Bitcoin’s price has been oscillating within a wide range between $57,500 and $61,500 this week, while altcoins have exhibited varied performances across different sectors. According to data from CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap, the inscriptions/BRC-20, modular blockchain/data availability, and cross-chain interoperability (Bridge Governance) sectors have achieved significant breakthroughs this week, with respective increases of approximately 27%, 27%, and 16% over the past seven days. The commonality among these three sectors lies in their relatively novel narratives or technological developments, making them hot tracks in this bull cycle.[9]
Bitcoin Inscriptions (BRC-20) — Bitcoin inscriptions emerged in late 2022. Initially, they were created through the Ordinals protocol. This protocol allows additional data (images, videos, text, etc.) to be embedded in Bitcoin’s smallest unit, “satoshis,” thereby giving them qualities similar to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). BRC-20, on the other hand, is a “token standard” based on the Ordinals protocol. It enables the deployment, minting, and transfer of tokens by writing token names, total supply, and other information in a standardized JSON format into satoshis. — Boosted by Bitcoin’s price rebound, this sector has seen a significant uptick over the past seven days. As of 2:00 AM UTC+0 on August 15th, the overall sector has risen by over 27% within the past seven days, with notable gains from SATS, ORDI, TRAC, and Ordiswap.
Modular Blockchains/Data Availability — Data availability refers to the ability of network participants to access and verify the data stored on a blockchain. Data availability solutions include Data Availability Layers (DAL), Data Availability Sampling (DAS), and Data Availability Committees (DAC). Modular blockchains, as an innovative design paradigm, aim to improve system efficiency and scalability through specialization and division of labor. Data Availability Layers (DAL) serve as a crucial technical foundation for modular blockchains. — As of 2:00 AM UTC+0 on August 15, NEAR has increased by 12.8% over the past seven days, while TIA and DYM have gained over 20%, and AVAIL and SAGA have surged by more than 50%.
Cross-Chain Interoperability — In the multi-chain era, interoperability and communication between different chains are crucial. Cross-chain interoperability protocols are essential infrastructure for exchanging data and tokens among various blockchains. — As of 2:00 AM UTC+0 on August 15, W and AXL have increased by over 10%, while ZETA has surged nearly 50% over the past seven days.
According to CoinGecko, the top performers over the past 7 days are: [10]
SUI — On August 7, Grayscale announced the launch of the Grayscale Sui Trust, a crypto investment trust focused on investing in Sui. Since August, Sui’s Total Value Locked (TVL) has risen rapidly, exceeding $600 million as of August 15, with an increase of over 46% in the past seven days. On-chain activity has been robust. Driven by the news of the SUI Trust establishment and the active on-chain data, the token’s price has surged rapidly, with a 7-day increase of 61.4% and a circulating market capitalization of approximately $2.502 billion. Sui is a first-layer blockchain written in the Move language, focusing on low-latency blockchain transfers. Its emphasis on immediate transaction finality and high-speed transaction throughput makes Sui a suitable platform for on-chain use cases such as gaming, finance, and other real-time applications.[11]
HNT — On August 10, Helium announced that two major US carriers are piloting the transfer of their mobile traffic to the Helium network for decentralized testing. On July 23, Helium announced that its user base had exceeded 100,000 and shared its latest roadmap. Driven by these series of news, the token’s price has surged rapidly, with a 7-day increase of 56.1% and a circulating market capitalization of approximately $1.206 billion. Helium is one of the leading projects in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. It is a decentralized wireless network built on a blockchain, primarily enabling data transmission between IoT devices and rewarding network providers.[12]
Aptos — Aptos is another first-layer blockchain project written in the Move language, alongside Sui, aimed at revolutionizing industries through decentralized applications and secure digital transactions. It employs a combination of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism and sharding technology, ensuring scalability and energy efficiency. In terms of news, on August 12, the Aptos CTO introduced the vision for the next generation of Aptos software at the FORESIGHT 2024 Annual Summit. On August 14, the Aptos network recorded a new all-time high of 144 million daily transactions, with a surge in recent on-chain activity and increased demand for using APT as a gas fee. Despite a significant unlock this week, the token has managed to rise by 32.9% over seven days, driven by the aforementioned news, with a circulating market capitalization of approximately $3.333 billion.[13]
Pump.fun Has Launched About 1.7 Million Tokens, But Only 15 Have Maintained a Market Cap of Over $10 Million for Several Weeks
Pump.fun allows anyone to quickly deploy their own meme coin at a low cost, requiring only a name, code, and JPG image, without initial funding. Although only a small fraction of these tokens have been successful, they have generated substantial fees for Pump.fun. In the past seven days alone, Pump.fun has generated $6.18 million, setting a record high, with $5.33 million of that total generated on August 13.[14]
As of August 14, 1,700,691 tokens have been launched on Pump.fun[15], among which only 1.4% (23,800) have successfully listed on Raydium (requiring a trading pool SOL market cap of over $69,000). Only 0.008% (141 tokens) have been listed on CoinGecko[16], and an even smaller percentage (0.002% or 41 tokens) have managed to maintain a market cap of over $1 million for several weeks. Only 0.001% (15 tokens) have sustained a market cap of over $10 million.
