Cryptocurrency daily summary:
Hamster Kombat announces 60% token airdrop
Blackbird Labs Launches Web3 Platform for Restaurant Payments
Movement Labs Testnet Launches, Attracts $160M in Committed TVL
Let’s first look at the trading activities of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. According to Farside Investor data, on July 30, Grayscale Bitcoin Spot ETF (GBTC) saw an outflow of US$73.6 million; at the same time, Fidelity Bitcoin Spot ETF (FBTC) saw an outflow of US$2.9 million, Bitwise Bitcoin Spot ETF (BITB) saw an outflow of US$3.2 million, and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin Spot ETF (ARKB) saw an outflow of US$7.9 million.
Bitwise Ethereum Spot ETF (ETHW) had an inflow of $3.5 million; Fidelity Ethereum Spot ETF (FETH) had a net inflow of $16.4 million on the first day; Grayscale Ethereum Spot ETF (ETHE) had a net outflow of $120.3 million on the first day;
Bitcoin market share, an indicator that measures Bitcoin's market value relative to the total market value of cryptocurrencies, reached a high of 52.7% last week, its highest level in three years since April 2021.
Hamster Kombat launches new whitepaper, 60% of tokens airdropped to players
The crypto game Hamster Kombat team released a new white paper on Tuesday, detailing the project's token economics and revealing an upcoming token airdrop event. The white paper claims that they are planning the "largest airdrop in the history of cryptocurrency" and that the game currently has 300 million users. According to the white paper, 60% of the tokens will be "exclusively" used to reward players.
The white paper also states: "The remaining funds will be used to provide market liquidity, ecosystem partnerships and grants, reward teams and other projects." The developers said that Hamster Kombat is not backed by investment firms or venture capitalists, so it will not face "selling pressure."
Initially, the game planned to conduct its first airdrop this month, but announced on Tuesday that executing an airdrop is a complex operation. "The Hamster token airdrop is a technically complex task, and we have not set a specific date because it is difficult to predict the exact time of implementation," the developers said in the official Telegram group.
Although its founders remain anonymous, they have built a large community of players in a short period of time, and Hamster Kombat has become a hot topic in the cryptocurrency space. Previously, Hamster Kombat had 50 million daily active users in 190 countries.
The game was inspired by the success of Notcoin, which, for reference, airdropped more than 80 billion NOT tokens in May, worth about $1 billion at the time.
Blackbird Labs Launches Web3 Platform for Restaurant Payments
On July 30, Blackbird Labs, a hotel technology startup founded by Resy and Eater co-founder Ben Leventhal, announced the launch of a Web3 payment platform called Blackbird Pay, designed specifically for restaurants. Built on Blackbird's new blockchain network Blackbird Flynet, the platform provides restaurants with their own end-to-end payment and settlement network for the first time, aiming to address issues such as shrinking restaurant profits and reduced cash reserves.
Blackbird Pay aims to shorten settlement times and reduce transaction costs for restaurants to about 2% per transaction. In addition, it allows customers to pay with Blackbird's native token FLY, which is issued as a platform reward. Blackbird Pay allows customers of member restaurants to pay directly from the Blackbird app using credit card, debit card, FLY tokens or USD Coin (USDC). The app also assigns each user a unique customer value score, which member restaurants can use as the basis for customized points, benefits and rewards programs.
Web3 startups have great potential in the restaurant industry, covering cost cutting, management reward programs, and gamification. Other players include Web3 food delivery service DevourGO. According to the National Restaurant Association, U.S. restaurant sales are expected to exceed $1 trillion for the first time in 2024.
Roni Mazumdar, co-owner of Unapologetic Foods, said Blackbird and similar services can help restaurants save thousands of dollars a month in processing fees.
Blackbird, which is also developing messaging and discovery apps for restaurants, including Blackbird Breakfast Club and Bar Blackbird, aims to drive more traffic to restaurants during off-seasons. The company raised $24 million in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Movement Labs Joins Polygon’s AggLayer as Testnet Launch Attracts $160M in Committed TVL
Blockchain development company Movement Labs has announced its joining Polygon’s Ethereum Layer 2 AggLayer, coinciding with the launch of the Movement public testnet. Movement is the first Move-based ecosystem to leverage AggLayer, helping to bridge the gap between the Move and EVM ecosystems, enabling Ethereum developers to deploy Solidity contracts on Move-based chains without having to modify their code.
AggLayer is an interoperability layer developed by Polygon Labs and other core contributors to facilitate unified liquidity and security across cross-chain networks. AggLayer simplifies the process of converting or securely transferring native Ethereum assets from one chain to another by re-settling ZK-based security proofs to Ethereum.
AggLayer will serve as a unified liquidity layer between MoveVM-based chains, other “AggChains” and Ethereum, helping to address blockchain fragmentation. The infrastructure will also leverage Celestia’s data availability layer for cost-effective, high-throughput off-chain data storage while maintaining the security guarantees of Ethereum.
Movement Labs announced in April that it had completed a $38 million Series A round led by Polychain Capital, aiming to bring Facebook’s Move virtual machine to Ethereum. Move was originally developed by members of Facebook’s Diem stablecoin project. Movement Labs claims that the public testnet Parthenon has attracted $160 million in committed TVL before the mainnet deployment.
