Hotairballoon has selected important information, investment and financing conditions of the crypto market last week, as well as on-chain data of current popular tracks such as LSD and RWA. In addition, it has also counted projects with relatively large unlocking volumes recently for your reference.
1. Important information about the crypto industry last week
Take a quick look at important industry information of the week.
1. Policy/Regulation
1. Singapore introduces a regulatory framework for crypto stablecoins
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced on its official website that it has finalized the regulatory framework for stablecoins. The regulatory framework takes into account the feedback received after the public consultation in October 2022. MAS said that when well regulated to maintain value stability, stablecoins can serve as a trusted medium of exchange to support innovation, including the purchase and sale of digital assets "on-chain". MAS's stablecoin regulatory framework will apply to single currency stablecoins (SCS) pegged to the Singapore dollar or any G10 currency.
2. Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee: Attach importance to the development of Web3 and are fully exploring the regulatory arrangements for stablecoins
On August 15, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, John Lee, attended the Innovation Technology and Art Development Summit Forum hosted by Bauhinia Magazine via video.
Lee said that Web 3.0 is a new development direction for the Internet, integrating technologies that have attracted widespread attention in recent years and has the potential to become a trend in promoting the future development of finance and commerce. The SAR government attaches great importance to the development of financial technology and Web 3.0, and has issued a policy statement, clearly stating that Hong Kong is open and inclusive to innovators engaged in virtual asset business around the world.
3. Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs will add a new category of “virtual currency business” organizations, allowing practitioners to form guilds
Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs has announced that it will add a new category of "virtual currency business" organizations and business scope. Practitioners who meet the qualifications of virtual currency business can apply to form a guild to help implement relevant laws and regulations and self-discipline.
4. Invest Hong Kong: The Hong Kong government is considering creating a public chain specifically for Hong Kong
On August 15, Terry, senior manager of Invest Hong Kong, said in an interview with IQ Times: “The Hong Kong government is considering building a public chain dedicated to Hong Kong. If the plan is realized, global participants will be able to use this public chain.
5. Bloomberg: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to approve Ethereum futures ETF
According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will give the green light to Ethereum futures ETFs and plans to approve the listing of the first Ethereum futures ETF.
It is reported that many companies including Volatility Shares, Bitwise, Roundhill and ProShares have applied to launch Ethereum futures ETFs.
6. Europe’s first spot Bitcoin ETF is about to go live
Jacobi Asset Management has launched the Jacobi FT Wilshire Bitcoin ETF, Europe’s first spot Bitcoin ETF, which is reportedly about to be launched on Euronext Amsterdam. The ETF trading code is BCOIN and is regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC).
7. Coinbase is approved to provide cryptocurrency futures trading to eligible US customers
Coinbase Financial Markets has received regulatory approval from the National Futures Association (NFA), an organization designated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to operate a futures commission merchant (FCM) and offer federally regulated cryptocurrency futures trading to eligible U.S. customers.
8. Judge in Ripple case approves SEC’s request for interlocutory appeal
According to The Block, a New York District Court judge approved the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) request to file an interlocutory appeal in its legal dispute with Ripple Labs, according to a document filed in court on Thursday. Judge Analisa Torres said the SEC can file a motion by August 18 and Ripple must file an opposing document by September 1. The SEC said last week that it planned to file an interlocutory appeal.
(II) Project Information
1. OpenSea will move to an optional creator fee model
OpenSea announced that it will move to an optional creator fee starting Thursday, August 31, 2023 to better reflect the principles of choice and ownership that drive this decentralized ecosystem.
2. TrueUSD developer Archblock launches tokenized U.S. Treasury bond fund
Archblock, the developer of the stablecoin TrueUSD, announced the launch of the tokenized U.S. Treasury Bill Fund, Adapt3r Short-Term U.S. Treasury Bill Fund, on its market. Managed by Adapt3r Digital, the fund provides liquidity and short-term U.S. Treasury bond investment opportunities for non-U.S. USDC holders who do not have access to traditional U.S. bank or brokerage accounts.
