🐦 Is the bird free?

BTC and ETH on the move, VC are hit hard

October 30, 2022

Contents (4 min read):

  • 🐦 Is the bird free?

  • 📉 VCs hit by the drop in crypto prices

  • 📈 BTC and ETH are on the move

  • 💰 Coins of the week

  • 📰 Top Reads

  • 🙏🏻 Grateful for…

🐦 Is the bird free?

The bird is not completely free, but the cage has gotten bigger. There has been a lot of controversy with regard to the future of Twitter after Elon Musk took the company private this week. Some people believe this will allow Twitter to be more open and transparent, while others believe it will make the platform more exclusive and difficult to access.

A company with a private owner can not be fully free as every decision that affects all its users is taken by a small group of people with their benefits in mind. A more decentralized organization, like a DAO structure, could allow it to operate in a more free format, especially with a diverse team open to users’ feedback in order to create an open social media platform that motivates a healthy speech among all users.

Twitter key statistics

  • Twitter generated $5 billion revenue in 2021, an 35% increase year-on-year

  • 92% of Twitter’s revenue came from advertising in 2021

  • Twitter posted a net loss of $221 million in 2021, an 80% reduction on the $1.1 billion loss it reported in 2020

  • Twitter has 206 million daily active users and 38 million users in the United States

Twitter has already lost General Motors as an advertiser after the takeover and some other companies are choosing to pull out and sit on the sidelines to monitor the upcoming changes. Will Twitter become a Tesla and SpaceX megaphone? Will Elon be able to fix the bot issue that motivated him to buy it? Will Twitter be able to turn a profit?

There are many questions, and without a doubt, Elon has an impressive track record, but running a media company is a different ball game.

On another note, the midterm elections in the US will be on November 8th. As we are aware, many users and politicians have been banned from Twitter for using hate speech and attempting to manipulate elections. We shall see if the bird changes fast enough to have a more direct impact in the upcoming elections and if any banned users are invited back. We will keep monitoring this takeover.

📉 VCs hit by the drop in crypto prices

The bear market is taking its toll on some of the industry’s biggest venture firms. Pantera Capital is a notable crypto venture firm that has had a bad year. Pantera's early-stage token fund fell 71% in value through the end of September, according to an investor presentation obtained by The Block. 

The news comes at a time when many tokens and cryptocurrencies are down by more than 50% amid depressed macro market sentiment. And it’s not just Pantera. Andresen Horowitz (A16z), one of the largest crypto investors, has seen a 40% drop in value for its flagship crypto fund, the WSJ reported. 

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📈 BTC and ETH are on the move

  • Bitcoin was trading at $20,666, while ether was up 15% at $1,537.

  • The global crypto market cap was trading above $1 trillion again on Wednesday. 

Ether soared 14% and bitcoin climbed back above $20,000 for the first time since early October as crypto markets rose amid fading expectations of further aggressive Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.

Ether's gains were even more pronounced as Ethereum's native coin gained 14.9% to trade at $1,537, according to data via Coinbase. Ether hadn't traded above $1,500 since The Merge. 

Some speculators have attributed the rise in prices to easing Fed rate hike expectations and a weakening U.S. dollar. The Fed is expected to rise rates by 75 basis points next week, bringing the target rate to 3.75-4% from 3-3.25%.

Meanwhile, the Dollar Index — a measure of the value of the U.S. dollar relative to a basket of foreign currencies — is trading around 110, its lowest level since Oct. 5. Bitcoin's price in dollars will naturally rise as the U.S. currency weakens. 

The global crypto market cap was back above $1 trillion on Wednesday, according to The Block's data dashboard, after struggling to maintain this position consistently over the past three months. 

💰 Coins of the week

The meme coin has doubled in price after Elon Musk completed Twitter’s takeover. Musk has been known to promote Dogecoin on tweets and considers it one of his favorite cryptos. Dogecoin enthusiasts believe that the move to buy the social platform may be beneficial to dogecoin’s future.

📰 Top Reads

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