Weekly Report | BlackRock and Valkyrie Meet with the SEC Regarding Bitcoin Spot ETF; Arweave Caught in Fork Controversy
In the past few weeks, 95% of the transaction activity on major EVM chains has been inscription transactions; Ethereum plans to run the Goerli test network through Dencun in January next year.整理：饼干，ChainCatcher
"What Important Events Happened This Week (12.18-12.24)"
1. BlackRock and Valkyrie Meet with the SEC Regarding Bitcoin Spot ETF
According to Bitcoin Magazine, on December 21, BlackRock held its sixth formal meeting with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its spot Bitcoin ETF. BlackRock founder and CEO Larry Fink referred to Bitcoin as "an international asset" and "a store of value," comparable to gold's long-standing position.
Additionally, Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart stated on X that the crypto asset management firm Valkyrie met with the SEC yesterday to discuss matters related to the Bitcoin spot ETF, marking the first meeting between the two parties regarding the Bitcoin spot ETF.
Fox Business senior reporter Charles Gasparino tweeted that the SEC is holding joint calls with potential applicants for the spot Bitcoin ETF. Sources indicated that the SEC aims to ensure that cash, rather than Bitcoin, is used to purchase the ETF and has requested issuers to remove any implications of physical redemptions from their filings.
MicroStrategy founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor stated in a radio interview that the market should not underestimate the significance of the upcoming Bitcoin spot ETF, which could be the biggest development on Wall Street in 30 years. (Source link)
2. Etherscan: 95% of Recent Transaction Activity on Major EVM Chains is Inscription Transactions
According to Etherscan monitoring, 95% of recent transaction activity on major EVM chains has been inscription transactions.
It was also noted that BRC-20 tokens (text inscriptions) have gradually gained attention since April 2023. Inscriptions were initially a way to create tokens on Bitcoin. This is a process of "engraving" data (text, images, videos, etc.) onto each satoshi, the smallest unit of Bitcoin. (Source link)
3. Programmable Privacy Network Aleo Announces the Establishment of Aleo Foundation
The programmable privacy network Aleo announced the establishment of the Aleo Foundation, aimed at guiding and supporting the network with a focus on open-source governance, developer engagement, and promoting zero-knowledge cryptographic applications. Additionally, Aleo will support innovative projects through an initial allocation of 150 million tokens from the foundation.
It is reported that the foundation is an independent nonprofit 501c4 organization based in Wyoming, operating independently from the commercial entities that have developed Aleo to date. (Source link)
4. Justin Sun: The Bull Market is Here, Let's Work Hard
Justin Sun posted on X, stating, "The bull market is here, let's work hard."
Earlier, Justin Sun expressed through his personal social media account that after ten years of entrepreneurship, he understands the heavy responsibility on his shoulders and will do his utmost to perform his duties well.
Justin Sun also mentioned that he no longer feels that media criticism is unfair; the only concern is whether Huobi HTX users' assets are 100% safe and whether the transfer services for the 200 million users of Tron are smooth, sufficiently decentralized, and secure. He also stated that he once promised to create a better financial order through blockchain technology and cannot let everyone down. However, achieving this goal requires time to satisfy regulators, users, and society.
Regarding recent industry regulatory issues, he stated that decentralization and compliance in the industry is a major trend, and he will do his best to perform his duties well. (Source link)
5. friend.tech to Release v2 Version in Spring 2024
friend.tech announced on social media that it will release version 2 in Spring 2024. (Source link)
6. Worldcoin No Longer Offers Orb Verification Services in India, Brazil, and France
Worldcoin has ceased to offer Orb verification services in India, Brazil, and France. The Worldcoin development foundation Tools for Humanity stated that it has expanded the Orb to many markets for "limited access" this year and will continue to work with global partners to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. (Source link)
7. Polkadot Plans to Implement Asynchronous Support and Deploy Cross-Chain Bridge Snowbridge with Ethereum in 2024
Polkadot's official post reviewed its development status in 2023 and plans to implement asynchronous support in 2024, introducing flexible Coretime and minimal Relay. In the first quarter of next year, it will deploy the cross-chain bridge Snowbridge between Polkadot and Ethereum. (Source link)
8. Ethereum Plans to Run Goerli Test Network via Dencun in January
Ethereum developers discussed their goal to run the Goerli test network (testnet) via Dencun on January 17, which will be a highly anticipated upgrade that will implement "proto-danksharding," thereby reducing Layer 2 aggregation fees and expanding the blockchain by increasing the space for data "blobs."
Tim Beiko, head of protocol support at the Ethereum Foundation, stated on a conference call: "Clearly, if we discover significant issues or crazy things before then, we can cancel at any time. This means ideally we will publish a fork blog post sometime during the week of January 8, so people have at least a week to update." (Source link)
9. Data
- Solana's market cap exceeds $42 billion, becoming the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
- Due to the rise of SOL, FTX creditors' potential earnings exceed $3 billion.
- EigenLayer introduces six new LSTs, with total TVL approaching 380,000 ETH.
- The number of non-zero Bitcoin addresses surpasses 50 million.
- Worldcoin's ecological wallet "World App" user count exceeds 5 million.
