Weekly Industry Report 【April 3rd 2023】

1. Industry overview

I. Overall Market Trends

Last week, BTC experienced a rebound after touching the support level of 26600, as predicted in the weekly report, with a range of oscillation between 26600-28870 USD. If using the left strategy, it is possible to consider shorting near the upper limit of the range and longing near the lower limit to obtain a large profit margin. Early last Thursday, the statement from the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Powell, stating that there would only be one interest rate hike this year, caused the market to rebound again, reaching a new high of around 29185 USD, then falling back again. On Friday, as the USD fell and holders did not want to suffer passive losses due to the drop in USD, they exchanged for BTC to compensate, resulting in a rebound with a peak near 28820 USD. Currently, the short-term range is maintained around 28000. Looking at the indicators, the MACD daily chart is once again bearish, with a high probability of going down. However, market trends are not influenced by a single factor. Recently, the weakness of the USD, coupled with the strength of gold and the significant reduction in oil production, may boost the market, along with other economic data and the news affecting the cryptocurrency market itself. It is still worth noting the gains and losses near 26600 USD. If it falls below this level, it is likely to test around 25200 and 23900 USD. The resistance level above is near the recent high points of 28800-29185 USD, with a medium-term reference of around 32400 USD.

 

In terms of data, two pieces of information are noteworthy. One is that Bitcoin miner revenue reached a new high since May last year, totaling 718 million USD this month. The other is that the net flow of BTC on exchanges increased by approximately 4180 BTC this week, the largest net increase since May 2022. Both are closely related to the market trend, mainly due to the significant rise in BTC in recent times, an increase in miner revenue, and more BTC being added to the market, although it is worth noting that these two factors may cause selling pressure on the market.

 

In March, Bitcoin miners earned at least $718 million, reaching a new high since May 2022. As of Thursday, the transaction volume of Bitcoin on the blockchain has also surged from $499.34 billion in February to $689.68 billion in March. To cope with the recent strong uptrend, investors have increased the amount of Bitcoin deposited in exchanges. This week, the net flow into exchanges increased by about 4,180 Bitcoin, marking the largest net increase since the LUNA crash in May 2022. Additionally, a total of $320 million per day in net profit has been locked in selling Bitcoin, also marking the largest net profit gain since May 2022. It is also evident that the severity of net losses since July 2022 has been decreasing, meaning that the market seems to have returned to a more neutral level.

 

Last week, the spot trading volume of Bitcoin hit a historic high, with the 7-day moving average of Bitcoin trading volume on exchanges reaching around $24 billion. Bitcoin futures trading volume on various exchanges approached $1 trillion, and Bitcoin options open interest rose to $12.14 billion, indicating that institutional investors are increasingly participating in the market.

 

When the market value of BTC falls, altcoin season comes. The current premise is that BTC does not experience a significant decline, as this would cause the entire cryptocurrency market to crash. If BTC tends to stabilize and oscillate, it is a good time for altcoins.

 

Last week also coincided with the end of the month and quarter, and the open interest of options contracts reached a record high. It is necessary to pay attention to whether there will be more call option expirations or put option expirations, which is similar to the logic of futures contracts. For example, a large-scale closure of long positions can trigger a market pullback, while a massive closure of short positions can cause a market rebound.

 

Regarding ETH, there is some data worth paying attention to. Prior to the Ethereum Shapella upgrade, traders are betting on the price of Ethereum. This month's Ethereum options monthly trading volume hit a new high since May 2022, and CME's Ethereum options open interest reached a historical high. The Ethereum Shapella upgrade is set to be activated at epoch 194048 on April 13th, 2023, at 06:27:35 Beijing time. As for the latest news on the Shanghai upgrade, the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade testing has entered its final stage, with the final mainnet shadow fork scheduled for this week and the latest version undergoing cross-client EVM fuzz testing. Lodestar has released a new optional version, and Prysm may also release a new version before the upgrade. Generally, expectations are usually priced in advance, and a significant factor driving this year's market is the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade. Therefore, the first three months have already seen high expectations, and if the ETH upgrade is truly realized later, it will be a positive factor, which may lead to a reverse trend.

 

As for economic data, in the past, the market did not pay much attention to many economic data, as they did not belong to the more important category, except for the Fed's interest rate decision, non-farm payrolls, and GDP. However, this year, because the data are all factors affecting whether the Fed will raise interest rates or not, they have been given extra influence, and the market has started to speculate on these data, creating impacts beyond the data itself.

 

In the past, popular currencies would come and go, and while we may not pay much attention to them anymore, the mainstream market also loses interest in them over time. Therefore, we don't need to waste too much energy on them. There are always talented people emerging in the world of crypto, with different currencies and hotspots gaining attention at different times. If you like to follow hotspots, focus on the DC community. With the emergence of various currencies and hotspots, it is no longer just Ethereum driving the market, and this year is more about sector and hotspot concepts rotation.

