State of the Market #50
5/17/2020 - 5/23/2020
Max Bibeau, Preston Sledge, Keith Asmussen, Joshua Ebedes
Congratulations to our former exec Matthew Kimmel for winning Messari.io’s writing contest! You can read his paper here.
Market Summary
Dotted lines represent non-trading days (weekends, holidays, etc.)
Top Stories
Crypto Healthcare Project Announces Telehealth Exchange for Remote Medicine
Solve.Care, a cryptocurrency healthcare startup, has announced a new marketplace that will allow users to consult with medical professionals from anywhere in the world. They have named it the Global Telehealth Exchange (GTHE). Their token, called SOLVE, will carry user health data in a secure and tamper-proof way that will allow doctors to quickly review medical records and avoid conducting similar assessments multiple times.
Binance and Coinbase Accused of Insider Trade (Again)
Binance and Coinbase, two massive cryptocurrency exchanges, have been caught up in more accusations of insider trading after Travala, a booking platform with their own tokens, surged over 400% in the ten days leading up to a strategic merger with Binance’s TravelbyBit. Also, widely perceived to be in its final stage of life, OmiseGo experienced a 200% surge in one 15 minute period two days prior to the announcement of being listed on Coinbase. The speculation that Coinbase engages in pump and dump schemes just like OmiseGo’s is not unfounded as Coinbase has an established history of insider trading.
Bitcoin Pizza Day: 2 Pizzas Bought for 10,000 Bitcoins in 2010 Now Worth $91 Million
Friday was the 10th anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day! In 2010, Las Vegas programmer Laszlo Hanyecz decided to buy $25 in Papa Johns Pizza using Bitcoin. Bitcoin’s price at the time was around $0.008, so Hanyecz had to spend a whopping 10,000 BTC to pay for his pizza, an amount now valued at over $91 million. This event was extremely significant for helping jumpstart Bitcoin’s use as currency and providing a legitimate valuation for the crypto.
Jack Dorsey Gives $5M to Support UBI — Could Crypto Deliver it?
Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and a known crypto enthusiast, appeared on former presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s Podcast this Thursday to announce his $5M donation to Yang’s organization Humanity Forward. Yang told Rolling Stone that the donation would be sent out in $250 stimulus packages to thousands of Americans experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19. The article goes on to discuss how crypto could be a perfect mechanism for delivering UBI, and how some projects like Manna are already testing out delivering UBI through crypto.
Top Charts
Sourced from Decrypt
This chart shows Bitcoin’s transaction fees. At the turn of the year, the average transaction fee was $0.28. Now, the average fee is around $6.64 as of May 20. This marks a 2,213% spike since January 1st.
Bitcoin’s fees usually rise when its blockchain is getting a lot of use, and the data seems to back that up. Bitcoin’s mempool has been extremely clogged lately, which could be causing the high fees we are currently seeing.
Top Tweets
Ah, Bitmex - formerly, the largest bitcoin derivatives exchange by volume - currently, scrambling to manage lawsuits and trading engine failures while losing market share to competitors. However, you have to love the charisma of their CEO@CryptoHayes, who writes in a blog post.
“The exceptional investor invests in heretical themes, and sells once those themes become orthodox. The average investor invests in orthodox themes, and sells once those themes become irrelevant.”
From Bitcoin to Bitcoin SV, the blocksize debate has led to many new developments in the crypto space. @hasufl tweeted this succinct flow chart to summarize the argument.
But, of course, both sides claim to be avoiding that dreaded centralization.
@WestCoastWalka warns us that we need to talk to our kids about Ethereum!
@AJA_Cortes shares Hunter S. Thompson’s incredible daily routine. He was living the quarantine lifestyle before it was cool.
Justin Sun trolls Vitalik Buterin on Twitter.
@ActualAdviceBTC shares a meme some of us might find hits close to home.
@lex_node presents a hot take on the Justin Sun - Steemit conflict in an interesting thread.
@GradyWells15 proves that the Joe Rogan effect is very real.
@LTCFoundation announces an exciting new partnership between Litecoin and Atari.
@MartyBent gives us a Federal Reserve reality check.
@mhluongo reminds us how quickly crypto projects can fall apart. tBTC was a decentralized stablecoin on Ethereum that failed miserably in only two days’ time.
@kadhim shares a hilarious headline from the Financial Times. Softbank is a massive venture capital firm from Japan that owns 30% of Alibaba, 15% of Uber, and 80% of WeWork. The firm is worth almost $90b, and appears to be a total trainwreck.
@JK_Rowling messes with the crypto community, claiming she’s only interested in trying to boost her own holdings.
@CryptoBull shares an incredibly technical analysis of Bitcoin’s seasonal growth.
Top Videos
You’ve probably heard about “smart contracts,” but you might not be sure exactly how they work. This video sums it up very simply.
Kevin James is back at it with a hilarious short film that is worth your time.
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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.