PayPal let the bulls out - but will it take hold in the crypto world?

Hi everybody!

It is worth starting this issue of Twice the Value with the most groundbreaking news in crypto this week (and probably month, and even quarter): you must have already heard that starting from next year PayPal will support cryptocurrencies.

When one of the largest payment processors in the world makes such a step towards adoption, it can’t help but excite the industry – BTC breaking through $13,000 mark for the first time since July was certainly inspired by the announcement.

Despite that, certain concerns are raised about PayPal’s crypto system being a complete walled garden (without allowing users to withdraw or transfer their crypto). Why this can be an issue is best described in this piece by Anthony Sassano:

Anthony Sassano | sassal.eth ⛽ 🏴 @sassal0x

PayPal finally joined the crypto party yesterday but if you read the fine print, they came empty-handed. They'll unfortunately be forcing users into their walled garden when interacting with their crypto-related services Thoughts in today's piece 👇 thedailygwei.substack.com/p/welcome-to-t…Welcome to the Future, PayPal - The Daily Gwei #101PayPal finally came full circle.thedailygwei.substack.com

October 22nd 2020

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However, there is an opinion that there is nothing to be alarmed of, as PayPal will most likely be lifting these restrictions. Read the full thread by Adam Cochran to learn more (it’s an excellent, well-argumented hypothesis):

Adam Cochran @AdamScochran

1/11 People are bothered by the fact PayPal won't allow deposits or withdrawals of their crypto: 1. Chances are that as they expand their infrastructure they'll allow deposits/withdrawals right now they want to profit on spread and need to get robust AML in place for transfers.

October 21st 2020

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Progress for institutions and retail

About that PayPal-inspired record BTC price: interestingly enough, earlier this month institutional investors placed a record number of bullish bets in BTC futures listed Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). It’s clearly paying off!

Meanwhile, things are also progressing on the retail side: Binance hit an all-time high in trading volume ($306.6 billion in Q3), showing that more and more retail investors are going to Binance to buy crypto. Their crypto futures trading platform has also seen a consistent growth.

Meanwhile in DeFi

• Despite 39.6 million UNI staked in favor, Uniswap’s first governance vote failed, missing only 1% that was needed to reach approval. Ironically, as CoinDesk noted, the proposal sought to reduce the number of tokens needed to submit and pass proposals. 

𝕯𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖊𝖗 @safetyth1rd

This is the DeFi equivalent of winning the popular vote but losing the electoral college.

defiprime @defiprime

In other news: Vote 1 rekt ✅ https://t.co/rNJpcqAOPJ

October 19th 2020

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• R3 Corda, most famous for its private, permissioned blockchain, goes DeFi with the first token issued on its public network, targeting DeFi and CBDC projects.

• For interesting insights about “DeFi Summer”, we recommend to read this CoinDesk piece by Brady Dale.