Compiled by: Mars Finance
Mars Finance Crypto Daily April 11, 2024
1. Today’s News
US President Biden: The interest rate cut may be delayed for a month and there will be a rate cut before the end of the year
U.S. President Biden delivered a speech today, saying that he supports the forecast of interest rate cuts, and that inflation issues may delay the interest rate cuts, which may be delayed by one month, and that there will be an interest rate cut before the end of the year.
Marginfi founder announces leaving the team, says he is not concerned about legal disputes over tokens and money
Edgar Pavlovsky, founder of Solana Ecosystem Marginfi, posted on social media that he has resigned from the Marginfi team. Edgar acknowledged that Marginfi is a world-class team, but he personally disagrees with the way things are done inside or outside the team. Edgar expressed his hope to devote his energy to work that he believes is important to society.
Lawyers are still working on the issue, but Edgar has told everyone involved that he doesn’t really care about tokens, money, or anything else. Even though his financial situation has been bad recently and his personal income has almost gone to zero, Edgar has no plans for the next step.
Jupiter founder: major upgrades will be made to solve the problems Jupiter is currently facing
Jupiter founder @weremeow posted on social media that over the past few months, the Jupiter team has been working hard behind the scenes to upgrade a series of infrastructure, processes, and user experience to expand and strengthen the countless systems that run Jupiter. The recent series of problems are rooted in Solana network congestion, spam on RPC endpoints, a surge in the number of tokens, and a large number of spam tokens with duplicate names. To this end, the team is making major upgrades to solve this series of problems.
CZ's new project Giggle Academy is about to launch a beta version, and the waiting list is open
CZ’s educational game project Giggle Academy is about to launch a beta version and is now open to users to apply for the waitlist.
CZ posted on the X platform: "We worked hard to build the first class. We had many discussions about how it would look, what game engine to use, features, animations, interactive content, etc. It’s time to get into startup mode again, like the good old days."
In March, CZ posted on the X platform that he would launch an educational project called Giggle Academy, which aims to provide free basic education for everyone. The project now has a full remote team of 10 people (including part-time and full-time). Project recruitment is still in progress, and the initial plan is to form a team of 15 people. Regarding the progress of the project, the content of the first natural spelling (English) course has been determined and is being produced. Considering the target market, an Android version of the application will be made first instead of a web version.
Wintermute: There are a large number of untapped capital pools in the Bitcoin ecosystem, and related tokens may rise after halving
Bitcoin's much-anticipated halving event later this month is likely to trigger a flood of bets on related network and ecosystem tokens, with traders anticipating gains for both technology and meme coin projects. Wintermute's OTC trading department said in this regard: "There are large untapped capital pools in the Bitcoin ecosystem that are still dormant, and it is surprising that there are so few online assets that traders can gain exposure to." It added : “If capital starts to enter the Bitcoin ecosystem, tokens like RUNE, STX and ORDI may benefit significantly and perform well.” Meanwhile, Bartosz Lipinski, founder of crypto trading platform Cube.Exchange, said in an email Zhong said that Meme coin and the upcoming Runes protocol may trigger high-risk bets in the Bitcoin ecosystem. (CoinDesk)
Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 3.92% to 86.39 T, a record high
According to BTC.com data, the difficulty of Bitcoin mining has been adjusted at block height 838,656 (05:17:33 today), with the difficulty of mining increasing by 3.92% to 86.39 T, a record high. The average computing power of the entire network is currently 629.72 EH/s.
SEC to file lawsuit against Uniswap and issue Wells Notice to the company
According to Fortune magazine, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a Wells Notice to Uniswap, a leading decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, informing the company that it intends to sue the company. The SEC's charges against Uniswap Labs, which developed the Uniswap protocol but does not control it, are unclear. Based on recent lawsuits against other cryptocurrency companies such as Coinbase, the SEC may accuse Uniswap Labs of offering unregistered securities to the public or failing to register as a broker or exchange. UniSwap founder Hayden Adams immediately issued a statement saying: I believe the products we offer are legal and I am ready to fight for DeFi.
80% of those who received a Wells Notice between 2011 and 2013 ultimately faced charges for alleged securities violations. You typically have 30 days to respond to a Wells Notice with a legal brief.
Coinbase Adds Apple Pay as a Payment Option in the UK
Coinbase has added Apple Pay as a payment option in the UK market, which means that Coinbase UK users can now use Apple Pay to purchase cryptocurrencies online and in apps. More than 6 million British adults already own cryptocurrencies, and Coinbase's move is aimed at further increasing participation in the digital asset market. The UK is Coinbase's second largest market.