Pump.fun’s extremely low barrier to entry has attracted a large number of users to issue meme coins. Although only 1.4% of these tokens have been successfully listed, Pump.fun has still achieved high revenue by charging a 1% transaction fee, even surpassing Ethereum at certain times. The high volatility and pump-and-dump phenomena on Pump.fun have led to wild price fluctuations, exposing investors to significant risks. The proliferation of low-quality tokens has saturated the market with questionable assets, and potential fraudulent activities such as dev dumps and price manipulation could lead to substantial losses for investors. Due to the low technical barriers, anyone can easily create a token, further increasing market uncertainty. While Pump.fun offers a simple and convenient way for users to create tokens, the associated risks cannot be ignored, and investors must exercise extreme caution.
Uniswap’s Cumulative Frontend Revenue Exceeds $50 Million
Since October 2023, Uniswap has started charging a 0.15% fee on user transactions on its web interface and wallet applications. These fees are exclusively owned by Uniswap Labs, the company behind the protocol, serving as one of its revenue streams. In mid-April of this year, Uniswap Labs increased this fee from 0.15% to 0.25%. [17] This significant revenue is attributed to Uniswap’s “dominant” position in the DEX market, with Uniswap accounting for over 50% of total DEX trading volume (across multiple chains) in July. In fact, Uniswap has consistently held the largest market share among DEXs in the past year when considering cross-chain trading volume.[18]
Uniswap’s success stems not only from its first-mover advantage in DeFi but also from its high-quality product. Serving over 20 blockchains, Uniswap has expanded since its early days on Ethereum, amassing nearly $4.5 billion in TVL and ensuring ample liquidity for most asset trades. This has created a strong competitive edge. Uniswap’s multiple versions cater to different user needs: V1 to V3 have tackled operational costs, efficiency, and market competition, while V4 enhances trading pool customization, providing greater expressiveness. Uniswap X further optimizes routing and introduces off-chain order matching, providing an excellent trading experience. These innovations have enabled traders to obtain the best trading experience, keeping Uniswap to maintain its leading position in DEX trading volume for an extended period.
FTX Claims Vote Nearing Deadline, $16 Billion Payout Plan Up for Vote
Kroll, as FTX’s restructuring advisor, is responsible for managing and coordinating communication with creditors and customers, ensuring the transparent transmission of relevant information. According to the Kroll website, the voting period for the FTX claims plan will end at 4:00 PM ET (UTC+0) on August 16. [19] Since July 10 of this year, FTX has sent voting notices to customers and creditors through Kroll, soliciting their opinions on the bankruptcy repayment plan.
The FTX claims vote primarily concerns whether creditors will waive the US bankruptcy process and choose the Bahamian process for claims, as well as conducting a survey on the FTX bankruptcy plan to determine whether to accept a facilitated claim for faster compensation. This vote is a crucial step in the FTX restructuring process, giving customers and creditors the opportunity to vote on a payout plan exceeding $16 billion.
FTX’s bankruptcy restructuring plan proposes to repay creditors based on the US dollar value of their crypto assets at the time of FTX’s collapse, and creditors can choose to be repaid in either cash or cryptocurrency. This vote will also survey creditors on whether they agree to this payment method. For small claims (under $50,000), a recovery rate of 118% is expected. Some creditors have questioned the fairness of the plan, especially after the significant increase in the cryptocurrency market, as they believe compensation based on the dollar value at the time of collapse is unfair.
After this vote, FTX debtors will apply to the court for approval of the plan on October 7. If approved, the highly anticipated FTX bankruptcy case will come to an end. However, considering the $16 billion in assets to be paid out, there may be some short-term market sell-off pressure, which investors should pay attention to.
WazirX Security Incident Update
WazirX, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange, provided an update on the security incident that occurred in July via X (formerly Twitter) [20]. The update reveals that WazirX is collaborating with legal experts to recover transaction balances from July 18 to 21, develop a withdrawal plan, trace the stolen funds, and negotiate with seven partners to mitigate the financial impact of the cyberattack. Previously, on July 18, 2024, a multi-signature wallet belonging to WazirX was compromised, resulting in the theft of over $230 million. Liminal, a cryptocurrency custody service provider, was primarily responsible for managing WazirX’s funds.
