😲 Don’t Look Now But Cryptocurrencies Are Outperforming Tech Stocks

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

News

• TRON’s Sun Vows to Rock Stablecoin Market With his Own $10B Play
• OlympusDAO Strives to Revive with ‘Inverse Bonds’ Offering
• DEX Volume Plunges 50% Since November
• Makers of Alien, Gladiator and Blade Runner to Produce The Infinite Machine Movie

Markets

• Don’t Look Now But Cryptocurrencies Are Outperforming Tech Stocks

Podcast

🎙Listen to this week’s podcast episode with Espresso Systems’ Jill Gunter:

Video

• Real Vision vs. The Defiant: CAN COINBASE CHANGE THE NFT GAME?
• The Open Metaverse Show: Is there any place for ethics in the Metaverse?

Elsewhere

• Scott Free Boards Feature Adaptation Of Camila Russo’s ‘Infinite Machine’: Deadline Hollywood
• Zero Knowledge Summit Amsterdam 2022: YouTube
• a16z Crypto is launching an academic research lab focused on web3: The Block
• Anti-corporate in all we do Where businesses are machines, DAOs are organisms with a thousand interwoven minds: Yearn Finance
• @stefan_contiero is bringing @MacTuitui @shvembldr @Hanrgb and @nicolasdnl to the Venice Biennale - stop by @dartpavilion to check it out!: Art Blocks

Trending in The Defiant

• Black Pilled at Bitcoin 2022: Do We Know What All This Is For?
• Coinbase Launches NFT Marketplace Beta
• Lido Flexes with Staking Surge as The Merge Approaches

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Market Action

😲 Don’t Look Now But Cryptocurrencies Are Outperforming Tech Stocks

Crypto Suddenly Looks More Stable Than Tech Stocks

By Samuel Haig

VOLATILE Cryptocurrencies may not be the most volatile asset class of 2022 after all. Many high-flying tech stocks have suffered year-to-date declines this year. While Bitcoin, Ether and other top tokens have tracked the performance of tech names for the last few quarters now it looks like the latter are sliding even further in this punishing period, according to data from TradingView.

RISK-AVERSE Pandemic outperformers, including Netflix, Meta, PayPal, Shopify, and Zoom, have plummeted from their all-time highs as investors have become increasingly risk-averse amid the threat of inflation, interest rate hikes, and the geopolitical peril stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Nasdaq 100 index of tech names is down almost 17% this year, but many of the most widely-held names are down by double digits.

ONE-DAY DROP Some are behaving in ways more closely associated with crazy cryptocurrencies. Netflix fell an astonishing 35% on Wednesday, shedding more than $54B in market value, as it reported declines in its subscriber base. By comparison, Bitcoin’s worst one-day drop was about 40% on March 12, 2020, but that was triggered by the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and was part of a broader sell-off across the markets.

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

Stablecoins

🔥 TRON’s Sun Vows to Rock Stablecoin Market With his Own $10B Play

Do Kwon Has Company in the $10B Stablecoin Chase

By Jason Levin

NEWS Justin Sun, the provocative founder of TRON with a taste for drama, is at it again. On Apr. 21, Sun released a blog post stating TRON DAO will be taking out $10B in collateral to launch an algorithmic stablecoin and offer a 30% annual percentage yield to investors. Set to launch on May 5, it’s called USDD and he claims it will be “the most decentralized stablecoin in human history.”

SPACE TRIP It’s a bold claim, but Sun is not shy about making outlandish decisions. This is the same founder who spent $4.5M on a lunch with Warren Buffett and $28.5M on a ticket for a space trip with Blue Origin.

QUESTIONABLE Many on crypto Twitter were quick to criticize his move. “I wouldn’t go anywhere near it,” Branson Bollinger, a venture capitalist specializing in crypto, told The Defiant. “There are so many super smart people in this space, so going anywhere near a project that has a questionable leader is just unnecessary.”

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

DeFi Comebacks

🤞🏼 OlympusDAO Strives to Revive with ‘Inverse Bonds’ Offering

After Losing 98% of its Value OlympusDAO Bets Big on a New Tack

By Samuel Haig

NEW PRODUCT It may not be quite a Hail Mary, but the OlympusDAO community is voting on whether to deploy the project’s Protocol-Owned Liquidity for its new Inverse Bonds product.

STAKERS OlympusDAO burst onto the scene in April 2021 and immediately raised eyebrows with its aggressive token emission schedule for stakers. While the price of its native OHM token rallied more than $1,300 between May and October, a spate of controversy, including allegations it was a ponzi scheme, poleaxed its value by 98%; OHM now trades at only $28.

RESERVE ASSETS Now, the protocol is hoping that a new product may reignite demand for OHM. Olympus’s original bond product allowed the protocol to acquire reserve assets and liquidity by selling OHM tokens in exchange for other assets. Although an effective means to accrue assets for its treasury, the product drove bearish selling pressure on the price of OHM as arbitrageurs sought to take advantage of the discount available.

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

DEXs

📉 DEX Volume Plunges 50% Since November

dYdX Overtakes Uniswap in Decentralized Exchange Trading

By Samuel Haig

NEWS In a sign that Automated Market Makers may be falling out of fashion, activity on decentralized exchanges has plummeted by roughly half since November, according to data from Token Terminal. Moreover, dYdX, the orderbook-based leverage DEX has usurped Uniswap’s dominance over decentralized exchange trading in recent months.

