24th December 2021 > > Crypto hypocrites.

tl;dr

China and crypto hypocrites.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

On Monday this week after a 1,200-point drop in Wall Street over two trading days – almost all of which has now been reclaimed - I wrote:

“The annual Santa Claus rally does not look likely this year, with vastly reduced liquidity from Wednesday onwards, and virtually none for the whole of the next trading week. Naturally I reserve the right to change my mind, but for now I have pencilled in Jan 4th or Jan 5th as Wall Street buying day.”

How wrong I was. There is a clear lesson here.

Do not take any notice of what a fixed income trader thinks of stocks.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Earning passive income with stablecoins (Part III)

Having looked at two use cases for earning passive income with stablecoins over the last two days, there are innumerable other variants with new ones heading our way.

If you have one that looks interesting to share with the CCC community, let me know, and we can take a look at it.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Crypto hypocrites

China’s biggest news agency, Xinhua, is launching “news digital collectibles” in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Highlights include the Chinese Communist Party’s celebration of its 100th anniversary in Tiananmen Square, of all places, and another celebrating the delivery of 2.7 billion Covid-19 vaccines nationwide. I can’t find one commemorating the release of the Covid virus from the Lab in Wuhan but that must surely be a temporary oversight.

Given the state has almost total control over the media in China, how does this sit with their crypto “ban”?

…

Former US President (and still current President in conspiracy theorists’ minds) Donald Trump has given his insight to cryptos – thankfully he is at the disapproving end of the discussion. Just remember, if you are a crypto sceptic, you are at one with Trump:

“I never loved it because I like to have the Dollar. I think the currency should be the Dollar. So, I was never a big fan. But it is spilling up bigger and bigger. Nobody is doing anything about it. I don’t want to have all these other (cryptocurrencies). There could be an explosion someday, the likes of which we’ve never seen. It will make the big tech explosion look like baby stuff. I think it’s a very dangerous thing.”

He then continues by praising Melania Trump’s own range of NFTs. Which makes him as equally honest as the genocidal rulers of China.

…

Proving as narcissistic as her husband, Mrs. Trump’s NFT contribution comprises a series of watercolours of her own eyes, called “Melania’s Vision”.

She must be very proud having thought up that name all by herself.

Reserve Treasury Protocols (before they all go to zero

The overnight rally in FORT comes as a surprise.

One of the key selling points of reserve treasury protocols is that the market price cannot go below the treasury reserve price. Or at least, that was the case with the original OHM. However, I note the following hard statistics:

XEUS backing is $55 vs $21 market price

FORT backing is $22 vs $15 market price

JADE backing is $51 vs $39 market price

I now think that most if not all OHM forks removed that part of the code that returns the treasury to holders to ensure that the market price cannot go below the treasury reserve price.

If that is the case, that leaves the treasury under the control of the devs and not under the control of the protocol. Eagle eyed crypto enthusiasts immediately notice the lack of decentralisation if that situation is for real.

It isn’t a rug pull as such but pretty much works in the same way.

DeFi can be dangerous.