Another one bites the dust
Michael David Rosenberg, better known by his stage name Passenger, once wrote a song which goes something like, "Now I've got a hole in my pocket, a hole in my shirt, a whole lot of trouble, he said. But now the money's gone, life carries on, and I miss it like a hole in the head."
If you're in web3 space for a while, I just thought you might relate to these lyrics.
Anyway, as the title suggests, another one of the CeFi platforms went down. This time, an Indian platform, Vauld, has gone under. As per the latest corporate statement, the company is facing serious financial challenges and has shut down trading and all the withdrawals.
This came in as another nail in the coffin following the 3AC liquidation row, Babel Finance going belly up, Celsius network pausing withdrawals, BlockFi saved by SBF, and so on.
However, there's a catch and a unique similarity among all of these platforms. That is, my friend, all of them are CeFi (centralized finance) platforms. At this point, mainstream media might be screaming in your ears about the risk of crypto exposure and all these crypto companies going belly up.
They're not completely wrong; there is substantial risk in the crypto market, just as in the stock market, commodities, or even sending your kids to school if you're in the US. But the point I'm trying to make here is that none of the DeFi has gone bust. Regardless of the market conditions, MakerDAO, Aave, Compound, Curve, and many more are all working as expected.
In the past couple of weeks, we noticed all these CeFi platforms kept promising everything was alright until they decided to suspend withdrawals. Crypto was an answer to human greed and carelessness we witnessed in the 2008 housing market crash. Let's not build the same trust-based models again that are prone to human greed and carelessness and offer no transparency.
As always, not your keys, not your coins. Don't fall for these CeFi platforms offering high yields and hiding their balance sheet while they play with your money.
In crypto nos confídimus
This week in web3 Wednesday:
- 🥲 Vauld shuts down trading and suspends withdrawals
- 🐋 Whales buying the Bitcoin dip
- 🤼♂️ CoinFLEX vs. Bitcoin Jesus: Who owes whom?
- 🤩 Binance ropes in world-famous influencer Khaby Lame
- ⚔️ Curve wars explained
- 🤿 Deep dive: Upgrading Ethereum
- 📱 Polygon jumps into the smartphone ecosystem
🥲 Vauld shuts down trading and suspends withdrawals
Earlier this week, on Monday, Vauld announced that it had shut down trading on its platform and has suspended withdrawals. Backed by Coinbase, the company released a corporate statement informing investors of the financial challenges faced by the company.
As per the company, this is due to a combination of circumstances, such as the volatile market conditions that led to a significant amount of customer withdrawals in excess of $197.7 m since 12 June 2022.
As of now, Vauld is working with law firms to figure out a solution to stay afloat. We’re hoping Vauld comes out of it and retail investors are not rekt.
Read the full corporate statement here.
🐋 Whales buying the Bitcoin dip
As per the latest tweet, Michael Saylor, the Bitcoin whale, has purchased an additional 480 bitcoins on behalf of MicroStrategy. With an average price of approximately $20,817 per Bitcoin, MicroStrategy has invested another ten million US dollars buying the dip.
With this purchase, MicroStrategy now holds 129,699 Bitcoin acquired for $3.98 billion at an average price of $30,664 per Bitcoin.
On the other hand, it is no surprise that El Salvador, the Bitcoin nation, has bought another 80 BTC for an average price of $19,000 per Bitcoin.
🤼♂️ CoinFLEX vs. Bitcoin Jesus: Who owes whom?
In a comedic turn of events, CoinFLEX CEO Mark Lamb announced on Twitter that Roger Ver, aka “Bitcoin Jesus,” owes $47 million USDC to the exchange. The exchange froze withdrawals for the retail users because of “continued uncertainty involving a counterparty” earlier this month.
Now with this tweet, the company has outed the said counterparty. Meanwhile, Roger Van tweeted stating, “Recently some rumors have been spreading that I have defaulted on a
debt to a counter-party. These rumors are false. Not only do I not have a debt to this counter-party, but this counter-party owes me a substantial sum of money, and I am currently seeking the return of my funds.
So, who owes whom? Does Roger Ver owe money to CoinFLEX or vice versa? Only the legal proceedings can settle this debt while retail users are getting rekt.
P.S. For those who don’t know, Roger Ver is a former Bitcoin evangelist who now shills Bitcoin Cash. He used to call himself – Bitcoin Jesus.
🤩 Binance ropes in world-famous influencer Khaby Lame
Seems like Binance is going all-in partnering with celebrities. Last week, Binance partnered with footballer Ronaldo and this week Binance partnered with Khaby Lame to make crypto easy.
Khaby Lame is the most followed TikToker and is well-known for his Tiktok and Instagram videos in which he silently mocks overly complicated life hack videos. Check out the promotional video of Khaby with Binance.
⚔️ Curve wars explained
If you’re a DeFi degen or even just a newbie you might have heard the term ‘Curve Wars’. But what are the tokenomics behind CRV, and why has it created a new paradigm for DeFi governance?
And why is everyone fighting for control of the CRV governance tokens?
Well, here’s a Twitter thread by 0x_illuminati explaining all the dynamics involved in Curve tokenomics, the governance wars, and all the participants involved in Curve wars.
🤿 Deep dive: Upgrading Ethereum
Since The Merge is right around the corner with that Ethereum will switch from the Proof of Work (PoS) consensus mechanism to the Proof of Stake (PoS). This event is one of the most anticipated in the history of Ethereum.
If you’re looking to learn more about the merge and how it will change the biggest blockchain network, check out Upgrading Ethereum. This is the most comprehensive and updated dive into Ethereum PoS or earlier known as Eth 2.0.
📱 Polygon jumps into the smartphone ecosystem
Last week, Solana surprised the web3 world with the announcement of its smartphone called Solana Saga. Following the footsteps of Solana, this week, Polygon has jumped into the smartphone ecosystem by partnering with HTC.
As per the latest tweet by Mihailo Bjelic, co-founder of Polygon, the company behind the Ethereum layer-2 solution has announced its first integration with a smartphone maker HTC.
As per Mihailo, “Mass adoption of Web3 will happen on mobile and
Polygon is preparing for it. Our strategy is not to make our own devices. Instead, we will integrate with existing manufacturers.“
It comes as an interesting development bringing the web3 and mobile ecosystem together. Just as smartphones rapidly expanded the reach of the internet from a few privileged to everyone, let’s hope it is repeated, but this time for web3 expansion.