Golden Weekly is a weekly blockchain industry summary column launched by Golden Finance, covering the week's key news, market and contract data, mining information, project dynamics, technological progress and other industry dynamics. This article is a project weekly, taking you to see the progress of this week's mainstream projects and star projects.
Bitcoin
BlackRock executive: Bitcoin and Ethereum are not competitors, but complementary
According to The Block, Robert Mitchnick, head of digital assets at BlackRock, said at the Bitcoin 2024 conference that despite the launch of a spot Ethereum ETF this week, it is unlikely that funds tracking other crypto assets will appear. He believes that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not competitors, but complementary. Bitcoin is a global currency alternative, while Ethereum is a technology platform. Mitchnick pointed out that although there are no completely clear regulatory guidelines yet, the SEC has made it clear that it will not approve a spot Ethereum ETF with a pledge component. Mitchnick believes that crypto assets as a category will not disappear and will have more opportunities to enter the market. For example, competitor VanEck was the first company to apply to launch the Solana ETF, but experts believe that the ETF is unlikely to be approved.
Robert Kennedy Jr.'s four Bitcoin policies, including that BTC-USD transactions do not need to be reported or taxed to the IRS
At the Bitcoin 2024 conference, US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. praised the role that Bitcoin could play in improving the US economy and proposed a comprehensive reform of US monetary policy, adding that BTC could restore the US economy to its pre-Nixon state. He promised to issue four Bitcoin-related executive orders if elected: 1. The 204,000 bitcoins held by the United States will be treated as "strategic assets" and 550 bitcoins will be purchased every day; 2. A reserve of at least 4 million bitcoins will be established, claiming that this will enable the United States to dominate the economy; 3. BTC-USD transactions will not need to be reported or taxed to the IRS; 4. BTC will be allowed to be exchanged for real estate as an asset that meets 1031 conditions.
Bitcoin conference to feature many politicians giving speeches today
Many politicians will give speeches at the 2024 Bitcoin Conference today, including Senator Cynthia Lummis and independent US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. In addition, MicroStrategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood, cybersecurity expert Edward Snowden and other important guests will also give speeches.
US State Department recognizes Bitcoin's positive impact on El Salvador's tourism industry
The U.S. State Department has acknowledged that the adoption of Bitcoin in El Salvador has had a positive impact on the tourism boom the country is experiencing. In its 2024 Investment Climate Statement report on El Salvador, the department recognized that the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021 helped the country gain international attention. As part of the report, the department stated that Bitcoin has brought important publicity to El Salvador and contributed to the popularity of El Salvador as a tourist destination, but other than that, it has had a "minimal impact" on El Salvador's economy.
Jersey City Pension Fund to Invest in Bitcoin ETF
Steven Fulop, the mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey, announced on Thursday that the city's pension fund will invest a certain percentage of its investments in a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). Fulop wrote on the social media platform X that Jersey City's pension fund is updating its documents with the U.S. SEC, similar to the pension fund in Wisconsin. The mayor estimates that the process will be completed by the end of the summer. Fulop said: "The question of whether cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin will continue to exist is basically over. Cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin have won. I have always believed in cryptocurrencies (experienced ups and downs), but broadly speaking, in addition to cryptocurrencies, I do believe that blockchain is one of the most important new technological innovations since the Internet."
Bitcoin becomes first cryptocurrency to debut at Sphere in Las Vegas
According to news on July 24, Bitcoin became the first cryptocurrency to be unveiled at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Sphere is a cutting-edge multi-purpose venue in Las Vegas known for its giant spherical appearance and advanced audio and video technology. Built by MSG Entertainment, the Sphere is designed to host a variety of entertainment events, including concerts, sporting events and immersive experiences. It is equipped with high-resolution interior and exterior displays, as well as a cutting-edge sound and light system, designed to provide viewers with an unprecedented audio-visual experience. The Sphere has become a new landmark in Las Vegas. It is reported that yesterday, on the occasion of its eighth anniversary celebration, Crypto.com paid tribute to the protocol that started it all (Bitcoin, etc.).
Nine US Bitcoin ETFs increased their holdings by a total of 5,518 Bitcoins
Lookonchain monitored the US spot Bitcoin ETF data on July 22 and showed: 1. Fidelity increased its holdings by 2,099 bitcoins, worth approximately US$140.23 million, and currently holds 180,689 bitcoins, worth approximately US$12.07 billion; 2. Grayscale reduced its holdings by 366 bitcoins, worth approximately US$24.46 million, and currently holds 271,794 bitcoins, worth approximately US$18.16 billion; 3. The 9 Bitcoin ETFs increased their holdings by a total of 5,518 bitcoins, worth approximately US$368.67 million.
