TRON Industry Weekly Report: Market Shifts from Neutral to Panic, Solana Ecosystem LRT May Experience Surge

I. Outlook

1. Macroeconomic Summary and Future Predictions

The U.S. CPI rose by 3.0% year-on-year and 0.5% month-on-month in January, marking the largest increase since August 2023, indicating that the trend of slowing inflation has been reversed, and there may be only one interest rate cut this year. The Trump administration is expected to continue implementing trade protectionist policies and strengthen economic cooperation and competition with other countries, while geopolitical risks will continue to affect the stability of international trade and financial markets. Investors should closely monitor international economic dynamics and policy changes to respond to potential risks.

2. Market Changes and Warnings in the Crypto Industry

Overall, prices are influenced by multiple factors, including global economic data, monetary policy expectations, and changes in market sentiment. The specific price trends show significant divergence between bullish and bearish sentiments, with Bitcoin and Ethereum still oscillating at low levels, failing to form a sustained unilateral trend.

The prices of other mainstream cryptocurrencies and altcoins also exhibit considerable volatility. Some altcoins have surged over 30% in the short term, but the market lacks clear upward momentum, and price movements are significantly affected by news events. Investors should remain vigilant about policy risks, market volatility risks, and the potential impact of global economic uncertainty on the crypto market.

3. Industry and Track Hotspots

Legend, founded by former Compound executives and backed by A16Z and Coinbase, offers decentralized financial services, emphasizing security, transparency, and scalability, integrating DEX, lending, staking, and other functions to create a comprehensive DeFi ecosystem; ZenGo, utilizing MPC technology, eliminates seed phrase risks, providing a secure self-custody wallet experience, supporting various assets, featuring 3D facial unlock, convenient recovery, leading a new trend in on-chain wallets; Mirai Labs launched Partnr, aimed at consumer on-chain agency products, facilitating user-agent interaction, optimizing communication, enhancing engagement, and tokenizing DeFi strategy vaults to boost on-chain operations, driving new momentum for on-chain activities.

II. Market Hotspot Tracks and Potential Projects of the Week

1. Potential Track Performance

1.1. What makes the DeFi platform Legend, co-founded by former Compound executives and jointly invested by A16Z and Coinbase with $15 million, special?

Introduction

Legend is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform designed to provide a range of financial services, focusing on security, transparency, and scalability. Based on blockchain technology, Legend aims to offer users tools for decentralized trading, lending, staking, and yield farming while maintaining control over their assets.

Key features of Legend include:

1. Decentralized Exchange (DEX): A user-friendly platform for exchanging various cryptocurrencies and tokens, utilizing smart contract technology to ensure secure peer-to-peer transactions without centralized institutions.
2. Lending: Users can lend their digital assets to earn interest or use their assets as collateral for borrowing. The platform operates through smart contracts, automatically executing terms and conditions without intermediaries.
3. Staking: Allows users to participate in the network's consensus mechanism or provide liquidity, earning rewards for contributing to the platform's security and liquidity.
4. Yield Farming: Offers users the opportunity to earn passive income by providing liquidity to various liquidity pools, typically rewarded in the platform's native tokens.
5. Security and Transparency: Based on blockchain technology, Legend ensures that all transactions are publicly verifiable and immutable, reducing the risk of fraud or manipulation.
6. Scalability: Utilizing layer-two solutions or sidechains, Legend aims to handle high transaction throughput while minimizing transaction fees and network congestion.
7. Governance: Users may have the opportunity to participate in governance decisions, such as protocol upgrades or fee adjustments, typically conducted through decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

By using Legend, individuals can access financial services typically controlled by traditional banks and other centralized institutions, but in a trustless and open-source manner. Whether trading, earning interest, or participating in decentralized governance, Legend positions itself as a comprehensive DeFi ecosystem.

Commentary

From the limited information available, the main features of Legend are:

• Mobile-first design: Legend adopts a mobile-first strategy aimed at providing convenient mobile DeFi services.
• Self-custody wallet: The platform includes a self-custody wallet, allowing users to securely manage assets without relying on external wallets.
• Collaboration with DeFi protocols: Legend collaborates with multiple decentralized finance protocols, integrating various services within the Ethereum ecosystem to provide trading, lending, and other functionalities.
• Fiat on-ramp: The Legend Pay service provides compliant fiat on-ramps for Web3 platforms, supporting deposits in various fiat currencies such as USD, EUR, and GBP.

