💡 Bitcoin Holds Steady Above $34K. The market for tokenized U.S. Treasuries has surged nearly 600% to $698 million as the cryptocurrency race for RWAs intensifies. Crypto funds see largest Inflow in 15 months. Celestia's TIA token is trading at $3.1 on the futures market ahead of the airdrop. Proof-of-Stake asset market capitalization drops 7% to $254 billion. DYdX Chain to distribute all network fees to validators and stakers.
Bitcoin (BTC) remains valued above $34,000 following the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) modification to its "yield curve control" (YCC) strategy, a move that offsets the Federal Reserve's measures to reduce liquidity. As of the current reporting time, the premier cryptocurrency, when evaluated by market capitalization, is priced at $34,300, indicating a subtle decline of 0.18% over the past 24 hours.
Earlier this week, the central bank maintained its short-term policy rate at -0.1%, upholding its stance on negative interest rates. Notably, the BOJ has now shifted its perspective on the 1% upper threshold for the 10-year government bond yield, viewing it as a guideline rather than a strict limit. This adjustment permits greater variation in yields, reducing the imperative for the BOJ to intervene with bond purchases aimed at enhancing liquidity whenever the 10-year yield approaches the previous 1% fixed limit.
This recent action by the BOJ aligns with a report from Nikkei on Monday, which suggested that the bank is adopting a more adaptive approach, potentially allowing the benchmark yield to surpass 1%.
Investment funds centered on cryptocurrency witnessed a significant $326 million in net inflows during the past week, marking the most substantial weekly entry since July 2022. This influx is primarily attributed to the surge in prices, driven by increasing anticipation that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) might grant approval to the inaugural spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Notably, even with such a robust influx, last week's investments rank as only the 21st most considerable weekly acquisition in the three-year period
Tokenized renditions of U.S. Treasuries have witnessed a remarkable growth in 2023, expanding almost seven-fold due to escalating competition amongst investment products and blockchain platforms. As of Monday, the market for tokenized Treasuries has catapulted to $698 million, a significant leap from approximately $100 million at the year's commencement.
Established protocols like Ondo Finance, Maple, and Backed have seen a substantial uptick over recent months, as reflected in RWA data. Concurrently, newcomers such as Tradeteq and TrueFi's Adatp3r, both introduced in September, have garnered deposits amounting to $4.5 million and $8.5 million, respectively.
In a noteworthy shift, Ethereum (ETH) has recently surpassed the Stellar (XLM) network in terms of the value of on-chain Treasury tokens. Additionally, newer entrants to the market, Polygon (MATIC) and Solana (SOL), have collectively amassed over $40 million in assets, as per blockchain records. These trends underscore a progressively diverse blockchain ecosystem for tokenized assets.
The proprietary token of the modular blockchain network, Celestia, named TIA, is currently valued at $3.1 on the decentralized derivatives platform, Helix. This is in anticipation of the network's mainnet debut slated for later this week.
Binance has provisionally scheduled the listing of TIA for October 31 at 16:00 UTC. It is projected that the token will be airdropped to an estimated 600,000 wallet holders. Other exchanges, Kucoin and Bybit, have announced that TIA will be open for trading at 14:00 UTC.
The aggregate supply of Celestia's native token is capped at 1 billion. Given its futures pricing, this places its fully diluted market capitalization at approximately $3.1 billion. The network has expressed intentions to airdrop 60 million tokens as a gesture of appreciation to its early supporters. However, there remains some ambiguity regarding the exact volume of the total supply that will be in circulation immediately post-launch.
On Helix, liquidity levels for TIA are relatively low, with daily trading volumes hovering around the $3,000 mark.
In the previous year, Celestia successfully garnered $55 million during its Series A and B funding rounds held in October. This fundraising endeavor was spearheaded by notable venture capital
The market capitalization of leading proof-of-stake (PoS) assets witnessed a 7% decline in the recent quarter, settling at $254 billion, down from the preceding quarter. Concurrently, staked asset values experienced a modest 3% uptick to reach $74 billion. However, the annualized rewards from staking diminished by 7%, amounting to $4.1 billion. The mean yield for PoS staking stood at 10.2%, marking a 4% decrease compared to the last quarter. In a broader context, PoS assets' contribution to the total cryptocurrency market capitalization is 22%, representing a 2% quarterly decline.
