Daily News | BTC and ETH Fell, Crypto Market Experienced a Pullback; Tether Launched a New Token Backed by Gold; The Initial Market Cap of ZKsync Airdrop is Close to $800M

2024-06-18, 03:36

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## Crypto Daily Digest: Tether launched new tokens backed by gold; The new South Korean law requires exchanges to regularly review token listings; The initial market cap of ZKsync airdrop is close to $800 million 
First, let's examine the trading activities of <a href="/es/price/bitcoin-btc" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Bitcoin</a> ETFs. According to Farside Investor data, on June 17, Grayscale Bitcoin spot ETFs (GBTC) had a fund outflow of $3 million. Meanwhile, Fidelity Bitcoin spot ETF (FBTC) experienced outflows of $9200, Bitwise Bitcoin spot ETF (BITB) experienced inflows of $2.9 million, and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin spot ETF (ARKB) experienced outflows of $50 million.

**<a href="/es/price/tether-usdt" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Tether</a> launched a new token backed by Swiss storage gold, expanding the synthesis of cryptocurrencies**
Tether, the world's largest supplier of stablecoins for the US dollar, announced the launch of a new crypto called "pegged assets." According to a statement released Monday, the company will launch a new token backed by real physical gold stored in Switzerland to launch a series of digital asset releases.

The first upcoming token is called "Alloy by Tether," abbreviated as aUSDT. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said on the X platform, "Tether's Alloy is an open platform that allows users to create collateralized digital assets and will soon become part of Tether's new digital asset tokenization platform, which is expected to be launched later this year."

Tether describes aUSDT as a crypto "designed to track the value of one dollar" but "over collateralized by <a href="/es/price/tether-gold-xaut" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Tether Gold</a> (XAUT)," emphasizing that the token is backed by actual gold. Users can use XAUT as collateral to create aUSDT tokens. Presently, the market cap of XAUT is $573 million, far lower than USDT's.

**New South Korean law requires exchanges to regularly review token listings**
South Korea will implement the Virtual Asset User Protection Act on July 19. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) of Korea has notified 29 registered crypto exchanges to regularly evaluate the tokens listed on their exchanges and decide whether to continue supporting their trading.

The new law requires crypto exchanges to comply with stricter token listing review criteria and review existing listed tokens every six months to ensure they comply with the new guidelines. After the initial review, the exchange must conduct maintenance reviews every three months.

In February this year, the South Korean government released the latest revised version of the Virtual Asset User Protection Act. In April, the Financial Supervisory Commission of South Korea hinted that it would establish stricter regulatory guidelines for listing new tokens on crypto exchanges, suggesting measures to improve market monitoring and security, such as banning the listing of tokens for infected projects. These new standards may prevent project tokens with security vulnerabilities and unresolved security issues from being listed on local exchanges.

** The initial market cap of ZKsync airdrop is close to $800 million **
Layer 2 blockchain ZKsync launched a highly anticipated ZK token airdrop, with 45% of the tokens reportedly being claimed within just two hours. According to CoinGecko data, the opening price of ZK tokens was $0.31, followed by a decrease of about 31%, and currently at $0.198. According to the circulation supply, the market cap is approximately $800 million, with approximately 3.7 billion tokens available for distribution. Calculated after complete dilution, the market value is $4.5 billion.

Some users are dissatisfied with the airdrop's design, believing that there is an issue of unfair distribution and that a few suspected witch addresses are receiving a large amount of tokens. The team acknowledges its non-traditional design. Last week, the Matter Labs team shared the ZKsync Association's token distribution plan.

According to the plan, 89% of airdrops will be claimed by ZKsync users, including anyone who trades on the ZKsync blockchain and reaches an unspecified activity threshold. The remaining tokens will be allocated to ecosystem contributors, ZKsync native projects, on-chain communities, and builders.

Matter Labs also stated that employees will receive 16.1% of ZK tokens,and investors will receive 17.2%, which will be locked for one year and released within three years. The remaining token supply will be allocated to ZKsync's token conference (29.3%) for new governance purposes, while the remaining portion will be used for ecosystem planning (19.9%).

## Market Trends
BTC rose above $66,000 overnight and then reversed, falling below $65,000 this morning.

The ETH price fell below $3,400 this morning, indicating a certain decline.

