We are inching
closer to one of the biggest holidays in America which boasts the annual
tradition of gobbling down turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and all the carbs
your body yearns for. Although this year may not have brought the most joyous
occasions as we have all been disrupted by the global pandemic, it’s better to
look at the glass half full and appreciate some of the positives that happened
in the crypto world. Below are the top things we should be thankful in crypto
for the year 2020.
· MicroStrategy for showing corporates
they can stash their reserves in bitcoin
Ø
In
early August, the publicly Nasdaq-listed business intelligence company made it
public that they have purchased 21,454 BTC (currently worth $356,844,382 at the
time of this writing) as part of their treasury reserve strategy. This move
reverberated across the crypto world and caught the attention of public
corporates, deeming this as a bellwether for other public companies in
recognizing that cash may not always be the best asset to store upon. Considering that owning bitcoin has
historically been a personal investment, this move brought upon by
MicroStrategy’s CEO, Michael J. Saylor, has given entities another sound look at
investing in the digital asset once lauded as being too volatile. Per the CEO,
Michael J. Saylor, “Our investment in Bitcoin is part of our new capital
allocation strategy, which seeks to maximize long-term value for our
shareholders.”
· The 524,288 ETH
Ø The Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract has
hit a target number of 524,288 of ETH, which was reverberated throughout CT,
staked to successfully transition the smart contract protocol from a Proof of
Work protocol to a Proof of Stake protocol. The waiting of the arrival of
Ethereum 2.0 has been in conversation throughout the industry for the past few
years with the need for an upgrade accentuates by the rapid rise of DeFi
activity on the smart contract protocol. With a definite launch date of Dec. 1
now slated to come on the horizon, ethereans are also expecting a big bump in
price.
· The advent of Yield Farming
Ø Before this summer, the phrase “Yield
Farming” was never in existence nor practiced in the crypto space. But until
the burgeoning of DeFi lending protocols erupted with Compound kickstarting the
yield farming of their governance token, the phrase became an instant hashtag
reverberating across crypto Twitter. This eventually led to us seeing a
plethora of pseudonymous fair launches, YAMs, SUSHI, and all the other
food-meme’d DeFi tokens being served, ultimately giving us a summer of DeFi we
would never forget.
· Jack Dorsey’s enabling of the Bitcoin
emoji
Ø Let’s just be honest and admit that the
new Bitcoin emoji is hell of a fun time. It definitely adds to the charm of our
tweets and makes non-crypto twitter users give double takes. It’s loud, clean,
and bold. Just like the whole crypto community. And having Jack Dorsey himself
being one of the biggest supporters of bitcoin solidifies the community’s
existence on Twitter.
· BitGo and WBTC for allowing us to use
bitcoin on Ethereum
Ø Before this year there were probably a
handful of crypto folks who didn’t understand the utility of wrapped bitcoin,
nor have ever heard of it. In short, wrapped bitcoin, or the tokenization of
bitcoin itself, enables bitcoin holders to utilize their bitcoins on other
blockchains, specifically its been super popular on the Ethereum protocol as a
means to participate in the DeFi party. Just early this year, the amount of
tokenized bitcoins on Ethereum was a bit over 1,000. There are now over 153,000
bitcoins being used on Ethereum representing a value of about $2.7 billion.
This innovative interoperability has given us more functionality to bitcoin.
· SBF for saving SushiSwap and possibly
America
Ø
In
such DeFi speed fashion, TVL in SushiSwap galvanized to around $1 billion, in
less than 2 weeks with that same pseudonymous developer secretly cashing out
the developer’s fund worth about $14 million sparking online outrage amongst
CT. When SBF came calling out the rouge developer, SBF then offered to save the
protocol by taking over the reigns of its multi-sig contract. In a dramatic
sequence of events that followed, the funds have then miraculously been
returned with the actual protocol’s multi-sig smart contract keys in the hands
of a about a dozen crypto influencers. SBF also flexed his patriotism by
donating to the US Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden helping in to
usher in a new POTUS.
· Bitcoin from coming back from the dead
Ø
At
the end of the day, what matters in this market always falls on the shoulders
of big daddy bitcoin. After a tumultuous drop in March due to the global pandemic
and stock market rout, bitcoin has managed in roaring back to levels not seen
since late 2017 spiking up jubilation of the next bull run. Since that crash
back in March which saw price levels drop close to $3,000, bitcoin is now
trading near $17,000 inching closer and closer to all time highs of near
$20,000. It’s easy to lose hope in this nascent industry but this year had
provide a plethora of reasons to make the case for why bitcoin. With prices
jolting back up again, it will become a lot easier to have these discussions
around the Thanksgiving dinner table.
· Uniswap for the UNI drop
Ø Some are calling it the DeFi stimulus
package. But the airdrop of UNI to past users of Uniswap is much more than just
free money. In a beautifully orchestrated clap back to SushiSwap (as some would
also describe them as vampire mining Uniswap), Hayden Adams and the team at
Uniswap decided to air drop around $1,400 in a new governance token, $UNI, to
every historical user of their platform. The tables have turned and Uniswap is
now the golden boy. In retrospect, one could call it a DeFi stimulus package to
anyone who got burned the past few months.
· Paypal’s crypto support
Ø Let’s just say one of the biggest
payment providers is allowing users to buy and transact in crypto. This not
only includes their PayPal services but also Venmo, which is a popular mobile
payment app that has widespread usage amongst millennials. Although probably
many crypto users would never use PayPal to transact in crypto, it’s opened the
doors to more new adoption.
· The Fed’s money printer
Ø Not only should we be thankful for the
Fed this year, we should also be thankful to all the central banks for making
their money printers go brrrrr as we see inflation and debt levels continue to
rise at unsustainable levels. It’s just another case for “why bitcoin”.
