weekly roundup – BLINC Countdown | Twitter Hack | CBDCs | DeFi $

An Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) alumnus is launching a new venture firm focused on building a crypto-powered “ownership economy.” Jesse Walden, who focused on blockchain investments at a16z, announced his Variant Fund in a blog post published on Tuesday. Walden said the new fund is focused on the idea that the people who make platforms and products strong can share in their growth.

The Bank of Japan is warming to central bank digital currencies and now has a team dedicated to researching a possible digital yen.

While details are limited, the new team will likely follow up on the BOJ’s 2019 research into CBDCs, as well as the additional research it has been conducting with other central banks since January. The team will form part of the central bank’s payment and settlement department.

Deputy governor Masayoshi Amamiya previously said that it would be hard for central banks to make negative interest rate policies more effective through the issuance of their own digital currencies. He reasoned that it would force individuals and businesses to pay to hold a CBDC and, as such, would motivate people to not use the digital form of money. But the BOJ is shifting its thinking on the technology as regional rival China’s digital currency enters testing with commercial entities. Japan’s government is set to examine the possible launch of a digital yen as part of this year’s policy agenda, per a report last week.

Speaking during an online event, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey told a group of U.K. students on Monday the bank is discussing the possibility of launching a digital currency, as reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday. Bailey said ongoing investigations would look at a central bank digital currency, which would have implications across “payments and society.”

Last week, Meltem Demirors, Coinshares’ Chief Strategy Officer, wrote about the insatiable thirst for dollars, the Race for Global Reserve Currency Status, and how a crypto-synthetic-dollar could play a role. Now Curve have announced the launch of their DeFiDollar backed by a crypto-collateral pool.

Nate Maddrey, senior research analyst at Coin Metrics, joins the On the Brink podcast to discuss the recently published report, The Rise of Stablecoins. He talks through the report and analyses some of the charts in depth and covers:

• Why the auditability of public blockchains is so useful for evaluating stablecoins.
• Why fiat backed stablecoins have different price dynamics from ‘native crypto collateral’ backed ones.
• How the arbitrage growth cycle works for fiat-backed stablecoins.
• What the distribution of ownership and addresses for USDT tells us.
• Liquidity for USDT versus USDC and BUSD.
• Distinguishing stablecoins based on median transfer value.
• Stablecoins as wholesale rather than retail value transfer networks.
• What velocity of stablecoins relative to bitcoin and ether tells us.

Nate Maddrey also joined Bitstamp’s Three Crypto Questions show last week to talk about this.

The information contained in this document should not be relied upon by investors or any other persons to make financial decisions. It is gathered from various sources and should not be construed as guidance. The information contained herein is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as an offer, solicitation of an offer, or an inducement to buy or sell digital assets or any equivalents or any security or investment product of any kind either generally or in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted. The views expressed in this document about the markets, market participants and/or digital assets accurately reflect the views of BCB Group. While opinions stated are honestly held, they are not guarantees, should not be relied on and are subject to change. The information or opinions provided should not be taken as specific advice on the merits of any investment decision. This document may contain statements about expected or anticipated future events and financial results that are forward-looking in nature and, as a result, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, such as general economic, market and business conditions, new legislation and regulatory actions, competitive and general economic factors and conditions and the occurrence of unexpected events. Past performance of the digital asset markets or markets in their derivative instruments is not a viable indication of future performance with actual results possibly differing materially from those stated herein. We will not be responsible for any losses incurred by a client as a result of decisions made based on any information provided.