$98,223.00
4.25%$3,352.15
9.41%$257.95
10.43%$620.26
2.46%$1.18
8.36%$0.38427
2.94%$0.999706
-0.06%$3,347.93
9.20%$0.79218
-0.69%$0.199461
2.23%$35.81
7.18%$0.00002462
3.88%$3,970.84
8.60%$97,979.00
4.10%$5.51
4.51%$3.63
3.80%$3,347.97
9.10%$483.19
10.56%$14.96
4.26%$0.0000205
9.50%$5.83
3.07%$8.91
5.96%$0.246113
-0.45%$5.70
5.09%$89.41
7.00%$12.06
3.51%$3,524.52
9.15%$9.21
5.49%$1.003
0.19%$0.183562
4.04%$0.121625
2.07%$9.26
3.48%$27.24
7.77%$0.00005187
4.57%$7.39
-2.65%$515.81
12.37%$0.150972
-2.01%$1.00
-0.35%$0.447633
2.65%$24.82
3.63%$1.27
3.03%$3.28
6.61%$3.56
-4.00%$0.779416
17.33%$160.84
0.18%$1.92
4.90%$45.51
3.86%$4.50
7.42%$0.796405
11.68%$2.07
23.99%$0.03192834
1.63%$0.00025859
8.27%$165.54
6.07%$6.31
2.45%$24.62
5.38%$1.36
8.21%$5.33
8.37%$0.999144
0.00%$0.219922
-2.39%$0.489164
6.35%$3,340.58
9.15%$0.710036
8.16%$1.41
5.37%$5.37
6.02%$6.23
16.42%$3,747.73
8.72%$0.2089
-1.59%$1.70
4.45%$0.586462
13.57%$0.164593
1.19%$2.27
7.80%$3,503.59
9.41%$98,342.00
4.62%$1.60
3.49%$1.14
6.32%$97,815.00
4.40%$3,438.49
9.47%$0.416599
2.48%$1.017
5.15%$1,572.39
2.94%$318.78
10.54%$11.13
2.19%$1.33
-7.98%$66.24
-0.95%$86.58
1.95%$9.97
2.50%$17.83
4.02%$0.02897093
4.85%$0.02208479
3.19%$1.23
10.93%$0.706646
5.38%$0.00000112
4.79%$98,120.00
4.59%$0.515871
14.45%$1.051
14.18%$3.16
1.76%$0.01992787
1.44%$1.033
-2.99%$0.447901
2.65%$0.00000266
29.80%$272.60
11.39%$3,349.68
9.59%$0.02064307
3.60%$97,788.00
4.35%$5.76
3.34%$0.653398
5.50%$97,855.00
4.10%$3.78
-4.75%$11.53
-1.38%$13.06
5.91%$1.33
6.44%$1.30
8.50%$0.01018792
-1.22%$5.80
6.20%$0.968567
4.37%$0.00004369
1.05%$0.147526
4.38%$5.25
7.29%$0.7546
-0.40%$1.17
8.72%$0.00198272
13.65%$30.09
4.57%$0.343828
3.76%$1.27
4.50%$3,447.26
9.34%$260.95
10.49%$0.384782
3.13%$37.75
6.82%$0.665218
4.91%$0.0077652
11.41%$0.407169
5.06%$0.996957
-0.62%$0.00733778
5.59%$0.156265
10.96%$3,347.16
9.16%$45.83
10.70%$267.20
6.59%$0.00998209
6.97%$0.074051
3.27%$2.13
1.91%$3,342.52
9.09%$2,671.85
0.62%$0.239551
8.36%$0.997231
0.17%$19.27
11.38%$0.04166309
0.72%$0.71883
5.43%$1.85
10.73%$0.00010998
6.44%$3,626.67
9.29%$0.171661
2.45%$0.01341284
8.12%$1.30
8.65%$2.39
8.68%$1.27
3.80%$0.567592
2.39%$0.083046
9.27%$0.00812115
6.27%$3,352.79
9.55%$0.150243
11.31%$1.94
4.30%$31.26
-2.39%$0.587237
21.62%$0.081335
1.00%$98,245.00
4.55%$0.998938
-0.32%$1.073
2.84%$0.00154491
0.89%$2,682.61
1.06%$97,981.00
4.48%$1.43
6.85%$3,343.62
8.94%$2.73
22.57%$0.249526
5.39%$0.00000024
4.92%$0.167781
8.55%$0.460625
5.41%$0.40256
8.84%$1.001
0.21%$97,637.00
3.86%$8.59
0.91%$0.514801
3.85%$0.065654
3.16%$3,345.63
9.61%$0.493534
5.94%$54.22
4.66%$0.478155
24.71%$0.00000048
2.33%$3.85
2.80%$0.067378
2.20%$0.448655
6.75%$1.071
0.65%$3,583.91
9.24%$0.437047
94.10%$0.33677
5.99%$3,354.70
9.83%$7.00
8.05%$0.231519
9.16%$0.999213
-0.02%$3,510.08
9.41%$3.18
19.30%$0.00775801
4.97%$8.30
9.58%$0.01324221
5.71%$0.413289
-3.00%$3.67
8.17%$0.04254713
23.48%$0.99992
0.98%$0.980392
1.12%$97.51
-0.99%$0.999702
-0.06%$0.04262158
5.85%$1.94
31.08%$0.9614
5.25%$1.062
0.15%$0.0205477
4.59%$3,706.94
9.02%$0.02268075
23.53%$0.698602
7.96%$0.950343
13.94%$1,974.70
4.67%$10.64
7.23%$3.56
10.69%$0.00213517
7.82%$0.543184
1.08%$0.00462215
3.14%$97,851.00
4.33%$0.675047
4.98%$0.00
8.91%$0.999422
-0.52%$3,553.22
9.21%$0.427011
3.17%$1.68
14.60%$0.358913
4.29%$0.321377
9.92%$41.86
7.97%$0.200471
7.08%$96,383.00
3.42%$1.36
4.12%$29.18
7.19%$4.49
7.92%$0.673332
5.62%$0.04315834
-5.92%$0.0059878
2.68%$3.24
9.30%$0.00104462
13.64%$0.03371597
4.14%$20.94
3.85%
In part three of our eye-opening, nostalgia-rific year-end review, we’re looking back on our sad COVID summer, from July through September, when we were just grateful to get to leave our houses.
Meanwhile, decentralized finance took the world of crypto by storm, Dogecoin angled for world domination (with a little help from Elon Musk) and hackers took over Twitter, and displayed a lamentable lack of ambition in attempting to scam people out of Bitcoin.
