Featured News:
1. Bitcoin breaks through $57,000, reaching its highest level since January 2022;
2. Ethereum breaks through $3,200, reaching a new high since May 2022;
3. BNB breaks through $400, reaching a new high since June 2022;
4. Blast mainnet will be launched on February 29;
5. Bitcoin ecosystem DeFi project Ordiswap v2 has been launched on the mainnet;
Price Watch
Chameleon Travel Club's floor price breaks through 4 ETH, with a 24-hour increase of 56.6%
On February 26, according to Blur market data, the floor price of Chameleon Travel Club NFT exceeded 4 ETH and is now reported at 4.15 ETH, with a 24-hour increase of 56.6%, setting a new record high. It is reported that Chameleon Travel Club is the first island travel Web3 project, and the vision of the project is to create an IP for the global island travel industry.
MicroStrategy's stock price surpassed $755, up 10.21% today
On February 26, according to market information, MicroStrategy's stock price broke through $755 and is now at $758.93, with a 10.21% increase today. Earlier today, it was reported that between February 15, 2024 and February 25, 2024, MicroStrategy and its subsidiaries purchased approximately 3,000 bitcoins for approximately $155.4 million in cash.
Affected by the news of launching cloud computing platform, THETA rose by more than 13% in a short period of time
On February 26, according to OKX market information, THETA rose by more than 13% in a short period of time and is now quoted at $1.712. Earlier news said that Theta Network plans to launch the first phase of EdgeCloud on May 1.
ORDS briefly broke through $0.23, setting a new record high
On February 26, according to market data, ORDS briefly broke through $0.23 and is now quoted at $0.2297, with a 24-hour increase of 14.73%, a record high. Earlier news today, the Bitcoin ecosystem DeFi project Ordiswap announced that V2 has been launched on the mainnet, currently supporting trading pairs such as BTC/ORDI and BTC/SATS, while allowing users to pledge ORDS. In addition, Ordiswap also announced plans to launch a proprietary Layer-2 (Ordilayer), overcollateralized and decentralized stablecoins (BTSD), and a BRC-20 launchpad (Ordipad).
Bitcoin briefly breaks through $57,000, reaching its highest level since January 2022
On February 27, according to OKX market data, Bitcoin briefly broke through US$57,000 and is currently quoted at US$56,671, a 24-hour increase of 10.06%, setting a new high since January 2022.
BNB breaks through $400, reaching a new high since June 2022
On February 27, according to market data, BNB broke through US$400 and is currently quoted at US$401.1, with a 24-hour increase of 3.14%, setting a new high since June 2022.
SOL breaks through $110, up 6.75% in 24 hours
On February 27, according to OKX market data, SOL broke through $110 and is currently priced at $110.9, a 24-hour increase of 6.75%.
Ethereum breaks through $3,200, reaching its highest level since May 2022
On February 27, according to OKX market data, Ethereum broke through US$3,200 and is currently priced at US$3,208, a 24-hour increase of 3.3%, setting a new high since May 2022.
Bitcoin breaks through $55,000, reaching its highest level since January 2022
On February 27, according to OKX market data, Bitcoin broke through US$55,000 and is currently quoted at US$55,096, with a 24-hour increase of 6.62%, setting a new high since January 2022.
Transaction Tracking
MicroStrategy bought 3,000 Bitcoins at an average price of $51,813
On February 26, MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor said on his social platform that MicroStrategy bought 3,000 bitcoins from February 15 to 25, with an average purchase price of $51,813. So far, MicroStrategy holds a total of 193,000 bitcoins, with an average holding price of approximately $31,544.
DeFi Education Fund transfers 125,000 UNI to Kraken
On February 26, according to Ember's monitoring, the DeFi education organization DeFi Education Fund transferred 125,000 UNI (worth approximately $1.35 million) to Kraken 14 hours ago. DeFi Education Fund received 1 million UNI funding from Uniswap on July 4, 2021, and then sold 500,000 UNI for 10.2 million USDC through Genesis Trading OTC on July 13, 2021. The organization currently still holds 374,398 UNI.
