Tether Reports $5B Profit in H1 2024

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Good Morning.

It’s becoming more apparent by the days that for the next few months, the US presidential election is all that matters for crypto’s price action. Kamala’s soaring popularity (raised $300M in one week!) has caused a dampening effect in the Trump trade that took BTC close to $70,000.

In Today's Email:

• What Matters: Tether’s $5B profits 💰️ 

• Founders Highlight: Kollan of MetaDAO 🔴 

• Deal Flow: Morpho’s $50M strategic round 💰️ 

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WHAT MATTERS

Tether Reports $5B in H1 Profits

State of play: Tether announced a record with a new profit benchmark of $5.2B net profit in the first half of the year, with a $1.3B net operating profit in Q2 as USDT's market cap hit new highs.

• The latest Tether’s attestation report shows Tether's stablecoin issuer arm reported $118.4B in assets and $113.1B in liabilities as of June 30.

• Tether reported its US debt holdings at $97.6B, surpassing Germany, the UAE, and Australia, ranking it 18th among countries.

• Tether ranks 3rd in buying 3-month US Treasuries, behind the UK and Cayman Islands, and aims to become the top buyer next year.

Tether said it reinvested some of the profits in “strategic projects” to support the ecosystem but still maintained a sizable amount of excess reserves ($5.3B)

• Tether Investments Ltd, separate from its stablecoin operations and focusing on ventures like bitcoin mining and AI, has a net equity value of $6.2B, according to the attestation.

• In April, Tether announced a strategic investment of $200M into Blackrock Neurotech.

• In June, Tether also announced a strategic investment of $18.75M in XREX Group.

Why it Matters: Tether keeps on showing that it’s the strongest stablecoin in the world despite all of the FUD surrounding its reserves and regulatory status.

For builders and investors: Stablecoin issuers’ profit record might slow down as Fed Chair Powell suggested the potentiality of a rate cut soon, which will be further discussed at the next meeting on Sept. 17-18, if inflation continues to fall.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Kollan House of MetaDAO

Intro: Kollan House (@metaproph3t on X) is the co-founder of MetaDAO, the first organization to be governed by a market and a groundbreaking experiment in decentralized governance with the radical concept of futarchy.

• Kollan is also currently the director of Cryptocurrency Research Institute, GP at Summit Operations, co-founder of Sentries, and head of DeFi at Toa Capital Partners.

Previous background: Kollan is a serial entrepreneur. Kollan founded his first crypto startup in 2021 called Auka, an AI-powered crypto lending platform.

• Kollan also founded companies such as Avanti, LLC, Emercor, and All Zenn.

The big idea: Kollan, through MetaDAO, introduces the concept of “futarchy,” a governance structures that rely on market forces rather than votes.

• In MetaDAO, anyone with money can directly influence outcomes, unlike most DAOs where tokens represent votes.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

INSIGHTS

Jupiter’s JLP YTD Performance Analysis

Credits to Thor Hartvigsen for the original tweet

State of play: The price of JLP is nearly up only YTD (+61%), driven by appreciation in SOL, ETH, BTC, and substantial fee revenues captured in 2024.

• JLP acts as liquidity and counterparty on the Jupiter exchange, comprising a tokenized asset pool.

• Trader losses contribute to the JLP pool, while profits are paid from it.

• 75% of fees from Jupiter's perpetual futures, which currently exceed $400M annually, contribute to a 74% APY through JLP price appreciation.

• JLP return outperformed both BTC and ETH YTD.

• Holding JLP offers significantly less volatility (20%) compared to being long on SOL (86%), ETH (62%), or BTC (53%).

DEAL FLOWS

Morpho’s $50M Strategic Round

Deal flows remained steady this week, we saw $100M+ in deals 💼 

Morpho Labs secured $50M in a strategic round led by Ribbit Capital. Other participants in the fundraise included a16z crypto, Coinbase Ventures, Variant, Pantera, Brevan Howard, BlockTower, Kraken Ventures, Hack VC, and others.

• Pantera Capital invested in Morpho earlier this year.

• Morpho also raised $18M in 2022, led by Andreessen Horowitz and Variant.

• Morpho said the funding will further enhance Morpho's decentralization and support its mission to make financial infrastructure a public good.

Deal flows in the past week:

• BlonkFi, Undisclosed $ Pre Seed Round

• Liquorice, $1.2M Pre-Seed Round

• MetaDAO, $2.2M Seed Round

• Pichi Finance, $2.5M Seed Round

• JokeRace, $3M Seed Round

• Breakout, $4.5M Seed Round

• Icebreaker, $5M Seed Round

• Hyperbolic, $7M Seed Round

• Daylight, $9M Series A

• Morpho Labs, $50M Strategic Round

• Mintify, $3.4M Private Round

• Duelnow, $11M Private Round

• aPriori, Undisclosed $ Private Round

• Particle Network, Undisclosed $ Private Round

• Rage Trade, $6M Public Token Sale

QUICK BITES

• Coinbase posts $1.45B in Q2 revenue.

• Ledn processed $1.16B in loans in H1 2024.

• HK brokerage Futu launches crypto services.

• Polymarket crosses $1B in cumulative volume.

• DEXs are taking more market share from CEXs.

• Gemini forecasts continued crypto market growth.

• X suspends accounts that let users launch memecoins.

• Notcoin launches a new telegram game involving NFTs.

• Coinbase posts $1.45B in Q2 revenue as profits decline.

• Marathon Digital Holdings reports a $200M loss in Q2.

• Montenegro appeals court rules on Do Kwon’s extradition.

• Bybit will end services and stop offering products in France.

• Bahamas passes the DARE Act, in an attempt to avoid another FTX.

• Kujira dumps as the team’s onchain leveraged positions get liquidated.

• MicroStrategy reports a $102M quarterly loss but grows its BTC stash.

NOTEWORTHY READS

• Helius’ read on how Solana works.

• Maven11’s read on the road to based rollups.

• Mason Nystorm’s read on exchanges everywhere all at once.

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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.