Despite the subdued quarter-on-quarter figures, the data might suggest the market is navigating away from its lowest ebb. The cryptocurrency sector experienced a downward trend during this quarter, primarily attributed to the absence of immediate market drivers, prevailing regulatory ambiguities, and overarching macroeconomic challenges, which collectively resulted in a stagnated market condition. Although cryptocurrencies depreciated by 5-10% on a quarterly basis, their annual performance showcased an impressive 10-40% growth, with stablecoins being the exception. This signifies that while bearish conditions persist, the market appears to be recuperating from its lowest point.
The dYdX Chain has recently announced that all accumulated fees will be directed to its network validators and stakers. Moreover, the capabilities of the DYDX token will be enhanced on the version 4 platform.
The alpha mainnet for the dYdX Chain is now live, with the genesis block being formed by validators. This represents a significant developmental milestone for the decentralized derivatives platform. The dYdX Foundation, in a recent announcement, highlighted the augmented functions of the DYDX token in the upcoming version 4. The token's pivotal role in strengthening network security and facilitating efficient governance was emphasized. As part of this system, the token will be staked to the network's validators. Furthermore, all protocol-related fees, encompassing both USDC transaction fees and those fees denominated in DYDX for gas, will be allocated to the said validators and stakers.
Explore the most notable raises of this week.
Neon Machine, the developer and publisher of the highly anticipated extraction shooter game Shrapnel, has raised $20 million in funding.This round follows a seed funding of $10.5 million in late 2021.
Shrapnel is being developed by a team of BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning game industry veterans with extensive experience in gaming-as-a-service, transmedia, virtual production, and blockchain.
The team, which came from HBO Interactive, has worked on renowned titles such as Halo, Call of Duty, Star Wars, Ghost of Tsushima, and more. Their goal with Shrapnel is to create a first-person shooter game that empowers players and creators, offering a unique gaming experience.
The Uniswap Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) recently gave a preliminary nod towards a significant investment proposition. They’re considering injecting 3 million UNI (equivalent to $12 million) from their treasury into the decentralized exchange, Ekubo. The catch? A coveted 20% share in Ekubo’s upcoming governance token.Post-approval, the liquid 3 million tokens will be the lifeblood for Ekubo’s operations. More so, they will bolster contributions to the Uniswap protocol.And there’s more in store! Post the proposal’s green signal, Ekubo aims to roll out its governance token within a month. 20% of its cache will enhance the Uniswap DAO’s treasury. Ekubo, however, will reign supreme over the rest, guiding its potential distribution. An added bonus is the token’s native domicile in Starknet. The proposal also spells a boon for Ekubo in terms of licensing, granting them unbridled access to Uniswap v4.
Created by the founder of Thunes, global digital currency payments institution Triple-A wants to close the gap between traditional finance and blockchain-based payments with its white-label solutions for businesses. It enables clients to pay in or accept crypto and get fiat money in their bank accounts the next day.
Triple-A announced today it has raised a $10 million Series A from returning investors Peak XV (former Sequoia India and Southeast Asia) with strategic backing from MENA-focused venture firm Shorooq Partners, alongside undisclosed repeat backers. This round comes about a year after Triple-A’s $4 million seed round, bringing its total raised so far to $14 million.
The company’s new funding will be used to expand in the Middle East, North America and South America. It also plans to add new cryptocurrency solutions to its crypto payments and payout products. Headquartered in Singapore, Triple-A currently has more than 70 employees and offices in Miami, Hong Kong, Paris and Barcelona.
Celestia's mainnet launched today along with its native token, which will become available for trading on centralized exchanges. The project has set aside 60 million tokens for an airdrop to active users on Ethereum Layer 2s, stakers on Cosmos Hub and Osmosis, and developers in the broader crypto space. Upon the mainnet launch , a maximum of 1 billion tokens will be minted on the network. This means the airdrop accounts for 6% of the total supply.
