January 26, 2022       /       Unchained Daily       /       Laura Shin

Daily Bits ✍️✍️✍️

• Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood predicts Bitcoin could exceed $1 million by 2030.

• Ethereum users can now chat via wallets on Etherscan.

• Kazakhstan has shut down power to Bitcoin miners for the rest of January.

• Russia’s finance ministry clarified that it wants to regulate crypto rather than ban it.

• OpenSea is reimbursing users who saw Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs sold for far below market value; the NFT marketplace also appears to be exploring Solana NFT support.

• Liquidations on Aave spiked to levels not seen since May 2021.

• As covered on Unchained, Syndicate released its Web3 Investment Clubs product yesterday, allowing anyone to spin up an investment DAO in seconds. (Read interviews with three founders of the launch cohort of Web3 investment clubs.)

• Nyan Heroes and Yield Guild Games have partnered.

• The recent $2 million hack of Multichain could have beenmuch larger – $1 billion – if it hadn’t been largely prevented.
• Meta (disclosure: I currently write a Facebook Bulletin newsletter) is looking into selling the assets of its cryptocurrency project, Diem.

Today in Crypto Adoption…

• YouTube is considering offering NFTs to help creators monetize their work; YouTube’s head of gaming left the streaming service to join Polygon Studios as CEO.

The $$$ Corner…

• Ripple is valued at $15 billion after buying back shares from investors who participated in a $200 million Series C round.

• Project Galaxy, a web3 credentialing company, raised $10 million.

• BCB Group closed a $60 million Series A funding round.

• PleasrDAO is raising $69 million from external investors.

• Dragonfly Capital plans to raise $500 million for a new venture fund.

What Do You Meme?

What’s Poppin’?

El Salvador Under Fire From the IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), an organization of 190 countries built to help facilitate international economic cooperation, is asking El Salvador to reconsider its Bitcoin law, which made the cryptocurrency legal tender in September 2021.

After consulting with El Salvador, executive directors at the IMF “urged” authorities in El Salvador to “narrow the scope of the Bitcoin law by removing Bitcoin’s legal tender status,” according to a Tuesday press release. IMF also directors “stressed that there are large risks associated with the use of Bitcoin on financial stability, financial integrity, and consumer protection, as well as the associated fiscal contingent liabilities.” In addition, multiple directors expressed concern about El Salvador’s plans to issue Bitcoin-backed bonds.

The statement from the IMF’s executive directors is very similar to a November press release from IMF staff, which stated that “Bitcoin should not be used as a legal tender” because BTC’s “use as a legal tender entails significant risks to consumer protection, financial integrity, and financial stability.”

Notably, yesterday, Bloomberg reported talks between El Salvador and the IMF regarding a $1.3 billion loan have stalled due to concerns about Bitcoin. That being said, President Nayib Bukele has been very active on Twitter recently in expressing his passion for Bitcoin. The President announced the purchase of another 410 Bitcoin for El Salvador on the 21st.

Recommended Reads

1. Ethereum Foundation on phasing out the term Ethereum 2.0:

2. My Ether Wallet’s Taylor Monahan on why people dislike NFTs:

3. @punk6529 on NFTs and institutions:

On The Pod…

SyndicateDAO Is Launching Web3 Investment Clubs. Could They Disrupt VCs?

Will Papper and Ian Lee, the two co-founders of Syndicate, join Unchained to announce the release of Syndicate’s new product: Web3 Investment Clubs, an innovation they believe could end up disrupting the web2 investment world, along with the entire venture capital industry. For example, with Web3 Investment Clubs, users will be able to turn an Ethereum wallet address into an investing DAO with just a few clicks, transfer funds without going through banks, and manage a cap-table directly on-chain. Show topics:

• what differentiates a Web3 Investment Club club from a normal investment club

• what on-chain tools Syndicate has built for Web3 Investment Clubs

• how Web3 Investment Clubs work within existing regulations

• how Ian and Will met and what inspired them to create Syndicate

• whether Syndicate plans to decentralize

• why Will and Ian believe investment DAOs will disrupt the venture capital industry

• why venture capital firms invested in Syndicate, a company built to disrupt them

• what Will learned from building Adventure Gold (AGLD), the governance token for Loot

• what plans Syndicate has for 2022

Book Update

You can purchase it here: http://bit.ly/cryptopians