August 3, 2022 / Unchained Daily / Laura Shin
Daily Bits✍️✍️✍️
- Magic Eden, the biggest NFT marketplace on Solana, is expanding to Ethereum.
- Robinhood’s crypto division was fined $30 million by New York regulators.
- Waves community approved a “DeFi Revival Plan” for Vires, a platform that suffered $500 million in losses after USDN depeg.
- The Ontario Securities Commission issued an investor alert calling out many crypto firms as unregistered.
- Crypto exchange Zipmex will resume some withdrawals on its platform.
- Synapse, a bridge protocol, will launch its own smart contract platform.
Today in Crypto Adoption…
- Luxury fashion brand Gucci will accept APE coin as a method of payment.
- The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will consult the public about crypto regulations.
The $$$ Corner…
- Messari acquired Dove Metrics, a crypto fundraising intelligence database.
- Marathon, a crypto mining company, secured a $100 million loan.
What Do You Meme?
What’s Poppin’?
Michael Saylor Drops CEO Role After Microstrategy Posts Nearly $1 Billion Quarterly Loss
by Juan Aranovich
Michael Saylor will step down as MicroStrategy CEO, the company announced yesterday after announcing a nearly billion dollar loss on its quarterly earnings due to its massive Bitcoin holdings.
MicroStrategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) is a publicly-traded business intelligence company that offers an enterprise analytics platform and has the largest holdings of Bitcoin of any publicly traded company.
After more than 30 years of running the firm, Saylor will leave his role next Monday, August 8th. He will become an Executive Chairman and will also remain on the board of directors. Saylor will be replaced by the current President of the company Phong Le, who said he was “honored and excited to continue leading this truly innovative organization.”
The news raised the concern of what could happen to all the BTC that MicroStrategy holds now that Saylor will step down as the leader. “Could be a way for them to justify selling BTC, if bear prolongs, and him avoiding the bad PR?,” asked someone on Twitter.
There is some speculation about the reasons Saylor is stepping down, though Saylor said his focus will be to lead the company in its BTC acquisition strategy. “As Executive Chairman I will be able to focus more on our bitcoin acquisition strategy and related bitcoin advocacy initiatives, while Phong will be empowered as CEO to manage overall corporate operations,” said Mr. Saylor.
Even though there was a little bit of panic on social media, with some proposing this could be the real start of the bear market, others took it more lightly. “Michael Saylor steps down as CEO of MicroStrategy after shareholders realize you don’t need to pay a chief executive to just YOLO on bitcoin,” said Parik Patel. “Saylor is freeing up time to watch Youtube videos to learn how to trade,” joked crypto influencer Clark.
Recommended Reads
- Aylo on Solana
- Sam Sun on the Nomad hack
- Adam Cochran on crypto bridges
On The Pod…
Lyn Alden, founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy, and Mauricio di Bartolomeo, cofounder of Ledn, discuss how inflation could affect the digital asset industry. Show highlights:
- how Mauricio’s upbringing in Venezuela and firsthand experience with inflation led him to Bitcoin
- what a “long-term debt cycle” is and why Lyn thinks the 2020s could be similar to the 1930s and 1940s
- the difference between inflation and hyperinflation
- how inflation changes consumer investing and purchasing decisions
- what the impact of inflation is on Bitcoin
- how Russia’s war on Ukraine will continue to impact inflation
- how rising interest rates will affect Bitcoin and stablecoin adoption
- what type of economic environment is worst for BTC growth
- whether Bitcoin is an inflation hedge
- why Lyn is long-term bullish on stablecoins and Bitcoin
- what effect a global recession would have on Bitcoin
- how global inflation has changed adoption rates for BTC in developing economies
- how Venezuelans use and perceive Bitcoin
- why Lyn and Mauricio are excited about Lightning Network in developing countries
- what Lyn and Mauricio think about El Salvador’s adoption of BTC and its billion dollar BTC bond
- how Ledn, as a lending company, was able to navigate the Celsius/Voyager crash
- how Lyn analyzes the risks associated with firms like BlockFi
- what lessons Lyn and Mauricio have learned in 2022 about digital assets and the economy
Book Update
My book, The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze, which is all about Ethereum and the 2017 ICO mania, is now available!
You can purchase it here: http://bit.ly/cryptopians
