Hidden Gem in Interoparability Blockchain Project and much more..
Good Morning FinTech, 10 January
Happy Monday!
Anyone else feeling incredibly refreshed after that long weekend? A very warm welcome to the 29 of you who have subscribed since last Monday — feel free to reply to this email if you have any questions.
An important update from my end:
I’ve officially launched my new side hustle as a YouTuber starting 1st of Jan and i am happy to announce that my YouTube is finally monetized, which means i will be pumped to create more long form content on my YouTube, here’s a link to those who wants to subscribe:-
Here is an update for the weekly MarketWatch, all the markets are in deep red and we may continue to see them going sideways this month.
PayPal Says It Is 'Exploring a Stablecoin' After Dev Discovers It in Code
PayPal started by enabling Bitcoin purchases. Now it's planning a stablecoin—an effort that got outed by a developer who caught it in the code.
For years, cryptocurrency has been hailed as a technology that would supplant centralized payment services because it could make transactions cheaper and cut out the financial intermediary.
But more and more, those legacy services are looking to incorporate crypto into their toolkits.
Today, PayPal confirmed that it is working on its own stablecoin after a developer discovered language about a "PayPal Coin" within its iPhone app. Bloomberg was the first to report the news.
PayPal told Bloomberg the code was part of a hackathon and wouldn't necessarily be representative of the final version.
"We are exploring a stablecoin," Senior VP of Crypto and Digital Currencies Jose Fernandez da Ponte told Bloomberg. "If and when we seek to move forward, we will of course, work closely with relevant regulators."
Binance CEO's $96B Fortune Is Worth Double Satoshi's Bitcoin Stash: Report
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has become one of the richest people in the world—even without his crypto holdings.
Changpeng Zhao, CEO of crypto exchange Binance, has become one of the richest men in the world, with a fortune of $96 billion, per Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
The near-$100 billion dollar wealth amassed by CZ (as he is known in crypto circles) doesn’t even factor in his own personal crypto holdings. They include Bitcoin and Binance’s native cryptocurrency, Binance Coin (BNB), which is currently valued at $440; one year ago, BNB was worth less than $50.
CZ's fortune dwarfs those of many of the crypto industry’s biggest names, including FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (who holds $22.5 billion according to Forbes), and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong (who holds $9.6 billion).
As per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, CZ’s wealth even eclipses that of Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious and—to date—anonymous creator of Bitcoin. Reports last year indicate that Satoshi's crypto holdings amount to as many as 1.1 million Bitcoin, worth $45.8 billion at today's prices.
Outside the world of crypto, CZ's peers include Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk who boasts an estimated net worth of $263 billion, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, whose net worth is estimated at $188.4 billion.
Binance itself is also doing well. According to Bloomberg’s analysis, the crypto exchange generated $20 billion in revenue in 2021—a figure which reportedly dwarfs 2021 revenue expectations for Coinbase.
“Coinbase might appear to be the 800-pound gorilla from a U.S. perspective, but Binance is significantly bigger,” DA Davidson & Co. analyst Chris Brendler told Bloomberg.
Next Up for Chainlink in 2022: LINK Staking and ‘Internet of Blockchains’
This year, Chainlink will launch staking rewards and aims to scale at an “insane vertical rate,” says Sergey Nazarov.
Chainlink, which securely brings real-world data to the world of smart contracts, has come a long way since October 2018.
With smart contracts being a foundation of DeFi (decentralized finance), oracles that enable them to securely execute based on verifiable real-world events—such as a cryptocurrency reaching a certain value, or a measured lack of rainfall affecting an insurance payout—are crucial.
Chainlink started out by providing cryptocurrency price data, from a handful of sources, to DeFi protocols like lending platform Aave. But these days, it consists of a lot more.
The ecosystem now boasts over 1,000 project integrations, with 700 oracle networks securing over $75 billion in value—up tenfold from 2020—and accessing over one billion data points. Chainlink also saw a threefold increase in hackathon participants, and a doubling in public usage of Chainlink Github software repositories—often cited as a metric of adoption.
All that growth has helped LINK rise 52% over the past 12 months. During that time, AccuWeather and the Associated Press both partnered with Chainlink for data verification, and ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt joined as an advisor, just the latest signs of big tech and media taking note of Chainlink’s growing applications.
Chainlink Co-founder Sergey Nazarov shared what’s coming next. Most notable for DeFi degens: staking is coming, something Chainlink had not confirmed elsewhere beyond a mention in its January 1 roadmap video.
Futures Markets See New Highs in Open Interest
While on-chain has stayed quiet, the leverage in Bitcoin derivatives market has been growing at an aggressive pace This speaks to an outsized interest in Bitcoin price action as a speculative bet, rather than the relatively tepid demand for Bitcoin in spot markets.
Leading our assessment of derivatives is the growth of Futures Perpetual Open Interest, which is the sum value of all open contracts in the continuous contracts market. Shown here in BTC terms, Perpetual Open Interest has reached new all-time highs of 264k BTC in the face of recent price declines, rising +42% since December 4 and surpassing the previous high of 258k BTC set on November 26.
With the first principles understanding that price declines will inherently close out long traders, a growth in Open Interest in recent days hints at short traders layering on bets into market weakness.
Leading the rapid growth of futures speculation are users on Binance, far and away the largest Bitcoin futures exchange by volume and size. Since May 2021, Binance has enjoyed the lion's share of Futures Open Interest among all exchanges, with a notable increase in market share during recent weeks. Since the dramatic purge on December 4th, Binance has absorbed 9.4% of Bitcoin's Futures Open Interest, and now dominates with a 30% market share.
The second largest exchange by Open Interest market share is FTX with 19%, surpassing the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). CME had seen a jump in market dominance in October at the launch of the $BITO ETF, but is now the third largest at 15% of Futures Open Interest.
Short-Term Squeeze of Shorts?
A byproduct of consistent downtrends in price are the liquidation of confident long traders trying to catch a falling knife.
A great way to view the trend of liquidations is via the dominance oscillator between long and short liquidations.
Since November, Bitcoin futures has been in a regime of long liquidation dominance, where traders betting on "Number Go Up" are consistently on the losing side. This value recently spiked to a local high of 69%, its highest value since the May 2021 crash.
Factoring in this observation with the aforementioned rise of Open Interest into declining price, and the probability of a local reversal is increasing. Short traders, who have not been punished for taking on increasing risk, may find themselves candidates for a near-term squeeze.
YouTube Post of the Week
Those who wanted to learn about “Technical Analysis” like a Pro can watch the first episode that went live this week on our YouTube:-
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Disclaimer: This is not financial advice or recommendation for any investment. The content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.