Better Markets, a financial nonprofit organization, has lashed out against approving a spot ether ETF product, stating that it would endanger the broader financial system. In a supplemental comment letter sent to the SEC, the organization states that approving these spot ether ETPs would “interweave the crypto industry with traditional finance,” aggravating systemic risks introduced […]
Bitcoin News
Financial Nonprofit Better Markets: Approving a Spot Ether ETF Would Threaten ‘the Broader Financial System’
Better Markets, a financial nonprofit organization, has lashed out against approving a spot ether ETF product, stating that it would endanger the broader financial system. In a supplemental comment letter sent to the SEC, the organization states that approving these spot ether ETPs would “interweave the crypto industry with traditional finance,” aggravating systemic risks introduced […]
Bitcoin News
‘The Dog Days Are Over’: Cat Memecoins Soar 16.1% After Roaring Kitty’s Return
On Monday, popular internet figure and trader “Roaring Kitty” made a surprise comeback to social media that sent the crypto market into shock and excitement.
His return post was followed by a series of cryptic videos, including catsm, which seemingly fueled a price increase for cat-themed memecoins in the past 24 hours.
Memecoin Frenzy And Market Reaction
Keith Gill, known as “The Roaring Kitty,” returned to social media after a three-year hiatus by posting the popular “leaning forward in the chair” meme.
— Roaring Kitty (@TheRoaringKitty) May 13, 2024
His comeback propelled GameStop’s meme stock (GME) price to rise 201% in the past day, as he was a major player during the 2021 meme stock frenzy.
Alongside the image, the trader shared a series of video edits that also fueled the memecoin market. As reported by News BTC, Wolverine-inspired memecoins soared after featuring the Marvel character in one of his edits.
Other big players in the sector saw green numbers in the following hours, like Pepe (PEPE) and many of the top market cap dog-themed memecoins.
As part of the ripple effect, the largest frog-themed memecoin has flipped Solana (SOL) in its daily trading volume, registering a 238% increase in volume in the past day.
Moreover, smart traders benefited from the surge after buying large token amounts. According to Lookonchain, one whale bought 195 billion PEPE, worth .98 million, and had already made 6,000 in unrealized profit a few hours later.
Dog Days Are Over, Cat-Themed Memecoins Gain 16%
The impact of Roaring Kitty’s return didn’t stop at the dog-themed memecoins. Several images and references to cats were part of the trader’s edits, fueling a 16% surge in the cat-themed sector.
Feline-inspired memecoins have been gaining popularity during this cycle, with tokens like cat in dog word (MEW) and Popcat (POPCAT) joining the top-ten memecoins list in the past month.
One of Roaring Kitty’s edits included a fragment of Florence + The Machine’s song “Dog Days Are Over.” Alongside the video, the trader emphasized the lyrics, “The dog days are over, the dog days are done.”
— Roaring Kitty (@TheRoaringKitty) May 13, 2024
Additionally, he added cat images, seemingly insinuating that a future memecoin rally could be led by cat-themed memecoins instead of the usual dog-themed ones.
Whales Hear The ROAR
Lookonchain reported that, alongside GME, the memecoin Roaring Kitty (KITTY) skyrocketed 13,000%. Other feline-themed tokens, including POPCAT, MichiCoin (MICHI), and Roaring Kitty (ROAR), also saw a significant surge.
Popcat has registered a 24.4% and 276% increase in the one-day and monthly timeframes, while MichiCoin surged 38.9% in the past day and 333.5% since its launch on April 26. Both tokens also saw an 80% increase in the daily trading volume.
Among the top gainers were the tokens inspired by the trader. The Ethereum-based SOAR skyrocketed over 1162% in hours, going from .00024830 to .0031338. This surge also represented a massive 3216.8% increase in the weekly timeframe, with a similar daily trading volume increase of 826%.
Per the report, whales took advantage of the momentum and loaded their bags with these tokens. One whale withdrew SOL from Binance and bought 490,400 POPCAT, worth around 5,472.
Another big player, who had previously made 2,170 SOL, about 0,000, on POPCAT, spent another 4,000 SOL, approximately 2,000, to buy POPCAT and MICHI tokens. The whale acquired 587,3830 POPCAT for 2,000 SOL and 626,616 MICHI for the same amount.
