Golden Weekly is a weekly blockchain industry summary column launched by Golden Finance, covering the week's key news, market and contract data, mining information, project dynamics, technological progress and other industry dynamics. This article is a project weekly, taking you to see the progress of this week's mainstream projects and star projects.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin hash rate rebounds for the first time since halving
Golden Finance reported that according to the CryptoQuant Hash Ribbons indicator, the Hash Ribbons indicator has just signaled the end of miners' capitulation, while the hash rate has reached a new peak of 638 exahash per second (EH/s), the first rebound since Bitcoin's halving. CryptoQuant explained: "Although the indicator is not designed to accurately point out the bottom of the price, it usually signals a reduction in miners' selling pressure before the price rises."
Viewpoint: Bitcoin's market share will not return to 70%, and other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum still have room for development
On August 18, Benjamin Cowen, founder of Into The Cryptoverse, said in an interview yesterday: "I don't think Bitcoin's dominance (market share) will return to 70%. My envisioned target is 60%. "Cowen explained that in "major altcoin seasons," such as 2021, Bitcoin's dominance tends to decline, but "slowly" recovers to previous levels after the market turns bearish. However, in this cycle, he is more confident that even at high prices, Bitcoin will not return to the same market share as in the past. "I think Ethereum and many other cryptocurrencies have room for development," Cowen added, noting that Bitcoin will "take the final step" toward 60% as early as September or at the latest in December.
Bloomberg: Bitcoin and crypto markets have fallen significantly so far in August, while global stocks are returning to all-time highs
Bitcoin and the broader crypto market have fallen sharply so far this month, while global stock markets are returning to all-time highs after shaking off fears about U.S. economic growth, Golden Finance reported. Bitcoin has fallen about 10% in August, lagging behind the nearly 1% gain in MSCI Inc.'s global stock index and the performance of gold prices rising to all-time highs. The Bloomberg Global Bond Index rose nearly 2% over the same period. Analysts point to the risk of the U.S. government handling confiscated Bitcoin (whose address currently holds about $12 billion worth of cryptocurrency) as one of the challenges facing digital assets. According to an analysis report by Arkham Intelligence, on-chain data shows that the United States transferred $600 million of confiscated Bitcoin to a wallet on an exchange operated by Coinbase Global Inc. last week. Khushboo Khullar, a venture partner at Lightning Ventures, which invests in Bitcoin-related companies, said the U.S. government's possible sale of Bitcoin "has led to this temporary downward price pressure, but we don't expect the impact to last long."
The first phase of the Bitcoin sidechain MVC developer incentive program will end within 7 days
On August 20, the first phase of the developer incentive program for the Bitcoin sidechain solution MVC (full name MicrovisionChain) announced that the application will be closed on August 27. This activity will reward a total of 250,000 SPACE and provide auxiliary SDKs developed on the Bitcoin sidechain. MVC is a UTXO model-based smart contract public chain that aims to solve Bitcoin's congestion problem and become an ideal sidechain for Bitcoin, supporting the development of large-scale Web3 applications. SPACE is the MVC mainnet token and gas. This week, the highest single-day increase reached 109.9%, and the current price is $1.46.
Zenrock plans to launch decentralized custody service and wrapped Bitcoin zenBTC
According to Golden Finance, DeFi startup Zenrock plans to launch a decentralized custody service. Zenrock was reorganized after Qredo was acquired by 10T Holdings and 1RoundTable Partners. It aims to decentralize private key management through decentralized multi-party computing (MPC) wallets to avoid single point failure risks. Zenrock is currently in the testnet stage and plans to officially launch this year. The company also announced the launch of the decentralized Bitcoin token zenBTC.
