Daily News | Justin Sun Launched Bitcoin Layer2; MicroStrategy Holding Over $10B in BTC; Blast TVL Exceeding $1.7B; SEI Breaking $1, Setting A New Historical High

2024-02-16, 03:23

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## Crypto Daily Digest: Justin Sun launched Bitcoin Layer2, Blast TVL exceeding $1.7 billion
On February 15th, according to Arkham monitoring, Grayscale transferred 2399.657 BTC to Coinbase Prime address, equivalent to approximately $126 million. In addition, Grayscale transferred 1756.294 BTC to a new address, which is suspected to be the new custodial address of Grayscale.

According to a report by on-chain data analysis company CryptoQuant on February 14th, over three-quarters of new <a href="/price/bitcoin-btc" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Bitcoin</a> investments in the past two weeks have come from Bitcoin spot ETFs, excluding grayscale GBTC. The report states, "we estimate that over 75% of Bitcoin's new investments come from these ETFs. In addition, measured by realized market value, investments from these ETFs increased to 2% of Bitcoin's historical total investment in just one month."

With the rise of the Bitcoin ecosystem, Justin Sun began to enter Bitcoin Layer2.

Yesterday, Justin Sun officially announced <a href="/price/tron-trx" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">TRON</a>'s launch of a Bitcoin Layer 2 solution and roadmap, with the goal of enhancing interoperability between Bitcoin and TRON networks.

TRON plans to integrate tokens within the TRON network, including stablecoins with a market value of $55 billion, with the Bitcoin network and its layer 2 structure, such as Bitcoin ordinal, through its layer 2 solution to promote cross chain asset access and enhance financial vitality.

The roadmap consists of three stages: expand the bridge from Bitcoin assets to TRON in α stage; collaborate with the Bitcoin Layer 2 protocol in β stage; Announce a second layer solution for integrating TRON, BTTC and Bitcoin networks in γ stage. This plan aims to maintain the speed and low cost of POS systems while ensuring the security of POW&UTXO, marking an important step for TRON in improving the interoperability and practicality of blockchain technology.

According to Bloomberg, MicroStrategy's Bitcoin holdings are currently worth $10 billion. Previously, Michael Saylor, founder of MicroStrategy, stated in an interview with CNBC that as the price of Bitcoin rose to $50000, MicroStrategy's unrealized profits from Bitcoin investments reached approximately $3.5 billion. Since purchasing Bitcoin in 2020, the company has held a total of 190,000 Bitcoins, with an average purchase cost of $31,224 and a total cost of approximately $5.93 billion.

Telefonica, a Spanish telecommunications company, announced on Thursday the establishment of a strategic alliance with Chainlink Labs, a Web3 solution provider. Through cooperation, the two companies are committed to integrating real-world telecommunications functions into blockchain networks to improve security. The first use case in the partnership will involve the SIM SWAP API, introduced by the Global Association of Mobile Communications Systems Open Gateway (a mobile network that provides application programmable interfaces for developers). Telefonica is a member of GSMA.

OpenAI has announced the launch of a new artificial intelligence system Sora, which can create up to one minute of realistic videos based on text prompts. These videos can showcase complex scenes containing multiple characters, actions, and precise themes and backgrounds. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that this tool will initially only be available to a few creators. Meanwhile, the company is developing new tools to help detect which videos were generated by Sora as part of the security assessment and preparation work before product launch.

On February 15th, according to DeBank data, the total asset value of the Layer 2 network Blast contract address launched by Blur founder Pacman reached $1.764 billion, with approximately $1.6 billion worth of ETH deposited into the Lido protocol and over 147 million DAIs deposited into the Maker protocol. According to the Gate.io market, the SEI of the L1 public chain project has now exceeded 1 USDT, reaching $1.03 at one point and now reporting $1.01, with a 24-hour increase of over 10%, setting a new historical high.

On February 16th, according to Defi Llama data, the <a href="/price/ethereum-eth" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Ethereum</a> Restaking Protocol (TVL) based on EigenLayer has reached $3.417 billion, with the top three top protocols being ether.fiTVL reaching $1.216 billion, a monthly increase of 392%; PufferFinance has been online for half a month, with a TVL of $968 million; KelpDAOTVL reached $461 million, with a monthly increase of 172%.

