Matt Ballensweig
@MattBallen4791
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Institutional infrastructure @BitGo . Former head of sales & trading @GenesisTrading a @DCGco company. Ex- @Bridgewater . Building capital markets in crypto.
New York, NY
Joined March 2017
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Excited to share
@BitGo
's teaser video for Go Network. We're building a next-gen settlement and trading platform all within the walls of a qualified custodian.
With over $1B of settlement activity quarter-to-date, we're seeing exponential usage of regulated DvP settlement…
Learn how BitGo's Go Network is transforming the way institutions settle USD and digital assets
Ready, Set, Go ➡️
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The insanity of Theranos, speed of Lehman and scale of Enron.
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Basically no one I've spoken with over the last 6 months has called this market right. There are no "experts". No one has a crystal ball.
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I can feel the world starting to want $BTC risk. It’s going to be exponential.
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I think $BTC is probably a risk 35% to make 5x trade long term. Hard to pass up when you have to beat 7.5% ann inflation. If you're a pension, endowment, sovereign, 60/40, or whatever - what do you do here?
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Solana $SOL market cap = $23B
Ethereum $ETH market cap = $362B
6% relative value...? seems pretty pretty lowww.
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Solana $SOL closing in on 10% mkt cap of $ETH, but DeFi platforms on Solana such as $MNGO, $RAY, $SRM still seem cheap relative to $ETH DeFi platforms such as $UNI -- next relative value gap closure?
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1/ Crypto rate markets, like most markets, aren't static.
@BlockFi
cutting rates is just a supply/demand lever. There is simply too much $BTC supply in search of yield relative to institutional demand for that BTC.
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1/ What a day to run a crypto lending business! These are the days where experience matters, a lot! Understanding $BTC liquidity and how quickly it can tighten or loosen, volatility, market structure, rate dynamics. All of the learning prepares you for days like today.
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What an insane week. I can’t stress enough how proud I am of team
@GenesisTrading
for working through an incredibly high-volume and intense time in the market. Strong teams with high integrity will emerge as the winners from this weeks events. Hang in there everyone!
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I’m very excited to share that I’ve joined
@BitGo
as Managing Director, Head of Go Network, where I will work alongside
@mikebelshe
to build capital-efficient institutional trading solutions rooted in the separation of custody and liquidity.
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Feels like the currents are shifting from negative to positive - can you feel it?
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1/ Today, I’m formally leaving my post at
@GenesisTrading
as co-Head of Sales and Trading after 5+ years. Over the last month I’ve started transitioning my core responsibilities to a handful of trusted colleagues who will step up to run our front-line businesses.
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in last 24h, our rates trading desk printed 3 separate crypto repo tickets of $100mm notional size or higher... the institutions are here
@joshua_j_lim
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So much momentum on $SOL right now. Capital markets- $SRM, $MNGO, $RAY, $PYTH and gaming $ATLAS, $POLIS leading the charge. Hard to not be excited AF.
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Institutional crypto adoption in one image. 2021 vs 2020 trading and lending stats for
@GenesisTrading
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1/ It’s with great excitement, a TON of gratitude and a bit of selfish sadness that I can say my great friend and colleague
@roshunpatel
is departing
@GenesisTrading
this week to pursue his own passions within crypto.
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1/ $BTC is cheap, alts are cheap, basis is flat. Leverage unwound, cash back in the hands of dealers ready for deployment. Hedge Funds buy BTC and alts pushing markets higher, some using leverage. It's a race to get long. Traders lever up, basis widens, funding gets expensive.
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So now that many of the forced/weak sellers have redistributed $BTC into the hands of value-oriented long-term believers, can we start to decorrelate?
Long-term buyers now hold a lot of the supply. As demand catches up, things should get interesting.
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A thread on dollar liquidity and its recent impact on markets:
1/ I've recently seen a few posts on the short-term impact that dollar liquidity in the banking system has on asset prices including $BTC, $ETH and stonks so I did some digging and the results are astonishing.
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Not gonna lie - it's pretty awesome to see
@FoundryServices
at the top of the charts taking 13.33% of the hashrate share in the last 24hr. Insane growth from a great team led by
@colyermike
. Congrats and go
#USA
🇺🇸
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Hats off to
@FoundryServices
and
@DCGco
for breaking into the top 10 $BTC mining pools in the world. Foundry USA is now 2.5% of the trailing 3-day hashrate. As more hashpower comes into North America, it wouldn't surpise me to watch them climb higher and higher share.
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I have to say that
#BitcoinMiami
was truly legendary. I will always remember this week’s events and the epic times we had with some of our closest clients, friends, colleagues and competitors. Congrats to
@SBF_Alameda
and
@FTX_Official
on their new home in Miami.
