Weekly Report | RootData launches Web3 Project Influence Analysis Index; xAI under Musk's umbrella is expected to complete a $18 billion financing valuation as early as this week; JPMorgan: If the SEC refuses to approve the spot Ethereum ETF, it may face legal challenges.
Dialogue between Xterio Co-founder Jeremy Horn: From Web2 to Web3, the "AI+GameFi" journey of a 15-year gaming veteran; Western Bitcoin Layer2 sees a financing frenzy, understanding the progress of 5 early projects in one article; Insider trading, dominance by major players, and deprivation of airdrop eligibility trap the "fleecing" individuals; With over $40 million in funding, a quick look at the new "Big Hair" Movement backed by Binance and OKX capital.
Compiled by: Luan Peng, ChainCatcher
"What important events happened this week (5.6-5.11)"
1. RootData launches Web3 project influence analysis index, dedicated to making high-quality projects more discoverable
ChainCatcher News, Web3 asset data platform RootData has launched the X (formerly Twitter) analysis feature Beta version, including nearly 20,000 encrypted projects, institutions, and individuals' X accounts in its data statistics and analysis scope. Users can now view X relationships (following, followed by, recently followed, mutual follow) between various entities, as well as corresponding influence and popularity indices, to better understand the comprehensive strength and development status of projects from multiple dimensions.
Additionally, RootData has created multiple lists for X data, such as the most influential projects/individuals on X, the projects/individuals with the highest recent popularity on X, and the projects/individuals with the highest number of X followers, helping users discover market trends and early alphas more timely. The influence index is mainly calculated based on the overall follow relationships of X accounts in nearly 20,000 included accounts, while the popularity index is mainly based on the number of followers of X accounts in recently added accounts.
ChainCatcher News, according to official sources, Binance's new coin mining platform has launched the 54th project, allowing mining of Notcoin (NOT) with BNB, FDUSD. Users can deposit BNB, FDUSD into the NOT mining pool on the Launchpool website after 08:00 on May 13 (UTC+8) to receive NOT rewards, with a total of 3 days for NOT mining. The website is expected to be updated within approximately twenty-four hours of this announcement before the mining activity opens.
Binance will list Notcoin (NOT) on May 16 at 20:00 (UTC+8) and open NOT/BTC, NOT/USDT, NOT/BNB, NOT/FDUSD, and NOT/TRY trading markets, applying seed label trading rules.
ChainCatcher News, according to DL News, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is consulting industry and experts on whether cryptocurrencies should be included in investment products. This move is expected to open up a broader market for cryptocurrencies, potentially surpassing the market size of Bitcoin spot ETFs.
It is reported that the plan aims to expand the scope of UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) with a market size of up to €12 trillion in the EU. If implemented, this would be a key step towards mainstreaming cryptocurrencies in Europe, with financial regulatory expert Sean Tuffy stating its potential as a "game-changer."
The consultation deadline for ESMA is August 7, and approval is still pending observation. Andrea Pantaleo, a lawyer at DLA Piper, stated that the impact of this move could surpass US ETFs, as many fund sectors may allocate some liquidity to cryptocurrencies.
ChainCatcher News, according to Bloomberg, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI is expected to complete this round of financing this week, with an estimated valuation of around $18 billion.
Bloomberg reported last week that xAI is set to raise $6 billion in the new round of financing (currently about 43.38 billion RMB), initially expected to be $3 billion, but the valuation has soared due to the subsequent participation of a large number of investors. Earlier, sources told Bloomberg that Musk's confidants in Redwood Capital and Future Ventures, as well as other undisclosed investors, are joining this financing battle.
It is reported that Musk recently stated that the next-generation Grok model of xAI is being trained on 20,000 NVIDIA H100s, and the future Grok 3 will further increase its demand for AI GPUs to 100,000.
ChainCatcher News, JPMorgan (JPM) stated that the legal actions taken by the US Securities and Exchange Commission against cryptocurrency exchanges seem to be the agency's attempt to influence US policymakers and legislators, who will eventually be responsible for passing cryptocurrency market regulations. As futures-based Ethereum ETFs have already been approved, the SEC may face legal challenges and ultimately fail if it rejects spot Ethereum ETF approval.
Earlier reports indicated that JPMorgan stated that the Wells notice issued to Robinhood Crypto by the SEC is unlikely to hinder the final approval of the Ethereum spot ETF.
ChainCatcher News, according to Fortune, Arbelos has completed a $28 million financing round, led by Dragonfly, with participation from FalcolnX, Circle, Paxos, Polygon, and Deribit. Arbelos Markets will mainly focus on derivatives and OTC trading for institutional participants, providing trading liquidity for hedge funds and venture capital firms, serving as counterparties for popular products like options and futures. This round of financing concluded in mid-2023.
