Market Summary

Bitcoin Price: U$46,681.23  (-0.33%)
Ethereum Price: U$3,924.14 (-0.90%)

Yield Strats #39 – DeFi on Aurora and Multi-Chain Stablecoin Farms

• NearPad aims to be the DeFi Hub for the Near Ecosystem – a one-stop platform for launching successful crowdfunding for startups while giving the community fair access to vetted and secure opportunities. Following the successful launch and token migration to Aurora, NearPad has announced v1 of their DEX where a Liquidity Mining event that will incentivize their pools.
• Vaporwave Finance is a yield-optimizer that has recently launched on the Aurora Blockchain. Vaporware offers a platform to help users optimize their yield, empowering them to earn even more on their crypto assets through automatic compounding. Users deposit their LP tokens into vaults, earning vault-tokens in return. Meanwhile, Vaporwave Finance smart contracts securely stake those assets in third-party farms and automatically maximize the user rewards across the DeFi ecosystem on Aurora.
• Hundred Finance is the successor to Percent Finance, a community-owned fork of Compound Finance using Chainlink Oracles. Hundred Finance is now multi-chain with the release of Arbitrum integration for its decentralized lending and borrowing platform.
• Hundred has launched its staking system based on the veCRV model created by Curve Finance, which has been adapted to use the veHND token (veHND stands for vote-escrowed HND). The veHND model is designed to incentivize liquidity provision while simultaneously preparing users for participation in wider governance activities.

Carbon-neutral Bitcoin? New approach aims to help investors offset BTC carbon emissions

• Billion-dollar companies across the globe are betting big on Bitcoin (BTC). Recent analysis from European investment manager Nickel Digital Asset Management found that 20 publically listed companies with a market capitalization of over $1 trillion have about $9.6 billion invested in BTC. Individual investors are also taking an increasing interest in the asset.
• The “Third Annual Bitcoin Investor Study” from Grayscale Research found that demand for Bitcoin has risen tremendously. According to the study, 55% of current Bitcoin investors began buying the asset over just the last 12 months. Grayscale’s report also notes that the market for those interested in Bitcoin investment products expanded to 59% in 2021, up from 55% in 2020 and slightly more than one-third in 2019, reflecting steady growth.
• Given the rising distress over Bitcoin’s carbon footprint, new models are emerging that aim to help investors and businesses alike understand how to ensure their BTC holdings are sustainable. For example, the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center and digital asset manager INTAS.tech published a study on Nov. 16 outlining a new approach to offsetting the CO2 emissions caused by the Bitcoin network. The formula developed factors in two approaches: a transaction-based approach and an ownership-based approach.

The Bank of England will push for tighter rules as institutions embrace crypto, official says

• The Bank of England wants stronger rules for crypto assets on an international scale as banks and institutional investors deepen their involvement, according to an official at the UK central bank.
• Sarah Breeden, who works as Executive Director for Financial Stability Strategy and Risk, told The Times in an interview that the focus on international coordination among central bank is a reflection of the difficulty in obtaining data on institutional crypto holdings. 

Parachains officially launch on Polkadot network

• The long-in-the-making process of bringing multiple blockchains to the Polkadot network culminated this weekend with the official kick-off of five parachains.
• The five parachains that went live this weekend — Acala, Astar, Clover, Moonbeam, and Parallel Finance — were chosen following successful parachain auctions. All told, nearly 99 million DOT, worth approximately $2.4 billion, was garnered by the five projects during the auction period. Winning projects effectively lease their parachain slots, which last for 96 weeks.

Uniswap v3 contracts deployment on Polygon approved with 99.3% consensus

• The Uniswap community has approved the governance proposal that sought deployment of Uniswap v3 contracts over the Polygon PoS Chain. The approval comes in the form of an on-chain vote that saw the participation of over 72.6 million users from the community.
• Uniswap Labs announced to deploy Uniswap v3 contracts based on the votes that reflected over 99.3% approval consensus and will be supported by a $20 million fund — $15 million for long-term liquidity mining campaign and $5 million for the overall adoption of Uniswap on Polygon (MATIC).

Avalanche eyes 60% rally as AVAX price breaks out of bull flag

• Avalanche (AVAX) strengthened its case for a potential upside run towards $160 in the coming sessions as it broke out of a classic bullish pattern earlier this week.
• Dubbed “bull flag,” the pattern emerges when the price consolidates lower/sideways between two parallel trendlines (flag) after undergoing a strong upside move (flagpole). Later, in theory, the price breaks out of the channel range to continue the uptrend and tends to rise by as much as the flagpole’s height.
• The recent buying period in the Avalanche market picked momentum also because of a flurry of positive catalysts this week.
• AVAX jumped nearly 10.50% on Tuesday as Avalanche added the native version of USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Circle, on its blockchain.
• Additionally, a report penned by Bank of America analysts published on Dec. 10, called Avalanche a viable alternative to the leading smart contract platform Ethereum. That coincided with AVAX gaining another 16%.

Adidas Originals nets $23 million after closing its first NFT drop

• The German sportswear brand Adidas Originals earned 5,924 ETH, or $23.5 million, from its collaborative “Into the Metaverse” drop with Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), the non-fungible token (NFT) collector gmoney and the crypto-focused media group PUNKS Comic.
• Adidas Originals began its Early Access minting stage on December 17, in which holders of an Adidas Originals proof-of-attendance protocol (“POAP,” which are given to attendees of virtual or physical events), gmoney POAP, a BAYC or Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT or a Pixel Wallet NFT gained entry. The Early Access stage minted 20,000 NFTs for 0.2 ETH — $15.5 million — and finished a little after 5pm ET.