Welcome to the Beluga Brief, where we deliver data-driven insights to your inbox every day of the week, spending our time in the crypto trenches and combing through thousands of crypto news feeds so you don’t have to.

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What happened today?

More news of conflict in the Middle East impacted the markets today with almost $500M in liquidations so far according to data from CoinGlass. This included the partial liquidation of a pseudonymous user known as “2TheMoon”, who is sitting at a combined pnl of -$13.5M at time of writing. It turns out that taking up a third of an exchange’s open interest with a 20x levered long is a horrible idea. Interestingly despite the BTC nuke, the memecoin market has held up pretty well which is usually where we see the most blood when bad things happen. This could certainly change over the next 24 hours as the situation is still very much developing, but strength in times of market weakness is one of the most important things to pay attention to in order to identify what will rebound the hardest. One interesting piece of news that emerged at the end of the day is what seems to be a filing from asset manager Bitwise for an XRP ETF, which comes a huge surprise to most.

In other Beluga news, I used the dip created by the conflict today to deploy the rest of our USDC (US Dollar Coin), completing our Dollar Cost Average (DCA) into Curve DAO, the leading stablecoin swap. I mentioned previously in a Beluga Brief edition that I felt we had one more crash coming before resuming the Bull Market, so I seized the opportunity today. At this point we sit and wait to see where the market goes, and will likely begin rotating out of some of our larger positions that have performed well like $FTM to rebalance the portfolio.

Biggest Headlines

The Beluga intern has been hard at work gathering all the most important crypto news stories so you have them in one place!

The Majors

• CryptoQuant says recent stablecoin market cap growth is providing liquidity for bitcoin price increase

• Crypto prices tumble with Ethereum below $2,500 as Iran fires missiles at Israel

Alt Coins

• Aave V3 surpasses $10 Billion TVL as DeFi resurgence gains momentum

• TON blockchain’s success shows crypto has gone mainstream: Midas CEO

Popular dApps

• World Liberty Financial says ‘thousands’ signed up for whitelist within first day

New Launches

• Bitwise Registers Delaware trust for XRP ETF

• EigenLayer token goes live at multi-billion valuation

Miscellaneous

• Diddy hires Sam Bankman-Fried’s (new) lawyer

Tweet of the Day

Today marks the start of infamous Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht’s 12th year in prison, a controversial case still up for contention today. Former president Donald Trump has expressed his intentions to pardon Ulbricht should he be elected in November which has once again brought this wild story back into the spotlight.

Fun Fact of the Day

A Reddit user claims to have once exchanged 1,600 Bitcoin for a used Honda Accord in 2010, making it the most expensive Honda purchase of all time at a present value of almost $100M.

The content on this site is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. While Beluga strives to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of information, there may be discrepancies when comparing our data to that of financial institutions, service providers, or specific product websites. Always consult with a professional before making any financial decisions.

Will McKinnon is the Head of Content for Beluga and has spent every day for many years trading coins. For that reason there are too many to name, however his largest holdings by a significant margin are Ethereum and Bitcoin. NFA DYOR