 

If BTC and ETH are considered as long-term holds, while others are short-term for trading, there may be some strong trending coins during a bull market, but otherwise only a few coins, such as CFX this year, will have independent price movements. Recent data showed that the circulating supply of ETH has decreased by over 70,000 coins since the merge, with a current circulating supply of 120,451,277 coins and an annualized deflation rate of 0.36%. Additionally, the staked amount of ETH is approximately 17.82 million coins with an APY of 3.81%. It should be noted that if the circulating supply and total supply are the same, it indicates that all coins have entered the market (or if they are mined, then all have been mined), but the concept of total supply and supply in circulation are different. For example, there are currently only around 1.5 million BTC in circulation for trading, despite over 19 million coins having been mined, with some held in whale wallets, permanently lost, or used for off-exchange transactions. The circulating supply of many coins only increases over time as more coins are mined, such as with BTC's total limit of 21 million coins, of which over 19 million have been mined and the remaining coins will take over 100 years to mine. Furthermore, a significant percentage of BTC has been permanently lost due to reasons such as lost private keys or incorrect transfers, and a portion of BTC's liquidity is long-term locked in whale accounts.

 

Macro-economic data and key events in the cryptocurrency market in brief:

On April 3rd, PancakeSwap, a decentralized exchange platform, launched its V3 version.

 

On April 4th, LedgerX, a derivatives trading platform under FTX, had an auction. Markit services PMI, composite PMI, and non-manufacturing PMI in the United States were released, and a Federal Reserve Board member delivered a speech at the University of Michigan.

 

On April 5th, ETH Hackathon was held in Beijing. FOMC member and Cleveland Fed President Mester delivered a speech.

 

On April 6th, the registration deadline for Mt. Gox creditors ended, and Magic launched a test-market for transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. The US weekly initial jobless claims were also released.

 

On April 7th, US stock markets were closed for Good Friday. Non-farm payroll data and unemployment rates for March were released in the United States.

Over the past week, there have been significant price increases in several altcoins, with SXP surging 230%, and ZRX, ICX, and INJ rising by about 40-50%. JOE also rose by approximately 30%, which is a coin we have recommended watching three times in the past two weeks. Other coins like C98, LINA, CFX, and ACH, which we have mentioned previously, also performed well. As the rich get richer, we still recommend focusing on opportunities to buy the dips of coins with large price increases, as we expect them to rise again. In addition, considering the rotation effect of coins, a small amount of allocation can be considered for short-term speculative trading, with profits taken timely, as weaker coins tend to have poor sustainability. It is still a priority to focus on coins with strong trends.

 

We suggest buying spot positions so that even if there is a pullback, there is still a lot of room for growth. JOE is a strong trend coin that we have mentioned several times in the past two weeks, and every dip is a good buying opportunity.

 

According to WhaleAlert monitoring, 319,303,396 GALA ($12,646,809) was transferred from CryptoCom to an unknown wallet. Although the price is relatively small, the quantity is quite large. This type of behavior may be a positive sign as it is likely a withdrawal and accumulation of coins. It is worth noting that Shark DAO holds a significant amount of GALA.

 

Another piece of data worth paying attention to is that 2.694 billion ARB tokens were transferred and distributed to about 140 EOA addresses through an address starting with 0x1e70 two days ago, according to Lookonchain data. This amount of ARB should be allocated to a portion of OffchainLabs team, future team, and advisors (26.94%), but this part of the tokens should have a 4-year lock-up period. Lookonchain also noted that an address starting with 0x8d45 received 22.56 million ARB tokens (about $28 million) and then transferred them to Coinbase. Although other addresses have not yet made any transfer operations, the ARB tokens received can be sold on the trading platform at any time without being restricted by code.

 

It should be noted that nearly 2.7 billion ARB tokens were transferred to approximately 140 EOA addresses two days ago, despite the supposed 4-year lockup restriction. This action only increases distrust and raises concerns about the token's price. When considering OP valuation and price, ARB pricing can be determined, but currently only slightly more than 300 million OP tokens are in circulation, while ARB has a current circulation of 1.275 billion, which will increase with future unlocks. This will likely dilute ARB's secondary market trading price. ARB's P/E ratio is five times higher than that of ETH, despite being just a scalability solution for Ethereum congestion. The issuance amount is also too high, at 10 billion, with over 50% unlocked. The opening price given by Huobi and Binance was quite low, at only 0.5 and 0.1, indicating that its valuation is not high in the eyes of most people.

 

Just like currency, if the market circulation is high, it will cause inflation, resulting in a decrease in purchasing power and value, which translates to a decrease in cryptocurrency prices. Conversely, if the circulation and supply are low, it will be relatively scarce, and prices will be higher, like YFI.

 

Last week, C98's four-hour chart was analyzed, and the support level near $2.4-2.44 was referenced, which could be a good opportunity for investment. Given the shooting star on the daily chart, there is expected to be some pullback, so buying near the support level would be a good opportunity.

 

SSV is suitable for high selling and low buying because it has been in a range oscillation and has not shown good trends. It can be suitable for short-term speculation, but not for long-term holding. However, if it breaks out of the range in the future, it may be worth reconsidering the trading plan.

 

According to related court documents, on March 22nd, Mysten Labs reached an agreement with FTX debtors to buy back FTX's equity investment and SUI token warrants in Mysten Labs for $96.3 million in cash. FTX invested a total of $102 million in Mysten Labs' Series B financing last year, receiving approximately 570,000 preferred shares and approximately 890 million SUI token warrants. FTX's average cost of investing in SUI tokens as a lead investor was very low, around $0.114. One important condition for FTX's investment of over $100 million in SUI was that its market makers, Alameda and FTX Trading, almost freely obtained 519 million SUI tokens for market-making on the FTX.com platform. As FTX collapsed before the launch of SUI, the agreement for the token warrant no longer existed. Other Series B investors' SUI token chip costs were around $0.28-$0.31.

