Issue #39

Market Overview

As of the time of writing (Monday 5pm), the total market cap of the crypto asset market is $US1.23T, up (2.3%) from last week.

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

News Headline Highlights

• The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has been explicitly declaring that local banks can provide services to virtual asset companies amid complaints about the difficulty of opening bank accounts in the jurisdiction. “There is no legal and regulatory requirement prohibiting banks in Hong Kong from providing banking services to virtual assets (VA) related entities” the HKMA Deputy Chief Executive, Arthur Yuen, published on the regulator's website.
• Public sector workers in an eastern Chinese City, Changshu, are set to be paid their salary in digital yuan, in a push to popularise the currency. The new payment process will start in May, according to an official document widely posted on government websites. This is the biggest rollout of the currency, also known as the e-CNY, in China.
• Gemini, the U.S.-based crypto exchange, revealed plans to open an offshore derivatives platform. The decision follows Coinbase’s announcement to do similar in light of the difficult US regulatory environment. The first product will be a perpetual bitcoin (BTC) contract denominated in Gemini dollars (GUSD).
• DWS and Galaxy Digital Holdings have entered into a strategic alliance with the aim of initially developing a comprehensive suite of exchange-traded products (ETPs) on certain digital assets in Europe.
• Fidelity released additional insights from annual institutional investor study. 
• Block, the company behind Cash App and Square, announced a partnership with Yellow Card, one of the largest crypto exchanges in Africa, to facilitate cross-border payments between 16 countries in Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa.
• Visa is hiring software engineers for its crypto division as it develops new products aimed at the space. "We have an ambitious crypto product roadmap at Visa and just opened a few reqs for senior software engineers to help us drive mainstream adoption of public blockchain networks and stablecoin payments," Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto at Visa, said on Twitter.

 Crypto Asset Project Updates

• The Bitcoin blockchain's daily number of transactions reached a new all-time high this week when tracked using a seven-day moving average. The on-chain metric reached a record level of over 408,000 transactions, surpassing its previous high of just over 406,000. The record-high daily average transaction count on Bitcoin may be related to Inscriptions — which have increased demand for block space on the leading blockchain.
• Synthetix Optimism Trading Incentives began last week. During the program, Synthetix will release up to 300,000 Optimism tokens (OP) per week to perpetual contract integrators (e.g. Kwenta) on a pro-rata basis for 17 weeks. In parallel, Kwenta has also announced an OP rewards program, offering 30,000 $OP per week to traders.

Regulation Station

• The Hong Kong Securities Futures Commission (SFC) is reportedly set to release cryptocurrency exchange licensing guidelines in May. The incoming guidelines will provide support to crypto trading platforms that will be able to offer trading services to retail investors on June 1.
• The European Central Bank (ECB) published a progress report on digital euro and study on possible features of a digital wallet. The report proposes that the digital euro could be made available to euro area residents via existing banking apps or via an app provided by the Eurosystem.
• The United Kingdom’s taxation division, HM Revenue and Customs, released a consultation paper seeking feedback on the tax treatment of lending and borrowing on decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols.

The Weekly Deal Room

• Zodia Custody, an institutional digital asset custody service provider, raised $36m from SBI Holdings and SC Ventures.
• Thetanuts Finance, a decentralised finance derivatives platform, raised $17m in a funding round co-led by Polychain, Hyperchain and Magnus Capital.
• TinyTap, a Web3 education platform, raised $8.5m at a $100m valuation in a Venture Round from Sequoia China, Shima Capital and others.
• Giddy, a crypto wallet provider, raised $6.9m in a new funding round that included Pelion Venture Partners, Peak Capital Partners and Clarke Capital.
• Credora, an institutional credit infrastructure provider for centralised and decentralised finance, raised $6m in a strategic funding round that included S&P Global and Coinbase Ventures.
• DFlow, a decentralised payment for order flow protocol that creates a new way for wallets to monetize their platforms, raised $5.5m in a financing round led by Framework Ventures.
• Cata Labs, a cross-chain liquidity layer, raised $4.2m in a Seed Round led by Spartan Group.
• Amboss Technologies, a tooling provider for the Bitcoin Lightning network, raised $4m in a Seed Round led by Stillmark.