Headlines

BlackRock has submitted an application form 8-A12B for the registration of Ethereum spot ETF securities to the US SEC

Public documents show that BlackRock has submitted Form 8-A12B for the Ethereum spot ETF securities registration application to the U.S. SEC. It is reported that the submission of Form 8-A means that the issuer can trade on the exchange once the product is approved, and it also marks progress in the potential approval of the Ethereum spot ETF.

The number of new addresses on the Bitcoin network hit a two-month high

According to data from The Block, despite the recent market downturn, the number of new addresses on the Bitcoin network has reached a two-month high, with the 7-day moving average (7 DMA) recording more than 317,000 new addresses on July 5, compared to just 263,000 new addresses at the beginning of last week, marking a sharp 20% week-on-week increase. At the same time, the seven-day moving average of Bitcoin's average transaction fee fell to a low of $1.75. Analysts said the difference highlights an interesting dynamic within the Bitcoin network, where new participants are joining, but that does not necessarily mean higher transaction fees or increased on-chain activity at the moment.

IntoTheBlock: Bitcoin miners' reserves have dropped by about 20,000 BTC since June

Vincent Maliepaard, marketing director of IntoTheBlock, disclosed data that Bitcoin miners' reserves have decreased by about 20,000 BTC since June, and the Bitcoin halving two months ago may be a driving factor for the recent miners' sell-off, as profit margins have been declining since then. CJ Burnett, chief revenue officer of Compass Mining, told Decrypt that large mining companies are still actively purchasing the latest generation of mining machines to improve mining machine efficiency, economies of scale, and gross profit margins.

The German government address withdrew a total of 1,118 BTC from CEX and other addresses this morning

According to Arkham monitoring, a wallet address marked as "German Government" withdrew a total of 1,118 BTC (about 64.71 million US dollars) from CEX and other addresses this morning, of which 710 BTC were withdrawn from Kraken and a total of 408 were withdrawn from 3 unmarked addresses.

Ethereum ETF issuers may follow Bitcoin’s example and set the fee rate between 0.19% and 0.3%

The spot Ethereum ETF from asset management companies Invesco and Galaxy will charge investors a management fee of 0.25%, slightly higher than the 0.20% disclosed by VanEck last month. Analysts believe that the management fee is used by the issuer to pay for the maintenance expenses of the fund, such as marketing expenses, salaries and custody services. Most issuers of spot Bitcoin ETFs choose a fee rate between 0.19% and 0.30%, and Ethereum ETF issuers may do the same.

Industry News

Ethereum L2 Rollup’s number of unique depositors hits yearly low, down 33% from last week

According to data from The Block, the number of unique depositors for Ethereum L2 rollup solutions (especially optimistic rollup and ZK rollup) has reached a year-low level, with only 34,920 users in the past week. This is a 33% drop from the total number in the previous week, and a sharp contrast to mid-April, when the number reached 250,000 in a week. Analysts say this decline can be attributed to a variety of factors, including a shift in user preferences, a lack of growth in the ecosystem on the dApp side, and a lack of motivation for users to continue using these Rollups after the Arbitrum, Optimism, ZKSync, and Starknet airdrops.

CNBC: Bitcoin is holding support and ready to hit another record

According to CNBC, according to market trend data, Bitcoin is maintaining support and is ready to set a record again. OKX market shows that BTC is currently at 57609.4 USDT, with a 24-hour increase of 2.25%.

Polychain accuses former partner of undisclosed deal with Eclipse Labs

Crypto venture capital firm Polychain has accused its former partner Niraj Pant of violating fund policies by entering into an undisclosed side deal with portfolio company Eclipse Labs. Sources and internal documents show that former Eclipse Labs CEO Neel Somani allocated 5% of Eclipse crypto tokens to Pant in September 2022, just days after Pant instructed Polychain to lead Eclipse's $6 million pre-seed financing round. The allocation was later reduced to 1.33%, worth $13.3 million. Polychain said it did not learn of the deal until after Pant left in 2023. Pant insists the arrangement was legal, but Polychain believes the move should be disclosed under its policies to avoid conflicts of interest.