 

This data shows the cost price that early investors and lead investment institutions paid for SUI, and can assist traders in making decisions. For example, FTX's average cost of investing in SUI tokens as a lead investor was very low, around $0.114. Other Series B investors' SUI token chip costs were around $0.28-$0.31.

 

CFX's current support level is around the upward trend line of $0.304, and is expected to bounce back here. Before this, holding positions is recommended because it is a relatively strong popular token this year and is also a leader in Hong Kong concepts. If it falls below the upward trend line in the future, the trading plan should be re-planned, with the mid-term critical support level around $0.1323.

 

In the list of top holders, apart from stablecoins, AE, CHZ, GAL, LOOM, and LINK are among the top few. This indicates that major investors are accumulating and increasing their positions. As a retail investor, one can follow the trend of these major players and buy before the prices go up. One can also take the opportunity to close their positions for profit before the major players start selling their shares.

 

DOGE, HOOK, STG, HFT, and XCAD have seen significant changes in their holding addresses. These are the coins that have been on the top holder list for a long time. While it is not easy to attract new users during bear markets, it is also possible that the project team is engaging in data manipulation, so caution is advised.

 

Altcoins usually have higher volatility, and trading altcoin contracts with leverage can be risky as it is difficult to manage risk. It is generally advisable to trade altcoins using spot trading. Currently, deepcoin spot trading has zero fees, which is a great benefit for traders.

 

ENS has been exhibiting a converging trend, and as the trend becomes more converging, the volatility is expected to decrease. However, if the trend breaks out of the converging range, it will lead to significant price fluctuations. ENS's support level is around $11.5, which is the resonating support of the uptrend line and the recent low point. It is expected to test this level before rebounding. The resistance level is around $17, which is the descending trendline. Only if the price breaks through this trendline, it will return to a bullish trend.

 

Last week, we mentioned that HFT was testing the potential double-top neckline at around $0.579 on the four-hour chart. If it falls below this level, it will have further downside potential. If it stabilizes at this level, it will rebound and return to the previous trading range. The resistance level is around $0.71, which is the descending trendline. Currently, it has already fallen below this level, and caution is advised.

 

Previously, I shared with you that XRP's previous price surge was mainly due to two reasons. First, the SEC and Ripple case was expected to have a simple judgment or announcement this week. The prolonged legal battle between the US SEC and Ripple Labs is waiting for the US district court to announce a simple judgment. John Deaton, a friend of the court lawyer in this lawsuit, said that the judge's ruling would be announced in the coming weeks, and a simple judgment could be announced this week. This statement was released when Ripple and the defendant submitted a supplemental authorization to support fair notice defense. Deaton also added that at the current stage, XRP has the most attractive risk/reward ratio. If the court makes a favorable ruling for Ripple, it is evident that XRP is not a security, which will greatly impact its price.

 

The second piece of information is about the Digital Euro Association (DEA) releasing a white paper on digital assets, with Ripple participating in its writing. One of the working groups of DEA released a white paper covering several aspects such as CBDC, privacy, and their interactions, and Ripple, an official partner of DEA, was involved in the report's writing.

 

XRP has increased by 26% in the past week, with its trading volume surging to billions of dollars on the three largest South Korean exchanges, UpBit, Bithumb, and Korbit. According to data from CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap, in the past 24 hours, XRP's trading volume accounted for 37% of Bithumb's total trading volume, 18% of UpBit's total trading volume, and 50% of Korbit's total trading volume. In the past 24 hours, UpBit led the global XRP trading volume with a token trading volume of over 790 million US dollars. In comparison, the trading volume of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance was relatively small, at 720 million US dollars.

 

XRP's performance on South Korean trading platforms is impressive, and I think it's partly due to XRP's popularity among Asians, and partly due to the resolution of the SEC's case against XRP. South Korean people tend to follow the US regulatory attitude.

 

Entering the market for LTC right now is not a very good buying point, with short-term resistance at around 94-96 US dollars. It may be a good idea to consider reducing profits first. In the future, LTC is likely to test around 80-82 US dollars, where you can consider buying again.

 

As a leading decentralized platform in the past, UNI still has great potential, although it is not in the spotlight now, and there are many emerging concepts of homogeneity in the past two years. However, there are not many coins that can be compared to UNI.

 

If you look at the daily chart of SUSHI on a large scale, the performance since falling in the first half of last year has indeed been disappointing, with a low rebound rate. Overall, in 2023, it has not performed as well as BTC and some popular coins. It is not in the spotlight, and I personally am not optimistic about it.

II. Concept ups and downs

The concept sectors have shown specific performances as follows. Based on the magnitude of the price changes, in the last seven days, RWA, cryptocurrency wallet tokens, payment concepts, Binance investments, and DeFi index funds have had the highest increases.

 

Specific performances include STN having an increase of around 135% in the last day, while Meta and HFI had increases of about 40%. They belong to the Polkadot ecosystem, NFT, and HECO ecosystem concepts, respectively. It is worth paying attention to the rotation speculation of the sectors that the above-mentioned coins with larger increases belong to.

