MicroStrategy to Join Nasdaq-100

2024 Crypto Developer Report | Grayscale’s LDO and OP Trusts

Marco Manoppo & Karon Pangestu
December 16, 2024

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Good Morning.

Bitcoin just hit another new all-time high at $106,000. Meanwhile, MSTR will be joining the Nasdaq-100, which will start the flywheel (3,3) process given the dynamics of index funds. More on that below.

In Today's Email:

What Matters: MSTR to Join Nasdaq-100 💰
Product: LDO and OP Trusts 🤝
Charts: 2024 Crypto Developer Report, HyperLiquid $500B Volume 📈

Narratives: BTC and a few main characters are sucking all the liquidity.

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WHAT MATTERS

MicroStrategy to Join Nasdaq-100

Source: Bloomberg

State of play: MicroStrategy (MSTR) will officially join the Nasdaq-100 index on December 23, alongside Palantir and Axon Enterprise.

This follows a nearly 500% year-to-date stock rally.
The addition, part of the Nasdaq’s annual rebalancing, replaces companies like Moderna, Illumina, and Super Micro Computer.
Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart predicts that ETFs, including the heavily traded QQQ ETF, will buy over $2B in MSTR shares following its inclusion.
MSTR’s current market cap of $98B significantly surpasses the $43B value of its 423,650 Bitcoin holdings.
The company, led by Michael Saylor, has focused on a Bitcoin-centered strategy, acquiring 197,150 Bitcoin since September 12.

What’s next: Analysts predict MSTR may aim for inclusion in the S&P 500 in 2025, although challenges remain due to the underperformance of its enterprise software business.

For builders and investors: The TradFi indexing ponzi flywheel will kick in. Strap on.

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PRODUCT OF THE WEEK

Grayscale’s Lido DAO and Optimism Trusts

Grayscale

Grayscale has introduced two new crypto investment vehicles: the Grayscale Lido DAO Trust and the Grayscale Optimism Trust. These trusts offer institutional and accredited investors exposure to Lido DAO (LDO) and Optimism (OP).

The Lido DAO Trust focuses on Ethereum staking accessibility through Lido’s liquid staking protocol.
Optimism Trust targets Ethereum scalability via Optimism's Layer 2 solutions.
These trusts allow accredited investors to gain exposure without directly holding the assets, expanding Grayscale’s suite of Ethereum-related products.
The launch has driven significant price increases for both tokens, with LDO rising over 20% to $2.28 and OP gaining over 11% to $2.58.
Grayscale emphasized the importance of these protocols in enhancing Ethereum’s efficiency, security, and adoption across DeFi.

Other cool products:

simNGMI, a social network for AI agents.
BounceBit, a dual-token PoS blockchain.
Blosent, a payment automation platform.
Lendfinity, an open-source, DeFi protocol on Bitfinity.
YieldBase, an automated yield farming platform on Avalanche.

CHARTS OF THE WEEK

HyperLiquid Hits $500B Volume

Source: Hyperliquid

State of play: HyperLiquid has surpassed $500B in cumulative perpetual volume, marking a 15x YTD increase. Ether (ETH) trading activity outpaced Bitcoin (BTC) this week, with $7B in ether perpetual volume compared to $5.94B for Bitcoin.

Ether also leads in cumulative open interest, accounting for $857.5M of the platform's $3.49B total.
HyperLiquid’s success is attributed to its PMF, offering institutional-grade performance and DeFi accessibility without KYC requirements.
Its two-week-old HYPE token has surged 300%, reaching a $5.69B market cap, surpassing established DeFi protocols like Aave.

Our take: The ticker is ETH. It’s incredibly underpriced as its social sentiment and mindshare have arguably been in a local low for the past few months.

Solana Leads in New Crypto Devs

Electric Capital

State of play: Electric Capital's 2024 report shows the global crypto developer population remained stable despite a 7% dip. Solana led in new developers, growing its ecosystem by 83% with 7,625 new devs, surpassing Ethereum in talent onboarding.

Ethereum remains the dominant blockchain for developers, with 6,244 monthly active developers despite a 17% decline.
L2 solutions like Base, Optimism, and Arbitrum contributed to Ethereum’s growth, with 56% of Ethereum developers working on these ecosystems.
Eigenlayer was the fastest-growing ecosystem with a 167% increase in developers.
Geographically, Asia now leads in blockchain developers, overtaking North America.
India brought on the most new developers globally in 2024, accounting for 17% of new entrants, driven by strong educational and hackathon initiatives.
The US remains the top country for blockchain developers, holding a 19% share.

Our Take: Developers now have extensive options as more L1 and L2 become mature and have their ecosystem to support emerging founders.

QUICK BITES

Japan considers a BTC national reserve.
Bitcoin hits a new high above $105,000.
BiT Global sues Coinbase for delisting BTC.
MicroStrategy to join Nasdaq 100, QQQ ETF.
Galaxy Digital appoints Tony Paquette from Point72 as CFO.
Drake seemingly hacked as his account promoted SOL memecoin.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

Flo’s read on the bull case for Hyperliquid.
The Black Swan’s read on life-changing money.
0xJeff’s read on what comes after agent tokenization.

The thesis is pretty straightforward, think about it like this:
before Hyperliquid there were people in the third world, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, who literally did not have permissionless access to perpetual futures
— Gwart (@GwartyGwart)
5:47 PM • Dec 15, 2024

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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.