Mars Finance Crypto Daily January 4, 2024
1. Today’s News
Bloomberg analyst: If the SEC intends to reject or delay ETFs, it will not meet with exchanges to discuss 19b-4 filings
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas posted on social media that if the SEC intends to continue to postpone or reject the Bitcoin spot ETF resolution, it will not hold meetings with major exchanges (Nasdaq, CBOE, NYSE) to finalize comments on the 19b-4s submitted by the Bitcoin spot ETF issuer. The SEC has been in close contact with issuers offline to perfect their 19b-4s, rather than doing a lot of re-filing like S-1s. Bitpush previously reported that Fox reporter Eleanor Terrett posted on social media that the SEC is meeting with exchanges today to finalize comments on the 19b-4s submitted by the Bitcoin spot ETF issuer.
Sources: Goldman Sachs in talks to become an authorized participant in BlackRock and Grayscale's spot Bitcoin ETF
According to Coindesk, according to two people familiar with the matter, Goldman Sachs seems likely to play a key role in the Bitcoin ETF that BlackRock and Grayscale want to launch in the United States. The company is in talks to become an authorized participant (AP) for exchange-traded funds. This is one of the most important jobs in the trillion-dollar ETF industry, and the position involves creating and redeeming ETF shares to ensure that the product is traded in sync with its underlying assets. Regulatory documents disclosed last week showed that JPMorgan Chase, Jane Street and Cantor Fitzgerald became APs for several other Bitcoin ETF issuers.
The U.S. Government Now Holds Over $8 Billion in Bitcoin
Thanks to a healthy price rally, the U.S. federal government now holds at least $8.3 billion in Bitcoin — down from $5 billion less than three months ago. Between November 2020 and 2022, U.S. authorities disclosed the seizure of a total of 207,189 Bitcoins (BTC) tied to the Silk Road dark web marketplace, its hacker Jimmy Zhong, and the hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in three separate operations. Less than 5% of the Bitcoin seized was sold, with the government selling 9,861 BTC that once belonged to Silk Road on Coinbase in February last year. The transactions brought in $215 million for the government, at an average price of $21,800 per Bitcoin, about half its current price. U.S. prosecutors at the time said they intended to sell the remaining Silk Road Bitcoins — 41,491 BTC, worth $1 billion at the time and $1.8 billion today — in four batches over the next calendar year. That deadline expires in two months. (Blockworks)
XAI: Airdrop will account for 5% of the total supply
On January 4, Arbitrum ecosystem game Layer3 XAI announced the details of the token airdrop, which will account for 5% of the total supply, totaling 125,000,000 XAI. Vanguard NFT holders will receive 1,307 XAI per NFT, Legendary NFT holders will receive 290 XAI per NFT, and Sentry Node Operators will receive 1,658 XAI. Earlier, Binance announced the launch of the 43rd Launchpool project XAI.
Radiant Capital: Will implement bad debt remediation plan
Radiant Capital, a multi-chain lending protocol, said that the hacker attack caused the protocol to generate bad debts in the WETH market, accounting for approximately 1.3% of the protocol's TVL. The Radiant DAO committee suspended the lending market on Arbitrum. A technical method has been developed to safely lift the suspension of the lending market on Arbitrum. OpenZeppelin, independent Ethereum researchers and white hat hackers are reviewing this method.
Radiant stressed that the protocol is solvent and that a bad debt remediation plan will be implemented to fully recapitalize the protocol and give users full access to their deposits. For users who were at risk of liquidation during the suspension period, a proposed plan will also be implemented to ensure that no user is unfairly punished.
Cosmos Ecosystem Scalability Protocol Saga Plans to Airdrop Tokens and Will Announce Airdrop Qualification Criteria
Saga, the Web3 scalability protocol used by the Cosmos ecosystem to automatically deploy dedicated block space, will work with five technology partners and the crypto community to conduct a token airdrop, and will subsequently announce the airdrop qualification criteria.
