CryptoPongz NFT Collection set for August 6th Mint
Market Movers
The largest coins by market cap were in the green for the week, highlighted by Bitcoin and Solana both rising north of 7%
Convex Finance (CVX) was our pump coin of the week, rising over 41%
CVX is a DeFi protocol that allows holders to receive a portion of the trading fees from the Curve liquidity pool (via CoinMarketCap)
First Sip
If you’re already a crypto native, feel free to skip to “Table Talk.”
WHAT IS POLKADOT?
Several times in this section, we’ve discussed the central issues that blockchain solutions try to solve: scalability and security. Polkadot adds “interoperability” to these two tenets where their goal is not only to build a traditional blockchain solution but to also provide a bridge between many different blockchain projects. This has likely led to their sitting at number 12 on the coins by market cap chart (via CoinMarketCap).
Polkadot was founded by Gavin Wood, the former core developer of Ethereum. He saw an opportunity to solve many of the scalability problems of Ethereum while also adding support for other chains. Furthermore, Polkadot uses the idea of sharding, which has been introduced to Ethereum and other Proof of Work chains, and applies it to improving transaction throughput on a single chain. Sharding is essentially breaking up transaction validations to run on a bunch of smaller parallelizable chains before combining that information onto the main chain. These smaller chains (called “parachains”) interact with the main chain (called the “relay chain”) via leased slots. As the blockchain continues to scale, though, they will have to increase the number of slots or create some other solution that does not make the number of slots dramatically increase transaction fees like the number of validators on Ethereum does.
Still, Polkadot is an exciting project with a unique mission to bridge the entire blockchain ecosystem—a direction that has been sorely lacking. You can read more about Polkadot in their Lightpaper (the short version) or Whitepaper.
Table Talk
SENIOR BLOOMBERG ANALYST FORECASTS BTC REVERSAL
Micke McGlone, a senior analyst at Bloomberg, had a clickbait-worthy quote on Friday when speaking about Bitcoin’s price movement over the second half of the year. He went on to say:
“Bitcoin could be one of the greatest bull markets in history at a relatively discounted price to start [the second half of the year]. Or the crypto may be a failing experiment in the process of being made redundant, like crude oil. Our bias is [that] Bitcoin adoption is more likely to continue rising”
Although we certainly do not agree with McGlone’s description of Bitcoin as a “failing experiment,” we do agree with him when he says Bitcoin could enter one of the greatest bull markets in its history, given its current discounted price.
The coin peaked at $69k in November 2021 and currently sits around $21k at the time of writing.
McGlone’s analysis was largely based on Bloomberg’s Galaxy Crypto Index, which measures the performance of the largest digital assets traded in the US Dollar, currently mimicking the price action of the 2018 Bitcoin bottom (via dailyhodl).
Bitcoins 2018 bottom of $3,236 was followed by a 6-month rise to over $12K.
Will history repeat itself?
NFT Buzz
CRYPTOPONGZ SET FOR AUGUST 6TH FREE MINT
Our second NFT collection, CryptoPongz, a collection of 1,111 platypii partying on the Solana Blockchain will be released to the public via a free mint on August 6th.
Join our Discord and/or follow our Twitter to get all of the latest updates leading up to the launch.
Pictured below is one of the NFTs from the collection (yes, that is a red solo cup in his hand).
DeFi Demographic
CHECKING IN ON CELCIUS
Three weeks ago, we talked about the Celsius Network freezing asset withdrawals. Since then, they’ve been busy with the repayment of a $440M loan from MakerDAO, hiring new lawyers and board members to help with the aftermath of their bankruptcy filing, and have been hit with a lawsuit alleging that the company is a “Ponzi Scheme” (via Decrypt, WSJ, WSJ, Axios, and CoinDesk). There has still been no guidance from Celsius about when they will unfreeze users’ assets.
On the legal bankruptcy front, they’ve retained Kirkland & Ellis, which is the same firm that Voyager Digital used when it declared bankruptcy last week (via WSJ). In the same vein, they’ve added Alan Carr to the board, who is “known for serving as a board director at companies that have undergone bankruptcy” (via WSJ). While Celsius was able to repay their MakerDAO loan, the guidance is clear as far as what their next steps are likely to entail: filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.
Before Celsius has filed for bankruptcy, though, the first major lawsuit has come from crypto trading firm KeyFi whose services Celsius contracted (via CoinDesk). KeyFi has accused Celsius of not compensating them according to their contract (via CoinDesk). This lawsuit, though, is in reference to activities between 2020 and 2021, not the withdrawal freeze that has rocked DeFi (via FT). Our thoughts go out to those with capital locked in Celsius.
Final Cup
Bitcoin’s price movement is mimicking its 2018 bottom, which was followed by a prolonged uptick in price. He who remains calmest during chaos wins. Not financial advice.
Our second NFT collection will be released on August 6th. It will be free to mint! Check out our Twitter and Discord to catch all of the latest updates.
The Celsius Network has been busy. All indications suggest they’ll be filing for Chapter 11 protection soon and were just slapped with a lawsuit.
Meme of the Week (via nftevening)
Pat + Ari ✌️
Disclaimer: None of this is investment advice, financial advice, or trading advice. CRYPTOPONG does not endorse any of the cryptocurrencies, DeFi applications, or NFT collections mentioned in this article. Perform your own due diligence and/or consult a financial advisor before investing.