Coin360 Daily Dispatch | Crypto Market Updates & Highlights | February 22, 2024

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Crypto Market Update

Table of Contents

Crypto Market Updates

• Bitcoin's Resistance Struggle, Experiences Dip
• Ethereum's Price Fluctuations

Banking and Regulatory Updates

• ECB Criticizes Bitcoin
• Coinbase's Support for Ethereum
• Gauntlet Ends Partnership with Aave

Investments and Developments

• Andreessen Horowitz Backs Crypto Startup
• Marathon Digital's New Bitcoin Initiative
• Binance Coin's Value Surge

Technology and Platform Updates

• Euler Finance Announces Comeback
• PSG Ventures into Blockchain Validation
• JasmyCoin's Market Rally
• Nvidia's AI Revenue Boost

Security and Legal Concerns

• LastPass Users Targeted by Hackers
• DCG Challenges Genesis Settlement

Privacy and Tokenization

• ZCash Eyes Privacy ETF
• Ondo Finance Expands to Hong Kong

New Products and Expansions

• Valkyrie Introduces Leveraged Bitcoin ETF
• KuCoin Addresses User Concerns
• Shiba Inu Launches New NFTs
• Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs Gain

Bitcoin's Resistance Struggle, Experiences Dip

Bitcoin's recent dip led to a 2.75% decrease in the crypto market's total value to $1.90 trillion, with Bitcoin's market share slightly rising. Reduced interest and trading on Coinbase attributed to the lack of enthusiasm among retail investors. CryptoQuant's CEO believes Bitcoin is far from its cyclical top, citing that 63% of Bitcoin's realized cap hasn't moved in over six months. Meanwhile, Bitcoin struggled to surpass the $53,000 resistance, with analysts predicting a potential drop below $50,500. Global market trends and regulatory impact were noted, with predictions of a pre-halving pullback to around $45,000 and indications of emerging accumulation patterns.  

Ethereum's Price Fluctuations

Ethereum's recent surge past $3,000 has been attributed to dealer hedging, according to analysts. Despite this breakout, Ethereum has seen a retreat from the $3,000 mark, signaling potential volatility. Meanwhile, a significant Ethereum whale has acquired $250 million worth of ETH in just four days, hinting at a possible upcoming rally. This accumulation coincides with another major Ethereum whale's activity, who dumped 16,597 ETH worth $48.7 million, making a $5.5 million profit. 

ECB Criticizes Bitcoin

The ECB's blog post dismisses Bitcoin as a decentralised digital currency and investment, citing its failure in legitimate transfers and social risks. It highlights Bitcoin's unsuitability as an investment, transaction inefficiency, environmental impact, and use in criminal activities. The authors emphasize the lack of regulation, fair value, and economic fundamentals. 

Coinbase's Support for Ethereum

Coinbase supports converting Grayscale's Ethereum Trust into a spot Ether ETP, arguing that Ethereum is not a security. They emphasize Ethereum's classification as a commodity, its decentralized governance, and market resilience. S&P Global analysts express concerns about potential concentration risks posed by spot Ethereum ETFs incorporating staking, highlighting Lido's significant share of staked Ethereum. 

Gauntlet Ends Partnership with Aave

Gauntlet ended its four-year relationship with Aave, citing challenges in working with Aave's DAO, including navigating inconsistent guidelines and objectives. Gauntlet, a key DeFi risk management firm, served as Aave's "Risk Steward," but found collaboration with Aave's largest stakeholders difficult. Meanwhile, Aave has expanded its DeFi protocol to BNB Chain, enhancing liquidity and offering new lending and borrowing options. This move is part of BNB Chain's efforts to grow its DeFi ecosystem, including various lending protocols and DApps, aiming for broader adoption and integration within the DeFi space.

Marathon Digital's New Bitcoin Initiative

Marathon Digital Holdings has launched Slipstream, aiming to expedite Bitcoin transactions. The company's advanced mining capabilities have led to record-breaking production, surpassing 15,000 BTC and worth over $1 billion. With the approaching Bitcoin halving, uncertainty looms over mining rewards, with Marathon facing potential challenges despite its current advantageous position.  

Andreessen Horowitz Backs Crypto Startup

Andreessen Horowitz has invested $100 million in EigenLayer, a crypto restaking startup, to support its model that allows Ethereum stakers to earn additional yield by securing other projects with the same ETH stake. This investment follows a $50 million round in March, with EigenLayer's valuation undisclosed. Binance Labs also entered the scene with an undisclosed investment in Renzo, EigenLayer's interface, joining a seed round totaling $3.2 million. Renzo facilitates restaking, offering higher yields than Ether staking but with similar risks. EigenLayer, now Ethereum's third-largest protocol, has seen its total value locked surge by 347% to $7.91 billion. 