Bloomberg: Bitcoin rewards company Fold plans to go public through SPAC
Bitcoin rewards company Fold Inc. is in advanced talks to go public through a blank check company founded by SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) veteran Betsy Cohen, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The deal with FTAC Emerald Acquisition Corp. would value Fold at nearly $500 million, the sources said. The deal could be announced on Wednesday. Representatives for Fold and SPAC declined to comment on the matter. The startup is one of several crypto companies preparing to go public in the United States as crypto assets are recovering after a series of crashes in the past two years. Bitcoin mining company Genesis Digital Assets plans an initial public offering (IPO). Another crypto miner, Northern Data AG, which has now transformed into an artificial intelligence computing services provider, is also considering going public.
Ethereum
Ethereum team leader: PeerDAS upgrade violates the spirit of Ethereum decentralization
Péter Szilágyi, head of the Ethereum core development team, recently issued a warning on social media that the upcoming PeerDAS upgrade could seriously threaten the decentralization of Ethereum. Szilágyi pointed out that PeerDAS plans to increase the blob size to 32MB, which will result in extremely high network bandwidth requirements for block production, possibly reaching 2.5Gbit/s. He said: "This is actually killing home pledgers, which is not what I expected when I joined Ethereum." Szilágyi questioned the motivations of the Ethereum research team, believing that they "fully accepted the idea that everything can be centralized as long as it can be verified." He called on the community to ask researchers about Ethereum's specific vision for the next 5 years, including who will create blocks, store status, and what ordinary users can do without third-party operators. Szilágyi emphasized that if the final system cannot become a "global settlement layer" trusted by countries, then Ethereum has failed.
Bloomberg ETF Analyst: All spot Ethereum ETFs have a first-day trading volume of more than $1 million
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas published data on the X platform, showing that 90 minutes after the spot Ethereum ETF was listed, the total trading volume reached $361 million, ranking 15th in the ETF trading volume ranking. Generally speaking, it is rare to see a first-day trading volume of more than $1 million when an ordinary ETF is released, but the first-day trading volume of all Ethereum ETFs exceeded $1 million.
Vitalik refutes Péter Szilagyi's statement that the Ethereum research team accepts the idea of centralizing everything
On July 27, Vitalik Buterin refuted the statement of Péter Szilágyi, head of the Ethereum team, that "the research team fully accepts the idea of centralizing everything as long as it can be verified": "I just attended the EF research seminar last week, and I can confirm that this is wrong. We have had various discussions on minimizing centralization. This includes: * In-depth analysis of multiple proposers to see if the builder role can be completely eliminated; * Maximizing the power of inclusion lists (FOCIL); * Ideas about fork selection depending on the inclusiveness of transactions; * Analysis of Orbit SSF and ideas about accelerating the deployment of the Orbit mechanism, which may reduce the minimum deposit size by more than 10 times before we conduct SSF; * Distributed block construction for PeerDAS; * Network analysis and bandwidth optimization of PeerDAS and fullDAS; * Methods to make recovery from 51% attacks more partially automated and reduce dependence on the 'social layer'; * Ensure that the inclusion list is fully applicable to (i) blobs and (ii) native account abstraction (such as EIP-7560) transactions." Earlier today, Ethereum team leader Péter Szilágyi expressed his concerns about the direction of Ethereum development on social media. His views involved the Ethereum PeerDAS proposal, which proposed to increase the Ethereum blob size to 32 MB. Szilágyi believes that the PeerDAS upgrade will hinder home stakers (usually those with simpler computing power settings) from participating in the Ethereum network, which goes against the spirit of decentralization. Szilágyi wrote on X: "Ethereum researchers are "murdering" home stakers in front of everyone. This is not what I expected when I joined Ethereum. Now I am happy to prove that this is not the case, but I feel that Ethereum is losing its main line. The research team seems to have fully accepted the idea of centralizing everything as long as it can be verified. This is a joke: decentralized verification but centralized control."
BlackRock Ethereum ETF Wallet Receives 76,669 ETH from Coinbase Prime
According to Lookonchain monitoring, 10 hours ago, the BlackRock (iShares) Ethereum ETF wallet received 76,669 ETH (US$262.4 million) from Coinbase Prime. According to BlackRock's official website, it currently holds 79,699 ETH (US$277 million).