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I'm sure many share this mindset, but I'm so stoked for the
@FTX_Official
Bahamas event at the end of the month. It's going to be a precedent setting event!
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Perspective is always important. Bridgewater crafted IMO one of the best charts to put short-term chaos and vol in perspective relative to long-term outcomes. You can have conviction and still be 1-2 stdev wrong in moments of time if you’re betting long-term. Think in cones.
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👀 $HNT
- $2B market cap asset trying to decentralize telcom in an industry where the existing duopoly = $400B
- Largescale VC backing and commitment
- Fast-growing network, $100k/day in data credit spend on trailing 30-day basis
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Irrespective of the most recent drawdown, the amount of talent flooding to crypto is at an ATH. We've added dozens of great people at
@GenesisTrading
in the last few months and the caliber continues to increase. TradFi exodus will be a theme for years to come.
#Bitcoin
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Don't confuse short-term volatility with long-term sentiment.
Over $4B of VC money raised in the last TWO days from just a handful of notable funds including
@FTX_Official
and
@PanteraCapital
Every company will be a crypto company.
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The
@FoundryServices
team continues to take market share and broke into the top 4 $BTC mining pools over the last 24 hours. Watch out for team
#USA
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VC money piling in, banks hiring heads of crypto trading, sovereign nations declaring digital assets as currency, inflation rising 7.5% so on and so on. Haven't such an obvious one-way train.
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Going to be honest - I haven't visited
@MessariCrypto
's site in a long time until today and DAMN. Incredibly impressive stuff in only a few years. Bullish on
@twobitidiot
. Bloomberg of crypto?
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Very proud of the
@BitGo
team on this accomplishment and excited to be part of the continued growth story!
Custody along with secure and efficient settlement are going to be major adoption drivers in this next cycle and we're happy to lead the charge!
BitGo has secured $100M Series C funding.
Trust is not given, it is earned. We believe in delivering it to our clients and the industry. Being a custodial and infrastructure leader is an undertaking, one we have consistently provided for over a decade.
This funding will allow…
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Let’s ride
@maplefinance
!
We’re excited to bring balance sheet and our risk management expertise to the $SOL pool as a delegate.
Thrilled to partner with
@ambergroup_io
and
@wintermute_t
- two world class market makers.
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Was out in
#NYC
tonight. Can’t believe that people would actually bet against the comeback here. We’re basically back to par, with more upside and energy than we originally had. Unparalleled city.
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People keep asking "what's the next catalyst for $BTC?" when in reality this is a one way train. Sure, there will be headwinds along the way, some snow on the tracks here and there, but the train isn't stopping. The catalyst is rooted in long-term adoption and value.
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7/ This doesn’t mean that in time, BTC trading and deployment opportunities won’t come back as markets ebb and flow, but right now, it pays to have cash in this market, not crypto.
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Massive expansion effort by the
@OndoFinance
team that aspires to bring all publicly traded securities onchain. Global equities TAM is over $100T on its own.
1/ 🚨
@OndoFinance
is solving the RWA liquidity problem 🚨
Introducing Ondo Global Markets, a platform to bring all publicly traded securities onchain with native access to traditional securities exchange liquidity (e.g. Nasdaq/NYSE/LSE).
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Imagine starting as Head of Crypto Trading at bulge bracket bank knowing you have to compete with firms like
@GenesisTrading
@AlamedaResearch
@CumberlandSays
@wintermute_t
@ambergroup_io
@B2C2Group
@JumpCryptoHQ
- yikes.
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A lot starting to develop on $ALGO.
@C3protocol
@FolksFinance
@tinymanorg
going to help bootstrap trading and lending volumes in 2022. Algorand relative value to some other L1s looks nice at 1/3rd the mkt cap.
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We know the NFT lending market is going to be huge and we are committed to bringing some serious balance sheet to it. Glad to see
@GenesisTrading
issue a $6M loan to
@Meta4Capital
.
Great work by
@roshunpatel
and
@eugene_genesis
for spearheading.
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1/ Examining the
@GenesisTrading
Q1 loan portfolio, there a few key stories are important to highlight:
1. Decline in $BTC borrowing demand as as % of book
2. DeFi driving growth in $ETH and alt borrow
3. Persistence of basis driving cash demand (~$2B of cash on loan)
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It took us almost a year to reach $100mm in Active Loans back in early 2019. In the last two quarters we've added over $2B to the book. This market is in hyper growth mode. $BTC
Genesis had $3.8B in active loans outstanding at the end of Q4, up from $2.1B last quarter - a roughly 80% increase. We've originated over $21.2B in loans since we launched our institutional lending business. Read more in our Q4 report:
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The trading and lending volume we’re seeing at
@GenesisTrading
is nothing short of incredible. This is all thanks to the unbelievable clients we have and the success the entire ecosystem is realizing right now. Onwards and upwards!
