Category: Monthly Newsletter

Fintech Offerings Outpace Legacy Institutions

In recent years, traditional banking institutions have struggled with meeting the needs of their customer base. With a great reliance on legacy processes that have not changed appreciably in decades, the need for innovation has never been greater. Fintech offerings have sidestepped many of the slow mechanisms that have hamstrung traditional financial system development, and their influence is beginning to eat into the market share legacy banks had previously enjoyed without competition.

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Varys Capital is pleased to announce an investment in PolkaCipher. PolkaCipher’s aim is to bridge the gap between the off-chain Internet economy and on-chain decentralized applications, and to be at the forefront of the cross-chain NFT ecosystem with community governance and a privacy-enabled network.

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Varys Capital is pleased to announce an investment in Matrixswap. Matrixswap’s mission is to develop a community-owned and governed decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol with infinite on-chain liquidity.

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Varys Capital is pleased to announce an investment in Mintlayer’s seed round. Mintlayer’s mission is to provide access to decentralized finance (DeFi) in an accessible, user-friendly, and flexible manner.

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War of the Blockchains – Newcomers Struggle for Dominance to Meet Market Needs

With markets firmly in “Altcoin Season” territory as of this writing, all eyes have been on potential shortcomings of Ethereum at its current scale. With transaction times and fees on the rise and concerns over power usage and potential centralization growing, the community has been hard at work building solutions with alternative blockchains while maintaining Ethereum’s mission and structure. This has led to a crop of up-and-coming projects, all eager to fill the needs in the market left as Ethereum continues to mature.

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State of Current Affairs for Digital Assets: Q1 2021

Bitcoin has reached several all-time highs in 2021, primarily driven by economic uncertainty in regard to the pandemic and concerns of inflation triggered by large amounts of economic stimulus. Initially, the push was driven by a large amount of institutional investment and greater accessibility of Bitcoin, such as with PayPal offering crypto trading to a massive and previously largely untapped user base. As time has passed and the bull run has continued, though, its tenor has changed. For example, Grayscale, one of the largest forces behind the institutional investment force has tapered off their purchase of coins, but this has been compensated for by a huge surge in retail investment. Over the past twelve months, Bitcoin holdings have increased on Binance by 38%, much of it occurring in 2021. Binance is also outpacing Coinbase signups by a factor of 5, as the sensational price highs have spurred a vast amount of activity and interest in Bitcoin.

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New Heights for Bitcoin Price and Adoption, Paving the Way for Altcoins

February marks another wild ride for Bitcoin, starting the month at roughly $34,000 and reaching an all-time high of $58,641 with a pullback to approximately $50,000 as of the writing of this article. This has resulted in a concomitant rise in chain activity, with a matching all-time high of unique addresses sending and receiving Bitcoin. This has resulted in institutions bringing Bitcoin access into both the virtual world through platforms and physical, real-space kiosks to drive further adoption.

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Bitcoin Accessibility Marches On as Rally Continues

Bitcoin’s Rally Continues On Unabated

Bitcoin’s massive rally at the end of 2020 and proceeding into 2021 is no accident. One of the most common phrases among investors when comparing it to 2017’s rally is “this one is different.” 2017’s infamous rally and then crash was driven by speculation – when the house of cards fell, there was no real weight or backing behind it. What makes 2020 different is that the house is built on rock rather than sand, with an ever-swelling user base and the financial investment of some of America’s biggest institutional players.

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Bitcoin Reaches New All-Time High, Altcoin Spring is Near

Bitcoin continues its frenzy, reaching yet another all-time high above $28,000 on December 27, 2020. This represents a gain of more than 200% year to date, and one of the best years for the asset to boot. However, the digital asset sphere is more than just Bitcoin, despite how often it takes the spotlight. Other coins have different value propositions and fill certain needs more effectively than Bitcoin, and the rising tide generated by Bitcoin will lift all boats in the system. Often dubbed “altcoin season” by its proponents, the positive press and movement generated by Bitcoin will inevitably spark research and interest in lesser-known coins.

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Bitcoin’s Historic Bull Run – Uncharted Territory and New Highs

Digital assets are finishing off an incredibly turbulent year with a bang, with both Bitcoin and altcoins finding new highs and old favorites climbing closer towards previous highs. Positive pandemic news in the form of extremely encouraging vaccine results was released which sent traditional markets soaring. Despite this, digital assets markets did not lose their edge, even though they were positioned as a safe haven asset to sit alongside gold over the prior year. The strides that digital assets were making in accessibility and investment levels over the year have finally paid off, which led to an explosive price gain once all the underlying factors were finally realized.

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 Digital Assets Vie for the Safe Haven Throne

As economic uncertainty lingers, several large institutional investors have made not-entirely-expected purchases of Bitcoin, helping to buoy an already bullish market. Fiat currency devaluation has driven investors to seek new avenues to ride out the storm. Although Bitcoin has made inroads into this space in the past, it has enjoyed several new votes of confidence as a long-term asset class over the prior month.

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September 2020: Liquidity Miners Chase Rewards and Drive Competition Within DeFi

Decentralized finance (DeFi) is an extension of the original use case for cryptocurrency and digital assets: a means to transact value without the interference of third party middlemen or governmental systems. While digital assets have performed well in peer to peer transactions, performing wider services such as credit and lending have since eluded cryptocurrency developers. As the pandemic has constrained access to credit and caused banks to lower interest rates, customers have begun searching for alternatives, leading to the explosive growth of decentralized currency; banking services provided more cheaply and transparently on the blockchain.

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