Week in Review: 6/4/2021
A recap of what happened in crypto for week-ending 6/4/2021
News Updates
Bitcoin Conference kicks off today in Miami
Miami and its mayor (who owns bitcoin and ether himself) have been positioning themselves as a crypto hub. If you’re in Miami, enjoy the festivities this week. If you couldn’t make it, no need to fret. The website link above includes a livestream of speakers, who include Jack Dorsey, Senator Lummis, Michael Saylor, Nick Szabo (could he be Satoshi himself??), and….ummm, Tony Hawk.
The chants of “TSM! TSM! TSM!” in e-sports arenas are going to soon be “TSM FTX! TSM FTX! TSM FTX!”, I guess? Or fans will stick with what they’re used to. Either way, TSM is a big name in global e-sports; FTX is a big name in crypto exchanges; the partnership of these two brands is going to draw attention to both organizations. It should be noted, if you didn’t read the article, FTX paid $210M for this deal. It’s the largest e-sports deal in history. And FTX recently received the naming rights for what was previously American Airlines Arena, home of the Miami Heat. One could say they’re dunking on their competition.
Jack Dorsey announces Square will look to build an open-source hardware wallet
This announcement was timed to be released in conjunction with his keynote speech at the Bitcoin Conference. His keynote highlighted his interest in Bitcoin and is worth watching. Full audio isn’t available but you can find snippets online. Here is one such quote.
Google lifts advertisement bans for crypto exchanges and wallet businesses
This news is a little understated. The world’s most influential advertising platforms are these large tech companies now like Alphabet and Facebook. Allowing ads for a Coinbase, FTX, or Binance would onboard even more users into the ecosystem. Metcalfe’s Law!
Former Chinese PBOC official says CBDCs could one day operate on networks like Ethereum (link in Chinese)
Once again, more usage of the Ethereum network == more demand for ether as the underlying currency used to pay transaction fees. It’s impossible to describe how bullish CBDCs operating on the Ethereum network would be for ether investors, and I’m not even getting to the potential for those CBDCs to interact with DeFi applications. End decisions and next-step experiments are still at last several years away — and it’s only a former POBC official saying this, but it’s very optimistic news.
DeFi protocols earned record-highs in revenue during the month of May
Interestingly, volatility in the crypto markets isn’t always bad for DeFi protocols. Largest reason here is because DeFi projects are so diversified. While credit businesses based on overcollateralization can go haywire with liquidations, decentralized exchanges end up generating more fees as everyone tries to sell (or buy).
Coinbase Pro launched support of Dogecoin on Thursday
Is Dogecoin actually going to be a thing… somewhere, I bet some friends are mad at me for suggesting to avoid it back in February. Oof.
Picture of the Week
