Happy Friday! Binance Bytes is an initiative by the Research team to provide a quick round-up of the week.

Highlights 🧵:
1/ Ethereum's Dencun Upgrade went live on March 13, with EIP-4844 dramatically decreasing L2 operational costs. EIP-4844 introduces 'blob-carrying transactions', mitigating Data Availability scaling bottlenecks. Post EIP-4844, L2 fees have noticeably reduced. For instance, average fees on L2s such as Arbitrum have declined by as much as 90% to around $0.1.

2/ Notable news include VanEck temporarily cutting its spot BTC ETF fee to 0% from 0.2%. Separately, BNB Chain now offers a Rollup-as-a-Service (“RaaS”) solution, enabling the creation of custom Layer 2 networks within its ecosystem.

3/ EigenLayer has released its final roadmap for the mainnet launch, emphasizing on a smooth and secure rollout with a multi-phased approach. MakerDAO will launch the first phase of its Endgame plan in summer 2024, introducing two new tokens, NewStable and NewGovToken.

Cosmos has grown into a vast ecosystem comprising a myriad of L1 blockchains tailored to different use cases and objectives.

Our latest #Binance report explores the intriguing ecosystem of Cosmos, examining its technology, and much more.

Have a read ⬇️
https://www.binance.com/en/research/analysis/orbiting-the-cosmos-ecosystem

In our latest #Binance Research report, we provide an overview of the crypto industry by highlighting projects across multiple sectors.

We spotlight themes from DePIN, Artificial Intelligence, Restaking and others in this report.

Check it out 🔽
https://www.binance.com/en/research/analysis/industry-map-mar24

Highlights 🧵:
1/ As of March 22, Solana's DEX volume has reached an all-time high of US$49.2B, a record for the network's monthly DEX volume. Orca and Raydium are two of the biggest contributors to the trading volume, accounting for 37% and 30% of the total volume, respectively.

2/ BlackRock has initiated a fund focused on tokenization of real-world assets on the Ethereum network, partnering with Securitize as the tokenization platform. Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation faces an investigation from a state authority, with the SEC reportedly aiming to classify $ETH as a security.

3/ TON Foundation has introduced a US$115M community rewards program, distributing 30M $TON to ecosystem projects and users. Separately, Morph an Ethereum L2 using both Optimistic and ZK technologies, has secured US$20M funding from Dragonfly and Pantera, among others. These funds will be used for team expansion, marketing, and developer incentives.

1/ The AUM of tokenized government securities has recently surged past US$1B. This growth is largely driven by BUIDL, BlackRock’s Ethereum-based tokenized fund, which raked in over US$270M in deposits in less than ten days, making it the second-largest tokenized government securities product. Notably, Ondo Finance has contributed substantially to BUIDL’s growth by transferring US$95M of assets to enable instant settlements for its own U.S. Treasury-backed token, $OUSG.

2/ HSBC has introduced tokenized gold products for retail clients in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Ethena Labs announced the launch of its governance token $ENA, with 5% of the token supply to be distributed to users next week.

3/ bitSmiley introduced bitCow, a Bitcoin-native AMM focused on stable swaps and automated concentrated liquidity,. Separately, Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol, and SingularityNET have announced plans to merge their tokens into a single Artificial Superintelligence coin, $ASI.

Time to look at this month's market insights!

Our research team analyzed the state of the crypto market and provided insights on Bitcoin ETF inflows, Ethereum's Dencun upgrade, Solana's DEX volumes, and more.

Check it out ⬇️
https://www.binance.com/en/research/analysis/monthly-market-insights-2024-04

Highlights 🧵:
1/ Across various narratives, Memecoins have recorded the strongest year-to-date performance, with the category up >500% so far. Tokens related to real-world assets ("RWAs") also had a strong run this year, further spurred on by BlackRock's recent launch of a tokenized money market fund (BUIDL) that operates on the Ethereum blockchain.

