TRON Industry Weekly Report: BTC Bottom Range Gradually Clarified, Focus on Defi+ Privacy This Week

I. Outlook

1. Macroeconomic Summary and Future Predictions

In the past week, affected by tariff policies and concerns about economic recession, U.S. stocks continued to decline, with risk aversion rising and gold prices hitting an all-time high. The U.S. February CPI rose by 2.8% year-on-year, while core CPI increased by 3.1% year-on-year. Institutions such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley predict that U.S. GDP growth will slow down in 2025, downgrading their forecasts from 2.4% to 1.7% and 1.9%, respectively. The U.S. economy still faces the challenges of "high inflation and slow growth," with tariff policies and recession fears exacerbating market volatility. In the future, the risk of economic recession is rising, inflation expectations are strengthening, and the Federal Reserve's monetary policy needs to be closely monitored.

2. Market Changes and Warnings in the Cryptocurrency Industry

Last week, influenced by macroeconomic uncertainties, geopolitical tensions, and market sentiment, Bitcoin prices experienced a significant drop, with BTC briefly falling below the $80,000 mark, hitting a low of $76,600, before recovering to $83,000. After the FUD, the overall cryptocurrency market entered a low-level consolidation mode again, with investor sentiment becoming cautious, and market trading remained relatively light. The prices of various cryptocurrencies fluctuated around recent lows to varying degrees, indicating that the market is searching for a new equilibrium.

3. Industry and Track Hotspots

Institution-level DEX August raised $10 million led by DragonFly and followed by Foresight, providing secure software solutions for digital asset management and settlement; Seismic, a blockchain platform claiming to achieve "application-level encryption," raised $7 million led by A16z, with an architecture that allows developers to build privacy-enhanced decentralized applications (dApps) supporting various application scenarios including exchanges, lending platforms, auctions, stablecoins, and launch platforms; Balmy is a decentralized banking platform designed to give users complete control over their financial assets.

II. Market Hotspot Tracks and Potential Projects of the Week

1. Performance of Potential Tracks

1.1. Analysis of the Institution-Level DEX August, which raised $10 million led by DragonFly and followed by Foresight

August Digital is a high-end platform for institutions, providing secure software solutions for digital asset management and settlement. The services offered by the platform include spot trading, derivatives trading, and decentralized finance (DeFi) trading, allowing users to exchange assets, stake, provide liquidity, and access over-the-counter (OTC) products across multiple blockchain networks. Additionally, August Digital offers automated loan lifecycle and risk management software, enabling institutions to safely scale their lending operations, monitor counterparty risk in real-time, and automatically perform settlements.

++ Protocol Overview ++

The architecture consists of the following components:

1. On-chain Loans

Institutional lenders provide off-chain loans to institutional borrowers. These loans are isolated loans, and lenders manage the whitelisted borrowing addresses, chains, collateral types, loan-to-value (LTV) ratios, interest rates, terms, and contract calls for the loan assets, determining whether these loans involve market makers and are hedge-neutral.

2. Lending Pools

These are on-chain wallets and funds pools, including:

• Isolated Credit Pools: Permissioned on-chain credit facilities with specific risk constraints, for example, we can create a credit facility that only underwrites hedge-neutral basis strategies for the ETH mainnet.
• Integration based on DeFi Native Lending Protocols: Integration of lending protocols such as Clearpool, Maple, Morpho, Term, or Aave.
• Public Pools operated by August (USDC, ETH, WBTC): Permissionless and composable DeFi pools.

1. Wallets (Sub-accounts)

This is the core smart contract wallet, owned by the client, exposing specific functions to the risk engine, such as the ability to liquidate or emergency unwind positions.

4. Strategy Contracts

Adapters built on existing DeFi protocols, supporting protocols include Aave, Compound, Curve, Convex, Uniswap, GMX, Paraswap, 1inch, and their forks on different EVM chains.

• Structured Product Contracts: Total return swaps, interest rate swaps, forwards, and options. These contracts rely on off-chain pricing data between two counterparties and automatically handle margining.

