Ready for Dispatch? A Newsletter on Crypto and Beyond

Welcome to Dispatch by Nexo!

Introducing our contribution to the sea of newsletters that wash the shores of your inbox. Once a week, we will be sending you a curated selection of what we believe to be important for the galloping world of cryptocurrencies. And sometimes beyond. But we promise not to fly off on tangents.

We proudly present you Issue 0 of Dispatch below. Should you have any ideas, comments, and suggestions, do drop us a line at [email protected].

The Decentralized Exchange Flippening

The Big Idea

By any measure, DeFi has had an absolutely banner year. From just under $700m in total value locked on January 1st to more than $9B today, the excitement around DeFi experiments is palpable.

This week, another major milestone happened, as the 24 hour volume of a decentralized exchange - Uniswap, specifically - exceeded the same period’s volume from Coinbase Pro, the leading US exchange.

Keep in mind, most DeFi protocols and applications have significantly higher barriers to entry than their centralized counterparts, so this milestone shows just how much of the energy (not to mention capital) in crypto is focused in this area.

The Latest In…

Bitcoin

Bitcoin dump alongside equities this week. Never fret though. Stock-to-flow pioneer Plan B calls it a “small #bitcoin test to shake out weak hands that entered May-Aug.” Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal agreed, saying: “In the post-Halving bull cycles, bitcoin can often correct 25% (even 40% + in 2017), throwing off the short-term traders (or giving swing traders a shot at the short side). Each of those was a buying opportunity. DCA opportunity ahead?”

The Latest In…

Altcoins

It seems clear that DeFi is going to be the driving force in the altcoin space in the immediate term. Ethereum is contending with fees that have risen 600% in the last month due to network clogging from DeFi usage. Meanwhile, significant attention is being paid to new competitors like recently-live Polkadot, whose native DeFi startup Acala just nabbed $7M

The Latest In…

Institutions

It’s been a banner year for crypto M&A. Coinbase bought Tagomi. Just last week, FTX announced the acquisition of Blockfolio for $150m. But not all of these deals are shaking out perfectly in practice. According to The Block, 5 of CoinMarketCap’s top executives were let go by Binance earlier this week.

The Latest In…

Regulations

The pesky IRS is at it again. In case it wasn’t clear after their first round of letters about crypto taxes last year, a new round of similar letters should really drive the point home. The letters are targeted at people who the IRS believes engaged with cryptocurrencies, but who didn’t report it.

The Week’s Most Interesting Data Story

The escalating trade war led $50B in crypto to flee China

Fascinating analysis from Chainalysis in their 2020 Geography of Cryptocurrency report. One of the most interesting details has to do with the impact of the US-China trade war on asset flows out of the region. As they point out, East Asia saw $50B flow out to crypto addresses in other regions - significantly more than the next most active region for outflows, which was Europe at $38B. This suggests that trade war tensions, which bring with them not only market impact but the potential for tighter capital controls, are causing people in the region to think differently about their capital.

Hot Topics

What the community is discussing this week

It’s the food-DeFi era. In this thread, the founder of FTX (and the new Serum DEX) Sam Bankman-Fried discusses ways to interpret the mania

Meanwhile, is bitcoin boring? And does that mean it’s actually poised for something big?

Quietly, stablecoins continue to grow - up 4x on the year and minting $100m every day.

What to watch for this week:

• Will the market turmoil prompt the Fed or Congress to more action?
• Will Ethereum’s rising gas fees halt the ascent of DeFi?
• Will bitcoin dip under $10,000?

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