Decentral Block Post

The decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) behind Lido — the largest Ethereum staking pool — is deliberating whether it should sell or stake the $30 million in Ether (ETH) from its treasury.

A proposal was submitted on Feb. 14 by the DAO’s financial unit, Steakhouse Financial that considers four choices, one of which contemplates staking part or all of its ETH on Lido in the form of Lido Staked ETH (stETH).

Another would see LidoDAO selling a part or all of its 20,304 ETH for a stablecoin, with the purpose being to extend the DAO’s runway.

The proposal comes as ETH staking withdrawals will soon be enabled through Ethereum’s Shanghai and Capella upgrades expected to take place sometime in earl 2023 according to the Ethereum Foundation.

While converting the ETH to Staked ETH may lead to more protocol rewards, the DAO is wary that too much staking may risk it not having enough Ether on hand “in case of need.”

The crypto industry will “probably” start using euro, yen, or Singapore dollar based stablecoins in the future, reducing its reliance on US dollar based stablecoins, according to a Feb. 14 statement on Twitter Spaces by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, also known as “CZ.”

CZ gave the statement in answer to a question about the crypto industry using gold as a standard of value instead of the US Dollar. CZ agreed that it “makes sense” to use gold. However, “most people’s costs are still in fiat currencies.” For this reason, most people calculate their investment returns in dollars, which is why US Dollar backed stablecoins are “still important.”

However, CZ argued that the US government’s recent actions against US dollar stablecoins will probably lead the global crypto industry to rely on other currencies such as the Euro, Yen, and Singapore Dollar to back stablecoins, as he explained:

“I think given the current pressure and current stances taken by the regulators on the US Dollar based stablecoins, I think that as you said the industry will probably move away to non US dollar based stablecoins[...]as a result of this we probably will see more euro based or other Japanese yen, Singapore dollar based stablecoins, so it's actually prompted us to look for more options in different places.”

Related: SEC Lawsuit against Paxos over BUSD baffles crypto community

The price of Ether (ETH) declined 10.2% between Jan. 8 and Jan. 10, and has since been range trading near the $1,500 level. More importantly, on a broader time frame, Ether is down 52.5% in twelve months, which partially explains why derivatives metrics were somewhat neutral after Ether’s failed attempt to break $1,700 on Feb. 8.

Currently, investors' biggest concerns are the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) lawsuits and enforcement actions against crypto firms, which included Kraken’s tanking of its-as-a-service program and PayPal reportedly pausing its stablecoin project due to regulatory concerns.

A crackdown by the SEC on crypto staking is expected to have unintended consequences for decentralized finance (DeFi), according to Jacob Blish, the head of business development at Lido DAO. Blish joined a growing number of people in the crypto industry calling for transparency in crypto sector regulation.

On the bright side, Ethereum developers announced the pre-launch of the Shanghai upgrade on the Zhejiang testnet. According to a blog post on Feb. 10, the transition is required to enable withdrawals from validators' staking positions. The Zhejiang test network is the first of three testnets that simulate Shanghai, which is expected to go live in March 2023, although a specific date has not been released.

Let's look at Ether derivatives data to understand if the $1,700 price rejection has impacted crypto investors' sentiment.

The price of Ether (ETH) declined 10.2% between Jan. 8 and Jan. 10, and has since been range trading near the $1,500 level. More importantly, on a broader time frame, Ether is down 52.5% in twelve months, which partially explains why derivatives metrics were somewhat neutral after Ether’s failed attempt to break $1,700 on Feb. 8.

Currently, investors' biggest concerns are the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) lawsuits and enforcement actions against crypto firms, which included Kraken’s tanking of its-as-a-service program and PayPal reportedly pausing its stablecoin project due to regulatory concerns.

A crackdown by the SEC on crypto staking is expected to have unintended consequences for decentralized finance (DeFi), according to Jacob Blish, the head of business development at Lido DAO. Blish joined a growing number of people in the crypto industry calling for transparency in crypto sector regulation.

On the bright side, Ethereum developers announced the pre-launch of the Shanghai upgrade on the Zhejiang testnet. According to a blog post on Feb. 10, the transition is required to enable withdrawals from validators' staking positions. The Zhejiang test network is the first of three testnets that simulate Shanghai, which is expected to go live in March 2023, although a specific date has not been released.

Let's look at Ether derivatives data to understand if the $1,700 price rejection has impacted crypto investors' sentiment.

Cumulative NFT trading volume trended higher in January and data from a recent Delphi Digital report showed monthly volumes reaching an eight-month high above $1 billion.

The key factor that influenced NFT trading was Blur token airdrop on Feb. 14. Since its launch last year in Q3 2022, Blur has rewarded users with “care packages,” which can be redeemed for tokens starting Feb. 14 at 12 p.m. EST.

Many users have tried to farm these airdrops, increasing the platform's trading volume. Since the start of 2023, Blur’s trading volume has surpassed that of OpenSea, the market leader in the NFT trading space.

Airdrops often create excitement in the market of thrilled users who receive free money and FOMO from those who missed out. It’s likely that the next step for the Blur team will be to launch new liquidity mining campaigns, similar to Optimism, to retain its volume and users. Moreover, users will also move onto other opportunities in the space, similar to Blur. 

On-chain data shows whales are accumulating NFT tokens 

The top NFT trading platforms on Ethereum with a native token are LooksRare and X2Y2. The year-to-date increase in the price of their tokens is 100% and 260%, respectively. The tokens have outperformed the market’s average gain, suggesting buyers are paying more attention to these tokens.

Cumulative nonfungible token (NFT) trading volume trended higher in January, and data from a recent Delphi Digital report showed monthly volumes reaching an eight-month high above $1 billion.

The key factor that influenced NFT trading was the Blur token airdrop on Feb. 14. Since its launch last year in Q3 2022, Blur has rewarded users with “care packages,” which can be redeemed for tokens starting Feb. 14 at 12 pm ET.

Many users have tried to farm these airdrops, increasing the platform’s trading volume. Since the start of 2023, Blur’s trading volume has surpassed that of OpenSea, the market leader in the NFT trading space.

Airdrops often create excitement in the market of thrilled users who receive free money and FOMO from those who missed out. It’s likely that the next step for the Blur team will be to launch new liquidity mining campaigns, similar to Optimism, to retain its volume and users. Moreover, users will also move on to other opportunities in the space, similar to Blur. 

On-chain data shows whales are accumulating NFT tokens 

The top NFT trading platforms on Ethereum with a native token are LooksRare (LOOKS) and X2Y2 (X2Y2). The year-to-date increase in the price of their tokens is 100% and 260%, respectively. The tokens have outperformed the market’s average gain, suggesting buyers are paying more attention to these tokens.