By integrating multiple DeFi services, Legend aims to provide users with a comprehensive, secure, and convenient decentralized financial experience.

1.2. Tether's layout in the Web3 wallet business, an analysis of the first self-custody wallet ZenGo utilizing MPC technology architecture

Introduction

ZenGo is a self-custody crypto wallet that employs multi-party computation (MPC) technology to provide enhanced security, eliminating the risks associated with seed phrases. It supports over 380 assets, offers 3D facial unlock and triple identity verification recovery features, and allows users to securely trade, buy, and store cryptocurrencies.

1. ZenGo's Security Model

Self-custody is more secure than hardware wallets

Upgrading to a crypto wallet without seed phrase vulnerabilities, supported and protected by multi-party computation (MPC) technology: this technology is used by institutions to manage billions of dollars in cryptocurrencies. ZenGo has the world's largest open-source MPC library and holds multiple patents for consumer wallet security innovations.

MPC: Goodbye to seed phrase vulnerabilities

ZenGo is the first crypto wallet to apply the advanced security features of MPC to consumer wallets, providing a self-custody wallet without seed phrase vulnerabilities. This is an order of magnitude safer than seed phrase-based wallets: even more secure than hardware wallets.

2. What is MPC, and how does it work?

MPC stands for secure multi-party computation, a field in cryptography that originated 30 years ago.

Typically, MPC allows two or more parties to jointly compute a function's output without revealing their inputs. For example, using MPC, a group of friends can securely calculate their average salary ("output") without disclosing each person's specific salary ("input").

For cryptocurrency wallets, MPC enables the creation of a secure key management system without a single point of failure (i.e., the traditional "private key"), allowing multiple parties (e.g., remote servers and mobile devices) to jointly perform all necessary cryptographic functions (such as key generation, transaction signing, and transaction verification) without revealing their respective secrets. It is important to emphasize that in MPC, a single private key is never generated, split, or reconstructed: this makes it more secure than traditional models based on a single private key.

By implementing this type of MPC technology, consumer wallets (and institutional services) can securely design a decentralized asset management system, eliminating the single point of failure associated with private keys. This provides a more secure self-custody option, preventing private key theft (since there is no single private key to be stolen) and key loss, as each party can back up their secret inputs individually in a way that does not expose and jeopardize the entire system.

This design brings many advantages:

• Easy recovery
• No single point of failure for phishing attacks
• Completely user-controlled

1. What is ZenGo's recovery suite? Your recovery suite allows you to restore your ZenGo wallet when deleting the app or changing devices. For your security, you must create a recovery suite before depositing funds into the wallet.

The recovery suite, before May 23, 2024, consists of three required authentication factors:

• Email verification
• 3D facial unlock
• Recovery file (stored in your cloud service)

Now, it consists of only two required authentication factors:

• Email verification
• Recovery file (stored in your cloud service)

Although 3D facial unlock is not a requirement for account recovery, it is recommended as an additional authentication factor to enhance account security. However, 3D facial unlock remains a requirement for ZenGo Pro's advanced security features (including inheritance transfer and theft protection).

Commentary

ZenGo's greatest contribution is undoubtedly the practical application and popularization of multi-party computation technology, making it possible to build user-controlled on-chain wallet services that can match or even surpass custodial wallets in quality, user experience, and security.

"On-chain" is not only the only way to achieve the industry's larger goals but also the default mode that every financial service will ultimately move towards, as it brings significant economic advantages, true transparency, openness, and universal access. We believe this is inevitable, and this process is already unfolding before our eyes as the trend of funds flowing out of exchanges gradually becomes apparent.

Future financial services will be a lightweight software layer running on your phone, partially or fully controlled by users, driven by mathematics and cryptographic technology, decentralized enough to resist censorship, yet simple enough for anyone to use, thereby participating in and building a better life.

1.3. What are the features of Partnr, an AI agent from the Web3 gaming studio Mirai Labs, known for the racing game Pegaxy?

Introduction

Partnr builds consumer-facing on-chain agency crypto products. These products are designed for both regular users and crypto-native users, while also supporting agent participation and interaction. The combination of both will drive broader user adoption and on-chain activity.

