Weekly Market Highlights -  Signs of Bullish Market Sentiment

18 October 2024Macro/TradFiTelegram is set to open an office in Kazakhstan to improve regulatory compliance. More than half of Kazakhstan’s population are monthly active users of Telegram. African crypto startup, Yellow Card, has raised US$33M in a Series C round. Yellow Card is the largest and first licensed stablecoin on- and off-ramp in Africa. Stripe, who recently re-enabled crypto payments for US merchants, is said to be in talks to acquire a stablecoin-focused fintech firm, Bridge. The European Central Bank has cut rates by 25bps, in line with market expectations. This is their third rate cut this year, following cuts in June and September, and comes after inflation fell below 2% in September. CryptoL1/L2:Blockstream has raised US$210M in convertible note financing in order to develop its L2 technologies (Liquid and Lightning), grow its mining operations, and expand its Bitcoin treasury. Bitcoin staking platform, Solv Protocol, has announced a US$11M funding round, and also launched a staking token on Solana linked to Jupiter Exchange. Worldcoin has rebranded to World and launched their Ethereum L2 chain, World Chain. Australia’s first spot Ether ETF went live earlier this week, attracting US$176K of AUM on day one. Canary Capital has filed for a U.S. Litecoin ETF. Fuel Labs has announced the launch of Fuel Ignition, an Ethereum L2 powered by the FuelVM. DeFi:Ethena Labs, the team behind the USDe stablecoin, has proposed adding SOL as part of USDe’s backing collateral. Initial feedback from stakeholders has been largely positive. World Liberty Financial, the DeFi project backed by Donald Trump and his family, had their first public sale on October 15, raising only US$12.7M as compared to an initial target of US$300M. Bitnomial has announced a US$25M funding round and launched a crypto futures trading platform in the U.S. called Botanical. Others:Praxis, which refers to itself as the first “network state” has raised US$525M in financing for the development of a new city to attract crypto entrepreneurs. A16z-backed SocialFi platform, Towns, launched earlier this week. The messaging app has a similar interface to Discord or Slack and is built on the EVM-compatible L2 chain, River. Opacity Labs, a ZK data verification platform, has raised US$12M in a seed round. Latest Binance Research Publications Check out our latest publications:Overview of Stablecoin RegulationMonthly Market Insights - October 2024Industry Observation: Valuation, Centralization, Transparency, and RebrandingExplore 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. Our analysts publish insightful thought pieces regularly on topics related but not limited to, the crypto ecosystem, blockchain technologies, and the latest market themes.General Disclosure: This material is prepared by Binance Research and is not intended to be relied upon as a forecast or investment advice, and is not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities, cryptocurrencies or to adopt any investment strategy. The use of terminology and the views expressed are intended to promote understanding and the responsible development of the sector and should not be interpreted as definitive legal views or those of Binance. The opinions expressed are as of the date shown above and are the opinions of the writer, they may change as subsequent conditions vary. The information and opinions contained in this material are derived from proprietary and non-proprietary sources deemed by Binance Research to be reliable, are not necessarily all-inclusive and are not guaranteed as to accuracy. As such, no warranty of accuracy or reliability is given and no responsibility arising in any other way for errors and omissions (including responsibility to any person by reason of negligence) is accepted by Binance. This material may contain ’forward looking’ information that is not purely historical in nature. Such information may include, among other things, projections and forecasts. There is no guarantee that any forecasts made will come to pass. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the reader. This material is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell in any securities, cryptocurrencies or any investment strategy nor shall any securities or cryptocurrency be offered or sold to any person in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the laws of such jurisdiction. Investment involves risks.