Headlines
Economic Daily: Be cautious about virtual currency investment
The Economic Daily published an article titled Be Cautious About Virtual Currency Investment which pointed out that the currency circle has encountered another wave of earthquakes in recent times. Bitcoin has fallen continuously, from over $70,000 at the end of July to around $58,000 on August 16. In particular, on August 5, Bitcoin once fell below $50,000, hitting a new low in nearly a year, with a daily decline of 15%, and more than 270,000 people were liquidated, with a total liquidation amount of more than $1 billion.
The Federal Reserve may cut interest rates by a total of 92 basis points this year
U.S. Treasury yields surged as traders lowered their expectations for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates sharply this year after the latest data showed the resilience of the U.S. economy. Traders reduced their bets that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates sharply in September, and expected a rate cut of less than 30 basis points next month. They now expect the Fed to cut interest rates by a total of 92 basis points in the rest of 2024, down from more than 100 basis points before the data was released. (Jinshi)
Goldman Sachs: Expects three consecutive 25 basis point rate cuts starting in September
In its report last week, Goldman Sachs detailed the agenda of the Jackson Hole Global Central Bank Annual Meeting. The most anticipated speech is Powells speech. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell will deliver a keynote speech at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time on August 23 (22:00 Friday Beijing Time). The speech will be live but there will be no question-and-answer session afterwards. Goldman Sachs pointed out that the market may receive signals of confidence in rate cuts and data dependence. It is expected that Powells information and off-site interviews will be similar to what has been heard in the past few weeks, that is, the Fed is now close to cutting interest rates, but the degree of easing will depend on the upcoming data. Goldman Sachs economists expect the Fed to cut interest rates by 25 basis points three times in a row starting in September, and believe that the market has over-priced a 50 basis point rate cut at the next meeting after the weaker-than-expected employment data in July. (Wall Street News)
Industry News
Data: 40 funds around the world hold more than 1.07 million BTC
HOD L1 5 Capital posted on the X platform that global Bitcoin ETF data showed that as of August 16, 2024, 40 funds around the world held 1,070,594 BTC, and BlackRock IBIT continued to increase its holdings of BTC.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a blog post this week written by Shafik Hebous, an economist at the IMFs Fiscal Affairs Department, and another economist, Nate Vernon-Lin.
The authors highlight the environmental challenges posed by crypto mining and artificial intelligence data centers, noting that these sectors already account for 2% of global electricity consumption. They add: “According to our estimates based on International Energy Agency forecasts, this share could climb to 3.5% within three years.”
The report warns that this increasing energy use could push crypto mining’s contribution to global carbon emissions to 0.7% by 2027, stressing: “Extending the analysis to data centers (according to IEA estimates) means that carbon emissions from these sectors could reach 450 million tons by 2027, or 1.2% of the world’s total.”
To address this, Hebous and Vernon-Lin proposed targeted electricity taxes, “Tax systems are one way to induce companies to reduce emissions. According to IMF estimates, a direct tax of $0.047 per kilowatt-hour would push the cryptocurrency mining industry to curb its emissions in line with global targets.”
DefiLlama data shows that the total market value of stablecoins has exceeded US$168 billion, and is currently US$168.044 billion, with a 7-day increase of 1.33%; among them, the market value of USDT is approximately US$116.834 billion, with a market share of 69.53%; the market value of USDC is US$34.355 billion, ranking second in market value.
Layer 3 shared data on X showing that the top blockchains with the most active addresses in the past 30 days are as follows:
Base: 12 million;
Arbitrum: 4.9 million
Linea: 1.7 million;
ZKsync: 1.2 million;
Optimism: 1.2 million;
Scroll: 831,000.
Overall, the number of independent active addresses in the main L2 ecosystem exceeded 20 million in July.
AI companies need energy, and Bitcoin miners have energy, VanEck said in a recent report. The company believes that Bitcoin miners face profitability risks from volatile operating costs and Bitcoin price fluctuations, and they may find that shifting some of their energy production capacity to the growing fields of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing is a good strategy.
More than 50% of survey participants believe that NFTs will not recover in this cycle
CoinGecko disclosed a recent survey data on the X platform, showing that about 54% of the survey participants believed that NFT could not recover in this cycle, of which 29.5% of the survey participants firmly believed that NFT could not recover in this cycle, and 24.7% were still bearish on the NFT market. In addition, 26.4% of the survey participants were neutral about the recovery of NFT in this cycle, and only a small number of 19.4% of the survey participants still had hope for NFT to make a comeback in this cycle. However, compared with investors and traders, builders and bystanders are more optimistic about the recovery of NFT. Specifically, 28.9% of builders and 29.1% of market bystanders believe that NFT will recover in the near future, while only 17.1% of investors and 20.9% of traders hold the same view.
Project News
DOGS adds airdrop withdrawal option and extends claim period, TGE will be held on August 23
The DOGS community posted on Telegram early this morning that as of press time, 6 million verified users have requested to deposit their DOGS directly into exchanges and Telegram wallets.
The team decided to add more withdrawal options and extend the airdrop claim period. Here is the updated schedule:
- The exchange and Telegram wallet claim window will be open until 2:00 am on August 22;
-Non-custodial wallet applications will be open at 16:00 on August 23;
- TGE and token launch will take place on August 23 at 20:00.