According to reports from both Liminal and WazirX, the malicious multi-signature transaction was initiated as follows:
Both WazirX and Liminal have exposed some issues in this incident: Liminal’s risk control measures were insufficient. Despite detecting and rejecting three suspicious transactions, it failed to issue timely alerts to users or freeze the relevant transactions, allowing the attacker to successfully execute the contract upgrade transaction. On the other hand, WazirX’s signatories did not carefully verify the actual transaction content in their hardware wallets but trusted the transaction information displayed on the Liminal page, inadvertently providing the attacker with the required signatures for the contract upgrade transaction. These mistakes collectively led to this security incident. On August 14, WazirX announced that it would terminate its partnership with Liminal and transfer the remaining funds from Liminal to a new multi-signature wallet.[21]
Monad: A High-Performance, EVM-Compatible Layer 1 Blockchain Nearing Testnet Launch
Monad, a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain, secured $225 million in funding at a valuation of $3 billion on April 9. [22]
By leveraging innovative technologies such as MonadBFT (a Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus mechanism), delayed execution, parallel execution, and MonadDb (a high-performance database), Monad has achieved an impressive throughput of 10,000 transactions per second (TPS). [23] Recently, several projects within the Monad ecosystem have secured funding, including aPriori, an MEV infrastructure platform, which raised $8 million, Kintsu, a liquid staking protocol, which raised $4 million, and Kuru, an on-chain order platform, which raised $2 million.
The official Monad X account announced a partnership with Backpack to launch the testnet on July 17th. As a high-speed, EVM-compatible blockchain, numerous EVM chain projects are gearing up to join the testnet. According to incomplete statistics from Rootdata, more than 10 multi-chain applications and infrastructures, including PancakeSwap, Pyth Network, and Balancer, have established partnerships with Monad. Additionally, there are over 10 native applications and infrastructures in the DeFi and NFT sectors. Although Monad has not officially announced whether there will be airdrops for early participants, its well-developed ecosystem and high-performance technical foundation are continuously attracting developers. Some native projects within the ecosystem have hinted at a certain percentage of token airdrops to the community.
As of August 15, 2:00 AM (UTC+0), the total net assets of BTC ETFs reached $53.6 billion, with a cumulative total net inflow exceeding $17.32 billion. The overall trading market for BTC ETFs was relatively calm this week. On the evening of August 14, the US CPI index was released, showing a moderation in inflation. However, the positive data failed to boost the sluggish market sentiment. BTC ETFs experienced a net outflow of over $80 million on August 14, primarily due to a $56 million outflow from Grayscale’s GBTC. Institutional investors have shown a preference for major assets like gold as reserves in the short term, and Bitcoin urgently needs more positive news to further stimulate investor interest. [24]
As of August 15, 2:00 AM (UTC+0), the total net assets of ETH ETFs reached $7.54 billion, with a cumulative total net outflow of $36.589 million. ETH ETFs continued to maintain net inflows this week. On August 14, ETH ETFs saw a net inflow of $10.77 million. Despite the continuous outflow of Grayscale’s ETHE, benefiting from strong purchases by BlackRock’s ETHA, ETH ETFs performed well in both the previous and current weeks, with funds showing sustained net inflows.
Over the past seven days, the market capitalization of stablecoins has slightly increased by 0.64% to $166.932 billion, with incremental off-exchange funds flowing in. On August 13, Tether Treasury minted an additional 1 billion USDT on Ethereum, and 1 billion USDT has been authorized for minting but not yet issued. [25]
Bitcoin Buy/Sell Ratio
Following the release of the US CPI index, Bitcoin’s price dropped from $61,800 to below $59,000, resulting in the liquidation of long contracts. As of August 15, 2:00 AM (UTC+0), the total amount of liquidated contracts across all exchanges in the past 24 hours exceeded $128 million, with long contracts accounting for over $96 million. Over the past 7 days, the Bitcoin buy-to-sell ratio has been negative for more than half of the time, with the current ratio standing at approximately 0.98, indicating a pessimistic outlook among market participants regarding Bitcoin’s short-term price trend. [26]
Weighted Funding Rate
As of August 15, 2:00 AM (UTC+0), the weighted funding rate for Bitcoin positions was -0.0032%, and for Ethereum, it was 0.0035%. Over the past seven days, the weighted funding rate for Bitcoin positions was generally positive. However, as Bitcoin’s price fell below $60,000 on the evening of August 14, the weighted funding rate turned negative. The overall contract long-short ratio for Bitcoin and Ethereum was dominated by short positions. [27]
Airdrop project to watch this week: XION
XION is a Layer 1 blockchain platform founded by Burnt Banksy. It focuses on using chain abstraction technology to build consumer-oriented Web3 products, enabling developers to create, launch, and scale consumer-facing applications from the ground up. The project has attracted support from notable investors including Multicoin, Circle, Animoca, Hashkey, and Spartan, raising over $36 million.
Technically, XION introduces a universal abstraction layer, adopts USDC as the primary trading currency, and redesigns wallet and gas fee structures to create a decentralized blockchain network with an optimized user experience. Its tokenomics model combines the use of the stablecoin USDC, a refined token issuance strategy, and an innovative Gas fee mechanism to establish a stable and attractive economic system.
