🔮 Yuga Labs drops a new NFT collection

Gm, this is the doodhwala, the only crypto newsletter that’s as colourful as the festival of Holi.

We’ve got 🔴 for your portfolio, 🟢 for your plate, blue for your…err…films, and of course ⚪️ for doodh!

Here’s the color for the day:

• 🪂 A crypto lender drops a TOKEN

• 🔮 Yuga Labs drops the BALLS

• 📊 NFTs down ETH up

• 🛠 How To Reduce DeFi Risk?

• 🍼 Livestreaming the Doggy Style

Happy Holi! Drink a Big Glass of DOODH!

🪂 A crypto lender drops a TOKEN

A crypto lender just came back from the dead.

And it’s launching a brand new coin to pay back its users.

Babel Finance.

Nope, ☝️ that’s not the crypto exchange Jesus uses. Well, it might just be you never know. $HOLY token on HOLI anyone? 👀

Babel Finance is a crypto lender that went from a $2 billion valuation to bankruptcy within 2 months.

Crypto lenders…that rings a bell 🔔…a broke af bell 🔕

Last year was bad for crypto lenders, almost as bad as it was for footballers with the last name Ronaldo, and the first name Cristiano.

The reason?

Falling crypto prices + Massive risk appetite + No due diligence = 💀 Crypto Lenders.

Babel Finance was one among ☝️ them, they ended up losing $766 million:

🔒 Locked up — $524 in customers’ lent funds

💥 Liquidated – $224 million in customers’ borrowed funds

Now, to pay back their customers Babel Finance is has a RECOVERY PLAN.

So, what’s their plan?

• Sell their entire lending business like Celsius?

• Launch a crypto exchange like 3 Arrows Capital?

• Bore people to death with legal emails like Vauld?

Nope, it’s something WAAAAAYYYY WOOORRRSSEE.

Their plan?

…wait……wait really……checks notes but tries not to laugh…

…launch a DeFi project backed by an algorithmic stablecoin and use the revenue earned from this to pay back customers.

Babel Finance is naming this project with the most cringe name since – Dinchak Pooja (omg that girl was a vibe 💯) –HOPE.

Yes, the name of a bankrupt crypto lender’s DeFi project is – H O P E.

What’s the project about?

According to its website:

Yuck 🤢 sounds like one of those pretentious explanations by a Masterchef judge.

“I’d like a plate of tomato and onion curry, accompanied by a pair of freshly baked pav bread with some melted clarified butter and a piece of lime for a sour aftertaste.”

Bruh, why can’t you say – “bhaiya, one plate Pav Bhaji”?!?

Screenshot this meme with the friend who talks like this 👇

But seriously, it’s not clear what Hope the DeFi platform does. 🤷‍♂️

However, we know it’s got 2 tokens:

• $HOPE – algorithmic stablecoin backed by BTC and ETH and pegged at $1

• $LT – or Light Token, a utility and governance token to reward users

HOPE + LIGHT. Their tokens got more motivation than me on Monday mornings. 🤣

*laughs in Do Kwon and then runs away from the cops*

✋ Oh wait, there’s more. ✋

They’re going all out to launch a buncha things within the Hope Ecosystem, like:

1️⃣ Hope Reserve Pools: Liquidity pools of BTC + ETH + stablecoins to keep HOPE = $1

2️⃣ HopeSwap: A decentralized exchange to buy HOPE

3️⃣ stHOPE: A liquid version of staked HOPE tokens

4️⃣ HopeLending: A peer-to-peer lending market

On the bright side, with a name like HOPE, if all of this doesn’t go well, they can always launch:

5️⃣ HOPELess: Therapy group for their customers

6️⃣ HOPEFut: Football league for their customers

🙈

The eventual goals for Babel?

🏁 Goal 1 → Repay customers through HOPE’s revenue

🏁 Goal 2 → Become the DeFi version of many CeFi projects

But how they'll do this? Charge fees, earn interest for custody of the funds, none of this is clear.

Doodhwala’s take:

Even after a year of absolute 🤡 show, this seems totally whacky.

Hope pretty much looks exactly like TERRA but with added DeFi features for staking, swapping, and lending. But collateralized against BTC + ETH + stablecoins rather than their own made-up coin 🚩

But the goal of this 👆 – MAKE MONEY to REPLAY DEBTS.

Yeah, idk if it’s possible to get users’ trust back let alone make any money.

This is NEVER gonna work, at least not for a CeFi platform that will still wanna retain control.

🔥 Together with Web3 Init: What comes first (before anything else) in Web3?

Security is a pretty PRETTAAAY big deal in web3.

I mean, you don’t wanna your private keys to be exposed…or worse your browser history. 😆

• “how to make milk from oats”

• “why don’t vegans drink milk”

• “best date cafes for doodh lovers.”

Wait how did my browser history ☝️ get out? 😭

That’s why we need Web3 projects that focus on security. And we know just where to look for these kinda apps.

At the Web3 Init Hackathon.

After all, this hackathon is organised by UNSNARL + ClueLess!

🛠️ UNSNARL → A web3 security startup backed by Polygon and ETH India.

👥 ClueLess → A student-driven dev community focusing on open-source tech.

💰 Prize pool: $6000+

🤝 Mentorship from experts

🗓️ Registration closes March 25

🔮 Yuga Labs drops the BALLS

Yuga Labs, the $4 billion company, that brought us NFT collections we can probably never afford…

…is back with yet another collection we definitely cannot afford. 🥲

So what is it this time?

• Cats?