Franklin Templeton CEO criticizes traditional finance for underestimating the size of Bitcoin
Golden Finance reported that Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson criticized traditional finance for underestimating the scale of Bitcoin at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium. She pointed out that Bitcoin processed more than $36.6 trillion in transactions in 2023, twice the amount of Mastercard and Visa combined. Johnson believes that the traditional financial sector knows almost nothing about Bitcoin and its huge transaction volume. Johnson said that she spends 30% of her time every day researching disruptive technologies, especially digital assets and artificial intelligence. She emphasized that although Mastercard and Visa are actively exploring blockchain technology, they still do not fully realize the scale of the Bitcoin ecosystem. Under Johnson's leadership, Franklin Templeton has quickly become a leader in traditional financial asset management. In 2021, the company launched the OnChain U.S. Government Money Market Fund (FOBXX), the first fund to record transactions using a public blockchain. Recently, Franklin Templeton submitted a proposal to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a new exchange-traded fund (EZPZ) to expose investors to a variety of digital assets, and Coinbase will be responsible for the custody of the fund.
Currently, Babylon’s delayed Bitcoin pledge amount is about 760 BTC
Golden Finance reported that according to the Babylon Bitcoin staking mainnet information, the current Babylon pending Bitcoin staking amount (PendingStake) has reached 760 BTC, and the staking amount has not been publicly confirmed. According to previous news, the upper limit of Babylon's first phase staking is 1,000 BTC.
Bitcoin network transaction fees soar to 774 satoshis per byte
Golden Finance reported that mempool.space data showed that the transaction fee of the Bitcoin network has soared to 774 satoshis/byte, with medium priority temporarily reported at 1032 satoshis/byte and high priority temporarily reported at 1231 satoshis/byte.
Babylon has launched the Bitcoin staking mainnet
Golden Finance reported that Babylon has launched the Bitcoin staking mainnet, and users can participate in the first phase of the Babylon Bitcoin staking mainnet. The launch of the Babylon Bitcoin staking mainnet brings a third local use case for Bitcoin assets in addition to value storage and simple payments: staking to protect the PoS network and earn rewards.
DCG: Bitcoin and Ethereum mini trust inflows have exceeded US$270 million and US$220 million
Golden Finance reported that Grayscale's parent company DCG said that Grayscale has launched 9 new products this year, such as a single asset trust that tracks assets such as Bittensor, as well as Bitcoin and Ethereum mini trusts. The inflows of these two products exceeded US$270 million and US$220 million, respectively.
Ethereum
Analysis: Ethereum’s daily average gas fee and daily destruction volume hit new lows
Golden Finance reported that CryptoQuant analyst EgyHash posted that Ethereum’s average daily gas fee was only 2.9 Gwei recently, a record low, and its average daily fee in U.S. dollars also hit a multi-year low of only $0.85. As a result, the average daily destruction rate of Ethereum has also dropped to a historical low, with 115 ETH destroyed in a single day. Although Ethereum’s gas fees and efficiency rates have dropped sharply, its average daily transaction count has remained flat or increased significantly compared to the same period in the past two years. This drop may be related to the Dencun upgrade that was activated on Ethereum on March 13 this year. While low fees are good for users, they are not for investors, especially given that a large portion of Ethereum’s usage is moving to its L2 network and the potential problems this can cause, such as user and liquidity fragmentation. Despite the approval of the Ethereum spot ETF, the price of ETH has been stagnant since the Dencun upgrade. During this period, the supply of ETH increased by more than 197,000 coins (worth over $500 million), while its price fell by 35%.
Kaiko: Growing Ethereum supply could dampen potential price gains in the short term
Golden Finance reported that Kaiko Research, a cryptocurrency analysis company, released a report that Ethereum's gas fee recently hit a five-year low due to increased Layer 2 activity and the Dencun upgrade in March that reduced Layer 2 transaction fees. This fee reduction has an important impact on Ethereum, as lower fees mean less ETH is destroyed, leading to an increase in token supply. The total supply of ETH has continued to rise since April. Despite demand drivers such as spot Ethereum ETFs, the growing supply may curb potential price increases in the short term.
US spot Ethereum ETF had a net outflow of $13.5 million yesterday
Golden Finance reported that according to Trader T monitoring, the U.S. spot Ethereum ETF had a net outflow of US$13.5 million yesterday.