Grayscale transferred about 776.6 BTC to Coinbase Prime address, about 39.8 million US dollars
On February 26, according to Arkham data, Grayscale transferred approximately 776.6 BTC to the Coinbase Prime address 20 minutes ago, worth approximately US$39.8 million.
A newly created address withdrew 900 Bitcoins from Binance in the past 12 hours
On February 26, according to Lookonchain monitoring, a newly created address withdrew 900 bitcoins from Binance in the past 12 hours, worth approximately US$47.1 million.
Project News
BIT supports ETHS staking as Merlin Chain’s official custodian partner
On February 26, the all-round cryptocurrency trading platform BIT reached a cooperation with Merlin Chain to support ETHS staking as an official custodian, becoming the exclusive channel for users to stake ETHS and accumulate airdrop M points. Users can recharge ETHS to the BIT trading platform Inscription Staking Zone, click Merlin Staking and select the staked amount. BIT will synchronize the M points of the users staked every day to lock the Merlin Chain governance token MERL airdrop. This function is expected to be launched at the end of February.
Cosmos Hub Governance Fork Chain GovGen will be launched at 9:00 EST on Tuesday
On February 26, Cosmos developer All in Bits will launch a new blockchain network GovGen focused on governance before the Cosmos Hub fork AtomOne goes live. The development of GovGen is scheduled to go live at 9 a.m. EST on Tuesday. Led by All in Bit, a company owned by Cosmos co-founder Jae Kwon, GovGen will shape the design of the upcoming AtomOne fork through a decentralized decision-making process. The main goal of GovGen is to measure the community’s views on various proposals related to the AtomOne basic constitution.
The network's native token, GovGen, will be distributed to ATOM holders who voted against Cosmos Hub Proposal 848. GovGen tokens are only used for voting purposes in this context and are not transferable or tradable. AtomOne will be launched after GovGen holders decide on the design. (The Block)
Bitcoin Ecosystem DeFi Project Ordiswap v2 Has Been Launched on Mainnet
On February 26, the Bitcoin ecosystem DeFi project Ordiswap announced that V2 has been launched on the mainnet, currently supporting trading pairs such as BTC/ORDI and BTC/SATS, while allowing users to pledge ORDS. In addition, Ordiswap also announced plans to launch a proprietary Layer-2 (Ordilayer), over-collateralized and decentralized stablecoins (BTSD), a BRC-20 launchpad (Ordipad), etc. (Cointelgraph)
Ethena: Shard Campaign Phase 2 will be launched at 8:00 EST on Tuesday, raising the upper limit and adding support for Pendle
On February 26, according to the official announcement, USDe developer Ethena Labs will launch the second phase of the Shard Campaign at 8:00 EST on Tuesday. Phase 2 will increase the LP limit of sDAI/sUSDe and add GHO/USDe LP. At the same time, the USDe lock-up limit will be increased from 100 million US dollars to 200 million US dollars. In addition, users will be able to initially deposit USDe to the limit in Pendle Finance and receive Shard rewards.
New Osmosis Proposal: Propose to deploy Warp Protocol to Osmosis
On February 26, Osmosis proposed a new proposal to deploy the Warp Protocol to its platform. The launch of Warp on Osmosis will enable the Osmosis developer community to automate smart contract functions in a decentralized and cost-effective manner, thereby creating new features and applications that attract users and capital, increase on-chain transaction volume, and improve on-chain participation.
It is reported that Warp is a decentralized automation protocol that currently runs on Terra, Neutron and Injective, allowing developers to create new product features and user experience through cost-effective on-chain automation without the need for smart contract changes. As the first integration, Warp is working with cross-chain yield center Quasar to provide decentralized asset management for users interested in passively yield. The cooperation aims to automate reward management and decentralize the infrastructure of Quasar products on Osmosis.