Binance Coin's Value Surge

In a surprising development, Binance Coin (BNB) surged over 7% following the announcement of a burn of BUSD and TUSD B-tokens. This spike comes after a continual rise in BNB's value since December 2023, with the coin currently priced at $381 and boasting a market capitalization of $57.11 billion, making it the fourth-largest cryptocurrency.  

PSG Ventures into Blockchain Validation

Paris Saint Germaine (PSG) has become the first sports club to operate as a validator for Chiliz Chain. They will reinvest all revenues into buying back PSG Fan Tokens. Chiliz claims to host a $1B “SportsFi” ecosystem and has facilitated 18M votes towards 4,500 club polls. Chiliz recently updated its tokenomics model.

Euler Finance Announces Comeback

Euler Finance is making a strong comeback with its v2 launch, introducing a more flexible and secure DeFi lending platform after a $200 million exploit. The new version, set for Q2, features the Euler Vault Kit (EVK) and Ethereum Vault Connector (EVC), allowing for customized lending markets and the use of vaults as collateral for others. Despite the heavy blow from last year's exploit, which drastically reduced its TVL, Euler v2 aims to redefine lending protocols with enhanced security measures, including a comprehensive code audit competition and a focus on building a top-tier borrow/lend protocol.

JasmyCoin's Market Rally

JasmyCoin, a decentralized platform for data and IoT device management, has seen its price soar by over 160% from its 2023 lows, trading at $0.01628 with a 43.7% daily increase at one point and a market cap of $788.64 million. This rally is attributed to regulatory changes in Japan, increased whale activity, and endorsements by influential figures. Meanwhile, DWF Labs deposited 380 million JASMY to Binance, contributing to a 40% price surge and a bullish market sentiment. Jasmy's trading volume surged by 96.90%, reaching $1.63 billion, with its market cap increasing to $877.23 million.

Nvidia's AI Revenue Boost

Nvidia's Q4 financials reveal a staggering 265% year-on-year revenue increase to $22.1 billion, driven by a global AI demand surge, making it the most-traded stock, surpassing Tesla. Meanwhile, AI crypto tokens like Render, The Graph, Fetch.ai, and SingularityNet saw double-digit gains, with the sector's market cap jumping over 9% to $17.8 billion post-Nvidia's earnings report. 

LastPass Users Targeted by Hackers

Hackers stole $6.2 million in digital assets from 22 LastPass users between Feb. 19 and 20, impacting 41 crypto addresses. The breached wallets included 21 Bitcoin and 20 Ethereum addresses. February's incident follows a December 2022 hack of LastPass, resulting in the theft of over $35 million from 150 victims. Cybersecurity experts recommend prompt key rotation and reporting to the IC3.  

DCG Challenges Genesis Settlement

Digital Currency Group (DCG) opposes Genesis' settlement with the New York attorney general, citing concerns of unfair creditor treatment and violation of bankruptcy law. The settlement aims to resolve fraud allegations against Genesis but is contested by DCG as subversive and lacking proper negotiation. Further developments include Genesis settling with the state's Department of Financial Services (DFS) and increased losses claimed by DFS against DCG and Gemini.  

ZCash Eyes Privacy ETF

ZCash surged 15% as Grayscale filed for a privacy-focused ETF with the SEC. The ETF will allocate 10% to Privacy-Preserving Protocols via Grayscale Zcash Trust. ZCash, a top privacy token, operates on a decentralized, open-source network and ranks fourth by market capitalization. The move comes amid regulatory scrutiny on privacy tokens.  

Ondo Finance Expands to Hong Kong

Ondo Finance, a tokenization protocol, opens its first office in Hong Kong to expand its offerings to Asia Pacific investors. The company's products include exposure to U.S. Treasuries, money market funds, and yield-bearing stablecoins. Non-U.S. investors can access these assets after undergoing verification and holding the assets for 40 days. 

Valkyrie Introduces Leveraged Bitcoin ETF

Valkyrie launched a 2x leveraged Bitcoin futures ETF, BTFX, listed on Nasdaq following a spot BTC ETF. The fund offers twice the CME Bitcoin Futures market performance. SEC's approval of spot BTC ETFs in January allowed Valkyrie to launch theirs. The SEC delays decisions on a spot Ether ETF. Deadline set for May 23.   

KuCoin Addresses User Concerns

KuCoin is addressing claims of fund lockouts on Reddit, with some users unable to withdraw for several months. Reports of frozen tokens and account blocks triggered speculations on issues like Know Your Customer checks. KuCoin assures users of ongoing communication to resolve these cases and emphasizes its commitment to user security and cooperation with authorities.