LOWEST LEVEL Aggregate DEX volumes are on track to tag their lowest level since August 2021. Only $110B has been traded on decentralized exchanges this month so far, while August of last year was host to $123B in DEX volume.

MARKET PEAK Decentralized exchanges were surging in the run-up to last November’s market peak, with roaring volume on Uniswap v3, PancakeSwap, and Curve driving the sector’s aggregate volume to new all-time highs. Combined DEX volume peaked at $309B in November. But it has since plunged by 48%, with decentralized exchanges hosting $160B in March.

Monthly DEX volume. Source: Token Terminal

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

The Infinite Machine Movie

🎬 Makers of Alien, Gladiator and Blade Runner to Produce The Infinite Machine Movie

By The Defiant Team

NEWS Scott Free Productions has come on board to produce the bestselling book “The Infinite Machine” on the history of Ethereum by acclaimed cryptocurrency journalist Camila Russo for feature adaptation.

PRODUCERS Ridley Scott, Tom Moran, and Vera Meyer of Scott Free Productions will produce the feature alongside Alejandro Miranda of Versus Entertainment. The film will be written for screen and directed by Shyam Madiraju. Francisco Gordillo, co-founder of crypto hedge fund Avenue Investment, and Russo are executive producers.

EXCITING “It’s incredibly exciting to have Ridley Scott and the crew at Scott Free produce the movie of The Infinite Machine alongside us,” said Russo, who is also the founder of The Defiant, one of the leading crypto media companies. “I can’t imagine a better team to turn the riveting story about the people behind the most revolutionary technology since the internet, into a feature film that will capture the hearts of our generation.”

👉READ THE FULL STORY IN THE DEFIANT.IO👈

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The Tube

📺 Real Vision vs. The Defiant: CAN COINBASE CHANGE THE NFT GAME?

📺 The Open Metaverse Show: Is there any place for ethics in the Metaverse?

Job Board

😆 The Meme Studio: Meme Artist / Shitposter / Illustrator / Designer / Artist

We are a fast growing crypto content agency focused on memes, animation and art. We have a large need for meme makers and illustrators who understand various internet sub-cultures especially useful if you have been or participated in the following:

- /biz/ on 4chan
- DeFi degen meme culture across Telegram & Twitter
- NFT/P2E/DeFi culture in Discords esp. meme channels

For more info, click here.

Elsewhere

🔗 Scott Free Boards Feature Adaptation Of Camila Russo’s ‘Infinite Machine’: Deadline Hollywood

EXCLUSIVE: Scott Free Productions has come aboard to produce an film adaptation of the bestselling book The Infinite Machine, from cryptocurrency journalist Camila Russo.

🔗 Zero Knowledge Summit Amsterdam 2022: YouTube

Zero Knowledge Summit brings together the best thinkers and builders in the space to learn about the latest in zero knowledge research, SNARKs, STARKs, cryptographic primitives, privacy and math’s. This one-day invite-only event will consist of a mixture of topic oriented talks & workshops.

🔗 a16z Crypto is launching an academic research lab focused on web3: The Block

Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is diving deeper into the crypto market with the launch of a new academic lab dedicated to tackling research problems facing the fast-growing digital asset industry.

yearn.finance @iearnfinanceAnti-corporate in all we do Where businesses are machines, DAOs are organisms with a thousand interwoven minds Ideas come from the community, are debated by the community, are voted on and implemented by the community. And here’s how it happens

medium.comYearn governance explained: Proposals, $YFI token, and executionAnyone can discuss or propose ideas in the Yearn’s Discord, Twitter, Reddit, Pool of Ideas, Telegram, and Governance Forum. As proposals…1:46 PM ∙ Apr 21, 202231Likes11Retweets

Art Blocks @artblocks_io.@stefan_contiero is bringing @MacTuitui @shvembldr @Hanrgb and @nicolasdnl to the Venice Biennale - stop by @dartpavilion to check it out! Apr 23 - Jun 20 Tu - Sun 11am – 7pm Decentral Art Pavilion Palazzo Giustinian Lolin Calle Giustinian, 2893, 30124 Venezia VE, Italy

8:00 PM ∙ Apr 21, 202244Likes8Retweets

Trending in The Defiant

• Black Pilled at Bitcoin 2022: Do We Know What All This Is For?As I’m watching men struggle on the mechanical bull (thinking, shouldn’t they only be using one hand?) at Bitcoin 2022 in Miami last week, a thought from the deep recesses of my mind emerges: What is all this for?
• Coinbase Launches NFT Marketplace BetaCrypto exchange Coinbase has opened the beta version of its NFT marketplace to a waitlist of 3 million users.
• Lido Flexes with Staking Surge as The Merge ApproachesLido’s dominance over Ethereum staking continues to grow.

🧑‍💻 ✍️ Stories in The Defiant are written by 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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The Defiant is a daily newsletter focusing on decentralized finance, a new financial system that’s being built on top of open blockchains. The space is evolving at breakneck speed and revolutionizing tech and money. Signest, most interesting developments. Subscribers get full access, while free signups get only part of the content. Click here to pay with DAI (for $100/yr) or sub with fiat by clicking on the button above ($15/mo, $150/yr)