Happy Wednesday, Blockfolians
The Lede
Man, there is a lot going on today. Bitcoin was juicing up over $35,000 last night, Lightning Strike is going global (more below), the UK’s crypto derivatives ban is beginning…so much happening.
One of those many fascinating things was the announcement today that Shapeshift would be moving to a model that was entirely supported by decentralized exchanges in an attempt to allow users to move away from KYC.
Said CEO Erik Vorhees:
“ShapeShift’s original model was designed to protect users, providing instant liquidity without requiring them to trust a custodian. We had to be the counterparty – the market maker – to provide that service at scale. The decentralized protocols are now providing a superior service, so we’re embracing this evolution and helping our customers easily connect with them.”
In case it wasn’t clear what the goal of the move was, here’s another statement from the press release.
“Because ShapeShift is no longer acting as any form of financial intermediary or counterparty, this new, frictionless [user experience] frees users from having to provide personal, private information."
Of course, whether the US Government agrees with this assessment remains to be seen, but its hard not to read this as a major indication of just how much DeFi is growing, as well as why it matters.
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Highly Relevant Reading
Trading desks are staffing up anticipating extended bull run
Strike Global is taking Bitcoin’s Lightning Network to the world
Market must be pumping; Coinbase is down
Iran just shut down more than 1600 crypto mining facilities
Community Commentary
More on the Strike Global announcement
This is the prevailing narrative around a Democrat majority in the Senate
A Really Big Number We Should Be Paying Attention To
196.17M
That’s the number of visits to exchange websites in December, up 23.5% from November and the highest The Block has ever recorded.
Final Thought
Who is right?