Potential pullback after BTC's new high

March 5, 2024

I. Mainstream exchange news

• Coinbase has another glitch, showing zero balance in user accounts.
• Binance's Web3 wallet completes integration with the Blast network.
• Binance will open spot trading for OM/TRY, PEPE/FDUSD, and UNI/FDUSD on March 5th.
• Binance Futures will support FDUSD as a margin asset in the Multi-Assets Mode starting from March 8th at 09:00 (UTC), and discontinue support for USDP as a margin asset in the Multi-Assets Mode on March 14th at 06:00 (UTC).
• OKX launches smart follow-up mode enabling synchronization with trader risk control.

II. Mainstream projects and trending events

• Tether has issued an additional 1 billion USDT on the TRON network in the early hours of March 5th.
• USDT's market cap exceeds $100 billion, with a 24-hour transaction volume of over $110 billion.
• The daily trading volume of the American Bitcoin Spot ETF surpasses $5.5 billion, with BlackRock's IBIT asset management scale exceeding $1.1 billion.
• MicroStrategy proposes a private placement issue of $600 million convertible preferred notes, the net proceeds of which are to be used to purchase Bitcoin.
• US SEC delays decision on BlackRock and Fidelity's Ethereum Spot ETF.
• ZkLink announces the launch of its Layer3 rollup network, "zkLink Nova".
• Ethena proposes to bring sUSDe into Aave v3 in the Aave community.
• Omni Network signs a $600 million restaking agreement with Ether.fi to enhance security.
• Bernstein reported that as Bitcoin price increases, DeFi is expected to see an "explosive" resurgence.

III. Funding news

• Blockchain-based points startup, Stack, completes a $3 million seed round led by Archetype.
• Mirror L2 completes its first round of funding, with participation from UTXO, Conflux, and IMO Ventures.
• Privasea completes a $5 million seed round, previously invested in and incubated by Binance Labs.

IV. Regulatory news

• Crypto market maker Portofino Technologies is registered with UK regulators.
• South Korea's Personal Information Protection Committee initiates an investigation into Worldcoin.
• Hong Kong's SFC warns the public against fake websites impersonating licensed virtual asset trading platforms.

IV. Popular projects 

Market overview

BTC rallied to $68,686, just 0.45% short of its all-time high.  BTC’s share in the total cryptocurrency market has reached 54.84%. As BTC's price approaches a strong breakout, BTC's dominance is expected to increase further. Copycat coins that had large advances in the previous period face short-term adjustments. Once a new high of BTC's price is broken, subsequent copycat coins will leech off BTC, driving up market trading enthusiasm. Be wary of the pullback risk after BTC hits a new high.

Ether.fi launches final pledge activity

On March 5th, Ether.fi tweeted that from March 5th to March 15th, for every 50,000 eETH staked, the project's token allocation to the community will increase by 0.25%, up to a maximum increase of 2%. This would bring the community allocation to 10%, with 50% allocated to new users and 50% to existing users. Currently, the entire protocol ranks second in the ETH restaking track, with a total value locked (TVL) of $1.95 billion.

AI track

Memecoin track has exploded, usually reflecting a change in capital markets and risk preferences of users. From the perspective of early narratives and potential Alpha projects, AI track possesses strong growth traits and storytelling ability. Here are some projects to watch:

WLD: Founded by OpenAI's Sam Altman, Worldcoin aims to establish the largest and fairest digital identity and monetary system globally. It allows users to verify their uniqueness using biometrics and zero-knowledge-proof technology. Its unique positioning and background make it a leading project in the AI track. However, Worldcoin is currently under investigation by governments in South Korea, Hong Kong, and elsewhere. It currently ranks 103rd in market cap, with a value of $1.06 billion, a drop of 26% in the past week.

TAO: Bittensor(TAO) is a mining network that rewards users who contribute valuable data or computational resources with tokens. With the introduction of the BIT1 proposal, user attention to this project has continued to rise. Bittensor proposes a shift from a single-token framework to a multi-token system. In the future, each subnet may produce its own token, with limits on the number of subnets. Users can exchange TAO and subnet tokens at will. The daily emission of TAO will also be allocated to different subnets. TAO aims to make each network's ETH equivalent to the ERC20 token, while BIT1 introduces a subnet staking policy, adding more possibilities to the Bittensor ecosystem. Currently, it ranks 34th in market cap, with a value of $4.17 billion, up  15% in the past week. 

RNDR: The Render Network is a GPU computing network that allows users to use their RNDR tokens to access additional computing power for cloud rendering scenarios. Render currently ranks 47th in market cap, with a value of $2.68 billion, up 12% over the past week.

THETA: Initially positioned as a dedicated Layer1 for video and entertainment, Theta Network announced on February 26th that the first phase of Theta EdgeCloud will launch in the second quarter of 2024. EdgeCloud is touted as one of the most advanced decentralized software platforms in the edge computing industry. EdgeCloud provides developers, researchers, and businesses of all sizes with limitless GPU processing power to execute any AI or video task. This power is equivalent to the combined processing capabilities of 250 NVIDIA A100s, made possible by running nodes across the Theta community. Today, the governance token THETA ranks 49th in market cap with a value of $2.59 billion, and it has risen 100% in the past week. The payment token TFUEL ranks 151st with a market cap of $580 million, up 85% in the past week.

OLAS: OLAS is the first framework to bridge the gap between AI and blockchain. OLAS utilizes a DAO framework, leveraging token economies to coordinate contributions from ecosystem participants, including code developers and capital investors. This transformation turns Autonolas into a unified network incorporating AI, oracles, cross-chain communication, and other off-chain services. On March 2nd, they proposed the introduction of Olas Staking to boost token demand and foster rapid ecosystem growth. It currently ranks 271st in market cap with a value of $257 million, a drop of  20% in the past week.

NOS: Built on Solana, NOS functions as a GPU network. The NOS platform enables consumers, miners, and businesses to capitalize on their idle hardware by becoming Nosana nodes. Consequently, it provides AI users with an expedited environment for training and implementing their models. Currently, it ranks 189th in market cap with a value of $419 million, up 19% in the past week.

COMAI: Positioned as a collaborative ecosystem for developers, Commune AI aims to create a community where developers can effortlessly share, connect, and extend their tools, driving innovation and efficiency within the development community. Currently, it ranks 371st in the market cap with a value of $156 million, a drop of 1% in the past week.

ENQAI: enqAI introduces unrestricted AI, from image and audio generation to large language models, all powered by a decentralized network of GPU nodes. Currently, it ranks 549th in market capitalization with a value of $78.71 million, up 61% in the past week.

BOTTO: Botto's art engine generates over 350 unique pieces of art weekly through multiple AI models. The fragments with the lowest scores based on weekly voting get eliminated, and the proceeds from the weekly auctions are distributed to the community. Currently, its market cap ranks 790th with a value of $41.16 million, up 148% in the past week.