Welcome to this 15th issue of the Chain Reaction newsletter for the week commencing 28th February 2022.
In the news last week we saw celebrities Souljia Boy and Jake Paul named among others in a class action lawsuit over SafeMoon, the last-minute withdrawal of a 104 CryptoPunk lot at Sotheby’s and the serious consideration of cryptocurrency after Canadian citizens’ bank accounts were suspended. In the Metaverse, Pixelmon fails spectacularly to deliver on its NFT promises and over in the real world, conflict in Ukraine saw cryptocurrencies fall but the market has since rebounded back.
Across videos, local finance news channel, ausbiz, explores the metaverse with a dive into metaverse mortgages and an Indigenous project, Walking Between Worlds.
For those interested in learning more about this space, check out the Education section where Aus DeFi member Crypto Karin breaks down crypto and blockchain in a series of highly engaging videos.
If you like what you see and you're interested in continuing these awesome DeFi conversations, join us on our Discord: https://discord.com/invite/ZRCTDdsVEF
What you can expect in this newsletter
In the News
Videos of the week
Charts and Data
Around the world of social media
Education
In the news
CoinTelegraph - Komodo (KMD) rallies 54% after major push to expand interoperability with AtomicDEX - With interoperability a hot topic in the DeFi space it’s interesting to see this alternative approach that Komodo has taken which integrates multiple blockchain networks, offers secure cross-chain swaps and more.
CoinTelegraph - NFTs and social capital: How projects are collaborating to the mutual benefit of the entire sector - a discussion about the community in the NFT space and how they are collaborating from gaining the attention of fellow artists to partnering with major brands like Nike.
Bloomberg - Bored Apes Go to Court - Opinion piece from Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine. He goes over the lawsuit between Timothy McKimmy and OpenSea (the defendant). There’s been a lot of press about this so it’s good to see the institutional view on this but it does side more with regulation than whatever the truth is on the blockchain at least.
Sotheby's withdrew a lot of 104 CryptoPunks before its auction was set to begin - In a surprising twist, Sotheby’s highly anticipated auction of 104 CryptoPunk NFTs was cancelled just before it began. The seller known as 0x650d withdrew the estimated $30 million collection at the last minute, tweeting ‘nvm, decided to hodl’.
Magic Eden (ME) have started distributing their Magic Ticket NFTs as part of their plans to launch their own DAO - MagicDAO. Holders will be granted access to exclusive perks such as but not limited to voting rights for featured projects and management of the DAO’s treasury.
Complex - Jake Paul, Soulja Boy, Lil Yachty: Sued Over Alleged SafeMoon Crypto ‘Pump and Dump’ Scheme - influencer pump and dumps have plagued the past 12 months in crypto, but this SafeMoon lawsuit may start seeing legal repercussions in the USA for some high profile names.
Bloomberg, Elwood Technologies ink deal to offer institutional crypto trading capabilities - Institutional crypto tooling is taking a step forward with the integration of Elwood’s trading tools & Bloomberg AIM, a buy-side order management system is used by about 15,000 clients who collectively manage more than $17 trillion in assets
Coin Telegraph - Trudeau revokes emergencies act powers but the case for crypto grows - repealing the emergency powers that were invoked by Canadian President Justin Trudeau may ease the minds of the 210 citizens (and the $8 million worth of funds) effected but it has called to attention the potential for governments (even economically free ones like Canada) to invoke sanctions on citizens.
Web3isgoinggreat - Pixelmon raises $70 million only to reveal hilariously bad NFTs - If you didn't hear about the Pixelmon metaverse/NFT project then you should have a look at this and the tweet thread (in Social Media section below) as it details the the poor effort upon launch of this project. Whether there is a rug pull going on its hard to say but one things for sure, they did not deliver on the hype.
Forkast - Bitcoin, crypto market tank as Putin declares war on Ukraine - As expected, Russia declares war over Ukraine (via a ‘special military operation’) which saw all sorts of markets (equities and crypto) tumble. Bitcoin fell to US$34,958 and Ethereum to US$2,382 as of the time of this article (Feb 24, 2022).
