DeFi Winter

Market Snapshot After appearing to want to move lower, futures were up slightly yesterday morning as investors were looking to rebound from this abysmal 2022 selloff. WTI traded around $106 before the opening bell before closing slightly lower, and BTC & ETH haven’t made back any of the ground they have lost this year. The trading day was similar, showing us why Six Flags is so fun. The Dow was up 0.64%, the S&P was up 0.95%, and the Nasdaq climbed 1.62%. Looking to springboard your career into venture capital? Learn everything you need to know about cap tables, term sheets, due diligence, venture fund structure, and more from elite VCs with successful track records in WSO's [VC Course](=). Let’s get into it. Banana Bits - Finally, the future is here: [autonomous taxis]( are coming to the Bay Area, along with (probably) lots of car accidents - ETH founder is still certain that crypto [isn’t dead](=)… but doesn’t he have to be? - Musk warns that new Berlin and Austin gigafactories are [money furnaces](), e.g., the opposite of a money printer - Congrats to Brittney Griner on yet another [all-star selection](=), but this time it’s a tad bit non-standard…#FreeBrittney - If you're looking to crack into the VC space, we have just the [resources]() for you Banana Brain Teaser Yesterday — Lovely and round, I shine with pale light, grown in the darkness, A lady’s delight. What am I? A pearl. Today — For today's first 15 respondents with the correct answer, we will unlock our [VC Course]() for 150 bananas less. LFG! You have a 3-gallon jug and a 5-gallon jug; how do you measure out exactly 4 gallons? Shoot us your guesses at [vyomesh@wallstreetoasis.com](mailto:vyomesh@wallstreetoasis.com?subject=Banana%20Brain%20Teaser) with the subject line “Banana Brain Teaser” or simply [click here to reply!](mailto:vyomesh@wallstreetoasis.com?subject=Banana%20Brain%20Teaser) Macro Monkey Says Gas Tax Holiday? — In case you live under a rock, Joey B is looking to present his people with what he hopes will amount to an 18-cent per gallon cut to the price of gas in the form of a federal gas tax holiday. Oh, and he has promised that it won’t affect the projects and programs that the revenue stream from the tax funds. Yes, you read that right. Now supporting something that his former boss President Obama called a “gimmick” almost 15 years ago, Joey B is hoping for congressional cooperation in giving consumers some reprieve at the pump. Well, I have news for you. Even if this measure is adopted, which it likely won’t, there’s a chance that not all 18 cents of the tax cut will be passed to consumers. There are a few layovers on the way to consumers when it comes to everyone taking their cut along the way. As you’d have it, this tax cut might really, really benefit the massive energy companies that have been raking in all of those record profits. I think higher prices are embedded in the consumer’s mindset. We are actually mentally preparing ourselves for price increases, especially at the pump. Does that make it hurt any less? No, when you’re used to paying half, and things cost double all of a sudden, no – it does not hurt any less. Maybe Daddy JPow is right: we might need a recession to actually introduce some price stability. Does anyone remember Paul Volcker? Springboard Your Career [image]() Excited about getting in on the ground floor of the next big idea before it hits the mainstream? If you're looking for an exciting career and searching for outsized returns for the next revolutionary concept or product, VC is the place to be. Springboard your career into venture capital with WSO's VC Course. Get hands-on experience from over 100 lessons that will help you master cap table modeling and term sheets like a pro VC. Learn from experienced industry experts with proven track records to [position yourself for success in a career in VC](). What's Ripe Datadog ($DDOG) — The biggest mover in the Nasdaq yesterday was $DDOG, climbing 10.44%. News came out yesterday that Datadog was releasing an audit trail feature that could enable its customers to better meet its governance objectives. But we think that investors are mostly tired of the downward trend and think that Datadog is a name worth hanging on to. Salesforce ($CRM) — Salesforce led the Dow higher yesterday, finishing the day up 3.37%. After adjusting its forecast a few weeks ago, $CRM has had a rough go of things, but not any worse than a lot of other names. Their CEO was in the news yesterday sh*ttalking returning to the office, so maybe that helped boost faith in $CRM’s stock. What's Rotten Caterpillar Inc ($CAT) — In an uncharacteristically large swing, shares of $CAT dropped 4.88% yesterday. They’ve been in the news for fleeing Illinois and contributing to the high-tax state mass exodus that Boeing kicked off. On a roller coaster of a day, $CAT just couldn’t find its footing with investors. Chevron ($CVX) — As crude retreats, so do share prices of major energy players. Yesterday followed this rule of thumb. Crude closed just below $105/barrel, a far cry from the $120 we had gotten used to. Chevron followed, closing around $142/share. This was a decline of 3.66%. But Energy has had the best year of any S&P component. Are you BTFD? Thought Banana DeFi Winter — Is crypto dead? A lot of you will probably be up in arms about this hot take: we should have seen this massive pullback coming. Kids were yolo-ing their stimmy checks into shitcoins while teenagers were trading pixelated apes and becoming overnight millionaires. If you had invested $1000 in Satoshis when Matt Damon’s famous “Fortune favors the Brave” pitch debuted for crypto.com, today you’d have less than $400. If you bought BTC around all-time highs, as FOMO-ers tend to do, you’d now have 66% fewer dollars invested than you once had. It’s science. Volume is down. To encourage BTC trading, Binance has dropped its fee structure for BTC trades and is trying to stimulate trading in a zero-fee zone. Ironically, one of the biggest crypto bulls and the largest publicly acknowledged holders of Satoshis is asking for essentially the opposite of DeFi. Michael Saylor, the CEO of Microstrategy (and maybe unconfirmed close Satoshi Nakamoto relative), is now calling for increased regulation for a basket of predatory crypto practices. Dubbed the parade of horribles, Saylor says that the government needs to step in… and basically centralize regulation for decentralized finance? It’s unclear what he means, but I see through it: when the industry’s “baggage” is inconvenient, call in the government to clean house. It’s the same idea with the Energy industry. If you don’t like carbon footprints and fossil fuels and greenhouse gasses, get the government to regulate it until it’s more convenient for your agenda. Most non-crypto bros only can name a few popular DeFi assets: BTC, ETH, Doge, and of course, Poo and ASS coins. BTC has fallen more than 70% from its ATH, and literally, 100s of other coins have lost 99% of their value in the same time. Even some of the top ten coins by market cap have lost 80-90% of their value. Watching tech investors lose 50% of their wealth this year seems like a good deal when you watch crypto bros lose 90%. And when compared to inflation, an 8% haircut seems like a bargain! There is definitely a place in this world for blockchain. Will it define Web3.0? IDK, don’t look at me. But I do know that all winters eventually come to an end, even if your winter turns out to be a f*cking crypto ice age. Happy Friday, apes. Wise Investor Says “Don’t drive this economy off a cliff.” — Elizabeth Warren to Jerome Powell Happy Investing, Patrick & The Daily Peel Team Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up for the WSO Daily Peel [here](=). [ADVERTISE](=) // [WSO ALPHA]( // [COURSES](=) // [LEGAL](=) Don't want The Daily Peel? [Unsubscribe here](=). Click to [Unsubscribe]( from ALL WSO content IB Oasis Corp. (aka "Wall Street Oasis") 20705 Saint Charles St Saratoga, California 95070 United States (617) 337-3353