26 May 2023
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
The US Treasury warns that it may run out of funds if Congress fails to raise or suspend the debt limit, with Fitch Ratings putting the US’s AAA credit rating on negative watch. Concerns over the debt limit have impacted equity markets, with the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq falling in the week.
The minutes from the latest US Federal Reserve (“Fed”) FOMC meeting confirms that they are contemplating pausing interest rate hikes in June. Progress on inflation, labor market robustness and banking risks will be key determinants.
🔎 Crypto
L1/L2:
Solana has officially integrated a ChatGPT plug-in into its network to better onboard and equip users in the web3 ecosystem. The Solana foundation has also launched a US$10M AI grants fund and accelerator program.
BNB Chain is set to undergo the Luban hard fork, which incorporates 3 Binance Evolution Proposals (“BEPs”) to enhance the network’s speed and security. The upgrade is expected to occur on June 11th.
Manta Network, a layer-1 on Polkadot, is launching zero-knowledge soulbound tokens (zkSBT), having partnered with Linea, a roll-up based scaling solution powered by ConsenSys.
Ava Labs, the company behind Avalanche, is set to launch AvaCloud, which is a launchpad that enables enterprises to build no-code blockchain applications.
Vega Protocol, a layer-1 focused on derivatives trading, launches its first on-chain futures market, with plans to add more markets in spot, perpetuals, among others.
Matter Labs, the team behind zkSync, has hired a former Activision Blizzard executive to lead growth efforts on promoting the use of zkSync infrastructure in the gaming sector.
DeFi:
Ledger has been undergoing damage control amid backlash from Ledger Recover, a private key recovery service. In response, Ledger has postponed the service and has publicly communicated in a letter its aims to become open-source and work with the community for such decisions in the future.
Num Finance raises US$1.5M to expand its stablecoin offering, including tokens pegged to local currencies in Latin America and the Middle East.
Voltz Protocol launches Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”) swaps on Avalanche. The new product is widely used in TradFi and enables investors to hedge against interest rate risk.
Stablecoins:
Strike, a Bitcoin native payments app, has integrated with Tether, meaning USDT settlements are now directly possible within the app. The move comes after Strike’s announcement of expanding into 65 additional markets.
Stably announced the launch of the first BRC-20 stablecoin (#USD) on the Bitcoin blockchain. Stably aims to leverage the growing Bitcoin ordinals market to expand its ecosystem.
NFT:
Bitcoin surpassed Solana to become the second most popular NFT blockchain after amassing US$167M in gross sales this month, with the Ordinals protocol playing a pivotal role in its ascendence.
The Interchain Foundation, a Swiss based non-profit, has partnered with Bianjie, a blockchain development company, to launch a new interoperable NFT standard (ICS-721) on Cosmos. The new standard enables users to track and transfer NFTs across blockchains.
Others:
Hong Kong has announced that crypto trading platforms will be able to apply for a license to serve retail investors from June 1st. The new legislation, termed the Guidelines for Virtual Asset Trading Platform Operators, was finalized by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC”) as part of its goal to regulate the use of cryptocurrency in the region.
Nanjing, the capital city of China’s Jiangsu Province, has established the China Metaverse Technology and Application Innovation Platform to spearhead R&D in subjects related to the Metaverse. The new state-backed initiative aims to unlock synergies with academic institutions and enterprises, setting an ambitious target of creating a US$20B dollar industry by 2025.
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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.
