The Fed meeting last Wednesday hinted at an increasingly dovish stance from Powell and his crew - at least that's how the market interpreted it. Just after the meeting concluded, both equites and crypto began to fly - posting solid green candle sticks through the weekly close. Market sentiment all of a sudden feels more bullish, as investors are beginning to speculate that the worst of the hawkish rate hikes may be coming soon if not over already.

Markets run on forward guidance, meaning they price in today what is expected to happen in the short-term future. But the market can also be wrong for unreasonable periods of time. Many people sat on the sidelines not understanding why these rallies have so much strength, both in stocks and crypto.

So the question is: has the market reacted incorrectly? In other words, is the market pumping too much to the point where the Fed will be forced to increase their hawkishness come next meeting? Employment numbers are still good, meaning the Fed theoretically could afford to scare the market even more.

[Website:]

Website: https://www.moonlight.xyz/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/moonlightmeta

Whitepaper: https://moonlightxyz.notion.site/Moonlight-V1-Crowdfunding-Collective-NFT-Ownership-facce76272ea4a6fb6a1409d76b81017

Introduction

I'd like to announce Moonlight, a fractional NFT and crowdfunding platform using the Ethereum blockchain, whereby users can ultimately buy and sell pieces of their favorite NFT projects. This tool will benefit prospective users searching for an affordable or risk-averse entry into 'blue-chip' ecosystems.

Why Build This?

The NFT market is heavily defined by its lack of liquidity. That illiquid nature is more or less part of the game that many of us have learned to accept, but in reality, it's a massive tree trunk dropped along the path towards mass user adoption. It creates the associated risk of volatile floor prices which is simply too much for many to bear. Potential investors of high-profile digital assets - such as Bored Apes, CryptoPunks, or Fidenzas - want liquidity. They need products to manage risk in order to feel comfortable becoming a player in the NFT space.

In addition to illiquidity, the NFT markets also constitutes of a certain degree of asymmetric opportunity. The members of blue-chip communities gain access to the most profitable mints and collection opportunities via allowlists and large networks. On the other hand, small capital players are set in a less opportune position. Yes, you could 'flip your way to the top', but most NFT users are not great traders nor aspire to be. Many simply want to collect their favorite 1/1 art pieces or PFP projects to display in their wallets and capture their upside over time.

We built Moonlight as a nod to the web3/decentralized values of community and inclusivity. We believe that every crypto user (wealthy or not) deserves flexibility in their investing and collecting styles. In other words, the ability to democratize NFT ownership by buying and selling fractions.

How Does It Work?

Through community decisions, Moonlight will select an NFT to crowdfund from an Opensea listing. Once it is selected, users can begin contributing their ETH to a pool of funds. And when the pool gets large enough, the NFT is purchased, fractionalized, and officially listed on Moonlight. Any user who contributed to the successful crowdfund receives ERC20 tokens representing their pro-rata share of the NFT. Those tokens can be bought and sold on Moonlight's trading page, where the only other listings will be past crowdfunds.

With this model, Moonlight avoids the clutter of low-quality listings and ensures that the only NFTs offered on the platform are in-demand by the community. Holders of fractional tokens will also be able to 'lock' their holdings to win trading rewards by providing liquidity. This combined with AMMs will ensure a low-slippage and smooth transactional environment, where users can buy and sell pieces of their favorite projects easily.

It is the decentralization of NFTs, with the idea that "art is for everyone".

State of Development

We are currently building towards our beta launch expected in mid to late September, where we will be rewarding our early community. Presently, we are in the thick of building this out and ensuring that we bring the best possible product to market. Our team has a strong network of advisors and expertise that will ensure Moonlight is grown correctly leading up to beta launch.

Call to Action

If you really like the idea behind Moonlight and wish to be part of the journey, I really do suggest following our Twitter and signing up for early access on our website. We will most definitely be rewarding our early userbase

To much surprise, the top 5 mining companies have actually outperformed bitcoin since 2020. It's surprising because very few things on this planet are more volatile and bi-polar than crypto, but there is indeed a drastic difference in volatility here.

Part of this has to do with the fact that bitcoin has become less volatile over the years as it starts to benefit from the network effect. In addition, high growth stocks tend to trade off of multiples of expected earnings. It all plays into the reason why from Aug 2020 to Nov 2021 bitcoin mining index increased 1,503% while bitcoin only increased 474%. Take the 'only' with a grain of salt

Questioning whether the top 5 mining companies (Marathon, Aker, SBI, Northern, and Riot) will make for outsized returns again in the next bull cycle. Bitcoin is now up 31% from the 'local' low, while those mining companies are up 90%. Very fascinating to see these equities outperform bitcoin itself, and chances are it continues to happen.

All it takes is one visit to the Fed website to see that the balance sheet has only increased its assets since announcing rate hikes and QT in November '21.

Are they ever going to start QT or are they lying about it? Can they even afford to with rising rates?

I would post the chart from the federal reserve board but can't insert links yet

It seems as though we've reached the lower tail of one of the most bizarre yet profitable markets in human history - and of course it had to stem from crypto. NFTs took off almost a year ago today, and it's fascinating to recount the journey in hindsight.

From around August 2021 to January 2022, we were seeing daily trading volumes regularly break $100m (in ETH), and now we haven't broken $20m for the past two or so months. It makes sense since the level of froth that plagued the NFT space after September was insane. Pictures of rocks selling for millions of dollars, it seemed like everyone had lost their mind. Celebrities scamming everyone, and every other project was nothing more than a cash grab. Somebody bought an NFT of Jack Dorsey's first tweet for for $2.9million and now can't get a bid higher than $280.

Now, all the value has accrued with the so called 'blue-chip' NFT projects (Cryptopunks, Bored Apes, Proof/Moonbirds, Art Blocks, etc), but I can't help but wonder what this will all become in say 5 years? Because from where it stands now, 98% of the global population can't afford these top NFTs - and we're only a year in.... So much capital invested into jpegs and the reasoning has become unclear along the way. Why do we feel the need to create such elite circle groups that no one can access? The business model is just a monetary flywheel at this point