Happy Friday! The Weekly Market Highlights is an initiative from the Binance Research team to round up the week, summarizing key market events and views from the team.
🔎 Macro / TradFi
Inflation rate in the UK remained high at 10.1% in March, exceeding expectations of 9.8%. This was largely driven by energy prices, which increased 40.5% year-on-year. The hot inflation print raises prospects for another increase in interest rates at the next Bank of England meeting.
🔎 Crypto
L1/L2:
ETH deposits exceeded withdrawals for the first time since the Shapella upgrade. This comes a week after the hard fork which enabled ETH stakers to withdraw staked ETH.
Venture capital firm, a16z, unveiled a new Layer 2 rollup client called Magi that is built on the OP Stack, a software stack that powers the Optimism Layer 2 network. In a blog post, the firm stated that “ Magi acts as the consensus client… (and) it feeds new blocks to the execution client in order to advance the chain.”
Sui, a new layer 1 network, has announced that it will launch its mainnet on 3 May.
DeFi:
Liquid staking protocol, Rocket Pool, has deployed its Atlas upgrade, reducing the minipool node operator deposit requirements from 16 ETH to 8 ETH. This lowers the barrier of entry to be an Ethereum validator on Rocket Pool.
Decentralized exchange, PancakeSwap, has proposed a reduction in the inflation target of its native CAKE token from more than 20% to 3-5%. The aim is to transition the CAKE staking model to one characterized by low staking inflation, real yield drawn from PancakeSwap’s protocol revenues, and product benefits favoring longer-term CAKE stakers.
Stablecoins:
SG Force, the digital assets subsidiary of Societe Generale bank, has launched a euro stablecoin on Ethereum. EUR CoinVertible (EURCV) will be offered to institutional clients to bridge the gap between traditional capital markets and the digital assets ecosystem.
The House Financial Services Committee in the U.S. has published a draft version of its stablecoin bill. It entails a framework for stablecoin issuers to define how their offerings can be regulated, and calls for a temporary ban on algorithmic stablecoins.
NFTs:
Starbucks has launched its second NFT collection on Polygon. The “First Store Collection” is a set of 5,000 NFT “stamp” collectibles and was priced at $100 each, similar to the previous drop of 2,000 NFTs.
Gaming:
Merit Circle DAO, a gaming DAO, has announced the launch of gaming subnet “Beam” in collaboration with Avalanche. Merit Circle plans for Beam to support dozens of Avalanche games. Beam will be an independent, sovereign network focused on gaming and will cater to a wide range of gamers and game developers.
Others:
The EU Parliament has passed a new crypto licensing regime, Markets in Crypto Assets regulation (“MiCA”), thereby introducing comprehensive crypto regulation for one of the world’s largest markets. Lawmakers have also voted in favor of a separate law known as the Transfer of Funds regulation, which requires crypto operators to identify their customers in a bid to halt money laundering.
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About Binance Research: Binance Research is the research arm of Binance, the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange. The team is committed to delivering objective, independent, and comprehensive analysis and aims to be the thought leader in the crypto space. Our analysts publish insightful thought pieces regularly on topics related but not limited to, the crypto ecosystem, blockchain technologies, and the latest market themes.
General Disclosure: This material is prepared by Binance Research and is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities, cryptocurrencies or to adopt any investment strategy. The use of terminology and the views expressed are intended to promote understanding and the responsible development of the sector and should not be interpreted as definitive legal views or those of Binance. The opinions expressed are as of the date shown above and are the opinions of the writer, they may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by Binance Research to be reliable, are not necessarily all-inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by Binance. This material may contain ’forward looking’ information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. This material is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell in any securities, cryptocurrencies or any investment strategy nor shall any securities or cryptocurrency be offered or sold to any person in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the laws of such jurisdiction. Investment involves risks.
