Circle moves HQ to New York - Coinbase introduces wBTC competitor ‘cbBTC’
Top Crypto Market Headlines: ?
by?Chadi El Adnani, Head of Research
Weekly Insights Report:
Major U.S. indexes capped a winning week with their fifth consecutive positive session on Friday, driven by growing expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts, starting next Wednesday. This marks the first five-session run in a month. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its second deposit rate cut this year, reducing rates by a quarter-point to 3.5%. The move came as economic growth in the eurozone slowed and inflation weakened. The ECB emphasized caution in its statement, signaling that it is not "pre-committing to a particular rate path." ?
Circle Internet Financial, the company behind USDC stablecoin, is relocating its global corporate headquarters from Boston to New York City. The company confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO earlier this year and plans to open its new headquarters in One World Trade Center in early 2025. Circle's move is seen as part of a broader trend of the cryptocurrency industry aligning with traditional finance, as companies like Goldman Sachs and BlackRock also call New York home. Circle's CEO Jeremy Allaire described the new location as a symbol of the trust, security, and stability the company aims to provide as a key infrastructure provider for the future of finance. ?
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, filed an appeal on Friday challenging the judge who presided over his conviction. Bankman-Fried was found guilty of orchestrating an $8 billion fraud by a federal jury and sentenced to 25 years in prison in March. His appeal argues that the judge’s rulings limited his ability to present evidence and defend himself during the trial, with his lawyer claiming he was "never presumed innocent" by the court. ?
MicroStrategy, a major corporate bitcoin holder, acquired an additional 18,300 BTC for about $1.11 billion between Aug. 6 and Sept. 12, at an average price of $60,408 per bitcoin, according to an SEC filing on Friday. The company now holds 244,800 BTC, valued at approximately $14 billion. MicroStrategy’s total holdings were bought at an average price of $38,585 per bitcoin, costing around $9.45 billion, according to its founder, Michael Saylor. ? Coinbase is moving forward with the launch of cbBTC, an ERC-20 tokenized bitcoin, which will be backed 1:1 by bitcoin reserves and held in centralized custody. cbBTC will launch on Base and other Ethereum ecosystems, offering competition to BitGo’s wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), which currently dominates with 96.6% market share on Ethereum. Coinbase first teased cbBTC in mid-August, amid controversy surrounding BitGo. ?
eToro US has reached a settlement with the SEC, resulting in the cessation of nearly all crypto trading except for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ether. The platform will allow customers to sell other crypto assets within 180 days. eToro agreed to pay a $1.5 million fine for operating as an unregistered brokerage and clearing agency in the U.S. ?
The U.K. government has introduced a bill to clarify the legal status of digital assets like crypto and NFTs, establishing them as personal property. This bill will aid in legal disputes and enhance protections against fraud and scams, creating a new personal property category to strengthen legal clarity for digital asset ownership. ?
On a weekly basis, Bitcoin is up by 7.9%, and Ethereum is up by 1%.
Token of The Week:?Near Protocol (NEAR)
NEAR is currently ranked 20th in terms of market capitalization, with a valuation of $4.3 billion. The token has increased by about 7% in 2024, a performance similar to ETH and significantly better than other major altcoins such as DOT (-50%), MATIC (-59%) or ADA (-44%). ?
领英推荐
Like many other tokens, NEAR's daily volumes have largely decreased compared to March. They currently stand at around $100 million on average. The average market depth levels at 50 basis points are also very high. NEAR therefore displays significant liquidity levels on centralized exchanges. On the DeFi side, the Total Value Locked (TVL) on NEAR Protocol has doubled in 2024, going from about $100 million to $200 million [...] ?
Read the full analysis here:?https://en.thebigwhale.io/article-en/near-protocol-near-analysis-of-the-chain-abstraction-champion
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We just finished mapping the entire crypto ecosystem ??
? ? ? ? ? ?? 500+ projects/companies/DAOs/funds.. listed!
A total of 4 high-level categories: Blockchain Infrastructure; Blockchain Applications; Digital Currencies & On-chain Assets; Institutional "TradFi-like" Services, divided into sub-categories (e.g., Blockchain Infrastructure > Blockchain Services) and further down into sub-sub-categories (e.g., Blockchain Applications > DeFi > Decentralized Exchanges) ?
Download the full 28 pages mapping here:?https://sunzulab.com/publicationstype/the-complete-web3-ecosystem-mapping/
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The Week Ahead: ?
Tuesday September 17 2024
Wednesday September 18 2024
Thursday September 19 2024
Friday September 20 2024
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