Weekly Beluga Insights

Since our last Beluga Brief edition a lot has happened in the market, including the largest Ethereum pump since 2021 and the formation of a new major narrative (or reinvention?) for onchain traders, so let’s dive right in. First and foremost, Ethereum’s recent Pectra upgrade has set off a chain of events leading Ethereum to trade over $2,500 once again, up over 40% in the last 2 weeks — or as we say in the crypto world, the tech has improved by 40% in 2 weeks.

Prior to this upgrade Ethereum had become not only one of the most hated crypto assets on an emotional level, however it was also the coin with the highest short interest in the market. These short positions acted as fuel for the pump as they were liquidated or forced to cover with a few billion in liquidations over that time frame. As an Ethereum fan personally, it feels great to finally see some life in the chart as this cycle has not been an easy time for ETH holders, however the job is far from done.

It looks like the months of ridicule the Ethereum Foundation faced (mostly stemming from price action) has convinced them to change tact, with a renewed focus on ETH itself rather than its Layer 2 networks. The argument could be made that ETH mainnet has always been the focus anyway, but regardless the public perception shift is palpable and has resulted in some extremely positive price action.

Looking further down on the market cap list, it seems the Solana community has invented something called “Internet Capital Markets” or ICM for short. This phrase was popularized by the Believe platform, which recently gained notoriety due to Nikita Bier’s support. Believe is designed to allow founders of companies to release a coin associated with their startup idea, and earn trading fees off of it to both fund development and gauge interest in the product or service. As with many things in this industry, this is a pretty good idea that ended up being hijacked by grifters.

We’ve seen a couple interesting projects come out of the app, but so far the vast majority of launches have been simple memecoins or outright scams… leading to the app’s founder Ben Pasternak taking a break from promoting new launches while they figure out next steps. If it becomes just another memecoin launchpad, I expect Believe to fade into the background as we already have very strong market leaders (pump.fun specifically) in this sector. However, if they can figure out how to keep launches to mostly people with real ideas, we might be seeing the start of something cool.

Major Movers of the Week

Public Trading Wallet Update

Our trading wallet balance is virtually unchanged from last week, which is pretty surprising considering all that has happened — it really does put things into perspective that despite ETH rising 40% in 2 weeks, our position is still down around 15%. That’s been a difficult hold for sure, but our thesis (revolving around institutional adoption and the security moat) has only grown stronger. Now that we’re finally on the other side of the incredibly negative sentiment towards Ethereum, I expect the price to catch up with the adoption curve.

Tweet of the Week

As someone who gets phishing texts impersonating Coinbase everyday likely due to this leak, I’d have to agree with Karbon here. Not only did outsourced customer support reps have full access to user home addresses, balances, and contact info, but they are paid nothing and easily bribable. What could go wrong?

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Disclaimer

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