Paypal’s launching a Stablecoin. A Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF feels inevitable. The Bitcoin halving is next year.
Despite all the setbacks, the smell of the bull market feels closer and closer.
Here’s what we got today:
- PayPal enters crypto. They’re launching PYUSD, a USD-stablecoin.
- Protect Yourself From Scams. These 5 tools could save you funds.
- Around the web. Frax will buy US Treasury, On-chain limit orders in TraderJoe, Fantom might become an ETH L2 and more.
Here’s your Edge 🗡️!
“There is no such thing as no risk. There’s only this choice of what to risk, and when to risk it.” – Nick Murray
News
PayPal Has Entered the Arena
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Global payment giant PayPal is issuing its own stablecoin: PYUSD.
Why’s this a big deal? They’re one of the largest payment processors in the world and have $79B worth of assets. They have a mainstream brand that retail users can trust.
So why are they getting into stablecoins? It’s all about the dollars. In Q1, Tether alone printed around $1.48B in profits and Paypal wants a piece of it.
Here’s the Centralized Stablecoin Playbook:
- Issue tokens in exchange for fiat money.
- Invest fiat in safe and liquid assets.
- Keep the fat profits to yourself.
The only catch is that the token should keep the peg, but that’s not an issue considering who their partner is….
The Details Behind PYUSD
- It is ERC20 token on Ethereum.
- It is issued and managed by Paxos. Remember…Paxos was the company behind BUSD (Binance). So basically, the US kinda made Paxos swap from Binance to Paypal…an entity they have much more control over.
- It can be converted into USD via PayPal and Venmo.
- It is 100% backed by liquid assets such as T-bills and deposits.
You can use it for most things, from buying things online to sending them to your crypto wallet.
Why This is Bullish for Crypto
- It demonstrates TradFi’s acceptance of crypto. We’ve already witnessed it with BlackRock. But now we can expect even more Trad companies to enter the crypto space actively. Visa, Mastercard, and Square are allegedly working on stablecoins.
- It helps solves the on & off ramps problem. So far, users didn’t have an easy way to get started in crypto. They had to rely on and use crypto-specific exchanges.
PYUSD eliminates that. With just a few clicks on PayPal, normies can enter crypto-land. And they can exit it just as easily.
- It opens the door for the next wave of users. DeFi users are a drop in a bucket compared to the number of global PayPal users. While MetaMask has around 21 million monthly active users, PayPal has a mind-boggling 435 million active accounts.
But There’s Some Critics
At the end of the day, PayPal still controls your PYUSD. They can stop all transfers, freeze your account, etc. However, other centralized stablecoins such as Tether and USDC have the same power.
PYUSD doesn’t have much DeFi utility yet. Having users on PayPal and Venmo is one thing. Attracting DeFi users is an entirely different one.
Overall, this is bullish news. PYUSD might be the ultimate gateway drug for normie money to enter crypto.
Dive deeper:
- Press release from PayPal.
- Dashboard to track PYUSD metrics.
Announcement
Early Enrollment for Double Your DeFi is Open
The most badass DeFi training in the world is about to kick off again.
We’re happy to announce that we’ll host the next Cohort in November 2023. (We’re letting you know early so you can clear your schedule for it if you’re interested in joining).
Can you believe it? We’re about to hit the one-year mark for Double Your DeFi. The journey so far has been amazing.
In the past 2 cohorts, we’ve guided hundreds of students on their path to becoming profitable in DeFi.
And now it’s your turn!
This course can be a game-changer for anyone looking to level up in DeFi.
But don’t just take my word for it.
See what previous students have said about Double Your DeFi:
There are 40+ text and videos of people sharing their experience with Double Your DeFi.
I wanted to give you early access to join because there’s a limit of 100 students per cohort. (If there are too many students, we can’t answer everyone’s questions. And it lowers the quality of the experience.)
- November 2022 – Sold out
- May 2023 – Sold Out
- November 2023 – It’s going to sell out
By the way, we’re doing an early bird discount of $300 – This is only for the first 25 people who sign up.
Save My Spot in Double Your DeFi →
Tools
Protect Your Funds From Scams
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Every week I see a new person get their crypto stolen. And most of the time, it’s easily preventable. If only they had the right tools to warn them about malicious transactions.
So I wanted to share 5 tools. Install these and they’ll act as guardrails for your crypto.
• All are genuine recommendations, no sponsorships
• Whenever you see a link, verify that it’s legit before downloading anything.
#1. Rabby
MetaMask is the most popular crypto wallet. That being said, it has set the bar really low.
Enter Rabby, a comparatively much better wallet:
• Great UX / UI
• Good for multiple wallets
• Pre-sign checks for security
• Whitelist feature to save addresses
• Most chains are already integrated – no need to add
#2. Pocket Universe
Most wallets have horrible UX: You might not know what you approve.
Solution: Add Pocket Universe to your browser. It will explain to you what each transaction will do for greater transparency.
It’s like a guardian angel looking over your shoulder and assessing every transaction. If something is fishy, it’ll warn you.
