12 January 2024
Macro/TradFi
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has approved the first spot Bitcoin ETFs, giving the green light to 11 applications in a move that signifies a major advancement for the crypto industry.
Circle, the issuer of the USDC, has filed for an initial public offering as part of plans to become a publicly-traded company. Details regarding the number of shares and the price range are yet to be disclosed.
Nomura’s Laser Digital has unveiled Libre Protocol, a polygon-powered fund tokenization infrastructure that will be used by Brevan Howard.
The December U.S. Consumer Price Index (“CPI”) has shown higher-than-expected inflation, with annual headline inflation coming in at 3.4% compared to the projected 3.2%, raising doubts about the Federal Reserve's timeline for potential rate cuts.
Crypto
L1/L2:
Cosmos Hub members are in the process of voting on a proposal to reduce the minimum inflation parameter from 7% to 0%.
The Starknet governing community has overwhelmingly approved to implement the latest version of Starknet Alpha v0.13.0. This upgrade introduces a new transaction version that allows fees to be paid in STRK or ETH.
DeFi:
BitGo, a crypto custodial service provider, has received in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) to operate as a Major Payment Institution (“MPI”).
Aave is in the process of voting to integrate PayPal's PYUSD stablecoin into its Ethereum-based pool. The vote follows Curve's December decision to host PYUSD.
Injective has rolled out the Volan upgrade, its largest protocol update yet, introducing the Real World Asset (“RWA”) Module for the easy creation and access of various structured products and RWAs, including fiat pairs and treasury bills.
NFT:
Twitter (or X) has discontinued the option for premium users to use a verifiable NFT image as their profile picture (“PFP”), two years after introducing the feature.
Other:
Fox Corp., the parent company of Fox News, has teamed up with Polygon to launch "Verify," an open-source protocol designed to combat AI-generated media, including deepfakes.
Pontem has secured $6 million in funding through a round co-led by Faction and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with the aim of empowering developers to create apps that are compatible with both the Ethereum Virtual Machine and Move.
Ripple plans to repurchase US$285M worth of its shares from early investors and employees. The move puts the company at a valuation of US$11B.
Finoa, a German crypto custodian and staking services provider for institutional clients, secured US$15M in funding in a round co-led by Maven 11 Capital and Balderton Capital.
Latest Binance Research Publications
Check out our latest publications:
Explore our Binance Research website for more project and macro research reports and the Binance Legal website for latest updates and consultation responses.
For more frequent market updates and insights, follow us on Twitter @BinanceResearch.
Have a minute? Please share with us any feedback you may have via this form.
That’s a wrap!
Binance Research
About Binance Research: Binance Research is the research arm of Binance, the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange. The team is committed to delivering objective, independent, and comprehensive analysis and aims to be the thought leader in the crypto space. Our analysts publish insightful thought pieces regularly on topics related but not limited to, the crypto ecosystem, blockchain technologies, and the latest market themes.
General Disclosure: This material is prepared by Binance Research and is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities, cryptocurrencies or to adopt any investment strategy. The use of terminology and the views expressed are intended to promote understanding and the responsible development of the sector and should not be interpreted as definitive legal views or those of Binance. The opinions expressed are as of the date shown above and are the opinions of the writer, they may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by Binance Research to be reliable, are not necessarily all-inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by Binance. This material may contain ’forward looking’ information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. This material is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell in any securities, cryptocurrencies or any investment strategy nor shall any securities or cryptocurrency be offered or sold to any person in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the laws of such jurisdiction. Investment involves risks.
