Coinbase Enters $1.85T Futures Market

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Good Morning,

The crypto markets fell. While the exact reason is unclear, Tesla has reportedly written down its $373M Bitcoin holdings. There were more than $1 billion of losses in liquidation over the past 24h.

In Today's Email:

• What Matters: Coinbase US futures 📈

• Founders-Investors Highlight: Razor of Rollbit 🎰

• Deal Flows: BitGo $100M series C 🔒

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WHAT MATTERS

Coinbase Secures US Crypto Futures Listing

State of play: Coinbase announced on Wednesday that the National Futures Association (NFA) has approved Coinbase Financial Markets as a registered Futures Commission Merchant (FCM).

Coinbase Financial Markets is the first to offer access to US-regulated, leveraged, and cash-settled crypto futures.

• The function of FCM involves purchasing or selling futures contracts.

• Coinbase is now able to offer futures contracts for BTC and ETH.

• Coinbase filed the application in September 2021, it takes almost two years for the application to be approved.

Why it matters: The approval enables Coinbase to enter the most lucrative product in crypto, derivatives contracts, for US customers.

• Derivatives constitute almost 80% of the entire crypto market.

• The global trading volumes for crypto derivatives totaled about $1.85T.

For builders and investors: An increasing number of regulated products, especially in the US markets, is always a net good for crypto.

• It eases the process for new capital to flow in, further nurturing the builders’ ecosystem.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Razer, Co-Founder of Rollbit

Razer is the co-founder of Rollbit, the most hyped-up crypto gambling and trading platform.

• Rollbit is established by a team of entrepreneurs, with Razer and Lucky being the only identified founders.

Previous backgrounds: There is no information regarding Razer’s background.

• This has been one of the primary criticism geared toward Rollbit.

• The largest crypto gambling platform, Stake.com, has publicly identifiable founders.

• Monarch, the owner of @CSGOempire, stated in 2020 that Rollbit is operated by the same owner as scandalous csgodiamonds.com.

The big idea: Unlike most crypto gambling platforms, Rollbit has been taking on more risks in its differentiation strategy.

• Rollbit does this by becoming a degen crypto exchange (more regulatory risks) and implementing a buyback-and-burn mechanism integrated with its RLB token (pseudo revenue share).

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 👇

INSIGHTS

Connext to Airdrop Native Token ‘Next’

The blockchain interoperability project Connext is set to introduce its native token, named Next, on September 5th.

• Beginning on September 5, users can claim NEXT directly to Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, or Gnosis Chain.

• Next will be used as a governance token in Connext’s ecosystem.

• Connext has facilitated 1.2M+ transactions across various blockchains, accumulating a total volume of $1.6B.

• Connext is partnering with Tokensoft to introduce "crosschain airdrops as a service" — recipients of airdrops can claim tokens on any chain without needing to bridge or incur extra gas fees.

• Next could integrate key governance tasks, such as fair router use and asset/chain support, directly into the protocol through Next staking.

DEAL FLOWS

BitGo $100M Series C

Deal flows remained strong this week 🤝 — we saw $200M+ in deals.

Crypto custodian BitGo raised a $100M Series C at a $1.75B valuation.

• BitGo CEO, Mike Belshe, declined to disclose the participants of the round.

• The fresh funding will be allocated towards strategic acquisitions, with two deals already ongoing.

• In June, BitGo abandoned its plan to purchase the parent company of struggling cryptocurrency custodian Prime Trust.

Deal flows in the past week:

• JKLabs, $2M Pre-Seed Round

• Ellipsis Labs, $3.3M Seed Round

• Dinari, $7.5M Seed Round

• ZTX, $13M Seed Round

• Linera, $6M Seed+ Round

• BitGo, $100M Series C

• Lore, $2.3M Venture Round

• Helios Protocol, $10M Private Round

• Jada AI, $25M Private Round

• Hypelab, $4M Unknown Round

• Zetachain, $27M Unknown Round

• Moneygram, Undisclosed $ Private Round by Stellar

QUICK BITES

• SEC to allow ETH-futures ETFs.

• Coinbase wins approval to list crypto futures in the US.

• SpaceX wrote down bitcoin holdings by $373M.

• FTX and Genesis reach an agreement for a $175M payment.

• Mastercard expands CBDC partnerships.

• Grayscale is hiring for an ETF team.

• Dubai fines 3AC founders over OPNX crypto project.

• Ledger launches PayPal integration.

• SEC granted the request to file an appeal in the Ripple case.

• Tether discontinues USDT support on Bitcoin, Kusama, and BCH.

MEME & NOTEWORTHY READS

• Luca Prosperi’s read on PayPal’s stablecoin, does it matter?

• Rain&Coffee’s read on the cross-domain thesis.

• Ann’s read on the quiet part of the crypto market cycle.

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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.