PayPal's Potential Stablecoin - The WAGMI Journal #58
That said, decentralized stablecoins will continue to gain traction.
In today’s issue:
The crypto market is down with the global market cap sitting at ~$1.9-2 trillion. NEAR led the past 24-h performance amongst the top 100 crypto assets by market cap. Global markets are becoming more cautious as Wall St analysts predict 4 rate hikes in 2022.
In other news, PayPal confirms its exploring stablecoin, Katie Haun seeks $900M for new crypto funds, and Binance’s CZ is reportedly worth $96 billion excluding crypto holdings.
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
⎆PayPal Confirms Its Exploring Stablecoin
After circulating rumors for the past few weeks, PayPal has confirmed that it is indeed exploring a stablecoin backed by USD. Last Friday, a code embedded in PayPal’s iOS app showed a “PayPal Coin” including its potential logo. A representative of PayPal stated that the code is a result of an internal hackathon. A more direct move towards implementing its own USD-backed stablecoin makes perfect sense for PayPal. Any delay in progress is most likely due to regulatory uncertainty in the US.
⎆Katie Haun Seeks $900m for Crypto Fund
The former a16z crypto partner seeks $900M for her new crypto fund, split between a $300M early-stage fund and a $600M fund focusing on larger or later-stage firms. Haun previously helped a16z raise its $2.2 billion third crypto fund; a few of a16z former staffers will join Haun’s new fund, including Coinbase’s alum Rachael Horwitz.
⎆CZ Binance Worth $96B+ Excluding Crypto
Bloomberg Billionaires Index reported that Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the founder of Binance, has an estimated net worth of $96 billion not counting his crypto holdings. To be frank, this information is not that surprising ever since Coinbase did its IPO. Any fundamental comparisons (trading volume, etc.) between Binance and Coinbase would’ve shown that CZ is one of the wealthiest people in the world. If we consider non-liquid assets as well as crypto holdings, I won’t be surprised if CZ is wealthier than Musk or Bezos.
👨🏻💻Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
Vitalik Buterin Gives Thumbs Down to Cross-chain Applications
Fantom Transactions Surge Ahead of Avalanche as DeFi Prospects Heat Up
OlympusDAO v2 Bonds is Now Live
Arbitrum Network Suffers Minor Outage Due to Hardware Failure
Solana Added As Collateral Asset For Binance Loans
Rug-Pullers and Black-Hats Ran Wild in 2021 With $2.2B Lost to Theft
Crypto Regulation Concerns Make Decentralized Stablecoins Attractive
🏛Governance - Active Proposals
Babylon Finance - BIP-7: Mining Adjustments
Compound - Update cSUSHI cToken Implementation
ENS - [EP2] Retrospective Airdrop
🦮NFT & Metaverse
Binance.US Is Building an Office in the Solana Metaverse
Pudgy Penguins NFT Project Ousts Founders as Mood Turns Icy
NFT Marketplace LooksRare Goes Live With Vampire Attack on OpenSea
Top Sales (Last 24-h); Source: https://dappradar.com/nft
📈Deal Flow & Capital Raise
BetSwap - $18.3M Investment by TIME Wonderland
Pantera Capital BTC Feeder Fund - $63.7M Seed Funding
Bitso - $7.1M 3 Years Sponsorship Deal from São Paulo
⚖️Regulatory Update
A16z Publishes Web 3 Policy Proposal for World Leaders
Users of HK Crypto Exchange Coinsuper Say They Cannot Withdraw Funds
Bitcoin Hashrate Nears Recovery as Kazakhstan’s Internet Is Partially Restored
Industry Body for Indian Startups Seeks Crypto Rules
Pakistan’s Investigation Agency Contacts Binance About $100M Scam
📚Noteworthy Reads
Arthur Hayes’ Read on Crypto & Global Macro
Mitchell Baldridge’s Thread on Crypto Tax Prep
Korpi’s Thread on ETH is Undervalued
Feel free to reach out to manoppomarco@gmail.com — feedbacks and constructive criticisms are much appreciated.