46 – Recent Volatility Explained, Is the NFT Market Bottoming Out and a look at UniSwap King of Decentralized Exchanges

Tracey: [00:00:19] Welcome to the Crypto Curious podcast designed to help you navigate the dynamic world of cryptocurrency. We're here for anyone who's interested in crypto at all. Maybe you've already dip your toe in the water. Or maybe you don't know anything about it. And this is the very beginning. But we recommend heading back to the early episodes to get your footing. However, if you think you're ready to dive in headfirst, then let's do it. Coming up in this week's episode, we talk about us inflation and how that affects the crypto market. We look at decentralised exchange uniswap and we talk about a woman who capitalise on an exchange by a crypto exchange and pocketed a self $10 million. Let's cover that one shortly. My name's Tracey and this week is just Craig and myself bringing you the biggest news in crypto land. Craig, how are you feeling? Because you haven't been well, you're back on the mend. 

Craig: [00:01:07] Will the crypto markets trust? You have been down and out for the last few weeks, but I am recovering. Hopefully the crypto market does as well. All right. 

Tracey: [00:01:15] We might get a few costs and spotters on the podcast, so bear with us, everybody. Maybe, maybe a look. Since we recorded last week, there's been a bit of volatility in the crypto markets and we're going to talk about now what exactly has caused that volatility. So let's have a little look back on the last seven days. And firstly, Jerome Powell gave his annual Jackson Hole speech and what normally would have been a 30 minute speech ended in just 8 minutes. 

Tracey: [00:01:48] So all Buddy Powell was short and sweet. And Craig is going to give us a bit of a impersonation of PAL to give us the abridged version. Tell us what he was talking about in 8 minutes. [00:01:57][9.0]

Craig: [00:01:57] Well, firstly, no one even heard of this guy before COVID, so this guy's fame shot up when everyone started printing money. But pretty much he works at the Federal Reserve. And the Fed said that they will continue to raise interest rates to try to bring inflation back under control. He warns that a more pain is coming for households and businesses, which probably means that the cost of goods will continue to go up petrol, groceries, etc. What this means is that there is a big meeting, open market committee meeting in September where the Fed will announce the interest rate hikes. He's pretty much giving a warning that there are going to be big. So people are bracing themselves for that, I think. [00:02:39][41.9]

Tracey: [00:02:40] Yep. So it was priced in, so everyone had a bit of a freak out which caused the market to to dive a little. And after that dose of reality from Mr. Powell, the S&P did nosedive, as did the Nasdaq, and both of those dropped. So S&P dropped 3.5% on that news and the Nasdaq dropped 4%. So in effect that was 1.25 trillion. That was lost in total US equities. Yeah, and that's actually more than the entire crypto market combined. So what he says seems to matter. [00:03:09][29.3]

Craig: [00:03:09] Yeah, well everyone's on the pulse and then it turns into a cascading effect, but actually is bad news for crypto to us because we are super correlated to stocks too. And the correlation that we always talk about is an all time high. So we are moving exactly in tandem with traditional markets and that doesn't seem to be changing. [00:03:27][17.6]

Tracey: [00:03:28] And we're hoping that one day that does change because that's that's the end goal. But at the moment, like you said, we're still pretty much in tandem. So to top off that really great news, for a few days, a lot of people in the market got a little bit spooked when they thought that the exchange, Mt. Gox, would start returning that 140,000 Bitcoin to its users. So I don't know why that people thought that, but somewhere along the line there was a bit of news. So that was a big spook for everybody that also caused a major sell off. [00:03:54][26.0]

Craig: [00:03:54] Craig turned out to be fake news, though, and according to the creditor, Mt. Gox hasn't set a date to return the funds. So how it's going to work, trace? Like I thought the funds were stolen. [00:04:03][9.2]

Tracey: [00:04:04] The funds were stolen, but they've said that they're returning them all and they've got a fund ready to go and it's, you know, like anything with legal ramifications. It takes time. [00:04:12][8.1]