Coin Telegraph - Trudeau revokes emergencies act powers but the case for crypto grows - repealing the emergency powers that were invoked by Canadian President Justin Trudeau may ease the minds of the 210 citizens (and the $8 million worth of funds) effected but it has called to attention the potential for governments (even economically free ones like Canada) to invoke sanctions on citizens.
Bankless Newsletter - Crypto is here to set us free - If you’re not signed up to substack, check it out. In this one, we see how crypto, DeFi and other elements in this web3 space can really help drive societal change. Moving away from a world where we are concentrated in who owns our data, our interests, our livelihoods. There’s a dive into value and the future of web3 social structures so check it out.
Videos of the week
Aus DeFi Association - Meetup - February 2022 - The full video from our February meetup is here. Last week we showed some highlights but you get to dive into the meetup we had and the variou presenters. We covered NFTs, sustainability, impact investing, agriculture, greater good DAOs and those with real-world impact, gaming guilds, tax and more. 1hr
Coin Bureau - CRAZIEST Crypto Story EVER!! $5 BILLION Bitcoin Mystery!! - The biggest financial seizure in the FBIs history was the Bitfinex hack where the $5 billion is what the original $72m in bitcoin would be worth now. We’ve seen the stories but hear from Guy and his take on the hack and tracing the funds as well as unanswered questions, for now. So grab your popcorn and have a listen. 26mins
The Defiant - OpenSea Phishing, Credit Suisse leaking - OpenSea hack? Looks more like a phishing attack with a real looking OpenSea email as well as a leak from Credit Suisse that could cause some issues for traditional finance. 5mins
ausbiz - Movefi and indigenous empowerment | PUML and Walking Between Worlds - looking at a move to earn (or MoveFi) play with PUML as well as an indigenous metaverse project called Walking Between Worlds and its NFTs. 17mins
ausbiz - Virtual real estate and metaverse mortgages | TerraZero - Metaverse mortgages with Terra Zero and linking the real world to the digital. In this video the discussion with Terra’s CEO Dan Reitzik to go through the various opportunities here.17mins
Cointelegraph - What is the Metaverse? Beginner's guide to the future internet explained | Cryptopedia - diving into the metaverse with what it can offer and the mainstream companies that are buying land on the various metaverses out there and how Meta is trying to take the lead as well as talking about how NFTs are central to ownership in these digital worlds and more. 8mins
Charts and Data
CoinGecko
Top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap as at the 27th February 2021 3:30pm AEST on CoinGecko. A testing week as bitcoin and other major cryptos see further drops in price with BTC back to $38k and others losing ground.
Dune Analytics
Interesting chart from user @hildobby on Dune Analytics showing the effect of removing wash trading from the NFT exchange, LooksRare. It shows that without back-and-forth trades, volume decreases significantly and without very-high sales it decreases even more. Whatever your opinion is of wash trading, this is data worth looking at in the NFT space.
Social post of the week
Following up from the Pixelmon article above is this Tweet thread from user @zachxbt which details what happened with the controversial release of these 3D in game NFTs which were meant to look much better than was shown. https://twitter.com/zachxbt/status/1497370216690503687
Education
Crypto Karin - Key Concepts: Beginner's Guide to Crypto and Blockchain - In this set of videos, Aus DeFi member and well-known TikTokker, Crypto Karin, breaks down bitcoin, crypto and more. Check out episode 1 below if you're just getting started.
Thanks again to our various newsletter contributors
Cam Crossley (see LinkedIn)
Jordan Franklin (aka The Happy Spender on TikTok/Instagram)
Rohan Agarwal (see LinkedIn)
Leo Luk (see LinkedIn)
Sagan Rajbhandary (see LinkedIn)
David Gikandi (see LinkedIn)
Wil Gikandi (see LinkedIn)
Gururaj Sundaram (see LinkedIn)
Nicholas Bishop (see LinkedIn)
Arturo Rodriguez (see LinkedIn)
Mark Monfort (see LinkedIn)
ItsCuzzo (see Twitter)
If you're interested in contributing to these newsletters in future - please join us on Discord or reach out to us on info@defi.org.au