1. Important events have occurred in the industry in the past week
1. Industry
FTX Trading Ltd. has unveiled its latest proposal to return billions of dollars to customers and creditors. The restructuring plan leaves some of the most important questions unresolved, including whether FTX will restart the crypto exchange, how the company will estimate the value of some digital tokens, and how much assets creditors can expect to get back.
Next year, the plan will be submitted to creditors for a vote, with some key details likely to be added, before going to U.S. bankruptcy judge John Dorsey for final approval. Major creditors and client groups involved in Chapter 11 have agreed to the general framework of the plan.
The payment plan calls for billions of dollars to be distributed in cash after the majority of the company's cryptocurrency is liquidated.
Previously, FTX debtors submitted a revised restructuring plan, according to the plan document, the value of the debt will be determined based on the value of the token on 11/11/22, through the conversion of the value of crypto assets into cash at a specified conversion rate.
According to CoinGecko data, SOL has surpassed BNB in market capitalization to become the world's fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, with SOL currently trading at 98 USDT and a market cap of $42.168 billion.
According to The Block, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority issued a joint circular stating that they have reviewed their current policies on intermediaries interested in engaging in virtual asset-related activities. In addition to the existing crypto futures ETFs, the SFC said it was "ready to accept applications for authorisation from other funds involving virtual assets, including virtual asset spot exchange-traded funds (VA spot ETFs)".
A new version of StarkGate, a cross-chain bridge written using the new Cairo contract, has been launched on the testnet, with new features including permissionless cross-chain and smart deposits.
On Monday, BlackRock filed a revised spot bitcoin ETF application with the SEC. According to the filing, BlackRock's ETF will use a cash subscription and redemption mechanism, which is also the model favored by the SEC. (CoinDesk) Previously, it was reported on December 14 that Invesco (Invesco) and Galaxy have submitted the third revised S-1 document (prospectus) of the Bitcoin spot ETF "Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF" to the SEC in the United States, in which they promised to focus on launching a Bitcoin ETF created only by cash. Eric Balchunas, an analyst at Bloomberg ETFs, pointed out that this is a clear signal that the SEC has a preference for cash creation in the initial approval of ETF products.
The Starknet mainnet v0.13 update will take place on January 10, 2024, when Starknet will support STRK tokens to pay for Gas.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has approved its previously announced settlement with Binance and signed an injunction and civil penalty against Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and his companies Binance Holdings Limited, Binance Holdings (IE) Limited, and Binance (Services) Holdings Limited. CZ will pay $150 million to the CFTC and Binance will pay $2.7 billion to the CFTC, and the order also requires CZ and Binance to certify the existence, application, and effectiveness of compliance controls and permanently bars them from further violations.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed a resolution on ARK Invest/21Shares, VanEck's Ethereum spot ETF application, with the original deadline of December 26 and the new resolution date of late May 2024, according to a filing posted on social media X by Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart.
According to Coindesk, Bitcoin network transaction fees have soared due to the increase in Ordinals inscription transactions, with transaction fees on the Bitcoin blockchain reaching more than $37 on Sunday, a level that was last reached during the April 2021 bull run. Data from BitInfoCharts shows that the average cost of the network in September and early October of this year was $1-2. The surge was largely fueled by the resurgence of Ordinals, with users creating more than 1.2 million new inscriptions from Friday through Sunday, according to Dune Analytics charts 21.co by crypto asset managers.
BlackRock, the world's largest fund manager, has made obtaining approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its proposed Bitcoin spot ETF a key priority for businesses, according to FOX Business. BlackRock founder and CEO Larry Fink calls Bitcoin "an international asset" and a "store of value" that rivals gold's status in the long run.
Synthetix announced the official termination of SNX inflation on the X platform. According to SIP-2043, stakers will no longer receive new inflation rewards. However, users may still notice the SNX rewards that can be claimed, and these are just post-mortems of the rewards that were not claimed in the previous week.
Previously, on December 11, Synthetix posted on the X platform that the governance committee Spartan Council has voted to pass the SIP-2043 proposal on "ending SNX inflation", and there will be no new tokens, and there will be no weekly token releases. The proposal plans to reduce weekly SNX inflation to zero on Ethereum mainnet, Optimism, and Base.