Anchorage Digital Launches Porto, a Self-custodial Wallet for Institutions
On February 26, according to Fortune magazine, crypto custodian Anchorage Digital announced the launch of Porto, a self-custodial wallet for institutions. The wallet is provided directly by Anchorage's digital department, allowing institutions to hold and process their own assets instead of custodying assets on behalf of customers, using the same underlying technology as their banks, such as biometric authentication and asset recovery. Porto supports more than 200 tokens, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Aptos, and Sui. Anchorage Digital received national trust charter approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in early 2021.
Ola launches airdrop treasury program to give back to the community and zero-knowledge proof contributors
On February 26, Ola, a second-layer ZK programmable privacy and expansion project, announced the launch of the Ola Airdrop Vault, which aims to reward and thank active builders in the community, including early contributors to the Ola community, OVP holders, Ola ecosystem developers and feedback providers. In addition, Ola plans to airdrop to developers, researchers and advocates of zero-knowledge proof (ZK) technology. The distribution of airdrops mainly includes community proposals and voting and direct distribution to the Ola team when major projects progress.
Ola previously received token airdrops from Celestia and Starknet for its contributions to blockchain and ZK technology, and the token rewards have been used for community activities and draws for OVP holders. In the future, the Ola Airdrop Treasury will introduce NFTs and more tokens from projects to further expand the rewards range of the Airdrop Treasury.
Decentralized GPU Infrastructure Aethir Launches First Decentralized AI Node Sale on Arbitrum
On February 26, decentralized cloud infrastructure Aethir announced the launch of its first decentralized AI node sale, and its native token ATH will be used to reward node providers and checkers who maintain the Aethir decentralized cloud infrastructure network. It is reported that the node price for each checker node starts at $500 and then increases layer by layer, and a whitelist is reserved for different participants in the Aethir community, partner community, KOL, and venture capital team. This sale is designed to allow all types of participants to participate. The node sale will start at 10 am UTC on March 20, 2024, and the network is scheduled to be released in the second quarter of 2024.
BlockBeats previously reported that on July 27 last year, the decentralized GPU infrastructure Aethir completed its Pre-A round of financing with a valuation of US$150 million. Sanctor Capital, Hashkey, Merit Circle and CitizenX jointly led the investment, and Mirana Ventures, Animoca Brands, Momentum6, Big Brain Holdings, Builder Capital, Tess Ventures, Maelstrom (Arthur Hayes), Lapin Digital and others participated in the investment. The total financing amount has exceeded US$9 million to date.
Polygon zkEVM is expected to upgrade to Elderberry on the mainnet on March 7
On February 26, according to official news, the 10-day time lock for the Polygon zkEVM mainnet Beta upgrade has been activated, and the transaction information containing the Elderberry proposal and the upgrade contract has been released on GitHub and Etherscan. Polygon said that the Elderberry upgrade is now available on the testnet, and assuming the network is stable, Elderberry may be launched on the mainnet around March 7. The new upgrade has made important optimizations to the ROM, will reduce some out-of-counter errors on the network, and has made some additional fixes to last month's Etrog upgrade.
Theta Network plans to launch the first phase of its AI cloud computing platform EdgeCloud on May 1
On February 26, according to an official announcement, the decentralized streaming platform Theta Network announced plans to launch the first phase of the cloud computing platform EdgeCloud on May 1. It is reported that Theta EdgeCloud is one of the decentralized software platforms in the field of edge computing. Its mission is to provide developers, researchers and enterprises with GPU processing power to perform artificial intelligence or video tasks at the most optimized cost.
STEPN Developer Find Satoshi Lab Launches FSL Wallet and FSL Badge
On February 26, Find Satoshi Lab, the developer of STEPN, announced the launch of the wallet product FSL Wallet and the NFT badge FSL Badge based on the Soulbound Token. It is reported that FSL Wallet will serve as the universal login entrance for all future FSL products. The beta version is currently available and the official version will be launched later. FSL Badge NFTs are issued based on the accumulation of FSL points in the NFT metadata based on the user's interaction with current and future FSL products. More details on the points accumulation rules will be announced in the future. When the FSL wallet launches the official version, STPN users can also import addresses into the FSL wallet and accumulate points. The rules for point calculation and redemption, as well as the FSL Wallet product roadmap will be detailed in future announcements.