3. Immutable zkEVM testnet is now online
Web3 game developer platform Immutable has launched the Immutable zkEVM testnet. The testnet is built on Polygon Supernets, and existing smart contracts and Solidity code can be directly migrated to Immutable's zkEVM testnet environment for free.
According to Immutable, more than 20 gaming companies have partnered with Immutable to support the launch, including GameStop, TokenTrove marketplace, online game publisher Kongregate, game designer iLogos, and more.
4. Sei airdrop is open for claiming. Users need to update Compass wallet to version 0.7.9
Sei airdrop is now open for claiming. Users can check their qualifications and participate in the cross-chain airdrop. You need to update your Compass wallet to the latest version 0.7.9. Versions 0.7.8 and below will not be able to claim tokens.
As previously reported, Sei announced that it will conduct a "cross-chain" airdrop to active users of multiple ecosystems when the Pacific-1 mainnet is launched to reward pioneering users in the on-chain world.
5. Shiba Inu has launched the L2 solution Shibarium mainnet
According to CoinDesk, Shiba Inu developers have launched the Shibarium mainnet, an Ethereum L2 expansion solution. Applications built on the network will use BONE, TREAT, SHIB, and LEASH tokens, and Shibarium will focus on the deployment and development of metaverse and gaming applications.
6. Unibot launches the unified trading terminal Unibot X
On August 16, Unibot announced the launch of the unified trading terminal Unibot X, which can be used through the official link. In the future, it will focus on separating Telegram and web applications, and implement all features and expand functions in Unibot X. Subsequent development content includes: loyalty program, security upgrades, document transformation, multi-path routing support, etc.
7. Crypto exchange Txbit announced that it will close on September 14
On August 14, the cryptocurrency exchange Txbit announced that it will be closed on September 14, 2023. All customers should withdraw their funds before 20:00 Beijing time on September 14, 2023. Any funds remaining after September 14, 2023 will not be recoverable.
8. Ethereum re-staking protocol EigenLayer will increase the LST re-staking limit on August 22
According to the official blog, Ethereum re-staking protocol EigenLayer will increase the re-staking limit of LST (liquidity staking tokens, including stETH, rETH and cbETH) at 22:00 Beijing time on August 22. After the limit is lifted, users will be able to deposit any of the above tokens into EigenLayer. When any LST reaches the milestone of re-staking 100,000 tokens, EigenLayer will suspend accepting stakes again.
9. Messari: Since its launch, the number of independent buyers of friend.tech has surpassed the total number of three NFT platforms including Blur during the same period
Messari data shows that in less than a week after the release of the beta version on the Base chain, the number of independent buyers on the decentralized social platform friend.tech has reached 23,720, while the total number of independent buyers for the three leading NFT platforms OpenSea, Blur and LooksRare during the same period was 18,900. In addition, friend.tech has processed more than 300,000 transactions with a total transaction volume of approximately US$13.25 million. Since friend.tech provides 5% of the transaction volume to users, it means that in less than a week, the total revenue earned by its platform users has reached approximately US$650,000.
10. PayPal will launch a cryptocurrency center for specific users, allowing specific users to trade in cryptocurrency
PayPal has updated its terms and conditions after launching the stablecoin PayPal USD (PYUSD), launching a cryptocurrency hub: a feature that allows users to hold and interact with Bitcoin. According to the company, the service will allow the sale and purchase of cryptocurrencies.
11. Ethereum developers release key points of Ethereum ACDE meeting
Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko summarized the latest Ethereum Core Developer Executive Meeting (ACDE), including the progress of Devnet 8, ElP-4788, Holesky testnet, updates on EIP editing, and the newly proposed EIP-7212 (secp256r1 precompilation). Tim Beiko also said that the next ACDE is scheduled for 22:00 on August 31, Beijing time.
(III) Others
1. WSJ: SpaceX sold $373 million worth of Bitcoin acquired in 2021-2022
Financial filings obtained by the Wall Street Journal show that SpaceX recorded $373 million worth of Bitcoin on its balance sheet in 2021 and 2022, but has since sold the crypto assets, and the exact timing of the sale is unclear.