Craig: [00:04:13] That's actually crazy, though, if they return them all, like what's going to happen after that? [00:04:16][3.7]

Tracey: [00:04:17] I don't know. [00:04:17][0.5]

Craig: [00:04:18] Talking to everyone was what would you do? Because that's a big reward for some of these people. [00:04:21][3.6]

Tracey: [00:04:22] Yeah, it is great. I mean, it depends. It's going to be depending on the individual and how much you've got me personally. Again, it would depend on how much I've got. I'd probably pocket a bit of cash and then keep some as well. But you got to remember, these guys are the OGs. These are the ones who were into Bitcoin with Mt. Gox in the very early days. So I would assume that they are, you know, Bitcoin fanatics. They understand, you know, what we're all on about here and a few of them will be dead set. [00:04:46][24.2]

Craig: [00:04:47] Hodlers So not bad for not bad for a false hodl though, isn't it? It's a false. [00:04:51][4.4]

Tracey: [00:04:51] Hodl probably one of the best things that could have happened to them. In hindsight. [00:04:54][2.6]

Craig: [00:04:54] That's what they said. The best way to make a return on Bitcoin was bought in 2011 and. Go M.I.A. For ten years because you would have paper handed out for sure. [00:05:02][7.9]

Tracey: [00:05:04] Or get embroiled in the Mt. Gox hack. But look, as you said, we don't need to stress for that right now. They've said that when the funds do get returned, it's going to be in tranches. It's not going to be all at once. So let's not stress they're moving on. Some news from the OG. Dex Uniswap is up next. And for those who are still getting their heads around crypto jargon, what I'm talking about there is the original decentralised exchange. So that was the the first one that I did, any kind of decentralised exchange on was good old Uniswap is the first of its kind and it's a place where you can swap crypto coins for any other. So you want to tell us a little bit more about what's going on with the Pink Unicorn? [00:05:40][35.8]

Craig: [00:05:41] Well, I believe it was the first ever airdrop, the main you got, is that right? [00:05:44][3.7]

Tracey: [00:05:45] Yeah. Yeah, it was a good one. [00:05:46][1.0]

Craig: [00:05:46] So back in the day, back in the day, 20, 20 years ago, Uniswap was the first sort of decentralised exchange. There was a few before, but the first one that really gained market share, they didn't have a token and they gave all the early adopters 400 uniswap, which from memory I sold it to buy a pay is five. It was worth about three grand at the time. [00:06:09][22.2]

Tracey: [00:06:09] Now I'm I sold it to buy a bike just three ago. [00:06:12][2.9]

Craig: [00:06:12] Did you? [00:06:13][0.2]

Tracey: [00:06:13] No, I didn't sell, but it was half. I was like, I'm going to I think mine I think I didn't realise I'd got it for a while. And then when I looked in there, it was worth like two or three grand. Yeah, I took some out of water buy lifts. I mean, they. [00:06:23][9.9]

Craig: [00:06:24] Go, but at the peak it was like 40 bucks, which would have been 16 grand for an edge of. [00:06:28][4.3]

Tracey: [00:06:28] Madness. [00:06:28][0.0]

Craig: [00:06:29] Nevertheless, it is huge. 70% market share for Dexs on a theorem. So 70% of all volumes going through UNISWAP. 1 trillion of all time cumulative volume, which is pretty impressive. The most out of anyone. Mm hmm. $1,000,000,000 in fees generated for liquidity providers over the past year sometimes even generates more than a Etherium chase. [00:06:51][21.9]

Tracey: [00:06:51] Yeah, that's huge. That's. That's massive. And there's two big moves that are being made here by Uniswap. And we'll get into these because one one of these I do get and one of these I'm unsure of. So I need a bit more clarity so we can kind of talk this out. But there's a creation of a Uniswap foundation. So what what exactly is this, Craig? [00:07:08][16.6]

Craig: [00:07:08] This is pretty simple. It's a proposal for a fund, pretty much that's going to support open source development on the Uniswap platform. So about 74 million bucks which will fund R&D and more projects. Someone to help grow uniswap. This is pretty common. Binance do it, FCX do it. It's actually pretty surprising it's taken them this long with the second thing that they propose is pretty interesting. Chase. [00:07:33][24.7]