Architecture Diagram

The architecture diagram illustrates the interactions between the front-end client, back-end server, hybrid reasoning engine, quality validation module, blockchain-based token management, external integration services, and memory-sharing protocols.

Components

Front-end

• Creator Interface: Allows for the configuration, creation, and management of agents (setting their backstories, styles, domain knowledge, etc.).
• User Interface: For regular users to chat with agents and view rewards.

Agent Manager

Responsibilities:

• Maintain a registry of all agents and their configurations.
• Handle business logic related to agents, such as dialogue routing and state management.
• Interface with the LLM engine to pass context and receive responses.

Architecture:

• Stateless microservices deployed in containers, supporting horizontal scaling.
• Use of relational databases or document storage to persist agent configurations.

LLM Engine

Responsibilities:

• Generate chat responses based on user incoming messages and agent context.
• Evaluate the quality of user messages using custom scoring metrics.
• Support real-time interactions and asynchronous batch processing for data fine-tuning.

Architecture:

• Deployed on servers with GPU support or dedicated hardware accelerators.
• Use of container orchestration (like Kubernetes) for scaling based on demand.
• Modular design allowing for plug-in replacements of models (like GPT-J, LLaMA, custom fine-tuned models).

Data Storage

• User Messages: Captures conversation history and annotations (quality assessments).
• Fine-tuning Datasets: Regularly aggregates from labeled high-quality interactions.
• Agent Configurations: Stores backstories, styles, and custom logic associated with each agent.
• Database: Uses SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL) or NoSQL (MongoDB) to store agent configurations, user messages, and reward transactions.

Commentary

User interactions in Partnr Chat will optimize communication between agents and users, enhancing their efficiency in developing monetization intentions. Chat will start with an initial set of agents and expand to include user-generated agents. Vaults are tokenized DeFi strategy vaults designed for agent ownership and control. These vaults can be designed as static DeFi strategies or as "managed" vaults accessible to agents for executing on-chain DeFi and trading operations.

2. Detailed Analysis of Projects to Watch This Week

2.1. The Solana-based LRT protocol Fragmetric raised $7 million in seed funding; an analysis of its potential in the Solana LRT ecosystem

Introduction

Fragmetric is a native liquidity re-staking protocol based on Solana, aimed at enhancing the security and economic potential of the Solana ecosystem. By leveraging Solana's token expansion capabilities, Fragmetric has effectively implemented NCN reward distribution. Additionally, Fragmetric has designed a practical solution—the Normalized Token Program—to utilize various liquidity staking tokens (LSTs) within the re-staking platform. Fragmetric's mission is to build a secure, transparent, and efficient re-staking infrastructure that empowers users and supports the stability of the Solana re-staking ecosystem.

Three Core Goals of Fragmetric

1. Develop secure standards for liquidity re-staking tokens (LRTs)
   Fragmetric develops and maintains a top-tier LRT standard to ensure accurate reward distribution to users. By establishing the LRT standard, LRTs can be used across various protocols, enabling users to earn both re-staking rewards and additional yields simultaneously.
2. Delegate user deposits to secure and profitable re-staking protocols NCN/AVS
   Fragmetric will establish a governance-based risk management committee to verify the profitability and security of NCN and AVS, ensuring optimal rewards for users.
3. Promote the growth of the Solana re-staking ecosystem through SANG
   By re-staking on Fragmetric, users will become SANG (Solana Network Guardians)—guardians who protect and enhance the Solana ecosystem. Fragmetric and SANG contribute to the ecosystem by researching, developing, and launching new NCN/AVS products, ensuring decentralization and sustainable growth.

Technical Analysis

1. Fragmetric Protocol

Deposits When users deposit SOL, LSTs, or other SPL tokens into Fragmetric, they receive an equivalent amount of $fragmetric assets (e.g., fragSOL).

Normalized Token Program This program, developed by Fragmetric, maintains an accurate conversion ratio between deposited assets and minted $fragmetric assets. Users' merged deposits (SOL, LSTs, and other tokens) form a unified asset basket, which Fragmetric allocates to different re-staking protocols and NCN/AVS.

Reward Distribution Assets are delegated to collaborating validators, who ensure the security of the NCN/AVS network. The earnings from these delegations will be distributed to $fragmetric asset holders. Fragmetric acts as both a portfolio manager and a liquidity layer between users and re-staking protocols.

