Bitcoin

Osmose co-founder Sunny Aggarwal on fantasies, Cosmos and the ‘Bitcoin renaissance’

Published

1 year ago

6 May, 2024

Osmosis co-founder Sunny Aggarwal on costumes, Cosmos, and the ‘Bitcoin renaissance’

Even if you’re not an avid ‘cosmonaut’, you’re probably familiar with Sunny Aggarwalthe co-founder of Osmosis Laboratories. With an infectious smile and an upbeat personality, Sunny’s name is surprisingly apt. He is the type of person whose deep intellect, quick wit and unbridled passion light up the spaces around him.

We were scheduled to meet at Cosmos Dubai during Token2049, but life had other plans. The Cosmos side event would not happen. Dubai has been hit by the worst floods in 75 years, reducing the desert metropolis of skyscrapers to a lake and submerging entire neighborhoods. “There’s always Cosmoverse in October,” Sunny smiles. “We can talk in person then.”

The rise and rise of Osmosis

I was eager to see what outfit Sunny would wear; he has quite the collection, wearing a variety of eye-popping outfits, from a 40-pound chainmail armor to a Byzantine general’s costume with a striking red-crested helmet. “Oh, I keep the coolest clothes for bigger events like Cosmoverse or Osmocon,” he explains, “if I wore a new outfit for every event, my costume budget would be really high,” he laughs. Across the screen from Sunny’s New York apartment, he looks decidedly more low-key today.

As the largest ecosystem in the Cosmos decentralized exchange (DEX)Osmosis announced overcoming US$32 billion in all-time trading volume for that day. I ask what it’s like to be the creator of Cosmos’ most popular project and achieve such an impressive milestone.

“I think it said that Osmosis DEX wanted to reach $40 billion, [in the tweet]” he responds, “but I’m waiting for $100 billion.”

Sunny is unabashedly ambitious. Did he always know Osmosis would be a hit? He ponders:

“The immediate traction we got when we launched was very surprising. Cosmos had a lot of high-value assets that weren’t listed on centralized exchanges, but we didn’t realize how important that would be.”

Growth hacking and the obstacles along the way

It wasn’t easy to get here. Sunny has been in the web3 industry since 2017. Like all battle-hardened OGs, he has lived his fair share of ups and downs – crypto crashes, bear markets, and total implosions like Terra (LUNA) and FTX. I ask him what is the most stressful situation he has experienced so far and he pauses:

“I think I would have to say the week of Osmose’s release. It was the first time I launched a project, a company and a blockchain at the same time. There are a lot of things you don’t think about in the last mile.”

Osmosis publicly announced its release date, and unlike the plethora of software projects that push back their release dates like the proverbial can, Sunny was adamant about not changing hers. But as more and more last-mile items piled up, the release date hung over the team’s head like a dark, brooding cloud.

“Osmosis went from idea to launch very quickly,” he says. “We went from development to launch in just three or four months, and we procrastinated a lot of important things until the last two weeks.”

Would he have done anything differently with the benefit of hindsight?

“I would have planned things further in advance. When you start a project, there is more than just code. There are a lot of operational things to consider and it takes longer than you think… I would have done all this much sooner.”

Osmosis launched with a team of six and, despite a rocky start, now has 45 full-time employees:

“I like the size we have now,” he says. “We’re small enough that you still know everyone and can work with a full team off-site, but we’re big enough to pursue multiple unique product lines in parallel.”

How does he deal with the stress of being at the forefront of a constantly evolving industry? Throwing themselves out of planes. Sunny is an aviation fan and is learning to fly a plane and taking a skydiving course.

“I think it’s better to put yourself in a position where you can’t touch your phone, like flying a plane or diving” (or hurtling toward Earth at 120 miles per hour). “Cryptocurrency markets are not volatile enough, I need to add more adrenaline,” he laughs.

Travel, idols and a mind that favors vivacity

Spending so much time in the air, Sunny also enjoys traveling, and if there’s one place she enjoys most, it’s Switzerland. He has always been fascinated by the mountainous country of the Alps and its rich history, culture, politics and economy.