• Birds?

• Dinosaurs?

Nah. None of them. They went a whole different route this time.

They went with…BALLS. 🎾⚽️🏀

Okay, we’re being a bit rude. 😂

Yuga Labs launched a collection called TwelveFold.

It’s generative art pieces inscribed to the Bitcoin blockchain through Ordinals. (a.k.a Bitcoin NFTs)

There will be a total of 300 pieces, all generated by the same piece of computer code.

And yes, this is how Yuga Labs is jumping on the Bitcoin NFT bandwagon! 🔥

So how did the launch go?

Yuga Labs launched these NFTs with an old-school auction. 👨‍⚖️

Here are the BIG numbers from the auction 👇

💰 Total amount raised: $16.5 million

💰 Highest successful bid: 7.1159 BTC (~ $160k)

💰 Lowest successful bid: 2.2501 BTC (~ $50k)

DAYUMM! 🔥

Those are some BIG numbers indeed.

But here's the BIG issue with the whole auction—

It’s the way you receive these NFTs in your wallet. 😬

There is no marketplace like OpenSea or Blur where you place the bid and receive the NFT in your wallet if your bid was successful.

Instead, this was Yuga Labs' solution:

• Give us the amount of Bitcoin that you bid

• We’ll keep it with us (or “custody” it)

• If your bid was successful, we’ll send the NFT to your wallet in 1 week

• If your bid was unsuccessful, we’ll return the Bitcoin to your wallet

Umm…isn’t this the classic they-ran-away-with-my-money scam category??? 😅

There was A LOT of criticism for this approach.

People said that scammers will find it easier to convince individuals by saying “Yuga Labs did it, so it can’t be a scam! BELIEVE ME!”

Yeah, right. 😒

Even the creator of Ordinals, Casey Rodarmor, went after Yuga labs for this approach. 😅

So why did Yuga Labs do this?

LACK OF INFRASTRUCTURE. 🤷‍♂️

The Bitcoin network still lacks the smart contract ability for setting up NFT marketplace mechanisms like on Ethereum.

And if even the Yuga Labs big-money devs couldn’t figure out a way then, it's a huge problem.

The Bitcoin NFT market is expected to be a $4.5 BILLION market by 2025. 🤯

But for it to reach there, the basics have to be sorted out pretty soon.

Or every scammer's wet dream will become a reality. 🥲

📈 Chaach and Charts: NFTs down ETH up

🎶 Baby are you DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN

Dooooowwwwwwn Dooooowwwwwwn 🎶

This ol’ school Jay Sean song hits hard for NFT bros right now.

The reason?

Top NFT collections’ floor prices are heading down 🔻 since the market crash in June 2022.

Collections like:

🦍 Bored Ape Yacht Club

🦉 Moonbirds

🛹 Azuki

Are down between 20-60% in the past 8 months.

In this time, ETH (the currency in which the floor is priced)is down by only 5%. 🥶

So, who’s to blame for this floor price collapse? 👀

🛠 Resourcewala: How To Reduce Risk in DeFi

Lemme tell you something —

DeFi is SUPER-DUPER FUN! 🔥

You can play around and do unimaginable things with it. (That’s what she said 😉)

But like with any awesome thing, it also comes with a bit of risk.

Hacks, scams, phishing attacks and whatnot. 😬

And our resource for today helps you REDUCE these risks:

• Smart Contract Risk in DeFi

• Credit Risk for banks and businesses

• How to reduce Smart Contract Risk?

Let’s jump in, shall we? 🚀

🍼 Doodhshots: Livestreaming The Doggy Style

• 🔻 To the ground? The rebellious NFT marketplace Blur’s native token, $BLUR, drops 98% in two weeks after its HUGE airdrop. Is the dream to overthrow OpenSea over?

• 🐟 Finding Do: Singapore Police have finally started an investigation into Terraform Labs and its founder, Do Kwon, who is still on the run.

• 🇮🇷 Supreme CBDC: The Central Bank of Iran completes the pre-pilot testing of its CBDC development program. The launch is still a bit far away.

• 🔥 I am awake! An old, old, old Ethereum whale has woken up after a 5-year hibernation to move $2 million to an exchange. Big deal or no deal?

• 🐕‍🦺 Doggy Style: Famous rapper and Dr Dre’s bestie, Snoop Dogg, has been announced as the the co-founder of web3 live streaming app called Shiller. Our boy’s gonna be shillin’.

🤣 Milky Meme Of The Day

📢 REFER AND WIN some doodhwala merch 📢

For the first time evaaa, we're giving away the doodhwala merch.

But it's not lame t-shirts with some random company name, but super cool stuff like:

😜 stickers – for your 💻, 📱 and 🚽📘 notebooks – to write your crush's name🍺 mugs – for your doodh, and NOT your beer!!👕 t-shirts – with totally non-controversial things (promise 😉)🧥 hoodies – because we wanna keep you warm in the crypto 🥶 winter🎁 mystery box – with some super cool prizes that’s worth more than 1 Bitcoin

Chegg it 👇

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That’s all for today bhaiyo aur bheno! Naale Sigona! Aakash "Dahi Cheeni" Athawasya & Arvind "Doodh Peda" Krishna

Yo! Our legal and financial advisors (aka our good ol’ conscience) have asked us to add this boring disclaimer.None of what you read here is financial advice. We aren’t here to get you to buy or sell a crypto. We’re only here to tell you what’s up in crypto today and make you laugh. So, if you screwed up on a trade, that’s on you G. Stay safe in the markets.