Daily News | Ethereum Dencun Upgrades May Lower Handling Fees to 0; Tesla is Suspected to Have Purchased 1,789 Additional BTCs; Do Kwon Will Be Extradited to South Korea for Trial

2024-03-08, 05:09

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## Crypto Daily Digest: Ethereum Dencun upgrade may reduce L2 trading fees to 0; Tesla purchases 1,789 BTCs; Terra founder Do Kwon will be extradited to South Korea for trial
Firstly, let's take a look at the trading activities of <a href="/price/bitcoin-btc" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Bitcoin</a> ETFs. According to Farside Investor data, on March 7th, Grayscale's GBTC funds continued to <a href="/price/flow-flow" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Flow</a> out significantly, reaching $374.8 million; Meanwhile, Bitwise Bitcoin spot ETF (BITB) inflow was $40.5 million, ARK 21Shares Bitcoin spot ETF (ARKB) inflow was $42.1 million, and WisdomTree Bitcoin spot ETF (BTCW) net inflow was $6.6 million.

According to Cointelgraph, spot Bitcoin ETFs uniquely impact supply dynamics. The stable purchasing pressure has led to unprecedented phenomena, including reaching historic highs before halving.

Timothy Peterson, founder and investment manager of Cane Island Alternative Advisors, analyzed the current trend and stated that ETF demand may push Bitcoin to six digits as early as 2024. On March 7th, he told subscribers on X, "The approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs seems to have triggered an accumulation, and if it continues, the price of Bitcoin will reach $100,000 by October 2024."

Meanwhile, a special "blue whale" operation has also attracted attention - according to Arkham monitoring, Tesla's Bitcoin wallet tracking function has recently been added to its data dashboard. The BTC wallet related to Tesla shows a balance of 11,509 BTCs, approximately 1,789 BTCs more than the 9,720 BTC balance reported in the last financial report.

X platform users ask, "Has Tesla started buying Bitcoin again?" or whether the recent digital changes are due to accounting errors. Some users have replied to the discussion that Tesla may have started purchasing BTC after the last financial conference call and may report on the newly purchased BTC in the next financial conference call. Currently, Tesla and Elon Musk have not commented on whether Tesla will purchase Bitcoin.

The Dencun upgrade of the <a href="/price/ethereum-eth" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Ethereum</a> blockchain is scheduled for March 13, which is the first step towards implementing a Rollup centric roadmap and will allow the network to act as the appropriate database for the Layer 2 blockchain to store data more efficiently and inexpensively. Rollup is an Ethereum protocol that, as a scalability solution, processes transactions separately from the mainnet to help improve speed and reduce costs.

In a research report on Wednesday, Fidelity Digital Assets stated that this upgrade will provide the scalability needed to support millions of users on the layer 2 blockchain, making it a "more suitable distributed database for other blockchains." These improvements are expected to bring more users into the Ethereum ecosystem and expand the total potential market (TAM) of the network.

Analyst Max Wadington wrote, "The improvement of Ethereum as a database provides an opportunity for Layer 2 users to approach zero transaction costs, which will undoubtedly attract more users."

However, the report states that the upgrade will not have direct positive impacts on Ethereum users, as the promised cost reduction to Layer 2 users will not affect transactions on the underlying Ethereum blockchain.

The recent upgrade of Dencun has also brought positive news to ETH prices and the ecosystem of Ethereum. Currently, ETH has exceeded $3,900 and is reported at $3,904.3.

The bankrupt co-founder of Terraform Labs, Do Kwon, may be extradited to his homeland, South Korea, instead of the United States, where he will face charges. According to local media reports, the appellate court overturned the previous decision of the Podgorica High Court in Montenegro to extradite Kwon to the United States, citing "serious violations of criminal procedure regulations."

According to The Wall Street Journal, Kwon expressed his desire to be extradited to South Korea. According to reports, he faces up to 40 years in prison in the country. Terraform Labs filed for bankruptcy in the United States on January 21. The <a href="/price/terra-luna" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Terra</a> ecosystem collapsed in May 2022. After the collapse, Kwon did not show up until he was arrested in Montenegro, where he reportedly used a fake passport to travel to Dubai.

## Market trends: Solana's on-chain ecosystems go viral, and AI concepts urgently need leading tokens to lead
The prices of BTC and Ethereum are both showing an upward trend, and Ethereum is about to undergo the Cancun upgrade, attracting market attention. Meanwhile, the ecosystem on the <a href="/price/solana-sol" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Solana</a> chain is also thriving, leading to a shift in market sentiment towards hype about the Solana chain.

