ARB Airdrop Sparks Frenzy, Balaji's Million Dollar Bet, and More
7 Highlights from the World of Digital Assets
We’re back? This week was one for the crypto history books with Balaji betting $1M that BTC would hit $1M within 90 days and Arbitrum announcing what could be the biggest airdrop of the year.
In this issue:
Arbitrum activity surges following airdrop announcement
Arbitrum project ARB allocations
How the ARB token will work
Balaji’s million dollar bet
Stacks brings scalability and smart contracts to Bitcoin
USDT supply surges as USDC and BUSD supplies fall
Trader Joe DEX volume grows
Arbitrum Activity Surges Following Airdrop Announcement
This week Arbitrum announced their highly-anticipated airdrop. Prior to the announcement, there were concerns that most network activity was from airdrop farmers and would drop off precipitously. Instead, on-chain activity pushed upwards.
Arbitrum daily transactions broke 1M for the second time:
Arbitrum DEX volume had its best week ever:
Arbitrum saw stablecoin inflows everyday since the announcement:
Arbitrum Project ARB Allocations
In addition to the community airdrop, a portion of ARB tokens will be given to native protocol. Nansen looked at DAO activity on Arbitrum to give a sense of which protocols will most benefit.
How the ARB Token will Work
Price predictions are fun, but how does ARB actually work and why does Arbitrum need a token? DefiIgnas lays out the role that ARB will play in the Arbitrum Ecosystem.
Balaji’s Million Dollar Bet
The other big crypto news of the week was Balaji’s headline-making bet. The tech billionaire publicly predicted that hyperinflation in the US, combined with mass bank collapses, would push BTC over $1M within 90 days.
While this prediction is extreme (especially its accelerated timeline), it’s worth pointing out that in January 2020, Balaji accurately predicted how much of that year would play out:
Stacks Brings Scalability and Smart Contracts to Bitcoin
With BTC pumping and Bitcoin dominance rising, very few coins have outperformed it. Stacks (STX) is one of the few exceptions. As a Bitcoin Layer 2, Stacks enables scalability, smart contracts, and DeFi on Bitcoin. If we really see a massive Bitcoin narrative, protocols built on top of Bitcoin could be poised to benefit.
To really go down the rabbit hole, I recommend this thread of threads with nearly 100 threads about the Stacks ecosystem:
USDT Supply Surges as USDC and BUSD Fall
Following the USDC depeg and regulatory action against BUSD, crypto holders have continued to move money to USDT.
Over the past 7 days USDT supply grew nearly 5% while USDC supply fell 11.4% and BUSD supply fell 2.6%.
Trader Joe DEX Volume Grows
Trader Joe, the leading DEX on Avalanche and a growing DEX on Arbitrum, has seen its volume trend upwards this month. All DEXs saw a major jump in volume on March 11th, but most haven’t sustained as much of that volume as Trader Joe has.
That’s all for this week. For more frequent content, follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Until next time,
Patrick Scott
Dynamo DeFi