Today's news tips:
- The Federal Reserve announced that it would maintain the benchmark interest rate unchanged, in line with market expectations
- NFT sales fell more than 31% month-on-month in April
- BlackRock: Financial institutions such as sovereign wealth funds and pension funds may buy Bitcoin ETFs in the coming months
- Animoca Brands co-founder releases "ApeCoin Ventures" proposal to jointly create a $10 million fund with ApeCoin
- Synthetix founder: Proposed to launch Infinex on May 13, requiring on-chain voting approval
- Klumi Ventures plans to launch two Web3 startup investment funds with a total size of US$115 million
- Web3 game Shadow War completes $5 million financing, led by Momentum 6
- Bitcoin spot ETFs had a total net outflow of $564 million yesterday, reaching a record high
Regulatory policies
The U.S. Federal Reserve Board announced its latest interest rate decision, maintaining the target range of the federal funds rate at 5.25% to 5.50%, in line with market expectations. Market participants pointed out that a series of U.S. economic data released recently showed that on the one hand, U.S. economic growth was significantly lower than expected, and on the other hand, U.S. prices rebounded beyond expectations, which were the main reasons why the Fed chose to "stand still" and continue to wait and see.
Data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce showed that the U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 1.6% on an annualized basis in the first quarter of this year, lower than market expectations. In terms of prices, the core personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index excluding food and energy grew by 3.7% on an annualized basis in the first quarter, exceeding the expected 3.4%, the first quarterly growth in a year, indicating that core inflation remains stubborn. The above factors have led to a cooling of market expectations for the Fed's interest rate cuts this year. Traders currently expect the Fed to cut interest rates only once this year, far lower than the expected number of about six times at the beginning of the year.
US Lawmakers Urge SEC to Approve Options-Based Bitcoin Spot ETF
U.S. lawmakers are urging the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve options on a bitcoin spot ETF, which typically comes a few days after the spot ETF is launched.
NFT
NFT sales fell more than 31% month-on-month in April
NFT sales in April were approximately $1.15 billion, down 31.26% from March. The number of NFT buyers also fell by 51.88%, while the number of sellers also decreased by 45.72% during the same period. Among the 24 blockchain networks that mint NFTs, Bitcoin took the lead last month with sales of $597.62 million. Despite this, BTC-based NFT sales in April were still 4.3% lower than in March; Ethereum NFT sales fell sharply to $247.32 million, down 56.8% from the previous month; SOL-based NFT sales fell 39.4% to just over $159 million.
Project News
Robert Mitchnick, head of digital assets at BlackRock, said in an interview that financial institutions such as sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and endowment funds may begin trading Bitcoin spot ETFs in the coming months. Robert said that many interested companies are conducting ongoing due diligence and research dialogues, and BlackRock is playing a role from an educational perspective.
Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu initiated a proposal for "ApeCoin Ventures". The proposal shows that Animoca Ventures, the early venture capital arm of Animoca Brands, proposed to establish ApeCoin Ventures to combine Animoca Ventures' historical expertise with the strong influence of the community to expand the popularity and scale of ApeCoin's adoption and utility.
In a 1:1 matching structure, the proposal proposes to deploy $5 million worth of APE from the ApeCoin DAO and match it with $5 million in fiat funds from Animoca Ventures to create a $10 million combined fund. By jointly investing in early Web3 companies, both parties will promote and encourage the comprehensive utility and adoption of ApeCoin. Its investment strategy targets companies in the seed and Series A funding stages, giving priority to companies that can integrate ApeCoin into their ecosystem.
Aave Labs, the development team behind Aave, released three temperature check proposals on the Aave governance forum, outlining Aave’s development vision for the next 5-7 years, referred to as Aave 2030. The key points in the proposal include:
- Aave Protocol V4 development proposal. Based on V3, Aave V4 proposes a series of improvements, including a new architecture design to enhance modularity and optimize capital efficiency; introduce a unified liquidity layer to seamlessly integrate the native stablecoin GHO; optimize the liquidation engine and risk management tools, etc. Aave Labs plans to start V4 development in Q2 2024 and release it around mid-2025.
