Issue #73

Written by Magnet Capital | Jan 1, 1970 12:00:00 AM

Market Overview

As of the time of writing (Monday 5pm), the total market cap of the crypto asset market is $US1.75T, up (7.7%) from last week.

Below is the weekly performance of the top crypto assets.

News Headline Highlights

The US ETF marketing wars have begun with both Bitwise and Hashdex releasing tv commercials.
- Bitwise - ad link here
- Hashdex - ad link here
Diana Mondino, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Argentina, announced a decree legalising the use of certain currencies, including Bitcoin, in contracts and for payments. The Minister declared that the “Bases for the Reconstruction of the Argentine Economy” decree, which passed on the 20th of December, would allow the use of BTC and other cryptocurrencies in the country under certain conditions.
Nigeria's Central Bank removed restrictions on crypto transactions. This recent guidance is a backflip from the total ban imposed in 2021. With this announcement came clear guidelines for crypto that include stringent customer KYC and AML checks.
According to FOX Business Reporters, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) convened with 7 OF 12 applicants seeking approval for spot Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) on Thursday last week. It is reported that the SEC was "making sure everyone is doing cash creates," and "asked issuers to remove all hints of in-kind redemptions from their filings."
According to FOX Business reporters, the date for final amendments to all spot Bitcoin ETF S-1s is Friday the 29th. The US Securities and Exchange Commission has reportedly told issuers that fully finished and filed applications will be considered in the first wave. Anyone who has not done so by the 29th will not be considered. In addition, the filings cannot mention in-kind creation or they will be rejected.
The FTX debtors estate filed an amended Chapter 11 (Plan of Reorganization), which treats cryptocurrency claims as their value in cash at the time of the bankruptcy filing on November 11, 2022. The price of Bitcoin was around $17,000 at the time, and now trades above $42,000.

Crypto Asset Project Updates

Following its token’s 100% gain over the last month, the Solana network has also set records for new and active addresses on the network.
Bitcoin fees hit a 20-month high as miner revenues spike form increased Ordinal inscriptions (NFT) activity.
Yuga Labs built a new contract, CryptoPunks721, to bring CryptoPunks from the past into the present. The new protocol provides a safe and efficient way to trade and custody the original NFT collection.

Regulation Station

Hong Kong regulators, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), said in a joint statement that they are ready to consider applications for spot crypto exchange-traded funds.
The largest US regulated crypto exchange, Coinbase, obtained registration with France's markets regulator, securing a virtual asset service provider (VASP) approval. The VASP registration will let the company offer custody of digital assets, buying or selling digital assets in legal tender and trading of digital assets against other digital assets.
The second largest US stablecoin issuer, Circle, received a conditional DASP registration from the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF), based on the condition that we secure our EMI license as well for which we have applied.
BarnBridge DAO, a DeFi protocol, and its founders, Tyler Ward and Troy Murray, will pay more than $1.7m in fines to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for failing to register the offer and sale of cryptocurrencies. The SEC claimed that BarnBridge did not register the "offer and sale of structured crypto asset securities known as SMART Yield bonds."

The Weekly Deal Room

Tres Finance, a Web3 tax services firm, raised $11m in a Series A led by Faction Ventures.
Fiat Republic, a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform that bridges the gap between web3 and traditional banks, raised $7m in a Seed Round from Kraken Ventures, Fabric Ventures, Arca and others.
Web3mine, a Web3 infrastructure firm, raised $6m in a Seed Round led by 1kx.
Fyde Treasury Protocol, developers of liquid vaults that provide utility to treasury tokens, raised $3.2m in a Seed Round led by OP Capital.
Formless, a decentralised network and digital space that empowers individuals to connect, create, collaborate, raised $2.2m in a pre-seed round from a16z, CSS and others.

Metric of the Week

Despite the recent price performance of Bitcoin, and crypto assets more generally, the public interest in Bitcoin continues to remain subdued as measured through google searches of BTCUSD price.

Magnet quick take: Bitcoin and crypto prices often reach unsustainable levels when retail participants are fully engorged in crypto markets mainstream media is littered with crypto references and information. Given the current low interest, despite being one of the best performing assets of 2023, this might suggest recent price movement is not euphoria, and there is a lot more upside left once public interest grows.

Source: Delphi Digital

View full post