Messari’s Crypto Theses For 2023

Section 10. Bonus: Yo Dre, I Got Somethin' To Say

10.0 Intro — 0:00

10.1 Why You Must Write — 0:15

10.2 No Idols — 1:24

10.3 Must Read — 1:47

10.4 Tips & Productivity Tricks — 2:33

10.5 Life Advice — 4:27

10.6 Disclaimers — 5:11

Section 9. Top 10 Trends In DAOs & Web3

9.0 Intro — 0:00

9.1 Wallets & Browsers — 1:56

9.2 DePIN — 4:48

9.3 Data Integrity — 8:56

9.4 Actually Useful DAOs — 11:50

9.5 DAO Management — 16:26

9.6 The DAO Legal Liabilities are SpOoki — 20:05

9.7 DAO “Corporate Actions” — 24.59

9.8 DAO Treasury Management — 27:55

9.9 Crypto Talent Marketplaces — 30:57

9.10 Media DAOs — 32:52

Section 8. Top 10 Trends In NFTs & DeSoc

8.0 Intro — 0:00

8.1 “Blue Chip” Pixelated Art — 2:06

8.2 Generative Art — 4:55

8.3 The Institutions Are Here, Just Not the Ones We Expected — 6:48

8.4 GameFi — 8:40

8.5 The Cryptoverse — 12:42

8.6 Decentralized Social (DeSo) — 13:59

8.7 ENS & Identity — 17:52

8.8 Creator Royalties vs. Monopolist Taxes — 20:36

8.9 OpenSea’s Down Bad Yarrrr. — 23:17

8.10 OpenAI & ChatGPT — 27:03

Section 7. Top 10 Trends In DeFi

7.0 Intro — 0:00

7.1 Revenge of the dApps — 1:31

7.2 Uniswap, the Final DeFi Unicorn — 3:37

7.3 Real-World Collateralized DeFi — 7:16

7.4 Undercollateralized DeFi Lending — 9:38

7.5 Superfluid Collateral & Synthetic Stakes — 11:56

7.6 The Perp Walk: dYdX as an Appchain — 14:58

7.7 On-Chain Asset Managers — 16:33

7.8 New Novel Markets: Two Truths & A Lie — 18:36

7.9 DeFi Censorship — 21:41

7.10 Bullish Unlocks → Down Bad — 24:17

Section 6. Top 10 Ethereum & L1 Trends

6.0 Intro — 0:00

6.1 The New Ethereum Roadmap — 1:42

6.2 Merge Economics — 4:19

6.3 MEV & Censorship — 6:15

6.4 What Vitalik’s Excited About — 11:25

6.5 Exploding Bridges — 13:00

6.6 Rollups and Modularity — 15:58

6.7 Too Close to the Solana — 21:24

6.8 Cosmos & Appchains — 26:32

6.9 Other L1s — 29:47

6.10 Other, Other L1s — 33:55

Section 5. Top 10 Cryptocurrency Trends

5.0 Intro — 0:00

5.1 Bitcoin is “Outside Money” — 1:59

5.2 Global Regulatory Challenges — 4:40

5.3 Bitcoin Mining — 8:00

5.4 Bitcoin Yield — 13:13

5.5 Memes & Ripples — 15:06

5.6 Privacy Coins & Private Transactions — 15:26

5.7 Stablecoins Should Be Our Leading Export — 17:26 

5.8 The Stablecoin Trinity — 20:31

5.9 Algo-Stables: Crypto’s WMDs — 24:34

5.10 CBDCs & Dystopia — 30:14

Section 4. Top 10 Trends In Crypto Policy

4.0 Intro — 0:00

4.1 How a Bill Almost Became a Law — 1:28

4.2 How a Bill Becomes a Law — 18:57

4.3 The SEC vs. CFTC Proxy War — 31:54

4.4 MiCA Pros & Cons — 37:18

4.5 Everybody Hates Gary — 42:52

4.6 Ooki vs. CFTC (DAO Governance) — 45:59

4.7 Tornado Cash vs. OFAC (Personal Wallets) — 48:35 

4.8 Protecting Crypto Banking — 51:00

4.9 State vs. Federal (Stablecoins) — 55:35

4.10 The Ground Game — 57:32

Section 3. Top 10 Trends In CeFi

3.0 Intro — 0:00

3.1 The Exchanges — 1:12

3.2 The Institutions Are Coming — 5:28 

3.3 Anatomy of a Crypto Credit Crisis — 6:52

3.4 DCG & Genesis Contagion Risk — 13:02

3.5 Grayscale: Reflexivity up. Reflexivity down. — 19:50

3.6 Custody, Security, Stability — 23:04

3.7 Cloud Infrastructure and Developer Tools — 25:11

3.8 On-Chain Forensics — 27:21

3.9 Tax & Compliance — 29:41

3.10 Research & Data Upgrades — 31:05

Section 2. Top 10 People to Watch

2.0 Intro — 0:00

2.1 Changpeng Zhao & Brian Armstrong — 1:03

2.2 Rep. Patrick McHenry — 3:02

2.3 Sheila Warren — 5:29

2.4 Citizen Journalists: From Molly White to Autism Capital — 7:26

2.5 Anatoly Yakovenko — 9:59

2.6 Barry Silbert & The Winklevii — 11:38

2.7 Stani Kulechov — 13:01

2.8 Alexey Pertsev & Tornado Cash Devs — 15:06

2.9 DAO Members — 17:05

2.10 IRS Agent Smith — 18:51

Section 1. Top 10 Narratives & Investment Themes

0.0 Welcome — 0:00

1.0 What Happened in 2022 — 4:48

1.1 Winter Is Here, It’s Time to Build — 6:21

1.2 Crypto Is (Still) Inevitable — 10:39

1.3 Surviving Winter, Redux — 13:18

1.4 How Low Can We Go? — 16:05

1.5 Bear Market Building — 23:49

1.6 Decoupling of Cryptos: Back to the Basics — 26:36

1.7 VC: There’s (Still) Money in the Banana Stand — 28:14

1.8 The Macro Rebound vs. The Dumpening — 30:55

1.9 Buyouts vs. Bankruptcies — 33:46