IPOs, Blacklisting & Staking tokens
In Weekly Blockchain Insights, we share the most interesting Blockchain Tweets, discussions about crypto from all blockchain ecosystems and various research and use case insights from the past week. Make sure to sign up for the newsletter below and get all blockchain insights to your inbox.
This week’s blockchain insights cover a wide range of topics including stablecoins, Central Bank Digital Currencies, crypto investing, and potential IPOs of crypto companies in 2020.
If you come across a great Tweet in the future, please tag us @BCComparison. And make sure to join our new Telegram group where we collect insights from all ecosystems: @BCinsights.
DAOs, IPOs, CBDC & Stablecoins
DAOs haven’t received widespread attention in the last 2 years but the space developed rapidly. Locked-in values have risen and serious initiatives and investments are being made. It’s easy to launch a DAO on Aragon and info is getting accessible with dashboards from Deepdao.io. Also, DeFi projects thrive towards decentralized organizations and help the DAO ecosystem grow.
So much good news today! 🥁🥁
We upgraded https://t.co/7BrimMEx8f to include 50 DAOs! Guess who's in the top 10?
For the first time we have a system wide number: over 💰 $33M 💰 are managed by DAOs on DeepDAO ☀️
The first issue of DAOpulse is out, https://t.co/WEzCNMZUcF
— DeepDAO (@DeepDAO_io) July 9, 2020
Coinbase has initiated preparations for a stock market listing that could come as early as this year. Earlier this year, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, already predicted that IPOs will become more prevalent in the cryptocurrency space and that Ripple could be among the first companies. Other companies such as BlockFi may follow in 2021.
@coinbase has initiated preparations for a stock market listing that could come as early as this year.@Ripple CEO @bgarlinghouse predicted earlier this year that IPOs will become more prevalent in the #cryptocurrency space. A bullish sign for #crypto!https://t.co/WXfZhSSnu3
— Blockchain-Comparison.com (@BCComparison) July 9, 2020
China is currently the clear leader in central bank digital currencies. Other countries discuss opportunities and run experiments while China is planning a real rollout. In Germany, Prof. Philipp Sandner shared an open letter with a roadmap to enable the digital programmable Euro.
1/ As more countries research a potential CBDC, China is rolling out a robust distribution strategy for its digital yuan. It’s only a matter of time before payments in Asia (and beyond) look drastically different, likely heavily influenced by China. https://t.co/CDnAQu9573
— Asheesh Birla (@ashgoblue) July 10, 2020
The research company The Block reported that one crypto address was blacklisted by Circle in response to a request from law enforcement. This address with 100,000 USDC can neither send nor receive any transactions anymore.
NEW: CENTRE appears to have blacklisted an address holding USDC for the first timehttps://t.co/IVTt33F4A3
— The Block (@TheBlock__) July 8, 2020
Further investigation from The Block showed that Tether has also engaged in blacklisting of crypto addresses since 2017 and blacklisted 24 just in 2020.
ICYMI: Tether has blacklisted 39 Ethereum addresses that hold millions of dollars worth of USDThttps://t.co/Q9Mx6rykaO
— The Block (@TheBlock__) July 11, 2020
Very likely, law enforcement will request more blacklistings and all centralized stablecoins will require KYC and AML checks at some point. This should lead to reduced usage of centralized stablecoins and centralized exchanged in favor of decentralized stablecoins and DEXs.
Prediction: Eventually USDC and similar regulated, centralized stablecoins will only be able to send to whitelisted addresses that have been KYCed/pre-approved in some way. Or at least above a certain $ amount.
— Linda Xie (@ljxie) July 9, 2020
Crypto investing
The number of crypto addresses that hold more than 1000USD is at all-time highs.
# of addresses with a balance of $1,000 or more pic.twitter.com/r0tCSRzQyY
— Jameson Lopp (@lopp) July 11, 2020
Staking coins such as Cardano and Tezos performed comparably very well over the past year. In a similar fashion, DeFi projects utilize effectively staking incentives to grow liquidity and users.
$ADA & $XTZ have been two of the most memorable large cap pumps in the last year.
Both come down to one thing: staking/baking.
What large cap alt will be the next to launch their staking? pic.twitter.com/8AyX17OxpS
— Luke Martin (@VentureCoinist) July 7, 2020
On Tiktok, people created viral videos for Dogecoin and pumped the price up. This was all over Twitter and all kinds of crypto users and leaders acknowledged the new marketing channel and a potential return to a crypto bull market.
🏁A thread on crypto investing
1) In the past 24 hours, the #Dogecoin pump has received widespread attention in #crypto. Tiktok users have made it their mission to create videos and pump Dogecoin to 1 US Dollar.https://t.co/aESJCvTpfQ
— Blockchain-Comparison.com (@BCComparison) July 8, 2020
CZ from Binance predicts that it will be more important to differentiate among projects during the next altseason compared to 2017. Besides the Dogecoin pump, the latest rise in prices of Cardano, Chainlink, Compound and Aave correlated with large announcements and serious development.
Not all alts will pump during the next #altszn. If a project has been around for 3 years but not much to show for, then…
A few that have consistently pushed development will thrive.#BUIDL
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) July 8, 2020
Whenever prices are rising in crypto or DeFi, investors wonder if valuations are already too high to get into an asset. Prices of DeFi projects have risen significantly in recent months but DeFi is still very early stage. There are many factors that could lead to further growth but one must very well understand the token, and include transaction costs in calculations of liquidity mining returns.
0/ Many people missed the DeFi rally YTD including a number of big funds.
Some are still sitting on the sidelines wondering if valuations are already too high.My view: we are still early in the DeFi cycle and while valuations are no longer cheap, they are not exuberant either.
— SpartanBlack (@SpartanBlack_1) July 12, 2020
Ari Paul describes the flow of funds in crypto and the difference of “paper profits” and “real profits”. Two traders can trade any asset back and forth with each other and drive up the price. However, they can only take a profit as a group when a third party enters the game. In 2017, many new investors entered cryptocurrency and earlier investors were able to lock in a profit (25B USD). Usually, rallies are a mix of insiders trading and some new money. In crypto & DeFi, early investors & users are especially rewarded through mining and staking incentives.
A discussion that's come up with a few fund managers recently: can altcoin profits be "recycled" into BTC (or ETH)? A surprisingly nuanced topic I'll explore here. /1
— Ari Paul ⛓️ (@AriDavidPaul) July 12, 2020