 

III.Macro Analysis Overview:

Last Friday, the three major US stock indexes closed higher, with large tech stocks performing strongly this quarter. Nvidia rose about 90% and Tesla rose about 68%. In the popular Chinese stock market, Kingsoft Cloud led the gains, rising more than 132% in Q1, while Baidu rose more than 30% and Alibaba rose about 16%. At the close, the Dow rose 1.26%, the Nasdaq rose 1.74%, and the Nasdaq 100 Index soared 20% in the first quarter, its largest quarterly increase since mid-2020, while the S&P rose 1.44%. The US 10-year Treasury yield fell 2.308%, closing at 3.471%, with a difference of -56 basis points from the 2-year Treasury yield. The VIX panic index fell 1.68%, Brent crude oil rose 1.73%, and spot gold has been on a continuous rise since November 2022, falling 0.55% yesterday to $1969.55/oz. The US dollar index continues to fall from its high, closing at 102.6.

 

The US core PCE price index for February was 0.3%, with an expected value of 0.40% and a previous value of 0.60%. The US core PCE price index for February was 4.6%, with an expected value of 4.70% and a previous value of 4.70%. The inflation index favored by the Fed grew slower than expected, enhancing the market's confidence that the Fed may be nearing the end of its rate hikes. Before the FOMC meeting on May 3, there is still a report on personal consumption expenditures, and the market currently expects a 55% chance of a 25 basis point rate hike in May.

 

Consumer confidence fell for the first time in four months, down about 8% from February, but still 4% higher than a year ago. The recent turmoil in the banking industry has had limited impact on consumer confidence, as the downward trend had already begun before the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Overall, more and more consumers are expecting a recession in the future. Although sentiment is declining across all demographics, the decline is greatest among low-income, less educated, and younger consumers, as well as those with the highest holdings of stocks. Next year's inflation is expected to fall from 4.1% in February to 3.6%, but still far above the 2.3-3.0% range of the pre-pandemic years.

 

Russian President Putin approved a new foreign policy concept for Russia. The Kremlin continues to see "special military action" as the only way to achieve our goals. The IMF Executive Board approved a $15.6 billion financial assistance package for Ukraine. From May, Ukraine will increase the transit fee for oil through the Druzhba pipeline, and Hungary will pay for the Russian oil transportation costs through the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba pipeline from May.

 

The short-term interest rate futures in the US indicate that there is roughly an equal chance of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates by 25 basis points in May or keeping them unchanged. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has stated that it is utilizing its power to make gains on the stock prices of New York community banks. William Williams of the Federal Reserve predicts that inflation rates will fall to around 3.25% in 2023.

 

Several oil-producing countries have announced voluntary production cuts, with the preliminary impact of these cuts expected to reduce output by around 1.1 million barrels per day from next month. Starting from July, due to Russia's extension of existing supply cuts, the daily crude oil in the market is expected to decrease by about 1.6 million barrels less than previously anticipated. Saudi energy officials have emphasized that the cuts are a preventative measure intended to support market stability. However, unexpectedly reducing production could potentially reignite tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United States. The White House has expressed that the new production cuts are unwise, and the US will work with producers and consumers to focus on gasoline prices.

 

Higher oil prices may stimulate inflation in countries where it is still rising, making the task of reducing inflation faced by central banks such as the Federal Reserve even more complicated. Prior to OPEC+'s announcement of the production cuts, many investors expected that the Federal Reserve would not raise interest rates at its next meeting in May.

 

Previously affected by the banking crisis, oil prices have been volatile, with WTI May crude futures declining by about 1.9% in March. According to Bloomberg data, there has been an overall rebound in prices in only October 2022 since May 2022, and Brent May crude futures have fallen for the fifth consecutive month, with a decline of about 4.45% in March and a cumulative decline of about 5.5% in the first quarter.

 

Today, WTI crude futures surged on the news of production cuts. Following the announcement, the major bull Goldman Sachs raised its Brent crude price forecast to $95 by the end of 2023 and $100 by the end of 2024, up from $90 and $97, respectively. Helima Croft and other analysts at the Royal Bank of Canada have stated in a report that "today's move, like the October production cut, can be read as yet another clear signal that Saudi Arabia and its OPEC+ partners will seek to sell off macroeconomic bearishness."

 

Amrita Sen, director of research at EnergyAspects, said, "OPEC+ preemptively cut production to avoid demand weakness that the banking crisis could cause." Singapore commodity analyst Tommi Utoslahti believes that following OPEC+'s unexpected production cuts on Sunday, risk assets may not start the month of April well, which has historically been a strong month for global stock markets. US stock index futures may come under pressure at the open, and US Treasury bonds will have to balance the dual risks of increasing inflation pressure and renewed headwinds to growth, with crude oil futures expected to rise for the third consecutive week.

 

 

Here's a summary of the major financial data and events for this week:

Monday (April 3rd): Japan, Eurozone, Germany, France, and UK's March Manufacturing PMI, China's Caixin Manufacturing PMI for March, US's March Markit Manufacturing PMI and ISM Manufacturing PMI.

 

Tuesday (April 4th): Reserve Bank of Australia's interest rate decision, Eurozone's February PPI, US's February Factory Orders, JOLTs Job Openings, ADP Employment Report, February Trade Balance, March Markit Services and Composite PMI, and ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI.

 

Wednesday (April 5th): Japan's March Markit Services PMI, Germany's February seasonally adjusted Manufacturing Orders, Eurozone, Germany, UK, and France's March Services PMI.

