Nicholas Gans
PayPal PYPL -0.8% officially announced its plans to allow its ~350 million users to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. This news came amid a steady run-up in the crypto markets, with Bitcoin up ~80% YTD and 3% since its low in March.
Asset prices in the DeFi space have plummeted since their recent highs. The DeFi Index Perpetual Futures instrument on FTX, which tracks a basket of DeFi assets, is down almost 50% from its high on September 1st:
On June 23 of this year I reported on the rumors regarding PayPal and Venmo to enable Bitcoin buying/selling:
Tensions heighten between the United States and China amid trade wars, COVID-19, a chaotic presidential election period, disputes over Tibet, and increasing pressure at the Taiwan Strait.
It has been one crazy event after another in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) world. This incident involves a spectacular pump, a catastrophic bug, and one lucky individual. Further, it highlights the importance of understanding the financial risk associated with DeFi applications.
Crypto Twitter, like many Twitter-spheres, is as full of self-affirmation and choir preaching as it is of internal holy-wars (not too unlike those described on this post). We can characterize two camps within the crypto/digital asset space. This is a gross oversimplification to be sure, but paints a picture of the space where there are a spectrum of competing ideas.