Tornado wrecks privacy

Good morning! Welcome to The Daily Moon. The world of NFTs just got a new kick. NFL team Houston Texans has signed a deal with crypto firm BitWallet, becoming the first one in the league to sell single-game suites in exchange for crypto. Game suites come with all the bells and whistles: buffets, prime seats, fancy bathrooms, you get the drift. It’s not open for normal tickets yet. 

The markets continued to be down today. Bitcoin was down 1.33%, and Ethereum was at $1,865. Nasdaq was down in early trade. Back home, the market ended on a high led by PSU and IT stocks. 

The Bitcoin See-Saw

Bitcoin’s ownership is changing. For the first time, it has more short-term holders (STH) than long-term holders (LTH). The market analysis firm Glassnode’s “The Week On Chain” report on Monday said STHs have expanded their holdings by 330,000 BTC since May’s Terra collapse. And this means, it says, that Bitcoin seems to have reached market capitulation.

This seems consistent with BTC’s recent price movement. But there is more than one view on what the future holds for Bitcoin. 

1. Some believe that the BTC is poised for a rally. With the recent recovery in commodities prices and stock markets, the sentiment in crypto is also much better.

2. Others say this is the beginning of a downtrend. Peter Brandt, the very well-known futures trader, says Bitcoin trends are forming a “rising wedge” pattern. There are caveats, the first being that the pattern must first complete itself. 

3. “The Big Short” Michael Burry recently dumped nearly all his stocks. The general belief, for those who follow Burry, is that this signals bad news for stock and crypto markets. 

Now, depending on how you see it, there is a scenario for everyone. BTC can go up, down, or just crash. Again. 

Privacy Caught In Tornado’s Whirlwind

The US Treasury’s sanctions against Tornado Cash have not found many admirers. Especially in the crypto world. The main concern has been the attack on privacy. Now people are saying it openly. 

Who said what?

The sanctions were opposed from the day they were announced. Now the industry is speaking up too. The co-founder of privacy protocol Manta Network says they will impact every Web3 protocol. 

Why it matters

Privacy has been a sore thumb with regulators in the offline and online world. Governments don’t like it either. Web2 has suffered, and Web3 is already suffering in its nascent stage. 

A valid concern is if the idea of what Tornado Cash does is even well understood. The tech industry has been watching where this leads, and nobody seems happy. 

Celsius’ Trading Move Debacle 

Things are getting worse for Celsius. The Financial Times reports that the bankrupt lender’s CEO took over trading duties. An anonymous source told the newspaper that Alex Mashinksy, the chief executive of Celsius, had managed to get his hands on some bad information and was directing the trading of a large number of Bitcoins. But, and this is a big one, another source says that Mashinksy didn’t direct trade as much as “spoke a strategy out loud”. There are reports that the CEO and the CIO clashed regularly on how the lender was making trades. 

The sordid tale

In a quarter of bad news, it has been an especially bad week for Celsius. Reports suggest the lender misled the court on the debt that is owed. It is running out of cash and has barely a few months left to live. And while there is some interest in some of its assets, time is running out on if the deal will ever materialise. 

Google Is Learning Blockchain 

Alphabet has been doubling down on blockchain and crypto. A report by Blockdata analysed the investing patterns of 100 publicly listed companies and found that 40 companies invested in the ecosystem. Alphabet invested the most capital—$1.5 billion across just four rounds. Alphabet recently invested in Fireblocks at an $8 billion valuation.

What about the others?

Samsung was the most active with the company investing ~$1 billion across 13 rounds. Blackrock and Morgan Stanley invested just north of $1.1 billion each across two and three rounds, respectively. Among the old-school favourites, Wells Fargo, Citi, Paypal, and AmEx made close to ~14 deals investing ~$1 billion collectively. 

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Who are we? There is a lot happening in our world. Everything has layers, and each layer has to be carefully peeled so you, the reader, know how the world of money is changing every day. That’s our promise. Help you unpeel the onions, which are the public markets in the US, India, and crypto, so that you know just a little more.