Max Bibeau, Preston Sledge, Matthew Kimmell
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Market Summary
Dotted lines represent non-trading days (weekends, holidays, etc.)
Top Stories
McDonald's, Starbucks, Subway Part Of China's Central Digital Currency Pilot
19 companies are reportedly participating in a trial of China’s centralized digital currency, 3 of which being major US companies McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Subway. China has been developing the currency for over 6 years, but there is still no official announcement regarding when it could become available for public use. However, a report from Xinhua News Agency revealed that more tests are expected to roll out ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Coinbase Launches Price Oracle Aimed at Reducing Systemic Risk in the DeFi Space
Coinbase, one of the largest exchanges in the world, has released a “price oracle” that draws data from Coinbase Pro to provide extremely accurate live price data for both Bitcoin and Ethereum. This tool can provide transparency by limiting price manipulation for smart contracts that use Coinbase’s new oracle. Any smart contract that involves asset prices, including most decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, rely on oracles to source price data. In recent months, reports claim that up to 95% of Bitcoin’s trading volume could be faked, likely spurring Coinbase to release their price data for public use.
How a Random Guy Made the #2 Movie in America for $1,000
This Vice story tracks director and producer Justin Ehrenhofer’s journey to get a documentary about the cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) to be the #2 ranked movie in America. By creating an 88-minute long documentary called Money Meets Monero and holding virtual showings of the film, Ehrenhofer was able to nearly top the box office charts on April 10th.
US SEC Allows $10B Hedge Fund to Offer Access to CME Bitcoin Futures
Renaissance, a quant firm with +$160B in assets under management, has the green light to invest part of their extremely lucrative Medallion Fund into Bitcoin futures markets. This could allow millions (or billions) of new dollars to enter cryptocurrency markets. Also noted in the article is that the demand for Bitcoin futures contracts is at an all time high, with demand dramatically and consistently rising in the past few years.
Top Charts
The price of an American oil futures contract (WTI) closed at almost -$40 on Monday. @TheStalwart on negative oil prices: “Oil costs $ to store. Due to the economic collapse, oil isn't being used much. So all the storage facilities are filled up. So nobody who can store it will buy it from you. If you want to get rid of oil, you have to pay someone.” For more on this.
This chart from Robinhood shows retail traders loading up on oil as it bleeds out.
Top Tweets
See the original savagery from Alex Trebek here. Meme from @crypt0fungus.
From Babylon Bee.
Be scared. Stay home. Watch TV. From @SallyMayweather.
From @justin_hart.
@RaoulGMI, CEO of Real Vision and respectable macro investor, shares his portfolio for the coronavirus ‒ “25% trading investments, 25% cash (all dollars), 25% gold, 25% bitcoin.” In his thesis, titled “The Unfolding”, Raoul warns of a global solvency crisis caused by government loans, bailouts, and widespread defaults: “This is what I think is probable, not just possible.”
People with cartoon avis and mutton chops are also warning of economic collapse.
More economy things from @ColeGarnerBTC.
@dForcenet recently launched their decentralized lending protocol (Lendf.Me) amidst controversy that they stole their code from Compound. This week, Lendf.Me was exploited as an attacker stole all funds from the protocol’s liquidity pool. Karma? Remember, smart contracts are not smart.
@HegicOptions was the hottest thing in DeFi before breaking in less than a day. For a short amount of time, Hegic allowed users to issue options contracts as smart contracts on the Ethereum network. For example, buying a Hegic ETH Call Option enabled the holder to swap DAI stablecoins for ETH at a fixed rate until the contract expires. Essentially, if the market price of ETH goes up, the holder of a call option can profit by buying ETH for a low fixed price (enforced by the contract) and selling it on the market. Conversely, put options give users the right to sell an asset at a certain price.
@FTX_Official, a crypto derivatives exchange, launches speculative contracts for oil prices and bitcoin volatility. Will this emerge as Bitcoin’s VIX?
@dydxprotocol, a decentralized lending & margin trading protocol, is launching a perpetual swap contract for BTC/USDC as a smart contract on Ethereum. Bitmex, a crypto derivatives exchange, offers a centralized version of a BTC/USD perpetual swap contract, which has become the most popular trading instrument in all of crypto. However, Bitmex has been accused of manipulating the settlement of these contracts. With decentralized swap contracts, users gain visibility into the contracts’ settlement mechanism, since smart contracts on Ethereum are publicly viewable.
@Dharma_HQ is making it incredibly easy to crypto. Their app is essentially Venmo, but your funds earn interest. This week, Dharma enabled users to pay anybody on Twitter directly.
From @RampCapitalLLC.
Welcome to California, where people don’t respond to incentives and Treasure Island is a real place.
Venture capitalists like @paulg and @balajis continue eviscerating journalists.
No way a trusted institution would lie to us right? Not when it comes to health anyway, that’s just evil. They wouldn’t… right?
Ah, I see.
Ouch.
Top Videos
A middle-aged Italian man lectures the government on their response to the virus, using sporadic shouts and hand gestures. The video resonated with Twitter and was widely circulated.
The Travis Scott X Fortnite virtual concert will give you FOMO.
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Texas Blockchain’s ‘State of the Market’ is a student-led editorial. None of the views expressed by the authors should be taken as the view of the University of Texas at Austin or the Texas Blockchain organization. Furthermore, none of the views expressed should be taken as financial advice in any circumstance.