He even taught a class on Switzerland while studying at Berkeley. He wouldn’t like to live there, as it’s “a bit too boring”. Sunny prefers the frenetic pace of a city like New York or “being at the forefront of technological innovation” in San Francisco’s Silicon Valley. He also loves Berlin, where his co-founder lives, and has many friends. “It’s like a second home.”

In addition to continually improving Osmosis, helping other Cosmos ecosystem projects, and accumulating pilot miles, Sunny is a keen reader. One of her biggest idols is Peter Thiel, whose writing and “way of thinking” have greatly influenced Sunny’s worldview. Beyond Thiel Zero to Onehe recommends the book Swarm by Rick Falkvinge, the founder of Pirate Party political movement in Europe. The book talks about how Falkvinge started a political party and transformed it into a decentralized force through a concept called “swarms”.

He elaborates:

“In consensus protocols, you have this concept of protocols that favor security and liveness. In favoring security, you can never shell out, you reach consensus on everything and then you progress. The protocols that favor vitality are constantly forking, but they are progressing quickly, you don’t need to get approval from the entire group to take action… In the early stages of an organization where you are focused on growth, you need that favor liveliness so you don’t get bogged down in bureaucracy.”

A ‘Bitcoin maxi’ of a different kind

As a self-declared “Bitcoin maxi”, Sunny has no doubt that the original crypto is the best money for the world; but the glacial pace of development does not match its need for constant innovation. This is why he worked on the Cosmos infrastructure in the first place, “building the appchain layer for Bitcoin.” What is he most excited about right now?

“Definitely the rebirth of Bitcoin. Ordinals changed everything, there was a cultural shift with all the Bitcoin L2 going on. I am confident that we will have a good soft fork in the next year or two.”

Wouldn’t this be a detriment to the qualities of sound currency and the adoption of Bitcoin as an asset? “It’s the limitations of Bitcoin that caused the need for so many other cash-like assets, but now Bitcoin can scale to more people and offer more functionality, like bringing DeFi, privacy, social networks… there are many things we can do at the top of Bitcoin right now.”

What would Sunny be doing if she didn’t spend her time disrupting traditional finance? “Hardware.” Before working in cryptography, Sunny studied robotics in school and would like to return to her roots someday.

“I had different ideas. I spent a lot of time thinking about smart guns, safer firearms, with security systems like fingerprint scanners so people can’t steal them.” He pauses: “I’m really interested in anything that has an important political impact. That’s why I got into the world of cryptocurrencies.”

If you want to chat with Sunny, follow her personal profile Twitter or Osmosis account or access your account website for ideas and inspiration. You can also explore the cutting edge of DeFi by trying out Osmosis DES.

Mentioned in this article

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Bitcoin

RIOT, MARA and CLSK shares at risk

Published

11 months ago

3 July, 2024

TokenTrends Staff

Bitcoin price nears key support: RIOT, MARA, and CLSK stocks at risk

Bitcoin (BTC) Mining stocks like Riot Platforms (RIOT), Marathon Digital (MARA) and CleanSpark (CLSK) retreated in pre-market trading as BTC retreated.

RIOT, MARA and CLSK all fell more than 2%, while other crypto-related stocks such as MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Coinbase (COIN) fell 1.5%.

Bitcoin sell-off continues

Crypto-linked stocks retreated as Bitcoin resumed its downtrend on Wednesday. After rising to $63,750 on Monday, BTC is hovering at $60,0000 and it is unclear whether it will recover.

More importantly, Bitcoin is dangerously close to the crucial support at $58,273, which is the 200-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA). The next support level for Bitcoin is $56,426, representing its lowest level in May.

Bitcoin Price Chart

If Bitcoin drops below this price, it will be a sign that the bears have prevailed, which could take it to the $50,000 level, if not below.

This decline happened after a whale deposited nearly 2,000 Bitcoins to Binance in two separate transactions. While this isn’t always the case, deposits to exchanges often happen when holders are exiting their positions.