 

Thursday (April 6th): China's Caixin Services and Composite PMI for March, US's Challenger Job Cuts, Canada's March Unemployment Rate, US's Initial Jobless Claims until April 1st.

 

Friday (April 7th): Japan's February Household Spending, China's March Foreign Exchange Reserves, US's March Unemployment Rate, Non-Farm Payrolls, and Participation Rate.

 

Central Banks:

Tuesday (April 4th): Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard speaks at the University of Michigan.

 

Thursday (April 6th): 2025 FOMC Voter and St. Louis Fed President James Bullard speaks on the US economy and monetary policy.

 

Crypto Markets:

On April 3rd, Decentralized Exchange PancakeSwap launched its V3 version, providing new features such as better liquidity, more favorable transaction fees, trading rewards, and an optimized yield farming experience.

 

On April 4th, FTX's derivative trading platform, LedgerX, will hold an auction at Sullivan & Cromwell's office, and the sale hearing will be held on April 12th. The notice to the successful bidder should be issued within one business day after the auction ends.

 

On April 5th, ETH Hackathon will be held in Beijing, organized by the PKU Blockchain Association and WTF Academy, co-hosted by the Ethereum scaling project Scroll and ETHPlanet, with a total prize pool of over $30,000, and will include demonstration days during the event.

 

On April 6th, the deadline for Mt.Gox creditors' registration will end, and Magic Eden will launch a test version of the ETH Genesis trading market on the Ethereum network.

 

On April 7th, due to Good Friday, US stock markets will be closed for the day. The market predicts that the US employment population will increase by 240,000 people in March, lower than the previous value of 311,000 people, and the unemployment rate will remain at 3.6%.

 

 

2. Market News

industry news

This week's key news:

1. Lido is set to launch NFTs tied to ETH withdrawal requests.

The plan is to combine NFTs with their liquidity staking protocol, which is an interesting endeavor. By issuing NFTs tied to ETH withdrawal requests, Lido offers users a convenient way to manage and track their withdrawal requests. Users can easily receive ETH at a 1:1 ratio upon unstaking their stETH and claim their ETH reward through the NFT, greatly increasing user convenience. Furthermore, these NFTs are transferable, allowing users to transfer their withdrawal requests to another address, giving the new address the right to receive the corresponding ETH reward. This transferability provides users with flexibility, allowing them to sell or transfer their withdrawal requests when needed.

 

Lido allows users to sell their NFTs on the secondary market without taking any royalties from it. This helps increase market liquidity, making it easier for users to sell their withdrawal requests to others.

 

The ETH Shanghai upgrade is expected to be completed next month, at which point Lido's plan will officially launch. The upgrade may have a positive impact on Lido and its liquidity staking protocol, attracting more users to participate.

 

According to reports, the withdrawal process may take around 1 to 5 days, depending on the amount of stETH being withdrawn and the number of withdrawal requests. This means that users may have to wait for a period of time to complete the withdrawal process, but the relatively short waiting time is beneficial for improving user experience.

 

In summary, Lido's plan to issue NFTs tied to ETH withdrawal requests is an innovative endeavor that combines the advantages of NFTs and liquidity staking protocols. This plan is expected to bring convenience and flexibility to users, while increasing market liquidity and attracting more users to participate.

 

1. Rocket Pool is scheduled to conduct an Atlas upgrade on April 18th.

The upgrade will introduce a new 8 ETH mini pool, allowing users to participate in node staking with just 8 ETH (provided they meet Rocket Pool's requirements). The Atlas upgrade also includes improvements to the protocol efficiency, higher rewards for node operators, and increased rETH capacity, all without requiring any permission.

 

The upgrade will introduce an 8 ETH mini pool, reducing the amount of ETH required for staking from 16 to 8, thereby lowering the barrier to entry and potentially attracting more users to Rocket Pool. The Atlas upgrade also includes gas efficiency optimization for Minipools, dynamic deposit pool limits, and other features aimed at enhancing protocol efficiency and reducing user participation costs.

 

Furthermore, the upgrade includes a higher reward system for node operators, which automatically tracks each operator's valid RPL equity, incentivizing more node operators to join Rocket Pool. The upgrade also features a Solo Staker migration function to help independent validators smoothly migrate to the Rocket Pool platform, further expanding its user base.

 

Atlas is Rocket Pool's second major upgrade since its mainnet launch and has been audited by Sigma Prime and ConsenSys Diligence, indicating that the upgrade plan's security has been recognized and contributing to enhancing user confidence in the project.

 

Regarding the Shanghai upgrade, Atlas makes the Rocket Pool protocol compatible with the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade. This upgrade will enable validators to start withdrawing their staked ETH on the Beacon Chain, requiring Rocket Pool to make corresponding adjustments to adapt to this change.

 

In summary, Rocket Pool's Atlas upgrade aims to enhance protocol efficiency, reduce entry barriers, increase node operator rewards, and remain compatible with the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade. This upgrade is expected to attract more users to Rocket Pool and increase its competitiveness in the decentralized staking market.

 

1. Over 100,000 addresses have already bridged Ethereum to zkSync Era following the launch of the zkSync Era mainnet.

This indicates that zkSync, as a Layer 2 scaling solution, has attracted a large number of users and funds in a short period of time. The amount of Ethereum bridged to zkSync Era is approximately 15,900 ETH, worth about $27.9 million. This reflects users' trust in zkSync and their demand for Layer 2 scaling solutions.

