In this newsletter, we take the temperature of our Crypto Risk Barometer, spell out the implications of the latest FOMC meeting on crypto, and analyze Smart Money activity on layer 2s, with a focus on Base.

Macro & Markets

Enjoy the ride down in rates

Two weeks ago, we flagged an ongoing streak of weakness in US growth data. This trend became obvious in the April employment data released last Friday. To quote only two metrics, nonfarm payrolls were up by 175k in April, this is almost 30% less than the 242k monthly average of the past twelve months. The rest of the report was weaker than in prior months, including the number of hours worked and average hourly earnings, but not...