Kaiko Report: Ethereum Gas Fee Record Low Will Have Impact on Price and Inflation
Golden Finance reported that on August 19, industry research firm Kaiko reported that Ethereum's gas fees have recently fallen to their lowest level in five years. According to Etherscan's Gas Tracker, the average network fee for Ethereum's layer 1 is currently 2.15 Gwei or just $0.13, the lowest level since 2019. Kaiko reported that the reduction in fees may have an impact on the issuance of Ethereum and the amount consumed when using gas. If the supply is no longer deflationary, this may also have an impact on the price. At the same time, due to the decline in network fees and the reduction in the base fee destruction rate after the launch of EIP-1559, the total supply of ETH has increased since April. According to ultrasound.money data, the ETH supply has increased by 0.2% since the beginning of April, from 120.063 million to around 120.286 million. This means that in the past four months, another 223,000 ETH have been added, which is worth about $591 million at the current spot price. The report said that on a weekly basis, the ETH supply has increased by 0.71% per year. At the current rate of consumption, this means an increase of about 16,500 ETH per week.
BNB Chain: Adapted to Ethereum client Erigon 3 and integrated with Parlia consensus protocol
According to the official announcement on August 23, BNBChain announced that it has successfully adapted and integrated the Ethereum client Erigon 3 with the Parlia consensus protocol. Parlia is the consensus mechanism used by BNBChain (BSC), which combines the characteristics of DPoS and PoA. BNB holders elect validators to achieve faster block generation time and lower transaction costs. The integration of Erigon 3 with Parlia will bring performance improvements to users. On the BSC test network (Chapel), Erigon 3 showed significant performance improvements: disk usage was reduced by 50%, and synchronization time was shortened from one week to about 10 hours. BNBChain plans to release the mainnet version around September 30, 2024, and will continue to support Erigon 2 for a period of time to ensure a smooth transition. Currently, the Erigon 3 Alpha2 version is online on the test network, and users can test it and provide feedback.
1confirmation: Ethereum's market value may surpass Bitcoin in the next five years
Golden Finance reported that cryptocurrency investment institution 1confirmation published its LP letter for the second quarter of 2024, in which founder Nick Tomaino stated that Ethereum's market value will exceed Bitcoin in the next five years. Bitcoin's market value is currently 4 times that of Ethereum, and both will continue to grow, but Ethereum will eventually surpass Bitcoin. Nick Tomaino explained that Bitcoin has a clear narrative (digital gold), and institutions have now accepted that narrative. Ethereum has been the most influential blockchain in the crypto space for the past five years, but people (outside the circle) know very little about Ethereum. Ethereum is scarce, generates income, and has real use cases. Because its market value is now significantly smaller than Bitcoin, Wall Street is able to own more. Wall Street is expected to continue to buy and vigorously promote Ethereum to the world in the coming years.
Other Projects
Trump's second son: An important announcement about the crypto project is coming soon
On August 21, Eric Trump, the second son of former U.S. President Donald Trump and current executive vice president of the Trump Organization, posted on social media, "We are very excited about some important announcements about crypto projects. Make sure you have joined our Telegram group." It was previously reported that Donald Trump Jr. announced the opening of the Telegram channel "The DeFiant Ones" on the X platform to introduce upcoming crypto projects.
Synthetic asset platform Kresko will shut down the project, and users need to withdraw funds as soon as possible
On August 21, according to an official announcement, the synthetic asset platform Kresko will shut down the project. The announcement stated that the founder of the project has been facing serious health problems, which have worsened recently. After careful consideration and exploration of various alternatives, the team concluded that closing the project was the best course of action. The announcement reminded users to complete asset withdrawal and migration before September 10. Last November, the synthetic asset platform Kresko announced the completion of a $1.8 million strategic round of financing, led by Electric Capital and Zero Age Ventures, with participation from WAGMI Ventures, GTS Ventures, OakGrove Ventures, MH Ventures and Gui Laliberte.
