Compiled by: Mars Finance
1. Today's News
Foresight Institute CEO: Blockchain can make artificial intelligence safer
Allison Duetmann, CEO of the think tank Foresight Institute, said blockchain encryption technology can improve the security of artificial intelligence systems in three key areas.
Jack Dorsey's Block to raise $1.5 billion in senior notes offering
Fintech company Block (formerly Square) announced on May 6 that it plans to issue $1.5 billion in senior notes to qualified institutional investors through a private placement. The company said in a statement that the terms of the notes, including interest rates and maturity dates, are subject to negotiation with the initial purchasers. Investors approved to participate in this round of financing include pension funds, banks, mutual funds and high-net-worth individuals. Fitch Ratings pointed out that Block has been using convertible debt as external financing since its IPO and is in a favorable position to seize long-term growth opportunities in the payment and consumer financial services sectors.
Two senior Fed officials eased concerns about rate hikes, and neither mentioned the prospect of rate hikes in their speeches
Barkin, who has a vote on the FOMC this year, said on Monday that the strength of the labor market gives the Fed time to gain confidence that inflation is persistently low before cutting rates. But he added that persistent inflation in housing and services could keep price gains higher, as seen this year. Barkin told reporters that he believes current interest rates are high enough. Williams made the comments at the Milken Institute's 2024 Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, saying that "ultimately we will cut rates," but that monetary policy is in a "very good place now, and we have time to collect more information, so we have to be steady." Notably, neither Williams nor Barkin mentioned the prospect of a rate hike in their speeches on Monday, providing more reassurance to investors who still hope the Fed will cut rates in 2024. (Jin Shi)
German state-owned development bank KfW plans to issue blockchain digital bonds with a minimum size of 100 million euros
According to Bloomberg, Germany's state-owned development bank Kredittanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW) plans to issue a blockchain digital bond with a minimum size of 100 million euros. People familiar with the matter revealed that the bond is expected to mature in December 2025. It is reported that KfW will discuss with European institutional investors in the preparation stage for a few weeks so that investors have time to familiarize themselves with the transaction. The transaction is expected to be completed in the summer.
US crypto lobbying group has raised over $102 million to support digital asset-friendly candidates
According to a report from Public Citizen, outside lobbying groups associated with the cryptocurrency industry have raised more than $102 million to lobby for digital asset-friendly candidates in the upcoming U.S. congressional elections. As the industry faces increasing scrutiny from regulators such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and lawmakers, cryptocurrency companies are looking to influence policy in their favor.
Wall Street Journal: Apple is developing AI chips for data centers
Apple is developing chips that can be used to run artificial intelligence software on servers in data centers, a move that could give it an edge in the competition in the field of artificial intelligence. The project is internally codenamed ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center). The ACDC project has been going on for several years, and it is not yet clear when the new chips will be launched. Previously, Apple announced that it will hold the 35th Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) online from June 10 to 14. People familiar with the matter said that the conference will focus on artificial intelligence. The company is expected to announce its artificial intelligence strategy at that time.
Microsoft plans to launch a new artificial intelligence model MAI-1 to compete with Google and OpenAI
For the first time since Microsoft invested more than $10 billion in OpenAI in exchange for the rights to reuse the startup’s AI models, Microsoft has trained a new internal AI model at a scale large enough to compete with the most advanced models from Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI itself.
The new model, known internally as “MAI-1,” is reportedly being led by Mustafa Suleyman, the former head of Google AI and most recently the CEO of AI startup Inflection, which Microsoft hired most of its employees and bought its intellectual property for $650 million in March. However, according to two employees familiar with the matter, this product is separate from Inflection’s previously released Pi series.
Reddio announces open source release of Itachi, the L2 and L3 application chain sorting framework
ZK Layer2 Reddio, with the support of Paradigm and Tiger Cub Fund and Arena Holdings, announced that the L2 and L3 application chain sequencer framework Itachi is now officially open source. The sequencer framework is written in Golang, which provides flexibility and customization for developers. At present, game companies such as Boyaa, XAR Labs, Verse, Mississippi, Metascan, Mizu, Crystal Fun, TG.Bet, and DEX companies such as EdgeX and SphereX are testing Itachi's application chain release.
