#30 BlackRock and Fidelity list blockchain ETFs . One step closer to a financial markets (r)evolution
Disclaimer: Everything we write in "The Crypto Insider Report" is an x-ray of the industry as we see it, through the lens of publicly available information. We are not financial advisors.
Please note that an audio version of this report is available on all streaming platforms including Spotify.
Making Crypto Payments Usable Through Human Centered Design
Grace Kwan, co-founder of Solana’s DEX Orca, writes in a recent CoinDesk opinion about her experience using crypto payments and how the industry could take a page out of the Web 2 design playbook in order to make things easier for users.
The story goes like this: she bought something for her teammate on Amazon using the seamless one-click experience that Amazon patented. No issues. Then, to get the money back, they agreed to settle the transaction using USDC on Solana, expecting everything will be fast and the transaction fees will be low. However, the process ended up being more cumbersome. Her teammate needed to use an exchange to first obtain some USDC. Then, he made a test transaction that for some reason took longer than usual to succeed. They left it at that for the day and carried on the next day. Sending the actual amount came with its issues, as he sent too much, she needed to send back some, but couldn’t send to the same CEX address. All in all, Grace says that by the time they sorted out the payment the mouse arrived.
If we are to compare this experience with e.g. sending some money to someone using Revolut (or any of the other neo bank apps), it’s night and day. This is where Grace makes her point that Web 2 companies design starting from the user, while Web 3 projects start from the technology and its limitations.
I suggest you read the full article where she describes what the design process could look like and how a user-first crypto payments solution could work. Great stuff.
Mihnea
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One step closer to financial markets (r)evolution
Yesterday, HCS Pharma, a French biotech company, became the first non-crypto company to undergo a pre-IPO raise through a Security Token Offering (STO) to institutional and retail investors. The STO was launched on the EDSX (European Digital Assets Exchange) platform.
The pre-IPO process involves the sale of tokens registered on the blockchain, with investors being guided to open free digital wallets on the platform and make payments via fiat or major cryptocurrencies. Each token represents a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) with a price of €1.00 and it provides investors the right to receive a 20% discount on the listing price of the shares in the presumably upcoming IPO on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange later this year.
Switzerland-based ESDX was founded back in 2019 and it recently secured the necessary approval to operate a secondary market for tokenized assets and plans to launch the exchange in Q3 this year. Secondary markets allow investors to trade previously issued financial instruments. The company noted that the compliance process alone took almost 30 months. The platform names the secondary market and the fact that it has regulatory approval from the Swiss authorities as two of its key competitive advantages in the market.
An STO is essentially the digital representation of ownership of assets (e.g. gold, real estate) or economic rights (e.g. a share of profits or revenue). STOs open an innovative ecosystem allowing issuers to raise funds and investors to invest into business projects. With the use of DLT and smart contracts, markets, issuers and investors benefit from wider fundraising and investment opportunities, in particular via enhancing liquidity or lowering counterparty risk.
Why would HCS Pharma do a pre-IPO financing via SAFE-powered tokens and not via a crossover round, for example? For marketing and liquidity purposes - seems like an obvious answer. Also, it can de-risk the IPO process and valuation, namely it would have already found investors willing to acquire shares at a price close to a desired valuation. In a strange manner, the ESDX page provides an estimated return for the investment of “up to 8x” which seems to fall outside of usual practices / regulations / process considerations / market uncertainties. The target raise is €7 million of which c.€2.1m was raised as of COB April 28th.
Razvan
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Terra Nova! Before the Otherside
This will be just a preamble for the next episode because, soon enough, the Land Plots for the BAYC OtherSide Metaverse will be for sale. More precisely, on April 30th, 12 PM ET.
You will get why all the price craziness is happening from the next paragraphs, but before we get to them, I will just leave this here:
If you never got the chance to read our PRO Romanian newsletter, this topic was covered by Vlad and Endi, and all the signs were there.
Since we last spoke about APE and what Animoka has done since purchasing Punks, a lot has happened: everybody is now waiting for a chance to become the owner of one of the 200k land plots (which will be sold in 2 stages). If you are an owner of a Bored Ape NFT or a Mutant, you will be able to claim the Land NFT.
For the rest of them, only the people who followed the KYC Steps from
http://somethingisbrewing.xyz
, where you can also check if you are eligible (Don’t be sad if you are not, some of us forgot as well 😳).
The Land NFTs, called Otherdeeds, will be sold at a fixed price of 305 APE, maximum two NFTs per Wallet on the first wave (and 4 additional on the second wave). The first wave supply is 55k NFTs, from 130k KYC-ed wallets. Furthermore, everyone will have 12 hours time to pre-approve $APE.
This has sent the price through the roof, reaching $27 ATH. And not only, because ApeCoin will be the means for payment in the MetaRPG game that Yuga is putting together; it’s going to be the governance token for the ApeCoin DAO, will provide access to certain parts of the ecosystem and a lot more.
Until next week, good luck with the buying process and, for the lucky ones, enjoy the free minting.
Save us a spot with a view in the Metaverse.
Cosmin
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BlackRock and Fidelity list blockchain ETFs
In a previous TCI report at the end of March I wrote about how BlackRock just confirmed its plans to enter the crypto space although it was not yet clear how. One month later, BlackRock listed a blockchain ETF days after competitor Fidelity brought to market a similar fund.
The world’s largest asset manager, with more than $10 trillion under management, has labeled the segment a ‘megatrend’ to which it has added the iShares Blockchain and Tech ETF (IBLC) on Wednesday.
"Today, there may be more potential for rapid change than at any other point in history," said a new report iShares released on Wednesday titled: The Great Acceleration: permanent changes unleash exponential growth opportunities. "This is in no small part because we are connected to one another through a free flow of information in the palm of our hands."
“The expansion of our megatrends line-up today reflects the power of the millennial and rise of the self-directed investor, whose buying habits have reshaped mainstream consumer behaviors, and in turn, the companies in which they invest,” Rachel Aguirre, BlackRock’s head of US iShares product, said in a statement.
IBLC, which the firm filed for in January, seeks exposure to global companies at the forefront of the “development, innovation and utilization” of blockchain and crypto technologies, according to the company. It does not invest in cryptocurrencies directly. The new blockchain fund launched about a week after Fidelity listed its Crypto Industry and Digital Payments ETF (FDIG) and its Metaverse ETF (FMET).
Evelyne
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For more educational crypto content, check out the links below:
The Stakeborg DAO Talks on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOrFZZifNn4Nx4nSQL3WS52ALPXgrTSVG
Discord channel: https://discord.com/channels/901898461568442458/903006233584341052
StakeborgDAO Quarterly Reports: https://docs.stakeborgdao.com/reports/dao-quarterly-reports
Stakeborg Academy: https://academy.stakeborg.com/
TNX
Bravo Evelyne & Team ! Stress on Grow & Progress !