On July 9, nine US Bitcoin ETFs increased their holdings by a total of 4,601 Bitcoins

Lookonchain monitors the US spot Bitcoin ETF data on July 9 and shows:

1. BlackRock increased its holdings by approximately 3,324 bitcoins, worth approximately US$190.3 million. It currently holds 310,470 bitcoins, worth approximately US$17.77 billion. 2. Grayscale reduced its holdings by 540 bitcoins, worth approximately US$30.9 million. It currently holds 273,709 bitcoins, worth approximately US$15.67 billion. 3. 9 Bitcoin ETFs increased their holdings by a total of 4,601 bitcoins, worth approximately US$2.6336 trillion.

Uniswap Labs: The US SEC's proposed rules involve improper expansion of the definition of an exchange and it is recommended not to continue to formulate them

Uniswap Labs Chief Legal Officer Katherine Minarik posted on the X platform that Uniswap Labs has urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission not to proceed with its proposed rulemaking because the rule would significantly and inappropriately expand the definition of "exchange" to include DeFi and others.

SlowMist: Last week, the crypto industry lost more than $9 million due to security incidents

SlowMist released a security report on the encryption field last week (July 1-July 7) on X, during which the total loss exceeded 9 million US dollars. The specific types of events and losses are as follows:

1. Account theft: -Interlay (loss unknown); -Sydney Sweeney (loss unknown); 2. Information leakage: -Authy (loss unknown); -Evolve Bank Trust (loss unknown); 3. Security vulnerability: -Bittensor Wallet (loss of 8 million US dollars) 4. Rug Pull: -Fake TRUMP (MAGA) (loss of 957,552 US dollars); 5. Reentrancy attack: -MintRisesPrices (loss of 59,000 US dollars).

The tokenized U.S. Treasury market is worth over $1.8 billion, with BlackRock’s BUIDL fund worth over $500 million

According to data from RWA monitoring platform RWA.xyz, as of July 8, the tokenized U.S. Treasury market exceeded $1.8 billion and is currently $1.81 billion, of which the BlackRock BUIDL fund market size exceeds $500 million.

In addition, the market value of U.S. Treasury tokens on the Ethereum chain is approximately US$1.3 billion, ranking first among all networks, followed by Stellar (approximately US$410 million).

IntoTheBlock: Currently 97% of ARB holders are at a loss

IntoTheBlock posted on X that according to the data on its platform, 97% of ARB holders are currently losing money due to the poor price performance of ARB.

Coin 98 releases L2 Q2 report: Base ranks first in the number of newly created addresses, and Blast’s number of transactions increased by 484%

Coin 98 Analytics noted in its Layer 2 Q2 report:

- Base ranked first in the number of newly created addresses, reaching 16 million; - opBNB, Base and Arbitrum ranked at the top in average daily transaction volume; - Blast transaction number increased by 484%; - opBNB led with a total transaction number of more than 429 million.

CoinGecko: The top five CEXs in terms of monthly visits are Binance, Coinbase, Bitget, Bybit, and OKX

According to CoinGecko data, in the ranking of exchanges with the most monthly visits, Binance ranked first with 65.5 million visits, Coinbase ranked second with 40.9 million visits, Bitget ranked third with 31.1 million visits, Bybit ranked fourth with 30.4 million visits, and OKX ranked fifth with 27.1 million visits.

Project News

Optimism launches SuperFest event, offering 1.5 million OP rewards

Optimism announced the official launch of the SuperFest (Superchain DeFi Festival) event on X. The Optimism Collective will allocate 1.5 million OP rewards to users who explore DeFi applications on Superchain.

