WhatsApp Stablecoin Payments - The WAGMI Journal #39
PayPal, Venmo, and others should be sweating if this can work.
In today’s issue:
The crypto market is down with the global market cap sitting at $2.2-2.3 trillion. BTC and ETH have slightly weakened in the past 24h as crypto market participants are waiting to see how the global markets react to US CPI data that will be out this morning.
In other news, WhatsApp to trial in-app Stablecoin payments, Coinbase doubles down on DeFi yield, and a CryptoPunk was sold for $10M+.
We’re continually improving our content, please reach out if you have any other ideas or would like us to recap a segment of the market.
- Curated by Marco Manoppo (@manoppomarco)
📰Market News
⎆WhatsApp to Trial In-App Stablecoin Payments
By now, it is common knowledge that Meta has been trying to incorporate crypto into its product. Its effort at creating an in-house stablecoin has been rejected multiple times by regulators around the world, and the project is more or less dead. Knowing full well the trust in Meta’s brand is deteriorating as we speak, it decides to go forward and integrate a digital wallet with WhatsApp, one of the world’s most popular messaging apps outside of the US, eventually enabling the transfer of stablecoins through the app. Done right, this will be the biggest crypto onboarding move in the next 24 months.
⎆Coinbase Launches DeFi Yield Product
Barring US-based customers, Coinbase has announced its first yield product that allows users to earn interest on their crypto assets through a third-party DeFi platform. Regulators in the US stopped Coinbase to offer its earn product a few months back, which presumably prompted Coinbase’s move to target non-US customers first, given the sheer opportunity cost that DeFi provides. With this product, Coinbase users can earn between 2-6% on their DAI, a crypto-collateralized stablecoin pegged to the USD.
⎆A Rare Cryptopunk Sold for $10.2 Million
Punk #4156, a rare Ape-style Punk with a rarity trait of 24/10,000, has been sold for 2,500 ETH, or equivalent to ~$10M as of the time of writing. Although this sale wasn’t the highest CryptoPunk sale in history (one was sold for $11.8M at a Sotheby’s auction), this was still by far the most expensive sale made on CryptoPunk’s native marketplace platform.
👨🏻💻Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
Coinbase Offers Access to DeFi Yields With DAI and Compound
Balancer DAO’s Treasury Is Rapidly Diversifying Across DeFi
0xMaki Says he “Won’t be Returning” to SushiSwap
AWS Outage Hits dYdX Raising Concerns Over Decentralization
Inflation Benchmark Frax Price Index to Launch on Partisia Blockchain
Gearbox Protocol’s DAO First Launch
pStake Finance Sale on CoinList
AVAX’s Ava Labs Among Startups Chosen for Mastercard’s Crypto Accelerator
Solana Validators, Engineers Grapple With Blockchain Slowdown
🏛Governance - Active Proposals
Uniswap - Should Uniswap v3 be deployed to Polygon?
Babylon Finance - BIP-5: Garden Seed Program
🦮NFT & Metaverse
NFT Game Launches Encrypted Messaging for Ethereum Wallets
Gamer-hate: Ubisoft's New NFT Project Vid Gets 96% Dislike Ratio
Ross Ulbricht’s Debut NFT Sold for $6.2M at Auction
Metaverse Goes Hollywood With Universal Music Group Avatar Partnership
Meta’s WhatsApp to Trial Novi Digital Wallet
A Rare CryptoPunk has Sold at a Record $10.2 Million
Top Sales (Last 24-h); Source: https://dappradar.com/nft
📈Deal Flow & Capital Raise
Mnemonic - $4M Unknown Round
Burrata - $7.75M Unknown Round
Rainmaker - $6.5M Seed Round
Passbase - $13.5M Series A
Slingshot - $15M Series A
Paradigm - $35M Series A
Palm NFT Studio - $27M Series B
Mambu - $266M Series E
DapperLabs - $13.5M Equity Offering
Braintrust - $100M Private Token Sale
Mir - $400M MATIC Acquisition by Polygon
Semiotic Al - $60M Ecosystem Fund by The Graph Foundation
Evernym - Undisclosed Amount Acquisition by Avast
⚖️Regulatory Update
FTX US Joins International Swaps and Derivatives Association
Miners Look Away from Kazakhstan for Growth Opportunities
SEC Obtains Judgment Against BitConnect's Lead Promoter
Russia Prioritizes Cbdc Ruble as Overall Crypto Outlook Seems Positive
📚Noteworthy Reads
Sam Lessin’s Read on FOMO Driven Economy
Zeneca_33’s Thread on Mental Health, Addiction, NFTs, Sleep
Arthur Hayes’ Blog on Crypto & The Global Market
Feel free to reach out to manoppomarco@gmail.com — feedbacks and constructive criticisms are much appreciated.
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, and any other forms of advice. Writers, authors, and contributors of The WAGMI Journal may hold any assets mentioned in the issue.