1. Account Abstraction

Similar to Gnosis Safe, the August wallet can connect to any DeFi protocol through wallet-connect account abstraction. Users can set whitelists and permissions at the contract call level and interact with DeFi protocols on any EVM chain.

6. Risk Engine

The risk engine is a software module that monitors the health of the August wallet, triggers margin calls, and liquidates client positions when necessary. This logic runs off-chain and has the authority to execute required actions on-chain. As maturity increases, the risk engine will become an oracle and relay network, storing data in a data availability layer and establishing a fully on-chain liquidation market.

August builds its underwriting framework for each asset based on CME's SPAN methodology, combining parameters such as volatility, price ranges, cross-asset correlations, holder distributions, and order book depth. The team plans to make these standardized ratings public and use them as a public marketing tool in the field.

Currently, the August team is running the risk engine, but once the risk engine SDK is opened, external partners will be invited to participate in its operation.

7. Insurance Pool

Initial capital comes from lenders/liquidity providers (LPs) in exchange for returns. As the network develops, part of the network fees will be used to fund the insurance pool until it becomes self-sustaining.

++ Commentary ++

August is a high-end platform for institutions— all of our borrowers undergo KYC/KYB checks. August provides capital efficiency for institutions already on-chain while offering a way for those that cannot directly participate in decentralized finance (DeFi) to unlock capital efficiency and enhance transparency by bringing bilateral agreements on-chain while maintaining institutional-grade compliance.

August supports institutional clients' enhancements in the following ways:

• Capital Costs: Currently, on-chain finance is typically fully collateralized. By creating cross-margin collateral tools, August reduces capital costs, making capital operations in this area more efficient. The value proposition of capital costs is universally applicable, whether for early fintech startups, traditional or crypto-native funds, or DAO treasuries.
• Credit Access: August's account structure and risk engine unlock the collateral value of user assets in an isolated and controlled environment.
• Transparency of Risks and Reserves: August achieves a fully transparent and programmable credit chain, providing better credit monitoring and establishing trust between borrowers and lenders.

1.2. What Makes Seismic, a Blockchain Platform Claiming to Achieve "Application-Level Encryption," Unique After Raising $7 Million Led by A16z?

Seismic is a cryptographic blockchain platform that integrates secure hardware, providing encrypted global state, memory access, and data flow. This architecture allows developers to build privacy-enhanced decentralized applications (dApps) supporting various application scenarios, including exchanges, lending platforms, auctions, stablecoins, and launch platforms.

By reconstructing the blockchain technology stack around secure enclaves, Seismic provides a solid foundation for the next generation of applications requiring confidentiality and data protection, breaking through the privacy limitations of traditional transparent chains.

++ Overview of Seismic's Products ++

++++

Seismic is a cryptographic blockchain that possesses all the key features required to build cryptographic protocols:

• Encrypted Global State: Supports encrypted interactions among multiple users, suitable for exchanges, lending platforms, etc.
• Encrypted Memory Access: Supports encrypted pointers, applicable to auctions, stablecoins, etc.
• Encrypted Data Flow: Supports controlled exchanges between encrypted and transparent states, suitable for decentralized organizations, launch platforms, etc.

Seismic eliminates transparency bottlenecks, enabling developers to build new financial cooperation models, investment tools, and social experiences.

Seismic has already supported several early prototype applications:

• Nibble: Allows you to earn revenue shares from your favorite restaurants.
• Level: Enables you to trade assets based on beliefs rather than prices.
• Folio: Lets you participate in the longest "pay later" chain in history.

++ Seismic: An Open-Source Blockchain Technology Stack ++

Seismic reconstructs the modern blockchain technology stack through secure hardware. The main components are as follows:

• Smart Contract Language: A forked version based on Solidity, adding stype.
• Execution Client: A forked version based on reth, revm, alloy, adding encrypted storage and related opcodes.
• Consensus Middleware: Uses Omni, ready to use out of the box.
• Consensus Client: Uses CometBFT, ready to use out of the box.
• Secure Hardware Build: A forked version based on Flashbots' Yocto manifests, adding proxies.
• Testing Framework: A forked version based on Foundry, adding encrypted storage and related opcodes.
• Wallet Client: Extended from Viem, adding transaction types.

