Weekly Market Highlights - Corporate, Web2 Entry into Crypto Continues to Rise

17 January 2025Macro/TradFitOklahoma becomes the latest U.S. state to signal interest in establishing a state Bitcoin reserve. A lawmaker in the state has proposed a bill discussing the issue. Oklahoma joins Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, among others in signalling interest towards a reserve. Canary Capital filed an amended S-1 form for its Litecoin ETF filing, potentially signalling movement on its application.Nubank, Latin America’s largest neobank, has launched access to its USDC-based rewards program for all of its customers. This program allows all users to earn a 4% yield on USDC in their wallets as long as they hold at least 10 USDC. This comes after a smaller trial run last year. Reliance Jio, one of the largest companies in the world run by Asia’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani, has partnered with Polygon Labs to develop web3 and blockchain technologies, including integrations within its services. U.S. CPI, a major measure of inflation, came in line with expectations at 2.9%. While far lower than the 2022 numbers of 9%+, it is still higher than the 2% target by the Fed. Core inflation, which excludes more volatile energy and food prices, came in lower than expected at 3.2% (versus 3.3% expectations). CryptoL1/L2:Swiss state-owned bank, PostFinance, has launched a staking service for Ethereum holders. PostFinance has been involved in the crypto markets since 2023 when they first started offering trading and custody services. Multicoin Capital has proposed a possible cut to Solana’s emission model, which would reduce its inflation. Solana currently uses a fixed emissions model, but Multicoin is proposing a shift to a dynamic emissions model.DeFi:Phantom Wallet has raised US$150M at a US$3B valuation in a Series C round. The funding will be used to develop their social discovery feature and also to simplify peer-to-peer payments for users. Major web3 oracle, Pyth, has launched their new “Lazer” oracle as a complement to their core offering. Lazer is set to be focused on offering price feeds to latency-sensitive applications, e.g., in DeFi, gaming, etc. Others:Virtuals Protocol, a leading AI agent framework and launchpad, has announced a US$45M buyback-and-burn program, aimed at 25 of their leading agents. Saga, an L1 launchpad, has announced Metropolis.lol, a platform designed to allow AI agents to autonomously deploy and manage their own L1 networks called Chainlets. Saga has partnered with leading AI agent players, ai16z, Virtuals, and Wayfinder for this launch, with more development, including its Liquidity Integration Layer, set to launch in Q1. Komainu Holdings, a crypto custodian backed by Nomura, has raised US$75M in BTC from Blockstream Capital Partners to support global expansion and more crypto integration, including the establishment of a BTC treasury. Latest Binance Research Publications Check out our latest publications:Monthly Market Insights - January 2025Navigating Crypto: Industry MapThe Future of Crypto WalletsExplore our Binance Research website for more project and macro research.For more frequent market updates and insights, follow us on Twitter @BinanceResearch.That’s a wrap!Binance ResearchAbout Binance Research: Binance Research is the research arm of Binance, the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange. 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