 

Meanwhile, the daily active users of zkSync Lite have dropped significantly with the launch of zkSync Era mainnet. This may be because users have shifted their attention from zkSync Lite to zkSync Era, or temporarily stopped using zkSync Lite while trying out new zkSync Era features.

 

This phenomenon indicates that as Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solutions develop, more and more users are seeking faster and cheaper transaction experiences. By providing a high-performance Layer 2 solution, zkSync has attracted a large number of users while reducing network congestion on the Ethereum main chain, thereby improving the efficiency and scalability of the entire blockchain ecosystem.

 

Overall, since the launch of zkSync Era mainnet, it has attracted a large influx of users and funds, demonstrating the market demand for high-performance and low-cost Layer 2 scaling solutions. At the same time, this also shows users' trust and recognition of zkSync technology. As more applications and projects choose to deploy on Layer 2, we expect this trend to continue.

 

In the future, zkSync may continue to optimize its technology to attract more projects and users. In the context of the overall development of the blockchain industry, we may see more Layer 2 scaling solutions competing for market share, driving technological progress and innovation in the entire industry.

 

In the short term, we can expect zkSync Era and other Layer 2 solutions to continue to attract users and funds, contributing to the scalability and usability of the blockchain industry. However, in the long term, as Ethereum 2.0 is gradually rolled out and blockchain technology continues to innovate, Layer 2 solutions may face more competition and challenges. These competition and challenges will help further drive the development of technology, providing users with a better blockchain experience.

 

1. Starknet mainnet will undergo an Alpha v0.11.0 upgrade this week.

StarkNet is an Ethereum Layer2 scaling solution aimed at improving Ethereum's scalability and transaction processing capabilities through zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-Rollups) technology. Layer2 scaling solutions can help relieve congestion on the Ethereum network, lower transaction fees, and improve user experience.

 

According to the announcement, the StarkNet Foundation has released the Alpha v0.11.0 version on the testnet, and Cairo 1.0 has also been launched. This means that StarkNet has made some technological progress, and the upcoming mainnet upgrade will bring a series of performance optimizations and feature improvements to the entire network.

 

The mainnet Alpha v0.11.0 upgrade's approval and imminent implementation demonstrate StarkNet's steady progress on its technical roadmap. This upgrade is expected to further enhance StarkNet's performance, bringing higher throughput and lower transaction fees to the Ethereum ecosystem.

 

This upgrade may have the following impacts on the Ethereum ecosystem:

 

Further development of scaling solutions: With the launch of StarkNet's upgrade, Layer2 scaling solutions will gain broader recognition and application, helping to promote Ethereum's sustainable development and growth.

 

Lower transaction fees: StarkNet's upgrade will lower transaction fees by optimizing network performance, improving user experience, and making more users and projects willing to deploy and use smart contracts on Ethereum.

 

Improved transaction processing capabilities: StarkNet's upgrade will increase Ethereum's network transaction processing capabilities by increasing throughput. This will help relieve network congestion and provide good infrastructure for more decentralized applications (DApps) and projects.

 

Encouragement of innovation and development: As Layer2 scaling solutions continue to improve and develop, developers will be able to innovate and develop new decentralized applications (DApps) and projects with more confidence in the Ethereum ecosystem. This will help further enrich the Ethereum ecosystem and attract more developers and users to join it.

 

Strengthening Ethereum's competitive advantage: As StarkNet and other Layer2 scaling solutions continue to develop, Ethereum will be more competitive in terms of scalability and performance. This will help Ethereum maintain its leading position in competition with other smart contract platforms.

 

Increasing Ethereum's security: StarkNet provides an additional security layer for Ethereum using zero-knowledge proof technology. With the launch of the upgrade, this technology will become more mature and improve the overall network's security.

 

In summary, the StarkNet mainnet Alpha v0.11.0 upgrade will have a positive impact on the Ethereum ecosystem, promoting its greater development in scalability, performance, and security. This will help Ethereum maintain its leading position in the blockchain industry and further attract developers and users to join its ecosystem.

 

5.Daniel Alegre, the former president of Activision Blizzard officially became the CEO of Yuga Labs

The addition of former Activision Blizzard President Daniel Alegre to Yuga Labs as CEO is significant for Yuga Labs and the growth of its business. Daniel Alegre has extensive experience in the game industry, having participated in the development of well-known game brands such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch and Candy Crush. His joining will bring valuable industry resources and experience to Yuga Labs, which will help the company's development in the NFT and metaverse fields. Alegre will oversee the development of several ideas related to the company's intellectual property, including BAYC, CryptoPunks NFT, and the Otherside metaverse platform. Under the leadership of Alegre, Yuga Labs may further strengthen cooperation with other well-known game brands and IPs to promote the development of NFT and Metaverse projects.

 

The management adjustment of Yuga Labs shows the company's emphasis on business development and strategic adjustment. Former CEO Nicole Muniz will continue to serve as a corporate partner and strategic advisor, helping to maintain strategic continuity and stability for the company. As the Metaverse market continues to grow, Yuga Labs is expected to accelerate the company's growth in the Metaverse space by hiring industry executives to join the team. The addition of Alegre will help the company seize market opportunities and expand market share.

 

All in all, the addition of former Activision Blizzard President Daniel Alegre to Yuga Labs as CEO is of great strategic importance to the company. His industry experience and resources will help Yuga Labs achieve greater development and success in the field of NFT and Metaverse.

