🤔 BTC ETF: It’s not IF, it’s WEN or is it?

🗞 Market commentary.

Good morning gem hunters, on-chain sleuths and YGG profit-eers

GG to you degenerates who managed to outplay the cartel as YGG and now DODO perps pumped. It looks like cartel listings are back on the menu this month giving early investors the exit pumps they need.

PayPal finally enters the stablecoin arena after pausing plans back in February with the newly launched PYUSD, issued by Paxos, the former partner and issued of Binances BUSD after coming under fire from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).

Wait a minute, was this all part of a master plan?!

PYUSD is claimed to be “the world’s safest dollar-backed digital asset” and will be available to PayPals 400M+ account user base. This new centralised stablecoin has an “asset protection” function written in the code which gives Paxos the right to “freeze” your assets if the government comes knocking.

The first question is outside of our crypto bubble, will normies really care about a PayPal dollar? Will they even think of it as being crypto-related? Or, once the hype has gone next week, just happily transact in their local PayPal currency?

The second question is, who enters the space next? McDonalds with a mcUSD or maybe Walmart with a wUSD?

And finally, the deadline has passed for the CRV hacker and the “anonhunt” is officially on with $1.85M posted as a reward to the person who can identify and locate the hacker.

🤓 In today’s email.

• Degen corner. The BTC ETF: It’s not IF, it’s WEN or is it?

• DeFi insights. 10 need-to-know insights

• ICYMI. The CRV exploit podcast, SpartaDEX research plus the OP Bullcase

• Top Tweets. Crypto Linn goes fishing…but what for?

• And finally. SANDs 16.16% unlock August 14

🔥 Degen corner.

It’s not IF, it’s WEN or is it?

But will it be BTC, ETH or a combo meal deal “BTC & ETH ETF” that gets launched first?

We’ve spoken about BlackRock stealing our Bitcoins before and the bull ‘n’ bear case for it. 

Bull case, it pumps and pulls our illiquid market out of Goblin-town for a short period of time.

Bear case, tradfi are holding our Bitcoins hostage and normies now have a non-crypto “SAFU” way to invest in crypto.

The SEC has 240 days to consider, approve or deny the ETF filings which brings us to January 10th 2024, a matter of weeks away from the BTC halving. At the time of writing, we are 5 days away from Suisse-based 21shares and tradfi degen Cathie Woods ARK invest BTC ETF filings being approved, denied or delayed. 

The likelihood of a delay is high because, let’s be honest now, BlackRock. They are the biggest, they have a strategic partnership with Coinbase and they’ve only been denied once in the past, so for Cathie to be approved seems very unlikely.

Spot, futures or a meal deal?

What comes first?

Spot BTC, ETH futures or the BTC & ETH combo strategy?

August saw a plethora of ETH futures and meal deal combo strategy ETFs being filed, which IMO, shows that someone somewhere behind the scenes knows something about something.

Either that or they are all just punting an ETF filing to hope for the best, capture a headline and probably pump their own hidden dark web bags of crypto.

Given the SEC's relentless attack on Ethereum being a security, it would seem highly unlikely that a spot ETH ETF would win the race. When you dig into some of these Ether Strategy ETFs you’ll notice that will also include treasury bills, and repurchase agreements which might be more appealing for the SEC’s approval. Whilst some seek to qualify as an investment company with subsidiaries located in the Cayman Islands (lovely this time of year.)

Greener Pastures?!

No one would blame you for looking at the recent news with deep scepticism after all the doomsday media postings and cheesy “steaking” videos from Gensler. But is his reign coming to an end? Are we about to see green pastures? 

The Ripple ruling was positive, House Bills are being passed, the Grayscale court case and growing whispers of BTC/ETH ETF approvals. Bloomberg market analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas are giving approval a 65% chance, up 65x compared to previous month’s 1%.

The way I see it, and this is just my opinion, it would make sense for delays to occur for an official ETF approval in and around the Bitcoin halving in April of next year for maximum pumpability across all related crypto markets.

But then again, could be completely wrong and Cathie Woods could win the ETF race.

Now wouldn’t that be an interesting turn of events?

👀 DeFi insights.

The important bits.

• Base - The Base Bridge opens August 9th - read

• Bumper Finance - First CEX listing on Bit Mart - read

• Cielo Finance - Launch discord wallet tracking capabilities - read

• Curve Finance - Launching on Base & forex markets - read

• Mori Finance - Second token offering on August 10th - read

• Protectorate Protocol - Road to V1 released - read

• Swell Network - Joins the safETH index - read

• Vertex Protocol - Elixir Campaign goes live - read

• Wasabi Protocol - Product launches this week - read

• Yolo Nolo - Start earning on August 9th plus leaked memo released in discord - read

📰 DeFi news.

Even more important bits.

• Cathie Woods's crystal ball suggests BTC ETFs, if approved, will be approved all at once - read

• Cypher Protocol exploited during their biannual hacker house mtnDAO - read

• Huobi bank run plugged by USDT & ETH whale after rumours that executives have been detained in China - read

• Memecoin devs launch fake PYUSD, pumps $1.5m MC as the microcap arena never sleeps - read

• Vyper release CRV post-mortem update and next steps - read

🫠 ICYMI.

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

Podcast: The CRV Wars PT 2 featuring DeFiDave22 & CurveCap

Listen & Watch.

Last week we were by DeFiDave22 and CurveCap and DeFi Dave, two OG's from the Frax and Curve ecosystem to talk about the Curve Finance exploit. Plus we touch on some FRAX alpha and look at the future of stablecoins.

Tune in on YouTube →

Powering DeFi with Gaming: SpartaDEX’s Unique Approach.

Research.

SpartaDEX seems to have found the answer: a gamified DEX. By intersecting gaming and DeFi, Sparta aims to create a self-sustaining DEX that stabilizes liquidity and rewards active LP participation accordingly. 

Read more →

Optimistic about Optimism— The bull case for Optimism 

Thought Provoker.

It continues to be a teeth-gnashing bear market, despite the recent glimmers of hope with multiple ETF filings and XRP’s purported court victory – the staggering reality is that CT remains trapped in a web of viciousness and greed, overlooking the Pros of good tech, in favour of airdrops and incentives. 

Read more →

🐥 Top tweets.

To save you doom scrolling.

TuttleCapital, by the laws of Inverse Cramer, it’s over… thanks for playing.

Crypto_Linn goes fishing… but what for?

BlockNThoughts, an ancient proverb once said…

🦍 And finally…

This week we’re watching the CPI print, upcoming unlocks especially SANDs 16.16% unlock on August 14th and keeping a keen eye on news coming from the SEC about 21shares and Ark Invests Bitcoin ETF filings.

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🤝 A final word.

A quick word from our super awesome sponsors who help us make this all possible...

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