Lens' Decentralized Social Media, Elon Musk Warns Impending Recession, Citadel Builds Crypto Trading Platform with Virtu
Blockchain-based Social Media, DeFi vs TradFi, BTC nears 200 MA
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By Terrence Hooi
Chief Investment Strategist
This Substack Post does not take into account nor does it provide any tax, legal or
investment advice or opinion regarding the specific investment objectives or
financial situation of any person.
1.) Lens Protocol’s Decentralized Social Media
Last week Lens Protocol announced it’s first decentralized social media platform using the Polygon blockchain to create Social Graph that just went live.
The goal of decentralized social graphs is to create
More open and free social media without censorship by centralized authorities
Easily allowing anyone to port assets like profiles , networks and content from one decentralized app (dApp)
Currently Lens allows users to use NFTs that is the underlying backbone allowing users to own their social profiles and Lens have grown to about 16,000 users with NFT based profiles.
Singular’s Take: Initial attempts by other giants like Coinbase creating decentralized social media like DESO could unlock blockchain-based Twitter or Patreon with a strong network effect that is the core of cryptos.
Singular’s Action: We will continue to watch this space as Polygon or other Layer-2 potentially scale using off-chain indexer outside Ethereum-compatible chains. However, there is a risk of single point of failure with Lens with its custom off-chain indexer.
2.) Elon Musk Hints Impending Recession
Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk feels bad about the economy and tweeted the following this week:
Tesla is cutting 10% of jobs and is stopping all hiring world-wide this week. Responding to a question about whether “we’re approaching a recession,” he answered: “Yes.” However, Musk noted, “this is actually a good thing.”
The Tesla boss explained with this Tweet:
3.) Citadel, Charles Schwab and Fidelity Building Crypto Trading Platform
A breaking report by Bloomberg this week, Citadel and Virtu Financial joins forces to build crypto trading platform along with Charles Schwab and Fidelity.
Although the brokerage firm does not have plans right now to offer retail investors crypto trading, the companies are supporting efforts in the crypto industry with small downside risks and a potentially massive optionality to source liquidity for their clients.
We know there is significant interest in this cryptocurrency space and we will look to invest in firms and technologies working to offer access with a strong regulatory focus and in a secure environment.
Smart contract-based financial transactions settle in near real-time almost anywhere in the world. Revenue per employee illustrates DeFi’s efficiency relative to that of traditional finance (TradFi).
Singular’s Take: Based on our previous publications Crypto-powered finance already proves to be much more efficient and cheaper than Traditional finance.
Singular’s Action: Long DeFi
Macro :🧐 Is Pakistan About to Pop?🇵🇰
What is happening in Pakistan? The nation that is bordering India on one side an Iran and Afghanistan on the other side. Why is Pakistan $263 B economy is shrinking over the years.
Currently, Sri Lanka has no fuel, lack of food and medical supplies. Critical medical surgeries are being cancelled and things are getting downright hostile and it’s not hard to imagine why as the Pakistani government blames everyone but themselves.
Here’s a few reasons
Extremely Low Foreign reserves- Shrunk to only $10.2B.
Debt to GDP of 82%
Sri Lankan rupee fell sharply and lost its buying power.
Monthly Crypto Highlights
Terra blowup marks one of the largest fiascos in crypto market history, sending a warning to crypto markets but its impact on Bitcoin seems to have contained.
Bitcoin sells off amidst continued Macro uncertainty ending the month of May down 17.2%, declining from $38,480 to $31,835.
Bitcoin’s on-chain fundamentals remain strong, Long on Dips as we’re nearing 200 MA