99% of Seismic's code comes from the open-source community, and we adhere to this standard, so all codebases are fully open-source under the MIT license.

Based on Secure Enclaves

The core of this technology stack is the Secure Enclave. Secure enclaves are a set of hardware components that protect the confidentiality of data in use, preventing the host or external entities from reading the data. The secure enclave technology adopted by Seismic is Intel TDX.

Seismic leverages TDX by cloning the main memory segments of the EVM, creating a set of encrypted segments and a set of transparent segments. The encrypted segments utilize the confidentiality of the underlying hardware to achieve secure data storage and computation.

Data Flow Management

Seismic extends EVM storage opcodes to manage encrypted data flows. For example:

• Native EVM manages storage elements through SLOAD / SSTORE.
• Seismic EVM additionally supports CLOAD / CSTORE to manage encrypted storage elements.
• Similar mechanisms apply to calldata, transient storage, and memory.

These mechanisms ensure that each data element is marked as transparent or encrypted and managed according to execution rules.

++ Commentary ++

Seismic v0 has been open-sourced on GitHub but is still in its early stages, with a long way to go before the final version.

• The current version only clones storage segments and does not track data states.
• The current "default all memory encrypted" strategy affects UX and usability but validates the core assumptions of the encryption protocol while accelerating market release.

Trust Assumptions: Challenges of Secure Enclaves

Using secure enclaves means Seismic relies on hardware confidentiality, which also brings risks of side-channel attacks.

Short-term response strategy:

• Currently, Seismic only supports cloud validators to reduce risks.

Long-term outlook:

• Past hardware confidentiality issues have indeed posed challenges, but Intel TDX and AMD SEV-SNP represent a new generation of VM-based enclaves that use untrusted hypervisors and fix significant vulnerabilities from earlier versions.
• These technologies are sufficient to support a complete blockchain ecosystem, and with the rapid development of confidential computing, they will only improve in the future.

1.3. Analysis of Balmy, an Autonomous Decision-Making Investment Platform Supported by the First DCA Logic Led by Genosis

Balmy is a decentralized banking platform designed to give users complete control over their financial assets. By integrating advanced decentralized technology with a user-friendly interface, Balmy provides secure and intuitive investment management, including synthetic stocks, bonds, and various cryptocurrencies. The platform features several functions, such as yield optimization through Balmy Earn, seamless asset exchanges via aggregators, and automated periodic investments to reduce market volatility risks.

++ Protocol Design ++

The design of the protocol ensures that users are protected from market volatility while providing ample incentives for market makers to execute trades:

User Rights

• Enjoy protection from market volatility
• Trades have MEV protection
• Zero Gas fee DCA trades

Market Maker Rights

• Can execute trades using the entire protocol balance (supports Flash-Swaps)
• Can earn a portion of trading fees
• Can arbitrage the protocol's liquidity pool

Balmy's design minimizes the impact of MEV-related activities on users.
When demand matching occurs within the protocol's liquidity pool, trades will be matched within the same pool; if no match is found, market makers will execute trades at the price expected by users.

++ Architecture Analysis ++

Similar to Uniswap, Mean Finance v2 is also divided into Core and Periphery.

• Core: Contains all smart contracts necessary for the protocol's operation, ensuring the execution of its basic functions.
• Periphery: Typically used for user interaction, providing convenient interfaces and additional features without affecting the underlying security and decentralization of the protocol.

Hub (Central Contract)

In version 1, the protocol adopted a Factory/Pairs architecture:

• Each trading pair corresponds to an independent smart contract.
• A factory contract is responsible for deploying new trading pairs and tracking all created pairs.

While this method is feasible, deploying contracts for new trading pairs on the Ethereum mainnet incurs high costs. Additionally, this architecture struggles to utilize demand matching between different trading pairs for more efficient exchanges.

