🇬🇧 Capitulation, Armstrong v Gensler & a16z's TeaFi

GM Legends,

A glorious morning after the weekend’s capitulation by Scimitar Capital as the markets have turned green AND the #FireGaryGensler Twitter campaign begins led by Congressman Warren Davidson.

In true crypto lingo… SEND EVERYTHING WITH HASTE!

Today we take a look at 3 things to get excited about.

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Need to know.
If you’ve only got 2 minutes.

The big story.
🫖 Capitulation, Armstrong vs Gensler & WDF is TeaFI?!

DeFi insights.
🖼 GMX V2 rumours… end of June?
📅 Polygon 2.0’s new token launch
🫠 GM degen: A look at the BTC chart

In the news.
🐮 #FireGaryGensler Twitter campaign begins 
🐻 Sturdy Finance off $100,000 bounty reward
👨🏻‍💼 What the FED?! Mark these dates off!

Plus Twitter reads from @TaschaLabs, @CRInvestor and @defi_mochi!

🔥 The big story.
To make you think.

🫖 Capitulation, #FireGaryGensler & WDF is TeaFI?!

Ok, so in logging on this morning the market decided to turn green. But altcoins are still bloody.

Can dev please stop the bleeding on the altcoin markets?!

Seriously, idc if it’s a buyback and burn, the biggest buy competition or wen marketing campaign?!

That being said we’ve been digging into the latest developments across DeFi to find 3 things that are worth getting excited over.

Number 1 - TeaFi

We’re calling this one TeaFi… yes, TeaFi.

At the stroke of midnight Chris Dixon, a16z General Partner, made the official announcement that the investment giant will be setting up shop in the UK this year along with their first UK-based Crypto Startup School event coming in 2024.

This is a huge win for the UK crypto scene as it highlights that innovation is here and regulation is a high 5 and fist bump away from being globally welcoming for developers, VCs and retail investors.

It also helps that a16z has just led the series A round of investment for AI computing protocol marketplace gensyn.

Why get excited?

Numero go up! We hope…

A16z is a whale in the crypto space which may be the “safu” signal that smaller VC firms need to ape into the UK crypto markets.

Number 2 - The expansion of DeFi

Scimitar Capital capitulated their books at the weekend which led to on-chain dexes and derivatives platforms PUMPING with the highest daily volume in the past 30 days.

Volatility seekers headed on-chain to cash in on the discounts presented by the market, however…

… some volatility seekers got caught up and rekt as the market makers liquidated over $423m.

Aside from the capitulation, this brings to the forefront that on-chain trading is still alive and well. Even if it is currently in its “loading… please wait” phase of the market cycle as builders continue to build, beta test and prepare themselves for launch.

Vertex Protocol continues to build, beta test and prepare themselves ready to duke it out in the “battle of the perps” I’m anticipating we see.

Hyperliquid is a perp dex that’s currently going through its alpha-testing phase and peeking behind the scenes… it looks like it could be one of the main features in the battle of the perps.

Mux Protocol was another BIG winner over the weekend and a platform that silently delivers.

So yes, the expansion of on-chain trading and defi, in general, is another area we are excited to see thrive toward the back end of 2023.

Why get excited?

Numero go up up up and fingers crossed we don’t all get liquidated in the process!

Higher volume + higher usage = a wonderful world.

We are a long way off that equation becoming true BUT given time, a burst of innovation and much-needed liquidity and I think we’ve got a recipe for a beautiful world of defi degeneracy ahead of us.

Number 3 - Armstrong vs Gensler

In trying to protect the people Gensler has financially rekt a nation, capitulated retail and made himself look like a complete dumba**.

Crypto is now putting its final bag of hopium into Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong as he is set to take on Gensler in a Battle Royale the likes the internet has never seen before.

Player statistics:

This will not be a simple case as it brings into question the classification of cryptocurrencies as a collective bag of assets. What we all hope this case does do is provide key regulatory guidance as to what exchanges can and can’t do while giving market speculators, that’s you and I, a safer place to get liquidated… I mean… a responsibility trade.

Why get excited?

Numero… probably going to go wild in both directions as we saw at the weekend.

What would be great, right now, is to see first draft of the “Crypto Regulation for Dummies” book being published.

BONUS: Larp 🤫

Why get excited?

I don’t know but there aren’t 13 months in a year… 🤔

Must be larp.

Our Take

Dev DEFINITELY needs to do something otherwise it looks like the charts are all going to goblin town. Bitcoin could slam dunk down to the $20,000 marker whilst Eth sees a $1400… let’s hope the LSDFi narrative can keep it propped up!

In the meantime, there’s still a lot of cool innovation happening in crypto…

👀 DeFi insights.
Project updates, governance reports and industry secrets.

The World of DeFi

• Blur - 500-700m token unlocking by June 14th. (0xMoe article)

• Blur - Possible phishing exploits. (Twitter)

• Curve Finance - $crvUSD goes live on Conic. (Twitter)

• Ether Fi - Launched Ether Fans, NFTs backed by staked Eth. (Twitter)

• GMX - V2 rumours set to launch end of June as Arthur Hayes bought 60+ ETH worth of GMX (Twitter)

• J.Page - JPO beta launch went live including JPO NFT minting. (Twitter)

• nftperp - Mafia Nuts NFT utility revealed. Yield farm on Baton Finance and stake your LP position on Caviar AMM. (Twitter)

• OPNX - Justice tokens go live. (Twitter)

• Perpy Finance - Futures trading engine gets revealed for the first time. (Twitter)

• Polygon - Release Polygon 2.0 blueprint. Is MATIC 2.0 coming July 10th? (Twitter)

• Synthetix - V3 spot market is now available. (Twitter)

• XRP - Hinman documents become public today June 13th (Cointelegraph)

Governance Updates

• Arbitrum - Updated AIP 1.1 proposal due to a mistake. Currently in voting on Tally.XYZ (Tally)

• Venus Protocol - The BNB Chain core to take over the $BNB position if the liquidation point is near to handle exploits. (Twitter)

🫠 GM degen.
The latest GM degen podcast.

Volume has dried up as price action continues to bleed out. Bitcoin is making its way to a major area of support which, if broken, could see price nuke towards $20,000 again.

Bull Case. Bitcoin holds this area and crabs as we wait for liquidity to slowly come back in.

Bear Case. A loss of the $25,200 support level leads to a liquidity run towards $20,000

🗞 In the news.
The important bits.

• BlockFi withdrawals could start this summer once testing has been completed. Withdrawals will be completed in batches with eligible customers being emailed ahead of time. (The Block)

• Congressman Warren Davidson’s #FireGaryGensler campaign begins including the SEC Stabilisation Act which includes a restructuring. (Twitter)

• eToro halts Algo, Matic, Mana and Dash for US customers. (Decrypt)

• Sturdy Finances $100,000 bounty reward after an attacker drained 442 ETH. (The Block)

• UK set to be AI & Crypto Hub as Prime Minister Rishi announces £100m plan. (Decrypt)

👨🏻‍💼 What the FED?!

Big week of market-driven news. Prepare yourself, anon!

🐥 Twitter reads.
In case you missed it.

@TaschaLabs, wen bull market?!

@CRInvestor’s hocus pocus mystic megaphone TA… GG.

@defi_mochi, coming soon… token unlocks.

And on that note, thanks for reading, catcha apes in the next edition!

blocmates team 🫡

🤝 A final word.

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