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BTC $96,420 +2.34% ETH $3,280 +1.82% SOL $185.40 -0.92% BNB $642.50 +0.45% XRP $2.18 +3.12% DOGE $0.082 -1.50% ADA $1.05 +0.80% AVAX $42.10 +1.15%
BTC $96,420 +2.34% ETH $3,280 +1.82% SOL $185.40 -0.92% BNB $642.50 +0.45% XRP $2.18 +3.12% DOGE $0.082 -1.50% ADA $1.05 +0.80% AVAX $42.10 +1.15%
09/21/2024

This Week's Hot Topics and Industry Blockbusters

01. The Fed's Rate Cut "The Fed Cuts Rates! Is Crypto Ready to Rally?" 02. The Impact of the U.S. Election "The U.S. Election Everyone's Talking About — How Will It Affect the Crypto Market?" 03. Industry Insights "Messari: What's Next for Chain Abstraction?" "BlackRock's Take on Bitcoin: Risk-Return Drivers That Differ from Traditional Assets" "Bitwise: Ethereum Is Down, But It's a Good Contrarian Buy" "Has the Window of Opportunity for Infrastructure Passed — Does the Future Belong to Apps?"

This Week's Hot Topics and Industry Blockbusters

01. The Fed's Rate Cut

"The Fed Cuts Rates! Is Crypto Ready to Rally?"

02. The Impact of the U.S. Election

"The U.S. Election Everyone's Talking About — How Will It Affect the Crypto Market?"

03. Industry Insights

"Messari: What's Next for Chain Abstraction?" "BlackRock's Take on Bitcoin: Risk-Return Drivers That Differ from Traditional Assets" "Bitwise: Ethereum Is Down, But It's a Good Contrarian Buy" "Has the Window of Opportunity for Infrastructure Passed — Does the Future Belong to Apps?"

04. Project Watch

"Rewriting the BTC Ecosystem Roadmap: exSat's Path to Innovation" "Hemi Raises $15 Million — How Is It Building a Bitcoin and Ethereum L2?" "Gold Rush Guide | How to Farm the Suilend Airdrop Effectively?" "Unlocking 'Minichain': How Nubit Is Bridging 'Billions' of Future Web2 and Web3 Integrations"

01. The Fed's Rate Cut

For the first time in four years, the Fed officially announced a 50-basis-point rate cut at its meeting in the early hours of September 19. The crypto market, which had been sluggish for an extended period, saw a notable rebound following the rate decision announcement. Recommended read:

"The Fed Cuts Rates! Is Crypto Ready to Rally?"

Widespread market fears of a U.S. recession have eased, with a soft landing looking increasingly likely. Lower interest rates will have a positive and lasting effect on risk assets. While the impact may not be immediate, as rates continue to fall over time, market liquidity will begin flowing out of bonds, banks, and other assets and into equities and crypto. Additionally, the upcoming U.S. presidential election in early November will bring short-term volatility to the crypto market. Once results are officially announced, funds that have been sitting on the sidelines in a wait-and-see mode could start pouring into crypto. For now, spot market trading volume remains sluggish, hovering around $600 billion. Outside of temporary spikes triggered by specific macro events, market liquidity remains subdued.

02. The Impact of the U.S. Election

The Bitcoin halving, which occurs once every four years, had a negligible impact on BTC's price. So does the U.S. election actually move the crypto market? Recommended read:

"The U.S. Election Everyone's Talking About — How Will It Affect the Crypto Market?"

While the long-term impact of the election is minimal, it does show meaningful short-term influence. On the morning of July 14, Trump, as a candidate, was targeted in an assassination attempt. That day, BTC climbed 2%, breaking above $60,000. The following day it rose another 6%, reaching around $65,000, and continued to swing higher in the days after. On July 28, Trump attended the long-awaited Bitcoin conference. Following the event, the market stalled and prices pulled back after an initial optimistic run-up. On July 29, Bitcoin began sliding after topping $70,000, and even saw panic selling in early August. On August 23, when independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump, Bitcoin surged from $60,000 to around $65,000 — a gain of more than 6% in a single day.

03. Industry Insights

Focusing on end-state outcomes means you're building for tomorrow's demand, not today's. Recommended read:

"Messari: What's Next for Chain Abstraction?"

Currently, 90% of DeFi activity is concentrated across 7 blockchains, with Ethereum, Solana, Base, and Arbitrum accounting for 75%. This reflects a clear user preference for specific blockchains. The concentration is largely driven by limited cross-chain token deployment: users choose blockchains based on where tokens are available. Because tokens are primarily chain-specific, there's little need for chain switching when deciding which chain to use.

BlackRock's report suggests that over the long term, the drivers behind Bitcoin adoption may differ from — or even run counter to — the macroeconomic factors that drive most traditional financial assets. Recommended read:

"BlackRock's Take on Bitcoin: Risk-Return Drivers That Differ from Traditional Assets"

Over the past decade, Bitcoin has outperformed all major asset classes in seven of those years, delivering impressive annualized returns exceeding 100%. Despite this, Bitcoin also endured three underperforming years in that same decade, including four separate drawdowns of more than 50%. Yet across these historical cycles, Bitcoin has demonstrated the ability to recover from those drawdowns and reach new highs, even after extended bear markets. Bitcoin's price swings continue to reflect, to some degree, the ongoing evolution of its prospects as a mainstream global monetary alternative.

