The Breakdown First Five - Friday June 2, 2023

5. MakerDAO buys Treasuries

MakerDAO, the issuer of stablecoin DAI, taken another step in their reserve stability efforts, voting to purchase an additional $1.28B in US government bonds. The move more than doubles their holdings of treasuries, in addition to $500M in USDC holdings. The overcollateralized stablecoin now relies on Ethereum for less than 50% of its collateral mix.

4. New Coinbase Offshore offerings

Coinbase will expand their offshore products to include vanilla derivatives, with trading commencing next week. Contracts will be sized at 1 BTC and 10 ETH and settled monthly. Coinbase cited high demand from institutional customers. The products would be directly competing with similar offerings traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

3. Nike NFTs kick off

Nike will be bringing its NFTs to EA Sports games. The shoe brand's digital products will presumably feature in segment dominating titles including FIFA and Madden NFL. Last week, Nike NFTs surpassed $1M in sales with almost 100,000 digital sneakers sold. This partnership represents the biggest crossover between Web 3 products and video gaming to date, shaping future business decisions about the viability of NFTs in mainstream games.

2. Uniswap fee switch vote fails

The Uniswap community has voted down a proposal to charge fees to liquidity providers. A majority of the community voted for fees but were split on the amount. Fees would be charged to LPs, who are generally large commercial market makers, rather than everyday users. As DEX volumes continue to surge, the protocol could be fumbling an opportunity to show significant revenues and a viable business model.

5. Binance Locked Out in Australia

Binance stopped bank transfers in Australia after failing to find a new payments partner. The exchange warned customers of the possibility earlier in May but said it would be “working hard to find an alternative provider.” It turns out that no one wants to bank Binance down under as the global squeeze on the world’s largest exchange continues. Card services remain operational.

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Thanks for reading -NLW