🔴 Bitcoin ETFs Just Saw Largest Outflows Ever

🗞 Market commentary.

GM, are you still alive?

We transitioned from a rather rough April, during which Bitcoin ETFs saw $344 million in net outflows, straight into a brutal start to May, where just yesterday it felt like the end of days was upon us (underscored by the historically largest outflows to date). 

Nevertheless, Bitcoin is currently hovering around a 24% retrace, which Eric Krown refers to as a “flavor of this bull run correction.” Indeed, if you look back to the start of 2023, this cycle is filled with such retracements. Things can always get worse, of course, but increasingly, it seems more factors are aligning for a potential low around this area, including yesterday’s FED confirmation about leaving rates unchanged.

Except for the ETF flows and BTC price, all is good in the crypto hood. Tether's business is generating massive record-breaking profits, reaching $4.52 billion just during Q1. The overall market cap of stablecoins continues to rise, currently sitting at $160 billion, coupled with record active addresses and transactions. All we need to do is keep moving forward and avoid getting caught in the chop during this patience season.

📊 Luke’s Chart of the Day

SMURFCAT/WETH 4H Uniswap

This is a bit of a degen play. Dan has identified some 2023 memes that are catching a bid and the theory is we see a little OG meme season here. If you want to partake, make sure you buy the ETH mainchain Smurfcat because there’s a load of scammy ones out there: here’s the Dexscreener. Check out the Sleuthmates channel in Discord if you’re a Larp Holder, there’s some good alpha in there on wallet tracking and general meme analysis from Dan. 

The range high is over 3x from where we are now. I'm not sure if we'll make that far—I’ll keep an eye on momentum—but price's look above the Point of Control is bullish. Let’s see if we get a daily close above—it seems likely.

As always, NFA, and please do your own research!

Come by the Lucky Luke Discord channel for comments, to roast my picks, or to pump your own bags. All banter is welcome anytime!

🔥 Degen corner.

They Live!

First off, don’t dive into anything discussed here if you’re not accustomed to the meme style of volatility. That said, we've observed some intriguing strengths in ETH mainnet OG memes from 2023. Today, our pro-on-chain sleuth, Dan, confirmed that multiple PEPE whales are scooping the lows of these tokens.

We'll leave the rest to you, as in these parts, it’s every person for themselves. Here’s the full OG roster for you to consider:

• MOG

• SPX

• JOE

• KEKEC

• SMURF

• BITCOIN

👀 DeFi insights.

The important bits.

• Hyperliquid (Perp. DEX) - Launched EIGEN perps - read 

• Gala (Gaming) - Partners with Rivalz.AI - read 

• IntentX (Intent-based DEX) - Launches “Blitz Attempts” rewarding $MNT - read 

• OATH (DeFi) - Teases partnership with Grain Finance - read 

• Vertex (Orderbook perp. DEX) - Launches Stake & Buyback - read 

• Azuki (NFT) - Presents Enter the Garden anime - read 

• Mode (L2) - Extends Mode Airdrop program to May 5th - read

📰 DeFi news.

Even more important bits.

• US treasury announces start of a buyback program, the first since 2002 - read 

• 0xngmi launches airdrop checker on DefiLlama - read 

• Chainlink to join Rapid Addition in building blockchain adapters for institutions - read 

• Bitcoin long liquidations spike above $145M - read 

• Roger Ver Indicted for Tax Fraud - read

• LayerZero Labs finalizes initial snapshot for potential airdrop - read

• MicroStrategy plans to launch decentralized ID solution - read

🫠 ICYMI.

Life gets busy so here’s what you’ve missed.

The Greatest Comeback in Social-Fi History: The Arena

Podcast

We're jumping on the Social-Fi hype on the latest episode of Still Early - and it's live now!

Tune in on Spotify | YouTube →

The new DePIN powerhouse: Destra Network

Explainer 

In this one CryptoTube takes us into the DEPIN powerhouse of Destra Network.

Destra has shipped at an incredible pace and has the lofty ambition of decentralizing the Web via its custom-built solutions leveraging the Destra Net L2.

Tune in on YouTube →

🐥 Tweet of the day.

To save you doom scrolling.

Jerome was in a special kind of mood yesterday, if you missed it, better listen now.

🦍 And finally…

Finally, io.net is currently overcoming a few hurdles that slowed down one of the most awaited DePIN protocol rollouts. Nevertheless, this presents us with an opportunity to leverage the Ignition season 2, which will last until the end of May. I’m prepping my GPU as we speak.

If you haven’t already… hit the subscribe button and get the coolest welcome email in crypto!