Bitcoin DeFi protocol Tap Protocol will take an airdrop snapshot for TRAC holders on the 28th
On February 27, Bitcoin DeFi protocol Tap Protocol said on its social platform that it will conduct the first airdrop snapshot for TRAC holders on the 28th, and eligible addresses may receive Tap Protocol governance token TAP airdrops. BlockBeats previously reported that in December last year, Bitcoin ecosystem protocol Tap Protocol completed a $4.2 million financing round led by Sora Ventures, with participation from Cypher Capital, Rw3, Oak Grove Capital, Perock Capital, Kosmos Ventures, New Tribe Capital, Cogitent Ventures, Compute Ventures and MSA Novo.
Blast mainnet will be launched on February 29
On February 27, Layer2 network Blast posted on social media that the Blast mainnet will be launched on February 29.
TinFun: NFT cross-chain to Blast network community voting will be open at 20:00 today
On February 27, the NFT project TinFun stated in its official Discord community that the TinFun team has completed negotiations with Blast officials and hopes that TinFun NFT will cross the chain from the ETH mainnet to Blast; in view of the community feedback collected recently, the project respects the opinions of the community rather than informing the final results. Therefore, the team will initiate a vote at 20:00 on the evening of February 27 and it will last for 3 days. Each TinFun NFT can cast one vote.
Yuga Labs: Collectibles will not be traded in markets that do not support creator royalties
On February 27, BAYC developer Yuga Labs officially stated that starting from February 27, it will stop supporting markets that do not support royalties for all creators, and its collectibles with royalty filters will only be traded on markets that respect the protocol level to pay royalties for all creators. In addition, Yuga Labs announced that the new Magic Eden ETH market launched in cooperation with Magic Eden will be launched tomorrow. This is the first Ethereum NFT trading market that is contractually obligated to honor creator royalties.
JPEG'd community launches a proposal to vote on "Using Treasury Funds for Airdrop Mining"
On February 27, according to the Snapshot governance page, the NFT lending protocol JPEG'd community initiated a proposal vote on "Using treasury funds for airdrop mining", intending to allow project teams to use part of the funds in the treasury for airdrop mining, such as Eigenlayer, Blast, etc., to allow project teams to use up to 50% of the Ethereum in the treasury for airdrop mining strategies.
Terra Classic community voted to pass the proposal to "destroy 800 million USTC through contract migration"
On February 27, according to the governance page, the Terra Classic (LUNC) community voted to pass the proposal to "destroy 800 million USTC through contract migration." According to market data, USTC is currently quoted at $0.0362, down 4.66% in 24 hours.
CeFi News
Coinbase Adds Akash Network (AKT) to its Listing Roadmap
On February 27, according to official news, Coinbase included Akash Network (AKT) in its coin listing roadmap. Akash Network is a distributed peer-to-peer cloud computing market that provides users with GPUs including Nvidia H100s and A100s, as well as consumer-grade chips that can handle computationally intensive workloads to train artificial intelligence and data science models.
Financing Express
Polygon's modular blockchain project Avail completes $27 million seed round of financing, led by Founders Fund and Dragonfly
On February 26, Polygon's modular blockchain project Avail announced the completion of a $27 million seed round of financing, led by Founders Fund and Dragonfly, a venture capital firm founded by Peter Thiel, and participated by SevenX Ventures, Figment, Nomad Capital and several angel investors. It is reported that Avail was spun off from Polygon in March 2023 and led by Polygon co-founder Anurag Arjun. This round of financing will be used to develop three core products: its data availability solution (DA), Nexus and Fusion. Among them, the first iteration of Nexus is expected to go online in 2024, and Fusion Security will be ready in 2025. (CoinDesk)
AI blockchain platform Talus Network completes $3 million first round of financing, led by Polychain Capital
On February 26, Talus Network, an on-chain AI network platform based on MoveVM, announced the completion of a $3 million first round of financing, led by Polychain Capital, with participation from dao5, Hash3, TRGC, WAGMI Ventures and Inception Capital, as well as angel investors from major technology and blockchain companies such as Nvidia, IBM, Blue7, Symbolic Capital and Render Network. It is reported that Talus Network mainly promotes consumer-friendly network AI applications, especially smart agents, to be seamlessly integrated into daily on-chain content.