As a cherry on top, you’ll get up to $2000 in insurance when transacting using the app. Feeling secure yet?
#3. Scanner from De.Fi
De.Fi is like a super app for DeFi users. But Scanner is by far my favorite tool from them.
Ever wished for a personal dev to audit your tokens and smart contracts? Then Scanner is the solution for you. Simply enter the name of the token or its contract address into Scanner, and it’ll break it down for you:
- Liquidity
- Contract safety
- High-risk functions
- Token distribution
With Scanner, you can easily dodge 95% of sketchy smart contracts. Cool, right?
#4. Revoke Cash
Oops, did you accidentally approve a shady contract? No sweat, Revoke Cash will help you cancel all those approvals.
This is a must-have tool for cleaning up past mistakes.
#5. YubiKey
Never used text messages for 2-factor authentication. It’s so easy for someone to “sim swap” your cell phone number.
That’s why I recommend everyone buy a Yubikey.
YubiKey adds a physical layer of security. Whenever YubiKey is enabled, a hacker needs your physical YubiKey to do anything substantial with your account.
Are there any must-have tools that I missed? If yes, feel free to reply to this email.
🚀 DeFi Catalysts
Fantom is considering becoming a Layer2 on Ethereum, even though Andre Cronje doesn’t like the Layer2 terminology.
Frax Finance is onboarding a offchain RWA partner. Soon, they’ll be able to capture the yield from T-bills.
Aave is discussing investing a portion of the Aave Treasury’s stablecoin holdings in US Treasuries. They’ll be partnering with Centrifuge Prime.
Gains Network released gTrade v6.4. It introduced a custom oracle ‘lookbacks’ feature for guaranteed order execution.
Trader Joe launched on-chain limit orders. Now you can set up automated buy or sell orders that execute with no fees or price impact.
Unibot, the poster boy for TG trading bots, is launching its own DEX aggregator. This is a great way to grow for most trading bots.
GMX v2 Beta is now live on Arbitrum and Avalanche mainnet. It introduced many improvements such as isolated pools, lower slippage, etc.
Token unlocks are here. Over $218 million in tokens will be unlocked in the next 7 days. Major tokens include SAND, APE, APT, & IMX.
Camelot v3 farms are live. It introduces automated strategies for their concentrated liquidity. This makes the v3 farms more accessible.
Origin Dollar is adding DAI savings rate into their yield strategy for OUSD. This was after the MakerDAO offered a massive 8% yield on DAI.
MakerDAO is considering reducing the yield given on DAI to 5%. This comes after the massive success of giving away an 8% yield.
Sushiswap released “Permissionless Incentive Creation” in collaboration with Angle Protocol. Anyone can now incentivize a pool.
Osmosis is going to use Celestia’s DA solution to become a modular liquidity hub. Potentially, the DA layer can also play a role in Mesh Security and IBC.
Zora, an L2 focused on the creator economy, introduced Protocol Rewards. Creators and developers can now earn rewards on Zora.
Maple Finance has obtained securities exemption for their USDC cash management pool backed by tokenized Treasuries. Now, US citizens can deposit as well.
Y2K Finance launched the Touch Down vault for $CRV. If its prices touch, $.40 during the epoch duration, premium holders win, otherwise collateral wins.
Mantle has passed the proposal to allow Mantle LSD and stETH LSD strategies with their treasury funds. Up to 200k ETH can be used for these.
BNB Smart Chain announced the release of version v1.2.9. The hard fork includes upgrades such as Fast Finality Mechanism and a few from Ethereum to BSC for compatibility.
📰 Industry News
Base season is here. The chain went live yesterday. Lots of dApps are also live. Uniswap, OpenSea, Sushi, Synapse, Stargate, etc. are live.
Curve has recovered 73% of the stolen funds. However, the CRV/ETH exploiter hasn’t returned the funds despite the warnings. Now, there’s a $1.85 million bounty on his identity.
The SEC will file an “interlocutory appeal” of a judge’s ruling on Ripple’s programmatic sales of XRP. The ruling was in favor of the crypto industry.
Etherscan introduced the Blockscan Chat Mobile App. It’ll allow you to chat with any Web3 address via wallet-to-wallet messaging.
Valkyrie is trying to convert its Bitcoin Strategy ETF to a Bitcoin and Ether Strategy ETF. The filings are pouring in for Ether ETFs.
Federal Reserve is starting a new program to oversee banks’ crypto activity. It also explained how banks need to get preapprovals for engaging with stablecoins.
Circle launched its Programmable Wallets on Ethereum, Polygon, and Avalanche. Devs can now embed secure wallets into their apps.
Aptos is partnering with Microsoft to create a suite of AI-supported tools. The tools will be at the intersection of AI and blockchain.
Arkham Intelligence offered a $46k bounty for identifying the FTX exploiter. The winner will be given 100,000 $ARKM.
Elon Musk clarified that X (formerly Twitter) won’t launch its own crypto token.
