Gryphsis Cryptocurrency Weekly: Ethereum Breaks $4,000 for the First Time in Over Two Years
[2024.3.4 - 2024.3.10] ETH is the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, reaching $4,000 for the first time in over two years on Friday.
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 showing the most significant increase of 19.64%. Protocols like Stear Protocol, Polynomial Protocol, Interport Finance, Fringe V2, and Carmine Options exhibited notable TVL growth rates.
LSD Sector Overview:
In the LSD sector, both Ethereum deposits and total withdrawals increased, with withdrawals rising more noticeably by 3.74%. In terms of market share, all blue-chip LSDs saw significant increases, with stETH showing the most notable growth of 13.01%.
RWA Sector Overview:
Last week, the market capitalization of real-world assets grew by 20.27%, and the 24-hour trading volume increased by 9.37%. RWA tokenized treasury rose by 2.07%, and the value of tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds increased by 2.47%. Notable growth tokens include $CGT, $RWA, and $PROPS, while tokens like $DEXTF, $LUMI, and $LAND experienced significant losses.
Main Topics
Macro Overview:
- US Stock V.S. Crypto
Major Events This Week:
- Ethereum breaks $4,000 for the first time in over two years
Weekly Protocol Recommendation:
- NetMind
Weekly VC Investment Focus:
Kravata (3.6 M)
GoPlus Security (4 M)
Oyl (3 M)
Twitter Alpha:
@poopmandefi on Chainflip
@CryptoKaduna on NetMind
@MoonKing___ on Taraxa
@coinesper on Oasis Protocol
@wacy_time1 on $TAO
Macro Overview
This week, the stock market saw SPX and NASDAQ decline by 0.14% and 1.14%, respectively. In the coming week, keep an eye on significant events such as the German Consumer Price Index, Core Consumer Price Index, 10-Year Treasury Auction, Crude Oil Inventory, and 30-Year Treasury Auction.
Major Events This Week
Ethereum breaks $4,000 for the first time in over two years
ETH is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, reaching $4,000 for the first time in over two years on Friday.
In recent months, cryptocurrencies have surged alongside Bitcoin, which hit an all-time high on March 5. The last time Ethereum reached such a high level was on December 28, 2021. Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin over the past 30 days, rising 67%, while Bitcoin increased by 57%, and the broader cryptocurrency market measured by the CoinDesk 20 index rose by 53%.
Ethereum's rise has been attributed to speculation regarding the approval of a U.S. spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF). The spot Bitcoin ETF was approved in January and witnessed billions of dollars in net inflows.
Bitwise analysts indicate that the chances of a spot Bitcoin ETF being approved are not as clear-cut. Analysts provided a 50%-60% chance of approval, stating that it "will happen sooner or later."
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/03/08/ether-hits-4k-for-first-time-in-more-than-two-years/
Weekly Protocol Recommendation
Welcome to our weekly protocol segment—where we focus on protocols making waves in the crypto space. This week, we highlight NetMind, a decentralized AI computing platform.
With the rapid advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence, coupled with a surge in global interest, the demand for high-performance computing has skyrocketed, presenting challenges as companies, professionals, and research institutions worldwide struggle with shortages, decentralization, and rising costs of computing resources. Meanwhile, the centralization of computing power among tech giants creates control over pricing and access, posing barriers to innovation and competition for smaller entities, further entrenching the dominance of large companies in the AI space.
NetMind's mission is to leverage the idle GPUs of global users to create a global computing power network for AI models, enabling businesses and research institutions to access democratized computing capabilities, allowing them to develop and run AI models and inference platforms more easily and cost-effectively through low-latency, widely connected, and easy-to-manage distributed deep learning training and services.
Currently, NetMind offers the following solutions:
NetMind Power: The ultimate distributed computing platform that provides massive computing resources to solve complex problems in AI, data science, and more. With NetMind Power, individuals and businesses can easily access powerful computing resources to train or execute complex AI models.
NetMind Chat: A customizable chatbot that allows users to train the chatbot to reflect their personality or choose from pre-trained models. It also enables businesses to customize chatbots using their datasets to provide more specific domain knowledge and functionalities.
NetMind Avagi: A digital entity tailored to any appearance preferred by the user, equipped with the knowledge and abilities the user needs or involved in specific relationships of interest to the user.
NetMind Life: Assesses the user's health status and provides feedback and suggestions.
Source: Official Website
NetMind has also launched its own NetMind Chain, utilizing a POA consensus algorithm, fully compatible with Ethereum. This is to decentralize all tasks, transactions, and functionalities occurring on the platform. In addition to employing distributed technology as the platform's design, NetMind Power also adopts a decentralized management approach, comprising a large number of distributed machines known as Mind Nodes.
Mind Nodes validate transactions and thus build the blockchain, and as a reward, each Mind Node receives Gas fee rewards. Users can choose to stake $NMT on Mind Nodes to earn staking rewards.
