🧘‍♂️New Crypto Announcement

Dear Meditators

A lot of noise today on NFTs. ApeCoin, the token linked to the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, was airdropped to Bored Ape NFT owners this morning after being announced yesterday as part of a larger ApeDAO campaign.

Today’s Meditations: 

• Intro to Lido Staking
• Overview of Bored ApeCoin
• NFTs Coming on Instagram

⏰ Top Headlines

• Coinbase Wallet adds support for Solana
• PancakeSwap’s CAKE Rallies 28% on Binance Announcement
• Ethereum scaling startup Optimism raises $150 million at $1.65 billion valuation
• Teams behind Mina Protocol raise $92 million from Three Arrows, FTX and others

? Staying Liquid

The chart below shows the TVL in DeFI has retained most of its gains made throughout the last quarter of last year. The close correlation between Lido and Defi’s TVL indicates DeFi users find liquid staking an attractive feature.

To stake on Lido, you must have ETH, Luna, Solana, Kusama or MATIC. In return for staking your assets with Lido, you will receive an APY% yield from 3.9% to 25.2% (at the time of writing), depending on which asset used.

Unlocking Liquidity with Lido

1. Head over to Lido. Once there, select which token you’d like to stake and click “Stake now” in the appropriate section.

2. Select the amount to be staked then click “Stake”.
3. After completing the staking process, you will receive a staked version of your deposited asset, like stETH, for ETH. stETH could then be used to interact with platforms in the Lido ecosystem.

Lido has an expanding ecosystem, including more platforms in the future. Marinade takes a similar approach but instead specializes in Solana.

Using Marinade

1. On Marinade, the first step is, again, connecting your wallet. Reward fee – Tax collected on earnings only.
2. Once you’ve connected your Solana-compatible funding source, click “Stake SOL”. Doing so will lock up your SOL and provide you with mSOL in return. mSOL can be provided to various providers.
3. Using Marinade in this way affords those willing to stake their Solana a way to stack yields.

There are no guarantees in DeFi. Always do your own research and never invest more capital than you can afford to lose.

? Introducing ApeCoin DAO  

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) started as an ambitious NFT project and quickly became a household name in under a year. The average floor sale has risen from $241 in April 2021 to £383,510 in February 2022. 

• ApeCoin ($APE) has been created and is being adopted as the official currency of the BAYC ecosystem. The BAYC has gifted the ApeCoin DAO a 1/1 NFT in honour of their partnership.
• ApeCoin is owned and operated by the ApeCoin DAO which is supported by the Ape Foundation, a legal entity that was created to act as the legal steward for ApeCoin and administer any decisions made.
• Each token holder gets to vote on governance and use of the Ecosystem Fund. The only requirement for membership of the DAO is holding $APE.
• 62% of the total supply of ApeCoin is allocated to the ApeCoin community. A portion of which (15% of total supply) will be available to claim on the 17th March 2022 at 8:30 am ET via an airdrop to existing BAYC holders.
• This includes Bored Apes, Mutant Apes and Bored Ape Kennel Club Dogs who are paired with either a Bored Ape or a Mutant Ape.
• For those who do not qualify for an airdrop but still wish to participate, $APE will begin trading on major crypto exchanges soon.

Major exchanges such as Gemini, FTX, Kraken, Voyager and Binance.US have already announced that they will support the $APE token.

? NFTs Coming to Instagram

We’ve seen NFTs infiltrating their way to social media. With this, comes a lot of people claiming they own an NFT. But they are simply copying and pasting a JPEG into their profile picture. We saw earlier this year, Twitter integrating NFTs into their social media. Mark Zuckerberg announced that Instagram would be doing the same. Is it the same as Twitter? Well, Instagram reportedly wants to do a little more.

• At SXSW (South by Southwest), Zuckerberg said that “over the next several months, [they will work on] the ability to bring some of your NFTs [into Instagram].”
• He also said that “hopefully over time [consumers will] be able to mint things within that environment.”
• There were previous rumours of NFT integrations, NFTs as a profile, minting, and discussions around a marketplace. Zuckerberg pretty much confirmed all but the marketplace.
• What would minting NFTs on Instagram look like? While Zuckerberg did not elaborate, The Verge has a couple of ideas. Minting could possibly mean selling a post as an NFT or perhaps a ticket that acts as a pass to see specific stories.

While some specifics are yet to be hashed out, this is further proof that NFTs are here to stay. There is integration everywhere we look – particularly in the social media realm.

Twitter

• Working hard to make useful products & services for your fellow humans is deeply morally good (Thread) – Elon Musk
• Welcome to the club.ApeCoin ($APE) is now available on Coinbase! @BoredApeYC is on board too. – Coinbase
• It doesn’t matter who we blame for inflation, the fact is, it is here. What will you do about it? #btc has no inflation. #bnb is deflationary. – CZ Binance

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??‍♂️✍️ Stories in this newsletter were written by Misael Calleja, Kai.A, Nick T., Max P., Kimia K., Ellen B. and Koroush AK. Graphics were produced by Ellen B.

Not financial or tax advice. The content in this newsletter is for informational purposes only. Nothing in this email is intended to serve as financial advice. We are not financial advisors. Every investment and trading move involves risk. Do your own research when making a decision. See our important security disclaimers here.

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