Coin360 Daily Dispatch | Crypto Market Updates & Highlights | March 21, 2024

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Crypto Market Update

Table of Contents

Crypto Market Updates

• Bitcoin Surges and Dips: Federal Reserve's Influence
• Market Correction Predictions: Traders' Insights
• Ethereum's Surge Amidst SEC Scrutiny
• Bitcoin's Halving: Predicting the Next Bull Run
• Ethereum's Push for Lower Fees: Raising the Gas Limit

Integrating Crypto and Traditional Finance

• BlackRock's Innovative Fund Receives Donation

Regulatory and Operational Shifts

• ONDO Token Hits New Heights
• Base's Ethereum Network: Fee Surge
• Crypto Partnerships: Floki and TokenFi at WTT Champions
• OKX Withdraws from India: Regulatory Hurdles
• TON's Open League: Boosting Ecosystem Engagement

Overcoming Challenges

• Celsius's Recovery Efforts: Legal Strategy
• Stacks Achieves Milestone: Community Support
• Layerswap's Security Breach: User Compensation
• North Korea's Crypto Heists: Funding Weapons Programs

Advancements and Setbacks

• Polygon Integrates Napoli: Advancing Interoperability
• AirDAO's Exploit: Loss Recovery Efforts
• Super Sushi Samurai's Exploit: A White Hat Hack?

The Future of Gaming and NFTs

• Guild of Guardians: Immutable Games' New Release
• OpenSea Advances NFT Market: Seaport 1.6 Launch

Bitcoin Surges and Dips: Federal Reserve's Influence

Bitcoin experienced a rally, surging past $68,000 before slightly down as Jerome Powell hinted at possible future rate cuts, igniting investor enthusiasm and driving BTC’s value higher. Despite a brief dip to around $60,900 amid concerns over ETF outflows, BTC rebounded strongly, reflecting resilience against ETF influences and Federal Reserve policies. Glassnode indicates a volatile corrective period ahead for Bitcoin, with key indicators suggesting a market correction. 

Interestingly, a Bitcoin trader suggested a price dip below $57,000 could sustain the bull market, highlighting the dynamic interplay of investor sentiment, regulatory signals, and market trends. In the backdrop, the Federal Reserve held interest rates unchanged at a 23-year high, with Powell suggesting rate adjustments might be forthcoming, depending on economic developments.

Ethereum's Surge Amidst SEC Scrutiny

Earlier today, Ethereum surged 13% to $3,543 amidst a probe potentially by the SEC, challenging its classification as a security, with support from industry experts and resilience in its price. The SEC's interest in Ethereum as a security follows its transition to Proof of Stake, with opposition from A16z, emphasizing Ethereum's status as a non-security even post-transition. SEC Chairman Gensler seeks a $2.6 billion budget to enhance crypto oversight, emphasizing the necessity for comprehensive regulation amidst the industry's rapid evolution and legal challenges against major crypto exchanges.

Bitcoin's Halving: Predicting the Next Bull Run

Coinbase expects Bitcoin's strong performance, with 157% up since October, to continue around the halving, citing historical data where BTC increased by an average of 61% before and 348% after past halvings. However, it advises caution due to limited historical evidence. The 2024 halving is eyed for a potential parabolic bull run, driven by increased ETF adoption and holder confidence. 

Bitcoin ETFs have seen substantial inflows, with over $30 billion in assets under management in two months, hinting at a supply squeeze. With $114 trillion managed by Registered Investment Advisors in the US, a 1% allocation to Bitcoin could nearly double its market cap, intensifying the supply squeeze. Long-term holder confidence remains high, with 70% of the supply held by them, while short-term holder supply surged by over 33%, further tightening supply.

Ethereum's Push for Lower Fees: Raising the Gas Limit

Ethereum developers propose raising the gas limit to 40 million to reduce layer-1 transaction fees by 15%-33%, aiming to scale Ethereum efficiently. The initiative, supported by notable figures, faces criticism over potential increases in blockchain state size and hardware load. Meanwhile, at EthTaipei 2024, Vitalik Buterin introduced "rainbow staking" for differentiated protocol services and proposed a "recovery hard fork" against quantum computer threats, emphasizing Ethereum's adaptability and security.

BlackRock's Innovative Fund Receives Donation

BlackRock's tokenized fund, BUIDL, partnering with Coinbase, seeks to provide stable value and yield to investors through cash and Treasury investments. Coinbase facilitates fund infrastructure, reflecting their commitment to integrating traditional finance with crypto. The Ethereum wallet identified as BlackRock’s BUIDL fund, as per Arkham Intelligence, received over $50,000 in memecoin donations, showing community support for this innovative venture.  

ONDO Token Hits New Heights

ONDO Token surged by nearly 40%, reaching an all-time high of $0.8135 with a market cap surpassing $1 billion. This remarkable rally followed the Federal Reserve's decision to hold rates and marked ONDO's entry into the top 100 cryptos list. Factors such as Ondo Global Markets' launch and an increase in whale transactions contributed to this impressive surge.  

