GM, GA, GE mates, and Happy Fridays!

JFC definitely not touching grass again this weekend as day by day, tweet by tweet, contagion by contagion the SBF FTX drama just keeps on going, like dude…it’s time to stop now!

New York Times made him look like the victim who still manages to pwn noobs on League of Legends and get his 8 hours of kip in.

It’s not just the lending arm of Genesis that is falling by the hand of Sam this week, Temasek, Sequoia Capital and SoftBank have all written off up to 9 figures from their FTX investment whilst BlockFi considers filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and job cuts.

And yes the fun coupons have almost run out!

But let’s continue further down the rabbit hole of SBF’s trickery Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Steph Curry, Larry David are being pulled in for a class action lawsuit assured of “defrauding investors” whilst rumours have it that the US is looking to extradite SBF back home.

BUT there is a silver lining. Defi.

Defi not only IS the solution but it HAS to be the solution…let’s take a look at the why defi is the going to be the Phoenix that spawns from under the bridge in goblin town.

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In Todays Enclosure

• The Big Topic - Why Defi IS…no HAS to be the Solution• Bitesized bits - El Salvador buys the daily dip, Is Genesis about to implode? And another shake out at the Twitter offices​• Chart of the day - $DYDX a defi winner• Ape Chasers - 🕵️‍♂️

🔥 The Big Topic - Why Defi is…no HAS to be the Solution

Cefi…oh cefi…you were the necessary evil that helped, mums, dads, boomers and my mates down the road onboard into the wonderful world of crypto and now you are the contagion that’s got them calling me asking wen dev marketing?!

Cefi’s goblin fingers have spread across our industry, across our culture and across our people. And it’s time for a change, time to stand united as a community of degens, normies and hope-timists as we (finally) begin to put our trust back into the code as code doesn’t party on the weekends, own 9 figure mansion with the lads and it definitely doesn’t own a Toyota Corolla.

The FTX goblins have shown us that defi IS…no wait…it HAS to be the solution if there is to be sustained long-term growth otherwise that last bull run was just one big giant test net for governments and central banks to sit back, stack sats and research the viability of digital currencies.

Let’s bring the fun back into defi. Because let’s be honest now…in what other industry can you breed apes for bananas, farm magical internet beans and swap an NYC apartment for a jpeg to be part of the culture.

What is Defi?

Pronounced Deeee-Fyyye, aka defi aka Decetranlised Finance. It’s essentially a global financial system that’s built on the internet for the internet. It gives you FULL ownership of your money yes, YOU, you are in complete control and as the saying goes “Yo keys, yo money!”

There’s no god like fingers slipping into your cute little pink lacey purse.

There’s no 30-minute queue waiting in your local bank.

and there’s no listening to elevator music for an hour whilst the advisor on the phone goes to lunch and puts you on hold.

Defi, already sounds pretty cool.

Defi gives you the opportunity to be fully in charge, it is the gateway to financial various products that allow you to borrow and lend, long or short, earn interest and more.

Strangely enough, defi has also helped build magical internet communities.

In a nutshell, Defi is trustless, permissionless, transparent, programmable, censorship-resistant, and, of course, it is decentralised. It’s also fast, no more needing a carrier pigeon to deliver the loot. Now you can move your 9 figure bags from LA to Tokyo in a matter of seconds.

Just don’t do what Crypto.com did and “accidentally” send 320,000 Ethereum to your mate.

Defi just became 100x more important

BING…*Lightbulb moment*

We all just had one of those lightbulb moments go off as the need for defi just did a 100x in a matter of minutes.

As Cefi dumps, defi pumps as traders use bridges, dexes, wallets and protocols to move their funds away and continue to enjoy the thrill of trading, leverage and those juicy staking rewards (obviously be safe anon!)

Just check out the Top 10 defi protocols on Coingecko over the last 7 days.

Sam has proved, in a horrendously disastrous way, the failure of cefi and that will undoubtedly destroy many good projects that FTX and Alameda had their goblin fingers in. He also highlighted, in spectacular fashion, the importance and necessity of a fully functioning, working defi ecosystem.

