WuBlockchain Weekly: Ethereum Completes Dencun Upgrade and Top10 News

1. Bitcoin’s Market Capitalization Surpasses Silver, Becoming the 8th Largest Asset Globally link

On March 11th, following Bitcoin’s surge above $71,000, its market capitalization has reached $1.398 trillion, surpassing that of silver ($1.379 trillion), making it the 8th largest asset globally.

In terms of Assets Under Management (AUM), the BlackRock iShares Bitcoin ETF (with $10.03 billion) has surpassed the largest silver ETF, SLV ($9.626 billion), ranking third among commodity ETFs. Additionally, the Fidelity FBTC, ARK 21Shares ARKB, and Bitwise BITB are ranked fifth, ninth, and eleventh, respectively.

2. MicroStrategy Makes Another Purchase of 12,000 Bitcoins at an Average Price of $68,477 link

MicroStrategy announced that between February 26, 2024, and March 10, 2024, it utilized proceeds from its issuance totaling $781.1 million and $40.6 million in excess cash to purchase approximately 12,000 bitcoins for approximately $821.7 million in cash, at an average purchase price of approximately $68,477. As of March 10, 2024, MicroStrategy and its subsidiaries collectively hold approximately 205,000 bitcoins, acquired for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $6.91 billion, at an average purchase price of approximately $33,706 per bitcoin.

MicroStrategy (MSTR) applied on Wednesday afternoon to raise $500 million through a convertible bond issuance, with the intention of using the proceeds to acquire more bitcoins (BTC). Assuming bitcoin remains around $73,000 in the near term, the company would be able to purchase an additional 6,800 bitcoins using the funds raised from this latest offering.

3. Ethereum Successfully Completes Dencun Upgrade link

Vitalik has stated that a significant milestone has been achieved in the basic rollup scaling, and the next milestone may involve Merkel trees and historical data expiration. Furthermore, after Ethereum Layer 2 rollups use the “blob” method to batch transactions, transaction fees on Layer 2 networks have decreased. Currently, Optimism has the lowest transaction fees, less than $0.01. The fees for sending ETH on zkSync Era, Metis Network, and StarkNet are all below $0.1.

4. Bloomberg Analysts Lower Likelihood of Ethereum ETF Spot Approval in May to 30% link

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas has significantly reduced the likelihood of Ethereum ETF spot approval in May from 60–70% to 30%. Market maker GSR still believes there’s a higher chance of approval, but is prepared to lower the probability if there’s no progress next month. Variant Fund’s Chief Legal Officer Jake Chervinsky, along with J.P. Morgan and TD Cowen, all estimate that spot Ethereum ETFs won’t be approved by May either.

Pranav Kanade, portfolio manager at VanEck, the issuer of the Bitcoin spot ETF HODL, suggests that from a market perspective, the market size of a spot Ethereum ETF could be as large as, or even larger than, that of a spot Bitcoin ETF. Even without ETFs providing staking services, Ethereum remains a profitable asset, making ETH potentially more meaningful to a broader audience than BTC.

5. Influential Anti-Cryptocurrency Politicians Rally Against Ethereum ETF Spot Approval link

Forbes journalist Eleanor Terrett suggests that the optimism surrounding the SEC’s approval of an Ethereum spot ETF by May 23rd is diminishing. She notes that recent meetings have been largely one-sided, with issuers and custodians attempting to push the SEC staff to advance the process, but the staff hasn’t engaged meaningfully as they did with BTC spot ETF applications. She’s heard that the SEC chairman believes he has placated the entire industry by approving the BTC spot ETF. Additionally, influential anti-cryptocurrency politicians like Senator Warren are expressing anger at the SEC’s approval of a BTC ETF and are rallying against the possibility of the same happening with ETH.

