Macro & Markets

Crypto derivatives refer to financial contracts, such as futures and options, that derive their value from underlying assets like BTC and ETH. These contracts enable traders to speculate on or hedge their positions without having to purchase the underlying assets.

Welcome to our monthly coverage of NFTs and the metaverse. This month: Pudgy Penguins raises $9M in Seed funding, led by 1kx, as they look to expand their IP beyond static images. Nike’s .SWOOSH platform readies its genesis collection, Our Force 1, for sale. We highlight the ongoing BRC-20 token craze on the Bitcoin network, including infrastructure developments and traction metrics.

Level Finance is an oracle-based margin and spot trading decentralized exchange (DEX) that emerged following the success of GMX. Its growth has been remarkable since launching in 2023, achieving volumes that rival its largest competitor (GMX).

Daily active addresses on Uniswap are spiking to levels not seen since May 2021. Why is this? Well, one of the main reasons is meme tokens, of course. The current rally’s poster boy, PEPE, has rallied nearly 100,000% over the past month to hit a peak market cap of nearly $2B. 

Imagine, for a moment, a world where crisis, conflict, and war run rampant. A world of failed institutions, corporate cynicism, and individual greed. A world where the past is brighter than the future. This may just sound like a bad dream, but for many people, and perhaps even for you, it’s no fantasy. It’s reality.

As the CEX landscape continues to be uncertain for traders, the importance of decentralized exchanges (DEXs) cannot be overstated. In this exclusive episode, Jordan delves into the world of decentralized perpetual exchanges, providing an in-depth analysis of GMX, Synthetix, dYdX, and Gains Network. Discover each platform's unique features, tokenomics, and growth potential as we dissect the opportunities and challenges these DEXs face.

How are we already one-third of the way through 2023? Well, as a wise man once said: “Time flies when the market is intent upon separating you from your capital.” – Jason Pagoulatos

Leverage is a double-edged sword, and is frequently misunderstood in the realm of crypto trading. While it can act as a profit multiplier for disciplined traders, it simultaneously serves as the harbinger of liquidation emails for those who do not respect it.

Join us for our next Bull vs. Bear episode following Fed Chair Jerome Powell's FOMC speech. In Market Matters, we'll delve into the Fed's credibility, exploring their capacity to maintain higher rates for longer and whether they'll need to reactively cut rates swiftly if things start to break. In Bullish or Bearish, we'll touch on favorable third-year presidential term market trends and the looming US debt ceiling issue.

In early February, we wrote about the turnaround in the global liquidity cycle and its influence on the market’s strong start to the year. Since then, the broad crypto market is up ~14%, largely driven by BTC and ETH, which have gained 25% and 15%, respectively. Bitcoin’s outperformance is logical given it’s arguably the “closest to the money” and the purest play on liquidity fluctuations.

Despite the broader crypto market performing quite well in April, with ETH making a run past $2,000, the Web3 gaming sector continued to follow a downward trend. This report will add color to the current market conditions to inform readers on what to expect in the coming months.

Crypto-native social media is revving up to bring the competition to web2 social media. In this report, we explore Lens Protocol, the open-source, web3 social graph. The protocol has seen a substantial spike in monthly transactions and users since the beginning of 2023.