- Aave's new visual identity system proposal. The proposal proposes a new visual identity system for Aave, which aims to provide a unified and futuristic visual image for various projects in the Aave ecosystem, making them stand out in the increasingly fierce competition. The new design inherits Aave's friendly little ghost image, symbolizing its enduring innovative genes.
- Aave 2030 Vision Proposal. The proposal outlines Aave's development vision for the next 5-7 years. Aave Labs hopes to drive the Aave protocol to become one of the most important financial infrastructures in the Web3 era. Key initiatives include promoting V4 development, expanding GHO applications, and strengthening connections with real-world assets.
Bitcoin mining firm Stronghold is looking to sell all or part of its stake
Pennsylvania-based publicly traded bitcoin miner Stronghold announced in an earnings call that it is exploring the possibility of selling all or part of the company’s shares to “maximize shareholder value.” Stronghold shares were trading around $3 on Wednesday, with a current market value of nearly $40 million.
friend.tech v2 airdrop may introduce NFT
The decentralized social media platform Friend.tech is preparing to release V2 and airdrop on May 3, but a leaked smart contract shows that the airdrop may introduce NFTs through airdrops, which means that airdrop recipients will not be able to sell or exchange airdrop tokens except for certain whitelisted protocol addresses. It is reported that the new tokens will be awarded to users who pledge ETH and Points tokens in the Friend.tech smart contract.
Optimism to introduce 'deliberative process' in fourth round of retroactive public goods funding
Optimism said on the X platform that in the fourth round of retroactive public goods funding, they will introduce a new governance experiment called Deliberative Processes. The process aims to take an iterative approach and transfer most of the governance responsibilities from the Optimism Foundation to the Optimism Collective, making the Foundation one of many contributors to propose system changes. The deliberative process will help to obtain representative ordinary people or users to participate in governance decisions and provide space for thoughtful discussions. In each round, some hypotheses will be tested and the results will provide guidance for the design of future rounds and/or other parts of the governance system.
Synthetix founder: Proposed to launch Infinex on May 13, requiring on-chain voting approval
Kain Warwick, founder of Synthetix, said that the decentralized perpetual contract exchange Infinex will be officially launched on May 13. This is an "account launch" when Infinex users can access their self-custodial accounts on the platform. Warwick said that May 13 was his own proposal and has been submitted to the Synthetix protocol management DAO, and the launch still needs to be approved by on-chain voting.
Decentralized AI data network Masa will launch a new MASA staking plan in cooperation with CoinList next week, allowing users to choose to lock their MASA tokens for 3, 6 or 9 months and receive an annualized rate of return of 15%, 20% and up to 25% respectively. When the user confirms the staking choice, token rewards will begin to accumulate immediately. Any user can view their total staking balance at any time, track the number of tokens to be obtained after expiration, and view the deadline for each staking cycle.
hushky, a member of the io.net team, disclosed the token airdrop information on the official Discord platform. The specific distribution is as follows: Ignition Season 1 Worker: 7.5 million tokens; Ignition Season 2 Worker: 7.5 million tokens; Discord/Galxe/content creators/KOLs/other marketing partners and activities: 7.5 million tokens; airdrop swap with the Aethir project: 2.5 million tokens (tentative, the final result depends on the market price of IO tokens at that time)
Exchanges
Binance Nigeria money laundering trial postponed to May 17
According to a spokesperson for Tigran Gambaryan's family, Binance's Nigeria money laundering trial will be postponed to May 17. It is reported that Tigran Gambaryan is currently in Kuje Prison awaiting a bail hearing on May 17, and the trial was originally scheduled for today. Gambaryan is Binance's head of financial compliance. In February this year, he was detained in Nigeria along with Nadeem Anjarwalla, Binance's Africa regional manager. Nearly a month later, Nigerian authorities filed anti-money laundering and tax evasion charges against Binance and its executives.