From the bridges to the dexes to the protocols where we can get our daily dose of leverage (ps…unless you’re a god-tier trader…not the best idea right now).

Cefi has showcased the importance of having true, trustless self-custody of our money, I mean getting rugged in micro caps is one thing with 99% sell tax dev but to have funds locked away, in what was a trusted, and celebrity shilled, central point, with daily doses of hopium dripped through 1 letter tweets does not sit well with me anymore.

With these revelations in mind, it has forced people to explore the immense power and yoda-like wisdom that’s locked away in these smart contracts that are floating around the blockchain. UniSwap recently managed to reach an ATH for daily new transacting wallets...a forced learning curve that we have all had to do and one that will likely change the way user interact with crypto.

If you are new here, “a smart contract is a bunch of code that is only executable when certain parameters are met.”

Decentralised protocols give us an open, transparent and public way of storing and utilising our hard old gold coins. It gives us a trustless way of doing finance that, over the centuries, has been plagued with goblins. This contagion has laid down another stepping stone en route to the next generation of defi and builders be building and techies be tech’ing as the next wave of innovation is soon kick off.

Check it, I was having dinner the other night watching Bloomberg Crypto when Juliano, Founder of DYDX popped on my screen highlighting the importance of defi which was refreshing after seeing SBF on TV and me ole dear asking if I got wiped out…again (lol).

And you can’t deny that DYDX has positioned itself very well as being one of the leading defi trading platforms that perps contracts to be traded.

But defi needs a few bandaids first

Whilst the need for defi has been highlighted, it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows right now. Remember the Ronin bridge hack? The mango exploit? The OHM ponzi forks? and of course, how can we forget your daily dose of micro-cap rug pulls!

The bear market hasn’t been kind to us this year which DeFi Llama has so colourfully highlighted below. Thats a lot of stolen money right there that has magically disappeared in varying exploits, hacks and insider jobs.

And just check out cryptos most notorious hacks in terms of financial value, totalling $3,745,000,000…yes that is a lot of money that has vanished from peoples wallets like you and like I!

This needs to be fixed ASAP and devs need to focus on doing all that technical dev’ing stuff in order to plug the holes that need to be filled so that this doesn’t happen on a weekly basis. In the meantime whilst devs do dev we, at blocmates will get the first aid kit and help to apply the bandaids and offer plenty of TLC.

We discussed this with the community the other day on Cope Radio Twitter Spaces we hosted, that the UI and UX of these defi protocols need to be normie friendly because right now, they feel somewhat clunky, pixelated, and have a learning curve that takes a little too…ooo look something shiny…long to figure out.

Devs, please…if you’re reading fix the exploits and hire someone with artistic flare so it looks and feels like cefi but works like defi so that even Dans’ Mum can ape into micro-caps without getting rugged!

Our Take

The importance of defi has been highlighted again and so have the cracks and coming out of this bear market we would love to see the band-aids have been put on the exploits and the protocol UI/UX have a sophisticated CEX appeal that makes 50 Shades of Grey and Victoria Secrets look tame.

On a personal level, the destruction that has been caused has reminded us not only of what we are doing but also of the meaning behind it. As a crew, our mission is to be an honest voice in space whilst building a community of super cool degens, apes and normies who simply want to have fun, enjoy defi and take hold of their own financial freedom.

And of, course enjoy the fruits of our work.

2022…what a year for cefi, defi and tradfi it’s been.

Wisdom from Jedi: I am a DeFi maxi. DeFi is freedom. It is the equivalent of being on the open road traveling at dizzying speeds. Nobody and nothing to dictate your movements on the blockchain. You are the master of your money. A Central Exchange on the other hand is a small box that you are confined in. The time has come for you to choose.

🗞 The Bitesized News Bits

El Salvador buys the daily dip on Bitcoin but is this a smart or careless media driven DCA move? Is the El Salvadorian President, Nayib Bukele a bottom signal? And when will Saylor begin DCA’ing his bag? Many questions still left.

