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- Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cosmos and more Week 14 2024
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cosmos and more Week 14 2024
Keeping you updated on crypto, web3 and blockchain
TLDR: TradFi Heavy Hitters Participate in BlackRock’s ETF, U.S. Government Move 30,175 Bitcoin, Bitcoin ETF’s Reach Record Highs, Ripple Announces USD-pegged Stablecoin, VanEck Suggests Ethereum L2s May Reach $1T Base Valuation by 2030, Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol Turn 3, Grayscale Cuts ATOM in Quarterly Rebalancing, Frax Finance Joins Cosmos with Noble, Do Kwon Found Liable by Jury & PayPal Announces PYUSD to USD Zero-fee Transfers.
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Market & Airdrop Update
Before we dive in, make sure to check out our recent Market and Airdrop update:
Bitcoin Highlights of the Week
BlackRock's announcement of the inclusion of Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Citadel, and UBS as participants in their IBIT ETF indicates a significant expansion of TradFi players into crypto. Despite Goldman Sachs stating that their clients showed no interest in these assets, this move suggests otherwise.
Allegedly, the U.S. government has moved 30,175 BTC (valued at $2 billion) to Coinbase. This substantial transfer of BTC has sparked interest as it constitutes a noteworthy portion of the coins seized by the U.S. government in late 2022 in relation to the notorious Silk Road case.
Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) listed in the U.S. amassed trading volumes reaching $111 billion in March. This marks a threefold increase compared to the volumes seen in January and February of $42 billion, coinciding with the remarkable surge in the value of the largest cryptocurrency to date.
Bankrupt crypto lending firm Genesis sold off around 36 million shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to acquire more Bitcoin as part of its strategy to settle its debts with creditors. Genesis liquidated approximately 36 million GBTC shares on April 2nd, priced at about $58.50 per share at the time. Since Genesis initially sought approval from a U.S. bankruptcy court to sell the 36 million GBTC shares on February 2nd, when the shares were at $38.50, the share price has surged by roughly 50%. The total proceeds from the sale amounted to $2.1 billion, enabling the acquisition of 32,041 Bitcoin on April 2nd at a price of $65,685. Genesis intends to use the Bitcoin to continue its efforts in repaying creditors.
Australian investment firm Monochrome is set to introduce its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the worldwide listing exchange Cboe Australia. Monochrome submitted an application for their spot Bitcoin ETF in July 2023. If approved, the Monochrome Bitcoin ETF will be Australia's inaugural spot Bitcoin ETF, allowing direct holdings of Bitcoin. While Australian regulators have already sanctioned two exchange-traded products (ETPs) offering exposure to spot crypto assets on Cboe Australia, these ETPs do not directly possess Bitcoin. Instead, they invest in financial instruments providing exposure to spot Bitcoin ETFs. Monochrome expects to launch their sport Bitcoin ETF by mid 2024.
Ethereum Highlights of the Week
After an airdrop of approximately $1.4 billion this week and significant adoption leading to a feud among some of crypto's major DeFi protocols, Ethena remains focused on the future. The launch of Ethena's second season, the Sats Campaign, began officially on Thursday this week, introducing Bitcoin as collateral in the protocol. This addition significantly broadens Ethena's total potential market.
Ripple has announced its intention to introduce a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, targeting enterprise clients and payment firms. This stablecoin, supported by USD reserves, short-term US government treasuries, and cash equivalents, will undergo auditing by a third-party accounting firm, with Ripple releasing monthly confirmations. Initially accessible on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum, Ripple's decision reflects a strategic move to provide a dependable option amid lingering uncertainties surrounding Tether (USDT).
The Uniswap DAO is considering a proposal to release Uniswap V3 on the Sei Network. Sei v2 introduces optimistic parallelization, allowing concurrent transaction processing, thus improving throughput and reducing fees. Coupled with an optimized database, SeiDB, Sei can support high-volume applications without sacrificing speed or efficiency. Since Uniswap has not yet been tested in an alternative execution environment, it is important to explore how this deployment will impact the DEX's usage and performance. No modifications to the Uniswap contracts will be necessary for this deployment as Sei v2 offers byte-code EVM compatibility, addressing security concerns.
Pendle, a yield platform on Ethereum, has achieved a significant milestone, surpassing $10 billion in trading volume and locking in a total value of $4 billion to date. This achievement positions Pendle among the top 10 DeFi platforms by Total Value Locked (TVL). The platform's growth has been fueled by the Ether staking surge, marked by substantial trading activity in liquid staking tokens and synthetic dollar protocols like Ethena. Pendle is also recognized for its leveraged points trading feature, which allows users to hedge or amplify their loyalty points by up to 28x.
VanEck, an investment firm, forecasts Ethereum layer 2 networks to exceed a $1 trillion valuation by 2030 but maintains a cautious outlook on the enduring potential of several such networks. VanEck conducted an assessment of 46 layer 2 networks across five critical areas and projected the emergence of "thousands" of rollups in the future. Among these networks, Arbitrum stands out with over $18 billion in locked tokens, boasting the most extensive ecosystem. VanEck noted that factors such as transaction pricing, developer and user experience, trust assumptions, and ecosystem size could significantly influence the growth trajectory of layer 2 networks.
Cosmos Highlights of the Week
This week, the The Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC) celebrated is 3rd anniversary of the first IBC transfer. The IBC is the heart of Cosmos, thus a great milestone for the Cosmos ecosystem. In the last 3 years, the interchain expansion has been quite impressive, from 2 chains to over 100 interconnected blockchains.
This week, Grayscale announced that as part of its quarterly fund rebalancing, it has removed Cardano's ADA token from its Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund (GDLC) and Cosmos' ATOM token from its Grayscale Smart Contract Platform Ex-Ethereum Fund (GSCPxE). The proceeds from selling the tokens were reinvested in existing fund tokens.
Picasso Network has announced its collaboration with the Composable Foundation to integrate the Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol with Ethereum. This integration enables the transfer of assets and data between Ethereum (ETH) and the Cosmos ecosystem, fostering cross-chain interoperability.
The Frax token (FRAX), a stablecoin collateralized by cryptocurrency and pegged to USD, along with its staked version sFRAX, will be integrated into the Cosmos ecosystem through Noble. Noble is a specialized blockchain within the Cosmos network tailored for issuing native digital assets.
Range stands as the foremost security and risk platform designed for blockchains and rollups, providing essential protection for users and assets across top-tier interchain protocols. Trusted by prominent projects like Osmosis, dYdX, Noble, and Neutron, Range serves as the backbone of security infrastructure within decentralized finance across the IBC ecosystem and beyond. Utilizing an AI-powered modular security infrastructure stack, Range caters to application-specific blockchain and rollups, with a keen emphasis on cross-chain applications and interoperability protocols like IBC.
Other Highlights of the Week
In the SEC case, the jury rules against Terraform Labs founder for fraud and misleading investors.
PayPal has announced the launch of a new feature enabling its U.S. customers to conduct cross-border money transfers utilizing the PYUSD stablecoin. Through PayPal's international payments platform, Xoom, users in the United States can convert PYUSD to USD and subsequently send funds to recipients in approximately 160 countries without incurring transaction fees.
Following a man's purchase of a goat using his Worldcoin airdrop, other cryptocurrency users have begun financing his acquisition of additional goats. They usually contribute $50 for him to procure a goat and designate its name as per their preference.
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