The XION Foundation, responsible for the growth and management of the XION ecosystem, has announced the launch of its official token, $XION. This token will serve as the governance token for the XION Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network, providing community members with a range of support and incentives, including airdrop programs and developer funding. [28]
How to Participate
Users can participate in the XION airdrop program through various methods:
Note:
The airdrop program and participation methods may be updated at any time. Users are advised to follow XION's official channels for the latest information. Additionally, users should participate cautiously, be aware of risks, and conduct thorough research before participating. Gate.io does not guarantee the subsequent distribution of airdrop rewards.
Multiple crypto projects secured funding this week, spanning a wide range of applications including infrastructure, DeFi, and gaming. According to RootData, 10 projects announced a total of $920 million in funding between August 9 and August 15. Here are the top three fundraising rounds: [29]
Sahara completed a $43 million Series A funding round on August 14, led by Binance Labs, Pantera Capital, and Polychain Capital, with support from multiple top-tier investment institutions. The funds will be used to expand the team, enhance AI blockchain performance, and accelerate the development of the developer ecosystem. Sahara AI is a decentralized network-based AI infrastructure that allows users to create personalized autonomous knowledge agents (Sahara KAs) to automatically analyze data and assist in decision-making. It also ensures the data security and privacy of AI model training through its Sahara Data service.
Essential successfully completed a $11 million Series A funding round on August 13. Essential is an intent-based blockchain infrastructure project focused on simplifying blockchain interactions. The new funds will be used to advance Essential’s core goal: redesigning blockchain interactions through a declarative, intent-based architectural approach, aiming to make blockchain technology more intuitive and user-friendly for both global developers and ordinary users.
Parfin announced a $10 million Series A funding round on August 14. Parfin is an infrastructure provider offering comprehensive digital asset services to financial institutions in Latin America, including digital asset custody, trading, tokenization, and management tools. Parfin is currently developing Parchain, a permissioned EVM-compatible blockchain designed to enable regulated entities to participate safely and compliantly in decentralized finance (DeFi) and asset tokenization. This round of funding will support Parfin in expanding its service offerings, enhancing its technical capabilities, and driving further development in the Latin American digital asset space.
According to Token Unlocks data, several significant token unlock events are scheduled for the upcoming week (August 16 - August 22). Here are the top 3 unlocks for the week: [30]
ARB tokens are scheduled to unlock approximately 92.65 million tokens on August 16 at 1:00 PM (UTC+0), accounting for 2.77% of its circulating supply and valued at around $53.4 million. Given ARB’s current daily trading volume of around $200 million, this unlock could potentially impact its market price.
APE will unlock 15.6 million tokens on August 17 at 12:00 AM (UTC+0), accounting for 2.31% of its circulating supply. Among these, 7.34 million tokens will be unlocked from the APE treasury, making up 47% of this unlock event.
ROSE will unlock 151 million tokens on August 18 at 4:00 PM (UTC+0), accounting for 2.24% of its circulating supply. Of these, 120 million tokens from core contributors will be unlocked, accounting for 79% of the total unlock.
Details of the unlocks are as follows:
The upcoming week will see several key events in the blockchain and crypto industry. The release of important macroeconomic data is expected to have a significant impact on the sector.
On August 16, the Arbitrum community vote on “Enabling ARB staking and aligning governance” concludes. This aims to enhance the governance mechanism and security by implementing ARB token staking. The introduction of stARB as a liquid staking token allows users to stake their tokens while still being able to trade and lend these tokens in the DeFi ecosystem, increasing token utilization. [31]
On August 21, Scroll launches the Darwin proof recursive upgrade. This upgrade bundles multiple batches of proofs into a single validity proof, reducing verification costs. Currently, each transaction on the Scroll network costs around $0.02. This upgrade will reduce gas fees by approximately 34%. [32]
On August 20, the Eurozone will release the final reading of the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) for July, a key indicator of inflationary pressures. The HICP measures the price changes of a basket of consumer goods and services and allows for a uniform comparison across Eurozone countries. This final reading will provide crucial data for the European Central Bank’s monetary policy decisions, potentially influencing market expectations for future interest rate movements. If the CPI is lower than expected, it could increase the likelihood of interest rate cuts, while the opposite could exacerbate market tensions. [33]
References
Gate Research
Gate Research is a comprehensive blockchain and cryptocurrency research platform that delivers in-depth content. This includes technical analysis, hot topic insights, market reviews, industry research, trend forecasts, and macroeconomic policy analysis.
Click here to visit
Disclaimer
Investing in the cryptocurrency market involves high risk, and it is recommended that users conduct independent research and fully understand the nature of the assets and products they are purchasing before making any investment decisions. Gate.io is not responsible for any losses or damages caused by such investment decisions.
