Gryphsis Cryptocurrency Weekly: AI-related crypto tokens surge after Nvidia announces excess earnings
[2024.2.19 - 2024.2.25] After Nvidia announced its earnings, AI token prices soared. SingularityNet (AGIX) rose over 20%, FetchAI (FET) increased by more than 10%, and Render (RNDR) went up by 8%.
Dear readers, welcome to the weekly cryptocurrency summary from Gryphsis Academy. We bring you key market trends, in-depth insights into emerging protocols, and the latest industry dynamics, all aimed at enhancing your expertise in cryptocurrency and Web3. Enjoy your reading! Follow us on Twitter and Medium for deeper research and insights.
Market and Industry Snapshot
Layer 2 Overview:
Last week, Layer 2 saw positive growth, with Starknet and zkSync Era showing the most significant increases of 156.34% and 15.42%, respectively. Protocols like KTX.Finance, DefiEdge, Teller, Interport Finance, and zkLend demonstrated notable TVL growth.
LSD Sector Overview:
In the LSD sector, Ethereum deposits increased by 0.65%, while total withdrawals decreased by 1.92%. In terms of market share, all blue-chip LSDs saw increases, with swETH and stETH showing the most significant growth at 25% and 9.42%, respectively.
RWA Sector Overview:
Last week, the market capitalization of real-world assets (RWA) grew by 12.07%, and the 24-hour trading volume increased by 24.16%. RWA tokenized treasury rose by 0.23%, and tokenized U.S. Treasury value increased by 0.91%. Notable growth tokens include $MBD, $MZERO, and $ONDO, while tokens like $CPOOL, $CANTO, and $DETF experienced significant losses.
Main Topics
Macro Overview:
- US Stock V.S. Crypto
Major Events This Week:
- AI-related crypto tokens surge after Nvidia reports excess earnings
Weekly Protocol Recommendation:
- Bluefin
Weekly VC Investment Focus:
Flare (35 M)
OX.FUN (4 M)
Superfluid (5.1 M)
Twitter Alpha:
@DeRonin_ on $STRK
@TheDeFISaint on Near Protocol
@malviya 9 on zkML
@francesco web3 on Frax Finance
@cyrilXBT on AI
Macro Overview
This week, the stock market saw SPX and NASDAQ rise by 1.67% and 1.42%, respectively. In the coming week, keep an eye on major events such as new home sales, core durable goods orders, ICB consumer confidence, the New Zealand Reserve Bank interest rate decision, and corporate profits.
Major Events This Week
AI-related crypto tokens surge after Nvidia reports excess earnings
Chip giant Nvidia (NVDA) reported fourth-quarter earnings that exceeded already high expectations, boosting the broader stock market and AI-related tokens.
Nvidia stated on Wednesday that its fourth-quarter earnings per share were $5.16, surpassing the average analyst estimate of $4.59 from FactSet data. The chipmaker also reported $22.1 billion in revenue, exceeding Wall Street's expectation of $20.4 billion.
Following Nvidia's earnings announcement, AI token prices soared. SingularityNet (AGIX) rose over 20%, FetchAI (FET) increased by more than 10%, and Render (RNDR) climbed by 8%. According to CoinGecko data, the overall market capitalization of AI tokens has surpassed $16.5 billion.
In contrast, the CoinDesk 20 (CD 20), a benchmark for the largest and most liquid cryptocurrencies, fell by 2.7%.
"Accelerated computing and generative AI have reached a tipping point. Demand is surging across companies, industries, and countries worldwide," said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA.
Nvidia also forecasted first-quarter revenue of $24 billion, exceeding the analyst estimate of $22.2 billion. The company's stock price has risen over 200% in the past year, with its market capitalization briefly approaching $1.7 trillion, surpassing tech giants like Amazon and Google, as its chips drive the AI revolution. The surge has been so intense that Goldman Sachs even referred to it as "the most important stock on Earth."
In after-hours trading on Wednesday, the chipmaker's stock rose by more than 7%, while S&P 500 futures increased by 0.5%, and Bitcoin fell by 1.2%.
Weekly Protocol Recommendation
Welcome to our weekly protocol segment—where we focus on protocols making waves in the crypto space. This week, we spotlight Bluefin, a decentralized perpetual contract exchange based on an order book model.
Bluefin, formerly known as Firefly Exchange, is currently a perpetual exchange exclusive to the Sui chain. Bluefin employs an order book model to provide all users with a high-quality experience in DeFi, including low latency and free order posting akin to CEX.
The official team rebuilt the codebase in 2023, completing the release of version V2. Bluefin v2 is built on Sui, offering traders higher performance, lower costs, and a more Web2-like user experience. Bluefin v2 introduces:
Optimism transaction confirmation + on-chain finality: Since Sui does not require complete ordering of all transactions (only relative ordering of causally related transactions), it supports parallel execution.
Wallet-less trading experience: Allows users to log in with social accounts like Google, Apple, etc.
Spot trading using Sui's on-chain order book
A new margin engine with cross-asset margin capabilities
High TPS: Achieved a peak throughput of 5400 TPS on the mainnet, with peak throughput ranging from 10,871 TPS to 297,000 TPS in a series of tests.
To incentivize users to participate in the use of version V2, the official team launched the Initial Trade & Earn Program, where participants can enjoy a 6% allocation of the total supply of $BLUE. The event will end on March 30, 2024, with a long-term incentive plan to follow. Users can start trading by depositing USDC.e, and all first-time users will receive 0.2 $SUI as GAS support for deposit/withdrawal, opening/closing positions, adjusting leverage, and other trading actions.
