BUSD Supply Collapse, Ordinal Ecosystem Boom, and More

7 Highlights from the World of Digital Assets

Mar 06, 2023

Amidst a market correction and concerns over BUSD, this week still saw exciting developments across a variety of crypto ecosystems.

In this issue:

BUSD supply collapses
Solidly forks continue to gain market share
BTC bridged to Avalanche as BTC.b surges
Ordinals ignites interest in building on Bitcoin
Arthur Hayes ponders what a 3X oil spike would do to crypto
Eigenlayer explained
Berachain airdrop alpha

BUSD Supply Collapses

The total BUSD in circulation has collapsed over the past 2 months. From $22B in December, this week BUSD supply dropped another 20% to $8.7B.

Interestingly, this week’s supply drop occurred almost entirely on Ethereum.

This recent drop comes amid increased concerns over stablecoin regulation and Coinbase’s announcement that they will delist BUSD. Of the remaining BUSD, nearly $7B is on Binance, according to DefiLlama’s CEX dashboard. The plus-side is that nothing seems to have broken so far, even with a 60% drop in BUSD supply.

Solidly Forks Continue to Gain Market Share

TVL on Solidly forks continued to surge this week, driven by increases on Thena and Solidly v2. In total, Solidly forks now hold over $800M of TVL, up from under $100M at the start of the year.

For comparison, DEXs hold $19B of TVL in total. Given how Solidly tokenomics work, the longer this upward momentum lasts, the longer I would expect it to continue.

BTC Bridged to Avalanche as BTC.b Surges

Avalanche’s version of wrapped Bitcoin, BTC.b, saw its supply jump by over 2,000 in a single day. Check out this dashboard of BTC.b stats by gfkacid.

The presence of a large amount of bridged BTC, acting productively in DeFi, is beginning to set apart Avalanche from other Ethereum competitors.

Ordinals Ignites Interest in Building on Bitcoin

Ordinals have lasted long enough that they can no longer be ignored. Redphone illustrates in this eye-opening thread how these are much bigger than simply “jpegs on Bitcoin”.

Ordinals can be used to store all sorts of data and applications on Bitcoin and we’re already seeing an ecosystem begin to flourish.

redphone ☎️ @redphonecrypto

For the record, I haven't been talking ords bc I think it's some hot new jerkoff spot for speculators to get rich it is (& I've bought lotsa ords) but I don't give AF about prices rn. I'm not sure anyone who got into crypto after the rise of $ETH can truly comprehend... 🧵👇

redphone ☎️ @redphonecrypto

Wouldn't be surprised to see the first 7-digit sale by the end of the month (if not for a twelvefold then perhaps Inscription #1). https://t.co/8kku4rJpP7

Related to this, Ordinals are sparking renewed interest in building more dapps on top of Bitcoin.

Santiago R Santos | #9159 @santiagoroel

Feels like the community is waking up to “what else can we do leveraging Bitcoin’s security model and idle capital” Refreshing to see this after what has felt many years of rigidity and dismissal of proposals to expand Bitcoin’s scope https://t.co/ZQAzFRPXO6

Rollkit @RollkitDev

You can now run a sovereign rollup on Bitcoin. Announcing the first research integration of Bitcoin as a data availability layer for sovereign rollups. 🧵 https://t.co/HpebxIz3fE

Arthur Hayes Ponders What a 3X Oil Spike Would Do to BTC

Arthur Hayes’ articles are always an interesting read. In this (lengthy) article, he explores what a 2-3X spike in the oil price overnight would do to BTC. Interesting thought experiment that delves into macro, geopolitics, and BTC’s place in the world.

Arthur Hayes @CryptoHayes

"Curve Ball" is a thought experiment essay answering the question what would happen to $BTC if the oil price spiced 2x - 3x overnight? I came to some interesting conclusions. bit.ly/3Zzvzmp

EigenLayer Explained

Eigenlayer is one of the most anticipated launches in 2023. In this thread, 0xSalazar explains how EigenLayer enables ETH “re-staking” and how this will take the ETH ecosystem to the next level.

🐍Salazar.eth 🦇🔊 @0xSalazar

EigenLayer is a game changing technology that’ll revolutionize ETH interoperability and staking A week ago, they released a 19 page white-paper I spent several hours reading the EigenLayer’s white paper, so you don't have to. 👇🏻🧵

Berachain Airdrop Strategies

Berachain, the long-anticipated Cosmos EVM, appears to be launching soon. In this thread, Subli outlines strategies to become eligible for the Berachain airdrop.