Bitcoin’s price has been oscillating within a wide range between $57,500 and $61,500 this week, while altcoins have exhibited varied performances across different sectors. According to data from CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap, the inscriptions/BRC-20, modular blockchain/data availability, and cross-chain interoperability (Bridge Governance) sectors have achieved significant breakthroughs this week, with respective increases of approximately 27%, 27%, and 16% over the past seven days. The commonality among these three sectors lies in their relatively novel narratives or technological developments, making them hot tracks in this bull cycle.[9]
Bitcoin Inscriptions (BRC-20) — Bitcoin inscriptions emerged in late 2022. Initially, they were created through the Ordinals protocol. This protocol allows additional data (images, videos, text, etc.) to be embedded in Bitcoin’s smallest unit, “satoshis,” thereby giving them qualities similar to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). BRC-20, on the other hand, is a “token standard” based on the Ordinals protocol. It enables the deployment, minting, and transfer of tokens by writing token names, total supply, and other information in a standardized JSON format into satoshis. — Boosted by Bitcoin’s price rebound, this sector has seen a significant uptick over the past seven days. As of 2:00 AM UTC+0 on August 15th, the overall sector has risen by over 27% within the past seven days, with notable gains from SATS, ORDI, TRAC, and Ordiswap.
Modular Blockchains/Data Availability — Data availability refers to the ability of network participants to access and verify the data stored on a blockchain. Data availability solutions include Data Availability Layers (DAL), Data Availability Sampling (DAS), and Data Availability Committees (DAC). Modular blockchains, as an innovative design paradigm, aim to improve system efficiency and scalability through specialization and division of labor. Data Availability Layers (DAL) serve as a crucial technical foundation for modular blockchains. — As of 2:00 AM UTC+0 on August 15, NEAR has increased by 12.8% over the past seven days, while TIA and DYM have gained over 20%, and AVAIL and SAGA have surged by more than 50%.
Cross-Chain Interoperability — In the multi-chain era, interoperability and communication between different chains are crucial. Cross-chain interoperability protocols are essential infrastructure for exchanging data and tokens among various blockchains. — As of 2:00 AM UTC+0 on August 15, W and AXL have increased by over 10%, while ZETA has surged nearly 50% over the past seven days.
According to CoinGecko, the top performers over the past 7 days are: [10]
SUI — On August 7, Grayscale announced the launch of the Grayscale Sui Trust, a crypto investment trust focused on investing in Sui. Since August, Sui’s Total Value Locked (TVL) has risen rapidly, exceeding $600 million as of August 15, with an increase of over 46% in the past seven days. On-chain activity has been robust. Driven by the news of the SUI Trust establishment and the active on-chain data, the token’s price has surged rapidly, with a 7-day increase of 61.4% and a circulating market capitalization of approximately $2.502 billion. Sui is a first-layer blockchain written in the Move language, focusing on low-latency blockchain transfers. Its emphasis on immediate transaction finality and high-speed transaction throughput makes Sui a suitable platform for on-chain use cases such as gaming, finance, and other real-time applications.[11]
HNT — On August 10, Helium announced that two major US carriers are piloting the transfer of their mobile traffic to the Helium network for decentralized testing. On July 23, Helium announced that its user base had exceeded 100,000 and shared its latest roadmap. Driven by these series of news, the token’s price has surged rapidly, with a 7-day increase of 56.1% and a circulating market capitalization of approximately $1.206 billion. Helium is one of the leading projects in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. It is a decentralized wireless network built on a blockchain, primarily enabling data transmission between IoT devices and rewarding network providers.[12]
Aptos — Aptos is another first-layer blockchain project written in the Move language, alongside Sui, aimed at revolutionizing industries through decentralized applications and secure digital transactions. It employs a combination of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism and sharding technology, ensuring scalability and energy efficiency. In terms of news, on August 12, the Aptos CTO introduced the vision for the next generation of Aptos software at the FORESIGHT 2024 Annual Summit. On August 14, the Aptos network recorded a new all-time high of 144 million daily transactions, with a surge in recent on-chain activity and increased demand for using APT as a gas fee. Despite a significant unlock this week, the token has managed to rise by 32.9% over seven days, driven by the aforementioned news, with a circulating market capitalization of approximately $3.333 billion.[13]
Pump.fun Has Launched About 1.7 Million Tokens, But Only 15 Have Maintained a Market Cap of Over $10 Million for Several Weeks
Pump.fun allows anyone to quickly deploy their own meme coin at a low cost, requiring only a name, code, and JPG image, without initial funding. Although only a small fraction of these tokens have been successful, they have generated substantial fees for Pump.fun. In the past seven days alone, Pump.fun has generated $6.18 million, setting a record high, with $5.33 million of that total generated on August 13.[14]
As of August 14, 1,700,691 tokens have been launched on Pump.fun[15], among which only 1.4% (23,800) have successfully listed on Raydium (requiring a trading pool SOL market cap of over $69,000). Only 0.008% (141 tokens) have been listed on CoinGecko[16], and an even smaller percentage (0.002% or 41 tokens) have managed to maintain a market cap of over $1 million for several weeks. Only 0.001% (15 tokens) have sustained a market cap of over $10 million.