Developers Release BitVM 2 White Paper to Advance Bitcoin Programmability Goals
Last year, Bitcoin developer Robin Linus proposed a theoretical approach to make the Bitcoin blockchain more programmable. Today, he launched a second iteration called BitVM 2, which he claims has significant improvements and can bring the concept closer to real-world deployment. The project will rely on advanced cryptography and innovative design to build a secure bridge to transfer Bitcoin from the main network to a secondary network called a rollup.
On-chain data shows that Vitalik had previously minted the ENS domain name dacc.eth. The market value of the meme of the same name increased by 7 times to US$5 million in fifteen minutes, and then fell back to a market value of US$2.5 million.
Saga: Vault 4 airdrop is now available
Saga recently published a message on X stating that Vault 4 is now open for airdrop applications, and users can check the airdrop qualifications and apply for it through the official website.
Investment and Financing
According to Coin 98 Analytics, 162 crypto projects raised a total of $878 million in July, with focus on infrastructure, blockchain services, and DeFi. Among them, 44 projects raised $299 million in seed rounds, which is similar to the number of undisclosed rounds. Infrastructure seems to be the most popular investment track, with the highest amount of financing ($339 million) and a total of 46 projects, among which mining, Layer 2, and social network projects ranked at the top.
YGG Pilipinas announces acquisition of AI education platform 10X ME
Yield Guild Games (YGG) Pilipinas announced the acquisition of AI education platform 10X ME. The specific acquisition amount has not been disclosed. Through this acquisition, 10X MEs AI professional courses will become part of its Web3 Metaversity products, including courses on using AI tools and applications to improve productivity and integrating AI into business workflows.
Regulatory trends
Nigeria’s tax regulator proposes full crypto regulation
Nigeria’s tax regulator, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), plans to seek the support of the National Assembly for a comprehensive new law to regulate cryptocurrencies in the country. FIRS Executive Chairman Zacch Adedeji announced plans to launch the proposed legislation in September as part of a broad effort to reform Nigeria’s tax system during a recent stakeholder engagement meeting with the National Assembly’s Finance Committee. Adedeji said the new bill will target the growing cryptocurrency industry, ensuring its benefits serve the Nigerian economy while mitigating potential risks. The regulatory move is a response to the rapidly evolving digital economy and the need to update the legal framework to keep up with technological advances.
After the Capital Markets Board (CMB) of Turkey updated its regulations, the number of cryptocurrency companies applying for licenses has increased. Currently, companies including Coinbase, KuCoin and Gate.io have submitted applications, and the number of cryptocurrency companies applying for licenses has increased from 47 to 76. However, the Capital Markets Board of Turkey clarified that being included in the List of Operating Companies is not equivalent to obtaining official authorization, and formal approval is still required.
Character Voice
Coinbase CEO: AI “should own crypto wallets”
Coinbase recently launched an AI accelerator grant program, awarding $3,000 to five projects focused on combining AI with crypto wallets. Coinbase CEO Brad Armstrong said that large language models (LLMs) can perform financial operations if properly equipped.
Odaily Planet Daily News Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan recently shared some of his initial thoughts on X after reviewing the Q2 Bitcoin ETF-related 13-F documents: 1. There are still institutions entering the market, and the number of 13-F documents is growing. My conclusion is: institutional investors continue to adopt Bitcoin ETFs in Q2, and this trend has not changed. 2. Institutional investors (mostly) are diamond hands. My conclusion is: If you think institutional investors will panic at the first sign of volatility, the data shows that this is not the case. They are stable. 3. Hedge funds are still important players. My conclusion is: ETF is a big tent that attracts a variety of investors. I am happy to see Millenniums holdings in these ETF documents compete with Wisconsin. Over time, I hope to see wealth management companies and pensions account for an increasing share.
PayPal founder and billionaire Peter Thiel said he believes Bitcoin is a great invention that has been systematically underestimated in the first 10-11 years. Bitcoin is so large that society doesnt even know how to deal with it.
Jupiter co-founder Meow posted that based on community feedback, it plans to display a (less “dangerous”) certification icon for all tokens that have been verified by the team or community, including USDC and USDT.
Additionally, Mouseover Copy will be updated to better explain why certain tokens may require freezing authority, and if freezing authority exists, the threshold for verification should be higher than if freezing authority does not exist.
These measures are fair to all tokens and need to remain safe, as the vast majority of scam tokens cannot be verified, while not counterproductively panicking the majority of users and subsequently promoting important education about how tokens work.
Into The Cryptoverse founder Benjamin Cowen said in an interview yesterday: I dont think Bitcoins dominance (market share) will return to 70%, and my envisioned target is 60%. Cowen explained that in major altcoin seasons, such as 2021, Bitcoins dominance tends to decline, but slowly recovers to previous levels after the market turns bearish. However, in this cycle, he is more confident that even at high prices, Bitcoin will not return to the same market share as in the past.
Huang Licheng: The more L2s there are, the greater the demand for ETH
Huang Licheng posted on the X platform that L2 liquidity all comes from ETH, and the more L2s there are, the greater the demand for ETH.
Economist Tom Porcelli: Even with a 100 basis point rate cut, the Feds policy is still tight
Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at PGIM Fixed Income, said that the current federal funds rate of 5.3% is relatively high compared with the current consumer price inflation rate of less than 3%. Even with a 100 basis point rate cut, the Feds policy is still tight. The policy is calibrated based on significantly higher inflation and significantly lower unemployment, but these situations have changed.
