🧛🏻 Upstart’s Vampire Attack on OpenSea Fizzles After Technical Issues and Criticism

Hello Defiers! Here’s what we’re covering today:

News

• Upstart’s Vampire Attack on OpenSea Fizzles After Technical Issues and Criticism
• Stablecoin Supply’s Steady Rise Shows ‘Increased Belief’ in Digital Assets Despite Market Rout
• Influential Policy Body Warns that DeFi May Shake Stability of Global Financial System

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🎙Listen to the exclusive interview with Vitalik Buterin:

Video

• First Look: Leverage just got sexy | Gearbox Protocol

Links

• Canada Sanctions 34 Crypto Wallets Tied to Trucker 'Freedom Convoy': CoinDesk
• Coalition of US crypto firms unveils travel rule compliance platform, TRUST: The Block
• THE NEXT MEGA-TRADE HAS BEGUN: Pantera Capital
• Castle Island Ventures announces new $250 million fund for web3 investments: The Block
• The source of funds for the winning bid in Melania Trump’s first NFT auction appears to be the creators of the project themselves: Bloomberg
• Ok, my last post prompted me to do a survey. I have no vested interest (not promoting any alternative but listening).Your Discord experience: Raoul Pal

Trending in the Defiant

• Cancel Culture Comes to Crypto as Offensive Tweets Trigger Flurry of Ousters
• SushiSwap Struggles to Overcome Lack of Management and Nixed Frog Nation Deal
• Zero Knowledge Proofs Can Save the Metaverse From Becoming a Dystopian Surveillance State

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Vampire Attacks

🧛🏻 Upstart’s Vampire Attack on OpenSea Fizzles After Technical Issues and Criticism

STALLED OpenSea, the Leading NFT marketplace, is again under vampire attack, this time from new rival, x2y2. But the assault quickly stalled after a number of technical glitches halted an airdrop and triggered accusations that the project was manipulating the price of its token.

TARGET With its centralized structure and market dominance, OpenSea is a target for upstart marketplaces. x2y2 estimates that OpenSea represents 90% of all NFT transactions. OpenSea also takes a hefty 2.5% fee from all trades executed on its platform.

AIRDROP In a bid to break OpenSea’s “monopoly” over the NFT markets, x2y2 announced on Feb. 16 that it was planning to airdrop its newly launched X2Y2 token to all wallets that used OpenSea before 2022. Wallets must also list NFTs for sale on the x2y2 marketplace to be eligible for the airdrop.

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

Markets

📈 Stablecoin Supply’s Steady Rise Shows ‘Increased Belief’ in Digital Assets Despite Market Rout

DOXES Anyone paying attention to crypto in the last three months knows it has been anything but calm. There’s been jaw-dropping doxes and nine-figure hacks, all while the market has lost a staggering $1T in value since November.

SUPPLY At the same time, the supply of stablecoin has continued to increase despite the crypto market plummeting 32.2% to $2.08T as of Feb. 16 after hitting an all-time high of $3.07T on Nov. 8, according to CoinGecko. Stablecoin supply has increased the same amount, 32.2%, to $176.73B from $141.0B during those 100 days, according to data provided by The Block, an information services provider for digital assets.

INEVITABILITY So what’s going on? The uptick in stablecoin supply may suggest the simple inevitability of blockchain-based assets, even in the more risk-off environment in crypto that we’ve seen for the past three months or so.

BELIEF “Stablecoin supply increasing still makes sense because it’s a symbol of secular increase in belief in digital assets, but not necessarily being risk-on those assets in current market conditions,” Jack Melnick, who does research for The Tie, an information services provider for businesses, told The Defiant.

Stablecoin supply has picked up somewhat since the market topped. Source: The Block

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

DeFi Regulation

🏛 Influential Policy Body Warns that DeFi May Shake Stability of Global Financial System

NEWS The TradFi eestablishment has taken a long, hard look at DeFi. And it does not like what it sees. The Financial Stability Board (FSB), an international body that helps shape policy in the world’s biggest nations, said yesterday that DeFi protocols could undermine confidence in the global financial system.

OVERSIGHT While the FSB has been sounding the alarm over stablecoins for several years, the organization has only briefly focused on their use in DeFi dapps until now. The FSB fears the lack of DeFi regulation and market oversight, systemic stablecoin risks, and cybersecurity breaches are a serious threat.

REPORT “If the sector were to continue to increase in size, the crystallizsation of these vulnerabilities might have consequences for the functioning of, and confidence in, the broader financial system,” the FSB said in a report published Feb. 16.

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

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The Tube

📺 First Look: Leverage just got sexy | Gearbox Protocol

Links

🔗 Canada Sanctions 34 Crypto Wallets Tied to Trucker 'Freedom Convoy': CoinDesk

The Ontario Provincial Police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police ordered all regulated financial firms to cease facilitating any transactions from 34 crypto wallets tied to funding trucker-led protests in the country.

🔗 Coalition of US crypto firms unveils travel rule compliance platform, TRUST: The Block

A coalition of some of the US's largest crypto firms is rolling out a solution to heightened anti-money laundering standards.

🔗 THE NEXT MEGA-TRADE HAS BEGUN: Pantera Capital

I’m not going to Monday-morning quarterback the Fed’s decisions in an economic panic two years ago. But, what they are doing today is so clearly a mistake.

🔗 Castle Island Ventures announces new $250 million fund for web3 investments: The Block

Cryptocurrency and blockchain venture capital firm Castle Island Ventures announced Wednesday it has raised $250 million for a new fund.

Bloomberg Crypto @cryptoThe source of funds for the winning bid in Melania Trump’s first NFT auction appears to be the creators of the project themselves trib.alBloomberg - Are you a robot?7:32 PM ∙ Feb 16, 2022636Likes282Retweets

Raoul Pal @RaoulGMIOk, my last post prompted me to do a survey. I have no vested interest (not promoting any alternative but listening). Your Discord experience:1:53 AM ∙ Feb 16, 2022190Likes27Retweets

Trending in the Defiant

• Cancel Culture Comes to Crypto as Offensive Tweets Trigger Flurry of Oustersor years, crypto has floated along in its own bubble, replete with risque anime characters, profane observations, and lots of provocative opinions about politics and society.
• SushiSwap Struggles to Overcome Lack of Management and Nixed Frog Nation DealSushiSwap doesn’t just need leadership, it also needs to sort out where all its keys are.
• Zero Knowledge Proofs Can Save the Metaverse From Becoming a Dystopian Surveillance StateWhen it comes to the metaverse, one thing is clear: Big tech players are aggressively trying to grab market share.

🧑‍💻 ✍️ Stories in The Defiant are written by Brady Dale, Owen Fernau, Samuel Haig, DeFiDad, and yyctrader, and edited by Edward Robinson, yyctrader, and Camila Russo. Videos are produced by Robin Schmidt, Alp Gasimov and Daniel Flynn. Podcast is led by Camila, edited by Alp.

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