Weekly Report | BTC reaches $31,400 with a weekly increase of over 16%; Fidelity may acquire Grayscale to submit a spot Bitcoin ETF application
BlackRock, Ripple, and Nasdaq have expressed interest in FTX 2.0; what is the background of Connext, which is valued at $250 million?Organizer: Biscuit, ChainCatcher
"What Important Events Happened This Week (6.19-6.25)"
1. Sources: Fidelity to Acquire Grayscale to Submit Spot Bitcoin ETF Application
According to Andrew Parish, co-founder of the hedge fund tool provider Arch Public, Fidelity, the world's third-largest asset management company, may be considering acquiring Grayscale or applying for a spot Bitcoin ETF. Media outlets are seeking further verification from Fidelity, and as of the time of publication, no response has been received.
In terms of Bitcoin ETFs, asset management giant Invesco has submitted another Bitcoin ETF application, aiming to advocate for more cryptocurrency investment products. Cryptocurrency fund company Valkyrie has submitted new Bitcoin ETF application documents, changing their exchange to Nasdaq (the same as BlackRock), with the code $BRRR. Volatility Shares will launch its 2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF next Tuesday, as its previous application was not rejected by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and has become effective this Friday. Asset management company VanEck has modified parts of its spot Bitcoin ETF application in response to SEC regulations. It is reported that the supplementary documents submitted by VanEck for the Bitcoin ETF to Cboe contain details of a "monitoring sharing agreement" similar to BlackRock's proposed product.
Last week, after BlackRock first revealed plans to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF, other companies such as Bitwise, WisdomTree, Invesco, and Valkyrie followed suit. Bloomberg strategist Mike McGlone stated that BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF will not launch this year, and Bitcoin may struggle to escape the impact of a potential U.S. economic recession in the coming months (source link)
2. BlackRock, Ripple, Nasdaq, and Others Express Interest in FTX 2.0
According to court documents from June 22 in Delaware bankruptcy court, FTX's consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal released a list of entities interested in the restart of FTX 2.0, known as the "363 Sale Parties." These entities have been contacted and signed confidentiality agreements to seek more details regarding the restructuring and relaunch of the exchange.
Notable companies among the 363 Sale Parties include Nasdaq, Ripple Labs, Galaxy Digital, BlackRock, Tribe Capital, Robinhood, NYDIG, and OKCoin. However, this is not an exclusive list of potential buyers or investors, but rather parties interested in the cryptocurrency exchange.
Additionally, Reuters reported that FTX is suing a former aide to Hillary Clinton, attempting to recover a $700 million investment allegedly made using misappropriated FTX funds. According to Bloomberg, Sequoia Capital partner Alfred Lin would make the same investment decision if reassessing FTX, indicating continued interest in the crypto concept. (source link)
3. Vitalik Buterin: A Key Factor in Achieving Cross-Chain Social Recovery Wallets is Cross-Chain Proof
According to ChainCatcher, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin pointed out in his latest article "A Deeper Dive into Cross-L2 Reads for Wallets and Other Use Cases" that a feasible solution for achieving cross-chain social recovery wallets is to maintain a key vault stored in a specific location, along with multiple wallets in different locations that can read the key vault. Cross-chain proof is key to achieving this functionality and requires deep optimization. Feasible solutions include zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-SNARK), waiting for Verkle proofs, or custom KZG solutions.
In the long run, we need to implement aggregation protocols that package all user-submitted operations by generating aggregate proofs to reduce costs. This may require integration into the ERC-4337 ecosystem, which might necessitate some modifications to ERC-4337. At the same time, to reduce the latency of reading L1 state from L2, L2 should be optimized.
Wallets can not only be placed on L2 but also on systems with lower connectivity to Ethereum, such as L3 or independent chains that only agree to include Ethereum state roots. However, the key vault should be placed on L1 or a high-security ZK-rollup L2. Although this increases complexity, setting up the key vault on L2 may ultimately be a lower-cost solution in the long run. Throughout this process, we also need to focus on protecting privacy. (source link)
4. Binance Labs Invests in Five Projects in Its Fifth Season of Incubation Program, Including zkPass, DappOS, and More
Binance Labs announced investments in five projects in its fifth season of the incubation program, including decentralized identity solution zkPass, fully encrypted network Mind Network, Web3 financial solution Kryptoskatt, on-chain structured products Bracket Labs, and Web3 application usability solution DappOS.
