16 February 2024
Macro/TradFi
Bitcoin ETFs have been performing well as Grayscale’s GBTC outflows continue to slow. Overall, Bitcoin spot ETFs have seen over US$4.5B in net inflows since first launching.
Franklin Templeton became the latest major TradFi asset manager to apply for a spot Ethereum ETF.
Ethiopia is set to invest up to US$250M into Bitcoin mining.
MicroStrategy’s 190K Bitcoin is now worth over US$10 billion.
Crypto
L1/L2:
Bitcoin crossed the US$50K mark for the first time since December 2021.
Polygon is set to launch v1 of their AggLayer on mainnet on February 23. Devs will be able to connect any L1 or L2 to it and aggregate liquidity while using zk-proofs for security.
StarkNet has announced the Starknet Provisions Program, where they will distribute over 700M $STRK tokens to nearly 1.3M addresses. This represents a portion of the 900M $STRK dedicated to the Provisions program (out of 1.8B $STRK allocated to the community).
Tron has announced plans to build a Bitcoin Layer-2 solution.
DeFi:
After restaking primitive, EigenLayer, temporarily lifted their staking cap last week. TVL shot up rapidly and currently sits above US$7B (over 2.5M $ETH).
Uniswap v4 is set to launch in Q3 2024.
Wintermute and The Block launch GMCI, a digital asset indices provider. Their flagship product, the GMCI 30 index, tracks the price performance of the top 30 crypto assets.
Spanish telecommunications company, Telefonica, has partnered with Chainklink to collaborate on using web3 tech to prevent SIM card fraud.
NFT:
Magic Eden is set to launch a new Ethereum NFT marketplace on February 27. It will be launched in collaboration with Yuga Labs and Limit Break and aims to reduce gas fees by between 6-40% versus current options.
ApeCoin DAO is set to use Arbitrum’s tech stack to develop ApeChain and build it as an Arbitrum Orbit chain.
Other:
Solana’s Chapter 2 mobile phone has crossed over 100K in pre-order sales.
Lava Network, a modular infrastructure developer, has raised US$15M in seed funding. Lava is focused on providing data access through RPCs and indexing.
Fordefi, a crypto wallet developer, has closed a US$10M funding round.
Overworld has raised a US$10M seed round. The game studio is working on its first game, a web3 action RPG with anime-inspired artwork, also called Overworld.
Latest Binance Research Publications
Check out our latest publications:
Explore our Binance Research website for more project and macro research.
For more frequent market updates and insights, follow us on Twitter @BinanceResearch.
Have a minute? Please share with us any feedback you may have via this form.
That’s a wrap!
Binance Research
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.
