Morning Minute | FTX To Make Its Customers Whole - With A Catch
TylerD's Market Summary
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📰 Three Major Crypto Headlines
Wednesday was a very busy day in the crypto streets, with some blockbuster headlines.
And it was arguably the most important day yet for the Solana ecosystem. Which did not disappoint.
Highlights from Wednesday:
- FTX to make customers whole
- Tether rakes in $2.85B in profit in Q4
- Jupiter's successful debut
Let's dig in.
FTX To Make Its Customers Whole - With A Catch
The bankrupt crypto exchange FTX released a very important statement yesterday - they expect to repay customers in full.
This should be a headline to rejoice, right?
Well there's a catch.
It won't be at today's prices, but at the crypto prices at time of FTX's collapse.
So Nov 2022 prices. Not quite as great.
The exact prices haven't been published yet, but FTX declared bankruptcy on Nov 11, 2022. On that date:
- BTC was $17,043
- ETH was $1,298
- SOL was $17.66
BTC is up over 100% since, ETH up nearly as much and SOL has 5x'd.
It will still be a major recovery regardless, and more than many expected early on. Now we await a timeline and more details.
Tether Rakes In $2.85B in Profit
The stablecoin business is BOOMING.
Tether (USDT) reported $2.85B in profits for Q4 2024, record-breaking numbers for the stablecoin issuer.
Over $1B of the profits came from interest earned on their U.S. Treasury and investments, backed by USDT, with the rest coming from appreciation in their other investments including BTC and Gold.
They ended the year with $6.2B in profits.
For some perspective, $2.85B in profits is more than behemoths like Nike and Goldman Sachs raked in.
Tether has ~50 employees.
They are crushing it, just like they are dominating the stablecoin market.
Tether is by far the biggest stablecoin with a $96B market cap, with USDC next at just $26.7B (and DAI in 3rd with $5.3B).
It's a good time to be in the stablecoin business.
Jupiter's $JUP Makes Successful Debut
It was hailed as the Solana Super Bowl.
And it did not let down.
Solana the blockchain did not falter, and the massive $JUP airdrop has already reached nearly 500,000 wallets.
The token came out below $0.50 and briefly soared past $0.70 before settling in the $0.60 range overnight.
That equates to a $838M market cap and a whopping $6.2B FDV.
Some interesting stats from day one:
- 459k wallets have claimed over 631M tokens (~$385M), tho just 48% of eligible wallets have claimed
- Of those wallets that claimed, 70% have sold it all -$JUP has seen
- $1.31B in DEX volume, more than Uniswap (combined)
So this has been effectively a $385M market stimulus already, which should only increase as more wallets claim.
That stimmy hasn't hit the broader Solana ecosystem yet (Sol is down, NFTs are stable or red, and memecoins are largely red).
Though it seems like just a matter of time until that liquidity boost starts raising tides...
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
- ETH trading volume jumped to $21.1M on Wednesday, though NFT leaders were once again red down 5-7%
- Early Retired Cats Club led top movers on ETH, jumping 108% to 0.37 ETH
- Doodles announced a collaboration with G-Shock is dropping soon, news which the market shook off with Doodles falling 5% to 2.09 ETH
- Claire Silver's "corpo | real" minted out at 1 ETH in just seconds for all 500 NFTs in the Braindrops' public sale, settling at 0.84 ETH on secondary
- Amber Vittoria and Kelly Milligan's Art Blocks collab "Balance" minted out (slowly) at its 0.07 ETH resting price before reaching 0.1 on secondary
- Art Blocks announced its acquisition of digital art platform Sansa, with efforts already underway to integrate Sansa's collector-friendly platform into Art Blocks ecosystem
- NFT Lending protocol NFTfi introduced its Refinancing feature, allowing lendees to extend their loans without paying off the full balance
- RSIC led action on BTC with 34 BTC in trading volume and jumping 30% to 0.07 BTC; NodeMonkes +5% 0.182 floor and Puppets even at 0.045
- Quantum Cats delayed their mint again, this time until Monday, Feb 5 at 12 pm ET
- Solana NFTs saw slight red on Wednesday with Tensorians leading volume at 78 SOL (-2%), Mad Lads -3% at 178, and Crypto Undeads -4% at 6.8
- Jup Cats 4x'd leading top movers and reaching a 2.5 SOL floor (higher at peak)
- Rubber artist Pop Punk confirmed that holders will have access to drops from 3 artists upcoming releases and that 10 more are in serious talks of WL'ing holders (Rubber even at 15 SOL floor)
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
- Crypto majors are red this morning after an FOMC meeting sending mixed signals; BTC -1% at $42,130; ETH -1.2% at $2,270; SOL -3% at $95.7
- $JUP opened below $0.50 and marched past $0.70 in early trading before falling overnight, settling at $0.61 and an $840M marketcap ($6.2B FDV)
- $GME briefly touched an $80M marketcap before falling back to $60M, dominating memecoin action on Solana
- Ripple was hacked for 213M XRP (~$112.5M) on Wednesday morning, with the culprits still unknown
- Immutable's zkEVM Mainnet is now live for early access, powered by Polygon
- Animoca Brands is partnering with LightLink to integrate ETH L2 tech into its projects, offering instant, gasless transactions
- Mercedes announced a new free mint "Superdackel" coming soon for NXT Icons holders, community friends and more
🚀 NFT Total Volume (ETH)
- Azuki (1,740 ETH, 6.4 ETH Floor)
- MAYC (589 ETH, 4.18 ETH)
- DeGods (585 ETH, 2.89 ETH)
- Pudgy Penguins (769 ETH, 15.55 ETH Floor)
- BAYC (222 ETH, 24.3 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)
- Early Retired Cats Club (107%, 0.37 ETH Floor)
- Fortune Founder's 🔐 by AOFverse (49%, 0.18 ETH)
- The Mounts of Seedworld (49%, 0.47 ETH)
- Ether Cards Founder (47%, 0.12 ETH)
- Hape Prime (42%, 0.34 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
Today is a busy day, once again focused in the art sector.
There are several drops, including some major names like Harm van den Dorpel, Transient Labs and Lindsey Brynes.
Blocks is making its debut on BTC, which is now more open with Quantum Cats delaying til next Monday.
See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
- Matrica Labs - BLOCKS (9:00 a.m. ET)
- Lindsey Byrners - Sk8 or Die (9:00 a.m. ET)
- pho x Transient Labs - The Cell (12:00 p.m. ET)
- Harm van den Dorpel x Verse - Struggle for Pleasure (1:00 p.m. ET)
Enjoy this write-up and/or want to sponsor the Morning Minute? Follow along with me on Twitter @tyler_did_it or reach out via email tyler.warner@luckytrader.com