Modular data preprocessing project DIN completes $4 million in financing, with Manta and others participating
Golden Finance reported that the modular data preprocessing project DIN completed a US$4 million financing, with participation from Manta, Moonbeam, Ankr, MaxxCapital and others. This round of financing brought its total financing amount to US$8 million.
AO Ecosystem Project Apus Network Launches SAM Digital Twin Dataset Competition Pool
On August 20, the AO ecosystem project Apus Network announced the launch of the Sam digital twin dataset competition pool, which will last until August 29, aiming to help Sam, the founder of Arweave and AO, build a comprehensive digital twin. AI enthusiasts can participate in the competition by submitting high-quality datasets and tracking the rankings in real time. Participants also have the opportunity to receive incentives and demonstrate their skills through the platform. In addition, participants can also interact with advanced models based on these datasets through the Chat Playground function, as if they were talking to Sam himself. Users can choose the highest-rated datasets on the leaderboard to get the best interactive experience.
Polygon executives: 90% of L1/L2 BD teams will directly ask for airdrops from ecological projects
According to Golden Finance, Mudit Gupta, Chief Information Security Officer of Polygon, said in a post on X that people are panicking about EigenLabs employees asking for airdrops from ecological sub-projects, but in fact 90% of Layer1/Layer2BD teams will directly ask for shares or airdrops in the name of consultants. If any reporter really wants to investigate this, they only need to start a fake new DEX and contact different Layer1/Layer2 BD teams to experience it firsthand.
Reputation Tracking Project Intuition Announces Beta of Universal Information Protocol and Releases White Paper
On August 21, the Intuition team announced that Intuition, a project designed to track online trust and reputation, launched a Beta version of its Universal Information Protocol and released a white paper. The protocol provides tools for recording, tracking, and analyzing insights, which is particularly timely as the political betting market becomes a key election indicator. Intuition's core primitives (such as Atoms, Triples, Signals, Reality Tunnels) enhance code security and reduce the possibility of unsafe online interactions, thereby reducing reliance on trust assumptions and avoiding data leaks and downtime. As previously reported, decentralized identity startup Intuition completed $4 million in financing
Hong Kong International New Economy Research Institute: The virtual asset market will usher in a reshuffle, and some non-compliant U merchants and project parties may withdraw
Golden Finance reported that Fu Rao, executive director of the Hong Kong International New Economy Research Institute, wrote an article in Ta Kung Pao titled "Improving the Healthy Development of the Virtual Asset Supervision Industry", pointing out that the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate of China jointly issued an interpretation on several issues concerning the application of laws in handling criminal money laundering cases, which clearly listed virtual asset transactions as one of the ways of money laundering, which will have the following impacts on the virtual asset industry: 1) Industry turnover is rising. The introduction of regulations means that practitioners need to pay more attention to compliance issues and increase compliance investment to ensure that their businesses are legal and compliant. The market will usher in a reshuffle, and some non-compliant U merchants and project parties may exit the market, further increasing the concentration of the industry. 2) Investor education is strengthened. The introduction of regulations will prompt investors to pay more attention to the risks of virtual assets and improve investors' risk identification capabilities. 3) Industry supervision is gradually improving. The release of this judicial interpretation will help regulatory authorities to more effectively supervise the virtual asset industry and promote the healthy development of the industry. As Hong Kong vigorously develops the virtual asset economy, the mainland will first respond to the serious crimes that virtual assets are most likely to cause. In this context, both U merchants and ordinary investors should raise their legal awareness, ensure transaction compliance, and avoid falling into legal risks.
Web3 music project MetaBeat signs $2 million funding memorandum of understanding with Burrito Wallet and Liquid Chang
Golden Finance reported that Web3 music project MetaBeat signed a $2 million financing memorandum of understanding with Burrito Wallet (Bithumb Wallet) and Liquid Chang. The new funds are intended to support MetaBeat's launch of Fan-to-Earn business based on NFT and SocialFi functions. It is reported that Burrito Wallet will provide it with security management services for NFT and other digital assets.
