Crypto Winter has Arrived! Celsius & 3 Arrows Underwater and the Liquidity Crisis Explained
This week Blake tells Tracey and Craig about his time at Consensus. Then the guys talk about the latest draw down and do a wrap up of the latest news in crypto. It’s been a pretty volatile time in the markets so if you’re new to the scene, it could be a bit frightening. Luckily the team has seen this before, so they talk about how they remain calm and take a deeper look at some of the reasons why.
Read on for a more detailed overview or tune in on your favourite podcast medium via the links below:
Consensus is the biggest crypto event in the world, bringing the brightest minds in crypto together this year in Austin, Texas much to Blake’s delight. He goes on to provide some insight into the happenings across the four days as 20 000 people turned up to network and attend keynotes from some of the biggest names in the industry.
The global market cap of crypto dips below 1 trillion dollars bringing unprecedented amounts of FUD to the space, or so it seems. Trace, Blake and Craig weigh in on their personal take of these turbulent times and while it’s impossible to predict a drop like this - they bring up some of the macro factors that could have started to cascade this bear market, mutually agreeing on the fact that from their experience it is just part and parcel of the asset class maturing…Some positives at least, although as Craig points out it doesn’t mean it’s any fun witnessing your portfolio going down 80-90%!
Trace then brings up discussion around the liquidity crisis. Firstly diving into the insolvency fears surrounding 3 Arrows Capital, a multi billion dollar hedge fund. Blake explains how crypto leverage works compared to traditional finance leverage and how that might have played a role in them finding themselves underwater.
In more bearish news, Celsius paused withdrawals last week. Blake introduces the audience to the Celcius business model as well as some of the activity that might have led them to being squeezed in liquidity and how bringing Citibank in to advise them could provide some light at the end of the tunnel for Celcius users waiting for answers. Craig elaborates on the fact that they haven’t mentioned any of these issues officially however their direct competitors Nexo kindly made an unsolicited offer to buy them.
Coinbase, Crypto.com and Gemini all announce job cuts with Coinbase CEO announcing they will be making 18% of their workforce redundant. Blake weighs in on how easy it is to fall in the trap of hiring too quickly in a bull market while Craig acknowledges their growth and provides optimism on the other side of the equation sharing news that Kraken, FTX and Binance are all hiring - with Binance announcing they’re hiring for an incredible 2000 roles!
Blake acknowledges the fact that these businesses facing tough times right now are new business models and that although people are still figuring out how to manage risk within the ecosystem, these were similar issues faced by exchanges in the last Crypto Winter that ultimately made exchanges stronger this time around. Tracey chips in with more optimism for listeners as she encourages them to zoom out and look at the broader picture of adoption.
On the topic of adoption, more mass adoption continues in the Web3 space as Mastercard announce they’re jumping on the NFT bandwagon. In a huge step forward in the space they announce they will be providing 2.9 billion of their card holders with the ability to buy NFT’s on several platforms without having to first buy crypto, which Craig admits is actually a big hurdle for people to get over when looking to first gain access to NFT’s.
The crew finish with some rapid fire news headlines of the week including Jack Dorsey’s latest speculation on what he’s calling Web 5…
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