Source: Official Website
Users can also participate in the referral program to provide additional rewards through mutual recommendations. It distributes $BLUE rewards as an extra incentive for trading and earning rewards. Rewards will be distributed after a one-week waiting period at the end of each 14-day Epoch. At the end of each epoch, all referred users will receive a 10% Boost reward on the rewards they accumulate through the trading and earning program. Additionally, referrers will also receive a 10% Boost reward from the trading and earning rewards of the users they referred.
Our Insights
Bluefin has achieved a total trading volume of $5.9 billion over the past year, with a monthly peak trading volume of $3.2 billion and a daily peak of $401.4 million. The current TVL is $15.29 million, with annual trading fees of $19.18 million. In the perpetual trading space on the Sui network, it currently ranks first, with its only competitor being ABEx Finance. The space is large, and Bluefin has already established itself as a leader.
Source: Defillama
Currently, there are no specific details about its economic model, but the launched Initial Trade & Earn program is worth noting, with each Epoch lasting 14 days and rewards for each Epoch amounting to 1.79 million $BLUE + 119,000 $SUI as an incentive pool.
After each Epoch ends, there will be a three-day cooling-off period, during which users can immediately claim 50% of their rewards after the cooling-off period ends. The remaining rewards will be locked in the protocol's Vault, and if users wish to claim all rewards, they can gradually unlock them over the next two Epochs. If not fully claimed, the rewards will be sent to the protocol treasury.
Source: Documentation
The event will end in a month, and it can be speculated that Bluefin's token will also be launched soon. With Sui's momentum surging, it is poised to join the ranks of leading public chains, and as a top perpetual exchange, Bluefin is likely to become one of the most popular trading platforms in the Sui ecosystem.
Due to its innovative trading mechanism and user-friendly reward program, Bluefin is expected to attract a large number of traders and liquidity providers, and as its user base and trading volume grow, the demand for its token's application scenarios will expand, making its future actions worthy of further attention.
Weekly VC Investment Focus
Welcome to our weekly investment focus, where we reveal the most significant venture capital dynamics in the crypto space. Each week, we will highlight the protocols that have received the most funding.
Flare
@FlareNetworks is a Layer-1 blockchain that enables secure, universal interoperability between chains, expanding blockchain usage by allowing all digital assets and on-chain information to flow freely. Its consensus protocol for external data allows decentralized applications on Flare to securely and trustlessly access and use information from other blockchains and real-world data sources, solving the oracle problem and ushering in a practical new era.
https://x.com/FlareNetworks/status/1761044910537327092?s=20
OX.FUN
@OXFUNHQ is a crypto derivatives trading platform. The core element of the OX gamified experience revolves around the OX farm. Users can also expect to see leaderboards, competitions, and copy trading vaults to help maximize trading adventures.
https://x.com/OXFUNHQ/status/1760960909487624696?s=20
Superfluid
@Superfluid_HQ is a Web3 streaming payment protocol for processing subscriptions, salaries, rewards, or any other composable value streams by the second. Its core feature is "streaming" payments, where funds flow from one address to another in real-time based on programmable logic and a single on-chain transaction.
https://x.com/Superfluid_HQ/status/1760699706458685942?s=20
Protocol Events
Magic Square, a Binance Labs-backed web3 app store acquires token launchpad TruePNL
Uniswap Foundation proposal suggests turning on rewards for UNI token holders
Uniswap rolls out 'uni.eth' subdomains using ENS infrastructure
Worldcoin surges 40% in 24 hours, leadership hints "major announcements" coming
Lido adds 1inch for faster withdrawals of stETH and wstETH
Industry Updates
Ethena captures 5% of ether perpetual futures open interest; founder downplays concerns
Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms generated record $281 million total revenue in 2023
Spot Bitcoin ETF cumulative trading volume exceeds $50 billion
Kraken seeks to dismiss SEC lawsuit, says claim was 'retaliation' for political remark
FalconX expands into Hong Kong as institutional demand rises
Twitter Alpha
There is a wealth of Alpha in crypto Twitter, but navigating through thousands of Twitter threads can be challenging. Each week, we spend hours researching to curate insightful threads and present you with a weekly selection. Let's dive in!
https://x.com/DeRonin_/status/1760370423257034956?s=20
https://x.com/TheDeFISaint/status/1761386296444879033?s=20
https://x.com/hmalviya9/status/1761320769164886096?s=20
https://x.com/francescoweb3/status/1761020707562295773?s=20
https://x.com/cyrilXBT/status/1761464440233361817?s=20
Upcoming Events
News Sources
https://www.theblock.co/post/278802/ethena-eth-perpetual-futures-open-interest-risk
https://www.theblock.co/post/278868/bitcoin-miner-riot-platforms-2023-report
https://www.theblock.co/post/278843/web3-app-store-magic-square-acquires-token-launchpad-truepnl
https://www.theblock.co/post/278798/spot-bitcoin-etf-cumulative-trading-volume-50-billion
That concludes this week's report. Thank you for reading this week's newsletter. We hope you benefit from our insights and observations.
You can follow us on Twitter and Medium for real-time updates. See you next time!
This weekly report is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered investment advice. You should conduct your own research and consult independent financial, tax, or legal advisors before making any investment decisions. Past performance of any asset does not guarantee future results.
