Issue #82

Written by Magnet Capital | Feb 26, 2024 11:38:57 PM

Market Overview

As of the time of writing (Monday 5pm), the total market cap of the crypto asset market is $US2.10T, up (1.3%) from last week.

Below is the weekly performance of the top crypto assets.

News Headline Highlights

Bitcoin ETF update
- Cumulative volume for all spot BTC EFTs exceeded $50B since their launch in mid-January.
- Crypto funds hit $2.5B weekly inflow record amid growing spot Bitcoin ETF interest.
- More than $7B has left Grayscale’s GBTC, but there is still a whopping $23 billion in AUM remaining within the product.
Carson Group, a $30B registered investment advisor (RIA) platform, has approved four spot bitcoin ETFs. Instruments issued by BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton and Bitwise were approved by Carson Group and will become accessible to financial advisors using the platform.
In their recent S-1 filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Reddit declared excess cash investments to add BTC and ETH for treasury purposes.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has boldly claimed that “Bitcoin has failed to become a global decentralised digital currency , instead falling victim to fraud and manipulation. “ Magnet Quick Take - this is an awful piece of writing, with many errors and the citing of outdated articles.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer says the Biden administration is abusing its power to unfairly target another corner of the $2 trillion cryptocurrency industry – bitcoin miners.
CME Group is launching micro euro-denominated bitcoin and ether futures on March 18.
360T, the Frankfurt-based financial technology provider, facilitated the first ever crypto non-deliverable forwards (NDFs). The company facilitated the first trade on this new product between Wintermute Asia and Crypto Finance.

Crypto Asset Project Updates

Recently-launched protocol Ethena has captured 5% of all global ether perpetual futures open interest.
Uniswap's governance token (UNI) gained 60% after a proposal by a key Uniswap Foundation leader. The proposal would distribute protocol fees among UNI holders who stake and delegate tokens to rejuvenate the protocol's decision-making.
StarkWare will release its token STRK more gradually under the new changes, dropping the portion of tokens initially unlocked from 13.4% to 0.64%.

Regulation Station

Binance's $4.3 billion plea deal with the US Department of Justice is now official after being approved by Federal Judge Richard Jones of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Kraken has responded to the SEC’s threat of a lawsuit 1 day after Kraken CLO, Marco Santori's, testified in front of Congress. ex-Kraken CEO, Jesse Powell, commented “the purpose is simply retaliation, intimidation and harassment. The SEC continues to de-legitimize itself with every bad-faith act”.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) published a circular on its standards for tokenization and digital asset custody for locally authorised institutions.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced intentions to add cryptocurrencies to the list of assets that local investment limited partnerships can acquire or hold.

The Weekly Deal Room

EigenLayer, an Ethereum staking protocol, raised $100m in a Private Round from a16z.
Meso, a payment platform that bridges digital assets and fiat currencies, raised $9.5m in a Seed Round co-led by Solana Ventures, Ribbit Capital.
Helius, who are building webhooks, enhanced Solana APIs, and powerful RPCs, raised $9.5m in a Series A led by Foundation Capital.
Helika, a web3 gaming studio, raised $8m in a Series A led by Pantera Capital.
Superfluid, a Payment streaming protocol, raised $5.1m in a Strategic Round led by Fabric Ventures.
Crystal Fun, a decentralised gaming mega-ecosystem & studio, raised $5m in a Seed Round from KuCoin Ventures, Waterdrip Capital, Comma3 Ventures and others.
Inco, a modular confidential computing Layer-1 blockchain powered by fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) and secured by Ethereum, raised $4.5m in a Seed Round led by 1kx.
Startale Labs, a web3 infrastructure company, raised $3.5m in a Seed+ Round from UOB Venture Management and Samsung Next Ventures.
INIT Capital, a Building Liquidity Hook Money Market, raised $3.1m in a Seed Round co-led by Electric Capital and Mirana Ventures.
ZeroLend, a lending protocol, raised $3m in a Seed Round from Momentum 6, Blockchain Founders Fund, Morningstar Ventures, Banter Capital and others.

Metric of the Week

Bitcoin has made new all time highs this week vs. the world's fourth largest reserve currency.

Source: Google Finance

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