Week in Review: 5/7/2021

A recap of what happened in crypto for week-ending 5/7/2021

News Headlines

• Uniswap v3 launched on Wednesday

  • Update from my previous decentralized exchange newsletter post. Exciting news for the DeFi world. Already confirmed reports of higher capital efficiency. Only downside currently from users is high gas fees (even as overall fees have decreased in recent weeks), but this is expected to be improved with time

• Galaxy Digital buys crypto custody provider BitGo for $1.2B

  • This is the first $1B+ M&A deal in crypto history, setting a precedent for other companies in the industry as things mature and grow over time

• Citi bank is considering launching crypto trading and custody services

• Goldman Sachs to offer Bitcoin derivatives to investors, Goldman Sachs to partner with CoinMetrics, a crypto data analytics company

  • Goldman has been staying busy in crypto. Was telling a friend they may have more incentive to get involved in DeFi compared to competitors who are universal banks since they have a small retail arm and DeFi allows them to reach new markets

• ING Bank releases whitepaper concluding DeFi could be more disruptive than bitcoin

  • If you’ll remember, Bank of America came out with a similar report a few months ago… As it should — this week, the total market cap of ETH surpassed the market cap of BoA

• Ether rises to a new all-time high over $3,600

  • Is this the beginning of the institutional narrative for ether? Remember institutions like banks, payment processing companies, and others need to own ether to use the Ethereum network… and more and more are starting to use the network, like Signature Bank creating the first digital payments platform

• Almost double the number of ether is held in DeFi smart contracts as on centralized exchanges

• Latin American e-commerce giant MercadoLibre bought $7.8M in bitcoin

  • South America is a big market for cryptocurrency given their history with hyperinflation and poor monetary policy. Many of their citizens know firsthand the downsides of devalued currency. It’s also a big reason why Miami is expected to be a big hub of the cryptocurrency industry in the United States

• Insurance company Metromile buys $10M in Bitcoin and will accept bitcoin as payment of premiums

Picture of the Week

Projected onto the Bank of England on April 30th, 2021