20 September 2024

Macro/TradFi

  • The Kingdom of Bhutan holds over 13K BTC, worth over US$820M, representing nearly one-third of its GDP of ~US$3B. This makes them the fourth-largest state holder of Bitcoin. Interestingly, Bhutan’s Bitcoin does not come from law enforcement seizures, but rather through mining operations conducted in collaboration with Bitdeer.  

  • MicroStrategy plans to issue a US$700M convertible note to refinance debt and buy more Bitcoin. 

  • Chainalysis’ latest 2024 Global Adoption Index shows that India, Nigeria, and Indonesia are the three leading countries for adoption in the most recent period. 

Crypto

L1/L2:

  • Solana revealed its second crypto smartphone, Seeker. Previously dubbed Chapter Two, it has already seen over 140K presales and is expected to ship in mid-2025. 

  • Funki is launching its L2 on the Optimism Superchain, describing itself as a fun-first L2 focussing on onchain gaming and social experiments. 

DeFi:

  • Donald Trump-backed DeFi project, World Liberty Financial, debuted plans for $WLFI token. $WLFI will be a non-transferable governance token that will initially only be available to accredited investors. 

  • Major perps DEX, dYdX, plan to list perpetual futures on prediction markets. 

  • Worldcoin has expanded World ID to Solana via Wormhole. 

  • Wintermute announces a permissionless prediction market, OutcomeMarket, starting with TRUMP and HARRIS meme coins.

  • Leading Solana wallet, Phantom, has introduced Usernames, allowing users to create a Phantom Identity and more easily send crypto to other users. 

  • Web3 communications protocols, WalletConnect, is set to airdrop its CONNECT token on OP Mainnet. 

  • Drift Protocol, a Solana-based DeFi protocol focused on perps, has announced a US$25M Series B round. 

Others:

  • Glassnode announced an expansion of its analytics platform to include over 500 new ERC-20 tokens. 

  • LayerZero introduced IzCatalyst, a program focused on connecting top crypto builders with top VCs. 

  • Solana developer platform, Helius, has raised US$21.75M in a Series B round. 

  • Permissionless Labs, a decentralized content distribution network, has raised a US$10B Series A round. 

  • TrueX, a stablecoin-native trading platform, has raised US$9M in a seed round. 

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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.

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