Bitcoin options trading volume hits record high of $37.9 billion in December 2023
The Block Pro data shows that in December 2023, the open interest of Bitcoin options decreased by 15.6%, and the open interest of Ethereum options decreased by 5.5%. The monthly trading volume of Bitcoin options increased by 17.3% to US$37.9 billion, a record high; the monthly trading volume of Ethereum options increased by 5.9% to US$15.3 billion.
In December 2023, BTC miners' income reached 1.59 billion US dollars, and GBTC's daily average transaction volume increased by 63.4%
The Block Pro data shows that in December 2023, BTC miners' income increased by 21.7% month-on-month to US$1.59 billion, while ETH pledgers' income increased by 17.1% to US$185 million. In December, the average daily trading volume of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Fund GBTC increased by 63.4% to US$195 million. In December, a total of 127,110 ETH were destroyed, equivalent to approximately US$286 million. Since the implementation of EIP-1559 in early August 2021, a total of 3.89 million ETH have been destroyed, equivalent to approximately US$10.8 billion. In December, the transaction volume of Ethereum NFT platform increased by 39.8% to US$780 million.
In addition, the spot trading volume of compliant CEXs increased by 34.5% in December to $598.7 billion, of which Binance had a market share of 72.3%, Coinbase had a market share of 11.7%, Kraken had a market share of 4.9%, and LMAX Digital had a market share of 3.2%.
In December 2023, the total transaction volume of Bitcoin and Ethereum on the chain reached 328 billion US dollars, and the transaction volume of stablecoins reached 608 billion US dollars
The Block Pro data shows that the adjusted total transaction volume of Bitcoin and Ethereum chains in December 2023 increased by 29.1% month-on-month to US$328 billion; among which the monthly transaction volume of Bitcoin chain increased by 34.4%, and the monthly transaction volume of Ethereum chain increased by 21.6%. The adjusted transaction volume of stablecoin chains in December increased by 1.9% to US$608 billion; the issued supply increased by 0.57% to US$120.8 billion; among which USDT market share was 76%, and USDC market share was 18.3%.
CoinGecko: BONK ranks first among the top 100 tokens by market value in 2023, with a growth rate of more than 73 times
According to CoinGecko research data, among the top 100 tokens by market value in 2023, BONK ranked first with a growth of 7302.9%. Injective ranked second with a growth of 2976.4%. Among them, Ethereum's growth was only 98.6%, far less than Bitcoin's 162.5%.
Sleepless AI airdrop rules: Users who participate in NFT auctions, sign-in interactions, etc. will receive airdrops
Sleepless AI announced the following airdrop rules: 1. All 20 Genesis NFT holders, the top 10 bidders, and participants in the staking plan will receive AI; 2. Users who participate in voting and sign in more than 10 times a day will receive airdrops; airdrops will be given to the top 100 users who pre-order the game. 1% of the total Sleepless AI tokens will be used for airdrops, and an additional reward plan will be announced in the next 1-2 days. Users who stake AI will receive an additional 2-5 million AI tokens as special rewards.
PancakeSwap has reduced the maximum supply of CAKE from 750 million to 450 million
PancakeSwap tweeted that it has reduced the maximum supply of CAKE from 750 million to 450 million. From CAKE token economics v2.5 to the recent release of veCAKE, it marks that CAKE has entered a deflationary period.
Messari: Financing in Q4 2023 reached US$3.83 billion, an increase of 81% month-on-month
According to a report released by Messari, due to the steady growth of transactions in the early stage and the significant surge in transactions of Bitcoin mining companies, the amount of financing in the fourth quarter of 2023 surged 81% to US$3.83 billion; the number of transactions was 397, an increase of 28% from the previous quarter. %. Large deals such as Blockaid ($33 million in Series A funding) and Ritual ($25 million in Series A funding) highlighted this growth trend, driving the average deal size in Q4 to $8 million from $5.8 million in Q3.
The total open interest of BTC contracts on the entire network is $18.29 billion
According to Coinglass data, the total open interest of Bitcoin futures contracts on the entire network is 424,080 BTC (about 18.29 billion US dollars). Among them, the open interest of CME Bitcoin contracts is 116,520 BTC (about 5.01 billion US dollars), ranking first; the open interest of Binance Bitcoin contracts is 93,300 BTC (about 4.03 billion US dollars), ranking second.