QED received $3 million in investment from several well-known institutions to promote the innovation of Bitcoin ecosystem to build trustless applications based on zero-knowledge proof
On February 27, QED, the world's first zk-Native blockchain protocol, announced the completion of a $3 million financing round led by Arrington Capital, with participation from several well-known venture capital firms including Starkware, Draper Dragon, Blockchain Builders Fund, and Lbk Labs.
It is reported that QED aims to combine zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) with Bitcoin to empower Bitcoin applications and solve problems in the development of Web3. As the world's first horizontally scalable blockchain, it increases throughput by increasing the number of network nodes and allows any Web2 developer to write QED smart contracts using popular programming languages Javascript and Python. Michael Arrington, a well-known investor and the lead investor in this round, said, "We believe QED will redefine the possibilities of Bitcoin." This financing will help QED promote the innovation of the Bitcoin ecosystem and provide more innovative solutions.
Viewpoint Data
Financial Stability Board: Cryptocurrencies, tokenization, and AI remain priorities for monitoring
On February 26, according to CoinDesk, Klaas Knot, chairman of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), said in a letter to finance ministers of the Group of 20 (G20) that crypto assets, tokenization and artificial intelligence (AI) remain the focus of the committee's monitoring, which is responsible for watching the global financial system. The letter was sent on Monday before the G20 meeting in Sao Paulo on Wednesday and Thursday. It also outlined the organization's plan to publish a status report on its crypto roadmap and a report on the impact of tokenization on financial stability in October. The committee, in coordination with 24 countries, intends to report on the impact of artificial intelligence on financial stability a month after that.
“In 2024 and beyond, one of our priorities will be the effective implementation of the FSB’s global regulatory and supervisory framework for crypto-asset activities and markets and global stablecoin arrangements, which was endorsed by G20 leaders at the New Delhi summit,” Knot said. The New Delhi meeting was held in September last year.
Lido TVL exceeds US$30 billion, a record high
On February 26, according to DefiLlama data, Lido TVL reached $30.66 billion, a record high. In addition, according to Dune data, the current Ethereum pledge rate is 25.85%, of which Lido's market share is 31.4%.
Data: On February 26, Grayscale GBTC reduced its holdings by 1,090 BTC, and BlackRock increased its holdings by 3,281 BTC
On February 26, according to Lookonchain monitoring, Grayscale's GBTC reduced its holdings by 1,090 BTC (about $56.4 million) on February 26. Eight ETFs increased their holdings by 5,369 BTC (about $278 million), of which BlackRock increased its holdings by 3,281 BTC (about $169.88 million).
MicroStrategy's Bitcoin holdings have generated a profit of more than $4.4 billion
On February 27, as the price of Bitcoin broke through $54,000 and is now quoted at $54,565, MicroStrategy's Bitcoin holdings have made a profit of more than $4.443 billion. It currently holds a total of 193,000 bitcoins, with an average purchase price of $31,544 per coin.
Data: The total market value of stablecoins exceeds 140 billion US dollars
On February 27, according to CoinGecko data, the total market value of stablecoins reached 141.32 billion US dollars. Among them, the circulation of USDT has exceeded 97.9 billion, an increase of 2.5% in 30 days; the circulation of USDC has exceeded 28.4 billion, an increase of 9.1% in 30 days.
The total trading volume of 9 Bitcoin spot ETFs yesterday was about US$2.4 billion, a record high
On February 27, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas posted on social media that the total trading volume of the nine US Bitcoin spot ETFs yesterday was approximately US$2.4 billion, the highest record since the first day of listing, slightly higher than the trading volume on the first day of listing, but about twice the recent average daily trading volume.