July-September
DeFi protocols such as Aave, Compound, and Maker picked up steam this summer, in what became one of 2020’s biggest crypto crazes.
They take the form of non-custodial money management platforms that allow users to lend and borrow crypto. Part of the reason they blew up this past summer has to do with the governance tokens they awarded as a way to incentivize usership; if you lent crypto on Compound, for example, you could earn $COMP, which would give you a certain amount of power to vote on proposals to upgrade the network (like traditional shares).
But traders were more interested in tokens such as $COMP for their potential value than their ability to “govern” DeFi platforms. Yield farming was born when traders began exploiting protocols to amass valuable governance tokens, rather than lending or borrowing in earnest.
By late July, DeFi had grown into a $3 billion industry, thanks to the contributions of developers such as Andre Cronje, the creator of Yearn Finance. Yearn’s governance token, YFI, was at one point trading for $43,000—for reference, Cronje has said that the token was designed to be "completely valueless."
"Don’t buy it," he wrote, plainly. No one paid attention.
July, and Year-Round
NFTs—non-fungible tokens—are a kind of blockchain-based collectible that became increasingly popular this past year with the rise of marketplaces such as Nifty Gateway and the virtual collection space Decentraland, which is a little like Second Life, but with NFTs as stand-ins for real-world objects.
Unlike cryptocurrencies, which tend to be fungible (any one coin can be exchanged with another coin of equal value, as with cash), NFTs are one-of-one, which gives them unique value. NFT sales hit $100 million in July, and have been increasing steadily ever since.
As the year went on, devs found ever more innovative uses for NFTs, from fractionalized digital art sales to collateral for DeFi loans or derivatives.
July 15
Think about everything you could do if you had complete control over the world’s most influential Twitter accounts. “The best movie of the 2010s was actually A Serious Man,” you might tweet from Donald Trump’s account, in an effort to set the record straight.
By obtaining employee credentials, they were able to target specific employees who had access to our account support tools. They then targeted 130 Twitter accounts - Tweeting from 45, accessing the DM inbox of 36, and downloading the Twitter Data of 7.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 31, 2020
Needless to say, you probably would’ve done something more ambitious than operate a low-grade Bitcoin scam. When hackers breached some of Twitter’s biggest accounts in July, they simply asked people to send them Bitcoin on the promise that they’d double it.
They walked away with around $120,000, and Twitter was forced to shut down all posting privileges for verified accounts, which made us sad for about ten minutes.
July 17
In July, billionaire SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk tweeted a meme about how Dogecoin—a popular-ish meme coin—was going to take over the world. Curiously, the tweet pumped the price. Such is the power of Musk's whimsical musings.
It’s inevitable pic.twitter.com/eBKnQm6QyF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 18, 2020
August 11
Before this summer, MicroStrategy was just another tech company. But CEO Michael Saylor’s bet on Bitcoin in August (to the tune of $250 million) raised its profile significantly, and marked a watershed moment for institutional investment in crypto.
The company went on to pour another $225 million into the asset, later in the year, with Saylor making breathless statements like “God’s name is Satoshi.”
Analysts at Citi actually downgraded MicroStrategy’s stock in December, citing the company’s disproportionate focus on Bitcoin.
