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Citizen Daily Brief

Ethereum's Deep Value ($)

Weekly Recap: SOL stutters, BTC versus the Feds.
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Apr 6, 20245 min read
Ethereum's Deep Value
Published on Apr 6, 2024
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THIS WEEK IN MARKETS
Ethereum's Deep Value

📊 Deep Value Territory? ETH doomer boomers are out in full force after the ETH/BTC ratio took a turn for the worse, breaking below the key support at 0.05 to reach their lowest point since 2021. What happened in markets this week?

Prices as of 10am ET 24hr 7d
Crypto $2.53T ↗ 0.2% ↘ 4.5%
BTC $68,035 ↘ 0.4% ↘ 2.9%
ETH $3,335 ↗ 0.5% ↘ 5.7%
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WEEKLY RECAP
SOL Traffic Jam

1️⃣ Solana Faces Major Congestion

Solana is experiencing severe congestion, with ~75% of transactions failing last week. While many culprits exist, one in particular, the new PoW token Ore, is certainly not doing anything to remedy the problem. Solana's founder Anatoly and Helius Labs co-founder Mert acknowledged the issues across the network on Twitter, citing the QUIC feature as a key issue. TL;DR on what's next? Fixes will come, but it will take time.

2️⃣ Bitcoin Down Despite Inflows

Bitcoin's anticipated “Upril” looks delayed, with a ~5% dip this week despite its highest monthly close ever. A healthy chunk of the $2B in BTC that the US Gov seized from the Silk Road is being transferred to Coinbase. That, alongside more GBTC outflows, contributed to the dip.

However, the trend looks to be reversing, with consecutive daily net ETF inflows and only one day of outflows last week. Further, today BlackRock announced they had added Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Citadel, and UBS as participants to their IBIT ETF. This expansion, despite Goldman Sachs saying their clients had no interest in the assets, speaks volumes.

3️⃣ Ethena's Big Week

Following an airdrop of ~$1.4B this week and widespread adoption that has caused some of crypto's largest DeFi protocols to enter a blood feud over it, Ethena is just looking toward the future. Ethena's second season, the Sats Campaign, kicked off officially on Thursday, introducing Bitcoin as collateral in the protocol. Adding Bitcoin not only expands Ethena's total addressable market but also aligns with the original vision from Arthur Hayes in March ‘23.

4️⃣ Pendle Winning Airdrop Season

We may all be feeling some wonderful effects of Airdrop April, but Pendle has been the biggest winner. The yield splitting protocol continues to grow exponentially, with its total value locked jumping 40% to ~$4B in just two weeks. A strong proponent of this surge comes from the airdrop hunting for restaking protocols and Ethena — exposure to all of which can be multiplied using Pendle. Consequently, Pendle achieved a record $530M in daily trades this past week, mainly from new USDe pools.

5️⃣ Layer 2s to $1 Trillion?

Whether or not Arbitrum had its market cap flipped by WIF, layer 2s continue to play a significant role in the ecosystem overall. VanEck projects the L2 market to be valued at at least $1T by 2030. Issues like those going on with Solana, as well as with L2s like Base even in the wake of Dencun, signify a demand and need for inexpensive, scalable solutions for blockchains — which VanEck believes will drive this growth, an outlook based on analysis of transaction revenues, maximal extractable value, and the ecosystem's overall health. Yet, they caution that fierce competition will likely mean only a few Layer 2s dominate.


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WEEKLY ROLLUP
The Next Terra?

Crypto's hottest investment is worrying plenty. But is Ethena really something the industry should be losing sleep over?

Ryan is out, and Anthony Sassano is filling in! David and Anthony discuss the week's hottest topics, including the major airdrops we witnessed and the major drama we saw unfold.

Hear their thoughts 👇

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GET CAUGHT UP
What We Published

📰 Articles:

Does Crypto’s Top AI Project Even Work? on Bankless
Bittensor has been one of the leading projects of the crypto + AI narrative. Does it do anything?
5 Can’t-Miss Restaking Airdrops on Bankless
EigenLayer could be the biggest airdrop ever. These are the 5 opps to focus on.
Are Layer 3s the Future? on Bankless
Is Ethereum layering on the headaches, or do L3s unlock new potential?
Catalyzing Ordinals with Runes on Bankless
Is Bitcoin about to finally get a widespread fungible token standard?

📺 Shows:

BUIDL: Blackrock’s $10T Bet on Ethereum | Carlos Domingo on Bankless
The largest institutions in the world are here and they’re tokenizing their assets.
AI Power Wars | Emad Mostaque on Bankless
When crypto meets AI
The Summer of Protocols Episode on Bankless
An exploration of all things protocols

Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.

Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here.