It is reported that this event involves: 1. Network: Base, Mode, Frax Finance, OP Mainnet; 2. Applications: Velodrome, Aerodrome, Uniswap, Aave, Lido, Curve, Morpho, ether.fi, etc.; 3. Bridges: Jumper, Across, Stargate, CelerNetwork, etc.

ZK Nation: ZKsync Association has released the first version of the governance program

ZK Nation published a post on X Platform stating that the ZKsync Association has released the first version of the governance procedure, outlining the process for submitting and voting on proposals in the ZKsync governance system. The ZKsync governance system is built around three core properties:

1. Mission Alignment: Everyone involved in governance, regardless of which organization they belong to, should act in accordance with ZK Credo's shared values ​​and responsibilities; 2. Distribution: A setting that ensures a healthy balance of power and prevents any single group from having too much control; 3. Resilience: The protocol must continue to evolve even if the management body or its members act against their interests.

Story Protocol Launches IP Chain Story Network

Story Protocol announced the launch of the IP blockchain Story Network at X. Story L1 includes the Proof of Creativity protocol to tokenize trillion-dollar asset classes into programmable IP Lego.

Officials said that in the era of AI-driven creativity, Story is powering the IP Legoland.

Arkham: Support for TON blockchain will be coming in the next few weeks, and support for Solana blockchain will follow

Arkham Intelligence CEO Miguel Morel predicted that the platform will begin offering paid services later this year, but its core functionality will remain free, and the platform will support the TON blockchain in the coming weeks and the Solana blockchain in the coming months.

MOCA Coin: MOCA airdrop claims will open on July 11, Checker website is now online

MOCA Coin announced on the X platform that MOCA airdrop applications will be launched on July 11. Mocaverse also announced on the X platform that the Checker website for MOCA token application eligibility query has been launched.

For Moca NFT holders, you can receive it immediately or receive additionally. You need to register your decision before 4 a.m. UTC on July 11, otherwise it will be defaulted to "receive immediately"; for Moca ID holders, you must register on the registration website before 4 a.m. UTC on July 11 to obtain MOCA through TGE.

Kroma Completed Pro Gamers Season 1 Airdrop Snapshot

Kroma, a Superchain-based L2 solution, posted on X that the Pro Gamers Season 1 airdrop snapshot was taken at 12:00 on July 8, and is intended to reward early supporters.

For KGH or KQM NFT holders: - Each Kroma Guardian House (KGH) NFT will receive 7 blind boxes; - Each Kroma Quest Master (KQM) NFT will receive 10 blind boxes. Players can make it into items in Pro Gamers through KCU and get the upcoming airdrop rewards. Surprise airdrops will continue in KCU and Pro Gamers Season 2.

Doubler will complete the liquidity airdrop snapshot at 10:30 on July 10th

Doubler, a liquidity aggregation investment strategy protocol, announced on X that it will complete the Liquidity Airdrop snapshot at 10:30 on July 10. All rewards received during this phase will be distributed together with the ITO rewards.

Officials said that during the operation of the Lite version, it was found that users had different understandings of the protocol mechanism. In order to avoid any unreasonable losses, users will have enough time to understand the product and decide whether to redeem their assets.

Consensys Releases New Development Toolkit "MetaMask Delegation Toolkit"

MetaMask development company Consensys has released a new toolkit "MetaMask Delegation Toolkit" to simplify the user experience of blockchain applications, and plans to start allowing developers to use its new product.

The toolkit allows users to log in instantly without interacting with traditional wallets, and eliminates confirmation pages or pop-ups when users switch DApps and wallets. In addition, Consensys said that the toolkit is designed to simplify the development of smart contracts and allow developers to redistribute Gas costs, making it possible to determine that certain individuals do not have to pay any fees.

Degen: Airdrop 2 Season 5 will be available on July 11th

Degen announced on X that Airdrop 2 Season 5 will be available for claiming on July 11, and Airdrop 2 Season 6 will start on the same day.