Tracey: [00:07:34] Yeah, this one is interesting. So it's a phase switch. So voting to turn the switch on is what they're talking about. From what I understand, uni switch has been, you know, a money making machine for liquidity providers. But Uniswap itself doesn't actually make any money from those fees and it's all because the uni switch face switch hasn't been turned on uniswap. Face it uniswap fees which okay, let's say ten times uni such as, you know. So the Uniswap Dao members are voting on a proposal to flip this switch and it would give them 10% cut of those liquidity provider fees from three pools. So I think it's Dai, Usdc and Usdc. So you know, this switch you've turned on would be active for 120 days and after that there'd be a vote on whether they'd keep it on or not. But from what I understand, this is going to make them, you know, a bit of cash, correct? [00:08:26][52.7]

Craig: [00:08:27] Yes, you're right. But I'm going to explain this again. So right now, are only the liquidity providers are making fees, right? Mm hmm. So the average Joe like main you chase he that might hold uniswap because we believe in the platform we're essentially getting nada. So this whole proposal is saying, okay, if you buy and hold uniswap, you should be entitled to some of the platform fees, which means that liquidity providers will have to give up 10% of their face in those three pools. Now, this is super interesting because if made if the fees were turned on, they would have made $5 million in four months. And if it passes, that means that uniswap holders will now be earning, I'm guessing the Uniswap token in rewards and that brings a whole new proposition to buying. Uniswap right now. [00:09:19][52.6]

Tracey: [00:09:20] Is over uniswap pump. This is this is good news for uni holders. [00:09:23][2.9]

Craig: [00:09:23] Yeah. So uni's uniswap spain like pretty steady in the whole crash and it's been like pretty strong. And you know, I always wonder, like, do you hold off on this news until the market's good mean or do you launch it now? It just doesn't matter. [00:09:36][13.1]

Tracey: [00:09:37] I think I think good companies just keep going, building out what they're doing. And, you know, you've got a roadmap. You stick to it, head down, head down, bum up type thing. But if this. [00:09:45][7.9]

Craig: [00:09:45] Passes, it's essentially like a dividend really in terms of traditional share market. And I'll be seriously considering getting a cheeky a cheeky bag of Uniswap you chase. [00:09:56][11.2]

Tracey: [00:09:57] I thought you already had uni's always been on my list of. Big fan of uni. They really are always trying to keep ahead of the pack. It was only in June that the company introduced its acquisition of Genie, you know, an NFT marketplace aggregation platform. I think these guys are really pushing forward, trying to keep ahead of the curve, like you mentioned earlier, that, you know, Binance and FDX are already doing it, you know, and these guys are, you know, pushing up behind and they're the decentralised version. So I will always back uni as the decentralised option. [00:10:25][28.2]

Craig: [00:10:26] So good call. [00:10:26][0.7]

Tracey: [00:10:27] Of course that is my own opinion and Craig's own opinion. But you guys need to do your own research before you go out and invest in any of these platforms. And with that, let's take a break. Then when we come back, we'll get out the paintbrushes as we continue to. Bob Ross, a pretty bleak picture on the NFT space. Welcome back to the Crypto Curious Podcast. I'm including this next story here because I wanted to have a conversation with you, Craig, about this and it doesn't really paint a great picture of the crypto market or the nfts at the moment, but that's why I wanted to have this conversation. It's about a failing NFT project called Ragnarok Metre. Now they successfully raised 15.5 million back in April with the promise of building the first Web three multiplayer online role playing game on the Avalanche blockchain. Now, since then, they've spent 6.9 million paying themselves. They've lost a further 1.8 million attempting to trade. Done by the CEO, apparently. And they've also spent 1.9 million on outsourcing all of their work. So yeah, basically they've spent a lot of money buying back their own nfts as well. What are your thoughts on this, Craig? Because me personally, I feel that this is, you know, pretty negligent here. I understand that there's a lot of issues with Start-Ups in the Start-Up space. Believe me, I know that here at Bambu we're living through some issues now, but this is a lot of cash over only four or five months. CEO paying himself 1.2 million, I believe. What do you think here? [00:12:03][96.1]

