Mind The Block | January Week 2

Mind The Block: Your Weekly Dose of Web3 News and Insights

Mind The Block Headlines This Week

  • Crypto Market Cap Hits $1.69 Trillion
  • Coinbase Expands EU Derivatives Reach
  • BlackRock Anticipates SEC ETF Approval
  • Finoa Secures $15M in Funding
  • Redacted Integrates Chainlink CCIP
  • ERC World’s NFT Marketplace Launch
  • Solana Dips Below $100, Rebounds
  • What is Magic Eden?

News

  • Bitcoin (BTC) topped $47,000 for the first time since April 2022.
  • NFT analytics platform Ninjalerts has inscribed a Super Nintendo Entertainment System emulator onto the Bitcoin network.
  • Crypto market cap has reached a record $1.69 trillion, surpassing major economies like Spain and Australia.
  • A total of 6,283.44 Ether worth $14M was burned from Ethereum transactions due to the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade.
  • Polygon’s NFT ecosystem experienced a historic milestone, surpassing Ethereum in 24-hour NFT sales for the first time.
  • Bitcoin ETF buzz has injected volatility, sending the price back to $45K as open interest mounts.
  • Celsius is planning to unstake around $470 million worth of Ethereum tokens to raise funds for creditors.
  • PancakeSwap has announced a significant token burn valued at approximately $25 million.
  • TonUP has announced the launch of the TonTogether token (TOT) through an innovative Launchpool.
  • Bit24.cash has reportedly exposed sensitive data belonging to 230,000 users.
  • Ripple’s XRP Ledger network is experiencing a surge in activity, causing a distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack by Magnetic X.
  • Digital Currency Group (DCG) has confirmed that it has settled $700 million of debt with Genesis.
  • Binance has released its 14th Proof of Reserves, showing robust growth in user assets, particularly Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT.
  • PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin, which launched in August, is struggling to gain traction in the stablecoin sector.

Extras by Mind the Block

  • Swiss Web3 consulting firm STORM Partners is set to launch Decentral House.
  • Maincard.io, a Web3 sports fantasy manager, has entered the esports arena with big-name partnerships.
  • Cardano continues to dominate development activity among other networks.
  • Open Campus ID is a decentralized education platform launching in January 2024.
  • HAQQ has partnered with decentralized home delivery service GoMeat to streamline the availability of halal meat in the US.
  • CoinsPaid has suffered a second security breach in six months, resulting in a $7.5 million loss.
  • The Loki Kit by Pivotal Pleb Tech has enabled crypto miners to run various configurations of Bitmain S19 ASIC miners on 120V power.
  • BNB Chain Fusion aims to unify BEP-2 and BEP-20 by April 2024.
  • Messari has named Larry Fink, Michael Sonnenshein, and Cathie Wood as key individuals to watch in the Bitcoin ETF space in 2024.

Major Companies Making Moves

  • Coinbase plans to expand its derivatives offerings in the European Union by acquiring a Cyprus-based entity under the Markets.
  • Binance has launched a presale for its Cloud Mining products, designed for Bitcoin BTC mining and GPU crypto mining.
  • Japanese e-commerce platform Mercari plans to introduce Bitcoin payments for its flea market products by June 2024.
  • Starknet’s community approved the Alpha version 13.0 update, allowing transactions with Starknet’s native token, STRK, and ether.
  • X has reduced the price of gold checkmarks to $200 monthly amid a surge in crypto scams.

Government, SEC & Regulation

  • EBA will investigate the interconnections between traditional banks and non-bank financial institutions like crypto platforms.
  • BlackRock expects the SEC to approve its spot Bitcoin ETF application by Wednesday.
  • Indian crypto companies are moving to Dubai to escape stringent tax regulations and uncertain legal frameworks.
  • South Korea’s tax authority and five major cryptocurrency exchanges have formed a committee to prevent illegal foreign transactions.
  • Nigeria’s Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved the cNGN stablecoin.
  • Nebraska lawmakers have introduced a bill to aid Bitcoin mining in residential properties.
  • Crypto exchanges Coinbase, OKX, Crypto.com, and Gemini are implementing financial knowledge assessments for UK users.
  • The SEC asked a court to consider a recent judgment against Terraform Labs in its case against Binance.
  • Honduras’ Próspera ZEDE has officially recognized Bitcoin as a unit of account for various financial transactions.
  • Bitcoin ETFs, such as Valkyrie’s Bitcoin ETF, could be influenced by the US government’s agenda to ban crypto.
  • The Bank of Spain has selected Cecabank, Abanca, and Adhara Blockchain for Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) testing.
  • Upbit Singapore has been granted a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
  • China’s Legal Daily has urged a crackdown on bribery using cryptocurrency and other electronic payment methods.

Raises & Major Investments rounds

  • Blockchain industry leaders have raised $78 million to support pro-crypto politicians for the 2024 congressional elections.
  • Finoa, a German crypto custodian and staking services provider, raised $15 million in a strategic funding round.
  • Singapore-based CESS raised $8M in Series A funding, aiming to provide decentralized data services for Web3.
  • InQubeta raised over $8 million through a presale of its native QUBE tokens.
  • Solana-based DeFi firm Saros raised $3.75 million in a private funding round backed by major investors like Spartan and GBV.
  • Umoja, founded by Robby Greenfield, has raised $2M to introduce DeFi’s first asset risk management primitive.


NFTs, Gaming, Metaverse

  • ERC World is set to launch its NFT marketplace in early 2024, offering a competitive transaction fee of 1.33%.
  • Samsung and Google are collaborating on a new mixed-reality headset designed to challenge Apple’s Vision Pro.
  • MixMob, a Solana-powered gaming platform, has launched its first card strategy racing game, Racer 1, featuring race-to-earn mechanics.
  • Ernest Cline and Dan Farah have co-founded Readyverse Studios to develop a metaverse for Ready Player One.
  • Find Satoshi Lab’s Web3 social strategy game, Gas Hero has dominated NFT sales with a transaction volume of nearly $3.2 million.
  • XPLA has partnered with Gall3ry, a social solution that promotes NFT holders to take responsibility for their social identifications.
  • Wemade has added two new games to its top-tier Web3 games collection: NINJA SURVIVOR.io and Rebirth Heroes: RPG.
  • Programmable NFTs, once considered monetized cryptocurrency projects, are now being accelerated by generative AI.
  • Sky Mavis has launched the Mavis Store, an online shop for non-blockchain in-game items from the Ronin catalogue.

Onchain Data

  • Solana (SOL) price fell below $100, validating the 0.382 Fib retracement support level at $86 and bouncing.
  • Avalanche (AVAX) experienced a surge in Q4 2023 due to institutional inflow and adoption of tokenization.
  • Bonk (BONK) has experienced a 68% drop from its recent peak, sparked interest as a potential dip buying opportunity.
  • Shiba Inu price has fallen by 4.5%, dropping to $0.000009051 as the wider crypto market lost 1% in the past 24 hours.
  • Celestia (TIA) price has increased significantly since the January 3 flash crash, reaching an all-time high of $16.88.

Educational Guides and Tips from Mind the Block

See you in the next edition of the Mind The Block.

Found value in the insights shared here? Check out our YouTube and Twitter, loaded with content meant to educate and entertain.

Follow our Telegram for a sneak peek at alpha; for an even deeper dive, join our Patreon community, where we share exclusive alpha for you to be the ‘early bird.’

Follow us today, and let’s explore Web3 together!

Author