2. How do $fragmetric asset holders earn rewards?

Base Earnings $fragmetric assets inherit the earnings of any deposited assets, which naturally generate rewards, such as LSTs (liquidity staking tokens) that yield staking and MEV returns. When users unstake, they may receive more SOL (or other base tokens) than initially deposited, reflecting the average annualized return (APR) of all yield-generating assets in the asset basket. Conversely, if a deposited asset itself does not generate any earnings, that portion of the deposit will not yield rewards for the corresponding $fragmetric asset tokens.

NCN/AVS Rewards In addition to standard earnings, NCN/AVS protocols can also distribute rewards in the form of SOL, native tokens, or other assets. Fragmetric utilizes Solana's unique transfer hook feature to accurately track and distribute these additional rewards. Each time $fragmetric assets are transferred, users' eligibility for NCN/AVS earnings is updated, and they can claim these rewards at any time.

It is important to note that $fragmetric assets are OPOS (Only Possible on Solana) LRTs, and their advanced reward distribution mechanism relies on Solana-specific features that are not available on Ethereum.

3. Using $fragmetric assets in DeFi

Since $fragmetric assets are liquidity re-staking tokens (LRTs), they can be used for various purposes in DeFi. For example, fragSOL can be used as:

Collateral for Lending Use fragSOL as collateral in lending protocols to borrow other assets while still earning staking and re-staking rewards.

Providing Liquidity Provide fragSOL as liquidity in decentralized exchange (DEX) pools. This not only increases overall liquidity but also allows liquidity providers to earn trading fees on top of staking rewards.

Trading on DEX Trade fragSOL on decentralized exchanges. Users can directly purchase fragSOL without depositing it into Fragmetric and can sell it at any time for immediate liquidity.

fragSOL is the first $fragmetric asset launched by Fragmetric and is central to the Fragmetric ecosystem.

4. Protocol Ecosystem

Fund The fund is the main module responsible for managing user assets within the Fragmetric ecosystem. It accepts deposits of SOL, LSTs, and other supported assets and mints corresponding Fragmetric assets. The minting process utilizes pricing data from the normalized token pool (introduced in the next section). Additionally, the fund manages withdrawal requests by maintaining sufficient liquidity and regularly executing these requests, allowing users to withdraw their assets in a timely manner.

Deposits and Withdrawals of the Fund The following diagram illustrates the interaction between users, the $fragSOL fund, and the oracle system:

Deposits: Users deposit SOL or supported LSTs (including JitoSOL, mSOL, BNSOL, bbSOL) into the fund.

Minting fragSOL: Upon receiving deposits, the fund mints fragSOL for users. The number of minted tokens is determined by current pricing data, reflecting the total value of the underlying assets.

Withdrawals: Users can request withdrawals, prompting the fund to burn the corresponding fragSOL and reserve an equivalent amount of SOL for user withdrawal. These withdrawal requests are processed periodically.

Pricing fragSOL: The price of fragSOL is dynamically calculated based on the total value of LSTs managed by the fund, ensuring that the tokens accurately represent each user's share in the asset pool.

Operator

The operator is responsible for managing staking, re-staking, withdrawal operations, and executing re-staking strategies. It handles all asset flows between the fund and rewards and configures investment strategies through integration with various staking and re-staking protocols.

The operator in the protocol is responsible for managing asset flows based on dynamically changing configurations. These configurations are adjusted according to withdrawal requests and governance-driven re-staking portfolios.

The operator ensures that the asset amounts between the fund, reserve fund, re-staking protocols, and staking protocols are reconciled. Its tasks include setting target amounts for reserve fund accounts (to handle withdrawal requests) and determining the amounts for unstaking and re-staking to maintain these targets. The operator configures investment allocations based on the latest configurations and delegates funds to NCN node operators.

Normalized Token Pool

The normalized token pool is responsible for accurately minting and burning fragSOL and nSOL tokens. By standardizing the pricing of deposited tokens, Fragmetric can delegate or reduce only one type of token within the re-staking protocol, gaining a significant advantage in how to delegate or reduce the number of tokens for each LST. The supply of nSOL and fragSOL is the same, and users of the Fragmetric protocol will only receive fragSOL, while nSOL will be re-staked and delegated to NCN nodes. When a reduction event occurs, reducers who discover malicious behavior from NCN nodes will receive nSOL. Reducers can then claim SOL and LSTs from the normalized token pool by transferring and burning nSOL.

