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BTC is priced above $57-58k today, yet my hiccups ain’t stopping. 

People are playing with leverage en masse. This ain’t greed. This is desperation — the sheer desperation to make quick bucks irrespective of what’s happening on the charts. 

BTC’s Estimated Leverage Ratio [ELR] is currently at its YTD peak, and this high is not something to rejoice about.  

Every time the overheated derivatives market has cooled down, we’ve had a leverage flush, and a price correction has followed parallelly. 

All I’m saying is: stay in your lane, and beware. 

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OTHERS [alts outside top 10], Rate Cuts & Hikes, Global M2 Money Supply

We have the OTHERS chart above, overlaid with rate hikes and the Covid crisis cuts. As chalked out in the chart, this period preceded a significant expansion in global M2 money supply (below, yellow line) and US M2 (magenta line, up top).

I put the chart together after reading this tweet from @cointradernik.

This is the counter-argument for all the non-believers who think rate cuts are bearish. What really matters for our coins is the quantity of money in the global financial system.

The price of money (lower rates) helps to increase supply. More money ultimately means more shitcoin pumps. Results can’t be expected straight off the bat. Fed pivots bring volatility, down days, down weeks, etc., but the bottom line is that there is more money available to be spent.

NFA as usual, please do your own research always.

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

Bitcoin is now Based!

cbBTC, Coinbase’s native version of wrapped Bitcoin has officially been rolled out on Ethereum and Base. Drumroll please! 

The asset — an ERC-20 token — is backed 1:1 by BTC held in custody by Coinbase. 

The CeFi-DeFi amalgamation is what’s the most exciting thing about this launch. The asset, launched by a CEX, is supported by several DeFi services across the board and can be used to fuel trading and lending. It will also be donning the collateral hat. 

In terms of DEXes, Aerodrome and Curve will be supporting cbBTC from today. Other supporters include lending apps like Aave, Sky Protocol, Compound; real-world assets provider Maple; and cross-chain bridges like deBridge and DeFinitive. 

If you’re a Coinbase user, then you’ll also be presented with conversion features for transferring BTC to or from Ethereum and Base. 

Well well well, BitGo's WBTC now has a legitimate competitor.

The important bits.

• Jasper proto-testnet for Zilliqa 2.0 officially goes live

• Vega Protocol passes governance vote to retire its blockchain and the VEGA token

• Origin Protocol to bring new liquid staking solutions to Base

• ether.fi S3 claims end on Sept. 14. Users can pick from 3 chain options — Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base

• Core DAO’s Ignition Drop S2 goes live

• LEVR.Bet to launch decentralized sports betting app on Monad

Even more important bits.

• Nuffle Labs extends EigenLayer functionality beyond Ethereum L1

• UK Govt. seeks to define crypto’s legal status

• CFTC forms alliances to combat crypto pig butchering scams

• FTX redeems $23 million SOL from staking

• Grayscale to launch first US XRP trust, paving way for potential ETF

• eToro settles with SEC for $1.5 million

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

ETH's Existential Crisis: Can ETH Recover from Its Own Success?

Podcast

Sam from Frax Finance joins Grant on the Still Early podcast to talk about how Ethereum has lost its lustre in the DeFi industry and is struggling to maintain its foundational role.

Tune in on Spotify | YouTube 

To save you doom scrolling.

The cat has been let out of the bag, hasn’t it?

Vitalik is back to roasting people on Twitter. Instead of bull posting, he’s duck posting. Oh, and starting next year, he will only publicly talk about L2s that are in their first stage. In his words, “It doesn’t matter if I invested, or if you’re my friend; stage 1 or bust.“

stay safe homies,

Lavina 🫡