It is reported that the two co-founders, Lim and Tang, started their careers in traditional finance before transitioning to cryptocurrencies. Lim previously served as Vice President of Trading Business at Circle and was responsible for trading strategies at Galaxy Digital, a commercial bank founded by Mike Novogratz.
Later, he became the head of derivatives at Genesis Global Trading, a cryptocurrency group under Barry Silbert's empire. Since 2017, Tang has served as the Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner of LedgerPrime, a cryptocurrency hedge fund acquired by FTX.
According to ChainCatcher, analysts from data company CryptoQuant stated that the Dencun upgrade has caused Ethereum to inflate again, potentially stifling its low inflation currency characteristics. Due to the Dencun upgrade, the amount of Ethereum burned has dropped to one of the lowest levels since the merge, when Ethereum transitioned from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, with Ethereum's supply growing at the fastest daily rate since the network merge.
The CryptoQuant analysts stated that prior to the Dencun upgrade, higher network activity on Ethereum meant higher burning fees, resulting in less Ethereum supply. However, after the Dencun upgrade, the total amount of burning fees has decoupled from network activity.
The report concludes that at the current network activity speed, Ethereum will not experience deflation again, or require higher network activity to regain vitality.
According to ChainCatcher, despite being sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the co-founder of FTX, still claims innocence. During his planned appeal, he turned to commodity trading—specifically rice. Since entering prison in August 2023, he gave his first interview, stating that he now sustains himself with beans and rice, with rice becoming a form of currency in prison. He jokingly remarked that compared to his past as a high-frequency trader, there are better arbitrage opportunities in prison.
During the interview, SBF expressed his view of being the "scapegoat" for FTX's collapse. He admitted that his only negligence was putting FTX in a position vulnerable to "bank runs and underhanded actions by competitors," but believed that the appropriate punishment should be civil rather than criminal. Reports indicate that SBF still does not consider himself guilty, portraying himself as an innocent participant and complaining that he did not engage in sufficient negotiations with the prosecutors.
According to ChainCatcher, LD Capital, Antalpha Ventures, and Highblock have announced the launch of a 1 billion Hong Kong dollar (approximately 128 million US dollars) ETF liquidity fund in Hong Kong. The fund aims to provide market-making services for Hong Kong ETFs, enhance liquidity, improve fund flow efficiency, and reduce the risks of liquidity and trading volatility.
According to ChainCatcher, Web3 asset data platform RootData has released the April search ranking list, with GameFi platform Xterio, Delta neutral stablecoin protocol Ethena, parallel blockchain Monad, Ethereum interoperability layer Omni Network, and DeFi-focused EVM-compatible public chain Berachain ranking in the top five.
Other projects selected for the monthly search list include Saga, Wormhole, Avail, BOB, io.net, Hyperlane, Zircuit, zkLink, Karak, StakeStone, Eclipse, Bitlayer, Tensor, EigenLayer, and Aethir.
It is reported that this ranking is based on RootData's monthly ranking statistics of over 300,000 searches, objectively reflecting the market popularity and user attention of Web3 projects, serving as an important reference for users to discover high-quality early-stage projects.
"What are the exciting articles worth reading this week (5.6-5.11)"
1. "Rat Warehouse, Big Players Take All, Airdrop Qualifications Stripped, 'Fur-Trimmed' People Trapped by Points"
"The points system is a poisonous tool that project parties attempt to manipulate the market. In the future, I will no longer participate in interactive activities related to points," this is the latest statement from an old OG, excluding point and brushing projects as his new screening criteria for interactive projects.
After EigenLayer announced the conditions for the EIGEN token airdrop on April 30, controversies regarding point airdrops have not ceased. That evening, during a live broadcast with EigenLayer founder on Bankless, even the user comments were disabled.
In addition to the airdrop shares being lower than some users' expectations and the airdropped tokens being unlocked linearly in batches, EigenLayer also restricted users' IP addresses when claiming the airdrop, causing users who had already accumulated a large number of points to be disqualified from receiving the airdrop due to their IP addresses being blocked.
The EigenLayer airdrop controversy has pushed the points system model to the forefront, tearing off the fig leaf of point rewards, and issues such as rat warehouses, shrinkage, and issuance hidden under the points system have erupted.
The sentiment against point activities has reached an unprecedented high, with statements refusing to participate in point activities spreading in the crypto community. The founder of Compound spoke out, declaring the end of the points era, and the founder of the "airdrop pioneer" suggested that projects "issue tokens instead of points." The once popular points system seems to be declining in reputation.
