Blackrock is bullish on BTC
US funds are craving BTC Spot ETFs, while a new Ethereum standard aims to mitigate exploits.
The bull market is back? After several ETF filings and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink's statement that Bitcoin resembles digital gold, the markets have experienced significant green candles. Let us be your eyes and ears in the crypto market, as we update you on everything that happened in just 5 minutes!
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In today’s issue:
Weekly market performance
Crypto news round-up
Upcoming catalysts
One tool you should try
Further readings
Blackrock changes its mind on crypto
It’s no secret that in 2017 Blackrock’s CEO Larry Fink called Bitcoin an ‘index of money laundering’. But that’s TradFi where nothing’s personal, moreover, it’s fairly reasonable for someone to change his mind in 6 years — which equals about a lifetime in crypto development.
Recent declarations of Blackrock’s CEO make him sound like a Bitcoin maximalist. He told Fox News about BTC’s resembling digital gold, and [TradFi giants] ETF filing’s ability to democratize crypto.
Their ETF filing has not been approved nor denied, and it remains to be seen whether the SEC will deem Coinbase (accounting for just 5.8% of BTC global volume) large enough as a price surveillance partner — acting as a safeguard against price manipulation and fraud.
Since their filing for a BTC Spot ETF bitcoin’s price soared 25%, and many other funds followed suit filing their own applications.
ERC-7265 could improve DeFi security
A group of Ethereum community members has proposed ERC-7265, a new standard to address the prevalent issue of hacks in DeFi protocols. As the DeFi space develops, it encounters quite frequent hacks. According to The Block's Data Dashboard, attackers have stolen nearly $3 billion from DeFi protocols to date. These hacks have exposed the vulnerability of protocols that often react too slowly to prevent token drainage. By the time the hacks are detected, it is often too late to take effective action.
The proposed ERC-7265 standard introduces a "circuit breaker" mechanism that enables DeFi protocols to halt token outflows promptly, mitigating the impact of attacks. When a hack occurs, most funds can be recovered if a circuit breaker is in place. This proposed standard is designed explicitly for governed DeFi protocols that can be upgraded through governance mechanisms. It remains to be seen whether the core Ethereum team will accept and implement ERC-7265 as the final standard, as its adoption requires broader consensus and the involvement of core developers.
There's always someone behind a 0x address: read Euler's exploiter story — a 19 years old Argentinian guy that got lucky and stole $200M.
BRC-69 makes Ordinals 90% cheaper
The Ordinals protocol, responsible for the surge in Bitcoin transactions and fees, continues to pave the way for enhancements and features. Luminex, a Bitcoin Ordinals launchpad platform, has proposed the BRC-69 standard, which aims to reduce inscription costs by over 90% simplifying the creation of Recursive Ordinals collections. This standard allows inscriptions to “work together”, overcoming Bitcoin's block size limitation and enabling the referencing of other inscriptions. In other words, it dramatically optimizes on-chain data stored in Bitcoin’s block space. This proposal also enables fully on-chain pre-reveal processes, eliminating the need for off-chain resources.
Incoming dump on $OP, $APT and $APE?
Crypto networks like Optimism, Aptos, and ApeCoin are preparing for significant token unlocks in July, collectively worth around $100 million. ApeCoin will witness the largest increase in its APE token's circulating supply at 4.23%, while Optimism's OP and Aptos's APT will see increases of 3.75% and 2.17% respectively.
On July 17th, ApeCoin will release 15.6 million APE tokens, valued at $32.6 million, with the majority going to the project's treasury, developer Yuga Labs, and its founder. Aptos will release 4.5 million tokens worth $34 million on July 12th, distributing them to the community and the Aptos Foundation. Optimism will release 24.2 million OP tokens on July 30th, with a value of $30 million, allocated to core contributors and investors.
Token unlocks can have varying effects on token prices, primarily negative ones, as a large amount of supply enters the market simultaneously. Token unlocks can have diverse impacts on token prices, but are often viewed negatively by the market, as a substantial supply enters the market simultaneously. This typically leads to underperformance of the token compared to the overall crypto market or, in the worst-case scenario, a significant price dump.
Thai SEC will ban the use of customer crypto assets for lending and investment with July 31, 2023 — link
US SEC says spot Bitcoin ETF filings are inadequate — link
Twitter received the first Money Transmitter license for US payments — link
Crypto can get messy and confusing at times.. that’s precisely when you wish there was a terminal aggregating all projects in a convenient manner to let you make informed decisions quicker. Guess what? We got your back: Token Terminal fits the bill.
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Their newly released future is, on top of all that, an absolute banger: detailed Financial Statements on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly timeframe.
- is bullish on DeFi 1.0
Tim Ferris, the author of The 4-Hour Workweek, on how to invest—link
Binance’s research report about Liquid staking and LSDfi—link
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Disclosure: Authors may own crypto assets named in this newsletter. Stay on-chain is meant for informational purposes only. It is not meant to serve as investment advice. Please consult your investment, tax, or legal advisor before making investment decisions.