1st August 2023 > > MetaMask and scam coins.

tl;dr

MetaMask makes strides to redefine user interaction with DeFi. Redefining DeFi away from feral scam meme coins seems to be beyond the ken of anyone.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

IA disappointing overnight performance has got the techies eyeing up support at the 100-day MA (moving average) apparently at 28,460. Any move towards that level will likely bring the leveraged children out in force on the short side.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – It’s all a little bit annoying

I spent much of Saturday and Sunday doing what I like best – messing around with cryptos, DeFi, reading, buying cryptos, that sort of stuff. I am sure you were all doing the same. Who needs a life when you have BTC?

I am a huge fan of the potential for DeFi, but even I recognise that as it is currently formatted, it’s not for everyone. The technology is still at an early stage. I promise you it will become much easier to use. Ironically, the ease of use will come from centralised front ends but please, please do not tell the maxis that. They are sensitive souls and are prone to getting upset.

…

During my weekend of messing around with cryptos I decided I should reduce some of my degen exposure.

This unlikely and momentous decision was triggered by noticing that Wonderland (the one and only Reserve Treasury Protocol that I know of that was successful) had “Paused farming”. Get out now I decided whilst still up. Farming on Wonderland gave me several coins including BSGG, USDC.e, USDT, & USDT.e. If you don’t know what they all are, I really do not have time to explain right now, sorry and all that. But it probably isn’t that important.

Then I checked out my BENQi position. Readers with long memories will recall that I had already closed the USDT.e borrow against AVAX (*) to supply for a one-sided pool and had left AVAX and Qi rewards simply being staked. In a spring cleaning mindset I collapsed all but a small residual of the AVAX/USDT.e collateralised loan.

Now I am left with a bunch of cryptos from both DeFi protocols that I need to turn into something a little more useful. Which used to take a lot of time and effort.

I have found a dead easy way to do it.

…

Step forward MetaMask.

I have often waxed lyrical about the ease of MetaMask, especially when interacting with DeFi.

The vast bulk of my crypto holdings are in cold storage secured by a Ledger Nano X. My degen investments (about 1% of the total so not properly degen in that respect) are managed using MetaMask as a hot wallet. I do not want to engage with DeFi using MetaMask linked to my Ledger as a cold wallet. And trust me, neither do you.

MetaMask has incorporated a swap feature directly into the browser extension. This functionality claims to find the cheapest swap from any coin to any other coin across all DeFi protocols. I have no reason to disbelieve that claim. At the press of a button your swap is executed. No more checking Uniswap V2, or is it V3, perhaps SushiSwap, or maybe LeetSwap the new contender, or the multitude of other options.

Very nice.

And all for a fee of 0.875% of notional which puts most TradFi firms to shame.

…

The question is - why am I annoyed?

I decided to pen yesterday’s missive about the progress in US crypto legislation. I felt that was more important than showcasing my personal appreciation of MetaMask’s new functionality. It can wait, was my thinking.

Yesterday afternoon the Milk Road (a rather fabulous crypto newsletter) ran a big piece on this very subject. And there is more than just the easy peasy lemon squeezy swap function.

Oh well, I am only 18 hours behind breaking the news.

This is the link if you want more information:

https://metamask.io/portfolio/

…

(*) One of the wonders of DeFi is that sometimes you can borrow stablecoins for a lower interest rate than you earn when lending them out again. Extraordinary. That is one winner of a banking model. Rinse and repeat when you find these opportunities.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Meme coin trading

Memecoin trading is not for the faint-hearted, not for the light-walleted.

It’s all just gambling with much lower odds than you find in any reputable house. But some people read the headlines of thousands of percent gains, 10s of thousands of percent gains, and yesterday a remarkable 10 million percent gain in just 24 hours for BALD (more on this later).

We will all be millionaires this time next year, Rodders. Or perhaps even by tomorrow?

…

No, we won’t. The only winners are those who create a pointless coin that (briefly) shines before crashing and burning. You won’t know about it until it is too late. The initial holders furiously sell, and you are the exit liquidity.

I completely disagree with those that say cryptos have no utility and it’s all just one Ponzi scheme. But for thousands of tiny alts and meme coins that is exactly what it is. Purveyors of these coins are simply feral scammers to the core, and I just wish they would go away and die a very painful death in front of their loved ones. But I am balanced about stuff like that.

…

So, back to BALD.

A meme coin that was reported to be trading on LeetSwap with ridiculously vast gains in less than a day. This news gets reported, and someone (a feral scammer who needs to die painfully in front of his loved ones, etc. etc. because I am very balanced about this kind of stuff) creates another BALD coin and sets up an LP (liquidity pool) versus ETH on Uniswap V2.

After a lot of trading this happens:

The feral scammer (take me to a libel court if you dare) simply drained the LP of all the ETH.

And as a last laugh, he has labelled his public address as Coinbase 1.

I hate, I really hate thieves. And if hate is too strong a word for you, just imagine if that was your Granny on the other side of that trade.