NetMind's native token, $NMT, has a total supply of 10 billion. It is primarily used for: paying training and inference fees on the platform, and rewarding various types of participants in the network. As shown in the figure below, 40% of the token supply will be used to reward GPU providers, 30% for staking rewards, 20% for the community, and the remaining 10% for the team.
Source: Whitepaper
The breakdown of network participant rewards is as follows:
Computing Resource Provider Rewards: Providers earn $NMT rewards simply by connecting to the network. The amount of rewards allocated to volunteer computing resource providers is determined by three factors: GPU type, network bandwidth speed, and the number of connected machines on any given date (daily reward allocation will be distributed among all connected machines).
Computing Power Usage Fees: Users training or fine-tuning models on the NetMind Power platform need to pay in $NMT for training or fine-tuning. There are two payment models: synchronous and asynchronous, but 50% to 80% of the fees in both will be burned.
Staking Rewards: Users can stake their $NMT tokens in any of the main nodes and receive $NMT rewards according to the allocation plan.
Mining Rewards: Users can join the NetMind Chain network as node operators. In addition to earning $NMT rewards from operating nodes, they will also receive Gas fee rewards from users training models or using other services on the platform.
Our Insights
NetMind belongs to the AI track and is a new highlight in this bull market, currently valued at $43 B, with a trading volume of $7.9 B. Its token $NMT has risen 107.9% in price over the past 7 days. On March 7, according to official news, NetMind.AI announced its invitation to attend the NVIDIA GTC 24 conference, leading to a 40% price increase that day.
Source: CoinMarketCap
In the official recent plans, the following key points are listed:
Etherscan and other platform updates: The project team is transferring approximately $3-4 M of liquidity from the BSC chain to Ethereum via CEX and actively updating information on Etherscan, CoinMarketCap, and CoinGecko. They are preparing to maximize liquidity on the Ethereum network and encourage users to contribute to ETH liquidity.
Cross-chain Transfers: After completing the liquidity transfer, cross-chain transfer functionality will be launched, allowing users to transfer between the NetMind chain and Ethereum/BSC. Future plans include providing transfers between Ethereum and BSC on the website to enhance the interoperability of tokens and ecosystems.
CEX Integration Work: The official team is in discussions with several CEXs to improve the accessibility and usability of $NMT token holders, thereby facilitating trading and growth.
Source: Documentation
As mentioned above, a portion of the computing power usage fees paid by users will be burned by the system. Currently, NetMind has accumulated the burning of 1.5 million $NMT, and this number continues to increase. As the network expands, more miners and users participate in the ecosystem. Although mining rewards may decrease, the burning from users renting GPUs or deploying/using AI models will increase, driving up the token price.
NetMind creates a global computing power network for AI models by leveraging the idle GPUs of global users and provides a large-scale distributed computing platform that integrates global heterogeneous computing resources, enabling businesses and research institutions to develop and run AI models more easily and cost-effectively through low-latency, widely connected, and easy-to-manage distributed deep learning training and technology.
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 spotlight the protocols that have received the most funding.
Kravata
Kravata is a platform based in Colombia that aims to connect traditional financial infrastructure and fiat currency with cryptocurrency for businesses looking to enter the Latin American web3 space. Its services include gateways for converting fiat to cryptocurrency (and vice versa), as well as market-making and cross-border transfer systems. Its investors include Circle Ventures, Framework Ventures, Alliance DAO, and others.
https://x.com/KravataWeb3/status/1765820613338247555?s=20
GoPlus Security
GoPlus Security is an open, permissionless, user-driven security service platform for all types of blockchain users. It supports independent security risk submissions, rapid risk detection, and feedback on results.
Oyl
Oyl is a Bitcoin trading application that allows users to trade Ordinals, BRC 20, and Bitcoin-native assets directly from their wallets.
https://x.com/OylDynamics/status/1765894699703804045?s=20
Protocol Events
MakerDAO implements temporary fee hikes to prepare for 'potential Dai demand shock'
Aevo offers pre-market trading for its own token ahead of an upcoming airdrop
BlackRock plans to purchase spot bitcoin ETFs for its Global Allocation Fund
Optimism Foundation to sell $89 million worth of OP tokens in a private sale to an unknown buyer
Base says it will support EIP-4844 from 'day 1' following the Dencun upgrade
Industry Updates
Solana client Jito Labs axes mempool function following increase in MEV attacks
Bitcoin transaction volume skyrockets as the halving approaches and miners cash in
Coinbase shares top $250 direct listing price for the first time in over two years
Wyoming governor signs into law a bill to give DAOs legal standing in the state
JPMorgan says expecting bitcoin to match gold in portfolios by notional amounts is unrealistic
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/poopmandefi/status/1765768960816083214?s=20
https://x.com/CryptoKaduna/status/1766634752948289949?s=20
https://x.com/MoonKing___/status/1766479173936161146?s=20
https://x.com/coinesper/status/1766057905218871413?s=20
https://x.com/wacy_time1/status/1766520948587430362?s=20
Upcoming Events
News Sources
https://www.theblock.co/post/281216/jpmorgan-bitcoin-gold-investors-portfolios