 

6. Microstrategy buys 6455 bitcoins again

On March 27, MicroStrategy, a leader in business intelligence and analysis software, once again purchased a large amount of bitcoins, totaling 6,455 bitcoins at a cost of approximately US$150 million. The average purchase price is around $23,238 per bitcoin. This action underscores MicroStrategy's determination to expand its investment in Bitcoin, while also demonstrating the firm's confidence in Bitcoin as a long-term store of value. Today, MicroStrategy's bitcoin holdings have reached 138,955, with a total investment of approximately $4.14 billion.

 

As an industry-leading business intelligence software provider, MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor has always been a staunch supporter of Bitcoin. Since last year, the company has put its cash reserves into the bitcoin market and has continued to buy the digital asset. The re-purchase of 6,455 bitcoins further demonstrates that MicroStrategy is confident in its investment and holdings in bitcoin, and is willing to continue to expand its investment at the current market price.

 

Overall, MicroStrategy's bitcoin investment strategy demonstrates the firm's strong belief in bitcoin's long-term store-of-value potential as an important investment asset. In addition, MicroStrategy's large-scale purchase behavior also reflects its influence on the Bitcoin market, which may have a certain enlightenment effect on other institutions and investors.

 

According to statistics from Bitcoin.com, the number of Bitcoins seized by the U.S. government reached 205,515, worth about $5.6 billion, accounting for about 1.06% of the circulating supply. The U.S. government holds more bitcoin than several institutions and corporations, including MicroStrategy. These bitcoins come from three confiscation incidents since 2020, mainly involving bitcoins related to the Silk Road darknet, bitcoins obtained from the Bitfinex hacking incident, and bitcoins confiscated from James Zhong.

It is worth noting that some of these seized bitcoins have been transferred, and the total has dropped from 215,338 BTC to 205,515 BTC. This suggests that the U.S. government is managing these assets as an important store of value. This also reflects the gradual popularity and acceptance of Bitcoin among governments and regulators.

 

Taken together, MicroStrategy’s massive Bitcoin purchases and the amount of Bitcoin held by the U.S. government reaffirm Bitcoin’s attractiveness as a long-term store of value. This trend may have a certain impact on other companies and investors, prompting more people to pay attention to and recognize the investment value of Bitcoin.

 

Key investment and financing events:

1. The Ethereum re-pledging protocol EigenLayer completed financing again:

EigenLabs, the developer of the Ethereum re-pledging protocol EigenLayer, completed a $50 million Series A round led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from Electric Capital, Polychain Capital, Hack VC, Finality Capital Partners, Coinbase Ventures, and IOSG Venture.

 

EigenLayer introduces a new concept - Re-staking, which is a protocol built on Ethereum that allows users to pledge ETH twice on the consensus layer, while providing multiple pledge methods. In this way, users can re-pledge the ETH pledged on Ethereum to EigenLayer to obtain additional benefits, and can also transfer the utility of the Ethereum consensus layer generated by the second pledge to the outside, so that middleware, data availability layer, and expansion Networks and the like can also enjoy Ethereum-level security.

 

EigenLayer's white paper mentions the key ideas of the first version of the protocol, including a list of potential modules. Additionally, EigenLayer has launched the EigenLayer Forum, which focuses on topics such as protocol, development, and middleware R&D. Although EigenLayer is still in the research and development stage and has not yet launched any test network, judging from the currently announced operating mechanism, once the secondary effect of the Ethereum consensus layer can be brought into play, it will bring imaginative value.

 

2. Cega, a DeFi derivatives protocol focusing on exotic options, completed a financing of US$5 million:

On March 28, according to The Block, Cega, the Solana ecological DeFi derivatives protocol, completed $5 million in financing, led by Dragonfly Capital, and participated by Pantera Capital and Robot Ventures. This brings Cega's total funding to date to $9.3 million, having raised $4.3 million last March. The new funds will be used to expand its protocol on ethereum, where it will launch new products such as leveraged options, with its ethereum launch scheduled for next week.

 

Cega is a DeFi derivatives protocol based on the Solana blockchain, which focuses on exotic derivative structured products. Exotic options refer to derivative securities that are more complex than conventional options, usually over-the-counter transactions or embedded in structured bonds, such as options where the strike price is not a definite number, but the average asset price over a period of time, or within the validity period of the option If the asset price exceeds a certain threshold, the option becomes void. According to the information disclosed by officials and press releases, Cega is the first protocol for structured on-chain products based on exotic options. Its transaction volume and total locked value (TVL) currently rank first on Solana, and it is among all Ranked fourth on the chain.

 

Judging from the product functions it provides, Cega's first exotic option structured product is a fixed-coupon note, which is a package of put options with knock-in barriers, designed to provide retail investors with corresponding investment returns , compound return and risk hedging capabilities, and at the same time provide discounted hedging for market makers.

The launch of Cega opened up the exotic option market based on cryptocurrency and further expanded the application scenarios of cryptocurrency in the field of derivatives. However, as industry observers, we need more time to judge and verify the feasibility of its model and market risk control capabilities.

 

3. Fetch.ai, an encryption protocol focused on artificial intelligence, completed a financing of 40 million US dollars:

Fetch.ai is an artificial intelligence (AI)-focused cryptographic protocol with the goal of creating an autonomous machine-to-machine ecosystem. This ecosystem can provide developers with a set of tools to help them more easily deploy and monetize their applications. Fetch.ai recently raised $40 million from market maker and investment firm DWF Labs.