6. US February Unadjusted CPI Year-on-Year Rate at 3.2%, Expectation at 3.1% link

The unadjusted CPI annual rate for February in the United States stood at 3.2%, slightly exceeding the expected 3.1% and the previous value of 3.1%. Meanwhile, the unadjusted core CPI annual rate for February was 3.8%, slightly surpassing the anticipated 3.70% and the previous value of 3.9%. Analyst Chris Anstey noted that the core inflation rate in the United States for February was slightly higher than expected, reaching 0.4%. Both the overall and core indicators of year-over-year inflation rates were slightly higher than what economists had predicted.

7. Biden’s Latest Proposal Calls for Imposing 30% Tax on Cryptocurrency Mining link

According to a report by Fortune magazine, President Biden has proposed a series of tax and regulatory measures related to cryptocurrency in his 2025 budget proposal, expecting these measures to generate nearly $10 billion in revenue next year and over $42 billion over the next decade. The proposal includes a suggestion to impose a consumption tax on Bitcoin mining activities. Under the proposal, companies using computing resources to mine digital assets would be required to pay a consumption tax equivalent to 30% of their electricity costs, effective from December 31, 2024, and introduced in three stages: 10% in the first year, 20% in the second year, and 30% in the third year. The proposal states that this budget would save billions of dollars by closing tax loopholes that benefit the wealthy and large corporations, including loopholes for wealthy cryptocurrency investors.

8. London Stock Exchange to Accept Applications for Bitcoin and Ethereum Cryptocurrency ETNs in the Second Quarter link

The London Stock Exchange has confirmed that it will accept applications for the listing of Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded notes (ETNs) in the second quarter of 2024. The exchange will only consider applications for crypto ETNs that meet the following criteria: backed by physical assets; have a reliable and publicly available market price; the underlying crypto assets are Bitcoin or Ethereum; stored in cold wallets and provide third-party audit reports; custodians are regulated by AML regulations in the UK, EU, Switzerland, or the US; applicable only to professional investors and can only be traded in designated trading segments.

9. Coinbase Accuses SEC of Violating Law by Refusing to Establish Cryptocurrency Rules link

Coinbase has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), accusing the agency of arbitrary and inconsistent behavior and its failure to establish rules to clarify regulation of the industry. The lawsuit is in response to the SEC’s rejection of the company’s formal rulemaking proposal and raises important questions about the future regulation of cryptocurrency. Coinbase’s attorneys argue that while the securities regulator claims authority over crypto assets, it refuses to establish new regulations on how to handle these assets, which they deem arbitrary and inconsistent. Coinbase had previously requested clear rules for digital assets, but the SEC rejected the petition in December last year.

10. Tesla Will Support Dogecoin Payments at Some Point in the Future link

A video shared by DogeDesigner from the event shows Elon Musk stating offline that Tesla will eventually support DOGE payments, aiming to take DOGE “to the moon.” According to Binance market data, DOGE briefly surged to $0.19 in response to Musk’s remarks. As of the time of writing, DOGE is currently trading at $0.165, with a 24-hour decline of 10.69%.

Fundraising

Paradigm is currently in negotiations to lead the investment round of over $200 million for Monad Labs. link
Bloomberg reports that Berachain is in the process of raising over $69 million in funding. link
The modular blockchain Eclipse has completed a $50 million Series A funding round.link
Ethena Labs has secured funding in a new round, with Avon Ventures under Fidelity participating. link
MetaCene, a Web3 gaming project, has announced the completion of a $10 million new funding round. link
NFTfi raised $6 million in the A1 funding round led by Placeholder VC. link
Bluwhale, an AI Web3 startup, has announced the completion of a $7 million seed funding round led by SBI. link
The Netherlands-based cryptocurrency derivatives exchange D2X has announced the completion of a $10 million Series A funding round. link
OKX Ventures leads the funding for UXLINK, a Web3 infrastructure project, with a total funding amount of $9 million. link
The developers behind the blockchain video game MetalCore have completed a $5 million new funding round, with participation from Delphi Digital. link
Zeus Network, a cross-chain communication layer, has announced angel funding, including from Solana Ventures. link
Blockus has announced the completion of a $4 million seed round led by Maple VC. link
Elixir, a DeFi protocol, has announced the completion of an $8 million Series B funding round. link

Learn more, check out crypto-fundraising.info.