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Weekly Recap

There’s very little new in the world when it comes to human behavior. Not even in crypto.

Chasing memestocks? Ah, just like the greatest mind alive in 1720.

Sir Isaac Newton sold his carefully-accumulated South Sea Company stock at a vast profit. But after a devious scheme that looked remarkably like an early Ponzi, it kept going up… and up… and eventually he couldn’t resist FOMO’ing back in when the price, inflated by a “well-bribed Parliament” was approaching its zenith.

Naturally, he lost a fortune.

There are countless examples of bad investment decisions, but every single one made in crypto has one thing in common: Somebody already made one just like it.

For every Bitcoin millionaire there’s a Ron Wayne (took profits a little too early… sold his 10% co-founder stake in Apple for $800) and for every Ethereum ICO hodler there’s a Western Union exec (didn’t see the potential… and passed on the telephone).

We can’t always learn from the mistakes of others, but there’s one situation in which we can.

If you lend a thousand dollars to a friend and they don’t pay you back because they gambled it away in Vegas, you generally lose that friendship.

If you lose a million dollars to an investment advisor who told you to go long on tech stocks last January, you probably fire that advisor.

And if a couple of yahoos who fritter away a few billion bucks of other people’s money (and blame everyone but themselves) slither into your email inbox with a pitch deck asking for a few more million?

I’m no Isaac Newton, but I’d probably have a couple of choice NSFW expressions for them.

Apropos of nothing, here’s one of this week’s big stories.

Happy weekend, lesson-learners.

—Jon Rice

Number of the Week

Chapter in which Genesis finds itself, at least partly due to the aforementioned goons.

Top Insights

Ethereum Has Most Developers, But These Newer Chains Are Growing Fast — Blockworks
MiCA Delay Until April Gives EU Crypto Firms Ample ‘Breathing Room’ — Blockworks
Silvergate Stock Surges 20% Despite $1B Quarterly Earnings Loss — Blockworks
Genesis in Chapter 11 Won’t Insulate Silbert, Winklevoss Says — Blockworks
A Web3 Survival Guide to Crypto Winter [Sponsored] — Blockworks
NFTs Are A ‘Trojan Horse’ Coming at Record Labels — Blockworks
Crypto Bankruptcy Proceedings Highlight Regulatory Shortcomings — Blockworks
Selling the Top: Peter Thiel’s VC Firm Made $1.8B From Crypto — Blockworks
The Next Bankruptcy Domino May Be Genesis — Blockworks
5 Charts Showing How Brutal 2022 Was for Public Bitcoin Miners — Blockworks

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Top News

DOJ Busts Crypto Exchange No One Has Heard Of — Blockworks
Coinbase Follows Kraken to Japan Exit — Blockworks
Yuga Labs Blacklists Royalty-avoiding Marketplaces — Blockworks
SEC Crypto-related Fines Hit $2.6B Through 2022 — Blockworks
Circle Taps Deloitte as New Auditor, Doubles Down on Proof of Reserves — Blockworks
Nexo Axes Earn, Calls $45M Fine to Regulators ‘Landmark Resolution’ — Blockworks
Sei Network, With $70M in Ecosystem Funding, Looks East — Blockworks
Polygon Upgrade Goes Live Following Low Governance Vote Turnout — Blockworks
Bitcoin Price Rally to $21.5K Takes Pause — Blockworks
Crypto Sports Deals Have Slowed: But They Aren’t Dead — Blockworks

Permissionless Speakers Announced

The first wave of Permissionless '23 speakers has been released!

Featured speakers include:

Mary-Catherine Lader, Gitcoin
Kevin Owocki, Uniswap Labs
Jim Bianco, Bianco Research
Hasu, Flashbots

And more! View the full line up & register today.

What's Trending

What's next for Ethereum (Thread) — Westie
What if I told you the demise of OpenSea was inevitable? (Thread) — Sam
7 of the strongest signs I’ve seen that inflation has peaked (Thread) — Genevieve Roch-Decter
Yuga Labs just launched their first NFT collection since the Otherside deeds (Thread) — cygaar
Will we see TradFi finally adopting DeFi options? (Thread) — Blockworks Research
Here're the top 5 macro insights you need to know in 3 minutes (Thread) — Whospay Intern
App chains are ready to explode this year (Thread) — Westie
Crypto Narratives Alpha Series 02 (Thread) — Viktor DeFi
Short or long ETH? And when to short or long? (Thread) — Lookonchain
Wallet watching 101 (Thread) — Q

We're Watching

In this week's episode of Forward Guidance, Andy Constan, veteran macro investor and founder of Damped Spring Macro Research, joins Jack to share his macro framework for 2023.

🟪 “As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly." — Proverbs 26:11