Crypto Weekly 1/21/2024

A weekly summary of the latest crypto news...

Crypto weekly is co-authored by @serdave 

---

PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- Crypto Market Cap ($1.7T): -4% / -4%
- BTC ($41,279): -4% / -3%
- ETH ($2,435): -4% / +7%
- SOL ($90): -11% / -12%
- UNI ($6.29): -3% / -14%
- MATIC ($0.77): -11% / -20%
- Tether Mkt Cap ($95B): 0% / +3%
- USDC Mkt Cap ($26B): +1% / +5%
- BTC / ETH Dominance: 48% / 17%

---

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- Bitcoin surpasses silver as the second-largest commodities ETF in the US. Link.

- Solana Mobile is releasing a v2 of its crypto smartphone later this year. Their first phone, the Saga, sold 15,000 units and is selling for 5x the original price on secondaries due to multiple Solana tokens, like $BONK, being airdropped to the phone’s built-in wallet. Link.

- A new report from blockchain analytics company Chainalysis shows $24.2 billion of illegal crypto activity in 2023, 0.34% of all transaction volume (down from 0.42% in 2022). 2023 numbers included $8.7 billion from bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. Link. 

- The ethereum Dencun network upgrade launched on Goerli testnet this week and is expected to deploy on mainnet in March. The upgrade is notable for its implementation of EIP-4844, aka proto-danksharding, which will significantly reduce transaction costs on Layer 2s. Link. 

- A federal judge heard oral arguments on dismissing the SECs lawsuit against Coinbase for operating as an unregistered securities exchange. Link.

- There was over $90 billion in crypto trading volume in China in 2023 despite the country banning crypto trading in 2021. Link. 

- The EU will require crypto service providers like exchanges to comply with stricter AML requirements including verifying information about customers with suspicious transactions of €1,000 or more. Link. Link. 

- Filecoin and Lockheed Martin sent files from Earth to orbit and back using decentralized storage protocol, IPFS. Link. 

- Decentralized exchange dydx saw $757 million in 24-hour trading volumes, surpassing Uniswap which saw $608 million of trading volumes over the same time period. dYdX recently moved from ethereum to Cosmos. Link. 

- A federal appeals court ordered the appointment of an independent examiner to oversee the bankruptcy of FTX and can investigate what went wrong in the collapse of the company. The appointment of an examiner in a Chapter 11 case is rare and reserved for high-profile bankruptcies. Link. 

- Donald Trump is releasing a new NFT collection on Bitcoin using ordinals inscriptions. Link.

- The SEC delayed its decision on Fidelity’s spot Ethereum ETF application to March. There are 4 active Ethereum ETF applications: Fidelity, Blackrock, Ark Invest and Van Eck. Link. Announcement. 

- Blackrock’s spot bitcoin ETF experienced over $1 billion of asset inflows this week, compared to Grayscale’s $1.6 billion in asset outflows. Link. Link. Link. 

- Presidential candidate Donald Trump vowed at a political rally that he would never allow the creation of a central bank digital currency. Link. 

- Yuga Labs is releasing a free version of Dookey Dash in Q1 this year. The endless runner game came out for a limited time last year for its NFT holders. Link. 

- The UN released a report that Tether’s USDT stablecoin is a prominent payment method for money laundering and fraud in Southeast Asia. Tether issued a statement that the report ignores USDT’s role in helping developing economies. Link. UN Report. Tether Response.

- Asset manager Franklin Templeton updated its social media profile to Ben Franklin with laser eyes, an ode to popular blockchain memes. Link. Profile. 

- Staking services provider Kiln raised $17 million in a round led by 1kx. Link.

- Crypto-friendly presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy suspended his campaign and endorsed Donald Trump. Link. Link. 

- The NYSE Exchange filed to list a new bitcoin options ETF. Link. Filing.