On a macro level, the US stock market has seen an upward trend, with AI giant Nvidia reaching a historic high, which may harm the AI concept tokens in cryptocurrencies.
### Market hotspots
The price of SOL tokens has surged, and projects in the Solana ecosystem, such as JUP and RAY, have also seen significant increases. According to reports, Pantera Capital is preparing to purchase $250 million worth of SOL tokens from the FTX exchange, which may be one of the reasons why the SOL price has exceeded $145. Meanwhile, Jupiter Exchange launched Genesis voting, staking JUP tokens to receive Launchpad fee rewards, significantly increasing JUP prices. The position of JUP in the Solana ecosystem can be analogized to the position of UNI in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Projects in the Layer1 field, such as RUNE, SEI, FTM, etc., have also experienced price increases. According to reports, Sei V2 will support Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

AI concept tokens such as MDT and NFP have also significantly increased. It can be observed that the funds of AI concept tokens are flowing out of frontline projects such as WLD, FET, AGIX, etc., and into third and fourth-tier projects. However, it should be noted that the market for AI concepts may not be sustainable in the short term unless there are signs of the leading project WLD leading the market again.

The Meme concept token continues to decline, but PEPE's performance is relatively strong. Musk responded to information related to PEPE on Twitter, and the creators of PEPE also plan to launch new PEPE NFTs, all of which support the performance of PEPE tokens.

In summary, multiple hot topics have emerged in the current market, including projects in the Solana ecosystem, Layer1 field, AI concept tokens, etc. Investors must closely monitor these hot topics and make corresponding investment decisions based on market conditions.

## Macro: Expectations of interest rate cuts have led to a decline in the US dollar; Hong Kong, the Philippines and other regions support CBDC digital currencies; Gold and oil prices are experiencing an increase
On the global market side, on Friday, due to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's statement of interest rate cuts in the coming months, the market had more confidence in rate cuts. The US dollar experienced its largest weekly decline of the year on Friday, while the Japanese yen rose due to rising speculation about rate hikes.

Japanese traders are tense, with slight fluctuations in Asian morning trading, waiting for US employment data later that day. This may further confirm market expectations for US interest rate cuts in June.

Internationally, there is new news about the development of digital currencies. On March 7, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the launch of a new wholesale-level Central Bank Digital Currency (wCBDC) project, Ensemble, to support the development of the Hong Kong tokenization market.

The focus of the Ensemble project is on the wCBDC "Sandbox" that the Monetary Authority will launch this year, further researching and testing tokenization cases, including the settlement of tokenized real-world assets (such as green bonds, voluntary emission reductions, aircraft, electric vehicle charging stations, electronic bills of lading, and financial management), which are more likely to develop into new financial market infrastructure as a bridge between tokenized real-world assets and tokenized currencies in transactions.

Ensemble is an important part of the HKMA's series of measures to promote the development of the tokenization market. The project is also based on a tokenized deposit use case experiment conducted by the Monetary Authority in 2023 with HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, and Ant Group. The Monetary Authority will invite relevant international stakeholders, including other central banks and organizations, to participate in future wCBDC “Sandbox” experiments and research.

If the "Sandbox" of wCBDC can receive a positive response from the industry, the Monetary Authority will issue wCBDC in a timely manner.

Meanwhile, an official from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) also revealed more details about the central bank's plan to study wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC). Mamerto Tangonan, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank's Department of Payment and Monetary Management, stated at a press conference on March 6th that the wCBDC pilot project called Project Agila will be completed by the end of this year. However, the Federal Reserve has indicated that it may not support the issuance of digital currencies in the United States.

In terms of gold prices, it is expected to see its largest weekly increase in five months, hovering near historical highs. The remarks of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell have solidified the bet on a mid-year interest rate cut, and a significant employment report will be released later. As of 03:50 Greenwich Mean Time, spot gold is priced at $2,157.16 per ounce, hovering around the historical high of $2,164.09 hit on the previous trading day.

Regarding commodities, driven by increased demand from the world's largest consumer countries, the United States and China, oil prices rose on Friday. At the same time, the Federal Reserve issued a positive signal regarding the possibility of interest rate cuts. Brent crude oil futures rose 0.6%, or 49 cents, to $83.45 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures in the United States rose 0.7%, or 60 cents, to $79.53.

However, this week, both contracts have fallen slightly, with Brent crude oil and WTI falling 0.1% and 0.5%, respectively.

<div class="blog-details-info">
<div>Author:**Sherry S.**, 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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