2. "Conversation with Xterio Co-founder Jeremy Horn: From Web2 to Web3, the 'AI+GameFi' Journey of a 15-Year Game Veteran"
With the recovery of the BTC ecosystem, waves of enthusiasm for AI and meme sectors have successively swept in, and the sound of "sector rotation" has gradually emerged in the crypto community. As a leader in the last bull market, the GameFi sector has also begun to attract attention.
During the bear market, the GameFi sector has nurtured some promising chain game developers and projects, with Xterio being one of them in this issue.
According to RootData's April search ranking, Xterio has consistently ranked high in the search list.
In early April, Xterio announced a collaboration with AltLayer to build the groundbreaking Layer 2 network Xterio Chain, supported by the stack of Optimism and EigenDA, aiming to define a continuously growing AI-based Web3 gaming world. At the end of April, Xterio announced a collaboration with BNB Chain and AltLayer to launch a new L2 chain core to games, which will use BNB as a Gas Token.
With the support of BNB Chain, Xterio's development momentum has reached new heights.
3. "Western Bitcoin Layer2 Sees Financing Heat, Understanding the Progress of 5 Early Projects in One Article"
Following BOB's completion of a $30 million financing at the end of March, Western Bitcoin Layer2 projects have successively secured financing.
On May 7, Botanix Labs announced a total of $11.5 million in financing, with Polychain Capital, Placeholder Capital, Valor Equity Partners, ABCDE, and Domo, the creator of the BRC-20 token standard, among the participants.
ZKM incubated by Metis, an Ethereum Layer2 founded by Vitalik's mother, although the team is not entirely of Western background, has attracted considerable attention after announcing the development of a Bitcoin Layer2 and completing a $5 million Pre-A round of financing led by OKX Ventures, with participation from Amber Group, Metis Foundation, Crypto.com, and others.
In April, the long-standing crypto developer Thesis's Bitcoin Layer2 Mezo was developed.It also announced that it has received a $21 million investment led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Multicoin Capital, Hack VC, and others.
According to ChainCatcher's incomplete statistics, in the past two months, Bitcoin Layer2 projects with Western backgrounds have raised nearly $70 million. Notable investment institutions such as Polychain Capital, Pantera Capital, Multicoin Capital, and Hack VC have participated in these projects.
Bitcoin Layer2 has always been one of the core narratives of this bull market. However, with the underperformance of the leading token Merlin Chain's MERL after its launch, the community has begun to widely question Bitcoin Layer2 projects, especially those with Eastern team backgrounds.
Will the continuous financing of Bitcoin Layer2 projects with Western backgrounds rewrite the landscape of Bitcoin Layer2? How are these Western Bitcoin Layer2 projects that have recently received funding progressing? What opportunities do ordinary investors have to participate? ChainCatcher has provided a brief overview.
4. "Dialogue with Hemera CEO: How to Build a Crypto + AI Web3.0 Era AI-Native Operating System?"
Recently, W3W.ai announced a rebranding as Hemera, offering a high-performance AI and data public infrastructure protocol. Hemera, a unique competitor in the AI and data track of Web3, has emerged.
In fact, with the rise of Sora under OpenAI, the AI field has once again sparked a technological wave of AI + Crypto = ?. This has become a hot topic in the current innovative technology field. In a16z's "2024 Outlook List," "AI + Crypto" is included, emphasizing that encryption technology can create a decentralized, global, permissionless market, allowing anyone to contribute computing power or new datasets to the network and receive corresponding compensation. This sharing and utilization of resources not only reduces the cost of AI but also makes data more accessible.
At the same time, Vitalik Buterin also envisions the potential of "AI + Crypto" in his articles, believing that encryption technology can find a balance between centralization and transparency in AI, further optimizing AI data storage.
Hemera firmly explores the potential of Crypto + AI, empowering the crypto industry with the latest AI revolution. By using a high-performance data indexing network and Web3 deeply optimized large models, Hemera aims to create an AI-native operating system for the entire industry. According to Hemera's founder Arthur Meng, the Hemera Protocol will be built as a public infrastructure for the entire industry, using AI capabilities to redefine the interaction between users and blockchain in the Web3.0 Internet era.
5. "Funding Exceeding $40 Million, a Quick Look at the New 'Big Hair' Movement Backed by Binance and OKX Capital"
Recently, the blockchain development team Movement Labs completed a $38 million Series A financing led by Polychain Capital, with support from Hack VC, Foresight Ventures, Nomad Capital, Bankless Ventures, OKX Ventures, among other investment institutions, making it one of the top five blockchain financing projects in April.
This month, Binance Labs also extended an olive branch by announcing an investment in Movement Labs.
According to data from the cryptocurrency asset platform Rootdata, Movement has been among the top projects for a consecutive week.
According to X platform data, Movement has a fan base of 137,000 people, with over 76,000 members in the Discord community.