## Macro: Data mixed, economic growth may slow down in the future
On Thursday, the monthly retail sales rate in the United States for January was -0.8%, lower than the expected -0.1%, with a previous value of 0.60%, the largest decline since March 2023. The monthly rate of the US import price index in January recorded 0.8%, expected to be 0%. The previous value was revised down from 0% to -0.7%, the largest increase since March 2022. The number of initial claims for unemployment benefits in the United States for the week ending February 10th recorded 212,000, lower than the expected 220,000, with the previous value rising from 218,000 to 220,000. Swap market pricing reflects more policy easing by the Federal Reserve in 2024.

After the release of retail sales data, swap market pricing reflects the Federal Reserve's policy easing in 2024. The US dollar index fell by about 20 points in the short term. Spot gold rose nearly $6 in the short term, returning above the 2,000 level.

Due to mixed economic data in the United States, the US dollar index experienced a significant decline during the US trading session, but remained above the 104 level, ultimately closing down 0.42% at 104.27, marking the second consecutive trading day of decline. The benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield briefly fell below the 4.2% mark during trading and then rebounded to 4.233%. The yield of the interest rate sensitive 2-year US Treasury bond was close to unchanged at 4.578%.

Spot gold returned above the $2,000 mark and rose to an intraday high of $2,008.36 during trading, ultimately closing 0.61% higher at $2,004.43 per ounce; Spot silver rose significantly within the day and briefly stood above $23, ultimately closing up 2.46% at $22.92 per ounce.

The two oils have rebounded slightly. WTI crude oil started to rise in the pre US session, reaching an intraday high of $78.04 during the trading session, and then fell slightly before finally closing up 1.36% at $77.53 per barrel; Brent crude oil closed up 1.6% at $82.74 per barrel.

The US stock market index closed up 0.91%, the S&P 500 index rose 0.58%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.3%. Blockchain concept stocks closed generally higher, with Coinbase (COIN.O) up 3.3%, Meta Platforms (META.O) up 2.27%, IBM (IBM.N) up 1.78%, and AMD (AMD.O) up 1.09%.

Due to the cold weather across the United States, consumers tend to stay at home, and the decline in retail sales in January far exceeded expectations, raising doubts about whether consumer spending at the beginning of the New Year can continue.

The sharp decline in retail sales in the United States in January was mainly dragged down by the decline in revenue from car dealerships and gas stations. This decline occurred after a relatively strong performance during the holiday season. The sales in December were also partially affected by seasonal factors. Unadjusted retail sales typically decline in January.

Morgan Stanley economist Daniel Silver said, "It's hard to know for sure what the 'correct' seasonal factors are for a certain month, but compared to the seasonal factors related to these two months in previous years, the seasonal factors in December 2023 and January 2024 seem unusual. When trying to determine the trend of the data, individual seasonal adjustment changes in these months may be overlooked."

Other institutions believe that the claim of an unexpectedly strong US economy has been shattered after data showed an unexpected decline in retail sales. Tuesday's CPI data caused traders to delay their bets on interest rate cuts, while today's data indicates that consumer spending is slowing, which is a dovish signal. This will lower the US dollar and may boost interest rate sensitive stocks.

American consumers are being squeezed by rising interest rates, persistent inflation, and difficulty accessing credit as accumulated savings during the pandemic are depleting. However, a bright spot is that the job market remains in a good state. The strong profitability of major technology companies has also driven up the stock market, helping to increase the wealth of some Americans.

Despite a series of notable layoffs recently, mainly in the technology and media industries, the number of people applying for unemployment benefits in the United States is still hovering at a low level. Due to the tight labor market, some laid-off workers may find it easy to find new jobs. During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, most enterprises are reluctant to lay off workers because they find it difficult to fill vacancies.

Presently, there are no obvious signs of recession in the United States, but economists generally predict that economic growth will slow down in the coming months.

<div class="blog-details-info">
<div>Author:**Byron B.**, 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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