The annual rate of US CPI hit a six-month high, and the possibility of the Fed cutting interest rates in June has decreased
The annual rate of the US unadjusted CPI in March was 3.5%, higher than the expected level of 3.4%, the highest level since September 2023. The US CPI was higher than expected, and spot gold fell by $16 in the short term, now at $2,333 per ounce. After the March CPI data, the swap market showed that the possibility of the Fed cutting interest rates in June decreased.
2. Selected articles
Uniswap received a notice from Wells and faced SEC prosecution. The founder said he was ready to fight.
The SEC issued a Wells Notice alleging that the decentralized finance platform Uniswap is not a registered securities or broker. Uniswap has processed more than $2 trillion in transactions and has received attention. The founder said that Uniswap is legal, but the SEC is more concerned about protecting opaque systems than consumers. They will fight with government agencies, which may last for years, but believe that freedom and DeFi are worth fighting for. Uniswap will continue to operate.
The founder was driven away and TVL plummeted by 20%. What happened to Marginfi?
Edgar Pavlovsky, founder of Marginfi in the Solana ecosystem, announced his resignation, sparking controversy over SolBlaze's accusation of manipulating BLZE emission allocation. Solend officially announced an airdrop to users who withdrew funds from Marginfi and deposited them into Solend, causing confusion in the community. Mac Brennan, co-founder of Marginfi, was accused of attacking Solend. He explained that it was to increase clicks and traffic, but the community was dissatisfied. This incident caused Marginfi's TVL to decline and was surpassed by Raydium. The Solana ecosystem is developing rapidly, but it is also highly competitive due to the large number of projects. The Solana DeFi circle has taken over the negative public opinion caused by network congestion, and it will take time to observe the restoration of the ecosystem to calm down.
Runes Protocol Rise, Quick Understanding of Principles and Projects Worth Noting
Runes is a new Bitcoin ecosystem designed to simplify token creation and management, and to coordinate with Bitcoin infrastructure. It will be launched on April 20, the Bitcoin halving day, as an alternative to the BRC20 standard, capturing 1,000x returns. The Rune ecosystem is being actively built, and many projects have been inspired by it, including OG projects Runestones and Runecoin. Rune holders will receive 3 rune meme airdrops, and many projects have also announced airdrops of runes. Ways to participate include downloading the XverseApp, depositing BTC, purchasing pre-rune items, etc. The launch of Runes provides an opportunity to participate in a new ecosystem with a focus on infrastructure and memecoins.
3. Project Interpretation
Are Bittensor and These Crypto AI Networks Worth Watching?
Last year, AI + Web3 became a hot topic in the crypto community, with more than 140 projects covering computing, verification, metaverse, games, etc. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik discussed the use cases of blockchain and AI, which was frequently mentioned at the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival.
Can Binance's launch of TAO save Bittensor?
Binance announced that it will launch Bittensor (TAO) in 2024, which has led to an increase in the price of TAO and affected related tokens. TAOPad (TPAD) has become a hot project. Many "TAO local dog" projects with the TAO sign have appeared in the market, but most of them eventually returned to zero. Can the launch on Binance make the Bittensor ecosystem hot again? Is the increase in the "TAO local dogs" a "dead cat bounce" or a signal of rise?
The strongest track in 2024, an article reviews 7 Alpha projects in the field of AI
On April 10, Zhu Su purchased TAO tokens, causing the price of TAO to rise by 10.8%. TAO is the native token of Bittensor, which aims to direct digital market forces to the field of artificial intelligence. Since the beginning of this year, several AI projects have attracted much attention, such as Allora, Tensorplex and SaharaLabs, and attracted the participation of many well-known investment institutions. Among them, SaharaLabs has attracted 30 corporate customers and achieved positive cash flow. Nillion has completed more than 20 million US dollars in financing and is committed to building a non-blockchain decentralized network. Ritual launched its first-phase product Infernet, which has received 25 million US dollars in financing and plans to launch its second-phase product Ritual Chain.
IV. Investment and Financing
Sapien Completes $5 Million Seed Round with Primitive Ventures and Others
Blockchain AI data labeling startup Sapien announced the completion of a $5 million seed round of financing, with participation from Primitive Ventures, Animoca, Ravikant Capital and Yield Guild Games. Sapien will use the funds to enhance its artificial intelligence to better guide and assist its data labeling, and will also be used to expand Sapien’s blockchain infrastructure to build its manual labeling team.