2. Sound
Etherscan said in a post on the X platform that 95% of the transaction activity on the major EVM chain in the past few weeks was inscription activity. Since mid-November, it has resulted in: - a significant increase in the number of transactions per day; - skyrocketing gas fees; - Longer transaction processing times.
Arthur Hayes, the founder of BitMEX, said in a post on platform X that he has sold SOL and increased his holdings of ETH. He believes that ETH may rise to $5,000.
According to the latest report from Matrixport, the SEC is expected to approve the Bitcoin spot ETF in January next year, and Bitcoin may rise above $50,000 by the end of January next year. This echoes historical events such as the launch of Bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group) in 2017. Recent events, including ETF applicants' ramp up of TV commercials over the Christmas period, signal that the market is about to explode, bullish on Bitcoin to reach $50,000 if approval goes as expected.
BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes said on social platforms that USDe, launched by stablecoin protocol Ethena, will replace USDT as the largest USD stablecoin in the future. But it will take time, and Hayes himself will do his best to do his duties as an advisor and mint some USDe. It is reported that the issuance of USDe has reached 50 million. The Ethena mainnet will launch in January 2024.
As previously reported, on July 17, crypto startup Ethena closed a $6 million seed round led by Dragonfly and backed by trading platforms such as Deribit, Bybit, OKX, Gemini and Huobi, as well as BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes and his family office, as reported by Axios. It is reported that USDe, a stablecoin developed by Ethena, hedges price risk by using users' collateral and maintains its peg to the US dollar by shorting Ethereum using perpetual swaps.
Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett said on the X platform that sources revealed to him that the SEC is conducting a joint conference call with potential ETF issuers to ensure that every spot bitcoin ETF product is created in cash, and that the SEC also requires applicants to remove all hints of physical redemptions from their filings. Note: Cash creation means that issuers must convert their Bitcoin to cash before trading ETF shares, and they cannot use Bitcoin to buy or redeem shares.
Musk said that the payment feature of X (formerly Twitter) is expected to be launched "in the middle of next year".
K33 Research released a report saying that the approval of a US spot Bitcoin ETF appears to be "scheduled" in January. Analysts said that over the past week, the price of Bitcoin has fluctuated between $40,500 and $43,500 due to the "excitement" of memecoin and alternative Layer 1 tokens. Vetle Lunde, senior analyst at K33, and Anders Helseth, vice president, said: "Cash creation isn't the most efficient structure, but the update on filers sends further signals in favor of ETF approval over the next three weeks. James Seyffart, a research analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence ETF, said the window for spot approval of potential Bitcoin ETFs looks set to be between January 8 and 10.
In its reply to Proposal No. 02969 of the First Session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that in the next step, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will strengthen collaborative interaction with relevant departments to promote Web3.0 technological innovation and high-quality industrial development. Improve the top-level design. Strengthen Web3.0 investigation and research, formulate Web3.0 development strategy documents in line with the mainland's national conditions, clarify the development path, technical focus, and application mode of Web3.0, and handle the relationship between inheritance and innovation, development and security, government and market, and supply and demand. Focus on key areas such as government affairs and industry, encourage the development of new business models such as NFTs and distributed applications (DApps), and accelerate the innovative application of Web 3.0 and the construction of a digital ecosystem.
Teneo, the liquidation agency responsible for 3AC Capital, estimates that creditors can recover about 45.74% of their assets from bankruptcy assets. Russell Crumpler and Christopher Farmer, Teneo's co-heads of liquidation, noted in a December report to creditors that as of Dec. 18, the company's assets were valued at $1.16 billion, while the value of claims identified for distribution was expected to be $2.7 billion. According to the report, Teneo has resolved litigation with multiple parties, including DCG, Genesis and BlockFi, adding approximately $292 million to the company's reported assets. BlockFi's settlement is still pending.