The Genesis Q3 report is out - we had our largest quarter ever with over $70B in trades, loans and transactions. For a deeper understanding of where institutions have been investing, read the full report here 🔗
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1/ Many people have asked me "What podcasts should I listen to so I can learn more about crypto?" this holiday. A quick list here but please add your favorites:
-
@modern_fi
by
@kevinrose
-
@a16z
Podcast
-
@Unchained_pod
by
@laurashin
-
@PodcastDelphi
by
@Delphi_Digital
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What a week! $BTC vol is back, global markets are in pandemonium, sleepy August markets have awoken! Time to finish your monthlong siestas and get back to screens.
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A ton of incredible insight in the
@GenesisTrading
Q2 Markets Report. We talk about supply/demand mechanics in lending markets, crypto derivative themes and trends along with a host of other topics. It's a meaty one so grab a cup of coffee.
#Bitcoin
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2/ The magnitude of volume across the space and at
@GenesisTrading
was record breaking, the widespread paranoia reminiscent of March 2020, but with all that, no defaults, no capital losses and healthy liquidity.
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Preach
@jackmallers
preach!
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4/ Onwards and upwards, a great learning experience and hopefully a great opportunity to go shopping for
#crypto
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3/ We will miss him greatly, but I have no doubt he will be wildly successful in whatever he pours his talent into – that I can say with certainty. Best of luck in your next phase of life
@roshunpatel
! I look forward to trading with you on the other side. Peace Brev.
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Infrastructure first.
@BitGo
is building the first QC-cold storage-supported settlement network with Go Network. The next evolution of institutional-grade products and services relies on sound market structure.
"The lending market will come back when there's stable understood-risk ways to provide those products and services."
@mikebelshe
on the future of the markets.
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6/ At some point, you have to show you’re capable of turning a profit. This rate adjustment was long overdue and now represents a much truer picture of the inherent yield on crypto assets in this market.
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5/ You either grow your user base by offering generous yields on assets or you focus on profitability and optimize your business for net interest margin. That’s the spectrum. You can’t optimize for both.
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3/ hundreds of millions in notional of margin calls, orderly unwinds and deleveraging, some exchange and operational delays across the market, but overall it feels much healthier than the last 40% drawdown.
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2/ Arb funds borrow cash, long spot and short future or perp. The battle is on between arb and levered buying. Curves blow out, market becomes overheated. Drawdown happens, curves flatten, perfect exit for arb funds. Market delevers, prices fall. Rinse repeat.
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Congrats to
@roshunpatel
on 10k followers. For those that don’t follow him, his profile boasts a nice mix of alpha, shitcoining and memes. He also happens to know crypto market structure better than most.
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As the world starts to price things in $BTC just remember that if you don't own any, you are are short.
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We have three very important things: character, integrity and ability. Everything else will be a function of these + luck. Control what you can control.
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2/ For those that don’t know this local farmer and ‘all things’-degen, Ro was monumental in building out our lending desk, expanding our trading and bringing vibrant energy to the team since he walked in the door back in 2018. Genesis truly wouldn’t be the same without Ro Patel.
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.
@GenesisTrading
is operating/trading as normal and continues to be an institutional-grade credit in the market. Important time to parse truth from FUD.
Genesis is a liquidity provider to our trading partners — we hedge all our risk including that linked to UST and LUNA. We have no direct exposure to UST and LUNA, and continue to operate and serve our counterparties as usual.
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A very important thread from our CEO at
@GenesisTrading
during a critical time in institutional crypto market history. The leaders of this space need to band together to set the industry standard. Onwards and upwards.
1/While our policy is to never address specific client activity, we think it's prudent to provide clarity and transparency to the market in times of great volatility and speculation. We want our counterparties and clients to know the following:
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So much of business success, deal origination, and growth comes from genuine, organic relationship-building. Just be a good person, take time to connect with people and you can mint opportunity.
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@AlanStacked
@rsalame7926
@BlockFi
No, it’s quite the opposite. Cash gets you 1. Leverage and 2. the ability to capture basis between BTC future and spot markets. You can take your cash or USDC and long spot, short June BTC future and capture roughly 22% ann implied on
@FTX_Official
right now.
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Proud of our incredible Team
@GenesisTrading
and the organization we’ve built. Onwards and upwards, together.