Bloomberg analyst: Hong Kong virtual asset ETF has as much impact on the local market as the United States
Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, wrote on the X platform that, as previously suggested, while Hong Kong does not need to be expected to have as much trading volume as the United States, in terms of proportion, the $310 million Hong Kong ETF is equivalent to the $50 billion in the U.S. market. Therefore, in this regard, the impact of Hong Kong virtual asset ETFs on its local market is already as great as the impact of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs on its local market.
Bitcoin Miner Marathon Digital Appointed as Advisor by Kenyan Government
Kenyan President William Ruto announced that the government has appointed Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital as an advisor to consult with the Kenyan Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Energy on cryptocurrency regimes. Marathon Digital will discuss energy requirements associated with cryptocurrency mining with the Ministry of Energy.
Custodia plans to issue stablecoin, intends to sue the Federal Reserve on Monday to obtain payment rails
Custodia CEO Caitlin Long said in a statement: "This team has a deep understanding of federalism issues, extensive experience in federal regulation of the digital asset industry, and an excellent appellate record in government controversial cases." Custodia has so far received more support from Republicans. Wyoming Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis has been particularly critical of the Fed's master account policy, which affects two companies in the state, Custodia and Kraken. (Morning Money)
SEC Delays Decision on Proposed Invesco Galaxy Spot Ethereum ETF
The U.S. SEC has delayed its decision on the proposed Invesco Galaxy spot Ethereum ETF. The SEC set the next deadline for approving or disapproving the proposed spot Ethereum ETF as July 5, 2024. The SEC's optimism about approving such products has diminished in the past few months.
ECB member: The future of central banks must modify business models and embrace CBDC
The future of central banks depends on a revision of their business models and the rapid adoption of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), according to Joachim Nagel, president of the Bundesbank and member of the European Central Bank (ECB).
Bitcoin wallet maker Exodus to go public on New York Stock Exchange
Exodus Movement, a developer of bitcoin wallet software, said on Monday that it has been approved to list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange. Exodus CEO and co-founder JP Richardson said, "Our common stock is tokenized on the Algorand (ALGO) blockchain, so we are the only company in the United States that has tokenized its common stock on the blockchain." SEC qualification means that the company has been approved to offer and sell its Class A common stock to investors under Regulation A of the Securities Act, which in turn allows Exodus to raise funds from the public in a regulated manner.
Ethereum options implied volatility remains high
Analysts say the uncertainty surrounding Ethereum's future price has kept the asset's options implied volatility much higher than Bitcoin's. In contrast, Bitcoin's implied volatility has fallen more, suggesting that derivatives traders believe the Bitcoin market is stabilizing. Implied volatility (IV) is an indicator used in options markets that represents the market's prediction of possible future movements or price fluctuations of an asset or security. Data shows that Ethereum's IV has not fallen as much as Bitcoin during the current post-halving market adjustment period. Bitcoin's volatility index fell from 72% at the time of the halving event to a multi-month low of 55%, while Ethereum's same indicator fell less during the same period, from 76% to the current 65%. (The Block)
The Aave community has voted to approve the ARFC proposal to abandon small-cap stablecoins on the Ethereum network on V2
The proposal states that recent events have highlighted the need for Aave to reduce its V2 exposure to less-used stablecoins, many of which have limited liquidity, allowing price manipulation and other potentially harmful events. Previously, the community followed a two-stage process to deprecate stablecoins, using BUSD and TUSD as examples. Notably, none of the above stablecoins are collateral assets, reducing the complexity of the process.