Version 2: The Hub

To address the above issues, version 2 introduces the "Hub" (central contract):

• A single smart contract manages all trading pairs, eliminating the need to deploy new contracts for each trading pair.
• Reduces costs and gas fee expenditures, making trading more economical and efficient.
• Increases efficiency by allowing multiple trading pair exchanges to be executed in a single transaction, enhancing liquidity utilization.
• 

Main Responsibilities of the Hub

Since all trading pairs are integrated within the Hub, it becomes the core contract of the protocol, responsible for the following functions:

1. Position Management

• Create / Modify / Terminate positions
• Withdrawals

1. Trade Execution

• Calculate potential trading opportunities
• Execute trades

1. Protocol Configuration

• Adjust protocol parameters
• Enable / Pause protocol functions

Permission Manager

The Permission Manager is a smart contract specifically designed to handle NFT ownership/transfers and additional permissions. In theory, it should be integrated within the Hub, but due to contract space limitations, it was ultimately split into a separate contract.

Main Responsibilities

1. NFT-related Management

• Handle NFT ownership and transfers
• Minting and burning can only be executed by the Hub (i.e., when creating or terminating positions)
• Support EIP-2612 permits, allowing NFT operations to be approved without on-chain transactions

1. Additional Permission Management

• Handle additional permission settings
• Support EIP-2612 permits for managing additional permissions

++ Commentary ++

Mean Finance is the most advanced DCA (Dollar Cost Averaging) protocol, allowing users to set automated investment strategies, such as "exchanging 10 USDC for WBTC daily for 30 days." Users can perform such periodic investment operations between almost all ERC20 tokens and freely choose the execution frequency. These token exchanges will occur at fixed time intervals, unaffected by asset price fluctuations, thus reducing the impact of market volatility on investments.

Balmy utilizes Mean Finance's DCA technology to implement the above automated investment strategies. It is known that accurately timing the market is extremely difficult, and the core goal of DCA is to reduce the impact of market volatility on the target asset price. Since the asset price will vary with each periodic exchange, DCA can effectively lower the overall volatility risk of investments, avoiding adverse price fluctuations from a lump-sum investment.

The DCA solution provided by Mean Finance features decentralization and zero gas fees, meaning no account registration, no trading limits, and no deposit or withdrawal fees.

2. Detailed Analysis of Projects of the Week

2.1. Detailed Analysis of the Depin Protocol DoubleZero, which Raised Over $28 Million with Numerous Well-Known Capital Follow-ups to Eliminate L1 and L2 Barriers

++ Introduction ++

The DoubleZero protocol is a decentralized framework for creating and managing high-performance permissionless networks, optimizing distributed systems such as blockchains. It creates a dynamic and expansive network by allowing underutilized private fiber links to participate permissionlessly. The DoubleZero network features a low-level permissionless architecture that seamlessly connects heterogeneous networks. Through this architecture, DoubleZero creates a mesh transport layer capable of filtering and transmitting traffic via low-latency and high-bandwidth routes, enabling distributed systems to efficiently send and receive information.

Through a permissionless controller based on public blockchain, the protocol attracts new bandwidth contributors through incentives and manages network configurations and routing in cases of demand surges, failures, and other disruptions. This network infrastructure layer allows systems like Layer 1 blockchains to break free from communication bottlenecks and approach the physical performance limits.

In short, the DoubleZero network is a new type of internet optimized for distributed systems.

++ Technical Analysis ++

The DoubleZero protocol is not just a technological innovation; it is also a new bandwidth and communication economic model. On the supply side, it allows private enterprises to monetize underutilized private links (which may be purchased or leased from telecom companies or network service providers). Enterprises do not have to let these links remain idle but can contribute them to the DoubleZero system, opening up new revenue streams.

On the user and operational side, it enables distributed systems to enjoy the advantages of private networks without relying on centralized systems and long-term contracts. Instead, these systems can flexibly adjust their throughput needs, network topology, or communication priorities. Most importantly, the DoubleZero protocol not only matches suppliers and users but also aggregates individual contributions into a unified global network. Individual links from suppliers—these links are fixed in path, limited in range, and lack global redundancy—may not meet the demands of modern systems, which require flexibility, coverage, and resilience. The DoubleZero protocol weaves these individual links into a powerful and extensive system, leveraging the same network effects that have driven the internet's development.

