🦄 Recap: DeFi Week of June 12

Well, this was the kind of week Defiers have long feared, a brutal selloff triggered by not one but two major projects going sideways. First, there was the fallout from the decision by Celsius, the CeFi lender, to suspend withdrawals by its 1.7M depositor...

Well, this was the kind of week Defiers have long feared, a brutal selloff triggered by not one but two major projects going sideways.

First, there was the fallout from the decision by Celsius, the CeFi lender, to suspend withdrawals by its 1.7M depositors. Jason Levin covered the crisis and reported how a bank run threatened to drain the firm of capital.

No sooner had the market absorbed this sobering news than word came that Three Arrows Capital, the multi-billion crypto hedge fund that’s been such a huge supporter of DeFi projects, was facing serious margin calls. Aleksandar Gilbert reported how Three Arrows sold $40M of Lido’s staked Ether and dug into the significance of this liquidation. Jason followed later in the week with a story on how Three Arrows taste for leverage was sowing fear in the broader market about its potential collapse.

Meanwhile, Sam Haig unearthed an important development with two of the most influential DeFi projects: MakerDAO and Aave. Sam reported how MakerDAO members voted to freeze Aave’s ability directly borrow the former’s stablecoin, DAI. The move showed how one of the OGs in DeFi is being super careful with its exposure, and it’s the type of detail we love reporting at The Defiant.

Cami Russo and Robin Schmidt both served up incisive takes on the action. On Cami’s podcast, she spoke with the irrepressible Mati Greenspan, the CEO and founder of Quantam Economics,to get his dive on the state of play in the market. And Robin and his crew produced a series of Market Updates on Celsius and stablecoin pegs, as well as the news that Coinbase was shedding a fifth of its workforce.

Still, for all the fire and brimstone, the crypto market (in tandem with stocks) did stage a relief rally after the Federal Reserve raised rates 0.75% on Wednesday yet signaled it wasn’t committing to such sizeable hikes in the future.

We’re also excited about two new series at The Defiant. Yyctrader delivered the second column in our NFT Roundup franchise with a doozy of a story: Truth Labs revealed itself as the creators of the Goblintown collection. And Claire Gu debuted on The Defiant with our inaugural Bear Market Survival Guide. The first piece focuses on metrics investors should be eying in the market. We can’t wait for her next one!

Enjoy!

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⍺ DeFi Alpha Newsletter

Check out and subscribe to DeFi Alpha, a weekly newsletter by The Defiant and DeFi Dad, packed with tutorials and tips on how to earn yield in DeFi.

This week:

Using Uniswap V3 To Dollar-Cost Average + Single-Sided LPs on Bancor V3

Podcast

🎙 Mati Greenspan: Only Those Who Are Well Funded or Most Committed Will Make it Through the Bear

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This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak to Mati Greenspan. Mati is the CEO & founder of Quantum Economics, a crypto research and advisory firm. Mati believes we’ll keep seeing pain in the market, with crypto and stocks remaining highly correlated, as long as inflation persists. He says most sectors of crypto will be hit by this crash, because of reduced liquidity from dwindling token treasuries, or because demand for their platforms and apps will dry up.

Only those well funded and committed teams will make it through, and any project that survives a bear will see huge gains in the next rally. Still, he remains as bullish as ever on crypto, and believes staking is nothing short of the future of finance, and that DeFi will continue experimenting with different economic models. While most will fail, those that succeed will change the world.

A heads up that this interview was recorded last week, right before the Celsius debacle, in case you’re wondering why we didn’t speak about the elephant in the bear market.

The Tube

📺 Hot Stuff: Coinbase Dumps 18% of staff, 3AC on the rocks

📺 Quick Take: MARKET UPDATE: Ain't no party like a depeg party (USDD, USDT, stETH)

📺 Quick Take: MARKET UPDATE: Celsius, yes it's bad

📺 The Defiant Weekly: Andreesen Horowitz keeps buying web3 and crypto

Celsius Report

🐂 Ethereum Bulls See Opportunity in Celsius Collapse, stETH ‘De-Peg

In which Aleksandar Gilbert digs into how staked ETH played a role in Celsius’ troubles.

stETHDePeg

Lido’s stETH, a derivative token representing staked ether, has traded roughly at par with Ether since its inception. The reason was simple: each stETH token represents one staked ETH token and can be redeemed for ETH in the future, after the Ethereum network completes its transition to the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and withdrawals on that updated network are enabled.