It is reported that this season, Binance Labs' incubation program received over 900 project applications, with less than 2% of projects being accepted. The selected projects by Binance Labs cover various fields of Web3, including DeFi, infrastructure, tools, and middleware. (source link)
5. Data
- BTC reached $31,400, with over $154 million in liquidations across the network in a single day.
- The global cryptocurrency user base exceeds 420 million, with 260 million in Asia.
- Ethereum staking volume surpassed 20 million ETH.
- Huang Licheng sold multiple blue-chip NFTs, including BAYC, MAYC, and Azuki, with Azuki's floor price currently reported at 14.6 ETH.
- After the Bedrock upgrade, Optimism's gas fees for single transactions have decreased by about 70%.
"What Interesting Articles Are Worth Reading This Week (6.19-6.25)"
Following the submission of a spot Bitcoin ETF application by the world's largest asset management company BlackRock to the SEC, asset management company WisdomTree submitted another spot Bitcoin ETF application on June 20, seeking approval to launch the WisdomTree Bitcoin Trust. Meanwhile, another U.S. asset management giant, Fidelity Investments, is rumored to be considering acquiring Grayscale and applying for a spot Bitcoin ETF. Is this a conspiracy between Wall Street giants and regulators?
2. "What’s the Background of Connext, Valued at $250 Million and Having Raised Over $20 Million?"
Recently, cross-chain infrastructure Connext announced the completion of a $7.5 million funding round at a valuation of $250 million, with investors including Polychain Capital, Polygon Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, 1kx, and many other well-known venture capital firms, attracting attention from the crypto community. What makes Connext different as a cross-chain facility? Why has it repeatedly garnered interest from prominent capital?
As the Ordinals protocol on the Bitcoin chain continues to gain popularity, innovations based on the Ordinals protocol are emerging one after another, with more and more research and development teams and developers joining this innovative revolution. "Recursive inscriptions" are becoming a new ecological trend, and "interactivity" will provide more new gameplay for inscription NFTs.
4. "Why Is BNB Chain Launching a New Layer 2 Network, opBNB?"
Currently, the BNB Chain ecosystem includes Layer 1 chain BSC, BSC application sidechain, storage chain BNB Greenfield, and Layer 2 chain zkBNB. What is the positioning of opBNB?
5. "Are Crypto Companies Like Binance and Coinbase Really Wronged by the SEC?"
Although the regulatory crackdown on cryptocurrencies has not yet been fully determined, it is certain that the long-silent U.S. regulatory agencies have suddenly taken action, causing over 76% of liquidity providers in the cryptocurrency market to "retreat." Will the SEC be able to add new evidence to events they once kept silent about in this new round of investigations?
6. "What Problems Does Uniswap v4 Solve for Current DEXs?"
The release of the Uni v4 draft is an exciting event, although it is unrelated to its token empowerment and has not yet announced a specific release date. However, it proposes two core innovations: Hook and The Singleton. This article attempts to analyze what problems Uniswap v4 solves for current DEXs.
Unlike traditional cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance and Coinbase, EDX Markets adopts a non-custodial model, not holding customers' digital assets during trading, thereby reducing custody risks. EDX Markets primarily facilitates the matching of buy and sell orders, similar to the roles of traditional exchanges like Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange. In a sense, EDX Markets is indeed the kind of "good child" that the SEC and Wall Street would favor.
8. "Cai Wensheng: I Firmly Believe in the Explosion of Web3; Investors Are Investing in Their Own Dreams"
At the third module of the Everything Creation Camp in Hong Kong on June 17, renowned investor Cai Wensheng shared and communicated for two hours with 65 entrepreneurs from Everything Island. As an entrepreneur and investor who has traversed the three generations of the internet (Web1, 2, and 3), how does he seize the dividends of these three waves and view the transformation of the internet? What insights can this provide for Chinese entrepreneurs?
