Overview
- Kucoin Teams up with RocketX.
- Barclays invests in crypto.
- Coinbase under SEC investigation.
- Lido DAO rejects Dragonfly Capital’s proposal.
Good morning Banter Fam,
Hang on to your horses; it’s shaping up to be a volatile week!
For one, the Federal Reserve will conduct its monthly meeting today, and announce the latest interest rate on Wednesday. The markets expect the rate to be hiked by 75bps. A few prominent companies are also releasing earnings today, including Microsoft, Google, and Visa, while tomorrow we have the social media giant Meta releasing their own. Expect a roller coaster if the top dogs fail to meet expectations.
While the markets prepare to digest incoming data, we’ll dive into Total Value Locked (TVL) information to realize protocol performance for the past month and attempt to spot some trends that may produce actionable insight.
Total Value Locked (TVL) monthly performance.
Looking at TVL data across the board shows digital asset holders are becoming confident enough to lock up assets on blockchain protocols for the first time in months.
Although focus appears to be shifting from alternative layer-ones such as Avalanche, Solana, and Cosmos into Ethereum, Tron, Polkadot, and Ethereum Layer-twos (L2s). Considering the Ethereum Merge is around the corner, it’s no surprise.
Notably, Tron has forced its way into the number three position for chains, surpassing Solana and Avalanche. Behind the emergence of the algorithmic stablecoin USDD, Tron has propelled its ecosystem and attracted significant liquidity. However, questions surround the sustainability of USDD.
Source: DeFi Llama
ETH saw an increase of 9.80% in Value in the previous month, spurred by the uptick in ETH price. However, looking at the TVL (in terms of ETH value), it has remained flat. Although, there’s a considerable amount of shifting occurring amongst the protocols. Notably, Lido (LDO), Uniswap (UNI), Curve (CRV), Convex Finance (CVX), and Arrakis Finance saw double-digit increases. At the same time, MakerDAO (MKR), AAVE (AAVE), and Compound (COMP) remained relatively flat, or posted a loss.
Source: DeFi Llama
Market update 🌍
The US stock market experienced indecisiveness today after a strong Monday. Walmart cut full-year profit guidance noting inflation is forcing customers to spend extra on necessities and less on goods such as clothes and electronics. A trend the entire market noticed by pausing the recent pump.
A slight dip in the US Stock market translated into a significant drop in Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader crypto market. The crypto market, which saw an eventful week, is retracing strongly under further inflation fears highlighted by Walmart’s profit revelations.
BTC/USD
BTC reached a peak of $24,337 last week before failing to hold the 22k support level today. A revisit to the 19k support level looks probable unless BTC bounces off the downward trend line in red. BTC completed the daily candle down -5.71% to $21,314.
High-resolution chart
ETH/USD
ETH, which drew the attention of crypto investors after announcing a soft date of Sept 19 for The Merge, followed today’s bearish sentiment and fell by -9.82%. Price looks like it wants to test its important support at $1,277. Can Ethereum (ETH) bounce off its support and maintain its upward trend? We’ll likely find out this week.
High-resolution chart
| US markets close | Gain |
| S&P 500 | +0.13% |
| Nasdaq | -0.35% |
| Dow | +1.44% |
| VIX | +1.35% |
Notable Gainers (24h):
| Protocol (Coin) | Price ($) | Gain (%) |
| Hive (HIVE) | 0.58 | +29 |
| Trust Wallet (TWT) | 0.90 | +4 |
| Numeraire (NMR) | 18.67 | +17 |
| Uquid Coin (UQC) | 8.92 | +14 |
| PlatonCoin (PLTC) | 0.97 | +9 |
| Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index | 26 Fear |
| “Crypto” Google Trends 90d | 16 |
| “Bitcoin” Google Trends 90d | 29 |
Newswatch 📰
Kucoin Teams up with RocketX. Kucoin exchange has partnered with RocketX, “the world’s first multi-chain CEX and DEX aggregator”. The move will help Kucoin present the best rates across various exchanges to its 18m users. RocketX recently began aggregating prices from Binance, Uniswap, 1inch, Paraswap, Pancake Swap, and 200+ liquidity providers across the cryptoverse.
They are coming for Zoom. Bitfinex, Tether, and P2P developer Hypercore have teamed up to launch a Peer-to-Peer video call app named Keet. The three entities created a new company named Holepunch that developed a technology called Distributed Holepunching (DHT) that allows users to locate and connect using cryptographic key pairs. The creation has been five years in the making.
An English bank invests in a crypto firm. The English banking giant Barclays has invested $2 billion into Copper, a Switzerland-based crypto-based custody broker.
News Tidbits:
- Aptos closes the $150m round led by FTX Ventures and Jump Capital.
- Chain acquires Measurable Data Token (MDT) ecosystem for $100m.
- Sources tell Wall Street Journal the bipartisan Stablecoin Bill has been delayed until September.
- Coinbase is under SEC investigation over unregistered security listings.
At the protocol level ⛓
From the Moon to the Cosmos. The EVM-compatible Polkadot parachain Moonbeam has integrated with Osmosis to allow token swaps from the Polkadot to the Cosmos ecosystem utilizing the Axelar network as a bridge.
Lido DAO rejects Dragonfly Capital’s proposal. The Lido DAO community voted down a proposal to send Dragonfly Capital 1% of the LDO supply in exchange for $14.5 million in DAI.
Protocol level tidbits:
- Aurora launches VOTE token for the protocol’s governance.
- Maker cuts off Aave’s Dai supply amidst Celsius fallout.
NFT & metaverse update 🐵
NFT tidbits:
- Japanese Bank SMBC teams up with HashPort to develop NFTs and Web3 projects.
Banter’s take
With sparking interest in Ethereum during the pre-merge warm-up, it won’t be long before investors begin utilizing the array of Layer-twos (L2s) to save on gas fees. While activity remains low, TVL continues to grow on these networks despite the condition of the markets.
To remain ahead of developing trends while researching TVL, look deeper than the network level. Some protocols will help these networks grow and could present the vigilant investor with some early opportunities. A small early investment during a bear market could transform into a significant position when the bull market reemerges.
But never forget, with the possibility of HIGH REWARD comes HIGH RISK. So invest wisely; the macroeconomics conditions still play center stage!
Gabri
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Disclaimer
Good Morning crypto (issued by Crypto Banter) is a newsletter for entertainment purposes only.
All opinions expressed by the publisher, writers, and chartists should not be construed as financial advice and do not necessarily reflect the views of Crypto Banter. The publisher, writers, and chartists may hold positions in the tokens and assets discussed. Readers are encouraged to do their own research.
