Will Bitcoin reach $70K in October?
PLUS: Stripe acquires Bridge for $1.1 billion, ETH ecosystem has increased 5x
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In today's newsletter:
💡 Polymarket Predictions
📣 Stripe acquires stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion
📈 The number of daily transactions in the Ethereum ecosystem has increased 5x since the start of 2023
Let’s dive in!
💡 Insight
Polymarket Predictions
Polymarket is a decentralized prediction market that allows users to bet on the outcome of any world event.
This is a prime example of how blockchain technology can help increase transparency, access, and trust in markets and information.
The platform has gained significant traction in key metrics, particularly driven by the 2024 US presidential election:
Here are the most interesting price predictions for this month:
Bitcoin
Ethereum
Solana
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How to make money on markets
On Polymarket, you can buy and sell shares representing future event outcomes (i.e. "Will TikTok be banned in the U.S. this year?")
Shares in event outcomes are always priced between $0.00 and $1.00 USDC, and every pair of event outcomes (i.e. each pair of "YES" + "NO" shares) is fully collateralized by $1.00 USDC.
Shares are created when opposing sides come to an agreement on odds, such that the sum of what each side is willing to pay is equal to $1.00.
The shares representing the correct, final outcome are paid out $1.00 USDC each upon market resolution.
Unlike sportsbooks, you are not betting against "the house" – the counterparty to each trade is another Polymarket user. As such:
Shares can be sold before the event outcome is known_ (i.e. to lock in profits or cut losses)
There is no "house" to ban you for winning too much.
📣 Update
Stripe acquires stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion
Payments giant Stripe has acquired stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion, according to TechCrunch founder and well-known venture capitalist Michael Arrington, expanding its integration with the space.
The deal marks Stripe's largest acquisition and is also a record for the crypto industry despite Bridge's relatively under-the-radar status.
Notably, Bridge owns the “@stablecoin” handle on X:
Bridge had previously raised $58 million from investors, including a $40 million Series A round that valued it at $200 million, making this deal a significant jump in its price tag.
An early pioneer of bitcoin payment support in 2014, Stripe recently reinstated crypto payments for U.S. businesses via USDC on Ethereum, Solana and Polygon.
In June, Stripe also inked a partnership with Coinbase to incorporate the crypto exchange's Layer 2 network Base into its crypto payout products and enable users to use Stripe's fiat-to-crypto onramp to buy digital assets with credit cards or Apple Pay inside the non-custodial Coinbase Wallet.
📈 Signal
The number of daily transactions in the Ethereum ecosystem has increased 5x since the start of 2023.
The number of daily transactions in the Ethereum ecosystem has increased 5x since the start of 2023, as new L2s and use cases have flourished.
The number of transactions processed on a blockchain is another important metric to measure usage.
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