Pump.fun’s extremely low barrier to entry has attracted a large number of users to issue meme coins. Although only 1.4% of these tokens have been successfully listed, Pump.fun has still achieved high revenue by charging a 1% transaction fee, even surpassing Ethereum at certain times. The high volatility and pump-and-dump phenomena on Pump.fun have led to wild price fluctuations, exposing investors to significant risks. The proliferation of low-quality tokens has saturated the market with questionable assets, and potential fraudulent activities such as dev dumps and price manipulation could lead to substantial losses for investors. Due to the low technical barriers, anyone can easily create a token, further increasing market uncertainty. While Pump.fun offers a simple and convenient way for users to create tokens, the associated risks cannot be ignored, and investors must exercise extreme caution.
Uniswap’s Cumulative Frontend Revenue Exceeds $50 Million
Since October 2023, Uniswap has started charging a 0.15% fee on user transactions on its web interface and wallet applications. These fees are exclusively owned by Uniswap Labs, the company behind the protocol, serving as one of its revenue streams. In mid-April of this year, Uniswap Labs increased this fee from 0.15% to 0.25%. [17] This significant revenue is attributed to Uniswap’s “dominant” position in the DEX market, with Uniswap accounting for over 50% of total DEX trading volume (across multiple chains) in July. In fact, Uniswap has consistently held the largest market share among DEXs in the past year when considering cross-chain trading volume.[18]
Uniswap’s success stems not only from its first-mover advantage in DeFi but also from its high-quality product. Serving over 20 blockchains, Uniswap has expanded since its early days on Ethereum, amassing nearly $4.5 billion in TVL and ensuring ample liquidity for most asset trades. This has created a strong competitive edge. Uniswap’s multiple versions cater to different user needs: V1 to V3 have tackled operational costs, efficiency, and market competition, while V4 enhances trading pool customization, providing greater expressiveness. Uniswap X further optimizes routing and introduces off-chain order matching, providing an excellent trading experience. These innovations have enabled traders to obtain the best trading experience, keeping Uniswap to maintain its leading position in DEX trading volume for an extended period.
FTX Claims Vote Nearing Deadline, $16 Billion Payout Plan Up for Vote
Kroll, as FTX’s restructuring advisor, is responsible for managing and coordinating communication with creditors and customers, ensuring the transparent transmission of relevant information. According to the Kroll website, the voting period for the FTX claims plan will end at 4:00 PM ET (UTC+0) on August 16. [19] Since July 10 of this year, FTX has sent voting notices to customers and creditors through Kroll, soliciting their opinions on the bankruptcy repayment plan.
The FTX claims vote primarily concerns whether creditors will waive the US bankruptcy process and choose the Bahamian process for claims, as well as conducting a survey on the FTX bankruptcy plan to determine whether to accept a facilitated claim for faster compensation. This vote is a crucial step in the FTX restructuring process, giving customers and creditors the opportunity to vote on a payout plan exceeding $16 billion.
FTX’s bankruptcy restructuring plan proposes to repay creditors based on the US dollar value of their crypto assets at the time of FTX’s collapse, and creditors can choose to be repaid in either cash or cryptocurrency. This vote will also survey creditors on whether they agree to this payment method. For small claims (under $50,000), a recovery rate of 118% is expected. Some creditors have questioned the fairness of the plan, especially after the significant increase in the cryptocurrency market, as they believe compensation based on the dollar value at the time of collapse is unfair.
After this vote, FTX debtors will apply to the court for approval of the plan on October 7. If approved, the highly anticipated FTX bankruptcy case will come to an end. However, considering the $16 billion in assets to be paid out, there may be some short-term market sell-off pressure, which investors should pay attention to.
WazirX Security Incident Update
WazirX, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange, provided an update on the security incident that occurred in July via X (formerly Twitter) [20]. The update reveals that WazirX is collaborating with legal experts to recover transaction balances from July 18 to 21, develop a withdrawal plan, trace the stolen funds, and negotiate with seven partners to mitigate the financial impact of the cyberattack. Previously, on July 18, 2024, a multi-signature wallet belonging to WazirX was compromised, resulting in the theft of over $230 million. Liminal, a cryptocurrency custody service provider, was primarily responsible for managing WazirX’s funds.