Craig: [00:12:03] Doesn't look good for avalanche, I think. And it really reminds me of last year when Solana and of Tase were going off. And this happened quite often with Solana. NFT is do Solana you know NFT launch people would pretty much take the money and run. Now, how did they mitigate it? They pretty much made the project. Yeah, well, they pretty much made people KYC and gave them an credential or a magic pardon so this wouldn't happen again, but doesn't look good for avalanche at all. And I think the avalanche token even got a bit affected by this as well. [00:12:38][34.5]

Tracey: [00:12:38] But in saying that avalanche have got no control over this private entity that are running this particular NFT project. [00:12:46][8.1]

Craig: [00:12:47] That's true. But they could also even come out with like avalanche accredited, you know, where they meet the founders built KYC, a bit of D day. That means investors can feel a little bit confident. [00:12:58][11.0]

Tracey: [00:12:59] Is that done on Solana do you think? [00:13:00][1.2]

Craig: [00:13:01] It is a magic Aiden and so NFT projects. But in saying that like how many Ethereum rugs happen as well, it comes down to the investor. So this is really is a wild, wild west still and if you know you're not sure, don't do it. And if actually this isn't financial advice, I guess what I'm trying to say is take all this with a grain of salt with these promises that these web3 start-ups pitch. [00:13:22][21.4]

Tracey: [00:13:23] Absolutely. Yeah. And I think this leads into the next news piece that we're going to talk about, which is the NFT marketplace and open season. Because last week, Craig, you gave us a bit of a round out on the NFT market and some figures have come out this week from the most popular NFT trading site, Opensea, which support the facts that we spoke about last week. Trading volume on their site is actually down a staggering 99% in the last four months. So talk about falling off a cliff. Craig, this is madness. [00:13:52][28.9]

Craig: [00:13:52] Yeah, crazy occurring. Who would have thought that? Half a million dollars for a border. It wasn't the top, but turns out it was. So on May 1st bit of context, which is only one day Opensea processed a record $2.7 billion and NFT transactions. And on Sunday, last Sunday, which is the last Sunday of August, the marketplace recorded just $9.3 million worth in that day. So over the same amount of time, they've lost a third of their users. Which isn't that bad actually, considering. [00:14:25][32.3]

Tracey: [00:14:26] A lot of users. [00:14:26][0.6]

Craig: [00:14:27] Yeah, it's pretty bad. The volume is low as it was November 2021, but the only project that's gone up is the pudgy penguins. [00:14:35][8.1]

Tracey: [00:14:36] Aren't a new. You're going to say that? I'll put that as a Joe. [00:14:38][2.1]

Craig: [00:14:38] I know which which I have sold. [00:14:40][2.1]

Tracey: [00:14:41] There's plenty of projects, plenty of projects that have gone off. He's got to mention his pudgy penguins. But there's a lot of projects that have still fared well, but a majority of them are not doing so well right now. But you know what? There's also we are painting a pretty bleak picture of the NFT space in the last three episodes, but there are still some shining lights out there. There are still a lot of projects that are building out and still producing things and just going along with their road map and getting things done. But the numbers themselves on on the transactions that are going through and I know that some of those are bigger ones, their floor prices come right down. But again, it comes to the fact that if you are, you know, really solid in your project, then you're going to continue to hold and just hold through the same with you, Bitcoin. Ethereum, if you love your budgie penguin or you're, you know, you world of women or whatever you're holding, then you know you're only going to lose it if you sell it. [00:15:34][52.9]

Craig: [00:15:34] Exactly. Think is the most risk of an asset class and we are in a risk off market. So it doesn't surprise me. But, you know, maybe a good time to buy. Not sure. Not financial advice? [00:15:46][11.7]