"What Great Articles Are Worth Reading This Week (12.18-12.24)"
1. "The Block: How Crypto Market Maker DWF Labs Rose to Prominence"
With financial backing from Digital Wave Finance and a rich network built along the way, DWF Labs has the potential to become a significant force in the cryptocurrency space in the near future. If so, DWF Labs can shake off the shadows of the past and reconstruct a new blueprint.
2. "Why Solana Can Be Reborn, and How Can We Participate?"
The background of Solana's birth: At that time, the "king of public chains," Ethereum, was undoubtedly the mainstream operating system for cryptocurrencies, boasting a large number of users and traffic. However, Ethereum also faced issues such as network congestion and high fees. From an experience perspective, Ethereum provided users with a poor experience, with unbearable congestion even when using DeFi applications.
3. "NFPrompt: How to Reshape the AIGC Creator Economy with Web3 Technology"
Driven by the internet and AIGC technology, the creator economy has seen significant development, bringing diverse income streams to creators, ranging from advertising revenue to direct sales. Public AIGC projects like DALL-E 3, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion have excelled in AI painting applications.
A week before Parity Technologies (the Polkadot ecosystem development organization) held its annual retreat in Mallorca, its 385 employees received shocking news: the company would lay off most of its staff. What was originally planned as an enjoyable week of speeches, workshops, and parties turned into discussions about Parity's dissolution, who would survive the layoffs, and what would happen next. One Parity employee who attended the retreat remarked in a short message, "It felt a bit like the Hunger Games."
5. "Circle's New Battle for Stablecoins Under IPO Pressure: Why TUSD and FDUSD Stand Out?"
The ranking of the top five stablecoins by market cap has undergone significant changes. After BUSD faded from the stage and USDC faced a de-pegging crisis, besides DAI seizing the position of the third-largest stablecoin, the low-profile stablecoin veteran TUSD and the new stablecoin contender FDUSD have emerged, currently ranking as the fourth and fifth largest stablecoins by market cap.
6. "Variant Partner: Lessons Learned from Cryptocurrency Application Points Programs"
Points are sweeping web3 applications, but what can they learn from web2 precedents? It seems that overnight, points have sparked a crypto craze, becoming a new tool for application developers to enhance user retention and engagement. On one hand, these points may become alternative tokens with real economic value in the future; on the other hand, users themselves have made this leap of belief. This trend arises as project teams seek broader market fit for crypto products and attract users during the bear market.
7. "A Comprehensive Guide to the ZKFair Gas Fee Airdrop Community"
This article will explain the details of the gas fee airdrop and how an ordinary user can participate in the gas fee airdrop and receive rewards. ZKFair is a fair launch project, and we guarantee absolute fairness. To protect the rights of community users, we have made some arrangements to encourage more users to participate and receive their share; this gas fee airdrop will treat all users equally, giving everyone an equal opportunity to receive the airdrop.
8. "New Insights on Rollup Expansion Solutions: How Taiko's BBR Reshapes Ethereum and L2?"
A few years ago, Ethereum adopted a rollup-centric roadmap. Since then, the Ethereum community has proposed various rollup designs, all aimed at expanding our beloved blockchain in some way. This article will detail our new rollup design launched a few months ago and argue that this new design is very close to becoming a native Ethereum scaling solution, which we call "Based Booster Rollup" (BBR).
9. "Arweave Faces Forking Controversy, Founder Criticizes Storage Solution Irys"
The perpetual storage protocol Arweave is embroiled in a forking controversy, as its storage solution Irys (formerly Bundlr Network) is considering forking Arweave, ceasing to maintain ecological datasets, and resetting token supply. Arweave founder Sam Williams accused Irys of greed, choosing the aforementioned "antisocial fork."
10. "Besides the Soaring AUCTION, What Other 'Golden Shovels' Are Worth Noting in the Market?"
The prosperity of the bull market largely depends on two main factors: the influx of external capital and the enhancement of internal capital leverage. Influential financial entities like BlackRock play a key role in driving external capital, especially as the anticipated Bitcoin spot ETF could change the game in the crypto market.
In 2020, benefiting from the innovations driven by DeFi Summer, several CEXs launched the "new coin mining" feature, a new play that combines IEO with DeFi liquidity mining. When a new project is launched on a CEX, users no longer need to "spend money" to grab allocations; they can obtain new assets by staking the assets specified by the trading platform. Compared to spot trading, the cycle for new coin launches is shorter, and the return on investment is more astonishing, leading to platform tokens being hailed as the "golden shovel" for acquiring new assets.
Subsequently, there has been a surge in DeFi innovations like LSD and Restaking on Ethereum, but the Bitcoin ecosystem has yet to see large-scale similar financial applications. Currently, inscriptions have successfully transitioned from the primary market to the secondary market, and the next step is to consider how to leverage the market heat of inscriptions to continuously empower financial facilities in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
11. "DePIN Leader MOBILE Hits New Highs, What Other Concept Projects Are Worth Noting?"
The heat of the DePIN track continues to rise. The popular concept token MOBILE in the DePIN sector once reached $0.0077, setting a new historical high, with a nearly 800% increase in the past week.
In addition to MOBILE, other DePIN concept tokens such as DIMO, NODL, WiFi, HOPR, STORJ, IOTX, and HNT have also seen increases of over 60% in the past week. In the past week, DePIN can be said to be the only narrative that can rival inscriptions in terms of popularity.