According to reports from both Liminal and WazirX, the malicious multi-signature transaction was initiated as follows:
Both WazirX and Liminal have exposed some issues in this incident: Liminal’s risk control measures were insufficient. Despite detecting and rejecting three suspicious transactions, it failed to issue timely alerts to users or freeze the relevant transactions, allowing the attacker to successfully execute the contract upgrade transaction. On the other hand, WazirX’s signatories did not carefully verify the actual transaction content in their hardware wallets but trusted the transaction information displayed on the Liminal page, inadvertently providing the attacker with the required signatures for the contract upgrade transaction. These mistakes collectively led to this security incident. On August 14, WazirX announced that it would terminate its partnership with Liminal and transfer the remaining funds from Liminal to a new multi-signature wallet.[21]
Monad: A High-Performance, EVM-Compatible Layer 1 Blockchain Nearing Testnet Launch
Monad, a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain, secured $225 million in funding at a valuation of $3 billion on April 9. [22]
By leveraging innovative technologies such as MonadBFT (a Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus mechanism), delayed execution, parallel execution, and MonadDb (a high-performance database), Monad has achieved an impressive throughput of 10,000 transactions per second (TPS). [23] Recently, several projects within the Monad ecosystem have secured funding, including aPriori, an MEV infrastructure platform, which raised $8 million, Kintsu, a liquid staking protocol, which raised $4 million, and Kuru, an on-chain order platform, which raised $2 million.
The official Monad X account announced a partnership with Backpack to launch the testnet on July 17th. As a high-speed, EVM-compatible blockchain, numerous EVM chain projects are gearing up to join the testnet. According to incomplete statistics from Rootdata, more than 10 multi-chain applications and infrastructures, including PancakeSwap, Pyth Network, and Balancer, have established partnerships with Monad. Additionally, there are over 10 native applications and infrastructures in the DeFi and NFT sectors. Although Monad has not officially announced whether there will be airdrops for early participants, its well-developed ecosystem and high-performance technical foundation are continuously attracting developers. Some native projects within the ecosystem have hinted at a certain percentage of token airdrops to the community.
As of August 15, 2:00 AM (UTC+0), the total net assets of BTC ETFs reached $53.6 billion, with a cumulative total net inflow exceeding $17.32 billion. The overall trading market for BTC ETFs was relatively calm this week. On the evening of August 14, the US CPI index was released, showing a moderation in inflation. However, the positive data failed to boost the sluggish market sentiment. BTC ETFs experienced a net outflow of over $80 million on August 14, primarily due to a $56 million outflow from Grayscale’s GBTC. Institutional investors have shown a preference for major assets like gold as reserves in the short term, and Bitcoin urgently needs more positive news to further stimulate investor interest. [24]
As of August 15, 2:00 AM (UTC+0), the total net assets of ETH ETFs reached $7.54 billion, with a cumulative total net outflow of $36.589 million. ETH ETFs continued to maintain net inflows this week. On August 14, ETH ETFs saw a net inflow of $10.77 million. Despite the continuous outflow of Grayscale’s ETHE, benefiting from strong purchases by BlackRock’s ETHA, ETH ETFs performed well in both the previous and current weeks, with funds showing sustained net inflows.
Over the past seven days, the market capitalization of stablecoins has slightly increased by 0.64% to $166.932 billion, with incremental off-exchange funds flowing in. On August 13, Tether Treasury minted an additional 1 billion USDT on Ethereum, and 1 billion USDT has been authorized for minting but not yet issued. [25]
Bitcoin Buy/Sell Ratio
Following the release of the US CPI index, Bitcoin’s price dropped from $61,800 to below $59,000, resulting in the liquidation of long contracts. As of August 15, 2:00 AM (UTC+0), the total amount of liquidated contracts across all exchanges in the past 24 hours exceeded $128 million, with long contracts accounting for over $96 million. Over the past 7 days, the Bitcoin buy-to-sell ratio has been negative for more than half of the time, with the current ratio standing at approximately 0.98, indicating a pessimistic outlook among market participants regarding Bitcoin’s short-term price trend. [26]
Weighted Funding Rate
As of August 15, 2:00 AM (UTC+0), the weighted funding rate for Bitcoin positions was -0.0032%, and for Ethereum, it was 0.0035%. Over the past seven days, the weighted funding rate for Bitcoin positions was generally positive. However, as Bitcoin’s price fell below $60,000 on the evening of August 14, the weighted funding rate turned negative. The overall contract long-short ratio for Bitcoin and Ethereum was dominated by short positions. [27]
Airdrop project to watch this week: XION
XION is a Layer 1 blockchain platform founded by Burnt Banksy. It focuses on using chain abstraction technology to build consumer-oriented Web3 products, enabling developers to create, launch, and scale consumer-facing applications from the ground up. The project has attracted support from notable investors including Multicoin, Circle, Animoca, Hashkey, and Spartan, raising over $36 million.
Technically, XION introduces a universal abstraction layer, adopts USDC as the primary trading currency, and redesigns wallet and gas fee structures to create a decentralized blockchain network with an optimized user experience. Its tokenomics model combines the use of the stablecoin USDC, a refined token issuance strategy, and an innovative Gas fee mechanism to establish a stable and attractive economic system.
