralized, decentralized finance, defi, digital, eGirl, finance, Fostering, founder, fund, funding, Go, hedge, Hedge Funds, html, ideas, incubator, Internet, Investing, investment, Investments, investor, legal, markets, Media, memes, money, more, movies, oracle, other, podcast, Porn, portfolio, Privacy, product, said, scam, social, Social Media, startup, Study, Sushi, Teams, trading, Twitter, VCs, Venture Capital, War, word, work, world

Mar 23 2021

Ethereum’s high gas fee crisis won’t be solved by EIP-1559: Coin Metrics report

A report by analytics provider Coin Metrics has delved into the world of Ethererum transaction fees noting that they’re still at highest-ever levels and even a much touted approaching network upgrade is unlikely to alleviate the problem.

According to the Ethereum Gas Report by Coin Metrics, median fees on Ethereum have been consistently over $10 for most of 2021. Comparatively, the average Ethereum transaction fee reached just $5.70 at the height of the 2017/2018 bull run.

It attributed some of this increase to the increase in ETH prices themselves which will make gas more expensive. Since the beginning of 2021, ETH has surged 125% to current prices despite a correction of 19% from its all-time high of $2,050. However, over the same period, the median gas price has increased by 532%.

Different types of transactions require different amounts of gas — a simple ERC-20 token transfer uses much less gas than a complex smart contract operation for an automated market maker for example. However, it noted that rather than DeFi being the root cause of the high gas fees, it is simply more transactions in general.

“Since January 2020, the amount of gas used per transaction has trended downwards. This shows that increased transaction complexity is not responsible for high transaction fees.”

Ethereum transactions are currently auctioned, with those paying more gas taking miner priority and getting faster transactions than those that have set a lower gas limit.

The report noted that the current high fees are because the blocks are consistently full, around 95%, and have been since mid-2020 and the DeFi boom. For March 2021, Ethereum blocks have been 97%-98% full, the research found.

Ethereum block fullness – CoinMetrics

It explained that miners need to specify which transactions to include when mining new blocks and each block can only include a limited number of transactions (on average 160 to 200) due to the maximum block size.

“So miners naturally prioritize the transactions with the highest gas prices since they will earn them more money if these transactions are included.”

The report concluded that the highly anticipated EIP-1559 network upgrade, which has been designed to change the auction mechanism and burn some of the fees, is unlikely to solve the problem of high gas costs, and only scaling solutions will be the true long-term fix.

Coin Metrics explained that the upgrade will only help make fees more predictable as the cause of high fees is the scalability problem.

“If Ethereum can only process a few hundred transactions (on average) per block, there’s going to continue to be high fees as long as DApp usage keeps increasing. Gas prices will continue to be high as long as there’s high competition for block space.”

Ethereum\’s high gas fee crisis won\’t be solved by EIP-1559: Coin Metrics report

Source

Written by bizbuildermike · Categorized: cryptocurrency · Tagged: 2020, 2021, Coin Metrics, competition, defi, EIP-1559, erc-20, ETH, ethererum, ethereum, Ethereum Transaction, Fees, gas, going, market, miners, mining, money, more, report, research, Scalability, scaling, smart contract, Space, token, transaction, Transactions, world

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