EddieJayonCrypto
15 Apr 22
• BlackRock and Fidelity partner with Circle in a $400M fund to help Circle scale and grow• North Korea's Lazarus Group is said to be behind the Ronin Bridge/Axie Infinity hack• The Vanguard Group is now the largest investor in Twitter; the move says a lot• My opinion on Safemoon is that it is a str...
• BlackRock and Fidelity partner with Circle in a $400M fund to help Circle scale and grow• North Korea's Lazarus Group is said to be behind the Ronin Bridge/Axie Infinity hack• The Vanguard Group is now the largest investor in Twitter; the move says a lot• My opinion on Safemoon is that it is a straight up rug pull• Does celebrity influence actually matter?There are macro and micro events happening every day. Here is what's on my mind today.1. BlackRock is considering how USDC can be leveraged in capital markets. They succeeded in raising $400M in a finding round as a part of a broad strategic partnership with Circle. The partnership also includes Fidelity. The capital will be used to expand the reach of USDC to businesses, grow internationally and scale the stablecoin. 2. Who here is surprised to learn that North Korea was behind yet another hack? This time it is the Ronin Bridge/Axie Infinity hack that saw over $620M stolen. At some point there need to be repercussions against that state and its attacks. I am sure there are groups looking into how they can go after Lazarus Group. I just wish the repercussions of their actions were felt by them already. They are a constant threat and need to be put to rest already. 3. And, like that, The Vanguard Group is now the largest investor in Twitter. I am pretty sure this is in direct response to Elon's activist approach to affecting change on the platform. His ideas are not fully baked. Worse yet, there are others thinking it would be a great idea to take Twitter and transform it into a Web3 implementation. I have much respect for some of the people chiming in on what they would do with Twitter, but I do have a response for all of them. How about you build a new platform based on your ideas, build the community around, run and build the business and see if people will really use it. 4. For a while I have been saying I need to do some research on Safemoon. Well, I am all done now. Here we go with the whole influence push. The former head of Marketing for Safemoon, Ben Phillips, has been accused of running a $12M pump and dump scheme. He was better known for his prank videos and now he is accused of using his influence to promote Safemoon while simultaneously selling millions of coins. Remember what I said about celebrity influence? 5. Let's talk about celebrities in the world of digital assets. Are they really able to affect the price of an NFT or drive interest in a new centralized exchange? The fast answer is yes. Yes, celebrities can definitely affect the price tag of an asset. That said, the long answer can easily be no. I think the latest example will be played out with MoonPay. I am sure it is a good CEX to use, but when you have so many others already on the market and capable of providing many services, a new one would have to come onboard with far more than just celebrity investors. We have seen the scenario play out many times already, including times when celebrities were involved with a rug pull, whether knowingly or unwittingly. Be mindful of what you use, what you invest in and where you get your information.