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Definitely cooler in print regardless of the FUDiness.
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I am by no means a geopolitical expert, but if perpetual sanctions hinder global trade, it might just be a race to own an inherently scarce internet currency, i.e $BTC
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Congrats brothers. All seriousness - show me a fund that’a had this much fun and made this much money.
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I'm more bullish than ever on crypto market participants working together to build better, more scalable capital markets. The concept of growing the overall pie seems to be resonating now more than it has in the last five years.
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Thanks for having me on
@tanayamacheel
and
@CNBC
!!
Great chatting about the evolving market structure and our plans for Go Network.
"Go Network is our way of derisking the institutional crypto market structure, while still providing capital efficient trading and settlement solutions to institutions.
The goal here is really to rebuild trust in the market."
BitGo's
@MattBallen4791
today on
@CNBC
with…
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If you need a quick chuckle no matter what mood you're in...
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2/ BTC borrow demand is a function of the risk adjusted return opportunities in the market and right now they are limited.
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Those with conviction have little fear.
Those with fear have little conviction (or too much leverage).
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3/ The public shares vs private placement arbs are backwards, futures markets are in heavy contango, such that taking a view on a steepening curve wouldn’t make a ton of sense and those who went short basis haven’t had to add too much support to cover the short leg of this trade.
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Woke up this morning to find
@JohnCena
following me. Made my day. WAGMI, don’t even need breakfast today.
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4/ So outside of just general trading working capital, there are limited ways to deploy BTC right now…and thus the glorified 4-6% yields on BTC are contracting fast. At the end of the day, institutional lenders have to make tradeoffs.
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Great panel to learn more about the institutionalization of crypto and how yield/staking has taken the industry by storm. Two veterans with different vantage points
@colyermike
and
@michaelmoro
TOMORROW: Foundry CEO
@colyermike
and Genesis CEO
@michaelmoro
discuss the evolution of crypto assets and what the future has in store for institutions.
Sponsored by
@FoundryServices
and
@GenesisTrading
:
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I don't want to jinx it, but I'm not seeing the ground-shaking, catastrophic wicks to the downside that I used to see in major drawdowns. Balance sheets are bigger, there is more liquidity and there is more trust. We've been through this in a worse market structure.
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The Russian government and central bank treating $BTC and other digital assets as currency seems pretty reasonable and straightforward. Why are we having such a hard time with this in the U.S?
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Being irresonsibly long crypto seems pretty responsible.
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There are a lot of Michael Jordans in crypto. I don’t mean that in an analogous way. Like there are just a lot of people named Michael Jordan.
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1/ Those saying “the worst is yet to come” clearly have not been on the front lines nor in the trenches. This has been (and will likely forever be) one of the most vicious periods of destruction ever in crypto. We are at the point where everyone’s opens their shutters and doors.
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No doubt in my mind that when the first
#BitcoinETF
gets approved all of a sudden the narrative will shift from:
“crypto is too speculative to be part of your portfolio”
to
“we recommend a modest allocation of crypto in your portfolio”
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Should we all join
@monad_xyz
?
Also congrats to my little brother on joining
@monad_xyz
as well!
Excited to get to work with you 🤝
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Everyone wants to be a news-breaker even when they're sitting on the sidelines with nothing substantive to support their story other than what other news-breakers post on Twitter. This is how headlines cause marketwide panic and how trust becomes worthless. Congrats CT.
Sam Bankman-Fried was once admired as the king of crypto.
Now Alameda and FTX are rumoured to be on the brink of insolvency.
🧵: Here's how it all went wrong for SBF and FTX. 👇
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In the end it’s just a lot more fun to buy things then sell them. Getting longer $BTC and majors feels right.
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Excited to partner with our good friends over at
@maplefinance
on a fully secured pool with collateral assets held in qualified custody at
@BitGo
.
.
@maplefinance
has partnered with BitGo to provide clients with qualified custody for the Maple Secured Lending Direct Pool.
Maple provides over-collateralized digital asset financing across a range of digital assets to institutional and high net worth clients.
Maple Finance…
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It's been an incredible 4 years at
@DCGco
and
@GenesisTrading
. Being in the trenches every day you start to lose sight of how much ground has been covered in a short period of time. Congrats to DCG on TIME 100 Most Influential Companies of 2021
#Bitcoin
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12/ With the staggering correlation to both the S&P 500 and BTC, I'll be watching these daily reverse repo flows like a hawk as the Fed is apparently piloting new t-bill issuance. You can track the daily inflows/outflows of RRs directly below:
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Not only does this increase liquidity/working capital for
@DCGco
+ affiliates, but it signals that the crypto credit market is real.
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