Binance launches NFT certificates for completing the free online crypto courses in the Binance Academy. Students can complete a 6 part course and receive their certificate of completion as an NFT.

Is Genesis a liquidity crunch waiting to implode? As the WSJ reported that the crypto lender Genesis is in need of $1bn bailout loan from investors whilst they lock down withdrawals to, what we can only suggest as, to stop users bank running funds. It looks like the lender has until Monday to get the money in the bank. If this falls through will this be the final capitulation that sees Bitcoin nuke to the 2019 highs or below?

Chip off the old block as the crypto chipmaking giant Nvidia beat crypto related revenue predictions in their latest earnings report despite the bear market and despite Ethereum moving to proof of stake.

Starkware officially launches its token on Ethereum and will remain in a “no-trade status” until further notice. The Starkware foundation will receive 50.1% token allocation where shareholders, employees and independent partner developers are locked in for a four-year period. Yes anon…wen airdrop threadooooor?!

Friday Bulls or Friday Bears?! Today we see $600m in options expiring, the Bulls need a pump over $18,000 to cash in or its a weekend of ramen where as the Bitcoin bears are watching the sub $16,500 level to cash in over $120m in profits to feast on steak fillet and caviar.

Jump Crypto rumours have been circulating the last few days that they were “propping up the price of Ethereum” and that thye are “winding down operations.” In true crypto fashion Jump Crypto took Twitter to give an official update.

The Great Twitter Shake Out ‘22 as Elons social media experiment (platform) sees yet more employees walk out and head to other decentralised alternatives. But Elon isn’t worried as he responds to Dave Portnoy, Founder of Barstool Sports citing he’s “not super worried”, which might be “only slightly worried.”

🛡 Chart of the day: $DYDX

Our Take

The DYDX token and platform has certainly done very well from the downfall of cefi and, at the time of writing, we are sitting on a key level of support with two potential zones in which the market makers could decide to push price lower to reclaim the imbalances. With the narrative being prominently defi, DYDX could continue to react favourably by having more traders flocking to the platform.

Bull case, would see us break through the $2.58 zone of resistance to make a big move up towards to $3.2-$3.8 zone.

Bear case, we continue to break down back into the lower accumulation zone of $1.3-$1.6.

Given the nature of the markets right now, anything is possible especially with all of the market makers Darth Maul wickery on the charts.

🤝 Here’s the Deel

and a quick word from our super awesome sponsors who help us make this all possible

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🦧 Updates from the bloc

The latest thread

Is the bottom finally in or are we all just super angry at the moment?!

We’ll never actually know when the bottom is in (bulls have been calling it since we dipped below $60,000) until we look back and be like “ohhhh so that was the bottom…duhhhhhh” this thread captures the raw essence of frustration, anger, fear, exhaustion and death of crypto.

The latest podcast

Today we sit down with the Onchain Wizard himself. He first came to fame with his newsletter on smart money whale watching and is about to launch Chain Edge, an analytics platform that makes it easy for anyone to figure out what is happening on-chain without having to trawl through block explorers.

🕵️‍♂️ Ape Chasers

The narrative has shifted and it shifted very quickly. I’d love to say the world cup narrative will still play out but with all the fud that’s in the market right now the world cup narrative might play out like England’s chances of getting to the finals and winning on penalties.

Goal #1: Capital preservation

Goal #2: Research research research! Defi 6.9 might be coming and projects like MVX, GAMMA, GMD, KROM, GMX, GNS, UNI, DYDX, and DPX might be where smart money starts moving.

Goal #3: See goal #1

We are here for the long-term Apes and there will be bigger opportunities coming. Our good friend Cantering Clark said it best “I’d rather buy 20% higher with confirmation of a move.”

🦍 The Ape Enclosure

We’re ready to ape in, at any time. Got a good idea that needs funding? Send us an email with all of the info to [email protected]

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