“I Thought I Was Living in a Simulation.” The Story Behind Pplpleasr's Uniswap V3 NFT

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

• The story behind pplpleasr’s Uniswap V3 video
• Visa using Ethereum signals tighter crypto to TradFi ties

And there’s more :)

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• Zerion, a simple interface to access and use decentralized finance
• Balancer, one of the leading DeFi automated market makers (AMM) for multiple tokens. Dive into their pools at https://balancer.finance/!
• Kraken, consistently rated the best and most secure cryptocurrency exchange, which can get you from fiat to DeFi
• Casper, an enterprise-focused blockchain which aims to introduce unprecedented security, speed and scale for businesses

Quick Take: zkSync 2.0 is on its way

Tuesday Tutorials: Beginner's guide to being a Liquidity Provider

Podcast: "I Try to Tell People About DeFi; It Will Come Here and Completely Flatten You:" Jim Bianco

PPLPLEASR

🤯 “I Thought I Was Living in a Simulation.” The Story Behind the ~$500k Uniswap Video

TLDR A DAO bought the artist pplpleasr’s Uniswap V3 teaser video for $525K and she has committed to donating all proceeds to charity. Here’s how what’s probably this year’s most inspiring DeFi story went down.

THE SALE The 310 ETH sale is more than 500 times last month’s average NFT sale price of about $1,300 according to NFT platform Nonfungible.

THE VIDEO The 46-second video shows a pink unicorn walking through a barren landscape while tubes, which pplpleasr has later said symbolize the bonding curves which dictate token price, seemingly swim above it. The unicorn eventually reaches the “Ethereum promised land” as the artist called it on Twitter, where the elements of DeFi are united.

BIDDING WAR When bidding hit 100 ETH, the artist was “getting ready to thank the bidder” but then PleasrDAO came through with their first 110 ETH bid. That was just the beginning though, as bidding would almost triple from there.

“Every few minutes I would watch a new crazy amount of ETH more than my net worth chime in and I thought I was living in a simulation,” pplpleasr told The Defiant, saying she would remember the battle between the final two bidders for the rest of her life.

👉 READ THE FULL STORY HERE, IN THEDEFIANT.IO 👈

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TRADFI

🤝 Visa Transacting on Ethereum Signals Stronger TradFi-Crypto Link

TLDR Visa is now settling transactions via stablecoins on the Ethereum network. While these are just a tiny sliver of Visa’s total volume, and only apply to one client, the fact that the largest payments network is using a public blockchain signals the integration between traditional finance and crypto is strengthening.

USDC TX The first such transaction in USDC, a USD-backed stablecoin, was settled over Ethereum, Visa said in a March 29 blog post.

CRYPTO.COM PARTNERSHIP Visa had already established a partnership with Crypto.com, one of the major centralized crypto exchange apps, to offer users a Crypto.com Visa card. However, prior to this development, Crypto.com still needed to settle transactions (ie: pay Visa back) with traditional fiat currency according to Visa’s standard settlement process for partners.

NO FIAT Now, Crypto.com can simply send USDC straight to Visa’s Ethereum wallet, no fiat-conversion necessary. This will result in fewer unnecessary conversion fees for fintech companies dealing in crypto that want to partner with major payment networks like Visa.

OTHER FINTECHS For newer fintech companies focused on digital currencies, this makes partnering with Visa much more cost-effective.

👉 READ THE FULL STORY HERE, IN THEDEFIANT.IO 👈

SHORT SQUEEZE

📈 MOB Short Squeeze Has Traders Reminiscing GME Days

TLDR MobileCoin (MOB) is up more than five times in the last 48 hours after a trader was borrowing what was at one point $120k worth of the token per hour to short it, according to crypto influencer who goes by Donny Crypto on Twitter.

$MOB boss donny @DonnyCrypto$MOB is set up for a short squeeze that will make GameStop look like child’s play. One party is paying 120,000 USD per hour to hold their position. It’s paying 3000% interest (not a typo). Buy MOB only on FTX.

ftx.comFTXCryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange5:00 PM ∙ Mar 27, 202125Likes4Retweets

$150M SHORT The move has left traders guessing as to why someone would build a $150M short position against this token. Going short means borrowing an asset in order to sell it at market price, with the plan of buying and returning the asset at a lower price, pocketing the difference.

“It’s likely part of a larger strategy that makes the overall portfolio less sensitive to movements in the market, or delta neutral,” Donny Crypto told The Defiant.

SQUEEZE Other traders simply jumped along for the ride, with some speculating a short squeeze —when short sellers are forced to buy more of the token to cover their positions— could be coming.

👉 READ THE FULL STORY HERE, IN THEDEFIANT.IO 👈

💰 Delta Exchange Completes $5M Token Raise

TLDR Delta Exchange a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, announced today that it has raised $5M in a private sale for DETO, the platform's native token. Investors include Sino Global, Aave Ventures, CoinFund, Kyber Network, Spartan, QCP Soteria, LuneX Ventures, gumi Cryptos Capital, BR Capital.

DETO TOKEN Delta will open the DETO-USDT market after the token launch. This will be the first spot market on the platform, which has been a derivatives-only exchange till now. The platform will soon start to offer spot markets on bitcoin and altcoins. Delta Exchange offers perpetual swaps, futures, and options on bitcoin and over 60 altcoins with up to 100x leverage.

🔗 ‘Continuous Vampire Attack’: The AMM Wars Are Getting Interesting With Integral: CoinDesk

“Integral, a new automated market maker (AMM) designed with a baked-in order book, went live early Monday. The protocol’s asset pools have attracted $239 million as of press time as savvy decentralized finance (DeFi) traders race for early token rewards,” CoinDesk reported.

🔗 Exclusive: PayPal launches crypto checkout service: Reuters

PayPal Holdings Inc will announce later on Tuesday that it has started allowing U.S. consumers to use their cryptocurrency holdings to pay at millions of its online merchants globally, a move that could significantly boost use of digital assets in everyday commerce, Reuters reported

✊ Head to THEDEFIANT.IO for more DeFi news 📰

🧑‍💻 ✍️ Stories in this newsletter were written by Owen Fernau and Dan Kahan, and edited by Camila Russo. Videos were produced by Robin Schmidt and Alp Gasimov. Podcast was 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. Sign up to learn more and keep up on the latest, 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 ($10/mo, $100/yr). We will be raising the price to $15/month next week!