SOTM April 27-May 3, 2023
First Republic has joined the ranks of failed regional banks, beating SVB's breakdown to become the 2nd-largest banking collapse in U.S. history. The FDIC seized control of First Republic over the weekend after the bank failed to rally enthusiasm for [...]
Recent
SOTM October 27-November 2, 2022
Twitter officially entered a new era under the helm of Elon Musk last week as the Tesla and SpaceX founder completed his $44 billion takeover of the social media platform following a 6-month saga. With the latest changing of the [...]
SOTM October 20-26, 2022
Decentralization diehards are dancing with the devil, with yield and regulation pushing protocols towards the temptation of trusted third parties. On Monday, DeFi protocol MakerDAO voted to custody $1.6B of USDC with Coinbase's institutional division, earning 1.5% rewards on a [...]
SOTM October 13-19, 2022
Though many firms have folded in the crypto liquidity crunch, top trading platforms continue to up the ante. On Wednesday, FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried stirred up some controversy, sharing an "industry norms manual" and recommending 'blocklists' to ensure compliance with [...]
SOTM October 6-12, 2022
From cross-chain carnage to DeFi horseplay, this week was characterized by a brand of chaos found only in crypto. According to a recent report from blockchain surveillance firm Chainalysis, October is already the biggest month for hacker activity in 2022, [...]
SOTM September 29-October 5, 2022
Crypto crept into Q4 with hopes for redemption, though October already offers some ominous possibilities. Last week's supposed sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline was yet another painful blow for European energy infrastructure, pushing the EU to the point of [...]
SOTM September 22-28, 2022
Markets remain resigned as executives exit the crypto industry, extending a sector-wide stretch of corporate restructuring. Following Kraken CEO Jesse Powell's sudden departure from his leadership role last week, FTX US president Brett Harrison announced he'd also be stepping down, [...]
SOTM September 15-21, 2022
Macro forces once again dominate market sentiment after a relatively anticlimactic week of post-Merge activity. Ethereum's shift to proof-of-stake has seen surprisingly few complications, with validator attestation remaining at a healthy 98-99% participation rate and competing proof-of-work forks quickly fading [...]
SOTM September 8-14, 2022
If you're reading this, Ethereum is proof-of-stake. After reaching the Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD) of 58,750,000,000T early Thursday morning, the ecosystem's 2nd largest cryptoasset successfully executed "the Merge," fusing the existing smart contract layer with the consensus layer. The transition [...]
SOTM September 1-7, 2022
Stablecoins are back in the spotlight as regulators, issuers, and exchanges spar at the intersection of fiat and crypto. Russia stepped into the ring on Tuesday, with deputy finance minister Aleksey Moiseyev reportedly planning to "work with friendly countries"to create [...]
Special Insights
The Rise of Stablecoins
The idea of having a stable digital currency has existed for a long time, and even predates Bitcoin. But for all intents and purposes, the rise of stablecoins started in early 2015 when cryptocurrency exchanges began listing Tether for trading. [...]