New hype in DeFi

Reddit buys Bitcoin and Ethereum

February 26, 2024 • Reading Time:5 minutes

GM. Today on Money Printer Go Brrr newsletter:

  • Reddit buys Bitcoin and Ethereum

  • Axie co-founder’s personal accounts breached for $8M

  • The new hype in DeFi: Liquid Restaking Tokens

  • 4 things you should know

Reddit buys Bitcoin, Ethereum and Matic

Reddit's jumping on the crypto bandwagon, snagging some BTC, ETH, and Matic (Polygon’s L2 token).

It's all in their official IPO papers.

They're not just buying crypto for kicks → it's part of their big plan to innovate in the digital space (…and stay cool probably).

But for real… why are they doing this?

Reddit is

→ preparing for an IPO → initial public offering (they go public with the company shares).

(*its ticker will be RDDT)

→ allowing active users and moderators to buy shares.

→ investing in BTC & ETH part of its excess in cash

→ acquiring ETH and Matic "as a form of payment for sales of certain virtual goods.”

💭 No, they haven’t disclosed how big their bags are…

  • It’s not their first rodeo, as Reddit has experimented with blockchain through Community Points but discontinued the program before the IPO due to regulatory and complexity concerns.

📈 Some stats by Reddit from the filling 😀 

It's pretty cool to see big names like Reddit embracing digital currencies, right? Feels like crypto's really hitting the big leagues.

Axie co-founder’s personal accounts breached for $8M

Jeff Zirlin, co-founder of Axie Infinity and Roning Network, got hit by hackers. They swiped a cool $9.7 mil from 2 wallets of his.

The stolen money was moved using Tornado Cash, a service that hides who owns the money.

💡 Tornado Cash works like this:

→ it’s like a magic box

→ you put money in it, and it mixes up with other people’s money

→ when you take money out, it’s hard to tell whose money was whose

Tornado Cash lawsuit:

→ US court rules that Tornado Cash is an “entitity” and its smart contracts constituite “property” 🥴 

→ Coinbase backed a lawsuit challenging the sactions against Tornado Cash (and it was dismissed)

Analysts say that the Roning Bridge and Network are not compromised.

  • Ronin Bridge has been audited and will stop if a very big withdrawal is detected.

💡 What is Roning Network and why people were concerned

→ It’s a blockchain specifically designed to power games built on the ETH network

→ The popular NFT game Axie Infinity runs on it

→ There are 8 games currently launched

→ It has faster transactions, lower fees and it’s developer-friendly.

💭 Moral of the story? Guard your secret crypto spells like they're the last slice of pizza at a party. You never know who's eyeing it up!

The new hype in DeFi: Liquid Restaking Tokens

Have you heard about the latest craze in DeFi staking? It's all about Liquid Restaking Tokens (LRTs).

  • LRTs emerged from the innovation in liquid staking derivatives (LSDs) post-Ethereum's Shanghai upgrade.

💡 How did they pop up?

→ after Ethereum got a facelift with the Shanghai upgrade, these smart folks at Lido Finance figured out how to make staked Ethereum liquid;

💡 What is liquid staking?

→ normally, when you stake cryptocurrency, it gets locked up. You can't use it until you decide to unstake it.

→ liquid staking lets you stake your cryptocurrency but still keep it liquid. This means you can use it for other things while it's staked.

→ it's like putting money in a savings account but still being able to spend it.

💭 Start here:

You can engage in liquid staking on platforms like Lido Finance, which started this trend.

Other platforms like Pendle Finance and Eigenlayer followed, offering their versions of liquid staking.

4 things you should know:

tMeme Of the Day

What'd you think of today's edition?

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.