38th Edition

This week in The Flippening, TL;DR

Massive milestone for Bitcoin & Ethereum ETFs; NFT marketplace comes to Coinbase; this stablecoin without any fiat collateral to derive its value becomes the third largest; Coin of the week, market performance; Stablecoin wars and how they are reshaping the crypto ecosystem; featured Coin Sets, memes, and more.

Top Highlights of the Week (ending 22nd April)

Australia set to list first Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs this month

The ETFS 21Shares Bitcoin ETF and the ETF 21Shares Ethereum ETF track the price of BTC and ETH in Australian dollars are fully backed and held in cold storage by Coinbase.

Coinbase opens the NFT marketplace Beta

Coinbase launched the beta version of its NFT marketplace. In the coming weeks, it is planning to add drops, minting, token-gated communities, and the option to buy NFTs with a Coinbase account or by just using a credit card.

TerraUSD becomes the third-largest stablecoin now

The algorithmic stablecoin UST, or TerraUSD becomes the third largest stablecoin, and the eight largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Since it is algorithmically linked Terra’s LUNA, the LUNA coin has outperformed the market after crossing $90.

Other Highlights:

• Hedge, a Solana based DeFi platform, raises $3.7M to offer interest-free loans: Read it here
• German’s banking giant, Commerzbank, applies for a local crypto license: Read it here
• Kadena announces $100M grant program for Web 3 : Read it here
• Blockchain.com, a crypto startup, is planning IPO this year : Read it here

Disclaimer: All price movements are recorded up to 10:00 AM UTC

Most of the top cryptos remained around the local support levels this week. With the hype around stablecoins this week, a lot of focus has been on Tron and LUNA for their stablecoin ecosystems. After the minor developments in the Ripple v/s SEC case, this week saw some of the attention fading away and a corresponding drop in price of XRP.

Disclaimer: All price movements are recorded up to 10:00 AM UTC

This has been yet another consolidating week for the cryptocurrency market. This is a good sign for long term investors. The reduction in volatility and the absence of FUD allows for true value creation. Long term investors can build great portfolios by holding fundamentally strong tokens and periodically rebalance them with Mudrex Coin Sets.

Coin of the week

TRON: $TRX

Our focus this week has been on algorithmic stablecoin ecosystems. And with Tron’s creator Justin Sun announcing the launch of a new algorithmic stablecoin, USDD, we are hopeful of a bullish move from TRX. It had touched its ATH in 2018 when it surpassed $0.30. Since then, it has been lying low. In terms of use cases, TRX is actively used to make payments.

Crypto simplified

Stablecoins account for almost 10% of crypto’s total market cap. It is undoubtedly one of the most crucial aspects of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. If we look at the 24-hour trading volume, we will realize that more than 80% of the traded volume comes from stablecoins. Apart from being used to participating in buying and selling cryptos, stablecoins play a precious role in Decentralized Finance (DeFi).

Let us take a look at their use cases:

• Negligible volatility
• Conveniently convertible to fiat currency
• Usage in payment and transfer
• Storing value

Traditional stablecoins are backed by some form of collateral such as fiat currency, bonds, liquid cash, and crypto. Examples of such stablecoins are USDT, USDC, etc.

Algorithmic stablecoins are not backed by assets but rather an algorithm that puts in place incentives for traders to maintain the price. The total market cap of all stablecoins grew by over 100% last year alone, reaching over $180B circulating. Since 2020, this number has exploded by nearly 3000%.

Let us understand how UST maintains its dollar peg. To mint UST, a user must burn an equivalent amount of LUNA (i.e. $1:$1). To redeem LUNA, a user will have to burn an equal of UST similarly. It means that UST is not backed by an external collateral asset but rather relies on market incentives to maintain stability.

The battle for stablecoin supremacy continues among centralized and decentralized organizations. Tether’s USDT is the largest stablecoin by market cap, with USDC closely following. TerraUSD became the third-largest this week by market cap.

Acquiring market share is one major test of a stablecoin’s prowess. But the harder tests involve resistance to market shocks, centralization, and regulatory capture.

Featured - Mudrex Coin Sets

Crypto Bluechip:- Markets are down and this is the perfect opportunity to dive into the Blue chips. The Crypto Blue Chip Coin Set can be considered an all-weather basket of tokens that will add value to any crypto portfolio. ‍

Smart Contract Platforms:- This Coin Set invests in tokens of platforms to build the smart contract infrastructure. Adding such potential tokens to your portfolio can offer stable investment opportunities for long term investors. ‍

‍Web 3.0:- Web 3.0 has a potential for taking the Internet to the next level with its decentralization characteristics. This Coin Set picks the 6 top tokens working towards building a Web 3.0 ecosystem.

Here we are, at the end of our 38th edition. We hope you liked reading it. Please write back with your feedback, comments, and stuff that you’d like us to include in the newsletter. We leave you with a cautionary note to due your due-diligence before investing!