Sup, nerds!

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

• 💅 This is cool: BTC +$100B since last week

• 🔎 This seems important: This is kinda dark...

• 🤝 Partner: Got some Ethereum just chilling in your wallet? Put it to work!​​

• 🔪 Let's dissect this: Government bonds may soon be tokenized

Terms used in this edition (click for an explanation, or ask Web(GPT)3!):
Market cap, protocol, web3.

💅 This is cool:

Bitcoin Didn’t Just Weather Last Week’s Storm, It Thrived in It!

In one sentence: Last week the German government sold $2.2B worth of long-held Bitcoin, and prices actually went up (?) starting the week at ~$55k, and ended it at ~$60k (a ~$100B increase in market cap).

You know that scene in Pulp Fiction where Vincent and Jules get shot at point blank and by some miracle not a single bullet hits them?

Watching the crypto markets this past week has felt akin to that.

(You thought we were about to lead in to a Trump story, didn’t you? Well, we weren’t. That’s the next article).

Throughout last week the German government flooded the market with $2.2B worth of long-held Bitcoin — at what was possibly the worst time to do it, after BTC had bled out to $54k (the lowest it had been since Feb).

…but somehow, Bitcoin came out unscathed.

In fact, better than unscathed! It started the week at ~$55k, and ended it at ~$60k (that’s a total increase of ~$100B in market cap).

Here’s why this is making us optimistic about the coming months:

The summer months usually lead to lulls in trading volume and price appreciation, which makes markets particularly susceptible to larger than average price dips when big sell offs happen.

(There aren’t enough buyers to absorb the new supply of BTC, so the price dips to entice sales).

We just saw a very public and concentrated sell off in the middle of summer, and we came out the other side better for it.

Just imagine what might happen when everyone is back from summer break, ready to buy-in to the end of year frenzy!

🥇 Want the news before anyone else?

🔎 This seems important:

This is Kinda Dark…

In one sentence: After news broke of Trump getting shot on Saturday, the crypto markets pumped — jumping $40B in a few hours — as it increased his likelihood of winning the election (and he’s pro-crypto).

After news broke of Trump getting shot on Saturday, the crypto markets pumped — jumping $40B in a few hours.

Which seems a little…macabre. So why’d it happen?

Our arm chair analysis?

It was this photo.

Looking for a more measured explainer?

In that case, it’d go a little something like this…

Given Trump’s pro-crypto stance, it’s assumed that a Trump win in this year’s election would see increased investment into the crypto sector.

The higher the likelihood he’s re-elected → the more money will be poured into crypto markets ahead of time (as investors try to front run the price increase).

The mixture of sympathy, anger, and political passion that this event stirred up (again, embodied by this photo) was enough to push Trump’s likelihood of winning from 60% to 70% on betting markets in just a few hours.

Alongside that, Bitcoin saw an increase from ~$58.4k to ~$60.3k, Ethereum went from $3.15k to $3.22k, and Solana popped $139 to $146.

Alright, now you know!

🤝 Partner:

Got Some Ethereum Just Chilling in Your Wallet? Put It To Work!

Making money when your Ethereum goes up is nice. Earning yield on it is even better.

WARNING: We’re about to hit you with a few technical sounding terms, but hear us out (it’ll be worth it)!

If you’re sitting on some ETH right now, here are three low-risk ways to put that ETH to work, using Exponential.fi:

1. Lido ETH Staking
   
   Stake your Ethereum to return a current yield ~3.1% APY, and get stETH tokens to spend in the meantime. Low risk rating (A).
   
   (Perfect if you want long-term low-risk exposure to ETH while remaining liquid).

2. Fluid wsETH Lending
   
   Lend your wsETH to borrowers and yield ~6.2% APY. Low risk rating (B).

   
   (Ideal for anyone looking to earn impressive yields on their idle ETH).

3. Dinero pxETH Staking
   
   Stake your pxETH with Proof-of-Stake validators and yield ~6.6%. Low risk rating (B).
   
   (Works great for risk-tolerant investors seeking higher returns).

If you’re sitting there thinking to yourself:

“Sounds great…but what the heck is stETH, wstETH, and pxETH – and how do I get it in order to then stake/lend it??”

We have good news:

Exponential.fi does all of that for you! Their expert team curates the best DeFi investments for you – so you can simply pick an opportunity, invest, and watch your crypto grow.

Oh, and it’s free to join!

Click the big red button below to get started 👇

🔪 Let's dissect this:

Government Bonds May Soon Be Tokenized

In one sentence: MarketDAO, just proposed a competition aimed at onboarding $1 Billion of tokenized assets.

Let’s finish things off today with some news which is less about the markets and more about innovation.

Specifically, we’re going to discuss MarketDAO, who just proposed a competition aimed at onboarding $1 Billion of tokenized assets.

Here’s what that means:

The proposal, which is titled ‘Spark Tokenization Grand Prix,’ invites innovators (i.e. developers) and issuers (i.e. banks, investment firms etc.) to work together to build on top of the Maker Protocol.

To put it simply, they want to make it super easy to invest in things like short-term government bonds, by allowing regular people to buy tokens that represent the bonds, rather than the bonds themselves.

Why invest in tokenized short-term bonds rather than just investing in short-term bonds directly?

Plenty of reasons, but a couple of big ones:

• Fractional Ownership: Investors will be able to own a small piece of a bond, which isn't usually possible with traditional bonds.

• 24/7 Trading: Unlike traditional markets with set hours, tokenized assets can usually be traded anytime.

• Global Access: Tokenized bonds can be bought from anywhere in the world, which means people in countries with high inflation will be able to get access to financial opportunities in US markets which they never have had access to in the past.

This competition is the latest in a larger trend of moving towards tokenization of digital assets.

So while the world continues to evolve, more innovation continues in the web3 space.

Love to see it!

Tokenized Real World Assets, Explained