Vitalik: The focus of Plasma is not to prevent invalid/unusable state transitions, but to prevent double withdrawal of assets
In his reply to netizens on the X platform, Vitalik said that the focus of Plasma is not to prevent invalid/unusable state transitions, but to allow users with valuable assets to use the previous (valid and usable) state to exit when this happens, in a way that has self-consistent rules to prevent double exits of any assets. Last November, Vitalik published his latest article, in which he proposed to transform Plasma with new technologies. In the article, V God said that Plasma has undergone many iterations since it was first proposed in 2017, and is now facing new developments. This technology allows all data and calculations (except deposits, withdrawals, and Merkle roots) to remain off-chain, greatly improving scalability. However, due to the high cost of client data storage and the inability to be generally applicable to applications other than payment, Plasma has gradually been replaced by rollups technology. Now, the emergence of validity proofs (such as ZK-SNARKs) has allowed Plasma technology to be reconsidered, especially in the field of payment. This new Plasma chain will run EVM, and although the security guarantee will not cover all users, it can still ensure the security of most assets in practice. In addition, there are challenges in extending Plasma technology to the field of fungible tokens, such as dealing with complex EVM applications.
Colombian Bank Bancolombia Launches Crypto Exchange Wenia and Stablecoin
According to Juan Carlos Mora, president of Bancolombia, the solution involves simplifying the adoption of digital assets and blockchain-based products in Colombia. The platform estimates that it will reach 60,000 users in the first year of its launch, given Colombia's potential as the third country in Latin America with the most cryptocurrency adoption. Pablo Arboleda, CEO of Wenia, stressed the importance of providing a friendly platform for new crypto customers. "Our purpose is to help people connect with the cryptocurrency world in a more convenient, inclusive and efficient way," he stressed. At the same time, Wenia also launched COPW, a stablecoin anchored to the Colombian peso. (Bitcoin.com)
Foreign media: The Democratic Party of Korea intends to ask the FSC to review the spot Bitcoin ETF to seek to open such products
According to Korean media reports, the Democratic Party of South Korea plans to ask financial regulators to review the currently banned spot Bitcoin ETFs. The opposition Democratic Party won a landslide victory in the general election in April, winning 175 of the 300 seats in the local legislature, while the ruling Conservative Party won 108 seats. The Democratic Party has promised to enable local financial institutions to launch spot crypto ETFs and allow retail investors to purchase these funds through tax-free accounts. According to BloomingBit, a member of the Democratic Party said that once South Korea’s 22nd National Assembly begins in June, the Democratic Party plans to ask the country’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), to review spot Bitcoin ETFs with the aim of opening such products locally. (The Block)
Hedge fund giant Stanley Druckenmiller has significantly reduced his holdings in Nvidia in March
Hedge fund giant and billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller said he had significantly cut his bets on chipmaker Nvidia in late March this year and significantly reduced his holdings of Nvidia shares because he felt that the rapid boom in artificial intelligence might be a bit overheated in the short term. Druckenmiller said in an interview: "We did cut Nvidia and many other positions in late March. We just needed a break. We have achieved great results, and many of the things we recognized are now recognized by the market. He reduced his bets after Nvidia's stock price rose from $150 to $900. But in the long run, he is still optimistic about the power of artificial intelligence. (CNBC)
2. Selected Articles
Bankless: Four dilemmas of this round of crypto cycle
The crypto industry faces a rift between private and public markets, with major issues including an overabundance of venture capital, a lack of new entrants, and overbearing regulators. The token issuance mechanism has its pros and cons, but a large number of well-funded venture capital firms are still willing to lead the investment, causing crypto startups to remain private for a long time. The lack of new entrants and regulation has led to a deterioration in the crypto industry atmosphere, and it may face hundreds of billions of dollars of selling pressure in the future. The SEC restricts the ability of startups to raise funds and distribute tokens, causing the private market to attract more capital. Cryptocurrency is moving towards compliance, but the involvement of regulators has led to an unfair market. The current token issuance does not provide support for early exposure to the community, and small investors cannot participate. A more thoughtful strategy is needed to make early community stakeholders rich, but the lack of regulation makes this a pipe dream.