The total open interest of Bitcoin contracts on the entire network exceeds US$24.8 billion
On February 27, according to Coinglass data, the total open interest of Bitcoin futures contracts on the entire network was 455,400 BTC (about 24.879 billion U.S. dollars). Among them, the open interest of CME Bitcoin contracts was 130,700 BTC (about 7.134 billion U.S. dollars), ranking first; the open interest of Binance Bitcoin contracts was 111,300 BTC (about 6.079 billion U.S. dollars), ranking second.
CME "Fed Watch": The probability of the Fed keeping interest rates unchanged in March is 97.5%
On February 27, according to CME's "Fed Watch" data, the probability that the Federal Reserve will maintain interest rates in the range of 5.25%-5.50% in March is 97.5%, and the probability of a 25 basis point rate cut is 2.5%.
Regulatory News
South Korea's financial regulator will discuss Bitcoin spot ETF and NFT classification with US SEC Chairman
On February 26, according to South Korean media Edaily, the head of South Korea's financial regulatory agency will meet with Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in May this year to discuss NFT asset classification and the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs. Earlier news, South Korea's ruling party was considering launching a general election convention related to cryptocurrencies, including allowing Bitcoin spot ETFs and corporate investments.
Genesis will face off in court today with its parent company DCG over its plan to repay creditors
On February 26, Bloomberg reported that the bankrupt crypto lender Genesis will hold talks with its parent company DCG in a New York court on a plan to repay creditors whose digital assets and cash have been frozen on the platform since the collapse of several large crypto companies in November 2022. Judge Sean Lane will decide whether Genesis' proposal is authorized by bankruptcy law. Monday's trial is expected to last at least a few days.
Earlier news, on February 22, DCG opposed the settlement proposed by its subsidiary Genesis and the New York Attorney General's Office. Genesis Global reached an agreement with the Attorney General's Office earlier this month to settle allegations of "fraudulent investors", but its parent company DCG said it was not an appropriate settlement. In an objection filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, DCG stated that Genesis "cannot use settlement as an excuse to extract value from the lower class and redistribute it to priority creditors, thereby violating absolute priority."
Appeals Court upholds fraud conviction of My Big Coin founder
On February 27, Cointelegraph reported that the Court of Appeals upheld the fraud conviction of Randall Crater, who founded the cryptocurrency project My Big Coin and was sentenced to more than eight years in prison. In documents filed with the First Circuit Court of Appeals on February 23, a three-judge panel confirmed Randall Crater's conviction more than a year later, after a jury found the cryptocurrency founder guilty of four counts of wire fraud, three counts of illegal currency transactions, and one count of operating an unlicensed money transmission business. Appeals judges Gustavo Gelpí, Jeffrey Howard, and Julie Rikelman issued an opinion that Randall Crater should not be granted a new trial for his involvement in the cryptocurrency scheme.
Genesis' settlement with the SEC is approved by the court
On February 27, Blockworks reported that the settlement agreement between the bankrupt crypto lender Genesis and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was approved by the court. Since there was no objection to the settlement between the SEC and the bankrupt crypto lender, the judge approved it as a "reasonable settlement."
The settlement with the SEC, filed in court earlier this month, could result in Genesis paying up to $21 million. However, the amount depends on creditors being repaid. The securities regulator filed a lawsuit against the bankrupt crypto lender last January, accusing Genesis of pooling Gemini Earn assets with other customers’ funds. Gemini and Genesis partnered to launch the Gemini Earn product.
U.S. judge rules that EIA must temporarily suspend survey measuring electricity consumption of crypto miners
On February 27, according to The Block, a Texas judge ruled that the U.S. Energy Information Administration must temporarily suspend an emergency survey aimed at measuring the electricity consumption of cryptocurrency mining companies. Judge Alan Albright of the Western District of Texas issued a temporary restraining order last Friday after the Texas Blockchain Council and Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms sued the Department of Energy, claiming that the survey was the product of "lax official procedures."
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) — the statistical and analytical arm of the Department of Energy — announced earlier this month that it would begin investigating cryptocurrency mining companies after filing an “urgent data collection request” and citing the rise in Bitcoin’s price over the past few months as evidence of the emergency request. The EIA contends that as cryptocurrency mining expands, there are growing concerns about its potential impact on the U.S. power industry.
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