81st Edition

Hey there 👋

Airdrops are back in the rage this week. Blur announced its airdrop, Binance cuts ties with Paxos, and SEC is busy poking its nose into the crypto space.

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Disclaimer: All price movements are recorded up to 03:30 PM UTC, 17th Feb 2023

The market's made a strong turnaround after a poor showing last week to sit very comfortably in the greens this time around.

Crypto simplified

Let’s read about LSD today!

It’s not the same as the hallucinogenic drug that presumably changes how people sense the world around them. (sigh!)

😎 We are talking about Liquid Staking Derivatives and why it has started trending across the crypto Twitter! It recently caught our attention when we saw multiple people writing threads on it. 👀

Let’s set some context:

👉🏻 Ethereum upgraded to ETH 2.0, thereby switching to a Proof-of-Stake mechanism.

👉🏻 Participants who wished to stake (lock) their ETH to increase the security of the network and earn rewards could do so by locking at least 32 ETH until the completion of the Shanghai upgrade. Unlocking will likely happen in March 2023.

👉🏻 Participants didn’t want to miss out on activities such as trading, lending, and borrowing with their crypto by locking such a large portion of their assets for such a long period of time.

Enter Liquid Staking Derivatives or LSDs!

If you read our previous weekend edition of the Flippening, we had extensively covered the Shanghai Upgrade and liquid staking.

Liquid Staking Derivatives are representations of the amount that you staked!

For example, if you stake 32 ETH, you'll receive an equivalent of 32 stETH (the staked version of ETH), which you can use for other functions until you can redeem your staked ETH.

In a nutshell, LSDs allow you to:

🥜 Earn staking rewards

🥜 Convert the staked ETH that you receive to any other cryptocurrency

🥜 Interact with the different possibilities of DeFi, as now you don’t have holdings locked

🥜 Convert both the rewards and the original investment to ETH and receive your holdings once the Shanghai upgrade completes

But why are LSDs on the rise now?

A successful completion of the Shanghai upgrade planned for March 2023 could have two outcomes.

It could result in previously locked-up staked ETH that can finally be withdrawn, sold back into the system, and a fall in ETH’s price.

Or, it could result in increased trust in ETH staking and more usage of LSDs.

Some interesting liquid staking projects to keep an eye out for:

LidoFinance: $LDO

BifrostFinance: $BNC

pStakeFinance: $pSTAKE

Rocket_Pool: $RPL

Twitter welcomed us!

Yes, we're officially live on Twitter now. And we couldn't be more excited. Crypto Twitter is even more eventful than what happens in crypto in a week.

That is why we weren't surprised when we saw Elon Musk with his dog as the new CEO. 🤣

Unlike Elon, we research and try our best to publish high quality crypto posts and threads every single day!

If you don't want to miss out on the best insights and memes of course, do follow us on Twitter >>

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Top Highlights of the Week

1. Blur's vision is clear

On February 14th, Blur, the zero-fee NFT marketplace, launched its token BLUR, which registered trading volumes of $500 million in the hours following its airdrop. The token saw huge sell pressure that saw its value dip to $0.49 from above $3. However, it has since risen steadily to $0.90 at the time of writing.

The day after its airdrop, Blur dropped a bombshell in its royalties battle with OpenSea by announcing that in order to collect full royalties on its platform, creators would have to blocklist OpenSea. For context, OpenSea enforces full royalties for new projects on its platform while simultaneously restricting its sales on secondary NFT marketplaces.

Our takeaway: While the token's price movements have been highly volatile, if previous NFT airdrops are any indication, BLUR's price is likely to top out in the next 72 hours. As for its battle with OpenSea, Blur has seen rapid growth in recent months and launching a native token that incentivizes the use of the platform will only keep users coming back for more. Ball's in your court, OpenSea.

2. You miss, I hit

Tether's USDT gained $1 billion in market cap from $68.5 billion to $69.5 billion as Binance USD (BUSD) investors fled to safer grounds amidst the regulatory uncertainty surrounding the token. New York regulators ordered BUSD issuer Paxos to stop issuing any further tokens as it faces a potential lawsuit from the SEC. However, Paxos remains optimistic and released a statement firmly denying any wrongdoing.

Our takeaway: The lack of clarity regarding crypto regulations has been a huge point of friction in recent times. And for cryptocurrencies to become mainstream and gain widespread adoption, a universally accepted set of laws needs to be introduced. But while Paxos fights a war that will likely have an effect on the larger crypto landscape, USDT wins the battle with a cool $1 billion increase in market cap.

3. SEC's unwarranted Krakdown

Crypto exchange Kraken has agreed to a $30 million settlement to pacify the SEC, which claims the exchange has been offering unregistered securities through its staking program. On top of that, Kraken will also cease all staking services for US customers. But Kraken paying up is not an admission of guilt because staking does not constitute a security, argues Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

Our takeaway: US regulators cracking down on a solvent firm that has been a good actor for over a decade doesn't exactly send a message of positivity to the crypto community in the country. The need for well-defined regulations is only growing by the day. And while countries worldwide have recognized the issue and begun working on a solution, some immediate changes are necessary to prevent such incidents from becoming commonplace.

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Disclaimer: All price movements are recorded up to 03:30 PM UTC, 17th Feb 2023

All sectors have seen strong uptrends in the past week. These bulls don't want anything to do with the color red.

Crypto jargon of the week

Explain Like I'm 5

" Arbitrage "

Buying/selling assets over two or more markets to take advantage of the price differences. Traders can buy an asset in one market and sell it in another at a high price.

Example- Arbitrage is a strategy for exploiting the inefficiencies in the market

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