$744M Crypto Trust Assets Might Be Sold

Arbitrum $3.9B Airdrop | Coinbase Stock Potential

AuthorAuthor

Marco Manoppo & Karon Pangestu
November 08, 2023

📢 Sponsor | 💡 Telegram | 📰 Past Editions

Good Morning. The crypto market remains strong as Bitcoin dominance decreases. The top 30 altcoins are leading the charge. Meanwhile, Circle is considering an IPO for 2024 and the FTX reboot might actually happen.

In Today's Email:

  • What Matters: FTX to sell $744M of assets 📉

  • Case Study: Coinbase stock potential 📝

  • Governance & Features: Arbitrum $3.9B staking 📈

Narratives: Solana ecosystem airdrop. With Pyth and Jupiter network upcoming airdrop, there’s an opportunity in the Solana DeFi ecosystem.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

NEAR

Dive into the future at NEARCON ‘23, hosted by NEAR, the engine powering an open web. Join us in Lisbon, Portugal from November 7-10th to explore the latest in: Venture capital, Decentralization, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Witness NEAR's booming ecosystem with over 2.6M unique active wallets and 25M transactions in the past 30 days.

Highlights include:

  • Discovering NEAR's Blockchain Operating System (B.O.S), the heartbeat of an open web.

  • Engaging with top partners like Google Cloud and Cosmose AI, pioneers in "Shoppertainment”, and Sweatcoin, the app that rewards your fitness journey.

  • Connecting with innovative projects like Mintbase's NFT platform and PlayEmber's gaming studio.

Indulge in 4 days of deep dives, hands-on building at the NEAR IRL Hackathon, and networking with industry trailblazers.

  • This year’s NEARCON IRL Hackathon theme is “Step into the Open Web”.

  • Come hack together apps and experiences that explore how NEAR is paving the way for a truly open web. $140K+ in prizes are up for grabs.

Ready to step into the Web3 evolution? Click to unveil what NEARCON ‘23 has in store for you.

or register for the NEARCON Hackathon, includes free entry to NEARCON

WHAT MATTERS

FTX Seeks to Sell $744M Trust Assets

FTX - Court Filing

State of play: FTX and its debtors have requested Delaware's bankruptcy court to approve the selling of Grayscale and Bitwise trust assets worth $744M.

  • FTX and its debtors plan to appoint an investment adviser and create a pricing committee representing all stakeholders.

  • The trust assets include $597M of GBTC, $94M in other Grayscale trusts, and $53M in a Bitwise trust, valued as of October 25, 2023.

  • The investment adviser must secure at least two bids from separate parties before selling the assets.

Meanwhile, the FTX reboot might actually happen.

Proof Group, part of the Fahrenheit consortium that acquired Celsius’ assets, is a potential candidate to reboot FTX, per insiders.

  • Proof Group is a VC firm that invests in crypto projects including Aptos, Lightspark, and Sui.

  • FTX's potential restart has three final bidders, as reported by the involved investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners.

  • Figure and Tribe Capital are also reported to be interested in rebooting FTX.

  • Options under review include selling the entire exchange or finding a partner.

  • A decision is expected to be made by mid-December, according to Kevin Cofsky of Perella Weinberg.

Why it matters: 80.24% of the FTX’s and the debtors’ trust assets is in GBTC, currently the GBTC discount is at 14.27%, and the rise is mainly driven by conversion to spot bitcoin ETF optimism.

For builders and investors: The sooner we get clarity surrounding FTX's existing assets and whether or not a reboot might happen, the better it is for the industry.

  • What’s worse than a bull or a bear market is constant uncertainties.

CASE STUDY

$COIN As the “OTM Index Call Option”

Credit to @0xjaypeg for the original piece.

State of play: @0xjaypeg outlines the value proposition of investing in Coinbase's stock compared to directly purchasing crypto assets.

Here are the key takeaways from his writings:

  • $COIN benefits from the broad crypto ecosystem through Coinbase’s diverse value-generating activities like transactions and staking, not just BTC or ETH price changes.

  • The value capture of $COIN is likened to an out-of-the-money (OTM) call option because it has the potential for exponential growth, as Coinbase attracts more "normies" with its user-friendly platform.

  • Mainstream investors and retail participants will gravitate towards user-friendly platforms like Coinbase rather than engaging in the more complex aspects of crypto.

  • Coinbase's convenience could boost its adoption and enhance $COIN's value by simplifying user interactions with crypto, like easy ETH staking.

  • This applies to major crypto firms like Kraken and Binance, yet Coinbase uniquely sits at the peak of legitimacy and popularity, being the sole publicly traded crypto exchange.

What’s next: Bull runs are always catalyzed by new users and capital entering the space. Coinbase is one of the best-positioned firms for new market participants as it is viewed as the least troubled or controversial CEX.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 100 smart crypto investors' wallet addresses đŸ‘‡

INSIGHTS

Jupiter Airdrop Distribution

Step Data Insights’s Jupiter airdrop dashboard shows that there are ~916K wallets eligible for the airdrop.

  • There has not been an official confirmation of the final criteria for the airdrop.

  • @durdenwannabe proposed to use volume as the base of the airdrops but some arguments said the point system is more fair.

  • 70% of wallets have less than 5 points, while ~24.5% of wallets have more than 5 points.

Why it matters: Jupiter is the largest DEX aggregator in Solana. This airdrop might catalyze a new wave of liquidity and flow for Solana’s DeFi ecosystem.

FEATURES & GOVERNANCE UPDATE

Arbitrum Staking Proposal

The Arbitrum community members have approved an initial vote on a proposal allowing ARB token holders to stake their holdings in exchange for yield.

  • The staking yield is set to be financed by the Arbitrum treasury and allocated over a year via a smart contract.

  • The proposal proposed a tiered allocation of 1% (100M ARB), 1.5% (150M ARB), or 1.75% (175M ARB) from the total 10B ARB supply for staking rewards.

  • In the temperature check vote, over 66% of DAO members favored the lowest tier of 1% token allocation for staking, while 33% opposed it, indicating a split on using treasury funds for staking incentives.

Why it matters: With 1% of the total ARB supply distributed for staking rewards, the estimated APR percentage is set to be 7.84% at the lowest and the highest being 178.43%.

Other notable feature updates:

QUICK BITES

  • Circle considers an IPO in 2024.

  • Proof Group is running to relaunch FTX.

  • Coatue cuts OpenSea’s valuation by 90%.

  • Kraken seeks a partner to help build its L2.

  • Binance launches self-custody crypto wallet.

  • The SEC is struggling to hire crypto experts.

  • Crypto bank SEBA obtains HK crypto license.

  • Robinhood to expand crypto trading into the EU.

  • Arbitrum DAO may approve $3.9B for ARB staking.

  • HSBC to launch tokenized securities custody service.

  • Meta & Apple at risk of increased digital wallet regulation.

  • FTX wants to sell $744M worth of Grayscale & Bitwise assets.

  • US banking regulator sees less interest in crypto, and more in tokenization.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

  • Christine Kim’s read on ETH dev call #121.

  • Ceteris Paribus’ read on winning the wallet war.

  • Alliance DAO’s read on removing web3’s friction.

If you enjoy reading this issue, please consider subscribing. It takes 1 minute of your time but it would mean the world to us 🙇

Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.