🟣 Hello BTC ATHs

How much is too much for funding rates

March 05, 2024

GM fellow ETH Denver recoverers. Like most of you, I’m still struggling. Social energy is still negative. My throat feels like it’s dying (as is after every crypto conference to be honest). But all in all, it was an immaculate conference. Vibes were good, energy was high, and merch was fantastic.

A few key takeaways from the main conference. The two narratives that were front of mind by a very wide margin were modularity and AI. Every day had multiple modular focused events (shout out to Celestia for an elite bucket hat), and AI events were plenty. No one has really figured out interoperability for the modular world yet, or at least no one agrees on what the ideal solution is. And AI? No one has any idea what project is actually legitimate, but everyone I talked to says that they are actively looking in the AI space. A few AI projects that had a notable presence at ETH Denver include Bittensor and Autonolas.

Oh, if you’re looking for your next conference, we just announced Permissionless III. It’s lining up to be the biggest conference of the year, with more than 50+ confirmed speakers, all of whom are elite quality and deep thinkers within the space.

As if Tuesday couldn’t get better, we’re doing a special ATH discount code for Blockworks Research, to celebrate, you guessed it, BTC ATHs! Use code “BWR420” here for 42.0% off a research subscription, limited to the first 10 signups.

The good old indicator, the app store ranking, is heating up rapidly. Coinbase ranks #49 in the app store, rising from #150 the day before. Meanwhile, Robinhood has also rocketed from #409 in the app store to #43 in less than 2 months. Judging by the number of tiktoks I’m seeing on my timeline, retail is very much back. Both COIN and HOOD have been on the grind up for the past few months, and given that these two apps are the retail picks and shovels, I would not be surprised to see them continue to do well as retail flocks back.

— purplepill 

Where is red?

Funding rates are hitting escape velocity across, well, everything. VeloData might need to add some red to their funding APR heatmap. Most tokens are sitting well above 100% in annualized funding. Historically, this hasn’t been able to sustain for a prolonged period of time. But something something funding rates can stay higher for longer than you can stay solvent?

Wormhole is a suite of open-source, permissionless protocols used to move assets and queries across blockchains. Despite being a common misconception, Wormhole is not just a token bridge. Nevertheless, protocols can build token bridges on top of Wormhole by leveraging the cross-chain messaging provided.

Stride has attained a dominant position in the Cosmos LST market and is looking to continue its succession on the back of several vertical-specific drivers.

The 10 spot bitcoin ETFs have roughly the same amount of assets as the first physically backed gold ETF by State Street Global Advisors

MicroStrategy’s stock was up over 20% in intraday trading Monday

The insights, views and outlooks presented in the report are not to be taken as financial advice. Blockworks Research analysts are not registered broker/dealers or financial advisors. Blockworks Research analysts may hold assets mentioned in this report, further outlined in the Firm’s Financial Disclosures.