TLDR: BTC Dips After ETF Approvals, BTC ETFs Goes Global, SEC Delays ETH ETFs, Ethereum Dencun Upgrade Goes Live, Inscriptions on Cosmos Hub, dYdX Becomes Largest DEX, Manta Token Launch, Is Aave Going to Solana?

Bitcoin Highlights of the Week

BTC Dips After ETF Approvals

After the mass BTC ETF approvals in week 2, BTC took a plunge. Provided BTC is the largest assets in crypto, this plunge resulted in a total a quarter billion dollars in wealth being wiped out.

BTC ETFs Goes Global

After the mass BTC ETF approvals in the US, a number of various countries and regions are eyeing to get BTC ETFs approved as well. In Hong Kong, at least 10 asset managers have been preparing to launch a spot BTC ETFs. Most notable is Venture Smart Financial Holdings (VSFG), which is set to launch their BTC ETF by Q1Y24.

Bitcoin Mining Becomes More Sustainable

In the latest Bitcoin ESG Forecast, it has been concluded that BTC mining is moving in a greener direction. Long has BTC mining been a culprit in emissions, however the ESG Forecast revealed that mining using sustainable energy has increased to a new all-time high of 54.5%, with sustainable mining rising by 3.6% overall during the calendar year of 2023.

Tether becomes 11th-largest holder of BTC

Stablecoin issuer Tether has silently become the 11th-largest bitcoin holder in the world, following a $380m purchase that brings its total holdings to 66,465 BTC. Tether’s market share grew by 21% over 2023, now dominating the stablecoin market with a 71% share.

BRC-20 Tokens To Become Key Narratives for BTC

Crypto exchange Binance’s research arm highlighted the growth of BRC-20 tokens in its latest report, arguing that it’s one of the most important narratives of 2023 despite many being skeptical about Ordinal’s place in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Ethereum Highlights of the Week

SEC Delays ETH ETFs

This week, the SEC has punted at changes to be made to Fidelity’s ETH ETF until May. Fidelity is leading the ETH ETF race, so this should serve as a bench for other players eager to get their ETF ETF approved.

Staking Entire Validators Directly From MetaMask Goes Live

MetaMask, the Crypto wallet provider, has introduced validator staking through MetaMask Portfolio. This enables Ethereum users to run their own validator node. The catch? Well, you need to have a minimum of 32 ETH deposited.

EVM Chains Preferred Choice for Dev Work

Ethereum Virtual Machine-based (EVM) blockchain networks are the most popular networks for builders, with nearly nine out of 10 multi-chain developers working on at least one EVM-compatible chain, according to a developer report from Electric Capital.

Ethereum Dencun Upgrade Goes Live

The newest upgrade to the Ethereum network, codenamed “Cancun-Deneb” or “Dencun,” has gone live on the Goerli testnet. Once implemented on the mainnet, the Dencun upgrade will significantly lower the cost of transactions on Ethereum layer 2s such as Optimism, Base, Polygon zkEVM and others.

Vitalik Buterin Spark Debate over Rollups vs. Validiums

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has sparked discussion on how various L2 scaling solutions are classified, claiming that the blockchain’s validiums are not genuine rollup solutions.

Cosmos Highlights of the Week

Inscriptions on Cosmos Hub

Delphi Labs unveiled Asteroid Protocol, the first ever inscriptions protocol on Cosmos Hub. Yes, inscriptions like Bitcoin. For the first time ever, Cosmos Hub now has native support for smart contracts, NFTs, and tokens.

dYdX Becomes King-of-Hill of DeFi

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol dYdX became the largest asset in DeFi on Jan 18 with an 24-hour trading volume of almost $757M. The surge in trading volume for dYdX led it to surpass Uniswap v3’s Ethereum market, which recorded a volume of $608 million during the same period.

Dymension Rolldrop Season 1 Ended

The distribution of the first batch of DYM tokens getting airdropped has ended. 528,523 addresses claimed in total. Redistribution of non-claimed DYM is underway.

Alter Introduces Alter Pay

The first wallet-less payment platform, designed for wallet-less transactions between ALTER users using just the ID.

Other Highlights of the Week

Is Aave Going to Solana?

Possible new tides are flowing in the Aave community, as their latest governance forum current reviews a proposal to deploy Aave v3 on Neon EVM, which is a platform that facilitates the expansion of Ethereum dApps onto the Solana network.

Manta Token Launch

The much anticipates launch of MANTA got on its wings after a troublesome launch. The Manta Network was plagued by a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack when it issued its MANTA token, bringing the network to a crawl.

Binance Trial Starts

The SEC’s trial against Binance has begun. The SEC have sued Binance Holdings Ltd. and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao. The accusations include; lying to customers, failing to restrict U.S. investors from accessing Binance.com, misdirecting capital to separated investment funds owned by Zhao, and operating as an unregistered exchange, among other charges.

Stablecoins Most-preferred for Illicit Transactions

In its latest report on crypto crime, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis have shared that stabelcoins have become the most used asset group in crypto for illicit transactions in 2022 and 2023, instead of BTC which dominated that statistic from 2018 to 2021.

Crypto-friendly Vivek Ramaswamy Drops Out

After the Des Moines primary, crypto-friendly Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has dropped out of the United States presidential election race, ending his nearly year-long campaign.

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