Opinion: This bull market is different from the past, and expectations should be lowered
Crypto analyst Pentoshi believes that there are still opportunities in this round of crypto bull market, but more realistic expectations should be set. The market floor price is set very high, and the bottom of each cycle is 10 times the low of the previous round. Market growth cannot be replicated, and more altcoins will appear in the future, and the market will expand further. The author recommends lowering expectations and not comparing with past cycles. It is not wise to go all in in the last stage. You should seize 80% of the entire bull market, protect your gains, and start again with the least money. There are still opportunities in the future, but more realistic expectations should be set.
Revenue of $1.64 billion, net profit of $1.18 billion, a quick look at Coinbase's 2024Q1 financial report highlights
Coinbase achieved an amazing financial turnaround in its first quarter 2024 financial report, with revenue of $1.64 billion, net profit of $1.18 billion, and earnings per share of $4.40. Transaction fees increased significantly, with subscription and service revenue reaching $511 million, stablecoin revenue of $197 million, and blockchain reward revenue of $151 million. The company has also become the custodian of multiple Bitcoin spot ETFs, attracting a large number of institutional investors. In the future, the passage of the stablecoin bill and the development of the Base chain will bring more opportunities for revenue growth for Coinbase.
IOSG: FHE fully homomorphic encryption highly praised by Vitalik, vernacular text unlocks its application potential
Fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) is an emerging data encryption technology that can perform data analysis while protecting data privacy. The practical application of FHE is limited by computing power, but many companies have invested in research and development, such as Microsoft, Intel, and Google. The development of FHE will bring strong end-to-end encryption and data privacy protection, and companies are also working together to advance the development of this complex technology. In the future, we can expect more discussions about emerging applications of FHE, its combination with other technologies, and how emerging companies can lead the development of the FHE field.
The next hot narrative, capital has entered, but few people know about it
Blockchain has been developed for more than ten years, and different technologies and business models have emerged. However, due to the impossible triangle problem of blockchain, on-chain and off-chain expansion solutions have emerged. This article takes Solana, Sei and Monad as examples to introduce the design principles and development status of parallel blockchains. Parallel execution can improve network speed and performance and solve the bottleneck problem of sequential execution. Solana is the first blockchain to adopt deterministic parallel execution. Sei and Monad are also parallel EVM blockchains designed to provide high-performance and low-cost user experience. Movement Labs is building developer tools and blockchain infrastructure services so that developers can easily take advantage of parallelization technology. Parallelization is still considered a key solution to improve scalability.
9 Catalysts and Airdrops to Watch This Week
This week, there are 9 major crypto events, including the release of Eigenlayer tokens, the release of NVIDIA's financial report, Jito's announcement of a new SOL re-staking agreement, Velodrome's Superchain expansion, Aptos token unlocking, Pendle and Ethena's deployment on Solana, Mode token release, and Sei V2 mainnet release date announcement. In addition, there are two airdrop opportunities, namely staking SOL on Sanctum and depositing USDe stablecoins on Karak. These activities are worth paying attention to and may bring future gains.
A quick look at 10 potential altcoins held by a16z, BlackRock, and Coinbase
Venture investors invest millions of dollars in altcoins every day. Tracking the wallets of top venture capital institutions and whales and following their investments can earn excess profits. Crypto KOL Atlas selected the best performing funds and 10 promising tokens, including a16z, BlackRock, Coinbase, Compound Labs, Ispolink, etc. This article provides market information and does not constitute investment advice, DYOR.
Long push: Web3 AI investment experience: Find the most mispriced projects in the mainstream focus
Web3 AI is a misunderstood field, and focusing too much on technical details or prices will miss opportunities. Simplicity often brings the best results, and the key driver is the flow of attention from the mainstream AI industry. The combination of AI and cryptocurrency shows great potential, but there are still challenges and unclear valuation methods. Pay attention to the flow of attention in the mainstream AI industry, identify the key factors driving development, determine the consistent cryptocurrency market, and look for mispriced projects. Understanding the industry context is crucial to the competition between decentralized and centralized projects, and pay attention to the AI narrative in real life, but risk management and prudence are still necessary.
Some thoughts on Aave v4: Should every major protocol launch a chain?
