🏦Banks Want in on Stablecoin - The WAGMI Journal #61
If you can't beat them, join them.
In today’s issue:
The crypto market is up with the global market cap sitting at ~$2.1-2.2 trillion. Terra blockchain ecosystem led the past 24h performance while OHM led the top 100 crypto assets by market cap. Global markets are pricing assets accordingly as Fed officials are signaling their support for a rate hike as early as March 2022.
In other news, US banks form a group to offer USDF stablecoin, Visa-ConsenSys partnered up to develop CBDC tech, and Jack Dorsey announces a legal defense fund for Bitcoin developers.
We’re continually improving our content, please reach out if you have ideas or would like us to recap another segment of the market.
- Curated by Marco Manoppo (@manoppomarco)
📰Market News
⎆US Banks Form a Group to Offer USDF Stablecoin
A group of US banks, albeit relatively smaller firms, have grouped up to offer its own stablecoin, named USDF, amidst growing concern behind the reserves of popular USD stablecoins. Members of this group include Synovus, New York Community Bank, FirstBank, Sterling National Bank, and others. Unlike USDT and USDC, the USDF stablecoin will operate on the Provenance blockchain first.
⎆Visa & ConsenSys CBDC Tech
Visa and ConsenSys have teamed up to develop a new infrastructure technology that will aid the rollout of CBDCs. Visa’s Head of CBDC Catherine Gu stated that the firm has been communicating with central banks around the world about CBDC. Timeline-wise, the next 2-3 years will be critical in the development of CBDC, including how it can coexist with existing payment rails/financial systems, as well as how it will be interoperable with other public blockchains.
⎆Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund
Twitter’s founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey announced his plans to implement a Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund to protect Bitcoin developers from legal action. Dorsey sent the proposal to the Bitcoin developer’s mailing list on January 12. The Defense Fund will be a nonprofit entity that aims to foster the Bitcoin developer community, preventing any sort of discouragement resulting from potential legal actions.
👨🏻💻Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
Ethereum Burn Rate Hits Record High
Solana Could Become the Visa of Digital-Asset World: Bank of America
Chia Network Launches Native Peer-to-Peer Trading Services
dYdX Outline Plans for Full Decentralization in Late 2022
Goldfinch Introduces $GFI
Aurory Extends Cliff for the Team and Investors
First DEX on Oasis Network Hits $100M TVL
Komodo to Introduce 12 Blockchain Protocols in AtomicDEX
KlimaDAO Increases Carbon Offset Stash by 50% in Two Months
Gnosis Protocol Turns to CoW Protocol
Squeeth is Live in Opyn
🏛Governance - Active Proposals
Angle - ANGLE Tokenomics Improvement
Compound - Risk Parameter Updates for ETH
Fei - FIP-54: Permanently Revoke Burner
Fei - FIP-63: Rari Infra Funding, Maintenance
Gas DAO - Sushi LP Incentives
🦮NFT & Metaverse
OpenSea Competitor LooksRare Exceeds $394M in Sales
China-Backed BSN to Release Infrastructure This Month to Support NFTS
The Gap Jumps Into NFTs on Tezos—With Physical Apparel Perks
The Infinite Machine Movie NFT Holders Will Sit at The Producers’ Table
Wikipedia Editors Vote Against Classifying NFTs as Art
NYC Restaurant Claims It will Open for NFT Holders Only
Animal Concerts Partners with Korea’s Klaytn: K-pop in the Metaverse?
NBA Top Shot Bans User ‘FreeHongKong’
Man Sells 933 Selfies as NFTs for $3 Each
3LAU-backed Platform Royal Crashes During First Music NFT drop
Top Sales (Last 24-h); Source: https://dappradar.com/nft
It was suspected that these trades were wash trading on the LooksRare marketplace.
📈Deal Flow & Capital Raise
Itheum - $1.5M Seed Round
Tank War Zone - $2.73M Seed Round
Bribe - $4M Seed Round
Lootex - $9M Seed Round
Web3Auth - $13M Series A
Fan Controlled Football League - $40M Series A
SEBA Bank - $119M Series C
Zero Hash - $105M Series D
Checkout.com - $1B Series D
CriptoLoja - Undisclosed Amount of Acquisition by 2TM
Aximetria - Majority of Shares Purchased by TCS Group Holding
FairX - Purchased by Coinbase
⚖️Regulatory Update
BIS, Swiss National Bank, SIX Exchange Complete Wholesale CBDC Trial
House of Lords Committee Sees 'No Convincing Case' for UK CBDC
House and Senate Agriculture Committees Issue Bipartisan Call for CFTC Guidance on Crypto
FinCEN, FDIC to Hold 'Tech Sprint' for Digital Identity Tools
US Lawmaker Proposes Bill Aimed at Limiting Fed’s Ability to Issue CBDC
Jack Dorsey Spearheads New Fund to Defend BTC Devs Against Legal Action
📚Noteworthy Reads
Chris McCann’s Thread on 8 Reasons Why Web2 VCs are NGMI
degenroot’s Thread on A Web3 Miniguide on Gaming
Saypien’s Thread on Options Protocols in DeFi
Feel free to reach out to manoppomarco@gmail.com — feedbacks and constructive criticisms are much appreciated.