📉Vauld Owes $363M to Retail Investors - TWJ #190

If it sounds too easy, trust your instinct.

Hi folks,

In this write-up, I cover how the majority of DeFi activities are currently debit-based, such as over-collateralized lending. But to truly disrupt the legacy financial system, DeFi needs to expand to a credit-based system, such as undercollateralized lending.

Credit-Based DeFi: Is it Possible?

Here are the quick takeaways:

• DeFi can create a more equitable financial system and provide easier access to capital in our increasingly digital and globalized world.

• DeFi in the current debit-based system will not unlock new primitives that can further real-life use-cases.

• DeFi needs to expand into a credit-based system in order to truly disrupt traditional finance.

• Emerging markets will benefit the most from DeFi credit expansion in the short term due to increasing USD accessibility.

• A crypto-native credit scoring system is necessary to effectively expand DeFi into the real economy, and even some centralization tradeoffs in the short term.

  

In today’s issue:

The crypto market is up with its total market cap above ~$1 trillion. ECOMI (OMI) is the best performer in the top 100 in the past 24-h. Stocks rally as optimism slowly returns to the markets.

In other news, Vauld owes $363M to retail investors, Scaramucci’s Skybridge halts withdrawals, and ZipMEX exchange halts withdrawals.

We’re continually improving our content, please reach out if you have ideas or want us to recap another market segment.

- Curated by Marco Manoppo (@manoppomarco)

📰Market News

⎆Vauld Owes $363M to Retail Investors

The crypto lender that halted client withdrawals last month reportedly owes $363M to retail investors. The firm owes approximately $125M to its 20 largest unsecured creditors and is seemingly in the process of getting acquired by Nexo.

Yogita Khatri @Yogita_Khatri5

Vauld's total liabilities: $402 million Total assets: $287 million ^ per an affidavit obtained by The Block But Vauld CEO @darshanbathija told The Block that the total assets are worth $330 million, including "bank balances."

⎆Scaramucci’s Skybridge Halts Withdrawals

Anthony Scaramucci’s Skybridge Capital halted withdrawals after one of its funds experience sharp declines in equities and crypto assets. The fund is called Legion Strategies and it needs to suspend redemptions as private companies now make up ~20% of its portfolio. The size of the fund is approximately $230M.

⎆ZipMEX Exchange Halts Withdrawals

Southeast Asia-based crypto exchange ZipMEX halted withdrawals citing market volatility. The firm reportedly has 2 million users and was about to be acquired by Coinbase earlier this year before the deal fell through in June.

ZIPMEX @zipmex

Due to a combination of circumstances beyond our control including volatile market conditions, and the resulting financial difficulties of our key business partners, to maintain the integrity of our platform, we would be pausing withdrawals until further notice.

👨🏻‍💻Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

• Dune Live on Arbitrum

• Revert Launches Fee Auto-compounding for Uniswap v3 LPs

• Strips Finance v2 Soon

• Scroll Pre-alpha Testnet

• Aave Taps Pocket Network to Beef up Decentralized App Development

• Figment Will Support MEV After Ethereum Merge

• Fedi to Build Privacy-Focused Bitcoin Mobile App on Fedimint Protocol

• CyberConnect Launches Link3 for Secure Networking

• Polygon Deploys ZK Rollup Testnet; Eyes Mainnet Launch

🏛Governance - Active Proposals

• Gitcoin - Gitcoin Treasury Diversification (Part 1)

🦮NFT & Metaverse

• Amazon.eth ENS Domain Owner Disregards 1M USDC Buyout Offer

• Twitter Hack Hits the NFT Community

• GameStop’s NFT Marketplace Opening Week Sales Eclipse Coinbase Volume

• Audius to Allow Users to Tip Artists Using Audio Token

Top Sales (Last 24-h); Source: https://dappradar.com/nft

📈Deal Flow & Capital Raise

• Hulk Labs - Undisclosed $ Strategic Round

• veToken Finance - Undisclosed $ Seed Round

• Fedi - $4.2M Seed Round

• XLD Finance - $13M Pre-series A

• Halborn - $90M Series A

• Zebedee - $35M Series B

• Modular Capital - $20M Crypto Fund

⚖️Regulatory Update

• SEC’s Gary Gensler Sees Plenty of ‘Noncompliance’ Across Crypto Industry

• 'Singapore' Crypto Firms Leading Market Meltdown Were Not Regulated

• Colombia Advances Regulatory Framework for Local Crypto Industry

• UK Regulators to Introduce Rules for Stablecoins in New Markets Bill

• US Federal Agency Issues Legal Advisory on NFT Investments

📚Noteworthy Reads

• Ming Zhao’s Thread on Exposé on the Dark Side of Market Structure

• Dovey Wan’s Thread on The Darker Triad in Crypto

• DeFi Surfer’s Read on Coinbase is NGMI

Feel free to reach out to manoppomarco@gmail.com — feedbacks and constructive criticisms are much appreciated.

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DISCLAIMER:

All the information presented on The WAGMI Journal publication and its affiliation is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.