Issue #66

Market Overview

As of the time of writing (Monday 5pm), the total market cap of the crypto asset market is $US1.37T, up (4.0%) from last week.

Below is the weekly performance of the top crypto assets. 

News Headline Highlights

• FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was found guilty of stealing from exchange customers in one of the biggest financial frauds on record. A 12-member jury in Manhattan Federal Court convicted Bankman-Fried on all seven counts he faced after a month-long trial.
• Tokenisation of U.S. Treasuries has grown exponentially in 2023, rising almost seven-fold from US$100m in January to US$698m as of Monday. Surging demand has come from the launch of new real world asset (RWA) platforms as well as increasing competition and the recognition the benefits of tokenisation can bring.
• Coinbase now offers crypto futures trading to eligible retail U.S. customers, a service that includes "nano" contracts (1/100th of a bitcoin and 1/10th of an ether). "Customers in the U.S. can now access regulated crypto futures contracts," the company said in a statement. 
• ProShares is launching the first inverse ether (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF), allowing investors to take a bearish view on ETH. The ProShares Short Ether Strategy is designed to deliver the inverse of the daily performance of the Standard & Poor's CME Ether Futures Index. In other words, if the index falls 1%, the ETF will seek to return 1%.
• The total value of all assets held in smart contracts on decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols has surged to a three-month high of $42B after being at its lowest point since February 2021 just two weeks ago. The resurgence comes from two factors: rising asset prices and fresh inflows from participants that aim to generate a yield through staking and lending.
• Andreessen Horowitz, the crypto friendly Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist, is reported to be targeting $3.4B for its next early stage investment fund.

 Crypto Asset Project Updates

• Aave, the decentralised lending protocol, paused certain operations after being made aware of a potential vulnerability (not disclosed publicly yet). In the announcement Aave notified users that funds were not currently at risk.
• Yuga Labs, the largest NFT company, announced a partnership with Magic Eden to launch the new Magic Eden ETH marketplace - the first major ETH marketplace contractually obligated to honor creator royalties.
• Radiant Capital launched their lending marketplace on Ethereum’s mainnet, adding to instances that are already on Arbitrum, an Ethereum Layer 2, and Binance Smart Chain.
• Oracle network, Pyth, announced a retrospective airdrop program for the dedicated community of the Pyth oracle ecosystem.

Regulation Station

• Hong Kong’s securities regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), is considering allowing issuers to launch retail spot crypto Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) products. SFC Chief Executive Officer, Julia Leung, was quoted in Bloomberg commenting the the matter; “We welcome proposals using innovative technology that boosts efficiency and customer experience”.
• The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a statement concluding that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is now in violation of the Congressional Review Act (CRA). The SEC’s controversial Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) 121, which requires crypto custodians record customers’ digital assets as liabilities on their balance sheets, is considered a “rule”, not merely “guidance”, and therefore required the SEC to submit to Congress for approval, which they did not do.
• The UK Treasury released its final proposals for regulating crypto assets, in which the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) was given powers to oversee the issuance and custody of fiat-backed stablecoins in the UK.

The Weekly Deal Room

• Animoca Brands, the web3 studio, announced an investment from NEOM, a Saudi Arabia-backed accelerator.
• Ekubo Protocol, a Market Maker on Starknet, raised $12m in a private round led by Uniswap.
• Modulus, a company bringing AI on-chain, raised $6.3m in a round co-led by Variant Capital and 1kx.
• Llama, an access control and governance platform for smart contracts, raised $6m in a Seed Round co-led by Founders Fund and Electric Capital.
• Toposware, a ZK technology focused company, raised $5m in a Seed Round led by Evolution Equity Partners.
• Surf Protocol, a decentralised exchange protocol, raised $3m in a Seed Round led by ABCDE.
• Trips, a web3 IP protection and authentication platform, raised $2.5m in a Pre-Seed Round from Shima Capital, Animal Capital, Blackwood Ventures and more.