Ethereum has declined for a number of reasons. However, with the November election approaching and regulatory clarity emerging, the market may reassess Ethereum. Recommended read:

"Bitwise: Ethereum Is Down, But It's a Good Contrarian Buy"

Ethereum has the most active developers and users of any blockchain, and its market cap is five times that of its nearest competitor. It is the only programmable blockchain that has achieved a meaningful degree of regulatory acceptance in the U.S., with a thriving regulated futures market and billions of dollars in ETF markets. Think of it as the Microsoft of blockchains. Everyone wants to talk about Google, Slack, and Zoom — for good reason: they all brought disruptive technology to market. But Microsoft's scale still dwarfs all of them combined. This isn't me being bearish on Solana or other blockchains. They're making a real impact and there's a lot to look forward to. But I think people are overlooking Ethereum's success and its ecosystem in real-world asset tokenization. In my view, the challenges Ethereum faces don't appear to be existential, and its opportunities are plentiful. I suspect that as the November election draws closer and regulatory clarity emerges, the market may take a fresh look at Ethereum. Right now, it looks like a solid contrarian buy before year's end.

Monegro argued that the biggest difference between Web3 and Web2 in terms of value accrual is that the base crypto layer captures more value than the aggregate of all applications built on top of it. Fast-forward to 2024, and the original argument has been through countless industry debates, while the dynamics of the space have also undergone structural shifts that have challenged the original claims of the Fat Protocol thesis. Recommended read:

"Has the Window of Opportunity for Infrastructure Passed — Does the Future Belong to Apps?"

This is further illustrated by the growing share of transactions flowing through private mempools, which recently hit an all-time high of 30% on Ethereum. Applications are realizing that all their users' order flow is being extracted and leaked into the MEV supply chain, while private transactions allow for greater customization and monetization around loyal users.

04. Project Watch

Within the current Bitcoin ecosystem, exSat stands out with its unique docking concept, representing a distinctly different development path from traditional Layer 2 solutions. Recommended read:

"Rewriting the BTC Ecosystem Roadmap: exSat's Path to Innovation"

Against the backdrop of Bitcoin's scalability challenges, exSat proposes a dual-consensus mechanism that combines PoW (Proof of Work) and PoS (Proof of Stake), aiming to integrate PoW's security with PoS's efficiency to build a more flexible and robust network architecture.

Recently, Hemi Labs — founded by legendary Bitcoin developer Jeff Garzik — raised $15 million in funding. The L2 race is not only crowded with big names but has also generally delivered underwhelming performance. What makes Hemi deserving of backing from multiple VCs? Recommended read:

"Hemi Raises $15 Million — How Is It Building a Bitcoin and Ethereum L2?"

Hemi is a modular L2 that enables scalability, security, and interoperability. Unlike other L2 protocols that typically focus on either Bitcoin L2 or Ethereum L2 — anchoring to a single ecosystem — Hemi treats Bitcoin and Ethereum as components of a single supernetwork, unlocking greater potential for programmability, asset portability, and more. At the core of Hemi is its virtual machine, which integrates a full Bitcoin node into the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Combined with its Bitcoin toolkit, this enables developers to build smart contracts that interact with both Bitcoin and Ethereum. The Hemi network launched its incentivized testnet in July of this year, allowing everyday users to earn points through referral links. When an invited user joins the platform, the referrer receives 10% of the points accumulated by that user.

With the Sui ecosystem booming, what opportunities are available for savvy on-chain farmers? Foresight News is launching a special column — the "Sui Gold Rush Guide" — to help readers capture potential gains from token airdrops. This is the first installment in the series: "High Yields + Airdrop Points: Join the Booming Sui Ecosystem with Suilend." Recommended read:

"Gold Rush Guide | How to Farm the Suilend Airdrop Effectively?"

Suilend is a lending protocol built on Sui by the team behind Solend (now rebranded as Save) on Solana. The founder is Rooter. Solend operated smoothly without any security incidents, making the team's technical track record and past project performance a strong positive signal. Since September, Suilend has experienced rapid growth, with its TVL (total value locked) surpassing $130 million.

Who will be the next gateway to "billions of new users" in crypto? Minichain's one-stop solution could be the breakthrough that bridges Web2 and Web3, driving mass adoption through Telegram and 𝕏. Recommended read:

"Unlocking 'Minichain': How Nubit Is Bridging 'Billions' of Future Web2 and Web3 Integrations"

Nubit's solution offers a master key — it abstracts development-level complexities into a "technical black box." Developers can deploy Minichain development directly using a fully mature toolkit (Dekit) on Telegram without worrying about payments or security. Nubit's abstraction of these key components sets a strong example of simplifying access and reducing costs. Analyzing Nubit's complete solution, its technical architecture cleanly addresses two core abstracted challenges: — "Telegram mini-app + chain" integration, and "payment interface + blockchain wallet" interface.