After the FOMC announcement, the markets took a plunge. BTC dropped 10%, ETH fell 15%, and altcoins fell 30%+. External/mainstream interest in crypto continues to decrease as volume further dries up across the board. Despite the market turmoil, the people within crypto remain active on keeping things going through this bear market.
Panama announces pro-crypto regulations, Tron finally goes live with their stablecoin, google announces their entry into the crypto space, and Luna Foundation guard purchases more BTC. In addition to this, some prominent crypo firms have announced their investment in twitter with Elon Musk, and on a related note to big funds making moves, this week a new crypto fund was announced. So let’s get into it.
Panama Embraces Crypto
Panama’s National Assembly passed a bill earlier this week which unanimously approved the use and commercialization of crypto assets within the country with some regulatory guidelines. 38 members voted in favor, 2 abstained, and nobody voted against the bill. The bill covers the trading of cryptocurrencies, the use of them in payment systems, the issuance of digital securities, and the tokenization of precious metals. After the bill is enforces, Panamanians will be able to use crypto assets for any commercial use permitted by the law. https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/144486/panama-assembly-passes-bill-to-permit-use-of-crypto-assets-report?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
Traditional Giants Entering Crypto
As more countries become accepting of crypto, traditional companies also continue to express their interest in the asset class.
Google is a traditional tech giant, earlier this week they announced that they have started assembling a web 3 focused team. The vice president of google cloud, Amit Zavery, stated that they do not want to be directly involved with the crypto front end at the moment, they are interested in building back-end services for developers building in web 3. They want to smoothen the process of building blockchain applications for developers and aim to become the leading back-end service provider for web 3 developers. https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/145519/google-is-building-a-web3-focused-team?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
As google express their interest in the back end of crypto, another traditional giant in Starbucks announces their interest in front end services. Earlier this week they announced that they will be launching their own NFTs. While they were sparing with their details they said the purpose of the NFTs would be to give holders access to exclusive content as well as exclusive experiences and membership perks. They stated that this step is to further Starbucks’ goal of being the ‘third place’ between work and home except now they want to do this by creating a community through NFTs. https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/04/starbucks-to-launch-nfts-this-year-offering-access-to-unique-experiences-and-benefits/?tpcc=tcplustwitter
Twitter Investments
As you may know, Elon Musk has made all the headlines recently by disclosing that he is buying out twitter. Twitter has become the place that most crypto natives have inhabited. Seeing this, major crypto firms such as Binance, A16z, and Sequoia have entered this deal along with Elon Musk. Sequioa is investing $800 million, Binance is investing $500 million, and A16z is investing $400 million. That is a total of $1.7 billion from crypto firms. It will be interesting to see what happens with this in the future. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/05/05/binance-commits-500m-for-elon-musks-takeover-of-twitter/
New Crypto Fund
Staying on the topic of crypto funds, this week a new crypto fund called Pangea was launched. One of the founders is Ryan Watkins who has been in the space for a long time and has was a core member of Messari, one of the leading crypto research firms. He along with his partner Daniel managed to raise $85 million to start their fund. The fund will be a thesis driven fund that makes high conviction and concentrated bets on 3-7 coins at the most. They stated that they will be very active in governance and focus on supporting cryptoeconomic infrastructure. We will wait and see how these crypto OGs fair with their very own fund.
Tron Stablecoin goes Live
Tron is a blockchain made by the eccentric and often controversial Chinese billionaire, Justin Sun. With the success of LUNA & UST, many other blockchains have started making their own native stablecoins using the same mechanics that were used by LUNA & UST. Tron announced their own native stablecoin USDD which went live this week. They are offering 30% APY on USDD which is the main attraction for most crypto participants. This 30% APY outdoes the 20% being offered on UST. In response to this, Trons native token TRX has been showing strength through these bearish conditions by staying in a steady uptrend. Now we wait to see which other blockchain will join in on the stablecoin wars. https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/145231/trons-new-stablecoin-usdd-goes-live?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
LFG Bitcoin Buy
On a related note, as Tron launches their own competitive stablecoin, the Luna Foundation Guard attempts to strengthen their own stablecoin by continuing to build up their Bitcoin reserves. This week they announced a purchase of 37,863 BTC totaling to $1.5 billion. They did this through an OTC deal with the leading crypto native fund 3AC aa well as Genesis trading. Despite these large buys, Bitcoin continues to stay in a downtrend but LFG are showing their long term conviction in Bitcoin by continuing to accumulate it and strengthen their reserves.
This is all for this week’s newsletter covering the major events in the crypto space. Tune in next week for another edition.