The Friday Focus: Issue 39

Jun 24, 2022

Welcome to our Friday newsletter. Here you find the most exciting crypto content from the previous week - curated for you by us.

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Weekly happenings

The crypto chaos continues as deleveraging spreads through the industry, and crypto broker Voyager and futures exchange CoinFLEX are the last to lower daily withdrawal limits. The crypto industry has no lender of last resort like the traditional financial markets. However, we still see some financially robust players stepping in to stabilize the sector as BlockFi receives a $250M credit facility from FTX and Nexo hiring Citigroup to advise on acquisitions. We also see the public mining companies showing weakness, dumping bitcoin as never before.

The turbulent market conditions do not deter the exchanges from being active. Coinbase launches its first derivatives product aimed at retail traders, phases out its ‘Pro’ exchange, and also implements the travel rule in certain countries. Its competitor Binance US introduces zero-fee trading for some bitcoin pairs, and Binance hires Cristiano Ronaldo as a marketing ambassador.

The crypto industry keeps building bridges with traditional finance. ProShares will list the first short bitcoin ETF on NYSE. Deloitte partners with NYDIG to help institutions adopt Bitcoin. Tether plans to issue a sterling-pegged stablecoin after Circle last week announced their plans for a euro-pegged stablecoin. Crypto market analytics firm Kaiko will provide Deutsche Boerse with crypto market data.

The DeFi market continues to be chaotic. A complete mess of a vote at Solana’s lending protocol Solend leads many to question how decentralized Solana is. Cross-chain bridges continue proving their vulnerabilities as hackers stole ETH worth nearly $100M from Harmony’s bridge.

Although times are chaotic in the crypto industry, we keep seeing sizeable capital raises. Crypto broker FalconX raises $150M at an $8B valuation, Binance US plans to raise capital at a $4.5B valuation, NFT marketplace Magic Eden reaches a $1.6B valuation, and the blockchain payments firm Roxe plans a $3.6B SPAC deal.