WTF Happened To Crypto Prices Yesterday?!

In Today’s Email: 

• Why Crypto Prices Crashed

• Opensea Is now worth $13.3B

• Airbnb’s most requested feature is crypto payments

P.S. welcome to all the first time readers. Reply to this email to let me know if you love it, or hate it. 

WTF Happened in the Markets Yesterday?!

ETH is down 11%, Bitcoin is down 8%, and I’ve smoked 13 cigarettes before lunch. 

So..WTF? Why did the prices go down? 

Nobody can explain for sure, but one factor is that the Federal Reserve strongly hinted today that they will raise interest rates soon.

Here’s why interest rates matter. 

1. Businesses borrow money to grow 

2. But…You pay interest when you borrow money. 

3. So…High interest rates means borrowing money is more expensive

4. So…Businesses borrow less, and grow less

5. Asset prices (stocks, crypto, real estate etc.) are based on growth.

6. Lower growth = lower prices.

Now, this doesn’t happen in 1 day.

And in fact, the rates haven’t even gone up yet. It was just “hinted” at. But the market reacts to perception, not results. So when the news came out, traders quickly sold assets and got into a “defensive” position. 

If that’s too much, just scribble the cheat sheet on you rhand: when interest rates go UP, prices go DOWN.

I’m a long term believer, so I’m a long term hodler. So just keep calm and carry on. 

Meme Of The Day

Opensea Raises at a $13.3B Valuation 🤯

A few months ago, Opensea raised at a $1.5B valuation and I called it “criminally undervalued”.

Give ya boy a pat on the back because we called it. They just raised again at a $13.3B valuation 🤯

Valuation is one thing.. But here’s 2 stats that are kind of mind blowing when you think of them together.

#1 - Opensea’s annual transaction volume:

2018: $474k

2019: $8 million

2020: $24 million

2021: $15 billion

For comparison, Opensea did 80% the volume that eBay did in Q4.

Almost to the size of ebay! Just for NFTs! 

 #2 - Guess how many users opensea has..

Less than 1 million.

Wild. OK, let’s move on.

Airbnb To Add Crypto?

Two days ago - Brian Chesky (the founder of Airbnb) trolled crypto & web3, basically calling it a solution in search of a problem.

Then he tweeted out: “what feature would you want us to add to AirBnB?

The #1 answer: Crypto.

Boom. Roasted.

Recent Web3 Funding News

AltoIRA, $40M Series B  - Use your retirement account to invest in Alt Assets (including crypto). (Led by Advance Venture Partners) 

CryptoSlam, $9M Seed - An NFT data and analytics platform (Led by Animoca Brands)

Aztec, $17M Series A - An internet of money security platform for Ethereum (Led by Paradigm)

- Shaan aka mr. seed phrase

GM, Say it back!

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P.S. This wikipedia photo of Vitalik looks like it’s taken in a diner bathroom 🤣