Deutsche Bundesbank President on Digital Euro: ‘The Eurosystem Has No Interest in Monitoring People’s Payment Patterns’
Joachim Nagel, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, praised the privacy traits a hypothetical upcoming digital euro would possess. During a speech, Nagel specified that the Eurosystem would have “no interest” in monitoring the payments and expenses of digital euro users and would not be able to identify them based on their payments. Deutsche Bundesbank President […]
Bitcoin News
Ethena (ENA) Is ‘The LUNA Of This Cycle’ With 20x Potential: Expert
Charles Edwards, the founder of Capriole Investments, has sparked significant interest and debate within the cryptocurrency community. He heralded Ethena (ENA) as “the Luna of this cycle,” but with a crucial difference: its economic fundamentals are deemed sustainable.
Edwards elaborated, “It’s 100% collateralized and the yield is variable based on market forces. Two things Luna wasn’t.” He also noted that at its zenith, Luna’s valuation exceeded ENA’s current market cap by more than twenty-fold, yet he cautioned, “ENA is not risk-free, custody and execution risk exist.”
Ethena is the Luna of this cycle, except the underlying economics are actually sustainable. It's 100% collateralized and the yield is variable based on market forces. Two things Luna wasn't. At it's peak LUNA was over 20X bigger than what ENA is now. ENA is not risk free, custody…
— Charles Edwards (@caprioleio) April 10, 2024
Since its launch on April 2, ENA has seen a meteoric rise from under .30 to a high of .45. This rally is largely attributed to Ethena Labs’ strategic enhancement of its rewards program, now in its “Season 2,” which offers a 50% reward boost for users locking their ENA tokens for at least seven days. This move aims to bolster user engagement and loyalty, fostering a sustainable ecosystem for the Ethena platform.
A remarkable aspect of this ecosystem is the rapid growth of its stablecoin, USDe, which has outstripped the supply growth of established counterparts such as USDT, USDC, and DAI, reaching a billion supply in just over 100 days.
USDe is the fastest growing USD denominated asset in the history of crypto pic.twitter.com/xgiRJjf96t
— G | Ethena (@leptokurtic_) April 8, 2024
However, the project’s high yields which are generated by harnessing the derivative markets and staked Ethereum have stirred skepticism among industry experts. Fantom founder Andre Cronje, among others, has raised concerns about the sustainability of these yields, which are the highest in the entire crypto industry.
Risks Involved With Ethena
Diving deeper into the discussion of risks, CL (@CL207) from eGirl Capital offers an intriguing perspective on the behavior of derivatives traders. She clarifies, “It appears Ethena is making many people who don’t trade derivatives have a really hard time wrapping their heads around the fact that derivatives traders are so genuinely retarded that we’re willing to pay like 50%+ APR to enter a position.”
Notably, last cycle crypto traders were bidding futures so high that Bitcoin quarterlies earned “a locked-in >50% apr. She added, “just 50 days into 2021, we collectively paid 2,400,000,000$ in funding rates by the end of 2021, the market has paid as much as a decently sized country’s GDP.”
Monetsupply.eth (@MonetSupply) from Block Analitica provides a granular analysis of the risks Andre Cronje highlighted. Through his examination, several key areas of concern are outlined:
- Oracle Risk: The potential impact on exchange positions due to Ethena providing inaccurate quotes on minting or redeeming operations. However, MonetSupply notes, “there’s rate limits on this tho so max loss is constrained and counterparties are all whitelisted (can’t just run away with the money).”
- Liquidation Risk: Deemed not a significant factor as the portfolio is leveraged less than 1x, suggesting a conservative approach to borrowing and leverage.
- Spread Risk: The possibility of increased basis leading to higher funding revenue, which should theoretically attract inflows. Conversely, a negative basis might cause outflows, but Ethena could benefit from closing hedged positions profitably.
- Collateral Ratio Risk: Even though liquid staking tokens (LSTs) are given less than 100% weight on centralized exchanges (CEX), the overall low leverage mitigates this risk. The proportion of LST in spot collateral is relatively minor.
- Custody Risk: Highlighted as one of the more significant concerns, given the reliance on custodians with a good track record and the distribution of assets across multiple entities.
- Exchange Solvency Risk: This risk could lead to the loss of unsettled profit and loss (PnL) and some trading costs to rehedge on other exchanges. However, MonetSupply adds, “the Binance/ceffu nexus might change this assessment though, are they actually independent?”