CoinShares: Digital asset investment products will see a net inflow of $2.25 billion in 2023
The annual funding report released by CoinShares shows that the annual capital inflow of digital asset investment products in 2023 reached US$2.25 billion, 2.7 times that of 2022, and the third largest year since 2017.
Bitcoin was the biggest beneficiary of improved investor sentiment, with inflows reaching $1.9 billion, accounting for 87% of total inflows.
Ethereum inflows rebounded to $78 million.
Meanwhile, Solana saw inflows of $167 million, or 20% of AUM.
The total assets under management (AuM) of crypto investment products reached US$51 billion, up 129% year-on-year, the highest level since March 2022.
Wu Jihan responds to Matrixport's shift in perspective: Rapidly adjusting perspectives is a skill and an advantage
Regarding the "Matrixport report causing a sharp drop", Wu Jihan once again posted on the X platform, saying: "This sudden incident slightly disrupted my vacation. After waking up, I found that Matrixport's analyst report was actually responsible for the market crash. I don't take the blame."
Wu Jihan added: "Matrixport's analyst Markus did not publish contradictory opinions on the same day. He released one opinion on Tuesday and the opposite opinion on Wednesday. Our analyst did adjust his opinion. In this ever-changing market, it should be seen as an ability and advantage to calmly do "today is right and yesterday is wrong" and adjust opinions in a state of "changing one's face faster than turning a book". If you are a trader, you don't want to work with an analyst who is stubbornly sticking to his opinion yesterday. It is possible that he has realized that he was wrong yesterday, but he is embarrassed to admit it and tell you. Matrixport works with many excellent analysts, and their ability to change their opinions quickly continues to be highly appreciated by Matrixport customers."
CertiK: Gamma suffered a flash loan attack and lost 1,535 ETH
According to CertiK monitoring, a flash loan attack on the Gamma Strategies contract occurred on the Arbitrum chain. Through price manipulation, the attacker obtained 1,535 ETH (worth about $3.43 million) and bridged it to Ethereum.
2. Selected articles
Bankless: What’s Next for Bitcoin?
New Bitcoin bull coins are on the rise, crypto analysts are bullish on Bitcoin, the deadline for spot Bitcoin ETF approval is next Wednesday, the halving will come in April, and interest rate cuts next year are coveted by traders, but demand must be realized, and interest rate cuts will not automatically bring benefits.
Disassembling Messari 2024 Research Report: Bullish on Ethereum, DePIN, Ai and Solana Ecosystems, Pay Attention to Leading Tokens in Each Track
Messari released a 2024 research report covering DePIN x AI synergy, Coinbase market penetration, modularity and CelestiaTIA, Solana + Firedancer, Bitcoin, DeFi, sports betting and information markets, games + autonomous worlds, bullish Ethereum narratives, and the DePIN ecosystem. AI and cryptocurrency projects include GPU shortages, transparency, and DAOs will become benevolent, AI-driven protocol managers.
Will the BRC20 index upgrade controversy lead to a "fork"?
The BRC20 Indexer War triggered a BRC20 fork power struggle. Unisat insisted on following the Ordinals upgrade, but was opposed and criticized by BRC20 founder Domo in order to seize control of the protocol. There are three views in the crypto community: coexistence, freezing, and upgrading. BRC20 is at a crossroads, and no matter which direction it chooses in the end, it will have a profound impact on its future.
Bitcoin spot ETFs are jumping up and down, but miners have nowhere to complain
The arrival of Bitcoin ETFs will allow more investors and retail investors to legally purchase Bitcoin, but pricing power will move from on-chain to off-chain, and computing power may also shift to the West, leading to excessive concentration of chips, which may cause an imbalance in the pricing mechanism. Under the positive sentiment of ETFs, Bitcoin prices fell rapidly, and the miners' computing power pricing system was also shattered, but will the power of PoW miners become history?