Opinion: Thousands of L2 blockchains may appear in the next year to promote the development of Ethereum ecosystem
Lugui Tillier, Chief Business Officer of Lumx Studios, wrote that the future of Ethereum is dependent on the rise of thousands of second-layer (L2) blockchains. In 2024, major NFT series such as Pudgy Penguins, Bored Ape Yacht Club and Azuki, as well as traditional companies such as Fox Corporations and Flipkart, announced the launch of their own L2s. Although this trend is seen by some as hype, thousands of L2s may appear in the next year, which will greatly promote the development of the Ethereum ecosystem. L2 solves Ethereum's scalability and cost problems by batching transactions and sending them back to the Ethereum mainnet. Polygon, Optimism, and ZkSync are solving fragmentation problems through liquidity aggregation layers to promote the development of the Ethereum ecosystem.
other projects
Franklin Templeton: Solana is an “exciting and significant development” beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum
Franklin Templeton Digital Assets posted on its social platform that in addition to Bitcoin and Ethereum, we believe there are other exciting and significant developments that will drive the development of the crypto space. Solana has shown a wide range of applications and is continuing to mature, overcoming the pains of technological growth and highlighting the potential of high-throughput monolithic architecture. Franklin Templeton has become the issuer of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs in the United States.
AI project Morpheus will be launched on the Arbitrum testnet on Friday
Lumerin, a protocol on the Arbitrum blockchain, announced that its new Morpheus project for decentralized AI computing will go live on a public testnet on Friday. The technology aims to avoid the flaws of centralized artificial intelligence models, which can be vulnerable to censorship or monopoly control.
3EX CryptoGPT recently included more than 30 crypto project information
According to the official news of 3EX CryptoGPT, 3EXCryptoGPT is continuing to collect information on crypto projects. Recently, it has collected more than 30 kinds of crypto project information, including ZK, XTZ, AKT, GT, SAND, USDD, NEXO, CHZ, WLD, W, SNX, ROSE, MINA, EOS, MANA, XEC, DEXE, etc. At present, CryptoGPT has successfully collected nearly 200 kinds of crypto project information. Users can visit the 3EXCryptoGPT website and easily obtain the collected crypto project information by talking to AI. It is reported that 3EXCryptoGPT has introduced GPT's powerful AI programming capabilities into the field of digital asset trading by integrating ChatGPT-4o, providing intelligent and personalized trading services to users around the world. Users only need to have a simple conversation to obtain information on the crypto industry, create personalized quantitative trading strategies, simulate profits and losses in real time, configure real-time disks, and provide one-stop AI information services such as automatic operation.
Pixelverse co-founder: Although many blockchain games have raised huge amounts of funding, they are unable to attract real players
Kori Leon, co-founder of Pixelverse, said that despite the huge amount of funding for many blockchain games, they are unable to attract real players, and some projects have failed to deliver on their promises and can only attract speculative players. Leon emphasized that the key to success lies in community, culture and distribution. Randy Wasinger, founder of CryptoSlam, said that games are an important mechanism for Web3 to attract new users. Despite the long development cycle, he is optimistic that killer applications that change the rules of the game will appear in the future.
Eclipse: The mainnet is not online yet and there is no pre-registration. Please do not click on suspicious links.
Eclipse posted on X that the Eclipse mainnet has not yet been launched and there is no pre-registration. Please do not click on any suspicious links. Earlier in March, Eclipse Labs announced the completion of a $50 million Series A financing, led by Placeholder and Hack VC, with a total financing amount of $65 million. This round of financing also attracted participation from investors such as RockTree Capital, Polychain Capital, Delphi Digital, Maven 11, DBA, Apollo-managed funds, Fenbushi Capital, ParaFi Capital, and strategic investments from Flow Traders, GSR, Auros, and OKX Ventures.
OKX launches GLMR on-chain coin earning product
On July 26, OKX officially launched the GLMR on-chain coin earning product, which simplifies the on-chain operation process while enjoying real on-chain annualized returns. In the financial section of the OKX web page or App, select the on-chain coin earning in the coin earning section, and you can search for GLMR and apply for it. It is reported that the OKX on-chain coin earning product has many highlights such as no upper limit on subscription, simplified on-chain operation process, improved user experience and benefiting from real on-chain annualized returns. However, according to OKX, OKX only provides related services such as project display and income distribution, and the platform does not bear any asset losses caused by potential risks such as contract loopholes, hacker incidents, and project parties running away.
