$25B Grayscale Enters Index Business

Crypto PMF Timeline | dYdX Chain Launch

Marco Manoppo & Karon Pangestu
October 25, 2023

📢 Sponsor | 💡 Telegram | 📰 Past Editions

Good Morning. DTCC said BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF ticker has been on its website since a few months back. Eric Balchunas, the OG Bloomberg ETF Analyst, said that nothing remotely resembles the spot Bitcoin ETF excitement.

In Today's Email:

What Matters: FTSE Grayscale Crypto Index 📈
Case Study: Crypto PMF timeline 📅
Governance & Features: DYDX chain launch 🚀

Tune in to the NEAR Town Hall at 3 pm UTC today to get an overview of the projects powering NEARCON, the Hackathon, and more.

Narratives: DOT and OP have significantly token unlock this week. Polygon’s new token, POL, is set for Bybit’s launchpool on October 25.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

NEAR

Dive into the future at NEARCON ‘23, hosted by NEAR, the engine powering an open web. Join us in Lisbon, Portugal from November 7-10th to explore the latest in: Venture capital, Decentralization, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Witness NEAR's booming ecosystem with over 2.6M unique active wallets and 25M transactions in the past 30 days.

Highlights include:

Discovering NEAR's Blockchain Operating System (B.O.S), the heartbeat of an open web.
Engaging with top partners like Google Cloud and Cosmose AI, pioneers in "Shoppertainment”, and Sweatcoin, the app that rewards your fitness journey.
Connecting with innovative projects like Mintbase's NFT platform and PlayEmber's gaming studio.

Indulge in 4 days of deep dives, hands-on building at the NEAR IRL Hackathon, and networking with industry trailblazers.

This year’s NEARCON IRL Hackathon theme is “Step into the Open Web”.
Come hack together apps and experiences that explore how NEAR is paving the way for a truly open web. $140K+ in prizes are up for grabs.

Ready to step into the Web3 evolution? Click to unveil what NEARCON ‘23 has in store for you.

or register for the NEARCON Hackathon, includes free entry to NEARCON

WHAT MATTERS

Grayscale Enters Crypto Index Business

Grayscale

State of play: Grayscale has partnered with FTSE Russell, a division of the London Stock Exchange Group, to launch a new crypto indexes business — in association with Digital Asset Research.

The products cover 150 protocols and over five indexes.

The FTSE Grayscale Currencies Crypto Sector Index
The FTSE Grayscale Smart Contract Platform Crypto Sector Index
The FTSE Grayscale Financials Crypto Sector Index
The FTSE Grayscale Consumer and Culture Crypto Sector Index
FTSE Grayscale Utilities and Services Crypto Sector Index

Why it matters: FTSE Russell benchmarks $20T in assets. Its increasing venture into the world of crypto is a net positive for the asset class.

The indices highlight the growing crypto assets integration into the global financial system, beyond mere speculative investments to vital parts of the broader economy.

For builders and investors: Indexes are integral components of the global financial markets infrastructure.

Having more ways for capital to flow from TradFi to crypto is necessary for the asset class to mature and go beyond ~$1 trillion market cap.

CASE STUDY

5 Things to Think Before Pivoting Away from Crypto

Credit to Qiao Wang for the original piece.

State of play: The idea of pivoting away from crypto has crossed the mind of virtually everyone, especially if this is their first bear market.

Alliance DAO’s Qiao Wang shares the 5 things to think about before pivoting away from crypto:

Bear Market Sentiment - Consider if your doubts about crypto are based on facts or just the current mood, and strive to make decisions unaffected by sentiment.
Regret Minimization - Set a clear deadline to fully explore all your promising ideas, ensuring you’ve given your best effort. It is better to say “At least I gave it a shot” instead of “Why I didn’t do it.”
Nonlinear Growth - Do not expect the kind of growth trajectory that is normally expected in Web2. Crypto products tend to grow in a staircase fashion, mainly due to the market's inherent cyclicality.
Discovering a Secret - Finding the "secret" to success in crypto often takes 1-2 years, with the bear market being an optimal time for this discovery.
Unfair Advantage - Ask yourself if you have an advantage in the new industry you want to explore, if you don’t have it, remember you are already halfway to finding the “secret” to success in crypto.

What’s next: Crypto as an asset class and technology will only continue to grow. Those who stay in the bear market tend to be rewarded.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 100 smart crypto investors' wallet addresses 👇

INSIGHTS

Crypto PMF Timeline

Paradigma Education

Paradigma Education shared a chart showing the time needed for crypto protocols or companies to reach product-market-fit (1M MAU). Here are the key takeaways from the chart:

Bitcoin and BNB Chain needed ~4 years from its launch to reach PMF, while Ethereum needed ~2 years. Tron is the fastest among majors to reach PMF in less than a year.
Coinbase reached PMF in less than 2 years, while Binance reached PMF in just ~6 months, making it the fastest to reach PMF not just among exchanges but all companies in the chart.
Tether is the only stablecoin issuer that has reached PMF, it needed 6 years to reach PMF.
In the DeFi sector, Uniswap is the only one that has reached PMF.
The L2s sector is the fastest sector that reached 1M MAU and PMF collectively among other sectors.

Why it matters: The number of users matters regardless of the product that one is building. The key question remains on how that number ultimately converts into revenue.

In web2, particularly social network companies, this tends to be advertising revenue. In crypto, we need to find more business models that support native onchain behavior.

FEATURES & GOVERNANCE UPDATE

dYdX Chain v1.0 Released

DYDX

Yesterday, dYdX released the dYdX Chain. The code has been completed, audited, and open-sourced for everyone.

In 2022, dYdX announced v4 and introduced dYdX as a standalone app chain. It built the chain in 16 months.
The dYdX Chain will offer greater decentralization, scalability, customizability, and speed than any other version of dYdX to date.
dYdX Trading will not run any part of the infrastructure behind any deployment of the new dYdX Chain.

Why it matters: DYDX is one of the largest decentralized applications with over $4B in weekly volume. A successful move to its own chain will mark a new trend.

Here is a quote from our conversation with Melody He from Spartan Group that will be released this week on Chain Venturer: “The next wave of companies that do well will all try to have their own chains.”

Other notable feature updates:

Aave launches token swaps.
Myso launches V2 on Ethereum.
Rysk launches Atomic Credit Spreads.
Yearn launches veYFI.
BracketX launches Passage on Arbitrum.
BnB Greenfield launches mainnet.
Angle launches on Arbitrum.
Uniswap imposed a 0.15% fee on Tuesday.
Dopex to sunset Option Scalps.

QUICK BITES

DCG reports a 23% Q3 2023 revenue increase.
North America leads the world’s crypto usage.
DTCC shows BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF ticker.
Hong Kong reverses stance on spot crypto ETF.
China settles international oil deal with Digital Yuan.
Binance seeks HK crypto license under HKVAEX name.
Galaxy states Bitcoin spot ETFs could see $14.4B inflows.
Binance lost its UK Chief as regulatory pressure increased.
Fred Ehrsam steps down from Paradigm, will stay as a GP.
Grayscale partners with FTSE Russel for new crypto index business.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

@redphonecrypto’s read on preparations for the next bull market.
Arthur Hayes’ read on the US bonds market and its effect on crypto.
Safary’s read on Magic Eden's growth journey.

VanEck intern is one of us
— jay (@0xjaypeg)
1:07 PM • Oct 24, 2023

If you enjoy reading this issue, please consider subscribing. It takes 1 minute of your time but it would mean the world to us 🙇

Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.