Marco Manoppo, the Research Director at Digital Asset Research, has shared several notable developments that took place recently in the crypto and blockchain sector.
Marco from Digital Asset Research notes that all of the following happened in crypto this week:
MicroStrategy Acquires $615M worth of Bitcoin (BTC)
MSTR is now the largest corporate holder of BTC, after “adding 14,620 BTC at an average price of $42,110. MSTR now holds over $5.9B in BTC and is sitting on around $2B in profit.”
While this does show that the company has a lot of confidence in the value-proposition of Bitcoin, it might not be the best way to build a corporate treasury.
$11B Crypto Options to Expire at End of 2023
On Friday at 08:00 UTC, “a staggering $7.7 billion worth of options tied to bitcoin (BTC) and $3.5 billion of options linked to ether (ETH) will expire on the crypto exchange Deribit.”
Deribit Chief Commercial Officer Luuk Strijers stated on the subject:
“This Friday USD 7.7 billion BTC options notional open interest plus USD 3.5 billion ETH OI will expire. The total of over USD 11 billion marks Deribit’s largest expiry thus far of which almost USD 5 billion will expire in the money, the largest amount ever as well potentially resulting in above average hedging and trading activity. Beyond hedging we also see clients rolling positions to 2024 expiries and expect to see more of that closer to the expiry as well as afterwards. After the expiry, all eyes and trading activity will be focussed on the upcoming ETF decision.”
Binance: CZ Grew Wealth by $25B
Bloomberg Billionaire Index reported “that CZ’s wealth soared by $25B in 2023. His net worth now stands at more than $37B, making him the 35th richest person in the world.”
Although this sounds impressive, CZ’s second request to return to his home in the UAE was again denied by US courts because he might pose a significant flight risk, among other issues. The Binance CEO will have to appear for sentencing in 2024 as part of serious criminal charges brought by US regulators.
Blast Reaches $1.1B in TVL
The yield-generating L2 has “surpassed $1.1B in deposits thanks to its airdrop incentive program. Blast doesn’t even have a product yet.”
The platform is due “to go live in February 2024.”
Paxos Expands to Solana
The stablecoin issuer Paxos has “received regulatory approval to expand its products to the Solana blockchain, which it plans to launch on Jan. 17, 2024.”
Barry Silbert Resigns as Grayscale Chairman
Grayscale Investments, whose application “to turn its Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a U.S. spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) is being considered by the Securities and Exchange Commission, said Barry Silbert resigned as chairman and will be replaced by Mark Shifke.”
BarnBridge DAO settles with the SEC
BarnBridge DAO, which “runs a small DeFi protocol, and its founders will pay more than $1.7 million to settle charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to register the offer and sale of cryptocurrencies.”
Monex Group Acquires majority stake in 3iQ
Japan-based Monex Group, which “runs an online brokerage, cryptocurrency exchange, and asset management business, said Thursday that it plans to acquire a majority stake in Canadian crypto asset firm 3iQ Digital Holdings.”
Metis Eyes $360M in Grant Rewards
The Ethereum L2 network “announced its ecosystem development fund consisting of 4.6M METIS tokens, or approximately $360M. The capital will be deployed in Q1 2024.”
PancakeSwap Proposes to Reduce 300M CAKE Token Supply
The primary DEX in the BNB Chain “proposed to reduce the supply of its CAKE token by 300M.”
This will reduce the max supply of CAKE “from 750M to 450M. If the proposal is passed, the reduction will be implemented by January 4th, 2024.”