Coinbase International Exchange: AEVO-PERP, ENA-PERP and ETHFI-PERP have entered full trading mode
The AEVO-PERP, ENA-PERP, and ETHFI-PERP markets on Coinbase International Exchange and Coinbase Advanced are now in full trading mode, with limit, market, stop, and stop-limit orders now fully available.
Investment and Financing
Klumi Ventures plans to launch two Web3 startup investment funds with a total size of US$115 million
Klumi Ventures announced that it has obtained a financial license from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), allowing the company to invest in tokens and make equity investments in early-stage Web3 startups. Klumi Ventures is launching two funds, one of which is a $100 million fund specifically for emerging technologies and decentralized industries. Another $15 million qualified investor fund is planned to be used for pre-seed and seed investments in Web3 startups.
Multi-chain liquidity re-staking protocol Bedrock has completed a round of financing, led by OKX Ventures, LongHash Ventures, and Comma3 Ventures, with participation from Waterdrip Capital, Lbank Labs, Amber Group, ArcheFund, Whale Ground, and angel investors including Babylon co-founder Fisher Yu.
Bedrock's total locked value (TVL) on Ethereum (uniETH) and IoTeX (uniIOTX) has exceeded $200 million. It has launched a native cross-chain restaking service (Native Cross-Chain Restaking), which is deployed on multiple chains including Arbitrum, Linea, Scroll and Manta, and will continue to expand to more chains in the future. In addition, Bedrock will soon release the first liquid staked Bitcoin (uniBTC) based on the Babylon protocol to provide Bitcoin staking services to users. Bedrock hopes to achieve the next stage of growth through its liquid staked Bitcoin (uniBTC), and expects to introduce this service before the launch of the Babylon mainnet to break through the limitations of staking innovation.
Web3 game Shadow War completes $5 million financing, led by Momentum 6
Swedish game studio Patriots Division has raised $5 million in seed and Series A funding for its Web3 game Shadow War. The Series A funding was led by Momentum 6, with participation from iAngels, Cointelligence Fund, Xborg, Andromeda VC, Cogitent Ventures and Cluster Capital.
Shadow War is a 5v5 third-person action game set in a sci-fi future, drawing inspiration from well-known games such as Overwatch and League of Legends, focusing on the fusion of futurism, fantasy, action and competition. Shadow War emphasizes melee combat and tactical strategy, aiming to reward skill-based players while avoiding pay-to-win elements that hinder competitive integrity.
Web3 startup Matera has successfully raised $3.6 million, with backers including Sidedoor Ventures, HighCass Crypto, Medusa Ventures, The Sandbox, and Saxon Partners. Matera plans to develop a blockchain infrastructure, including a DeFi platform, protocol layer, and L2 network. The funds raised will be used to build a creator platform that combines DeFi with social media to solve the monetization challenges prevalent in the creator economy. Matera currently supports creators on X, enabling them to raise funds and monetize their loyal fan base, and plans to expand its integration to other social media platforms.
Web3 wine marketplace Baxus completes $5 million seed round led by Multicoin Capital
Web3 wine market Baxus has completed a $5 million strategic round of financing, led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Solana Ventures, Narwhal Ventures, FJ Labs and a group of angel investors. BAXUS hopes to solve the problem of market inefficiency by integrating the market into one application to connect buyers and sellers. The company said that by using an open Web3 payment infrastructure, costs can be reduced and transparency can be improved. Its Web3 market is built on the Solana blockchain, allowing buyers to trade using credit cards, ACH, direct wire transfers or cryptocurrencies including USDC. The beta version was launched last summer and has facilitated $8 million in transactions so far.