Aave v4's improvements are designed to improve user experience, reduce governance costs, prevent the spread of bad debt, and facilitate long-term development. These include a unified liquidity layer, fuzzy control interest rates, liquidity premium mechanisms, smart accounts and vaults, dynamic risk parameter configuration, excess debt protection mechanisms, native integration with the GHO stablecoin, and the planned launch of the Aave Network. The new network layer that Aave plans to launch will serve as the core hub for the GHO stablecoin and lending protocols, using GHO to pay fees, with Aave V4 as the hub and $AAVE as the main collateral asset. Aave will focus on the stablecoin market in the future to create scenarios for GHO. Aave Labs will continue to pay attention to network development and select the most appropriate technical solutions.
Data interpretation of zkSync’s current situation: Airdrop effect fails as profits shrink, and official inaction leads to a weak ecosystem
zkSync is about to issue coins, and the airdrop rules have triggered market discussions. Data shows that zkSync has a leading market size, but users are less willing to participate and their profit-capturing power is weakened. There are few ecological projects and they are of a single type. On-chain profits mainly come from Gas income, but they have shrunk significantly. Official inaction has led to the inability to protect user rights, and the community has accused the official of inaction. Multiple Rug incidents have failed to protect user rights, resulting in a lack of trust in the community. Finance lost huge amounts of money due to hacker attacks and did not respond to user compensation issues. The decentralized entertainment platform ZKasino was accused of suspected fraud, but the official did not respond, and the Netherlands Fiscal Investigation Bureau intervened in the investigation. Despite being cracked down on by Ethereum co-founders, zkSync officials still did not protect user interests and were more concerned about their own profits. With the increase in L2 projects in the market, zkSync will face greater challenges if it does not pay attention to ecological construction and user interests.
3. Project Interpretation
Solana Renaissance: Ore wins the championship, how did 34 projects break through?
Colosseum Venture Fund announced the results of the 9th Solana Foundation Hackathon. More than 8,300 participants came from 95 countries and regions, and only 34 projects won awards. Among them, Ore won the overall championship, Banger.lol won the first place in consumer applications, and High TPS Solana Client won the first place in infrastructure. Other winning projects cover consumer applications, infrastructure, games, payments and other fields. These projects will have a positive impact on the development of the Solana network.
Axelar to Interconnect Bitcoin, Hedera and Polkadot Ecosystems, Stacks and Others to Participate in Interchain Amplifier Pilot Program
Full-chain Layer1 Axelar published a statement on the X platform, saying that it will cross-chain interconnect Bitcoin, Hedera and Polkadot ecosystems. Bitcoin L2 network Stacks, Moonriver Network, open source PoS chain Hedera, and privacy network Iron Fish will be the first phase of the Axelar Interchain Amplifier pilot program to achieve one-click programmable interoperability. The Interchain Amplifier built on the Axelar virtual machine automatically connects any type of blockchain, and new cross-chain connections are exposed through smart contracts rather than through the protocol layer. Amplifier has been online on Devnet for about 1 week.
IV. Investment and Financing
Web3 social network Bondex completes a new round of strategic financing, with DEXT Force Ventures participating
Web3 social network Bondex announced the completion of a new round of strategic financing, with DEXT Force Ventures, an ecological investment institution under DEXTools.io, participating in the investment. The specific amount of financing has not been disclosed. It is reported that DEXT Force Ventures will provide marketing and business development guidance to Bondex, and provide access to its DEXTools platform. Bondex is mainly aimed at Web3 professionals, enterprises and recruiters, allowing users to connect and collaborate with each other, and also receive rewards through activities such as profile updates, verification and recommendations.
Singapore Web3 Platform Galaxis Completes $10 Million Funding, Chainlink Participates
According to Mars Finance, Coindesk published an article on the X platform, Singapore Web3 platform Galaxis announced the completion of a $10 million financing round, with Chainlink, Ethereum domain name service ENS, Rarestone Capital, Taisu Ventures, and ENS co-founder Nick Johnson participating in the investment.
