Twitter | Facebook | Reddit | YouTube | LBRY | Patreon | Store Front
Here's the wrap of the biggest news in the digital assets space. To get email updates delivered to your mail box check out this free newsletter. Here's a sample of what you'll be receiving. Everything is archived so you can access it any time.
The Secret Service awarded a four-year contract to Coinbase in May in order to use its blockchain analytics software. The contract is worth $183K and ends on May 9, 2024. This raised concerns about user data being shared with regulatory agencies and the precedent it would create. In an email statement, Coinbase responded
"Coinbase Analytics data is fully sourced from online, publicly-available data, and does not include any personally-identifiable information for anyone, regardless of whether or not they use Coinbase."
This technology was acquired by Coinbase from their purchase of Neutrino, a blockchain analytics firm. The timing of this is a little suspect, given the IRS has recently begun ramping up activities in the cryptocurrency space. They recently sent out notices to tax firms last month requesting proposals for auditing support.
Grayscale recorded its largest quarterly inflow of $905 million in Q2 2020, nearly double the previous quarter high. Baby boomers have been contributing largely to the recent inflows. Doubling there exposure month over month during the liquidity crisis. This is the first time the inflows into Grayscale products crossed 1 billion in a six month period.
After Bitcoin halving in May, the inflows into the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust surpassed the number of newly minted bitcoin over the same period. Moreover, investors are beginning to show some appetite for altcoins. In 2Q20, Grayscale Ethereum Trust accounted for almost 15% of total inflows into the Grayscale products, the highest percentage to date. Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust and Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund combined have exceeded $50 million of inflows during the last 12 months. The Grayscale Litecoin Trust saw its largest inflows to date, and the Grayscale Bitcoin Cash Trust saw its largest inflow since 2Q18.
Venture capital firms are buying LEND tokens to expand their DeFi exposure. The decentralized money market protocol, Aave, currently has $2 billion plus assets locked in its protocol. The firms expect this to increase by several magnitude over the coming years. Framework Ventures and Three Arrows Capital have invested $3 million when the LEND token was ten cents and hold over $7M worth of LEND tokens. Both firms plan to be active market participants in the Aave ecosystem via staking and governance. With their respective expertise and experience these firms are positioned to accelerate Aave's growth as investor and major users of the protocol.
The tokenomics model will entice more investors to buy LEND tokens because it entitles them to revenue sharing and liquidity provision rewards. Imagine earning a dividend and DeFi tokens for staking your LEND tokens. Later the token will also allow one to vote on protocol proposals. For example, you could potentially vote on how to distribute the collected fees.
The coin of the week is BZRX. The bZx team recently seeded the market with these tokens during an initial dex offering (IDO) . Despite malicious actors exploiting a loop hole to extract huge profits, the IDO was largely successful. This token will grant users governing rights and fees generated by the protocol. Learn more by watching this video.
For those interested in a video format:
Coinbase Analytics [1:54]
Grayscale [5:20]
Aave [8:02]
DeFi Coin of the Week [13:03]