Like the public internet, the decentralized spirit of the DoubleZero network is a strength, not a weakness, as multiple independent contributors create something more valuable than the sum of its parts. Ultimately, the protocol is born as the first "N1" protocol—a neutral and high-performance physical infrastructure layer. On this N1, distributed systems and applications (whether network-related N2 or others) can be built.

System Architecture

Each node operator (validator, RPC, etc.) in DoubleZero is not only responsible for data input and output but can create a parallel and protected transaction flow by decoupling data filtering and validation from transaction inclusion, block production, and execution, allowing node operators to optimize their network operations.

While the role of validators is typically understood as a single operation, there are actually two fundamental steps: block production and achieving consensus on blocks. Block production begins when a large amount of unfiltered inbound data reaches the validator. The validator performs deduplication, filtering, and signature verification operations, reducing the available transaction pool. The validator then selects a subset of feasible transactions for inclusion, builds a block, and propagates the proposed block to other validators for consensus. Other validators either approve the block and attach it to the chain or reject the block and move on.

In most networks today, these processes are handled by the resources of a single x86 machine. The cores of this CPU are interconnected through an on-chip network within the machine. We propose to scale this into a global network: the DoubleZero network. By placing FPGA devices at key entry points on the network edge to filter inbound traffic, the DoubleZero network acts as a common shield for all local validators (i.e., validators downstream of devices connected to the DoubleZero network's internal ring). Compared to validators, these FPGA devices can handle orders of magnitude more traffic, performing specific tasks such as removing spam, deduplicating transaction sets, and verifying signatures—all accomplished through open-source software that can be audited to ensure fair processing of inbound transactions. The transaction sets received by downstream validators are significantly reduced, requiring only the re-verification of the signatures of transactions included in the final block to maintain the security of the blockchain. Their resources—typically a single x86 machine—can be significantly freed up for tasks related to block production, transaction execution, indexing, etc.

By decentralizing the filtering and execution stages to provide more flexibility, we can allocate inbound resources more efficiently and resiliently. Through resource sharing, we no longer need to equip each individual validator with sufficient resources to meet global demand; instead, global demand can be met through infrastructure sharing, requiring far fewer total resources.

By supporting multi-point broadcasting in the inner ring, the flow of traffic is further optimized, with the DoubleZero network's inner ring operating as a single network domain under the joint control of protocol participants. Value-added functions such as block or shard propagation can be achieved through multi-point broadcasting.

Low-latency access to the latest state can provide significant advantages for high-performance applications. For example, in this model, denial-of-service attacks would become more difficult—requiring massive traffic (thousands of gigabits per second) to simultaneously attack multiple geographically distributed sites. It would no longer be an attack on a single validator or a single blockchain but rather an attack on hundreds of data centers and internet service providers (ISPs) globally. A successful attack would become more difficult and resource-intensive—and emphasizes that infrastructure sharing creates a stronger and more resilient network architecture for all participants.

Blockchain Application Scenarios

As the most representative prototype of distributed systems, blockchain overall represents the most powerful application scenario for the DoubleZero network. The dual goals of blockchain—to maintain openness while achieving high performance—often constrain each other in the current state. In various application scenarios such as L1 blockchains, RPC nodes, MEV systems, and L2 chains, the DoubleZero network can drive the realization of a balance between the two.

++ Summary ++

Today's decentralized applications are facing data flow bottlenecks that limit their performance. DoubleZero provides a solution through its powerful filtering capabilities, configurable routing, and ample bandwidth, helping decentralized applications break free from constraints. This is the new internet for modern distributed systems.

What DoubleZero does is simple: increase bandwidth, reduce latency.

