August 18, 2021 | Issue #182

Sponsored By:

MUST READS

Welcome Back To $2 Trillion

Just last month, crypto's total market cap was just below $1.2 trillion. Fast forward to this week, and crypto’s total market cap is back over the $2 trillion mark.

So, what sparked the rebound? As always, it's difficult to pin it on any one thing. But that doesn't stop us from poking around. Let's dig in...

Global Institutional Adoption Is Still A (Big) Thing
A July Fidelity survey found seven in ten institutional investors expect to invest in or buy digital assets in the future. For example, Southeast Asia’s Largest Bank, DBS, announced this week they are expanding their crypto services in order to meet growing corporate demand, stating “We are confident about doubling our investor base by the end of the year.”

VC's Are Pushing Boo-Koo Amounts Of Capital Into The Space
Ten companies have raised nearly $4 billion this year, half in the past two months. Crypto exchange FTX, for instance, raised a record-breaking $900 million in July.

Altcoin Market Is Picking Back Up
Triple-digit 30-day gains are back, just take a look. Many altcoins have seen their prices surge recently — a sign that retail investors are, once again, actively trading small-cap cryptos in the hunt for big-cap gains.

Ethereum Just Had A Major Upgrade
Things just got a bit easier for Ethereum users thanks to gas fees becoming a bit more predictable. Since the London Fork upgrade, ETH prices are up around ~10%. Meanwhile, Cardano (ADA) revisited $2.00 after a long-awaited announcement about smart-contract functionality.

NFT Insanity Continues
This week, Solana (SOL) hit all-time highs after Degenerate Ape NFTs launched on its blockchain. Meanwhile, NFT marketplace OpenSea and NFT game Axie Infinity have seen combined revenues north of $400 million in the last month alone.

Final Thoughts
Just two weeks ago, we wrote about how the "common" investor sentiment seemed a bit off. And that despite the recent price collapse, it certainly didn't seem like we were stuck in another "bear" market.

As always, crypto moves fast and is notoriously hard to predict. But for now, it appears that a broad and consistent array of positive news has propelled this market closer to all-time highs.

50 Years After Going Off Gold, the Dollar Must Go for Crypto

Here's a quintessential Must Read from historian and researcher Niall Ferguson on crypto and the dollar in the historical ascent of money.

"If we have learned nothing else from the past half-century, it is surely that the best way to win a race with totalitarian rivals is not to copy them, but to out-innovate them."

Trust us. Just read this article.

Robinhood Posts Q2 Loss, Says Over 60% of Customers Traded Crypto

In Robinhood's Q2 earnings (it's first as a public company), they reported that more new users bought crypto with their first trade rather than stocks. Also...

Robinhood made $233m from trading in crypto in Q2, vs just $5m last year
At this point, Robinhood is pretty much a pure-play on options and DOGE trading... 🤦
- The company made more money from crypto trading than options & equities trading combined
- Robinhood specified that 62% of its cryptocurrency revenues came from the trading of dogecoin (DOGE), up from 34% in the first quarter
Overall, the company lost an adjusted $2.16 per share, compared to consensus estimates for a loss of 26 cents per share. It recorded revenue of $565m, ahead of estimates for $559.5m

The Future Isn’t A Mystery.

You're invited to TheFutureParty. It's a free daily newsletter that curates stories spanning pop culture, entrepreneurship, crypto, entertainment, and tech – and breaks down what it all means for the future.

Translation? It's the only newsletter in the game that'll highlight the hottest trends in the alternative asset market.

Get plugged-in →

DEEP DIVE

Cryptocurrency Adoption Skyrockets

Crypto adoption by consumers around the world soared by 880% in the last year, according to a new Chainalysis index that measures which countries have the highest levels of cryptocurrency adoption.

What Makes This Study Different?
Chainalysis' definition of "adoption" is an estimate weighted toward per capita use of crypto, as opposed to a measure of absolute trading volumes. This removes the favoring of only the countries with high levels of professional and institutional cryptocurrency adoption, for those with the greatest cryptocurrency adoption by ordinary people. Also, the index focuses on use cases related to transactions and individual saving, rather than trading and speculation.

So The Winner Is...?
Vietnam. Followed by India, Pakistan, Ukraine, and Kenya respectively. The U.S. came in at #8.

What Else Do You Need To Know?
(1) Peer-to-peer (P2P) adoption leads to emerging market growth.
Several countries in emerging markets have huge transaction volumes on P2P platforms because they don’t have access to centralized exchanges.

(2) China and the U.S. dip in ranking.
Last year, China ranked fourth on the index while the U.S. ranked sixth. This year, the U.S. ranks eighth while China ranks 13th.

What Will Drive The Next Wave Of Adoption?
In the developed world, DeFi and centralized services. In emerging markets, it will continue to be P2P services. The real question though is, how much adoption will continue on those platform categories compared to new and emerging models we haven’t seen yet?

Diaries Of An Accidental Art Addict

In one of the best NFT stories to date, Richard Kim walks us through his expensive NFT thought experiment and attempts to explain the psychology of why people actually acquire non-fungible tokens.

Related: Spot on as usual, Fred Wilson talks NFTs

White Hats Just Defused a Potential $350M Heist on SushiSwap

Last week, we had the drama around PolyNetwork's $600m hack and the "only in crypto" events that led to the returning of funds.

This week, a group of people in the crypto community, led by crypto investment firm Paradigm’s research partner Sam Sun (@samczsun), may have just prevented SushiSwap’s token fundraising platform, Miso, from losing more than $350 million worth of ETH.

Polygon Acquires Hermez In $250 Million Deal That Includes First-Ever Token 'Merger'

Ethereum scaling project Polygon (formerly Matic Network) has acquired Hermez Network — a ZK-Rollups-based Ethereum scaling solution (learn more here) — for $250m.

Interestingly though, the two blockchain projects are also merging their native tokens — MATIC and HEZ — in the first-ever such deal in the crypto space.

Are You Ready For Financial Lockdown?

Few Americans seem to realize the repercussions of $11 TRILLION being pumped into the U.S. financial system in the past 18 months.

If you’re counting on IRAs, 401(k)s, insurance policies, annuities, pension plans, stocks, or bonds, you NEED to prepare for what one former Goldman Sachs trader is calling “Financial Lockdown.”

Learn what’s happening now, what’s coming next, and most importantly, what YOU can do to protect and grow your money in the years to come.

Click here for details (includes 4 steps to prepare now).

REGULATORY FRONT

Psychedelic Research Firm MAPS Will Accept Crypto For Donations

Your friendly team here at CoinSnacks also owns and operates a website focused on investing in psychedelics (you can check it out here), so this is the perfect combination of two passions...

You can now donate to psychedelic research in a range of forms, including Bitcoin, Cardano, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, or Monero.

About MAPS: Founded in 1986, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit research and educational organization that develops medical, legal, and cultural contexts for people to benefit from the careful uses of psychedelics and marijuana.

BitMEX Gets Fined

The CFTC and FinCEN have settled their civil lawsuit with BitMEX with the firm having to pay regulators $100 million. Per the consent order, BitMEX may not offer derivatives products in the United States or operate a swaps facility without first scoring approval from the CFTC.

Though the CFTC announcement mentioned that the settlement stemmed from the case against former CEO Arthur Hayes and other executives at the firm, the individuals are still likely to face charges on alleged violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.

Bitcoin Fans Are Suddenly a Political Force

Crypto companies and organizations spent roughly $2.3m in the six-month period that ended June 30—about double what they spent a year ago.