2. Investment and Financing Situation Last Week
1. DeFi
1. Launchpad TonUP announced six-figure investment from TONcoin.Fund
Launchpad TonUP announced that it has received a six-figure investment from TONcoin.Fund and will focus on project and digital asset development. TonUP is a new Launchpad on The Open Network (TON), dedicated to fostering new projects in the TON ecosystem, and is developed using TON smart contract standard Tact.
2. TRON DAO Ventures invests $2 million in Curve, and Curve will be launched on TRON and BTTC simultaneously
TRON DAO Ventures, the investment arm of TRON DAO, announced that it recently purchased $2 million worth of CRV tokens as an investment in Curve. As part of this strategic partnership, Curve will be launched on both the TRON and BTTC networks.
3. Ellipsis Labs completes $3.3 million seed round of financing, led by Electric Capital
On August 18, Solana ecosystem DEX developer Ellipsis Labs announced the completion of a $3.3 million seed round of financing, led by Electric Capital, with participation from Robot Ventures, Anagram, and angel investors including Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron, and Monad Labs CEO Keone Hon.
2. Web3
1. Web3 "decentralized social data layer" Port3 Network announced the completion of a new round of millions of dollars in financing
Web3 "decentralized social data layer" Port3 Network announced the completion of a new round of millions of dollars in financing. Following the seed round led by Jump Crypto and Kucoin Ventures, EMURGO, Adaverse, Gate Labs and other institutions participated in its second round of financing, with a total financing amount of 10 million US dollars. In addition, Port3 Network also received grants from top ecosystems such as Binance Labs, Mask Network and Aptos Foundation.
2. Web3 security company Aegis completes millions of dollars in seed round financing, with participation from Generative Ventures and others
Web3 security company Aegis announced the completion of a multi-million dollar seed round of financing, with participation from Generative Ventures, Northern Light Venture Partners and Xiangfeng Evergreen.
Aegis was founded in 2022 and was incubated from another global blockchain security company, Paidun. Aegis decided to build a low-threshold security platform to serve many Web3 C-end users.
3. Blockchain AI project Jada AI completes $25 million in financing, with LDA Capital participating
Jada AI, an artificial intelligence project using blockchain technology, has completed a $25 million financing round, with the participation of alternative investment group LDA Capital. The funds will be used to expand the project's development team and add new organizations.
(III) NFT/chain games
1. Music royalty market MasterExchange completes $2.7 million in financing
Music royalty investment marketplace MasterExchange has raised $2.7 million in funding from Vectr Fintech, Claes-Henrik Julander and Rob Small. MasterExchange has launched its first Initial Music Offering (IMO) product, Sofia, and sold out.
MasterExchange, co-founded by artificial intelligence and blockchain expert Alexander Fred-Ojala, allows music creators to raise funds by selling part of their future income (i.e. music royalties) to support early creation, and is expected to launch more IMOs this fall.
2. Metaverse project ZepetoX completes $13 million seed round of financing, led by Jump Crypto
According to Decrypt, the metaverse project ZepetoX completed a $13 million seed round of financing, led by Jump Crypto, with participation from Collab+Currency, Parataxis, MZ Web3 Fund and Everest Ventures Group.
ZepetoX is a 3D metaverse platform built by Zepeto, a metaverse platform under South Korean Internet giant Naver, in cooperation with Jump Crypto. It allows developers and users to build projects based on blockchain technology and plans to launch its first NFT land sale in the coming months.
(IV) Asset Management
1. Crypto payment company CityPay completes seed round financing of more than 2 million euros, with Tether and others participating
Crypto payment company CityPay has completed a seed round of financing of more than 2 million euros, including a $500,000 cryptocurrency investment, with participation from Tether, Presto Ventures and other angel investors. The new funds will be used for market expansion and to promote the development of the B2C platform.