III. Industry Data Analysis

1. Overall Market Performance

1.1 Spot BTC & ETH ETF

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

1.2. Spot BTC vs ETH Price Trends

BTC

Analysis

Last week, BTC's rebound momentum remained weak. Although it quickly recovered the $80,000 mark, the subsequent upward trend could not be sustained and is now blocked near $85,300. If it cannot strongly break through and stabilize at this level in the first half of this week, users may continue to look down to the previous low support range of $77,000 to $78,000 to form a double bottom pattern again. If the retracement is small and stops above $78,000, there is a probability of forming a head-and-shoulders bottom reversal pattern. However, users need to be aware that until a significant breakout occurs above the wedge's upper edge, BTC remains within a strong bearish range.

ETH

Analysis

After breaking below the key psychological level of $2,000, ETH has temporarily stopped falling near $1,750. Although this price level once served as an effective support and resistance level, providing some support for the current trend, the strength of this support needs time to be validated due to the long time interval. Therefore, if the subsequent retracement can stabilize again near $1,750, a short-term double bottom pattern may form, testing the resistance levels of $1,970 and $2,150. Recently, ETH is about to welcome the key Pectra upgrade; if this favorable factor allows the bulls to exert moderate strength, regaining the $2,000 mark should not be difficult.

1.3. Fear & Greed Index

Analysis

Fundamental Factors:

1. Regulatory Policy Changes: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on March 10 that it plans to abandon the proposal requiring certain cryptocurrency companies to register as alternative trading systems. This policy shift may be seen as a relaxation of regulations on the cryptocurrency industry, affecting market sentiment.
2. Government Strategic Reserve Proposal: Former President Trump proposed including cryptocurrencies like XRP, Solana, and Cardano in the U.S. strategic reserve. This proposal has sparked criticism and skepticism within the industry, potentially exacerbating market uncertainty.
3. Market Volatility: Bitcoin prices have fallen from record six-figure highs to around $80,000, a decline of nearly a quarter. This price volatility may have intensified investors' fear.

Industry Dynamics:

1. Market Sell-off Pressure: Due to economic uncertainty, the cryptocurrency market has seen a 25% evaporation of market capitalization since December. This large-scale sell-off may lead to a spread of fear.
2. Market Sentiment Indicators: On March 15, the market sentiment index rose to 46, indicating a shift from fear to neutrality.

2. Public Chain Data

2.1. BTC Layer 2 Summary

Analysis

Based on multiple industry reports and data, the main trends of the BTC Layer 2 ecosystem from March 10 to 14, 2025, include:

• Steady Growth: The continuous increase in network capacity and channel activity indicates that the Lightning Network is in a steady expansion phase.
• Technological Reliability Improvements: This week's routing optimization upgrades help enhance transaction speed and success rates, ensuring the network can support larger transaction volumes.
• Commercial Applications Landing: The active deployment by merchants and payment processors signifies that the Lightning Network is advancing towards broader real-world applications.
• Enhanced Security: Ongoing attention and upgrades from developers regarding security vulnerabilities reflect the industry's high regard for network resilience, helping to build user trust.
• Regulatory Environment Impact: Although there have been no direct regulatory changes in the short term, discussions around off-chain transactions continue to influence market sentiment, with some users remaining cautious.

2.2. EVM & Non-EVM Layer 1 Summary

Analysis

EVM Layer 1 Development Dynamics

• Ethereum and Its Upgrade Progress: Ethereum continues to advance its upgrade roadmap, focusing on scalability and reducing transaction fees. Developer activity has increased, with several new dApps launched on the mainnet, driving growth in on-chain activity.
• Other EVM Chains: Networks such as Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, and Polygon report strong developer participation. They are optimizing network performance and expanding partnerships to further solidify their competitive advantages in the EVM ecosystem.
• Institutional Investment and DeFi Integration: The growing interest from institutions and the ongoing development of DeFi projects provide positive momentum for EVM Layer 1 platforms. Meanwhile, these blockchains are further enhancing interoperability with Layer 2 solutions to improve overall usability.