Maintaining the legitimacy of DA, the story behind Vitalik’s open call for ENS
Vitalik Buterin forwarded ENS's layer2 data parsing solution, which aims to reduce Ethereum's control over layer2's DA, provide a more user-friendly experience, attract more user traffic, and maintain the legitimacy of Ethereum's mainnet DA. ENS has designed an interactive "layer bridge" that allows each layer2 to retrieve and effectively verify the domain name data of the Ethereum mainnet from the off-chain environment.
3. Project Interpretation
Uncovering MakerDAO RWA: DeFi’s governance system and transaction architecture for capturing off-chain assets
MakerDAO's RWA as collateral can capture value, expand scale and growth, and realize its grand vision. Through Legal Wrapper, DeFi can "wrap" on-chain protocols or DAO organizations in a legal framework, thereby connecting real-world interactions and realizing the value capture of off-chain assets. MakerDAO realizes the value capture of off-chain assets through the governance system and legal structure of Foundation+ SPV or Trust. MatrixDock and USDV provide a path for interest-bearing stablecoins, and retail investors can deposit stablecoins in exchange for interest-bearing stablecoins.
DODO Research: Decoding Arbitrum’s Game Ace XAI
XAI is the Arbitrum Orbit L3 public chain developed by Offchain Labs. It has modules such as Nitro and BOLD, supports multi-language development, and a dual-token economic model. Ex Populus Studio is responsible for game development and has reached strategic cooperation with companies such as Tencent and Animoca Brands. XAI is becoming a rising star in the field of blockchain games. If the game ecosystem is successfully built, XAI's user base and commercial value will be increased exponentially.
The rise is good, let’s take a look at the potential NFTs on Bitcoin
NodeMonkes and OnChainMonkey (OCM) are two newly famous Bitcoin NFT projects. OCM has completed a $5 million seed round of financing. Popular projects such as Fomojis, Bitcoin Boos, Pizza Ninjas, INK, Counterfeit, etc. have attracted the attention and popularity of ETH NFT players. Jack Butcher's PSD and Acid Pepes have performed well in the market. Famous NFT projects such as MATRICA: BLOCKS, Shadow Hats, Etcher, etc. are also worthy of attention.
Here’s a list of the most valuable airdrops in 2024
2024 will be the golden year for cryptocurrency airdrops. Projects such as Cosmos, Celestia, Injective, Osmosis, Aptos, Sui, Solana, Wormhole, LayerZero, zkSync, Linea, Manta Network, and Starknet will have airdrop opportunities, and participants can get good rewards. The L2 airdrop, which ranks third in TVL, will also come, and participants can get good rewards. It is recommended to join their Discord/Telegram to track the latest developments and use their front-end transactions to get airdrops.
IV. Investment and Financing
PowerPod, a shared charging station project on the DePIN track, completes a $1 million seed round of financing, led by Waterdrip Capital
PowerPod, a shared charging station project in the DePIN track, recently completed a seed round of financing of US$1 million, led by Waterdrip Capital, with participation from Iotex, Future Money Group, JDI Group, Future3 Campus and Wagmi Venture. The financing will be mainly used to strengthen hardware development and testing, verify the minimum closed loop of the business model, and build a community ecosystem. PowerPod aims to build a global open interconnected charging network to help accelerate the goal of low-carbon emissions in the global transportation sector.
Binance Labs has invested in Memeland project token MEME
Binance Labs has invested in Memeland project token MEME, the specific investment amount is unknown.
Bitcoin data availability layer project Nubit completes angel round financing, with Bounce Finance and others participating
Bitcoin data availability layer project Nubit has completed its angel round of financing, with Bounce Finance, Domo and others participating. The specific amount of financing has not been announced. Nubit developer Riema Labs will cooperate with major industry players and participate in various blockchain initiatives.
Gelato, an Ethereum smart contract automation tool, completes an extended round of financing, led by IOSG Ventures
Xiao Ray, senior director of IOSG Ventures, disclosed on social media that Gelato, an Ethereum smart contract automatic execution tool, recently completed an extension round of financing, led by IOSG Ventures.