- Ethena Entity Risk: The internal risk related to Ethena’s keys or authentication tokens being compromised, or a team member acting maliciously.
MonetSupply concludes that despite these risks, the framework of overcollateralization on platforms like Morpho, the Maker surplus buffer, and the MKR backstop, supported by a substantial Proof of Liquidity (POL), serves as a robust mitigating factor.
At press time, ENA traded at .329.
Bitwise Sees ‘Raging’ Bitcoin Bull Market — Expects April Halving to Be ‘the Most Impactful We’ve Seen”
Bitwise Asset Management believes that “bitcoin is in a raging bull market” in the long term. Its chief executive anticipates the upcoming bitcoin halving to be “the most impactful we’ve seen.” The firm’s chief investment officer explained that global wealth managers allocating just 1% of their portfolios to bitcoin would mean about trillion of […]
Bitcoin News
Developing Several Layer-2 Solutions: ‘The Real Solution’ to Ethereum’s Scalability Issue, Says Ken Timsit
The recent surge in Ethereum gas fees can be attributed to the rise in decentralized finance (defi) activity and the growing popularity of layer 2 (L2) chains such as Arbitrum and Optimism, Ken Timsit, managing director of Cronos Labs, has said. Timsit however agreed that the recent Dencun upgrade to the Ethereum network has helped […]
Bitcoin News
“The Colosseum” – GAIMIN’s Web3 Membership Program for Esports Fans
The world of esports remains an ever-growing industry, where competitive gaming takes center stage. Gaimin Gladiators ( www.gaimingladiators.gg ), GAIMIN’s (www.gaimin.io) esports team, is making waves with a game-changing move, this time beyond the arena. We are introducing on 2nd April 2024 the first version of The Colosseum, our very own Web3 fan loyalty membership […]
Bitcoin News
Blackrock CEO Larry Fink ‘Very Bullish’ on Bitcoin — Hails IBIT ‘the Fastest Growing ETF’ Ever
The CEO of Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, Larry Fink, says he is “very bullish on the long-term viability of Bitcoin.” Noting that he is “pleasantly surprised” by the demand for Blackrock’s spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), he emphasized that the Ishares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) is “the fastest growing ETF in the history of […]
Bitcoin News
Argentina’s Milei Blasts Collectivism at Davos: ‘The West Is in Danger’
Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, blasted what he perceives to be the advance of collectivist ideas in Western society at the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2024 annual meeting at Davos, warning about the dangers these represent for the quality of life in the world. Milei explained that these ideas, which might be adopted with good intentions, inevitably open the door to state action and socialism.
Javier Milei Warns Against Collectivist Ideas at Davos
Javier Milei, president of Argentina, warned against Western society’s new path, criticizing the ideas of collectivism that, according to his thoughts, are advancing in several nations. In a speech at this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) meetings at Davos, Milei stressed the dangers these ideas presented to today’s developed world.
Milei stated:
The West is in danger, it is in danger because those, who are supposed to defend the values of the West, find themselves co-opted by a vision of the world that – inexorably – leads to socialism, consequently to poverty.
As an opposite to these new conceptions, Milei defended capitalism and libertarian ideas that have boosted the world economy since the Industrial Revolution. He also criticized the issue of social justice, stressing that the means to defend it and sustain it are born out of state-managed violence and coercion. “It is an intrinsically unjust idea because it is violent; It is unfair because the State is financed through taxes and taxes are collected coercively,” he explained.
Milei states that collectivism places obstacles in the way of entrepreneurs, making it more difficult to produce goods and provide services at better prices. He also blasted socialism, stating that it was a failure in every country it was tried, bringing poverty to millions.
The libertarian explained that Argentina was an example of what these collectivist policies can do to a country and remarked that the supporters of these policies, after having failed to establish economic questions as their focus, migrated their struggles to social areas like radical feminism, population control, and environmental issues.
Finally, he highlighted entrepreneurs’ roles in today’s world, calling them not to yield to the political class or the state. He concluded:
You are social benefactors. You are heroes. You are the creators of the most extraordinary period of prosperity we have ever experienced.
What do you think about Milei’s views on collectivism, capitalism, and socialism? Tell us in the comments section below.