With the support of capital, the anticipation for Movement to become the next "must-hold big hair" continues to grow, with discussions on its testnet interaction becoming one of the most talked-about topics in the crypto space.
6. "Underlying Chinese in the UK's Largest Bitcoin Money Laundering Case: Billions in Fraudulent Proceeds and 'Life Reversal'"
On March 18th local time in the UK, 42-year-old British Chinese Jian Wen was found guilty of "participating in money laundering arrangements" by a British court, facing a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. Jian Wen's defense lawyer Mark Harries told this publication that due to the judge's busy schedule, the final sentencing of Jian Wen, originally scheduled for May 10th, has been postponed to May 24th.
Jian Wen served the notorious Qian Zhimin, who had deceived over 120,000 Chinese investors. On April 24th local time, Qian Zhimin appeared in court in London. She was accused of obtaining, using, or holding cryptocurrency related to crimes in London and other parts of the UK from October 1, 2017, to April 23, 2024, which originated from her massive economic fraud in China.
During the investigation of Jian and Qian, British police seized over 61,000 bitcoins, the largest amount of cryptocurrency ever seized in the UK (based on the exchange rate of approximately £50,190 per bitcoin on May 10th, valued at around £3.06 billion).
As the "steward and translator" for Qian in the UK, Jian Wen, born into an ordinary Chinese family, came to the UK in 2007, doing various manual labor jobs and hoping for a class ascent overseas through legitimate channels for a long time. Throughout the six-year investigation and two-year trial, one question has always lingered: Did Jian Wen willingly become an accomplice to an international fraud suspect to change his fate in a foreign land, or was he manipulated into becoming a victim?
7. "Institutional Influx and New Financial Products Drive Rapid Growth in the RWA Field"
Real-world assets (RWA) are one of the fastest-growing sectors in the cryptocurrency field. Essentially, they tokenize traditional financial assets (such as treasury bonds) to interact with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
RWA allows the integration of traditional finance with blockchain technology, enabling broader liquidity and innovative financial products.
The RWA market made significant strides last quarter. With immense institutional interest and the launch of innovative products, tokenized treasury bonds, including BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, Superstate's Short-Term US Government Securities Fund, and Ondo's USDY, grew by 41% to nearly $1.3 billion. Let's review the key developments and trends in this industry.
8. "Spending Little to Catch Big Fish: Unveiling the 1155 WBTC Phishing Incident"
On May 3rd, according to the Web3 anti-fraud platform Scam Sniffer, a whale fell victim to a phishing attack with the same first and last address, losing 1155 WBTC worth approximately $70 million. Although this phishing method has been around for a while, the magnitude of the losses in this incident is still shocking. This article will analyze the key points of the phishing attack with the same first and last address, the destination of the funds, hacker characteristics, and provide recommendations to prevent such phishing attacks.
9. "Who is Buying Bitcoin Spot ETFs?"
On May 7th, according to The Block, Monolith Management, an investment company owned by former Sequoia China partner Cao Xi, revealed in a document that it holds over $24 million worth of BlackRock spot Bitcoin ETF (ticker symbol IBIT). This Hong Kong-based company's holdings in the BlackRock ETF not only rank fifth but are more than twice its investments in Meta stocks. Additionally, the company's two largest investments are in NVIDIA and Microsoft.
Currently, asset management institutions from the US, Hong Kong, Europe, and other regions are entering the Bitcoin ETF market.
According to watcher.guru, a Hong Kong-based asset management company purchased $112 million worth of US spot Bitcoin ETFs. Specifically, the data shows that Yong Rong Asset Management Limited purchased $38 million worth of the BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).
Similarly, Ovata Capital Management, also based in Hong Kong, has invested over $74 million in four other spot Bitcoin ETFs.
10. "How to View ZKM's Entry into the BTC L2 Track?"
Seeing ZKM enter the BTC L2 track, this track will become increasingly crowded like Ethereum L2, and the final market structure will depend on the evolution of technology and the market.
ZKM's underlying technology is zkVM, with the ultimate goal of trying to have its zkVM technology adopted by more projects and ecosystems to become foundational infrastructure. For example, it can connect assets from different ecosystem networks (Ethereum, Bitcoin, Cosmos, etc.) to improve liquidity. Within this framework, it is easier to understand why ZKM is entering the BTC L2 track.
Returning to the technical solutions, ZKM's core technology mainly focuses on "Entangled Rollup architecture + zkVM." These aspects primarily address two major concerns in the market: how to ensure asset security and how to achieve the sustainability of their own network.
Disclaimer: everything in the article represents the author's point of view and has nothing to do with this platform. This article is not intended to be used as a reference for making investment decisions.