From the inception of the cryptocurrency industry, scholars and blockchain innovators have been well-acquainted with the blockchain trilemma involving scalability, security, and decentralization. This trilemma theory suggests that, among these three fundamental attributes, a blockchain could opt for only two, inevitably sacrificing one of the core blockchain characteristics. In Ethereum's case, the project places a higher emphasis on decentralization and security while compromising scalability. This prioritization has resulted in the scalability challenges that the Ethereum Foundation and the broader community have been striving to address in recent years.
The blockchain trilemma primarily stems from the conventional monolithic designs of traditional blockchains. In most blockchain systems, a single chain is responsible for overseeing all the essential functions of a blockchain, including execution, settlement, consensus, and data availability. Nevertheless, the concentration of all these functions within a single chain has given rise to congestion points, particularly during periods of heightened chain usage.
Modular blockchain frameworks offer enhanced scalability by segregating one or more blockchain functions into individual layers. These modular layers are tailored and optimized for their specific roles, yielding a more resilient and adaptable system when compared to the conventional monolithic approach.
The modular approach has gained substantial recognition, especially in the case of Ethereum's rollups like Optimism and Arbitrum. These rollups abstract the execution function into a distinct layer, while Ethereum oversees the remaining components.
So, where does Celestia fit into this landscape? Celestia's role is to manage the Data Availability and Consensus functions within the modular stack, empowering other projects and blockchain networks to build upon its technology.
Understanding Celestia entails grasping the concept of data availability, which concerns the assurance that the data necessary for validating a block is accessible to all participants within the network. In the context of Ethereum layer-1, complete nodes have the capability to download all data contained in a block, and a block lacking essential data would be rejected.
On the surface, the solution might seem straightforward - having all nodes download all blockchain data. However, in the realm of modular blockchains, layer-2 rollups, or light clients, the challenge of data availability revolves around the scenario where summarized transaction data added to the blockchain accurately represents a valid set of transactions without necessitating the download of all data by every node. Failing to verify whether the block producer has published all data in the new block leaves room for malicious transactions to be concealed and disseminated across the network.
As an alternative, a brilliant solution was proposed in a research paper by none other than Ethereum's co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, and Celestia Labs' co-founder, Mustafa Al-Bassam. Their solution, known as data availability proofs, offers a high probability of demonstrating that all data has been shared with the network, utilizing only a fraction of the block. Data availability proofs form the fundamental technology behind Celestia.
Data availability proofs hinge on an innovative technique called erasure coding, which involves the expansion of the existing block data. For instance, a 1MB block can be expanded to encompass 2MB of data. This additional space within the block is filled with erasure code, a mechanism that ensures the complete block can be reconstructed as long as at least 50% of its data is present. In practical terms, this implies that if a malevolent block producer attempts to omit a specific segment of the block, they must exclude at least 50% of the block since any omitted segment can still be reconstructed provided 50% of the data is available.
In light of this, nodes have the capability to request random, small sections of the block to confirm the availability of data. Failure to receive the requested section allows them to deduce that the block producer has excluded their requested portion, which is part of the 50% omitted. Furthermore, by taking multiple random samples, the confidence in the publication of all data can be elevated from a mere 50% assurance with a single request to over 99% certainty with just seven requests.
Data availability proofs empower Celestia to guarantee data accessibility for any blockchain built upon its foundation. With this data, validators can arrive at a consensus on the order and validation of received transactions. Unlike most other blockchain networks, Celestia's validators are not burdened with the responsibility of verifying transaction validity, as the rollups constructed on Celestia autonomously manage this task through their own nodes.
In addition to managing transaction validity, every rollup on Celestia has the capacity to construct a tailored virtual ecosystem and adapt the blockchain to suit their specific requirements. Thanks to its adaptable design, Celestia permits the utilization of any programming language or virtual machine to develop on its platform. Currently, the supported languages encompass Solidity, Rust, and Golang.
Conferences are a great opportunity to grab the attention of the whales in the crypto industry, spread the word about your project and win some funds! A quick line-up of the upcoming conferences below!