That so-called “peg” broke in dramatic fashion last week, as the value of stETH relative to ETH began to plunge. stETH began trading at about 97 cents to every dollar of ETH in May. Early Friday morning, it fell to 95 cents on the dollar. On Monday morning, it was trading just above 93 cents on the dollar, according to data from Dune Analytics.

The nosedive in the value of stETH prompted Lido, the protocol that issues it, to quell fears of a broken peg and comparisons to Terra’s failed UST stablecoin.

Three Arrows Report

😧 Investors Scramble to Get a Grip on Depth of Three Arrows’ Trouble

Details on Debt Woes in $10B Crypto Fund Are Hard to Come By

In which Jason Levin takes stock of the jitters around the stories fund…

PossibleFallout3AC

The fear is palpable. Six weeks after Terra collapsed and one week after Celsius, the embattled crypto bank, suspended withdrawals, investors are anxiously watching a $10B hedge fund cope with serious stress.

Three Arrows Capital is sitting on what are believed to be billions of dollars worth loans secured by cryptocurrencies. With the market down 56% this year in its worst bear market since 2018, investors believe the collateral no longer supports the loans. Now the fund is on the hook to start paying them back, and everyone is wondering whether it will default.

On Wednesday, The Defiant reported that Three Arrows sold at least $40M worth of staked Ether as part of an apparent liquidation. It is widely believed that co-founder Su Zhu has been aggressive in using leverage to maximize his potential investment returns.

NFTales

👹 Truth Labs Revealed as Team Behind Goblintown

NFT Roundup: Traders Look to Offload JPEGs in a Wild Week

By yyctrader

the-defiant

Goblintown captured the imaginations of NFT collectors over the past month even as crypto markets burned. Now the team behind the project has unmasked themselves to be Truth Labs, whose previous NFT collections include the Illuminati Collective and The 187.

Of the 1,000 goblins that were retained by the team “because they wanted to”, 900 will be raffled to holders of the existing Truth projects over the next six months at the rate of five per day. And 50 goblins will be retained by the team and the remaining 50 will go to the llluminatiDAO.

The team also revealed that a “McGoblinburger truck” will make an appearance at NFTNYC, and shared plans for merchandise including “goblin sauce”.

Opinion

👉🏼 With Crypto VC Booming It’s High Time to Close the Gender Gap in Web3

Guest writer Li Gong says Web3 needs to get its act together on diversity, now.

Diversity

A trickle has become a torrent in crypto venture capital. Despite rapid inflation and a bear market, VC investment in blockchain grew to $10B globally in the first quarter of this year. This marks the largest quarterly sum ever at more than double one year ago.

And yet, even as investors stampede towards crypto projects, women will not benefit from the funding bonanza. Less than 5% of crypto founders and less than 10% of crypto fund partners are women. And the numbers aren’t improving.

As one of the few women funding crypto projects, I can tell you that this diversity gap is evident in my day-to-day. For example, out of the roughly 50 DeFi startups that I talk to, just one founder was a woman. This gender skew is now so baked into blockchain — in both funding and founding — it will take many years to undo.

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💜Community Love💜

Thanking all the amazing Defiers for the support and love this week (and always)!

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The Defiant @DefiantNewsToday is The Defiant’s 3rd birthday! 🥳 On June 11, 2019, @CamiRusso sent the first @DefiantNews newsletter. Three years later we’re a multi-media news and content platform drawing millions of views.10:59 PM ∙ Jun 11, 2022152Likes15Retweets

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Nick ⚒️,💰💻 @LeanGeekInvests@DefiantNews @CamiRusso My favorite place for DeFi news. Congrats!2:16 PM ∙ Jun 12, 20228Likes1Retweet

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Xavier Chamoiseau (gojita972.crypto) @GoJiTa972Protocol neutral and reliable, happy birthday!

