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Size Matters

Crypto mid-caps are struggling. While some digital asset investors may seek hidden gems and future powerhouses in the next tier of market capitalization and liquidity, that pursuit has generally not been rewarded. Furthermore, mid-caps have delivered significantly higher volatility. Less reward, more risk. What gives?
Is this a mirror of “Mag 7” dominance in equities, a lack of promising assets in the mid tier or just the future of finance taking longer to bear fruit than we previously thought?
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We define our size segments using the CoinDesk 20 and CoinDesk 80 indices. CoinDesk 20 captures the performance of top digital assets with some constraints to promote adoption in a number of places and products — specifically, no memecoins, access to U.S. investors, select exchange listings and liquidity in specific pairs. CoinDesk 80 captures the next 80 assets outside of CoinDesk 20 — still reasonably large and still measurably liquid with fewer restrictions and more trading pairs allowed. In other words, the mid-caps.
Both indices have a base date of Oct. 4, 2022 and a base value of 1000. As of this writing, CoinDesk 20 sits at around 3200. CoinDesk 80 sits at 970. You read that right: the CoinDesk 20 index has delivered a 320% return since its base date, while the CoinDesk 80 index has lost 3%.
The volatility of CoinDesk 80 sits well above that of CoinDesk 20, although its patterns follow those of the other index and majors bitcoin and ether.
What are these difficult digital assets in the mid-cap segment? Ill-conceived platforms? Frivolous projects? Not really. Although there are some highly volatile memecoins in the mix (I’m looking at you, PNUT), many constituents are household names.
If we narrow our view to year-to-date performance of current constituents (CoinDesk 80 was reconstituted on Jan. 31) we see that only one constituent is up on the year, yet many of the leaders (and laggards) are names we have known for some time.
Of course, pinpointing the underlying cause of the mid-cap underperformance is just as difficult in crypto as in other asset classes. Although size is one of the three classic Fama-French factors (suggesting that small-cap equities should outperform), it has not always been demonstrated in performance.
We suspect that while the crypto community will trade just about anything, it tends to invest in the biggest, the longest-tenured and the most familiar names. Regulatory accommodations (e.g., ETFs) will also follow this pattern, leading to a broader set of investors.
Does this suggest that a large-cap tilt in digital asset investing — the inverse of the Fama-French size factor — will deliver excess returns? We shall see, but in the meantime, we can keep an eye on the values of CoinDesk 20 and CoinDesk 80.
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CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: Index Drops 2.5% as Nearly All Constituents Decline

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.
The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 4248.74, down 2.5% (-109.09) since 4 p.m. ET on Monday.
One of 20 assets is trading higher.
Leaders: AVAX (+0.6%) and BCH (-0.8%).
Laggards: UNI (-9.9%) and LINK (-7.0%).
The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.
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Pantera-Backed Solana Treasury Firm Helius Raises $500M, Stock Soars Over 200%

Helius Medical Technologies (HSDT) announced on Monday it’s raising more than $500 million in a private financing round to create a Solana-focused treasury company.
The vehicle will hold SOL, the native token of the Solana blockchain, as its reserve asset and aims to expand to more than $1.25 billion via stock warrants tied to the deal, the press release said.
The financing was led by Pantera Capital and Summer Capital, with participation from investors including Animoca Brands, FalconX and HashKey Capital.
Shares of the firm rallied over 200% above $24 in pre-market trading following the announcement. Solana was down 4% over the past 24 hours.
The firm is joining the latest wave of new digital asset treasuries, or DATs, with public companies pivoting to raise funds and buy cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) or SOL.
Helius is set to rival with the recently launched Forward Industries (FORD) with a $1.65 billion war chest backed by Galaxy Digital and others. That firm confirmed on Monday that has already purchased 6.8 million tokens for roughly $1.58 billion last week.
Helius’ plan is to use Solana’s yield-bearing design to generate income on the holdings, earning staking rewards of around 7% as well as deploying tokens in decentralized finance (DeFi) and lending opportunities. Incoming executive chairman Joseph Chee, founder of Summer Capital and a former UBS banker, will lead the firm’s digital asset strategy alongside Pantera’s Cosmo Jiang and Dan Morehead.
«As a pioneer in the digital asset treasury space, having participated in the formation of the strategy at Twenty One Capital (CEP) with Tether, Softbank and Cantor, Bitmine (BMNR) with Tom Lee and Mozayyx as well as EightCo (OCTO) with Dan Ives and Sam Altman, we have built the expertise to set up the pre-eminent Solana treasury vehicle,» Cosmo Jiang, general partner at Pantera Capital, said in a statement.
«There is a real opportunity to drive the flywheel of creating shareholder value that Michael Saylor has pioneered with Strategy by accelerating Solana adoption,» he added.
Read more: Solana Surges as Galaxy Scoops Up Over $700M Tokens From Exchanges
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American Express Introduces Blockchain-Based ‘Travel Stamps’

American Express has introduced Ethereum-based ‘travel stamps’ to create a commemorative record of travel experiences, as part of the firm’s revamped travel app.
The travel experience tokens, which are technically NFTs (ERC 721 tokens), are minted and stored on Coinbase’s Base network, said Colin Marlowe , VP, Emerging Partnerships at Amex Digital Labs.
The travel stamps, which can be collected anytime a traveler uses their card, are not tradable NTF tokens, Marlowe explained, and neither do they function like blockchain-based loyalty points – at least for the time being.
“It’s a valueless ERC-721, so technically an NFT, but we just didn’t brand it as such. We wanted to speak to it in a way that was natural for the travel experience itself, and so we talk about these things as stamps, and they’re represented as tokens,” Marlowe said in an interview.
“As an identifier and representation of history the stamps could create interesting partnership angles over time. We weren’t trying to sell these or sort of generate any like short term revenue. The angle is to make a travel experience with Amex feel really rich, really different, and kind of set it apart,” he said.
The Amex travel app also includes a range of tools for travels and Centurion Lounge upgrades, the company said.
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