Investment and Financing

L2 Project BOB Completes $1.6 Million Strategic Round of Financing, Led by Ledger Ventures

L2 project BOB announced the completion of a US$1.6 million strategic round of financing, led by Ledger Ventures, with participation from institutions and project parties such as BlackRock, Rarible, Ordinals, Aave, Curve, Threshold, Magic Eden, Mechanism, Injective, Vessel Capital, Babylon and Centrifuge. It is reported that US$1 million of this round of financing will be allocated to the BOB incubator to support startups focusing on Bitcoin infrastructure and BOB dApps development.

On-chain credit and income platform Idle completes $1.1 million strategic round of financing, led by RockawayX

Idle, an on-chain credit and yield platform, announced the completion of a $1.1 million strategic round of financing, led by investment company RockawayX and participated by Fasanara Digital. As of now, Idle's total financing amount has reached $2.4 million.

The company plans to use the funds to further develop on-chain credit infrastructure, etc. According to reports, Idle is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that provides yield automation and hedging tools for the decentralized finance (DeFi) market. The platform has accumulated $300 million in liquidity and a trading volume of more than $2 billion. Idle previously raised $1.2 million in a seed round led by Gumi Cryptos Capital in November 2020.

L2 chain service provider Rome raises $9 million, with Hack VC, Bankless and others participating

Crypto startup Rome announced that it has completed a $9 million financing round, with participation from Hack VC, Polygon Ventures, HashKey, Portal Ventures, Bankless Ventures, Robot VC, LBank, Anagram, TRGC, Perridon Ventures and angel investors including Anatoly Yakovenko, Nick White, Santiago Santos, Comfy Capital, Austin Federa, and Jason Yanowitz.

Founded by Anil Kumar and Sattvik Kansal, Rome aims to build Solana into a base network for shared sequencers and data availability (DA), that is, using Solana as an auxiliary network to provide services for Layer 2 blockchains built on Ethereum. The project is also committed to realizing "atomic transactions" between Ethereum Layer 2 networks, that is, multiple transactions on different blockchains. If any part of the transaction fails, all transactions will not go through, and users will only pay the fees for Solana transactions. Rome plans to launch a testnet at the end of 2024 and launch the mainnet in mid-2025.

Stablecoin protocol Satoshi Protocol raises $2 million, led by CMS Holdings and RockTree Capital

Satoshi Protocol, a Bitcoin-based stablecoin, announced the completion of its seed round of financing. The total amount of this round of financing is US$2 million, led by CMS Holdings and RockTree Capital, with participation from Cypher Capital, Side Door Ventures, Optic Capital, Metalpha (NASDAQ: MATH, a subsidiary of Bitmain), Outliers Fund, Comma 3, and angel investors Paul Taylor (ex-BlackRock) and Yenwen Feng (Perpetual Protocol).

Satoshi Protocol is an over-collateralized stablecoin protocol for the Bitcoin ecosystem. Users can deposit BTC and interest-bearing assets based on BTC such as LST, mint the US dollar stablecoin $SAT at a collateral rate of 110%, and participate in transactions, liquidity pools, lending and other scenarios to earn income. Three months after its release, the protocol has been officially deployed on the BEVM and Bitlayer mainnets, and has also been connected to testnets such as BOB, Botanix, B², Anduro (incubated by MARA), and Omni Network for closed testing.

Web3 identity layer idOS raises $4.5 million, led by Fabric Ventures

Web3 identity layer idOS announced on X that it has completed a $4.5 million financing, led by Fabric Ventures, and formed an alliance with Arbitrum, Circle Ventures, RippleX, GnosisDAO, NEAR Protocol, Aleph Zero, Radix, Tezos, etc. The alliance aims to develop the Web3 identity layer and promote the adoption of decentralized identity in the Web3 space.

idOS is a decentralized data storage and access management protocol that is committed to enabling the ecosystem to provide an identity layer for DApps to solve the problem of compliant user onboarding and reduce friction.