5. Infrastructure
1. ZetaChain completes $27 million equity financing, Jane Street Capital and others participate
ZetaChain, a full-chain interoperable Layer 1 network, announced the completion of a $27 million equity financing round, with participation from Blockchain.com, Human Capital, VY Capital, Sky9 Capital, Jane Street Capital, VistaLabs, CMT Digital, Foundation Capital, Lingfeng Capital, GSR, Kudasai, Krust and others.
(VI) Others
1. Securities investment platform Dinari completes $7.5 million seed round financing, with SPEILLLP and others participating
Dinari, a blockchain-based securities investment platform, announced the completion of a $7.5 million seed round of financing, with participation from SPEILLLP, 500 Global, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, Third Kind Venture Capital, Sancus Ventures and Version One VC.
Dinari was founded in 2021 and provides blockchain-powered equity trading through its dShare platform. Jake Timothy, co-founder and chief technology officer of Dinari, said that the dShare platform provides users with securities trading services such as Apple or Tesla based on the Arbitrum network, but does not support US users due to regulatory reasons.
2. Blockchain analysis platform Lore Explorer development entity Shuttle Labs completed $2.3 million in financing, with SALT.org and others participating
Shuttle Labs, the development entity of blockchain analysis platform Lore Explorer, has completed a new round of financing of US$2.3 million. SALT.org, Arca, Balaji Srinivasan, Floodgate and a group of crypto industry angel investors participated in the investment. The new funds will be used to build Lore's artificial intelligence browser and EVM-compatible network analysis tools.
Lore Explorer is an AI-first, on-chain data analytics solution that has integrated a deep Large Language Model (LLM) to make blockchain analytics conversational and easy for everyone to use, from traders and casual enthusiasts to engineers and analysts.
3. Last week’s main track data
1. RWA
According to defillama’s statistics, the total TVL of the RWA track has reached US$1.247 billion, and the total locked volume (TVL) ranks 9th. Defillama has included 23 RWA protocols.
Among these RWA (real world asset) tokenization projects are U.S. Treasury tokenization and real estate tokenization.
According to data from the rwa.xyz platform, the scale of U.S. Treasury bond tokenization has reached US$640 million, with an average yield of more than 5%.
Among these U.S. Treasury tokenization projects, Franklin Templeton Benji Investments Market Cap on Steller has the highest market value, reaching US$294 million, with a yield of 5.19%.
MakerDAO
As of writing, the size of Dai in the DSR has increased by 450 million from last week to 1.47 billion, and the total amount of Dai has increased to 5.459 billion. Currently, DSR accounts for 26.9% of the total Dai, while on August 6, it accounted for only 9%. The DSR deposit rate is 8%. The total amount of DAI has increased significantly after the DSR interest rate increase.
Among them, there are 715 million sDAI, and the DAI in Justin Sun’s personal address alone in DSR has reached 146 million, accounting for 10% of the DAI in DSR.
Let’s take a look at the distribution of DAI.
The share of DAI in DEX and Lending has been declining since October 2022, while the holding rate of DAI in EOA accounts has been rising and has reached 56%. Since the DSR adjusted the interest rate, the share of DAI Savings has become larger and larger, and has now reached more than 26%.
Currently, the ones with the highest proportion are: EOA, DAI Savings, and Bridge.
The TVL of Maker's own lending protocol Spark has reached 629 million, with a very obvious growth rate. Of course, it was also affected by the proposal of Rune, the founder of MakerDAO, to establish retroactive airdrops for Spark protocol users.
According to dune platform statistics, RWA accounts for more than 58% of MakerDAO's revenue.
2. LSD
Currently, the amount of ETH staked in the beacon chain has reached 25.69 million ETH, accounting for 21.6% of the total supply of ETH, and the number of nodes has exceeded 800,000.
The current ETH staking yield is approximately 4.14%.
Among the three major protocols, in terms of ETH staking volume, Lido rose 1.59% in a week, Rocket Pool rose 0.98% in a week, and Frax rose 1.93% in a week.
Judging from the price performance of the three major protocols, LDO fell 10.37% in a week, RPL fell 8.67% in a week, and FXS fell 9.15% in a week.