The report also noted that there were 154 claims for 3AC properties with a total value of $3.4 billion. Of these, $2 million of claims have not been recognized for distribution, while $32.2 million of claims have been rejected or are expected to be rejected, and $76 million worth of claims are disputed. In addition, the report mentions that 3AC co-founder Zhu Su has completed his house arrest sentence at home on December 20 following his arrest in Singapore. At the same time, the liquidators continue to investigate 3AC's relationship with Tai Ping Shan, which it works closely with. In bankruptcy proceedings, legal fees have accumulated to $49.7 million.
Coinbase researchers say the launch of a spot bitcoin ETF in the U.S. could lead to a "regulated" bitcoin shortage and hurt a popular trading strategy.
With less than three weeks to go before a Bitcoin spot ETF could be approved, many believe it will be trading soon. However, Coinbase's head of institutional research, David Duong, and senior sales trader, Greg Sutton, said there are two key risks that could arise once these ETFs start trading.
In a Dec. 19 podcast, Duong and Sutton said that launching a spot Bitcoin ETF could create problems for institutions to purchase BTC, as issuers would need to buy enough Bitcoin to hold in the ETF.
The second risk, Sutton said, involves a more popular institutional trading strategy, "basis trade," which refers to taking advantage of the spread between Bitcoin's spot price and Bitcoin futures contracts. According to Velo, the potential profit from basis trading has surged by 20% over the past two weeks due to a significant increase in trading volume in Bitcoin spot and futures contracts. However, as institutional investors increasingly invest directly in Bitcoin (through spot ETF products), the basis will narrow, resulting in a much less profitable trade.
3. Data
According to CoinShares' latest Digital Asset Fund Liquidity Weekly Report, digital asset investment products have recently experienced a small outflow of funds, totaling $16 million, ending an 11-week streak of inflows. However, trading activity remains well above the average for this year, with total trading volume reaching $3.6 billion last week. This slight outflow was concentrated in the United States, with outflows of about $18 million, while Germany also saw a small outflow of $10 million.
At the same time, Canada and Switzerland continued to see inflows, at $6.9 million and $9.1 million, respectively. This mixed regional flow trend suggests that this is more due to profit-taking than a shift in sentiment towards the asset class. Among specific digital asset classes, Bitcoin experienced the largest outflow, reaching $33 million last week, while products that shorted Bitcoin also saw a small outflow of $300,000. In contrast, other cryptocurrencies, such as Solana, Cardano, XRP, and Chainlink, saw $21 million in inflows. Ethereum and Avalanche were slightly affected, seeing outflows of $4.4 million and $1 million, respectively. Meanwhile, blockchain stocks continue to be supported by positive sentiment, attracting massive inflows of $122 million last week, bringing the cumulative inflows over the past nine weeks to a record $294 million.
In early December, South Korean crypto exchanges saw their highest trading volume this year, with the surge being driven by altcoin trading and zero-fee activity, Kaiko said.
According to Dune data, the number of Bitcoin Ordinals protocol inscriptions has exceeded 50 million, reaching 50,026,831 at the time of writing, and the total fee income to date is 4,597.7177 BTC, or about $192 million.
2. An in-depth article worth reading and re-reading
In 2024, Bitcoin may leap to the legal status of a global asset and become a cornerstone of innovation, constantly evolving, and leading the transformation of the financial and technology sectors.
This week, the inscription project CIAS on Celestia was launched, but there may be plagiarism, which sparked heated discussions in the community. Public chains such as TON, Conflux, and Avalanche have also experienced stress tests brought about by inscription activity, and Arbitrum L2's sequencer has stopped working. The Binance Web3 wallet does not support inscriptions at the moment, but is working overtime to put in related work. The Inscription Circuit has become one of the strongest areas of wealth, but the future is still unknown.
When spring sleep dawns, wait for the wind and rain to wait for the flowers to bloom. From the macro market to the micro track, the most comprehensive inventory of the year.
Bitcoin enthusiasts try to block the inscription, but this could bring more serious damage, such as losing the mempool, not being able to make trustless fee estimations, and excluding privacy techniques like Coinjoin. But in the end, the supporters of Coin will let everyone cheat and things will go back to normal.