 

The financing is significant for Fetch.ai as it will enable the company to deploy decentralized machine learning, autonomous agents, and network infrastructure on its platform. This will help to further expand its ecosystem and promote the application of artificial intelligence in the field of encryption.

 

Decentralized machine learning can make data more secure and difficult to tamper with, while reducing the cost of data storage and processing. Autonomous agents can enable machines to complete tasks and make decisions autonomously without human intervention, which can bring huge efficiency gains in various fields. Network infrastructure is the cornerstone of the entire ecosystem, and a good network infrastructure can ensure fast and secure data transmission between different nodes.

 

This investment shows the market's confidence in Fetch.ai, as well as its recognition of its innovative technology and development potential. With the injection of funds, Fetch.ai will have more resources and capabilities to optimize and perfect its artificial intelligence and decentralized technology. This will help attract more developers to its ecosystem, thereby driving the development and innovation of more applications and services.

 

Furthermore, the funding also highlights the interest in the combination of AI and decentralized technologies in the crypto market. With the continuous development of technology, we can foresee that AI and blockchain technology will be more and more combined with each other in the future to jointly promote the transformation of various industries. The successful financing of Fetch.ai will further stimulate competition in this field and attract more innovators and investors to pay attention to this market.

 

All in all, Fetch.ai's success in raising $40 million in financing is a recognition of its technology and development potential, which will help the company expand its ecosystem and drive the development of decentralized machine learning, autonomous agents, and network infrastructure. This investment not only helps Fetch.ai's own growth, but also shows the market's interest and confidence in the combination of AI and blockchain technology. As more developers, innovators, and investors pay attention to this field, we can expect to see more technological advancements in the future, as well as industrial changes brought about by AI and blockchain technology.

 

 

Detailed investment and financing events:

Last week (3.27-4.2) there were 29 investment and financing events in the global blockchain, with a total fund size of nearly 340 million US dollars, which has increased compared with the previous week. The overview is as follows:

1. The popularity of the DeFi track has skyrocketed, and 6 investment and financing events have been announced, namely:

EigenLabs, the developer of the pledge protocol, completed a $50 million Series A financing, led by Blockchain Capital;

Startup Econia Labs raised $6.5 million in a seed round led by Dragonfly;

DeFi lending agreement Granary Finance completed more than $5 million in financing;

DeFi derivatives protocol Cega completes $5 million in financing, led by Dragonfly Capital;

Nautilus network DEX PoseiSwap completes $1.5 million in financing, led by Zebec Labs;

OrderlyNetwork raises new funding from CoinDCX Ventures at a $200 million valuation.

 

2. Lianyou Fang Lianyou has not publicly announced financing events.

 

3. The performance of NFT and metaverse fields is stable, and 4 financings have been announced, which are:

Muverse, a music NFT exchange, completed a $6 million seed round of financing;

LandVault, a metaverse development company, completed a US$3 million Series B extension round of financing, with participation from The Sandbox and others;

Music NFT project Daniel Allan Entertainment completed a $1 million seed round of financing, led by Coop Records;

Nuktah, an NFT marketplace in Saudi Arabia, has completed a seed round of funding led by Animoca Brands.

 

4. The popularity of the infrastructure and tools track has slightly decreased, and 6 incidents have been announced, namely:

Hardware wallet maker Ledger has secured a massive €100 million funding round at a €1.3 billion valuation;

Fetch.ai, an encryption protocol focused on artificial intelligence, completed a $40 million financing;

Cross-chain bridge aggregator LI.FI completes Series A financing of US$17.5 million, led by CoinFund and others;

Blockchain infrastructure solution TradeWindow completed $7 million in strategic equity financing;

Encryption infrastructure Conduit completed a $7 million seed round led by Paradigm;

The open source blockchain D-Ecosystem has completed $6 million in financing.

 

5. In the field of centralized finance, one investment and financing event was announced:

Indonesian encryption exchange Mobee completed a new round of financing, led by 1982 Ventures.

 

6. Other Web3/encryption-related projects continued to heat up, and 12 incidents were announced, namely:

Agreena, an agricultural financial technology company based on blockchain technology, completed a round B financing of 46 million euros;

FedML, a decentralized collaborative AI platform, completed $6 million in financing;

Blockchain-based customer rewards platform apM Coin receives $5 million investment from DWF Labs;

Blockchain claims settlement platform Vitraya completes $5 million in financing, led by StartupXSeed;

Web3 social platform SO-COL raised $4.5 million in two rounds of financing, investors including DWF Labs;

Coadjute, a real estate blockchain technology service provider, completed a £4 million financing led by Praetura Ventures;

Polytrade, a blockchain-based trade finance protocol, completed a $3.8 million seed round;

Vote-to-earn project Love Hate Inu completed $2 million in financing;

Ensemble, a Web3 art platform, completed a $1 million seed round of financing;

Web3 hardware manufacturer JDI Global completed a new round of financing, Dragonfly and others participated in the investment;

Junggl Media completed a new round of financing, and Northbrook Capital Start-up Fund invested;

The blockchain token issuance crowdfunding service platform FiNANCiE completed financing, and Marui Group participated in the investment.

 

 

Industry Overview Author: Lao Li(Analyst)

Market News Author: Leon (Analyst)

 

 

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