The whales’ action coincided with a period in which the German government continues to sell off its Bitcoin holdings. It transferred $52 million worth of coins to exchanges on Tuesday.

As a result, data from CoinGlass shows that the volume of Bitcoin balances on exchanges has started to increase. The volume rose to 2.49 million on Tuesday, from last month’s low of 2.47 million.

Bitcoin Balances

Bitcoin balances on exchanges

Bitcoin Mining Companies at Risk

If the Bitcoin sell-off continues, it will put Bitcoin mining companies like Marathon, CleanSpark, and Riot Platforms at risk. These companies have tended to have a close correlation with Bitcoin in the past.

This drop is happening a few months after the halving event, reducing the amount of Bitcoins that miners receive.

To compensate for this drop, most of these companies have added their mining equipment. CleanSpark has reached a hash rate of 20 EH/swhich helped her mine 445 coins in June after mining 417 coins the previous month. She did this after purchasing 5 mining sites in Georgia.

Digital Marathon mined 590 coins in June, down 40% from the same month in 2023 and flat from May.

Riot Platforms, on the other hand, focused on acquiring Bitfarms, a company that mined 189 coins in June.

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Bitcoin

Michael Saylor Issues Statement on Bitcoin Amid Crypto Market Sell-Off by U.Today

Published

11 months ago

3 July, 2024

TokenTrends Staff

Michael Saylor issues statement on Bitcoin amid crypto market sell-off

U.Today – Amid an ongoing sell-off in the cryptocurrency market, Michael Saylor, a prominent advocate and president of MicroStrategy, made a statement on X (Twitter) that reverberated across the crypto space: “Just Bitcoin.”

This two-word tweet comes as the cryptocurrency market faces significant sell-offs as the price of Bitcoin plummets.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, began its decline in Tuesday’s trading session, hitting $63,223 at one point before falling further.

Losses deepened on Wednesday as investors considered remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, with Bitcoin hitting intraday lows of $59,509. At the time of writing, BTC is down 2.85% over the past 24 hours to $60,274.

According to data from CoinGlass, the sell-off has resulted in a significant amount of cryptocurrencies being liquidated in the past 24 hours, totaling over $166 million. However, this has not deterred Saylor’s confidence in Bitcoin, as he reiterates his longing for the crypto asset in his tweet.

Cryptocurrency market crashes

Cryptocurrencies fell on Tuesday after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank needs to see more progress on inflation before cutting interest rates, which are now at 5.25%-5.50%. Powell revealed at a monetary symposium in Sintra, Portugal, that the United States is moving closer to a disinflationary path.

“We want to be more confident that inflation is moving sustainably downward toward 2% before we begin the process of tapering or easing policy,” Powell said.

Market losses deepened after Wednesday’s economic releases that indicated the labor market is cooling. Recent data showed weaker-than-expected private payroll growth in June, but weekly jobless claims were higher than economists had forecast. The latest figures come ahead of the highly anticipated June nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.

As the cryptocurrency market goes through a period of uncertainty, the coming days and weeks will be crucial in determining the direction of BTC’s price.

This article was originally published on U.Today

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin and Ethereum in GTA 6? Still rumors — for now

Published

11 months ago

3 July, 2024

TokenTrends Staff

Bitcoin and Ethereum in GTA 6? Still rumors — for now

Rumors that the long-awaited Grand Theft Auto 6 will use cryptocurrency that has been circulating for more than a year now—and they’re spinning again.

On Wednesday, a pseudonymous Crypto Twitter influencer named Gordon — apparently named after Gordon Gekko from the iconic 1987 film “Wall Street” —shared to his nearly 500,000 followers that “GTA 6 will allow cryptocurrency payments” and that “so far only Bitcoin, EthereumIt is USDT [are] confirmed.”

But in reality, no cryptocurrency has been confirmed for Grand Theft Auto 6, despite ongoing chatter about the rumors. Rockstar Games and parent company Take-Two have made no such announcements this week on the subject, nor have they made any prior announcements, and official trailers and announcements have made no mention of cryptocurrency being included.