The latest news on the three major agreements:
Lido Finance announced in a tweet that it will fund ZK technology developer Nil Foundation to build zkOracle through the Lido Grant to provide trust-minimized sanity checks for Lido's accounting reports and ensure the liquidity of Lido Finance.
The Frax Finance community's proposal to "use community treasury funds to purchase CRV" has been voted through.
The proposal states that Frax Finance will use 1 million FRAX in the FRAX DAO treasury to purchase CRV from Curve founders through OTC. The treasury will not sell these CRV tokens, but will stake them in veCRV (through Frax's whitelisted lock contract) or cvxCRV to promote the development of Frax within the Curve ecosystem.
Coinbase Ventures officially tweeted that it has recently made a strategic investment in the project by purchasing RPL tokens from the Rocket Pool team.
3. Ethereum L2
According to data statistics from the l2beat platform, Ethereum Layer2 TVL has dropped by 5.93% in the past week and is currently $9.92 billion. The main reason for the drop in TVL is the drop in ETH prices.
In Ethereum Layer2, Arbitrum still has the highest TVL, accounting for 56.34%. The fastest growing one in recent times is of course Base launched by Coinbase. In the past week, its TVL increased by 16.03% to US$228 million. Its TVL has surpassed Starknet and is currently ranked 5th, lower than dYdX.
The launch of the Base cross-chain bridge and the on-chain event Onchain Summer also drove the growth of Base TVL.
Starknet saw the biggest drop in TVL, which fell by 39.93% in the past week. Its TVL dropped from $200 million to less than $100 million, a cliff-like drop.
Regarding the BART (sudden rise followed by a sudden fall) in StarkNet TVL, StarkWare team member Odin Free explained that this was due to OKX's integration testing, where they first deposited in smaller amounts in batches and then withdrew 2 times $50 million.
In addition, BNB Chain tweeted that the opBNB mainnet is now open to infrastructure providers, which is one step closer to the launch of the public opBNB mainnet.
4. DEX
TVL
According to defillama’s statistics, the total locked value in the DEX track is 12.2 billion.
Uniswap ranks the highest in terms of locked value, followed by Curve, PancakeSwap, Balancer, SUN and Sushi. Due to the decline in the market, TVL has declined in the past week.
Among them, the DEXs with the highest TVL on the Ethereum mainnet are Uniswap, Curve, Balancer, Sushi, and Loopring.
The above are the top 6 DEXs in terms of TVL on Arbitrum, OP Mainnet, zkSync Era, Starknet, and Base chain.
The above are the top 6 DEXs in terms of TVL on other Layer1 chains.
Trading volume
The trading volume of decentralized exchanges (DEX) in the last 24 hours was nearly US$1.3 billion, while the total trading volume of global cryptocurrency exchanges in the last 24 hours was US$32.5 billion, of which DEX trading volume accounted for only 4%.
Among DEXs, the exchanges with relatively high trading volumes include Uniswap, Curve, THORWallet DEX, and PancakeSwap.
5. Derivatives DEX
TVL
Judging from the data from defillama, the TVL of derivatives DEX has basically been declining recently. On the one hand, this is because of the drop in token prices, and on the other hand, it is because the overall trading volume of the derivatives track is declining.
In the derivatives track, GMX has the highest TVL, followed by dYdX, Gains Network, NUX Protocol, and ApolloX.
Trading volume
According to data statistics from the coingecko platform, the decentralized derivatives trading platform with the highest trading volume is dYdX, with a trading volume of US$320 million in the last 24 hours, followed by GMX, with a trading volume of US$270 million in the last 24 hours.
4. Recent Token Unlock
Recently, many projects have unlocked their tokens, including some old and well-known projects, such as LDO, AVAX, 1INCH, etc.
Among them, AVAX is the project with the largest unlocked amount in recent times, and will unlock more than $100 million in tokens.
The unlocked amount of YGG accounts for 7.04% of the circulation volume, which is enough to have some potential impact on the market and deserves the attention of investors.
