Issue #81

Market Overview

As of the time of writing (Monday 5pm), the total market cap of the crypto asset market is $US2.07T, up (9.6%) from last week.

Below is the weekly performance of the top crypto assets. 

News Headline Highlights

• • BlackRock reached $6B in AUM in under 30 trading days. 
  • Bitwise  Bitcoin ETF’s ($BITB) became the 4th newly created BTC ETF to reach $1B in AUM.
  • Bitwise Bitcoin ETF’s ($BITB) bitcoin addresses at Coinbase Custody have been upgraded from P2PKH to native SegWit P2WPKH. P2WPKH addresses are a widely utilised enhancement.
• Some of the largest banking lobby groups in the US are pushing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to tweak accounting guidance (SAB-121) that makes it more expensive for US banks to hold digital assets for their customers. The regulator is already facing pressure from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress to repeal the guidance.
• In a significant change of heart, US Fed Gov. Waller shared his beliefs that the proliferation and adoption of well-regulated, dollar - denominated stablecoins will bolster the dollar's status as the global reserve currency. Historically the Fed has been very anti stablecoins.
• Genesis Global, the bankrupt crypto lender, received permission from a U.S. court to sell about $1.6 billion in Grayscale cryptocurrency trust shares as part of its effort to repay creditors. The majority of shares are in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (~$1.3B), with the Grayscale Ethereum Trust and Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust making up the balance.
• Franklin Templeton, filed with the SEC for a spot ethereum exchange-traded fund, becoming the eighth player vying to introduce a similar product in the market.
• Coinbase generated $953.8m in revenue during Q3 of 2023, beating analyst expectations. Transaction revenue increased to $529.3m, the highest level it’s been in more than a year.
• Venture funding for crypto-related companies rose in Q4 2023 for the first time since Q1 2022, raising $1.9B (a 2.5% increase from Q3).

 Crypto Asset Project Updates

• Starknet Foundation, the developers of Starknet - an Ethereum layer-2, announced the airdrop of STRK to roughly 1.3m eligible wallets. The qualifications for the STRK airdrop are mainly divided into three groups: Starknet users, developers and contributors to the ecosystem; Ethereum builders and stakers, and non-Web3 open-source developers.
• Yuga Labs, the founder of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, announced the acquisition of Proof, which created the Moonbirds non-fungible token collection. Yuga Labs intention is to fold Moonbirds into its gamified, metaverse play, ‘the Otherside’.

Regulation Station

• U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson testified last week before the House Financial Services Committee, stating that the terrorist group Hamas received very little support in digital assets. This counters previous reports from the WSJ and the US Senate, which claimedHamas received tens of millions in crypto.
• New York Attorney General, Letitia James, expanded her lawsuit against Digital Currency Group and other cryptocurrency defendants, tripling the size of their alleged fraud scheme to more than $3B. In October, James sued DCG, its subsidiary Genesis Global Capital and Gemini, the exchange run by twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

The Weekly Deal Room

• Analog, a cross-chain communication tools for developers, raised $16m at a $120m valuation in a round led by Tribe Capital.
• Etherna, a startup developing a new Ethereum-based stablecoin secured by derivatives, raised $14m at a $300m valuation in a Strategic Round co-led by Dragonfly Capital and Maelstrom.
• Architect, a trading software for large investors like institutions, raised $12m in a Private Round co-led by BlockTower Capital and Tioga Capital.
• Fordefi, an MPC wallet platform and web3 gateway that enables users to securely self-custody private keys, raised $10m in a Seed+ Round led by Electric Capital.
• Concrete Protocol, an appchain built for on-chain debt and credit, raised $7.5m in a round co-led by Hashed and Tribe Capital.
• Ultiverse, an AI-powered platform for Web3 game creation, raised $4m at a $150m valuation in a Strategic Round led by IDG Capital.
• Witness, an infrastructure to make it easy for developers to take advantage of blockchains' power to verify crucial information, raised $3.5m in a Pre-Seed Round led by Haun Ventures.