Base's Ethereum Network: Fee Surge

Coinbase-backed Base's Ethereum layer-2 network has surged in popularity, leading to record-high transaction fees. The average fee on Base reached $0.5582 for NFT trades on Seaport, significantly higher than on Optimism. The spike was due to increased bot trading activity, resulting in a significant boost in daily decentralized exchange trading volume to $374 million and a total locked asset value of $775 million.  

Crypto Partnerships: Floki and TokenFi at WTT Champions

Floki and TokenFi are set to be official cryptocurrency partners for the WTT Champions Incheon 2024 event in South Korea. This presents an opportunity to leverage the large audience of 450 million viewers and tap into the growing South Korean cryptocurrency market, particularly appealing to the 241 million table tennis fans in China.  

OKX Withdraws from India: Regulatory Hurdles

OKX has halted operations in India, citing regulatory obstacles, compelling users to withdraw funds by April 30. The Indian government issued compliance notices to OKX and other exchanges, urging registration to operate lawfully. Despite attempts to comply, OKX failed to complete the process, aligning with broader regulatory uncertainties in India's cryptocurrency market.  

TON's Open League: Boosting Ecosystem Engagement

TON Foundation has launched The Open League to distribute 30 million Toncoin (over $115 million) to TON Ecosystem users and projects, with rewards via competitions, airdrops, and liquidity boosts. A pilot season saw a 70% TVL increase and a 370% rise in daily active wallets. The Open Network's TVL has surged 133% in four weeks, and Toncoin's price increased by 53% in two weeks, nearly reaching its all-time high. Telegram will start sharing 50% of ad revenue with channel owners via Toncoin, marking significant growth and adoption for TON.

Celsius's Recovery Efforts: Legal Strategy

Celsius, a bankrupt crypto lender, is pursuing the return of over $2 billion from customers who made significant withdrawals before its insolvency. Administered under a clawback provision, this legal strategy aims to equitably distribute recovered assets to creditors. Customers who withdrew over $100,000 are under scrutiny, with favorable settlement offers proposed to mitigate potential legal action.  

Stacks Achieves Milestone: Community Support

Stacks (STX) soared to $3.555, hitting an all-time high post-major upgrade approval. The Nakamoto protocol upgrade received overwhelming community support, with 2,700+ votes and 150 million STX tokens in favor. The testnet launches on March 25, with full activation by late May, promising faster, secure transactions and offering a unique native BTC yield.  

Layerswap's Security Breach: User Compensation

Layerswap, a platform enabling cryptocurrency transfers, was victim to a domain hijack and phishing attack, resulting in a $100,000 loss to around 50 users. The attackers altered the domain's DNS settings, leading users to a phishing site. However, Layerswap has pledged to fully refund the affected users and offer a 10% bonus as compensation.  

North Korea's Crypto Heists: Funding Weapons Programs

North Korea has amassed $3 billion from hacking cryptocurrency firms, significantly funding its weapons programs and constituting about half of its foreign currency revenue. Between 2017 and 2023, 58 cyberattacks targeted crypto entities, with the Lazarus Group playing a pivotal role in these operations. The United Nations panel identified these acts as key to bypassing sanctions and supporting North Korea's missile and nuclear endeavors. In 2023 alone, 17 crypto heists attributed to North Korea amounted to over $750 million. Additionally, a phishing incident in September 2023 saw a crypto whale lose $24 million in Ether, with $10 million moved to Tornado Cash in March. 

Polygon Integrates Napoli: Advancing Interoperability

The Polygon PoS sidechain successfully integrated the Napoli hard fork, adding support for Ethereum's Dencun upgrades, including EIP-1153, EIP-6780, and EIP-5656. It became the first network to support RIP-7212, contributing to mainstream interoperability. RollCall's efforts were pivotal, and more Layer 2 solutions, such as ZkSync Era and Optimism, are also embracing these advancements.  

AirDAO's Exploit: Loss Recovery Efforts

AirDAO suffered an exploit on its AMB/ETH Uniswap pool resulting in the loss of 35.2 million AMB tokens and 125.51 ETH, valued at approximately $875,393.9 million. The hack, involving a phishing scam, resulted in the assets being transferred to multiple platforms. Efforts to recover the stolen funds are in progress, and the DAO is adding more liquidity to the Uniswap LP.  

Super Sushi Samurai's Exploit: A White Hat Hack?

Super Sushi Samurai's SSS token on Blast's layer-2 network was exploited, resulting in a $4.6 million loss. The exploit involved minting tokens and selling them into the liquidity pool. The exploiter, claiming a "white hat rescue" hack, communicated with the team. SSS value plummeted by over 99%, impacting Blast's $1 billion TVL.  

Guild of Guardians: Immutable Games' New Release

Immutable Games will release Guild of Guardians, a mobile RPG, on May 15, running on Immutable zkEVM. The game features dungeons, boss battles, and NFT-based crafting. An on-chain crafting system, The Altar of Sacrifice, allows NFT combinations for rewards. With over a million pre-registrations, the game aims to offer a rich, strategic gaming experience.