AI company Mindverse completes $5 million seed round of financing, led by Square Peg
Singaporean AI company Mindverse has completed a $5 million seed round of financing, led by Square Peg. Mindverse will use this round of financing to further research and product development to advance its large-scale personalized model. Mindverse was founded in 2022 by former Meta executives and artificial intelligence researchers. Its flagship products include MindOS Studio and Mebot, the former is an artificial intelligence-native website that helps create personalized chat experiences and interfaces, and the latter is a productivity tool that learns and remembers user ideas and preferences.
Blockchain game BORED SLOT completes $10 million in financing, with LD Capital and others participating
The blockchain game BORED SLOT based on BAYC NFT has completed a US$10 million financing round, with participation from PLUTUS VC and LD CAPITAL.
The new funds will be used to launch an entertainment platform where users can exchange token rewards for participation. BORED SLOT’s parent company is Spin City, and the SPC tokens launched by Spin City will be used first by BORED SLOT.
Web3 game studio Sortium completes over $4 million in financing, led by Signum Growth
Sortium, a Web3 game studio focused on generative AI, announced that it has completed over $4 million in financing, led by Signum Growth, with participation from Cathie Wood's ARK Investment Management LLC, IDG Blockchain, IVC Fund, Polygon and 1881 S Group AG. Sortium will use this round of financing to expand operations and development work.
Earlier in January 2023, it was reported that Web3 entertainment technology developer Sortium completed a seed round of financing of US$7.75 million, with cryptocurrency hedge fund Arca participating in the investment.
HTX Ventures announces strategic investment in Tomo to support SocialFi innovation
HTX Ventures announced a strategic investment in Tomo, a comprehensive Web3 social application. This investment marks HTX Ventures' recognition of Tomo's strategic position in the Web3 field, its belief in SocialFi's transformative potential, and its commitment to broadening and enhancing the impact and ease of use of Web3 technology.
It is reported that as a one-stop social wallet platform, Tomo aims to completely change the way of digital social interaction and content monetization. Tomo recently completed a $3.5 million seed round of financing, led by Polychain Capital.
HTX Ventures is the global investment arm of Huobi HTX, integrating investment, incubation and research to identify the best and most promising teams in the world. Currently, HTX Ventures has supported more than 200 projects across multiple blockchain tracks, some of which have been listed on Huobi HTX trading.
Binance Labs invests in BounceBit
Binance announced that Binance Labs invested in BounceBit to support Bitcoin re-staking and CeDeFi innovation.
Decentralized GPU infrastructure GPU.net completes $5.25 million Series A financing, with Momentum 6 and others participating
Decentralized GPU infrastructure company GPU.net announced the completion of US$5.25 million in Series A financing, with participation from Momentum 6, Spicy Capital, Exnetwork Capital, BlackDragon, Crypto Banter, Fusion7 Venture Capital, Alex Becker, EllioTrader and others.
Earlier in August 2023, GPU.Net completed a $500,000 financing round, with investors including Momentum 6 and Alphablockz. GPU.Net aims to meet the computing power requirements of new technologies such as generative AI, Web3 metaverse, cryptocurrency mining, and high-end graphics rendering by providing decentralized GPU infrastructure.
Bitcoin mining machine manufacturer Auradine completes $80 million Series B financing, with StepStone Group and others participating
Bitcoin mining machine manufacturer Auradine announced the completion of an $80 million Series B financing round, with participation from StepStone Group, Top Tier Capital Partners, MVP Ventures, Maverick Capital, Celesta Capital, Mayfield Fund and Marathon Digital. It is reported that this round of financing was in the form of a mixture of equity and debt, with a valuation of more than $500 million.
Blockchain recruitment company Veremark raises $3 million, led by Samaipata and Stage 2 Capital
Veremark, a London-based blockchain recruitment and background check service company, announced the completion of a $3 million (£2.4 million) financing round, led by Samaipata and Stage 2 Capital, with participation from ACF Investors and Vulpes Investment. Verepass recently launched a blockchain-based "career passport" service, Verepass, which allows job seekers to use it to manage their verified credentials.
It is reported that Veremark was founded in 2019 and conducts background checks on potential employees for companies to examine their qualifications and legal compliance. It can also be used to screen existing employees, business partners, limited partners and founders. (UK Tech) In 2022, Veremark completed $8.5 million (about 7.08 million pounds) in equity financing, led by Stage 2 Capital.