Tracey: [00:15:47] No, I think just yeah, I think there could be a little way to go to go down. So I think we just wait and see. And on that, we'll move on to today's short, sharp news bites for the week. And as I look and think here, we we need a section just for these board eight because there's so much news that dropped on this brand this week. Love him or hate him and I'm on the fence with these guys. Let's go through some board eight news to start us off. Craig, what's happened here with these guys? [00:16:16][29.3]

Craig: [00:16:17] Pretty cringe, but Eminem and Snoop Dogg performed as bought apes in a metaverse concert and they're bought out. So like rapping and dancing. Did you see the video, chase? [00:16:26][9.1]

Tracey: [00:16:26] Yeah, I did. But it's pretty because this is part of the MTV VMA Awards. [00:16:29][3.1]

Craig: [00:16:30] And I'm here to stay. Lorraine So definite. My longevity needs a hearing aid. Still wearing Hanes t shirts out embodying some features with legendary names was there when Drake's on the Chronic to Monetary Gain. [00:16:41][10.8]

Tracey: [00:16:42] It was completely cringeworthy, right? It's a bit naff but still huge audience rolling on from that more bought eight news. There is a web series that parodies real reality shows. It's called Real Metaverse, and the starring characters are all popular NFT projects, including Board eight Yacht Club. So that was released this week. More information to come. [00:17:05][23.6]

Craig: [00:17:06] They're well amongst a few others as well because a lot of projects give holders 100% IP rights. So we've seen people make seltzer brands from their bought the pudgy penguin toys and now TV shows. So it's like it's cool. [00:17:22][15.9]

Tracey: [00:17:22] Yeah, yeah. Look, it's certainly bringing more eyes to the space as long as it's done in good taste. What else with board eight is on the go? [00:17:28][6.0]

Craig: [00:17:29] So the IP of some board apes have partnered with Eminem's Eminem's like the lowly to drop three bored ape themed boxes and the most expensive ones sold for 100 bucks. [00:17:40][11.4]

Tracey: [00:17:41] Who's eaten those? Eminem? [00:17:42][0.9]

Craig: [00:17:42] I don't know. Like this is so in the weeds. I don't know who is buying that, if I'm honest. [00:17:46][3.9]

Tracey: [00:17:47] Well bought bought out fans. I guess the broad ape community are very loyal and I think it's Eminem's coming to a party. [00:17:55][7.9]

Craig: [00:17:55] Well, when you spend that much on an NFT, I'd be loyal as. [00:17:58][2.9]

Tracey: [00:17:58] Well, you know, and they're going to keep that box. So, yeah, interesting stuff. Now on to our next bit of news. And this was news big in the general media this week is pretty funny, an exchange platform that we all know here in Australia because advertise everywhere. Crypto.com accidentally transferred ten and a half million to a melbourne woman who was actually requesting a refund of just a hundred bucks. She just wanted a 100 buck refund, but it took the company. This is the best bit about these stories. It took the company over like seven months to realise its mistake. So by the time they did realise that she'd already gone out and bought a house and spent the money. [00:18:35][36.9]

Speaker 5: [00:18:36] There's no doubt that if you saw that in your account you would know it shouldn't be there and the onus is on you then is the recipient to actually call the sender and to say, look, that shouldn't have come into market. [00:18:46][10.2]

Speaker 2: [00:18:46] The company has won part of its legal battle in Victoria's Supreme Court. A judge ordering a luxury home in Melbourne's north be sold and the money returned. [00:18:55][8.3]

Tracey: [00:18:56] She would have been better off just putting in a term deposit and you know, using that seven months to grab some interest and what have you. [00:19:02][6.2]

Craig: [00:19:02] But I don't get how this didn't fire off like three red flags for crypto.com. So crypto dot com 110 mil gone. This lady's bank gets ten mil like no questions asked. Then she buys a house probably in cash. No one's asking questions. They're like, What is going on? The ATO, her doing a tax return? [00:19:20][18.0]

