Issue #35

Market Overview

As of the time of writing (Monday 5pm), the total market cap of the crypto asset market is $US1.21T, flat (-%) from last week.

Below is the weekly performance of the top crypto and NFT assets. 

News Headline Highlights

• The US Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged Binance Holdings Ltd. and its founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) with numerous civil violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations. The suit alleges that the operator of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange kept an illegal foothold in the American market and violated rules designed to prevent illicit financial activity.
• MicroStrategy, a software business most recently recognised as a bitcoin holding company, prepaid a Silvergate loan at a $44m discount (paying $161 million to repay the $205 million loan in full) and purchased $150m more bitcoin (6,455 BTC) at an average price of $23,238. 
• Citi have shared thoughts in a recent report (March) that indicate a belief that the tokenised securities market could reach $4T by 2030, despite the slow early adoption of blockchain technology. 
• Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) monthly options volume for ETH has risen to its highest point since May 2022. The increase is considered to be largely traders positioning themselves ahead of Ethereum’s Shapella update scheduled for April 12.
• A new Franklin Templeton ($1.5T asset manager) report identifies Web3 and decentralisation as one of the tech-driven megatrends that are transforming modern society.
• Dwpbank, a German securities processor for over 1,000 local banks, is creating a platform that will offer Bitcoin to all of its affiliates’ retail customers later this year.
• Crypto exchange Gemini is reportedly seeking to launch an overseas (non-US) derivatives marketplace. Following the strict stance of US regulators, Gemini are considering specifically offering perpetual futures, a type of derivative banned in the U.S. for retail traders.
• Chinese banks in Hong Kong, including Bocom and Bank of China, are reportedly reaching out directly to crypto businesses to offer banking services after Hong Kong’s recent favourable policy shift for the industry.

 Crypto Asset Project Updates

• Arbitrum, an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution, has become embroiled in controversy following the sale of ARB tokens for stablecoins before its governance community of tokenholders had "ratified" the organisation's proposed $1 billion budget. In what is meant to be a decentralised organisation, the actions taken in this instance clearly demonstrated the centralised nature of control.
• Ethereum developers confirmed their intention to proceed with the Shapella (Shanghai and Capella) upgrade on the 12th of April 2023.
• Yuga Labs revealed the “Legends of the Mara” event will be a collection-based 2D strategy game. The game will be a 2D experience with its own companion collection. Players will claim a Vessel, discover its potential, and forge their path through the event. Otherdeeds with a Koda will be able to decouple in advance of the game launch.

Regulation Station

• Leaders from the G7 countries (Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany and the European Union) are expected to outline a global cooperative strategy for digital assets in May.
• U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler testified at the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, reiterating his point that the vast majority of coins and tokens in the crypto space are securities.
• EU lawmakers voted in favour of imposing payment limits for unverified crypto users, as part of a large-scale overhaul of money laundering laws. Damien Carême, the French lawmaker leading the parliament’s negotiations, told reporters that the plans wouldn’t prevent crypto payments, because the cap of 1,000 euros won’t apply if a regulated wallet provider is involved or the identity of the payer is known.

The Weekly Deal Room

• Ledger, the leading crypto hardware wallet manufacturer, raised 100m euros ($109 million) in a funding round at a 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) valuation.
• EigenLabs, the team behind the restaking protocol EigenLayer, raised $50m in a Series A led by Blockchain Capital.
• Fetch.ai, a blockchain platform that leverages AI, raised $40m in a private round from DWF Labs.
• Magnet Portfolio company: Synthetix, a cross-EVM liquidity protocol, raised $15m in a private round from DWF Labs.
• Radix, a DeFi programming environment for developers, raised $10m in a private round led by DWF Labs.
• Hydra Ventures DAO, a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) seeking to invest in other investment DAOs (like a fund of funds), raised $10m from investors including 1kx, Collab+Currency, ConsenSys and Seed Club. 
• Optimism based crypto infrastructure startup Conduit has emerged from stealth with a $7m Seed Round led by Paradigm
• Econia Labs, a startup building decentralised order book infrastructure on the Aptos blockchain, raised a $6.5m Seed Round led by Dragonfly.
• Cega, a Solana based derivatives protocol, raised $5m in a Seed Round led by Dragonfly.
• Metaverse construction firm LandVault extended their Series B with a $3m raise from the likes of The Sandbox, the Gemini Frontier Fund, HodlCo and hedge fund Kingsway Capital.

Metric of the Week

Circle's US Dollar stablecoin (USDC) has continued to experience significant outflows catalysed by US regulatory pressures and Circle’s subsequent banking issues. Outflows since the start of March have now surpassed $10bn. 

Source: Coingecko