Altcoins have generally fallen by more than 10%, and the trending token ZK with a large market cap has absorbed hot money from the market.
### Macroeconomics
Market trend: US stocks continue to rise to new historical highs, with funds flocking to technology stocks.
### Market Hotspots
Layer2 protocol Zksync: ZK was launched on major trading platforms yesterday afternoon, with a current price of 0.2u, significantly lower than the over-the-counter price of 0.4u. The current circulating market cap of ZK is $740 million. The <a href="/es/price/ethereum-eth" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Ethereum</a> gas fee has dropped to a record low of 1 gas in 8 years, and when the gas fee for Layer1 no longer rises, the industry narrative for Layer2 is no longer accepted by the market.

Meme sector: MEW rose 25% during the day and has now fallen. MEW is a cat-type Meme token on <a href="/es/price/solana-sol" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Solana</a> Chain, which has recently launched on the Korean trading platform and contracts on BN, with continuous positive news. The current market cap of MEW is nearly $400 million, making it the highest-ranked-cat-based Meme token in terms of market cap.

The crypto market is undergoing a wave of adjustment from the current market trend. The pullback of BTC and ETH indicates market weakness, and the widespread decline of Altcoins exacerbates this trend.

In terms of macroeconomics, the sustained rise and record high performance of US stocks may impact the <a href="/es/price/flow-flow" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Flow</a> of funds in the crypto market. Investors may transfer some funds from the crypto market to the stock market in pursuit of more stable returns.

## Macro: Before the release of the Fed's comments, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit new closing highs, while Wall Street and Eurasian markets both rose
On June 17, before releasing important economic data and speeches from Federal Reserve officials this week, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes hit new closing highs on Monday. The enthusiasm for artificial intelligence has mainly driven the rise of technology stocks. Among large tech stocks, Apple and Microsoft rebounded after falling in the early trading session, closing up 1.97% and 1.31%, respectively. After announcing new AI features, Apple's demand for iPhones has been reignited, continuing last week's upward trend.

Specific indices: The Dow Jones index rose 0.49%, the S&P 500 index rose 0.77%, and the Nasdaq index rose 0.95%.

Two securities firms have raised their forecasts for the S&P 500 based on their technological strength and enthusiasm for artificial intelligence. Goldman Sachs has raised its target for the S&P 500 index at the end of 2024 to 5,600 points, while Evercore ISI has raised its benchmark index forecast from 4,750 points to 6,000 points.

The important economic data to be released this week includes May retail sales data on Tuesday, followed by industrial production data, new housing starts, and the initial value of the S&P Purchasing Managers Index. In addition, the market will be closed for the June holiday on Wednesday.

On June 18, Asian stock markets followed Wall Street's rise as the market anticipated speeches from Federal Reserve officials later that day. Concerns about European political turmoil have eased, boosting market sentiment and driving EUROSTOXX 50 futures up 0.6%, reversing some of last week's sharp decline. The FTSE index futures in the UK also rose 0.43%. In addition, the Bank of Australia is about to announce its interest rate decision, driving the strength of the Australian dollar and domestic stock markets.

The MSCI Asia Pacific stock index rose 0.68%, the Nikkei index in Japan rose 0.83%, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong rose 0.14%, and Chinese blue chip stocks rose slightly by 0.17%.

The US dollar fell slightly by 0.04% against the Japanese yen to 157.68 yen in the currency market. The euro fell to $1.0729, while the pound rose from 0.04% to $1.27105. The onshore exchange rate of the Chinese yuan against the US dollar has fallen to a seven-month low of 7.2554, partly due to mixed economic data released on Monday.

Regarding commodities, Brent crude oil futures rose 0.11% to $84.34 per barrel. Due to the strengthening demand outlook and investors believing that OPEC+oil producing countries may suspend or withdraw their production plans from the fourth quarter of this year, oil prices have slightly risen.

Spot gold rose 0.13% to $2,321.99 per ounce.

<div class="blog-details-info">
<div>Author:**Sherry S. & Icing**, Gate.io Researcher
<div>Translator:Joy Z.
<div class="info-tips">\*This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
<div>\*Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.
</div>

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