May 2023 marks the one-year anniversary of the Terra/Luna collapse. Taking time to reflect on the events and contagion that followed provides a stark reminder of the volatility and interconnectedness inherent to the market. Leading up to the collapse, Terra’s Anchor protocol offered seemingly stable yields in the 30% range…

In the previous two editions of Aquanow’s Digital Dives, we first discussed network effects in a general case and then narrowed the analysis to focus on how the phenomenon can be studied across Layer 1 blockchains. …

Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the way we transact and cooperate with one another online. A key driver of its success is the concept of network effects, where the value of a blockchain network increases as more users participate in it. …

I recently finished Andrew Chen’s The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects and would like to recommend the book to anyone interested in digital assets or technology in general. It’s been a while since I was enrolled in the CFA program or university, but to my…

Our relationship with risk is complicated. Threats can force action, or they can paralyze. Sometimes we overreact to a perceived danger and other times we underestimate a hazard, resulting in loss. Capital markets are a realm of uncertainty. As such, operators use a variety of benchmarks to analyse historical events…

Picking up where we left off in the last edition of Digital Dives, let’s continue our analysis of Maker’s 2022 year-end financial disclosure. However, this week, we’ll extend our discussion to contemplate the protocol’s experience relative to traditional businesses like banks and technology firms. Last year was challenging for participants…

As regulators and industry participants across the globe continue to hash out details of the forthcoming digital asset legislation, stakeholders in favour of enhanced disclosure may rejoice at the transparency and availability of protocol-level data. Freely accessible disclosure helps reinforce market integrity. The nature of public blockchains means that transactional…

The digital asset industry continues to demonstrate characteristics of nascency. Despite the volatility, virtual assets remain attractive for traditional financial institutions. In fact, it’s been reported that, 70% of institutional investors expect to acquire cryptocurrency in the near future. This leaves lawmakers faced with the challenge of balancing innovation against…

Tom Morgan’s “At The Tipping Point” tries to make sense of today’s rapidly changing environment by contemplating theories from biology, physics, neuroscience, and more. The essay seeks to uncover observed universal patterns across time, so that an analysis of where we are can inform where we’re going next. As much…