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First Mover Americas: Lido DAO’s Governance Token Jumps 17%
The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for Feb. 15, 2023.
Updated Feb 15, 2023, 5:23 p.m. Published Feb 15, 2023, 1:32 p.m.
This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.
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CORRECTION (Feb. 15, 17:23 UTC): An earlier version of this story said Lido DAO's vote had been approved, rather than submitted.
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CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) 1,084 +49.0 ▲ 4.7% Bitcoin $22,696 +849.3 ▲ 3.9% Ethereum $1,580 +64.8 ▲ 4.3% S&P 500 futures 4,128.25 −17.3 ▼ 0.4% FTSE 100 7,960.50 +6.6 ▲ 0.1% Treasury Yield 10 Years 3.76% ▲ 0.0 BTC/ETH prices per CoinDesk Indices, as of 7 a.m. ET (11 a.m. UTC)
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The governance token for liquid staking platform Lido (LDO) had a 17% gain on Wednesday. The rally came amid a new vote submitted that relates to distributing voting LDO tokens spread over a period of up to four years to decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) contributors. Lido DAO has the highest value locked of all decentralized finance protocols, according to DeFiLlama. A proposal was also submitted on Tuesday by the DAO’s financial unit over whether the DAO should sell or stake the 20,000 ether in its treasury.
Binance USD (BUSD), the third-largest stablecoin by market cap, has roughly returned to its $1 peg after Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao on Tuesday commented on his exchange’s connection to the popular Paxos-issued token. Backed by short-term treasuries and cash-like assets, BUSD rallied to $0.9997 in European morning hours on Wednesday, recovering from a two-year low of $0.9950 hit after the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) on Monday ordered Paxos to stop minting more of the tokens. “BUSD is not issued by Binance,” Zhao said during a Twitter Spaces on Tuesday. “We have an agreement to let them [Paxos] use our brand, but that's not something that we created.”
Soros Fund Management, the investment vehicle of hedge fund billionaire George Soros, appears to have added exposure to some crypto companies before the end of last year, although the nature of the trades isn’t totally clear. According to a 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dated Dec. 31, Soros Fund Management purchased 39.6 million worth of convertible debentures of crypto miner Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA). The fund was also showing ownership of call options and put options on 50,000 shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR). Soros' 13F from three months earlier disclosed only put options on 50,000 shares.
Chart of the Day
- The chart shows a decline in bitcoin's annualized rolling three-month basis or the difference between prices in futures and spot markets.
- The basis on the CME has pulled back to a 30-day low of 0.6%, while that on Binance sits relatively higher at 3%.
- "The CME basis has fallen more rapidly than offshore futures, suggesting that institutional speculators are more concerned than their offshore peers," Arcane's analysts said.
- Omkar Godbole
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What to know:
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