Key Investments and Innovations in DeFi 2021

Welcome to the inaugural episode of The Chopping Block, a new show on Unchained hosted by Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra, in which they discuss the latest juicy topics in crypto. This week, the four crypto heavyweights take a look back at 2021. Show topics:

• Biggest winners and losers
• Best mechanism 
• Biggest surprise
• Best meme
• Predictions for 2022

Without revealing too much, Haseeb, Robert, Tom, and Tarun cover a lot of ground, diving into “esoteric” subjects like Luna tokenomics, the Tezos NFT marketplace HEN, the origins of web3, the Grayscale arbitrage opportunity, OHM, Convex Finance, single-basis point liquidity pools on Uniswap, and Empty Set Dollar. They also tackle more popular topics like BTC, Dogecoin, NFT marketplaces, L1s, and more. 

Episode Links

Hosts

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital
• • https://twitter.com/hosseeb
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital
• • https://twitter.com/tomhschmidt
• Robert Leshner, managing partner at Robot Ventures
• • https://twitter.com/rleshner
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
• • https://twitter.com/tarunchitra 

Biggest Winners:

• L1 performance in 2021: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/128603/in-2021-l1-blockchains-took-the-spotlight-thanks-to-defi 
• Coinbase IPO: https://unchainedpodcast.com/is-coinbase-stock-a-good-buy-this-analyst-says-yes/ 
• Solana: https://www.notboring.co/p/solana-summer 
• OpenSea: https://www.readthegeneralist.com/briefing/opensea 
• Lido: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/is-lido-undervalued 
• Dogecoin: https://docsend.com/view/vutymtgqjf99yrpu 
• Solana early investors:  ​https://www.theinformation.com/articles/solana-generates-1-billion-in-returns-for-early-backers 

Mechanisms

• Uniswap V3: https://uniswap.org/blog/launch-uniswap-v3  
• Convex Finance (+ Curve): https://www.coindesk.com/business/2021/11/11/curve-wars-heat-up-emergency-dao-invoked-after-clear-governance-attack/ 
• OHM: https://www.coingecko.com/buzz/what-is-olympusdao-and-how-does-it-work 
• ESD: https://medium.com/@lewisfreiberg/empty-set-dollar-esd-a0abbfc5ecdb  

Biggest Losers:

• Grayscale: https://dcresearch.medium.com/interpreting-grayscale-premiums-gbtc-ethe-a7261dd8cfca 
• Bitcoin: https://www.coindesk.com/price/bitcoin/
• HEN: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/news+/126688/tezos-art-marketplace-hen 
• EOS: https://cryptonews.com/news/eos-down-as-community-forks-out-blockone.htm 

Biggest Surprises

• Uniswap pool analytics:https://info.uniswap.org/#/pools 
• NFTs: https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/11/22325054/beeple-christies-nft-sale-cost-everydays-69-million + https://decrypt.co/89060/bored-ape-yacht-club-nfts-flip-cryptopunks-floor-price-in-ethereum 
• Luna: https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/11/10/terra-passes-highly-anticipated-proposal-to-burn-nearly-89m-luna/ 

Best Memes

• Dog coins: https://nypost.com/2021/12/27/santa-floki-cryptocurrency-surges-3500-after-elon-musk-tweet/  

• SBF shoes: https://twitter.com/zackseward/status/1468641558346059777 
• Grimes tweet: https://twitter.com/grimezsz/status/1449528005966000129 
• Web3: https://www.coindesk.com/learn/what-is-web-3-and-why-is-everyone-talking-about-it/   

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