Decentralized AI Agentic Workflow Network Questflow Labs Completes $1.5 Million Angel Round of Financing, Led by Qiji Chuangtan

Decentralized AI Agentic Workflow network Questflow Labs announced the completion of a $1.5 million angel round of financing, led by MiraclePlus, with participation from founders of PAKA, AgentLayer, TypoX, Dmail Network, Chasm, Litentry, etc. In addition, Questflow Labs has received support from Cohere Incubator, Wanxiang Blockchain Hashkey Capital's Web3+AI Incubator, BuilderDAO's SpringX Incubator, and ecological support from top public chains such as Near, Aptos, and Tezos.

Regulatory trends

Nigerian Finance Minister Urges SEC to Address Crypto Regulation Challenges

Nigerian Finance Minister Wale Edun urged the country's Securities and Exchange Commission to proactively address the complex challenges of regulating cryptocurrencies. He stressed that strict regulation is needed to maintain the integrity of the capital market. Wale Edun also stressed the importance of staying informed and adaptable, especially in rapidly evolving areas such as artificial intelligence, digital currencies, and overall digital transformation. In addition, the Nigerian SEC board also expressed optimism about the country's economic prospects.

Character Voice

Bitwise CCO: Spot Ethereum ETF is "close to the end", US SEC welcomes discussion of other products

Bitwise Chief Business Officer Katherine Dowling said the spot Ethereum ETF is “close to the finish line,” while noting that the SEC “very welcomes” discussions about other products. Katherine Dowling did not disclose the specific names of the products involved, but the only other pending spot cryptocurrency ETFs are VanEck and 21 Shares’ spot Solana (SOL) ETFs.

CryptoQuant CEO: Bitcoin miners’ capitulation is still ongoing, the market may remain flat in 2-3 months

Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of CryptoQuant, wrote that Bitcoin miners' capitulation is still ongoing. Historically, this ratio ends when the average daily mining value reaches 40% of the annual average, but now the ratio is 72%. It is expected that the cryptocurrency market will perform flat in the next 2-3 months, maintain long-term bullishness, but avoid excessive risks.

Fed spokesperson: Powell's shift suggests rate cuts are imminent

Nick Timiraos, the "Federal Reserve Mouthpiece", pointed out in his article that Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said at a hearing on Tuesday that the trade-off between reducing inflation and maintaining a solid labor market is changing. This cautious but important shift has brought the Fed one step closer to cutting interest rates. "Rising inflation is not the only risk we face," Powell said. "We have seen a clear cooling of the labor market in many ways. This is not the source of the current general inflationary pressure in the economy." This assessment is noteworthy because Federal Reserve officials have long believed that an overheated labor market is the main risk to the process of suppressing inflation. Powell admitted that he would not have made such a judgment just two months ago. In fact, Powell's comments at a meeting in Portugal last week before the U.S. Department of Labor released its June employment report were also more cautious.

Coinbase executive: Cryptocurrency adoption requires friendlier beginner apps

Chintan Turakhia, senior director of engineering at Coinbase, said that to attract the first billion cryptocurrency users, more friendly beginner applications are needed. The current user registration process is complicated and has many obstacles, including setting up a wallet, paying transaction fees, and purchasing blockchain native tokens. To simplify this process, Coinbase launched the Smart Wallet, which uses simpler login options such as account names and passwords to replace complex seed phrases. In addition, the new Smart Wallet also sponsors transaction fees by Coinbase, further lowering the threshold for use. Turakhia believes that consumer applications will be the way to popularize cryptocurrency, such as the Telegram-based mini-game Hamster Kombat, which has exceeded 239 million users in 81 days.

CryptoQuant Research Director: New Bitcoin Whales Have Realized Losses of $1 Billion in the Past Two Weeks

Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, said in a post on X that data shows that new "Bitcoin whales" have realized losses of $1 billion in the past two weeks. Previously, the group achieved profits in Q1. In addition, long-term coin holding whales (Old whales) achieved profits in early June.