Non-EVM Layer 1 Development Dynamics

• Solana's Network Stability: Solana's adoption rate in the NFT space remains strong, but it has recently faced intermittent network stability issues. The team is actively optimizing performance and conducting security audits to enhance network reliability.
• Cardano's Smart Contract Expansion: Cardano is expanding its smart contract capabilities to enhance its appeal in enterprise-level applications. Additionally, the project is working to attract more institutional investors.
• Interoperability and Cross-Chain Development: Projects like Polkadot and Tezos are advancing new cross-chain communication plans aimed at building a more interconnected blockchain ecosystem, bridging gaps between different protocols.
• Security and Protocol Upgrades: Some non-EVM Layer 1 blockchains are prioritizing security enhancements and protocol audits after experiencing early challenges to boost developer and user confidence.

2.3. EVM Layer 2 Summary

Analysis

Key Highlights

• Milestone of Veda (Ordinals EVM Extension): The Ordinals EVM extension protocol Veda has surpassed the $2 billion TVL milestone, achieving a significant milestone. This reflects strong investor confidence and the growing adoption of EVM-based innovative yield solutions within the broader DeFi ecosystem.
• Preparation for Ethereum's Pectra Upgrade: In sync with EVM Layer 2 activities, the Ethereum community continues to refine the upcoming Pectra upgrade plan. Discussions and testnet activities on platforms like Holesky—along with the soon-to-be-launched dedicated testnet "Hoodi"—aim to optimize validator performance, expand staking limits, and reduce transaction fees. These improvements are expected to benefit Layer 2 aggregation solutions by further lowering gas fees and increasing throughput.

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

On March 12, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the year-on-year growth rate of the CPI in February slowed to 2.8%, and the core CPI year-on-year was 3.1%, both lower than expected, indicating a relief in inflationary pressures. Among them, energy commodity prices turned negative month-on-month to -0.9%, airfares significantly dropped, and rent price increases were moderate.

Despite the cooling inflation data, the uncertainty of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy and concerns about economic growth prospects have severely impacted investor confidence in the market.

Key macroeconomic data nodes for this week (March 17-21) include:

March 17: U.S. February retail sales month-on-month

March 20: U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate decision (upper limit) as of March 19; U.S. initial jobless claims for the week ending March 15

V. Regulatory Policies

After Trump announced that the U.S. would establish a strategic reserve for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, countries such as the UK and South Korea stated they would not launch similar plans. This is a subsequent negative factor following the U.S. cryptocurrency reserve falling short of expectations. In the context of a persistently sluggish market, without more effective and proactive incentives, the cryptocurrency industry must rely on demonstrating its usability to gain further growth momentum.

Argentina: Finalizing Rules for Virtual Asset Service Providers

The Argentine National Securities Commission (CNV) has officially approved General Resolution No. 1058, establishing final regulatory guidelines for virtual asset service providers (VASP). The new regulations cover registration obligations, cybersecurity, asset custody, anti-money laundering measures, and risk disclosure obligations, aiming to maintain regulatory balance and avoid overregulation or unnecessary costs to the industry, thereby promoting innovation. For non-compliance, the CNV may suspend or revoke registrations. In Argentina, unregistered virtual asset service providers may be seized by court order and must undergo annual system audits and comply with preventive regulations.

Cayman Islands: New Cryptocurrency Regulatory Framework to Take Effect Next Month

The Cayman Islands has updated its cryptocurrency regulatory framework, with new licensing rules set to take effect on April 1, 2025. Under the 2025 Virtual Assets (Service Providers) (Amendment) Regulations, all entities providing virtual asset custody and trading platform services will need to obtain a license from the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA). Existing virtual asset service providers (VASP) must submit license applications within 90 days after the effective date.

Hong Kong: Potential Establishment of a Digital Asset Trading and Settlement Platform

Hong Kong Legislative Council member Wu Jiezhuang has suggested promoting the establishment of a blockchain unified trading and settlement platform for licensed virtual asset trading platforms in Hong Kong, facilitating the tokenization of physical assets and enabling 24/7 uninterrupted trading. He pointed out that to address the financing difficulties faced by small and medium-sized enterprises in mainland China and the inefficiencies in cross-border transactions, he recommends establishing a digital asset foreign exchange fund in Hong Kong to provide digital asset collateral financing for small and medium-sized enterprises in the Greater Bay Area while promoting financial circulation in the Greater Bay Area.