Web3 content distribution platform Metale Protocol recently announced the completion of a $2 million seed round of extended financing. As of now, its total seed round financing amount has reached $4 million. This financing was completed in the first quarter of this year, led by Aipollo Capital, Waterdrip Capital, and Ultiverse Dao, and participated by many senior entrepreneurs. Metale Protocol is building a decentralized content distribution platform. It aims to build a decentralized content storage and rights confirmation protocol through blockchain, and build an application ecosystem on the network to provide decentralized paid playback, crowdfunding governance, traffic purchasing, data analysis, AI creation tools and other services for the content industry.
Important data
Bitcoin spot ETFs had a total net outflow of $564 million yesterday, reaching a record high
Yesterday (May 1, EST), the total net outflow of Bitcoin spot ETFs was $564 million. Yesterday, Grayscale ETF GBTC had a single-day net outflow of $167 million, and the current historical net outflow of GBTC is $17.47 billion.
As of press time, the total net asset value of the Bitcoin spot ETF was US$47.079 billion, the ETF net asset ratio (market value as a percentage of the total market value of Bitcoin) was 4.17%, and the historical cumulative net inflow has reached US$11.217 billion.
VanEck: About $175 billion of Bitcoin is held by ETFs, countries and companies
Investment company VanEck said in its latest report that about $175 billion worth of Bitcoin is currently held by multiple ETFs, different countries, and public and private companies, accounting for about 15% of the total supply of Bitcoin. According to Coingecko data, as of Wednesday, the total market value of Bitcoin was about $1.2 trillion. In the past week, the price of the world's largest cryptocurrency has fallen from more than $64,000 to around $57,000. VanEck launched a spot Bitcoin ETF in January and currently manages $600 million in assets. The company said in the report that Bitcoin's potential as a store of value is increasingly recognized by hedge funds, asset management companies and endowment funds. In addition, more and more merchants and companies now accept Bitcoin as a payment method, and infrastructure construction has also made it easier for ordinary people to use Bitcoin.
Market: Bitcoin breaks through $58,000, Ethereum breaks through $3,000
Bitcoin broke through $58,000 and is now trading at $58,178.25, up 1.0% on the day. Ethereum broke through $3,000 and is now trading at $2,991.33, up 3.6% on the day.
Data from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's official website shows that the total transaction volume of the six first virtual asset spot ETFs issued in Hong Kong today was HK$68.4 million, including:
- Huaxia Bitcoin ETF (3042.HK) closed at HK$7.245 today, down 8.87%; the transaction volume was HK$33.14 million;
- Huaxia Ethereum ETF (3046.HK) closed at HK$7.175 today, down 7.66%; the transaction volume was HK$2.62 million;
- Harvest Bitcoin Spot ETF (3439.HK) closed at HK$7.265 today, down 8.62%; the transaction volume was HK$20.26 million;
- Harvest Ethereum Spot ETF (3179.HK) closed at HK$7.195 today, down 7.40%; the transaction volume was HK$1.72 million;
- Boshi HashKey Bitcoin ETF (3008.HK) closed at HK$45.120 today, down 9.00%; the transaction volume was HK$10.31 million;
- Bosera HashKey Ethereum ETF (3009.HK) closed at HK$22.9 today, down 7.66%; the transaction volume was HK$350,000.
Market: JTO breaks through $3.5, with a 24-hour increase of more than 20%
JTO broke through $3.5 and is now trading at $3.52, up 20.5% in 24 hours.
The average return rate of all crypto sector indices in the past 7 days was around -10%. The most resilient sector was Layer2, with a weekly return rate of -4.99%; followed by the Payment and NFT sector indices, with weekly returns of -5.3% and -6.64%. The Layer2 sector index includes ten component coins, including MATIC, MNT, IMX, OP, and ARB. It is worth noting that the SoSo Value Crypto Index is an index compiled by the platform by selecting mainstream component coins representing different sub-sectors in the crypto field, aiming to measure the rise and fall performance of different sectors in the cryptocurrency market over a certain period of time.
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