The definition of long-term whales is as follows: 1. The average UTXO age is more than 155 days (if it is less than 155 days, it is a short-term whale); 2. The balance exceeds 1,000 BTC; 3. No connection with CEX or mining companies.

DWF Labs Partner: Optimistic about PolitFi, expecting it to explode this fall

Perhaps influenced by this year's US election, DWF Labs partner Andrei Grachev wrote that PolitFi, a token economy related to American universities, will be "this year's masterpiece" and 99% of the highlights will occur this fall.

VanEck Research Director: Base hype in L2 has receded, and MATIC has become the biggest loser

Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, wrote on the X platform: "Base did steal the show in the first half of this year, but it looks like the hype has subsided, and the (Layer 2) fee market share battle continues, with OP and ARB still evenly matched. The only thing that can be determined from this chart is that MATIC is the biggest loser." The chart he provided shows that Polygon PoS fee market share has dropped from 90% in 21 years to less than 20%.

Singapore Exchange CEO: The local ecosystem is not yet ready for spot Bitcoin ETFs

Loh Boon Chye, CEO of the Singapore Exchange, said that the local ecosystem in Singapore is not yet ready for a spot Bitcoin ETF. As time goes by and the ecosystem improves, the Singapore Exchange will be regarded as the most innovative exchange or platform in the world.

The predecessor of Singapore Exchange was the Singapore Stock Exchange, which was established on May 24, 1973. On December 1, 1999, the Singapore Stock Exchange (SES) and the Singapore International Financial Exchange (SIMEX) merged to form the Singapore Exchange.

Cboe executive: SOL is one of the most actively traded cryptocurrencies after Bitcoin and Ethereum

According to ETF Store President Nate Geraci’s disclosure on the X platform, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) Global Head of ETF Listing commented on the Solana ETF 19b-4 filing, saying that Cboe is now addressing the growing investor interest in Solana, which is one of the most actively traded cryptocurrencies after Bitcoin and Ethereum.

VanEck Digital Asset Research Director: Over $6 Trillion in Inheritance May Flow into Cryptocurrency in the Next 20 Years

Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, said more than $6 trillion in inheritances could flow into cryptocurrencies over the next 20 years.

Sigel cited a 2024 Bank of America Private Banking Study, which states that by 2045, Generation X, Millennials, and future generations will inherit $84 trillion in wealth from older and baby boomers. For $6 trillion to flow into cryptocurrencies, young American investors aged 21-43 would have to inherit $42 trillion from baby boomers and consistently allocate 14% of their funds to cryptocurrencies. Young investors would have to invest $300 billion per year for the next 20 years.

Justin Sun: Stablecoins and Memes are crucial to the sustainable development of blockchain

At the IXO™ 2024 conference, where TRON was the diamond sponsor, TRON founder Justin Sun emphasized that stablecoins and memes are crucial to the sustainable growth and innovative development of blockchain. In the future, the focus will be on a more complete stablecoin payment system based on the TRON network and enhancing the role of memes in TRON community participation.

Pacman: The prediction market will achieve higher capital efficiency and better price discovery, and is happy to support the construction of the Blast prediction market

Blur and Blast co-founder Pacman cited the launch of Blast Phase 2 Gold Distribution 1 on X and posted that as the election cycle heats up, prediction markets with native returns will achieve higher capital efficiency and better price discovery. We are happy to support the construction of prediction markets based on Blast.

IOSG Ventures founder: Don’t get caught up in the stories of getting rich from memes, focus on infrastructure and protocol building

Jocy, founder of IOSG Ventures, posted on the X platform that the Eastern crypto community cannot always be a meme, and the Eastern community needs a prairie fire.

He believes that many entrepreneurs and community members are currently addicted to meme hype, which has affected the direction and original intention of entrepreneurship. Jocy believes that entrepreneurs should resist meme, should not turn their entrepreneurial direction to meme, and should not hype meme in an assembly line.