Sup, nerds!

Here’s what you’re getting in today’s edition:

• 💅 This is cool: Huge web3 gaming news you might’ve missed (we did)

• 🔎 This seems important: Long term BTC holders are buying heavily rn

• 🤝 Partner: Save big on turnover costs with Express Employment Professionals​​

• 🔪 Let's dissect this: Innovation in the BTC ETF space...

Terms used in this edition (click for an explanation, or ask Web(GPT)3!):
Web3, blockchain, wallets, stablecoin, liquidity, fiat, bullish, bearish.

💅 This is cool:

We Somehow Missed One of the Biggest Developments in Web3 Gaming (To Date)

In one sentence: In Dec ‘23, Epic Games quietly updated their terms to allow players age 18+ to access web3 games via its store — and since then, 20+ web3 games have been launched.

Imagine you came up with a god-level app idea…

You go out to VCs. You show them a demo. They lap it up.

They’re preparing to throw truck loads of cash at you, but before they sign the check — they ask:

“Where’re you launching first? iOS, Android, or both?”

You tell them: "Neither. I’m launching my own phone, operating system, and app store.”

Those fat checks would go straight into the shredder.

Why? Because distribution is important — and Apple (iOS) and Google (Android) own the global mobile distribution channels. Trying to outcompete them at this point is a fools errand.

(It sucks, but it’s true).

These are the struggles just about every web3 app, platform, and tool faces right now — there are some awesome products out there, but access to distribution channels is tight.

Which is why we’re getting a bit giddy over something we just discovered.

We were reading up on how the web3 game ‘Forgotten Runiverse’ is integrating with the Ethereum-based Ronin blockchain before its launch on the Epic Games store.

Epic Games store…did we miss something??

Turns out we did.

Over the holiday season of 2023, Epic Games quietly updated their terms of service to allow players over the age of 18 to access web3 games via its store.

Since then, 20+ web3 games have launched on the platform.

For context:

The reach of the two largest web3 wallets, MetaMask and Phantom, have a combined monthly active user base of 37M.

(Users who mostly use the platforms for sending/trading crypto, not gaming).

Epic Games (the 7th largest gaming company in the world), has 270M gaming-focused users (75M monthly active) worldwide — who are now being exposed to a growing library of web3 games.

We love to see it!

🥇 Want the news before anyone else?

🔎 This seems important:

Long Term Bitcoin Holders Are Buying Heavily Right Now

In one sentence: Long term holders are gobbling up Bitcoin at their fastest rate in over a year, but the lack of stablecoin liquidity could dampen any resulting price rallies.

We have some good news, and some ‘meh, could be better’ news.

1. According to CryptoQuant, long term holders are gobbling up Bitcoin at their fastest rate in over a year.

2. Buuut, the lack of stablecoin liquidity could dampen any resulting price rallies.

Cool. What does that all mean?

Let’s start with the easy bit: long term holders buying up Bitcoin reduces the available supply and helps to push prices up over time.

It also sends a signal to the rest of the market saying “this might be a good price to get in at” — potentially compounding the supply crunch and pushing prices even higher.

As for low stablecoin liquidity, that just means there’s not as many stablecoins sloshing around on exchanges (ready to be used).

And at this point in time, the majority of stablecoins out there are used to do one thing:

Buy more crypto.

So when prices start to tick up, ideally you want to see as many stablecoins sitting on exchanges and ready to be traded as possible.

The more stablecoins there are to trade, the greater the potential buying frenzy (and resulting price pump).

Alright, now you know!

🤝 Partner:

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🔪 Let's dissect this:

Innovation in the BTC ETF Space...

In one sentence: Investors can now get double the exposure on long or short positions for BTC simply by buying these new ETFs.

Who knew the world needed this?

Yesterday, investment managers REX Shares and Tuttle Capital Management launched two new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that allowed - no, required - Bitcoin traders to double down on long or short positions.

Here’s what we’re on about:

With these two new ETFs that are now being offered, traders can get 200% worth of exposure either direction.

So if Seb went out and bought $100 worth of ‘long’ shares, and then BTC went up by 10%, his return would be $20 rather than $10.

BUT, if Seb purchased the same ‘long’ position BTC ETF, and BTC went down by 10%, he would lose $20 rather than $10.

(Double exposure = Double the risk, double the reward - or double the loss).

Here’s the interesting part to all of this:

REX Shares and Tuttle Capital Management aren’t buying BTC directly in order to be able to offer these. Instead, they’re buying derivatives on other spot BTC ETFs to deliver the 2x leveraged or inverse exposure for their customers.

And they’re charging a tidy 0.95% in management fees which they receive regardless of the results.

So, if an investor was really bullish or really bearish on BTC, why wouldn’t they just buy derivatives on any of the existing spot BTC ETFs if they wanted the additional exposure?

Well, pretty much the same reason why BTC ETFs exist in the first place. While you could go out and set up a wallet > transfer fiat to crypto > buy BTC; many traders are more used to just buying shares with their fiat - it’s easier for them.

Same goes with these 2x exposure ETFs. The companies who manage them will do the hard work, and investors can just invest as if they’re any other share.

We didn’t expect to see a ton of innovation on the ETF side of things but Pandora’s Box is now open.

(And that’s exciting!)

What Are Crypto Derivatives?