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Crypto Hedge Funds

🌪 Rumors Swirl About Financial Stress at Three Arrows

By Aleksandar Gilbert

SPECULATION On-chain data has prompted speculation that Three Arrows Capital, a crypto-focused, Singapore-based hedge fund, is insolvent and may become the latest high-flying company to crash in the bear market.

SELLER Three Arrows Capital sold at least $40M worth of Lido’s staked Ether early Tuesday, making it the largest seller of the token in the past week. The firm, which has backed Avalanche, Solana, Terra and a $100M NFT fund launched last August, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Twitter, co-founder Su Zhu said that his firm is in touch with counterparties and is committed to resolving the situation.

DE-PEG Market observers have kept a close eye on stETH, which has historically traded at par with ETH. That began to change in May, and its more dramatic “de-peg” last week has created an opportunity for ETH bulls — and a headache for its largest holders.

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

Crypto Stress

😟 Coinbase Leads Wave of Layoffs as Crypto Girds for Rough Stretch

Multiple Platforms Scaling Back But There is Hope

By Samuel Haig

TOUGH PERIOD First came the market collapse. Now come the layoffs. When Coinbase announced it was laying off almost a fifth of its staff, or 1,100 employees, on Tuesday it was clear a tough period for the young cryptocurrency industry is about to get a whole lot tougher.

NEW ERA The exchange giant went public with great fanfare in April 2021 and rapidly became a symbol of the crypto’s breakthrough into mainstream investing. As its market capitalization approached $100B last spring, Coinbase heralded a new era when Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital assets would find a place in the diversified portfolios of ordinary investors.

LOADING And it hired like mad, loading LinkedIn and other employment sites with Help Wanted notices, and bringing aboard 1,200 new employees in the first quarter of this year alone.

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

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NFT Action

👹 Truth Labs Revealed as Team Behind Goblintown

NFT Roundup: Traders Look to Offload JPEGs in a Wild Week

By yyctrader

REVEAL Goblintown captured the imaginations of NFT collectors over the past month even as crypto markets burned. Now the team behind the project has unmasked themselves to be Truth Labs, whose previous NFT collections include the Illuminati Collective and The 187.

GOBLINS Of the 1,000 goblins that were retained by the team “because they wanted to”, 900 will be raffled to holders of the existing Truth projects over the next six months at the rate of five per day. And 50 goblins will be retained by the team and the remaining 50 will go to the llluminatiDAO.

NFTNYC The team also revealed that a “McGoblinburger truck” will make an appearance at NFTNYC, and shared plans for merchandise including “goblin sauce”.

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

NFT Marketplaces

🌊 OpenSea To Slash Gas Fees by a Third With Shift to Seaport Protocol

By Samuel Haig

GAS FEES Well, finally! For months now, NFT collectors have been chafing at a raft of issues bedeviling OpenSea’s platform, from high gas fees to its inability to let buyers bid on collections and multiple pieces instead of just individual images.

SHIFT Now the NFT marketplace is finally doing something about it. OpenSea, which has almost 20,000 users and handles $17M in daily sales volume, has migrated its operations onto a new protocol called Seaport. The shift promises to streamline the user experience on the marketplace and provide features rivals such as LooksRare are already offering.

PROTOCOL The big headline: OpenSea estimates the new protocol will reduce gas fees by 35%. “Based on last year’s data, that would amount to more than $460M in total savings,” the company said.

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

Shoutout

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We know you’ve been hit over the head with discussions on web3 this year, which is why we’re so excited to recommend the definitive podcast for understanding and going deeper on crypto and web3.

It is hosted by Sonal Chokshi, former showrunner and longtime host of the a16z Podcast; along with frequent guest appearances and hosting by Chris Dixon.

Podcast

🎙 How can the crypto market recover from this? Mati Greenspan of Quantum Economics gives his take.

The Tube

📺 Quick Take: MARKET UPDATE: Ain't no party like a depeg party (USDD, USDT, stETH)

Elsewhere

🔗 Crypto lender Celsius mulls possible restructuring amid financial woes: WSJ: The Block

Crypto lender Celsius has hired lawyers from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP as it mulls its financial options after halting withdrawals this past weekend, according to the Wall Street Journal.

🔗 Tether Denies Claims of Asian Commercial Paper Backing, Exposure to Three Arrows Capital: CoinDesk

Stablecoin issuer Tether has denied claims that its commercial paper portfolio is 85% backed by Chinese or Asian commercial papers.

🔗 Fed begins quantitative tightening on unprecedented scale: The Financial Times

US central bank’s move to reduce $9tn balance sheet comes alongside steep rate rises to tackle persistent inflation.

NEAR Protocol @NEARProtocol

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Trending in The Defiant

Uh-oh! Tron’s Stablecoin USDD Slips its Peg as TRX Tumbles Tron’s algorithmic stablecoin USDD appears to be in trouble despite recent moves from the Tron DAO to overcollateralize the token.
Ethereum Bulls See Opportunity in Celsius Collapse, stETH ‘De-Peg’
Lido’s stETH, a derivative token representing staked ether, has traded roughly at par with Ether since its inception.
One Group Doing Just Dandy This Week: MEV Extractors While the bear market has wreaked havoc for many traders, there is one group in crypto that is doing just fine. They’re deploying an obscure tactic involving blockchain mechanics that’s paying off handsomely.

🧑‍💻 ✍️ Stories in The Defiant are written by Owen Fernau, Samuel Haig, Jason Levin, DeFiDad, Aleksandar Gilbert, and yyctrader, and edited by Edward Robinson, yyctrader, and Camila Russo. Videos are produced by Robin Schmidt, Alp Gasimov and Daniel Flynn. Podcast is led by Camila, edited by Alp.

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DeFi, NFT & Web3 Insights - The Defiant

🌪 Speculation Swirls That Three Arrows…