Pricing Based on Staking Pools

For LSTs like mSOL, bSOL, and JitoSOL, the pricing mechanism directly accesses the on-chain state data of their respective staking pools. This data includes the current value of staked assets, the total number of tokens issued by the staking pool, and any allocated performance metrics or rewards. By using this data, the system can accurately determine the prices of these LSTs, thus inferring the corresponding value of fragSOL.

This direct access to staking pool data ensures that the price of fragSOL is closely related to the actual performance of the staking pool, providing users with a reliable and transparent pricing mechanism.

++Summary++

For Fragmetric, user earnings are a major highlight; if the underlying deposits generate staking or MEV rewards (such as SOL or other LSTs), they will automatically compound, leading to an increase in value over time. If the deposited assets do not generate staking or MEV rewards, users will only receive NCN/AVS rewards through the protocol. These NCN/AVS rewards will accumulate in a dedicated reserve account, and any user holding at least one $fragmetric asset can claim these rewards. The amount of rewards you receive is proportional to your holding time and the number of $fragmetric assets you hold. FragSOL is also central to Fragmetric, representing the user's position in the Fragmetric protocol's Jito re-staking process. Similar to JitoSOL, BNSOL, and bbSOL, these liquid staking tokens provide users' staking positions, while fragSOL provides users' re-staking positions. If you hold fragSOL, you can claim rewards from the re-staking protocol and use it simultaneously in DeFi applications.

III. Industry Data Analysis

1. Overall Market Performance

1.1 Spot BTC & ETH ETF

Analysis

During the last trading week (February 10 to February 14), the U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF saw a cumulative net outflow of $585.8 million, with the following institutional buying and selling details:

Analysis

During the last trading week (February 10 to February 14), the Ethereum spot ETF experienced a net outflow of $26.3 million. The institutional buying and selling details are as follows:

As of November 1 (Eastern Time), the total net outflow of the Ethereum spot ETF was $10.9256 million.

1.2. Spot BTC vs ETH Price Trends

BTC

Analysis

This week, the focus is on the effectiveness of support around $94,500; if it breaks, it is likely to continue forming a new bottom around $90,000. Once a support pattern is formed, it can be seen as a new entry point, while the sign of bullish strength remains a breakout and stabilization above the $100,000 mark.

ETH

Analysis

For Ethereum, the range of $2,600 to $2,900 remains a relatively bottom area and can serve as a second entry point. However, if $2,600 is broken, the range of $2,100 to $2,600 can be seen as the best entry area. Once the price stabilizes above $3,300, it can be viewed as a signal of bullish strength; before that, Ethereum may continue to experience accumulation in a double bottom pattern.

1.3. Fear & Greed Index

2. Public Chain Data

2.1. BTC Layer 2 Summary

Analysis

This week, several significant developments occurred in the Bitcoin Layer 2 (L2) ecosystem:

1. Blockstream Enters the Japanese Market

Blockchain technology company Blockstream announced the opening of an office in Tokyo, aiming to accelerate the adoption of Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions, self-custody options, and real asset tokenization in Japan.

2. Significant Growth of the Hemi Protocol

The emerging Bitcoin Layer 2 solution Hemi protocol has locked a total value of $260 million on its private mainnet before its official launch, demonstrating strong market interest in Layer 2 solutions that enhance Bitcoin's scalability and functionality.

These developments highlight the dynamic evolution of the Bitcoin Layer 2 space, reflecting increased institutional interest, technological advancements, and broader adoption of solutions aimed at enhancing Bitcoin's scalability and functionality.

2.2. EVM & Non-EVM Layer 1 Summary

Analysis

This week, several significant developments occurred in the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) and non-EVM Layer 1 blockchain sectors:

EVM-Compatible Layer 1 Blockchains

1. Injective Plans to Add EVM Support: Injective announced plans to add native high-performance EVM support to its Layer 1 blockchain. This move aims to enhance the network's functionality by enabling Ethereum-compatible decentralized applications to run on the Injective platform.
2. Sonic Mainnet Officially Launched: Sonic, an EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain, has officially launched its mainnet. The platform offers attractive incentives and robust infrastructure, boasting 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) and sub-second confirmation times.
3. Waterfall Network Performance Breakthrough: Waterfall Network achieved a new high of 12,778 TPS on its mainnet, surpassing previous peaks and solidifying its position as a highly scalable EVM smart contract platform.

