Weekly Market Highlights - Ethereum’s Dencun Upgrade set for first testnet in 2024

22 December 2023 Macro/TradFi 7RCC, a crypto asset manager, has applied to offer a spot Bitcoin ETF, joining a growing list of firms pursuing similar ETF applications ahead of the 10 January deadline. Ripple has received approval from the Central Bank of Ireland to operate as a Virtual Asset Service Provider, allowing it to offer digital asset services in the European Economic Area under the forthcoming MiCA regulations. Crypto L1/L2: In their latest bi-weekly meeting, Ethereum developers have tentatively scheduled January 17, 2024, for the first testnet deployment of the upcoming Dencun upgrade. The upgrade will first be applied to the Goerli testnet, then added to Sepolia on January 30 and Holesky on February 7. Avail is partnering with StarkWare to introduce data availability solutions to StarkNet appchains. This data availability solution will be integrated into Starknet appchains utilizing Madara, a customizable sequencer. Metis, the Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution, has allocated 4.6M METIS tokens to the newly established Metis Ecosystem Development Fund, set to start disbursing grants in Q1 of 2024. Polygon Labs has ceased contributions to its Edge platform, originally intended for creating custom Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks. This announcement reflects their shift towards the Polygon Chain Development Kit (“CDK”). LayerZero, the cross-chain interoperability protocol, has announced their V2 iteration, which aims to maximize network throughput and liveness. It uses unified semantics and modular security to enhance developer experience. Fuse Network unveils its plan to launch a ZK-powered Layer-2 in collaboration with Polygon Labs, utilizing Polygon CDK to advance Web3 payments. dApps: Phantom, a popular Web3 wallet on Solana, has expanded its capabilities to include trading and transfer of Bitcoin, Ordinals, and BRC-20 tokens. Trezor, a crypto hardware wallet, has integrated support for Solana and Solana Program Library (“SPL”) tokens into their devices. Immutable has launched its new wallet infrastructure called 'Immutable Passport'. This new system, applicable to five games and apps, allows users to create and recover their wallet using a Google, Apple or email account. Ondo Finance, a real world asset protocol, has expanded its tokenized U.S. backed assets to the Solana blockchain and ecosystem applications. Stablecoin: Circle has launched its euro-backed stablecoin on Solana, joining Ethereum, Stellar, and Avalanche as the blockchains Circle is using for EURC. Others: Tap Protocol, an OrdFi enabling protocol for Bitcoin Ordinals, has raised US$4.2M in a funding round led by Sora Ventures, with plans to expand Bitcoin's capabilities in tokenization, gaming, and DeFi. Marathon Digital plans to spend US$178.6M on two mining data centers to boost its capacity in preparation for the Bitcoin halving in 2024. 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