The Layer 2 sequencer is completely controlled by the project official, and users cannot share in the network growth dividends. With the combination of Mast contract + Schnorr signature brought by the Taproot upgrade, Bitcoin can also achieve a completely trustless cross-chain and a fully decentralized BTC Layer2. BEVM has given its own answer, and it is an inevitable trend that the volume of Bitcoin Layer 2 will surpass the volume of Ethereum Layer 2.
With the popularity of the Bitcoin inscription track, this article takes stock of nearly 30 inscription infrastructure projects, including wallets, cross-chains, trading markets, minting tools, data & queries, etc. Among them, TeleportDAO is a cross-chain Ordinals marketplace, the total transaction volume of the OKX Web3 wallet Ordinals market has exceeded $500 million, BIIS is the ultimate all-in-one convenient technology stack of BRC20 tokens, Ordiscan is an Ordinals browser, Ordinals Directory is an NFT series aggregation platform, and OrdinalHub is a collection of discovery, A one-stop data platform for tracking and analyzing Bitcoin NFTs.
In 2021, the popularity of the crypto market continued in the form of a pet meme season, represented by Musk's Shiba Inu Floki, with a market value of 350 million, ranking around 150th on the market value list. This year, it has become a popular meme to study the pets raised by the founders of Web3 projects and create a meme coin with a similar name and image, triggering the Fomo effect. But can the crypto market boom also come simply?
Messari has released Messari Theses 2024, a report that predicts the top 10 investment trends for 2024, including a strong bullish view on Bitcoin, bearish on Ethereum, bullish on the combination of AI and cryptocurrency, and emerging narratives such as DePIN, DeSoc, and DeSci.
The rise of Bitcoin and the vigorous development of the inscription ecosystem this year constitute the mainstream narrative of the cryptocurrency world, and the development of projects such as Bounce, Uniswap, Magic Eden, Nostr, etc., has brought new vitality and attention to the Bitcoin ecosystem. Ethscriptions can reduce transaction costs, but it may also introduce new security issues, and inscriptions have been successfully extended to almost all public chains worth watching.
Recently, with the popularity of the BTC ecosystem, we can see a variety of tokens issued on the Bitcoin mainnet, so what are these tokens and how does the protocol behind them work. The purpose of this article is to let you know the ins and outs of the BTC asset issuance plan in the form of a timeline, and what exactly detonated the popularity of Bitcoin inscriptions, so let's dive down and find out.
In the past two months, the word inscription has been frequently mentioned in the currency circle, this article introduces more than 20 inscription protocols and more than 30 inscription markets, reminding investors to pay attention to the volatility of inscription trading, do not FOMO, and the best solution is to participate in the Mint stage to get early chips. Many Defi projects have started to issue their own inscriptions, and public chain project parties have also welcomed inscriptions because of the traffic and on-chain users it can bring.
In the past 15 years, cryptocurrencies have developed a lot, Bitcoin as a digital payment and a new reserve asset, and the emergence of the Ethereum white paper, which has promoted the development of the blockchain ecology. This year, Bitcoin and Ether were established as alternative stores of value worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and DeFi applications, identity applications, and NFTs were also cited as important use cases. But speculation and Ponzi bubbles will never go away.
This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the DeFi landscape on Solana, highlighting key players and trends. By analyzing the strengths and limitations of these projects, a large number of Solana's unique products are enumerated and compared to other ecosystems in the DeFi space.
2023 is the year of the Bitcoin ecosystem, and the market enthusiasm has promoted the wave of innovation in Bitcoin, and various tokens such as Ordinals protocol, Atomicals, Taproot Assets, Runes, and PIPE have triggered a significant wealth effect, attracting many developers to join, and we can expect a "hundred flowers blooming" state of affairs.
As an influencer market maker, DWF Labs also took to Twitter to express its enthusiasm for supporting and investing in decentralized AI projects and seeking to collaborate with relevant teams.
The Solana ecosystem has developed rapidly recently, and TVL has also exceeded the level before the FTX crash, with a staking ratio of 71.4%, Marinade Finance, Jito, Helium, Mobile, Hivemapper, DIMO, RNDR and other projects are on fire, BONK, Silly Dragon, Pyth network, MarginFi, Kamino, DEXOrca, Projects such as Raydium have also attracted much attention, and the development prospects of the Solana ecosystem are promising.