Non-EVM Layer 1 Blockchains

1. Aptos Foundation Proposes Integration of Aave: The Aptos Foundation has proposed a governance proposal seeking community support for deploying the Aave protocol v3 on the Aptos mainnet. If approved, this will mark the first deployment of the Aave liquidity protocol on a non-EVM blockchain.
2. Near Protocol Compatible with MetaMask: Near Protocol has become the first fully compatible non-EVM blockchain with MetaMask. This integration enhances the accessibility of the Near blockchain, facilitates interaction with decentralized applications, and promotes broader adoption of Web3 technologies.

2.3. EVM Layer 2 Summary

Analysis

This week, several significant developments occurred in the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) Layer 2 ecosystem:

1. Uniswap Labs Launches Unichain L2 Mainnet

Uniswap Labs has officially launched its Ethereum-compatible Layer 2 network "Unichain" after four months of testing and over 100 million on-chain transactions. The mainnet aims to enhance transaction speed and reduce costs for users and developers within the Uniswap ecosystem.

2. Coinbase's Base Network Expands in NFT and DeFi Sectors

Coinbase's Layer 2 network Base has seen significant growth in market share within the NFT and DeFi sectors. This expansion highlights Base's increasing popularity and its role in facilitating scalable and cost-effective decentralized applications.

3. Tezos' Etherlink L2 Contract Deployment Volume Surges 184%

Tezos' EVM-compatible Layer 2 solution Etherlink reported a 184% increase in contract deployment volume in Q4 2024, with over 1,700 new contracts deployed. This growth underscores Etherlink's increasing adoption and its contribution to the scalability of the Tezos ecosystem.

4. Ramp Network Introduces Direct Cash Withdrawal for Ethereum L2 via MetaMask

Ramp Network has partnered with MetaMask to enable users to sell their cryptocurrencies directly from Ethereum Layer 2 networks. This integration simplifies the process of converting crypto assets to fiat, enhancing user experience and accessibility.

IV. Macroeconomic Data Review and Key Data Release Points for Next Week

The U.S. CPI data for January exceeded market expectations, rising 3.0% year-on-year, higher than the previous value of 2.9% and the market expectation of 2.9%. The core CPI, excluding food and energy prices, also exceeded expectations, rising 0.4% month-on-month, higher than the previous value. The U.S. CPI's year-on-year and month-on-month growth rates continue to rise, influenced by increases in energy, used car, and service prices.

Important macroeconomic data points for this week (February 17-21) include:

February 20: Initial jobless claims for the week ending February 15 in the U.S.

February 21: Final consumer confidence index for February from the University of Michigan in the U.S.

V. Regulatory Policies

With the heads of the two major regulatory agencies in the U.S. being individuals familiar with the crypto industry, a new era of relaxed regulation has officially arrived. Although there is still no concrete information regarding the establishment of a U.S. Bitcoin reserve, loosening regulations have become the mainstream narrative in other countries and regions.

Japan

On February 10, according to the Nikkei, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan plans to lift the ban on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency ETFs.

South Korea

Kim Jae-ryong, Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Commission of South Korea, held the third virtual asset committee meeting and decided to advance the plan for corporations to open real-name accounts for virtual assets in three phases. Initially, it will allow institutions such as law enforcement agencies, non-profit organizations, and virtual asset exchanges to open accounts for "cash-out purposes," with plans to gradually expand to professional investment corporations (for investment and financial purposes) and general corporations. Additionally, the Financial Services Commission plans to allow charitable organizations and universities to sell donated cryptocurrencies in the second quarter and aims to gradually trial this with 3,500 listed companies and professional investors in the second half of this year.

India

Indian authorities have seized nearly $190 million in cryptocurrencies related to the Bitconnect Ponzi scheme during an ongoing investigation. This scheme was uncovered in 2018 and led to losses of approximately $2.4 billion for 4,000 investors across 95 countries/regions. Bitconnect was launched in 2016 and collapsed in 2018. The founder of Bitconnect, Satish Kumbhani (charged by the U.S. Department of Justice in February 2022), established a global promoter network to pay commissions to promote the Ponzi scheme.