2/ BNB Chain has announced the “Meme Innovation Battle” where up to US$1M will be rewarded to eligible teams deploying meme coin projects on the network.
Wormhole launched its governance token $W, allocating 6.78% of token supply to users. Ethena Labs also launched their $ENA token, airdropping 5% of supply earlier this week.

3/ Many developments on the stablecoin front, with Ripple announcing plans to launch a USD-pegged stablecoin later this year. PayPal has rolled out cross-border money transfers for its stablecoin, PYUSD, while upcoming stablecoin project Agora announced a US$12M seed round.

One of the least discussed parts of the modular thesis is the Data Availability ("DA") Layer.

Our new #Binance report explores the basics of DA, the impact of EIP-4844, before providing a deep technical dive into Celestia, EigenDA, and Avail.

Read on ⬇️
https://www.binance.com/en/research/analysis/why-you-should-care-about-data-availability

Highlights 🧵:

1/ Bolstered by the points system trend in the current market, the TVL of the yield trading protocol Pendle has experienced rapid growth, boasting a TVL close to US$5B. Additionally, the cumulative trading volume of Pendle has also surpassed the US$10B mark, with contributions coming from popular pools like LRTs and USDe.

2/ Circle has introduced new smart contract functionality allowing holders of BlackRock’s BUIDL to transfer their shares to Circle for USDC, offering speed and efficiency in asset tokenization. The SEC has issued a Wells notice to Uniswap, signalling potential enforcement action;

3/ EigenLayer and Eigen DA have launched on the Ethereum mainnet, introducing a solution for storing transaction data. Monad Labs has raised US$225M in funding led by Paradigm, aiming to build a high-performance Layer 1 capable of significantly increasing transaction throughput using parallel execution.

Happy Friday! Binance Bytes is an initiative by the Research team to provide a quick round-up of the week.

Highlights 🧵:

1/ The next Bitcoin Halving is expected to occur on April 20, 2024, reducing the block reward from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC. This represents a 50% reduction in new Bitcoin issuance. Historically, previous halvings have been positive for BTC in the 6-12M period following the event. However, each halving’s impact is context-dependent, influenced by prevailing macroeconomic conditions and demand-side factors.

2/ Hong Kong regulators have approved several spot BTC and ETH ETFs, a step towards the city's status as a regulated crypto hub. Separately, Worldcoin has introduced an Ethereum Layer 2, World Chain.

3/ TON has introduced Memelandia, a cultural hub aiming to support community-driven meme coins and tokens. Meanwhile, Puffer Finance has raised US$18M in a Series A funding round led by Brevan Howard Digital and Electric Capital, reaching a US$200M valuation.

The fourth #Bitcoin Halving is finally upon us!

Our new #Binance report explores the basics of the Halving, how Bitcoin's key metrics may be affected, miners, as well as, what we believe is the most important role of the Halving.

Have a read ⬇️
https://www.binance.com/en/research/analysis/the-future-of-bitcoin-1-the-halving-and-whats-next

Highlights 🧵:

1/ Runes, a new protocol for issuing fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network, has accounted for 40 to 80% of the Bitcoin transactions since its launch on April 20th. Much of this momentum came from market participants' speculation on Runes meme coins, which resulted in heightened network fees and, consequently, a notable increase in miner revenue. As the initial FOMO gradually subsides, it remains to be seen whether user interest in Runes will sustain in the coming months.

2/ Morgan Stanley is reportedly preparing to allow its brokers to recommend spot BTC ETFs to clients, with established risk criteria and trading limits. Separately, Google Cloud has announced its Web3 Portal, providing blockchain datasets and tools for developers.

3/ Binance has announced BounceBit as its first Megadrop project. Meanwhile, Metis has launched phase 2 of its decentralized sequencer upgrade, introducing features like transactions pools, sequencer mining, and more.

Want some insight into the state of crypto in Q1 2024?

Look no further than our latest #Binance Research market pulse report, where we cover it all 🫡

Check it out ⤵️
https://www.binance.com/en/research/analysis/1q24-market-pulse