Cryptocurrency daily summary:
Tether launches new token backed by gold
New South Korean law requires exchanges to regularly review token listings
ZKsync airdrop initial market value close to $800 million
Let’s first look at the trading activities of Bitcoin ETFs. According to Farside Investor data, on June 17, Grayscale Bitcoin Spot ETF (GBTC) saw an outflow of $3 million. At the same time, Fidelity Bitcoin Spot ETF (FBTC) saw an outflow of $9,200, Bitwise Bitcoin Spot ETF (BITB) saw an inflow of $2.9 million, and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin Spot ETF (ARKB) saw an outflow of $50 million.
Tether Launches New Token Backed by Swiss Gold Storage, Expands Synthetic Cryptocurrency
Tether, the world’s largest U.S. dollar stablecoin provider, has announced the launch of a new cryptocurrency called “Pegged Asset.” According to a statement released on Monday, the company will launch a new token “backed by real physical gold stored in Switzerland” to kick off a series of digital asset launches.
The first of the upcoming tokens is called “Alloy by Tether,” or aUSDT for short. “Tether’s Alloy is an open platform that allows users to create collateralized synthetic digital assets and will soon be part of Tether’s new digital asset tokenization platform, which is expected to launch later this year,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said on the X platform.
Tether describes aUSDT as a cryptocurrency that is "designed to track the value of one U.S. dollar" but is "overcollateralized by Tether Gold (XAUT)", emphasizing that the token is backed by actual gold. Users can use XAUT as collateral to create aUSDT tokens. Currently, XAUT has a market capitalization of $573 million, which is much lower than USDT's market capitalization.
New South Korean law requires exchanges to regularly review token listings
South Korea will implement the Virtual Asset User Protection Act on July 19. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea has notified 29 registered cryptocurrency exchanges, requiring them to regularly evaluate the tokens listed on their exchanges and decide whether to continue supporting their trading.
The new law requires cryptocurrency exchanges to follow stricter token listing review guidelines and review existing listed tokens every six months to ensure they comply with the new guidelines. After the initial review, exchanges must conduct maintenance reviews every three months.
In February, the South Korean government released the latest revision of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act. In April, the Financial Supervisory Commission of South Korea hinted at stricter regulatory guidelines for listing new tokens on cryptocurrency exchanges, suggesting measures to improve market monitoring and security, such as prohibiting the listing of tokens of infected projects. These new standards may prevent project tokens with security vulnerabilities and unresolved security issues from being listed on local exchanges.
ZKsync airdrop initial market value close to $800 million
Layer 2 blockchain ZKsync has launched its much-anticipated ZK token airdrop, and 45% of the tokens are said to have been claimed in just two hours. According to CoinGecko data, the ZK token opened at $0.31 and has since fallen by about 31% to $0.198. Based on the circulating supply, the market cap is about $800 million, with about 3.7 billion tokens available for distribution. On a fully diluted basis, the market cap is $4.5 billion.
Some users are dissatisfied with the design of the airdrop, believing that there is an unfair distribution problem, and that some suspected Sybil addresses have received a large number of tokens. The team acknowledged its "unconventional design". Last week, the Matter Labs team shared the ZKsync Association's token distribution plan.
According to the plan, 89% of the airdrop will be claimed by ZKsync users, which includes anyone who transacts on the ZKsync blockchain and reaches an unspecified activity threshold. The remaining tokens will be distributed to ecosystem contributors, ZKsync native projects, on-chain communities, and builders.
Matter Labs also said that employees will receive 16.1% of ZK tokens and investors will receive 17.2%, which will be locked for one year and then released over three years. The remaining token supply will be allocated to ZKsync's token conference (29.3%) for new governance purposes, and the rest will be used for ecosystem initiatives (19.9%).
Market Trends
-BTC: After rising above $66,000 overnight, it reversed and fell below $65,000 this morning.
-ETH: The price of Ethereum fell below $3,400 this morning, showing a certain downward trend.
- Altcoins: Altcoins generally fell by more than 10%, and the popular token with large market value, ZK, sucked away the hot money in the market.
Macroeconomics
-Market trends: U.S. stocks continued to rise and set new historical highs, and funds flocked to technology stocks.
Market Hotspots
1. Layer2 protocol Zksync: ZK was launched on major trading platforms yesterday afternoon. The current price is 0.2u, which is significantly lower than the over-the-counter price of 0.4u. The current circulating market value of ZK is 740 million US dollars. Ethereum gas fees have fallen to 1 gas, a record low in 8 years. When the gas fee of layer1 is no longer high, the industry narrative of layer2 is no longer accepted by the market.
2. Meme sector: MEW rose 25% during the day and has now fallen back. MEW is a cat-type meme token of the Solana chain. It has recently been launched on the Korean trading platform and the contract on bn, which has been good news. The current market value of MEW is nearly 400 million US dollars, making it the highest-ranked token among cat-type meme tokens.
Judging from the current market trend, the cryptocurrency market is experiencing a wave of adjustments. The pullback of BTC and ETH shows the weakness of the market, and the general decline of altcoins has exacerbated this trend.
In terms of macroeconomics, the continued rise of U.S. stocks and their record high performance may have a certain impact on the flow of funds in the cryptocurrency market. Investors may transfer part of their funds from the cryptocurrency market to the stock market in pursuit of more stable returns.
Macro: S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit record closing highs ahead of Fed comments; Wall Street and Eurasian markets all rise
On Monday, June 17, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit record closing highs ahead of the release of this week's important economic data and speeches by Federal Reserve officials. The rise in technology stocks was mainly driven by enthusiasm for artificial intelligence. Among large technology stocks, Apple and Microsoft rebounded after early losses, closing up 1.97% and 1.31% respectively. After Apple announced new AI features, iPhone demand was re-stimulated, continuing last week's upward momentum.
Specific indices: The Dow Jones Index rose 0.49%, the S&P 500 Index rose 0.77%, and the Nasdaq Index rose 0.95%.
Two brokerages raised their forecasts for the S&P 500, citing the strength of technology and enthusiasm for artificial intelligence. Goldman Sachs raised its 2024 year-end target for the S&P 500 to 5,600, while Evercore ISI raised its forecast for the benchmark index to 6,000 from 4,750.
Important economic data releases this week include May retail sales on Tuesday, followed by industrial production, housing starts and the S&P Purchasing Managers Index. In addition, markets will be closed on Wednesday for the Juneteenth holiday.
Asian stocks followed Wall Street higher on Tuesday, June 18, as markets looked forward to speeches by Federal Reserve officials later in the day. Eased concerns about political unrest in Europe boosted sentiment, pushing EUROSTOXX 50 futures up 0.6%, reversing some of last week's sharp losses. UK FTSE futures also rose 0.43%. In addition, the Australian central bank is about to announce its interest rate decision, which boosted the Australian dollar and domestic stocks.
The MSCI Asia Pacific stock index rose 0.68%, Japan's Nikkei rose 0.83%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.14%, and Chinese blue chips edged up 0.17%.
In currency markets, the dollar edged down 0.04% against the yen to 157.68 yen. The euro edged down to $1.0729, while the pound rose 0.04% to $1.27105. China's onshore yuan fell to a seven-month low of 7.2554 per dollar, partly due to mixed economic data released on Monday.
In commodities, Brent crude futures rose 0.11% to $84.34 a barrel. Oil prices edged higher as demand prospects strengthened and investors believed that OPEC+ producers may suspend or reverse plans to increase production starting in the fourth quarter of this year.
Spot gold rose 0.13% to $2,321.99 an ounce.