However, the tweet — which also included a fake trailer for the game — quickly went viral, with over 500,000 views as of this writing in a matter of hours. When Twitter users asked Gordon for his sources, he would jokingly respond that his “uncle works there” or say that previous reports on the matter were “old” at this point.

But really, nothing has changed since then. DecipherGG’s reported in previous rumors in May 2023, not even since the first official trailer — which initially leaked with “BUY BTC” stamped on itApparently by the leaker in question—premiered last December.

DecipherGG reached out to Rockstar Games for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Could Grand Theft Auto 6 implement a crypto element when it releases in 2025? It’s certainly possible, and if so, it would be a transformative moment for cryptocurrency adoption by the traditional gaming industry.

Take-Two Interactive has explored the space before, acquiring casual gaming giant Zynga in early 2022, when Take-Two founder and CEO Strauss Zelnick suggested there were “Web3 opportunities” that they could explore better as a team. Zynga has launched its first blockchain game on Ethereum, called Sugartownbut Take-Two has yet to get involved with other brands.

Rockstar Games, on the other hand, prohibited the use of cryptocurrency or NFTs on player-run Grand Theft Auto 5 servers in late 2022, following a rise in the use of NFTs to represent unique player-owned assets on modded game servers.

And given Grand Theft Auto’s satirical tone, the game may be more likely to criticize cryptocurrency and poke fun at caricatures of crypto fans and NFTs, for example, rather than trying to launch its own on-chain currency. But that’s all speculation at this point, as there are relatively few official details about GTA 6.

For now, at least, don’t believe the hype. While Rockstar Games hasn’t officially closed the door on cryptocurrency usage in Grand Theft Auto 6, it hasn’t confirmed anything about it either. However, it’s sure to remain a hot topic in the long run leading up to release, which is currently scheduled for fall 2025.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.

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Bitcoin

Crypto President Trump’s ‘Lesser’ Regulation Will Bless Coinbase’s Bitcoin Leverage, Expert Says – Coinbase Glb (NASDAQ:COIN)

Published

11 months ago

3 July, 2024

TokenTrends Staff

Crypto President Trump's 'Lesser' Regulation Will Bless Coinbase's Bitcoin Leverage, Expert Says - Coinbase Glb (NASDAQ:COIN)

Chris SenyekChief Investment Strategist at Wolfe Researchrecently expressed his opinion on the potential impact of a Donald Trump win the 2024 elections in the cryptocurrency market.

What happened: Senyek suggested that a Trump presidency could ease cryptocurrency regulations, benefiting companies like Coinbase Global Inc. COIN due to its importance Bitcoin BTC/USD Leverage.

“Trump would be less harsh on crypto regulation, and Coinbase would be a big beneficiary of that given its influence on bitcoin,” Senyek said during CNBC’s “Last Call” on Tuesday.

See too: Enhance Your Retirement Portfolio: The Benefits of Adding Cryptocurrency

Why does this matter?:Senyek’s comments come in the context of the former president Donald Trump‘s reported plans to participate at the Bitcoin 2024 convention, which could reinforce his image as a “Crypto President”.

Trump’s potential participation in the Bitcoin 2024 convention, a major event on the cryptocurrency calendar, could have significant implications for the industry.

Pratik KalaHead of Research in DigitalX Limitedhe has predicted a Trump victory in the upcoming elections, but warns that immediate cryptocurrency-friendly regulations may not be a priority.

A recent report by 10x Search explore the recent rise in Bitcoin price and its potential connection to Trump’s strong position in the 2024 election race. The report, titled “Is the Bitcoin Trump Pump Sustainable?”, highlights a 4% spike in Bitcoin’s price following the news that the president Joe Biden will remain in the race despite a poor performance in the presidential debate.

Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading 2.10% lower at $60,860.66, according to Benzinga Pro.

Read next:

Image created using photos from Shutterstock

This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Pooja Rajkumari

News and market data brought to you by Benzinga’s APIs

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