Artemis Weekly Wrap-up (8/18/2023)
your go-to source for weekly fundamental updates
This week, crypto saw the largest day of total liquidations (~$1bn+) since the FTX collapse, the SEC is set to greenlight Ether-futures ETFs, and Coinbase won approval to allow US customers access to crypto futures.
let’s jump right in 👇
🌞 Stablecoin regulation and adoption progresses in ex-US jurisdictions
💫 Artemis Data Insight #1: Base
🤝 Artemis Data Insight #2: Decentralized Perps Exchange Volumes
The market saw double digit declines across the L1 / L2 universe with average and median WoW price drops of ~12.1% and ~11.3%, respectively, while equity markets also suffered a downward move (S&P 500 and NASDAQ index down ~2.0% and ~2.27% over past 5 days, respectively). While there was some positive regulatory news that Ethereum ETF futures could be approved by the SEC, Bitcoin and Ethereum both saw ~10% sell-offs on a number of negative macro headlines including economic woes in China and bond yields surging to multi-year highs that led to ~$1bn+ in crypto market liquidations on a single day.
🌞 Stablecoin regulation and adoption progresses in ex-US jurisdictions
While the Democrat-controlled Senate continues to debate the House Stablecoin bill pushed forward by Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), ex-US jurisdictions are continuing to push forward regulatory frameworks for the practical adoption of stablecoin technology.
Singapore - Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Stablecoin Framework
This week, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) released a framework for single-currency stablecoins (SCS) pegged to the Singapore dollar and any of the G10 currencies. These regulations would apply to the largest global currencies including the USD, EUR and British pound, among others.
Per the official announcement by the MAS, stablecoins would need to fulfil a number of key requirements related to the following categories:
Value stability: SCS reserve assets will be subject to requirements relating to their composition, valuation, custody and audit, to give a high degree of assurance of value stability.
Capital: Issuers must maintain minimum base capital and liquid assets to reduce the risk of insolvency and enable an orderly wind-down of business if necessary.
Redemption at Par: Issuers must return the par value of SCS to holders within five business days from a redemption request.
Disclosure: Issuers must provide appropriate disclosures to users, including information on the SCS’ value stabilising mechanism, rights of SCS holders, as well as the audit results of reserve assets.
The outlined requirements is to provide stability and appropriate reporting disclosures to allow for stablecoins to proliferate across both real-world and digitally native ecosystems. Ms.. Ho Hern Shin, Deputy Managing Director at MAS stated that the purpose of the framework is to ultimately “facilitate the use of stablecoins as a credible digital medium of exchange, and as a bridge between the fiat and digital asset ecosystems.”
Switzerland - Anchored Coins
Meanwhile, Calvin Cheng, a former Singapore parliamentarian, announced that his Swiss-based company, Anchored Coins AG, would issue two stablecoins: a Euro-backed stablecoin AEUR and a Swiss Franc-backed stablecoin ACHF. The stablecoins will both be backed 1:1 by their respective fiat currencies and held in Swiss banks. The stablecoins are planned to be issued on the Ethereum and BNB blockchains.
Calvin noted in a statement that “Switzerland has very clear regulatory guidelines for the issuance of stablecoins… There is clear need for stablecoins to be pegged to currencies other than the US dollar, given the regulatory uncertainty in the US. I feel this is the right time and right place, to launch highly compliant stablecoins in two other well-regarded currencies, the Swiss Franc, and the Euro.”
Alongside the announcement, Anchored Coins also unveiled a partnership with DCS Card Center in Singapore. DSC is a legacy financial institution that helped introduce the issuance of credit cards in Singapore. The collaboration will allow DCS to accept ACHF and AEUR stablecoins as a form of collateral placement for credit limits on its cards.
💫 Artemis Data Insight #1: Base
Base, Coinbase’s Layer 2 scaling solution built on the OP stack, has taken the world since launching on mainnet on August 9th. Let’s check out some on-chain stats vs. other major layer 2 platforms such as Optimism and Arbitrum 👇
Daily Active Addresses:
Base currently boasts ~70-80k daily active addresses, which is below the ~120-130k range where Arbitrum and Optimism daily active addresses have been
On Thursday August 10th, right after launching on mainnet, Base active addresses surpassed Optimism daily active addresses with 127k daily active addresses vs. 115k for Optimism
TVL:
Base currently has ~$170mm TVL on its platform, which lags behind Arbitrum TVL of $1.76bn and Optimism TVL of ~$760mm
While usage metrics (daily active addresses and transactions) appear to be growing
Developer Stats:
Base has seen ~10k+ contract deployed weekly in the weeks leading up to mainnet launch. When compared to contract deployed for other L2s, Base has seen ~5x more contracts deployed than its nearest competitor, Arbitrum
🤝 Artemis Data Insight #2: Decentralized Perps Exchange Volumes
Amidst extreme volatility in the crypto markets on August 17th, decentralized perpetual trading volume skyrocketed vs. the prior day, with dYdX logging ~$1.6bn in trading volume (vs. ~$620mm in the prior day). GMX also saw a significant increase in trading volume with ~$380mm of perps trading volume across v1 and v2 on August 17th vs. ~$80mm of volume on the prior day.
Market volatility continues to be a prominent driver of decentralized perpetual trading volume across platforms. With centralized exchanges continuing to face regulatory pressure, we also expect that decentralized exchanges will continue to take market share from centralized platforms as UX and trading interfaces continue to improve.
Detailed L1 dashboard for people who love more numbers in smaller font:
Note: Revenue represents fees that go to the protocol’s treasury or are returned to tokenholders via a burn mechanism (source: Token Terminal). Weekly commits and weekly dev activity as of 7/28/23.
The content is for informational purposes. None of the content is meant to be investment advice. Use your own discretion and independent decision regarding investments.