Weekly Market Highlights - Builders Keep Building Amid Macro Uncertainty

14 February 2025Macro/TradFiUS CPI inflation came in at 3% year-on-year, slightly higher than expectations of 2.9%. The month-on-month increase of 0.5% is the highest since August 2023. The Producer Price Index (“PPI”) also came in higher than expected at 3.5% year-on-year, up from 3.3% the previous month.Strategy has acquired 7,633 BTC for US$742M at US$97,255 per Bitcoin. Strategy now holds 478,740 BTC acquired for ~US$31B at an average of ~US$65,033 per Bitcoin.Energy storage company, KULR, which recently committed to a Bitcoin Treasury strategy, has acquired 100 BTC for US$10M, with its total holdings reaching 610 BTC. CoinShares has become the latest issuer to file for XRP and LTC ETFs. Bloomberg analysts recently analysed the various spot ETF filings in the U.S. and concluded that Litecoin has the highest chances of 2025 approval, followed by Dogecoin, Solana and XRP. Grayscale has filed for the first-ever Cardano (ADA) spot ETF.CryptoL1/L2:Intellectual property-focused L1, Story Protocol, launched their mainnet and $IP token. The L1 provides users a way to register their IP and track how its used, positioning itself as the “world’s intellectual property network”. The TON chain has integrated with LayerZero to support cross-chain transfers across multiple chains, including Ethereum, Solana, and Tron. DeFi:Uniswap Labs has launched its Ethereum L2 chain, Unichain. Unichain is built on the OP Superchain and promises 1-second block times and gas costs ~95% lower than Ethereum L1. They also implement ERC-7683 to improve cross-chain interoperability. Leading Ethereum liquid staking provider, Lido, has released v3. V3 introduces stVaults, which are modular smart contacts, designed to allow institutions to tailor staking setups to ensure better compliance and operational control. DeFi platform, Legend, has raised US$15M. Legend is seeking to build a DeFi “super-app” centered around a multi-functional self-custody wallet. Others:The NEAR Foundation has launched a US$20M AI Agent Fund, focusing on scaling the development of fully autonomous and verifiable agents built on NEAR technology. OpenSea has released their new OS2 NFT platform in beta and teased the $SEA token airdrop. Arweave’s computing platform, AO, has gone live on mainnet. AO has previously been called a “hyperparallel computer” by its developers and introduces a distributed computing environment with parallelized processing.Ethereum security platform, Drosera, has raised US$3.25M.Latest Binance Research Publications Check out our latest publications:Monthly Market Insights - February 2025From Challenges to Opportunities: How DeSci Reimagines ScienceFull-Year 2024 & Themes for 2025Explore 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. The team is committed to delivering objective, independent, and comprehensive analysis and aims to be the thought leader in the crypto space. 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