Tracey: [00:19:20] Well, she probably has done a tax return yet, but then here it is, the new laws in Australia. We can't even take $2,000 out the bank with the bank going, can you please tell us what you want that $2,000 for? That's legitimately where we're at right now. Like, how ridiculous. [00:19:32][11.6]

Craig: [00:19:33] Well, what would you have done twice? [00:19:34][1.2]

Tracey: [00:19:35] You know what? I would have given it back or said, Look, sorry, guys, you've made an error. [00:19:38][3.5]

Craig: [00:19:39] Of safe here. You would never see me again. Have a letter to my car. [00:19:42][3.0]

Tracey: [00:19:43] That's actually what my husband said. He said, Wouldn't we have just moved to somewhere? [00:19:45][2.7]

Craig: [00:19:46] And I was like, Where can you move the lease? [00:19:47][1.7]

Tracey: [00:19:48] It probably could have moved. I mean, look, I'm sure there's plenty of places you can go to, too. Anyway, look, we digress. We all would have done the right thing, I'm sure. [00:19:55][6.7]

Craig: [00:19:55] Moving on. [00:19:55][0.3]

Tracey: [00:19:56] What's up next, Craig? [00:19:56][0.6]

Craig: [00:19:57] Yeah, so we spoke about this feels like a while ago, but Xbox has just released his NFT feature on Facebook and Instagram. [00:20:05][7.9]

Tracey: [00:20:05] Yeah, I used to game you did a while ago, but now he's just done it on on Facebook. [00:20:08][2.9]

Craig: [00:20:09] So he mentioned this as my it's finally rolling out. So metal will now allow creators and NFT collectors posted digital property on their social media platforms. The tech company said that it will use public blockchain data to verify which collectable owners and creators hold. So that's 3 billion people getting access to and obtaining what they are, which is pretty big deal. It is. So probably the winners will be digital artists, I think. [00:20:35][25.8]

Tracey: [00:20:35] Yeah, absolutely. I still wasn't sure when this is actually meant to be rolling out and exactly what it will look like. And I don't I don't really care about Facebook, to be honest. But anyway, like you said, it's it's going to. It's going to bring a lot more eyes to the market and people will be able to pick up all the different nfts that they've got. So yeah, fun times. A little bit in use here for near pay. Crypto Finance Protocol is launching a new virtual crypto card and wallet, so it will be available on iOS and Android and lets people use a virtual debit card to make online buys using crypto. So I thought this was a bit of an interesting one because we've been talking a lot about the crypto cards and a lot of bringing out at the moment, which are in real life. But this is a virtual card, so we'll see how this plays out from near playing. [00:21:17][41.9]

Craig: [00:21:17] Yeah, pretty stacked competition. Moving on to Argentina now, support Stablecoins as an option for tax payments. Now I've been to Argentina and the monetary system is pretty shambolic. Sundays you couldn't get money out. The money is like ripped apart and they've had like hyperinflation. So it's always these countries that tend to onboard crypto and it's good. It's a proper use case. It was probably the first step to crypto being countrywide. They're yeah. [00:21:44][27.2]

Tracey: [00:21:45] And these are the nice little stories I like to say mixed amongst all the border. Rubbish. So it's good to hear. So read it. Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian, who is the man behind the great lady Serena Williams, has a venture capital firm, seven, seven six has announced plans to raise 178 million for a new crypto focussed fund called Cryptos, which is pretty cool. Now, Serena herself is actually going to a VC fund, and I know that through that fund she's invested in a couple of female led NFT companies. So both of them are getting behind the crypto well, which is good to see. But you know, 178 million is a lot of coin to start off a fund on. So looking forward to seeing how that one goes. And I think that is it for our news this week. Craig and Tracy signing off. Thanks again for listening, folks. As always, we're keen to hear from you via all of our social media platforms and online via the email, which is podcast at Git Bamboo Dot IO and please jump into the Facebook community and ask you questions in there as well. It's been great to see everyone in the community talking and helping each other out in there. So thanks again for listening and we'll see you next week. [00:22:59][74.2]

Craig: [00:22:59] See you guys. [00:23:00][0.2]

Tracey: [00:23:00] See you later.