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The Defiant @DefiantNewsToday is The Defiant’s 3rd birthday! 🥳 On June 11, 2019, @CamiRusso sent the first @DefiantNews newsletter. Three years later we’re a multi-media news and content platform drawing millions of views.2:02 PM ∙ Jun 12, 20224Likes1Retweet

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Jean-André 🦇🔊 | 🦉 @JeanAndreV@DefiantNews @CamiRusso Happy birthday! 🎂 Thanks for such valuable resource 🤓👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼1:57 PM ∙ Jun 12, 20225Likes1Retweet

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Santiago R Santos | #9159 🦇🔊🐒🤖 @santiagoroel@DefiantNews @CamiRusso Congrats @CamiRusso - keep up the great work! Space needs quality reporting like yours 👏🏻1:54 PM ∙ Jun 12, 202220Likes1Retweet

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Diego ✊ @DiegoCabralETHThanks @DefiantNews for this beautiful #NFT designed by @pprhsk and created by @yyctrader1! 🙌 It was rewarded for those who have boosted our Discord server. Btw, if you’re not there yet, join us: discord.gg/thedefiant

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2:47 PM ∙ Jun 11, 202219Likes3Retweets

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Goldfinch @goldfinch_fi✨ Great coverage of @goldfinch_fi and other credit protocols in today's @DefiantNews ✨

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The Defiant @DefiantNewsIn today's Defiant ✊ 💳 DeFi credit protocols raising millions at a rapid clip 🔴 @optimismPBC exploiter returns 90% of tokens 📉 Global markets dive after U.S. inflation hit 8.6% in May Get free daily DeFi news straight to your inbox 📥👇 https://t.co/uCtZWBBfWj7:41 PM ∙ Jun 10, 202227Likes6Retweets

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Mark 🟠 @meritcirclorrThanks for the coverage @DefiantNews <3

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youtube.comThree Metaverse Stories - Merit Circle, Grit, and We Are All Going to DieIn this week’s Hot Stuff we’re covering three metaverse stories:2:27 Merit Circle’s Sphere8:48 Gala Games’ blockchain game Grit will debut on the Epic Games ...2:22 PM ∙ Jun 10, 202217Likes4Retweets

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zico.eth 🤖ᵍᵐ 🔴✨🏴 @zico_ethenjoyed this! give it a listen if you're into web3 fashion

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The Defiant @DefiantNewsIn this week's podcast 🎙 @CamiRusso is joined by @AHoppenbrouwer, co-founder of @thefabricant, a digital fashion house for the metaverse. 👤 Fashion as digital identity 👜 Purpose and compatibility of digital garments 🖼️ Development of the metaverse 👇 https://t.co/71yi3Vy1Fs1:27 AM ∙ Jun 9, 20224Likes1Retweet

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Mujeres en Crypto @mujeresencryptoEste Jueves 16/06 tenemos un increíble space con la genia de @CamiRusso sobre periodismo e investigación en WEB3 ❤️‍🔥 No te lo podés perder 💣🔥 Agendate el recordatorio 💥👇🏻 https://t.co/AM0xAZQeGN

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11:27 PM ∙ Jun 14, 202253Likes17Retweets

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Diego ✊ @DiegoCabralETHHappy birthday to @DefiantNews! 🎉 I’m honored to be part of the team! ✊ Thanks @CamiRusso for your contribution to the crypto space! Your work is a reference to be followed! 🙌

the-defiant

The Defiant @DefiantNewsToday is The Defiant’s 3rd birthday! 🥳 On June 11, 2019, @CamiRusso sent the first @DefiantNews newsletter. Three years later we’re a multi-media news and content platform drawing millions of views.4:18 AM ∙ Jun 12, 202230Likes1Retweet

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DeFi Dad ⟠ defidad.eth @DeFi_DadWoo! Congrats @CamiRusso. You’ve been a savage driven founder since we met in 2019. https://t.co/mLnCpqHU9N

the-defiant

The Defiant @DefiantNewsToday is The Defiant’s 3rd birthday! 🥳 On June 11, 2019, @CamiRusso sent the first @DefiantNews newsletter. Three years later we’re a multi-media news and content platform drawing millions of views.11:01 PM ∙ Jun 11, 202253Likes5Retweets

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mikest.eth 🐼 @mikestepanovicJust finished this work of art from @CamiRusso! Some takeaways: 1. Ethereum has always been deeply international. As a network; as a team. 2. Eth today is the result of many small, tough leadership decisions. Not luck. 3. Wtf CryptoKitties was a devcon project?! Go read it!

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3:08 AM ∙ Jun 10, 202272Likes15Retweets

🧑‍💻 ✍️ Stories in The Defiant are written by Owen Fernau, Aleksandar Gilbert, Claire Gu, Samuel Haig, Jason Levin, and yyctrader, and edited by Edward Robinson, yyctrader and Camila Russo. Videos were produced by Robin Schmidt and Alp Gasimov. Podcast was led by Camila, edited by Alp.

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