Market analysis: The market is weak and volatile, and the market is waiting for the Fed's interest rate decision
Market Trends
BTC: It showed a weak and volatile trend around $66,000. The Mentougou incident continued to ferment, and a large amount of BTC was transferred out for compensation, which created a certain selling pressure on the market. At the same time, the Bitcoin spot ETF outflow was nearly $100 million. Although BlackRock has not updated its relevant data yet, the market sentiment has been affected to a certain extent.
ETH: ETH has performed relatively well compared to Bitcoin, with prices staying above $3,250. In recent days, outflows from the Grayscale Ethereum ETF have slowed down.
Altcoins: The altcoin market lacks new hot spots and shows a general downward trend. Investors' attention is mainly focused on mainstream currencies, and the market sentiment of altcoins is relatively low.
Data indicators
Today's AHR999 index is 0.87. Although the index has fallen, it is still suitable for long-termists to make fixed investments. The AHR999 index is an important indicator to measure the long-term investment value of the market. The current value shows that the market still has good long-term investment opportunities.
The Fear and Greed Index remains at 61, indicating that the market's greed has cooled down. The index is an important indicator for measuring market sentiment. The higher the value, the greedier the market is, and vice versa. The current value shows that market sentiment is tending to calm down, and investors should be cautious in their operations.
Macro News
US stocks: The three major indexes fluctuated, with NVIDIA, a representative of technology stocks, falling 7%, driving the Nasdaq index down more than 1%. This news had a certain negative impact on the global asset market.
Monetary policy: The Federal Reserve will release its interest rate decision at 2:00 a.m. Beijing time on Thursday, and Fed Chairman Powell will give a speech at 2:30 p.m. It is expected that the market may fluctuate greatly around this time period, and investors should control their positions reasonably.
Market Hotspots
1. Telegram Games
Hamster Kombat, which has more than 50 million Telegram subscribers, updated its token white paper yesterday and announced that 60% of the tokens will be used for user airdrops. Although the official claims that there are more than 300 million users in the game, the value of the token airdrop that a single user can obtain seems limited in the face of such a large user base. It is worth noting that Gate.io has launched pre-market trading of the token, and investors can pay attention to the market performance of the token.
2. Solana Ecosystem
The price of Solana (SOL) fell below the $180 mark. Except for BOME, the other meme coins on the chain are in a downward trend. The market believes that the sharp drop in SOL may be related to the shipment of SOL purchased at a discount by a certain crypto investment institution. According to news reports, the SOL purchased at a discount by the institution will be locked for 4 years, but in fact these tokens are already circulating in the market and there is no forced lock-up mechanism. This has a significant negative impact on the market price of SOL.
Summarize
Overall, the current market sentiment is relatively calm, and the performance of mainstream currencies is obviously differentiated. The short-term trend of the market is unclear. The Fed's interest rate decision and Powell's speech will be the focus of the market this week, and are expected to have a large fluctuation in the risk market. Investors should reasonably control their positions and operate prudently.
Macro: S&P 500 and Nasdaq fall as market cautious ahead of tech earnings
On Tuesday, July 30, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed lower, dragged down by weak chip and large technology stocks, while a series of important technology company earnings reports to be released this week also added to market uncertainty. In contrast, the Dow Jones rose slightly.
Shares of Microsoft, one of the leaders in artificial intelligence, fell 0.89% to $422.92 ahead of its quarterly results. Despite high expectations, the software giant reported results that missed growth expectations for its Azure cloud computing service, causing its shares to fall about 5% in after-hours trading.
Specific data showed that the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.5% and the Nasdaq fell 1.28%.
Chipmaker Nvidia fell 7.04% to $103.73. This also dragged down other chip stocks, causing the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index to fall 3.88%. In addition, among other large technology stocks, Apple rose 0.26%, Amazon fell 0.81%, and Meta fell 0.54%, mainly due to market concerns about its valuation.
The week also features several labor market data releases, including the government’s employment report on Friday. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey on Tuesday showed the number of job openings at 8.18 million in June, above economists’ expectations for 8 million.
Asian stocks held within familiar ranges on Wednesday, July 31, driven by contrasting results from tech giant Microsoft and chipmaker AMD, showing divergence in the artificial intelligence sector. The yen strengthened ahead of the Bank of Japan's upcoming policy decision. Central bank policies were in focus for investors on Wednesday, with the Federal Reserve set to announce its interest rate decision later in the day. The U.S. central bank is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged but could hint at future rate cuts.
In China, an official factory survey on Wednesday showed manufacturing activity contracted for a third straight month, adding to expectations for more economic stimulus. The official Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to 49.4 in July from 49.5 in June, which, while below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction, was above the median forecast of 49.3 in a Reuters poll.
In early trading, the yen fell 1%, but is expected to fall 3.7% in July due to overall yen appreciation.
In commodity markets, U.S. crude rose 0.67% to $75.23 a barrel, while Brent crude rose 0.5% to $79.02 a barrel. Gold prices also rose about 1% on Tuesday as investors expected the Federal Reserve to provide clues about a September rate cut this weekend. Spot gold rose 0.8% to $2,403.47 an ounce, while U.S. gold futures settled 1% higher at $2,451.9 an ounce.