The XION Foundation, responsible for the growth and management of the XION ecosystem, has announced the launch of its official token, $XION. This token will serve as the governance token for the XION Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network, providing community members with a range of support and incentives, including airdrop programs and developer funding. [28]
How to Participate
Users can participate in the XION airdrop program through various methods:
Note:
The airdrop program and participation methods may be updated at any time. Users are advised to follow XION's official channels for the latest information. Additionally, users should participate cautiously, be aware of risks, and conduct thorough research before participating. Gate.io does not guarantee the subsequent distribution of airdrop rewards.
Multiple crypto projects secured funding this week, spanning a wide range of applications including infrastructure, DeFi, and gaming. According to RootData, 10 projects announced a total of $920 million in funding between August 9 and August 15. Here are the top three fundraising rounds: [29]
Sahara completed a $43 million Series A funding round on August 14, led by Binance Labs, Pantera Capital, and Polychain Capital, with support from multiple top-tier investment institutions. The funds will be used to expand the team, enhance AI blockchain performance, and accelerate the development of the developer ecosystem. Sahara AI is a decentralized network-based AI infrastructure that allows users to create personalized autonomous knowledge agents (Sahara KAs) to automatically analyze data and assist in decision-making. It also ensures the data security and privacy of AI model training through its Sahara Data service.
Essential successfully completed a $11 million Series A funding round on August 13. Essential is an intent-based blockchain infrastructure project focused on simplifying blockchain interactions. The new funds will be used to advance Essential’s core goal: redesigning blockchain interactions through a declarative, intent-based architectural approach, aiming to make blockchain technology more intuitive and user-friendly for both global developers and ordinary users.
Parfin announced a $10 million Series A funding round on August 14. Parfin is an infrastructure provider offering comprehensive digital asset services to financial institutions in Latin America, including digital asset custody, trading, tokenization, and management tools. Parfin is currently developing Parchain, a permissioned EVM-compatible blockchain designed to enable regulated entities to participate safely and compliantly in decentralized finance (DeFi) and asset tokenization. This round of funding will support Parfin in expanding its service offerings, enhancing its technical capabilities, and driving further development in the Latin American digital asset space.
According to Token Unlocks data, several significant token unlock events are scheduled for the upcoming week (August 16 - August 22). Here are the top 3 unlocks for the week: [30]
ARB tokens are scheduled to unlock approximately 92.65 million tokens on August 16 at 1:00 PM (UTC+0), accounting for 2.77% of its circulating supply and valued at around $53.4 million. Given ARB’s current daily trading volume of around $200 million, this unlock could potentially impact its market price.
APE will unlock 15.6 million tokens on August 17 at 12:00 AM (UTC+0), accounting for 2.31% of its circulating supply. Among these, 7.34 million tokens will be unlocked from the APE treasury, making up 47% of this unlock event.
ROSE will unlock 151 million tokens on August 18 at 4:00 PM (UTC+0), accounting for 2.24% of its circulating supply. Of these, 120 million tokens from core contributors will be unlocked, accounting for 79% of the total unlock.
Details of the unlocks are as follows:
The upcoming week will see several key events in the blockchain and crypto industry. The release of important macroeconomic data is expected to have a significant impact on the sector.
On August 16, the Arbitrum community vote on “Enabling ARB staking and aligning governance” concludes. This aims to enhance the governance mechanism and security by implementing ARB token staking. The introduction of stARB as a liquid staking token allows users to stake their tokens while still being able to trade and lend these tokens in the DeFi ecosystem, increasing token utilization. [31]
On August 21, Scroll launches the Darwin proof recursive upgrade. This upgrade bundles multiple batches of proofs into a single validity proof, reducing verification costs. Currently, each transaction on the Scroll network costs around $0.02. This upgrade will reduce gas fees by approximately 34%. [32]
On August 20, the Eurozone will release the final reading of the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) for July, a key indicator of inflationary pressures. The HICP measures the price changes of a basket of consumer goods and services and allows for a uniform comparison across Eurozone countries. This final reading will provide crucial data for the European Central Bank’s monetary policy decisions, potentially influencing market expectations for future interest rate movements. If the CPI is lower than expected, it could increase the likelihood of interest rate cuts, while the opposite could exacerbate market tensions. [33]
References
Gate Research
Gate Research is a comprehensive blockchain and cryptocurrency research platform that delivers in-depth content. This includes technical analysis, hot topic insights, market reviews, industry research, trend forecasts, and macroeconomic policy analysis.
Click here to visit
Disclaimer
Investing in the cryptocurrency market involves high risk, and it is recommended that users conduct independent research and fully understand the nature of the assets and products they are purchasing before making any investment decisions. Gate.io is not responsible for any losses or damages caused by such investment decisions.