If crypto is booming, why is everyone trimming down

GM. It is Wednesday, my dudes, and your day by day refresher is right here! We’re muddling up business developments right into a clean, citrusy learn.

👋 Consensys, dYdX, and DWF Labs needed to say goodbye to a few of their staff.

🍊 Information drops: Joe Biden thanks Nigeria’s president for serving to launch Tigran Gambaryan, Robinhood enters the election contract market + extra

🍍 Market taste at the moment

Strap in, house cadets! 🧑‍🚀 The Concern and Greed Index has climbed to 77 – we’re nonetheless cruising within the “Greed” zone. Bitcoin is flirting with the stratosphere, hitting $73.3K yesterday, only a hop away from its all-time excessive of $73.8K.

In financial constellations, the GDP – a measure of all items and providers produced between July and September – grew at a 2.8% annualized charge, falling in need of expectations. This might immediate the Fed to chop rates of interest, igniting threat urge for food amongst buyers. Translation: extra gasoline for the crypto rocket 🚀

In the meantime, BTC ETF buyers are getting extra energetic, with $870.1M in inflows yesterday. As institutional buyers gear up for launch, flows are anticipated to skyrocket – even the CFO of the State of Florida is getting in on the motion, encouraging pension funds to contemplate investing in BTC.

But, retail buyers are nonetheless on Earth time, exhibiting no additional curiosity in keeping with Google searches. Their loss, ‘trigger analysts at 10X Analysis are predicting BTC might attain $100K by the top of the yr.

So, hold your helmets on and your eyes on the celebrities – this crypto journey is simply getting began ✨

👋 Letting go

You stroll into the workplace, sit down throughout out of your boss, and so they launch into this speech. For a second, you are pondering, “Are you about to suggest rn?” However then all of it goes downhill – beginning with “… However”, ending with the traditional “It is simply enterprise.”

And in that very second, you understand: it is time to mud off your LinkedIn account and put together for all of the “I begin my day at 4 AM with a chilly bathe and a gymnasium sesh” posts you have managed to keep away from until now.

For these of you fortunate bastards who’ve by no means had this expertise, I am speaking about that second while you discover out you are unemployed. And sadly, fairly a couple of folks from the crypto business needed to undergo this currently.

1/ Consensys

Whereas Bitcoin is having the time of its life, the remainder of crypto… let’s simply say BTC is not precisely representing the entire business, which continues to be coping with financial twists and regulatory drama. This is what’s on the radar:

– A cautious macro setting: larger rates of interest, inflation, and squeezed liquidity;

– The SEC conserving issues spicy with lawsuits in opposition to just about anybody who’s talked about “crypto” at the very least as soon as of their life.

And looks like Consensys – one of many largest supporters of Ethereum – is feeling the ache, shedding 20% of their crew yesterday.

The timing is not completely random: just some months in the past, they obtained sued by the SEC for allegedly promoting unregistered securities by means of MetaMask. They mentioned this authorized battle was kinda the primary cause for his or her struggles, including that the regulator’s energy journey might find yourself draining thousands and thousands from the pockets of numerous crypto firms.

2/ dYdX

On October 10, dYdX founder Antonio Juliano returned to the CEO seat after a six-month break. In his comeback observe, he admitted it has been a tough yr for dYdX – fierce competitors and a troublesome market – and that in the event that they need to keep related, one thing wants to vary.

That something? Saying goodbye to 35% of their core workforce.

Juliano defined that again in startup mode, they have been all about improvements: invented DEX aggregators, flash loans, leveraged tokens, you title it. However as they grew, they went from “let’s create stuff” to “let’s shield what we have now.”

The expansion introduced in execs, processes, committees – all that big-company baggage. And so they need to return to the place they began – minimize all of the middlemen and the entire hierarchy of administration, leaving solely Juliano and the builders.

Inform me this does not sound just like the plot of a rom-com. New child tries to slot in with the favored crowd, realizes they’re dropping themselves, after which decides to learn books once more (so quirky 🤪). The factor is, these motion pictures normally have a very good ending (a flashmob or one thing), and it may also be the case right here – a contemporary begin and extra alternatives.

3/ DWF Labs

Crypto enterprise capital firm DWF Labs additionally joined the firing membership – nothing main in numbers, however when it comes to drama? Get your teacup and anticipate surprises.

This began when Hana, a Web2 enterprise capitalist, dropped this one bombshell on X. She mentioned a DWF Labs associate approached her at a Hong Kong bar and supplied her a job.

Issues took a flip when she stepped away to the lavatory – the person allegedly spiked her drink. The waitress warned her about it, but it surely was already a bit too late, as she had already taken a couple of sips of the drink.

Feeling tremendous dizzy afterward, Hana knew one thing was positively off. She managed to safe the CCTV footage of the incident and reported every little thing to the native police.

Her story went viral, and yup, DWF Labs seen, too. Despite the fact that the state of affairs continues to be beneath investigation, the corporate took the “higher protected than sorry” strategy and minimize ties with the associate.

Reminder: shield yourselves on the market, of us!

📰 Information drops

✈️ US President Joe Biden thanked Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu for serving to safe Binance exec Tigran Gambaryan’s launch on humanitarian grounds. Gambaryan had been held in Nigeria for nearly eight months, enduring severe well being challenges whereas detained.

🪶 Robinhood steps as much as rival Polymarket with election-based contracts for the US presidential race. Making election betting extra accessible, their contracts are pushed by market vibes and public sentiment.

💳 Coinbase teamed up with Visa to make crypto purchases instantaneous for eligible US and EU debit cardholders. Now, customers can deposit straight into Coinbase, simply spend money on crypto, and even money out to their financial institution accounts in actual time.

📝 Vitalik Buterin dropped some contemporary insights concerning the subsequent part in Ethereum’s journey, known as “The Splurge.” This stage is all about boosting the community’s resilience, making it extra user-friendly, and prepping it for future tech hurdles like quantum computing.

BitDegree says hello from sunny Dubai! 🌞

We’re right here at Binance Blockchain Week 2024, diving into all issues Web3 with a few of the sharpest minds within the business. It is all about huge connections (together with the Legend himself – examine the third pic), new collabs, and a complete lot of future speak – it is gonna be an thrilling week!

🍌 Juicy memes