The Weekly Airdrop: 0x92

Nov. 24, 2023 // Overall Market +6.7%, U.S. goes after CEXs Binance & Kraken to ready the BTC ETF, OpenAI drama highlights need for Web3 AI, and Argentina gets a BTC President

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Nov 24, 2023

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MARKET UPDATE

This week saw a series of news against centralized exchanges with Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, agreeing to pay a $4.3 billion settlement with the DoJ, and CEO “CZ” stepping down. Kraken was also targeted by the SEC in a new lawsuit claiming the exchange is allowing users to trade unregistered securities, despite the agency’s refusal to clarify which tokens constitute securities.

Many view these recent regulatory actions as simply the U.S. doing final cleanup of the industry before approving Bitcoin & Ethereum ETFs, and believe the Binance settlement is a positive compared to a complete shutdown as we’ve seen in the past. Another (former) exchange, Mt. Gox, announced it will finally begin to make repayments in cash to starting next month.

Bitcoiners got their second-ever Bitcoin President this week with Argentina’s Javier Milei officially elected to office. He has spoken previously about wanting to make BTC nationally recognized legal tender to combat the nation’s devastating ~200% annual inflation.

DEFI OVERVIEW

The DeFi sector was the strongest performer in the past 7 days, notching gains of +8.8%. Onchain activity surged, driving gas fees to a peak of 413.7 Gwei, averaging 31.7 Gwei. As volatility has remained, activity onchain has been continuous and rallies in tokens further out on the risk curve have been picking up share of spot markets. Over the past week we’ve also noted the ETH/BTC ratio picking up as alts move into favor with investors and ETH leads, last trading at .055.

Pyth Network (PYTH)

Kicking off the week we had the PYTH token genesis event and airdrop. Since launching at ~.30c on the 20th, PYTH has surged 76% and is trading at .53c at the time of writing. Pyth Network, a low latency market data provider, is similar to Chainlink and provides essential infrastructure for smart contracts with reliable data feeds on over 40 blockchains. Investor appetite for new tokens is a positive sign that we are entering a risk-on environment in the crypto space.

Vertex Protocol (VRTX)

The new DEX on the block, Vertex, launched their token on Tuesday following the conclusion of their liquidity bootstrapping auction which set the token launch price at .31c. VRTX has rebounded after a sharp sell-off on initiating trading which was likely a result of rewards farmers exiting, and has since recovered and now trades at .34c. This week saw 2 trading days with exchange fees nearing all-time highs of approximately $100k. These fees are going to be passed back to VRTX token stakers in USDC up to 50% of the total. Vertex is incorporating a two token model for staking with voVRTX which represents your rewards boost from 1x to 2.5x, that will reach the max multiplier after 6 months of staking.

WEB3 OVERVIEW

The Web3 sector was the second top performer this week, collectively +7.0%, primarily driven by the disruption at OpenAI. After CEO Sam Altman was forced out of the company, the risks associated with centralized governance drew attention to decentralized alternatives like Akash & Bittensor below.

Akash Network (AKT)

The OpenAI incident this week resonated within the tech community, bolstering the case for decentralized platforms which offer increased stability and independence from such organizational disruptions. Akash's significant price rally of +54% reflects this sentiment, as the market responds to a potential shift towards decentralized solutions that promise a more robust framework for technology development.

In parallel, Akash's forthcoming Mainnet 9 upgrade is poised to enhance network efficiency by rectifying a critical bid validation issue from the previous v0.28.0 upgrade. This anticipation has likely fueled investor confidence, as the network's increased protocol fees suggest a surge in activity and demand. By addressing the MatchGSpec validation errors and potentially ushering in additional improvements, the upgrade bolsters Akash's value proposition as a decentralized compute marketplace, further driving its token's value amidst a period marked by heightened interest in decentralized infrastructures.

7d Demand Side Protocol Fees (Web3 Index)

Bittensor (TAO)

TAO's market presence has expanded significantly, evidenced by a +32.5% increase in value and a +4.4% growth in total accounts over the past week, concurrently with Akash following the centralization concerns highlighted by OpenAI's internal events. With a market capitalization reaching $1.4 billion, TAO has climbed into the top 50 on CoinMarketCap, signaling robust investor confidence and heightened interest in decentralized compute solutions amid the current tech landscape.

Pocket Network (POKT)

Pocket Network has initiated a significant upgrade to its protocol, the Shannon upgrade, opting for a modular "micro-rollup" approach using Rollkit with Celestia for data availability. This strategic pivot comes as the team aims to simplify the protocol's complexity in line with core utility enhancements. Concurrently, the price of POKT has surged by +25.2% over the week, reflecting the market's positive reception to these developmental strides towards modularity and the protocol's anticipated early next year mainnet launch.