Daily News | Blast Network Issues Solved, Dencun Upgrades Reduced Costs by Nearly 90%; Bitcoin Fog Founder Convicted of Money Laundering Charges
Crypto Daily Digest: The Blast network recovered blocks and repairs integration issues; Dencun upgrade reduces ZkSync Era’s costs by 88%; Bitcoin Fog founder sentenced to 50 years in prison on money laundering charges
Regarding Bitcoin ETF trading activities, according to Farside Investor data, the Grayscale GBTC outflow was approximately $276.5 million on March 13, Bitwise Bitcoin Spot ETF (BITB) inflow was $5.6 million, ARK 21Shares Bitcoin Spot ETF (ARKB) inflow was $44.6 million, and Fidelity Bitcoin Spot ETF (FBTC) inflow was $281.5 million.
After the launch of the Blast mainnet, issues with points and bridging time have caused dissatisfaction in the community. Today, the official post of Blast on the X platform stated that the suspension of block production last night has been resolved, the network has resumed block production, and a problem analysis report will be released as soon as possible.
Pacman also made progress in fixing and updating previous related issues, including:
The reduction of points after the migration of the Blast mainnet;
Although there is a balance on the mainnet, users see zero points per hour;
No points were obtained, but numbers are displayed;
A prompt stating that the bonus cannot be obtained in a timely manner, although the amount of funds on the mainnet is the same as before.
The network may also arrange for these repairs in the future, including:
Rewards seen during the main network conversion process are less than 10 times;
The points obtained after depositing into USDB are less than expected (expected to be fixed this week);
Many dapps have started integrating with the points API and have changed the dapp leaderboard to display scores for all dapps, rather than just highlighted scores (expected to be optimized in the next 10 days).
The Dencun upgrade is in place, and Ethereum has officially activated the Dencun hard fork upgrade at Beacon height 8,626,176. After the L2 network version updates support EIP-4844, “blob” is used instead of “calldata.” ZkSync Era is the first L2 to use Blob, and Starknet supports it.
L2BEAT researcher donnoh.eth revealed that before using Blob, the cost of the zkSync Era sequencer decreased to around 0.013 ETH after using Blob. The cost of using Calldata was around 0.115 ETH, a decrease of approximately 88%.
According to Cointelgraph’s report, Roman Sterlingov, founder of Bitcoin Fog, a hybrid crypto service, has been convicted in the United States of money laundering, collusion in money laundering, operating unauthorized currency transmission business, and violating the Washington D.C. Currency Transmission Act. The maximum sentence for these charges is 50 years imprisonment, and the sentencing is scheduled for July 15. Stringoff’s lawyer, Tok Ekeland, stated in a post that his team would appeal.
Based on the evidence in the clues, Sterlingoff operated Bitcoin Fog between October 2011 and April 2021, which, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), is a money laundering service provided to “criminals attempting to conceal illegal gains from law enforcement agencies.”
The service transferred over 1.2 million Bitcoins, and the jury ruled to confiscate the assets of the seized Bitcoin Fog Fund, including 1,354 Bitcoins held in the Bitcoin Fog Wallet and nearly $350,000 in various cryptocurrencies held in the seized Kraken account.
Market trends: BTC is trading horizontally at a high level, and the Altcoin season has begun
BTC is still maintaining a relatively high level of stability, which is a positive signal for the entire crypto market as Altcoins are beginning to show a collective upward trend. After the Cancun upgrade yesterday evening, Ethereum’s eco performance was lackluster, while STRK was the first to experience a decline. This situation demonstrates the internal differentiation and volatility of the crypto market.
Regarding macroeconomics, the US stock market fluctuates with weak gains, which may impact investment sentiment in the crypto market. The increasing correlation between the crypto and traditional financial markets makes them more sensitive to macroeconomic factors.
Market hotspots
The SOL eco is experiencing rapid growth: The token SOL in the Solana eco has experienced a surge, and projects such as MOBILE, JUP, RAY, WIF, and MYRO have seen a collective surge. After the Cancun upgrade, the market turned to hype up the SOL eco, resulting in a reversal of the SOL/BTC exchange rate.
AEVO launched: The launch of AEVO has attracted widespread market attention, and its market value has surpassed the leading project, DYDX, in the centralized derivatives market. However, this has also triggered a widespread short-selling sentiment in the market, resulting in AEVO contracts maintaining negative rates, which may be an uncertain market reaction to their future development.
Overall, the crypto market continues to fluctuate under the influence of various factors. Investors must closely monitor market trends and adjust their investment strategies on time to adapt to market changes. Meanwhile, risk management and asset diversification are also factors that investors should pay attention to in order to cope with the potential volatility and risks that the market may bring.
Macro: S&P and Nasdaq slightly lower, global market consolidation, crude oil and gold remain stable
Reuters reported that on March 13, global stock markets were mainly consolidation and narrow volatility, with the S&P 500 index and NASDAQ index slightly falling on Wednesday as investors took profits in chip manufacturer stocks and waited for further clues on producer price data and inflation trends before next week’s Federal Reserve meeting. The semiconductor index (.SOX) has fallen 2.5% since its recent strong rise, and has risen 17% so far this year. NVDA.O stock, driven by optimistic sentiment towards artificial intelligence, has recently seen a rise in this sector, but the stock has fallen 1.1%.
The slightly higher-than-expected consumer price data on Tuesday failed to dampen hopes of interest rate cuts in the coming months, and monthly US retail sales data will also be released on Thursday.
The February US producer price data released on Thursday may provide further insight into inflation. Quincy Krosby, Chief Global Strategist at LPL Financial, said, “The latest data actually helps emphasize the intensifying inflation trend. Therefore, this will be important.”
The Asian market on Thursday did not have a clear direction, although it remained near a seven-month high on Thursday. As investors waited for new catalysts to further clarify the global interest rate easing cycle, they mainly traded sideways. Investors are preparing for a potentially volatile Bank of Japan policy meeting next week.
According to the CME FedWatch tool, although the Federal Reserve is widely expected to maintain interest rates unchanged at next week’s meeting, traders predict a 65% chance of the first rate cut in June.
The main event on Thursday’s Asian economic calendar was the release of India’s wholesale price inflation data. The previous day, the data showed that although industrial production did not meet expectations, annual consumer inflation in February was slightly higher than expected.
In China, the blue chip Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 Index (.CSI300) rose 0.46%, while the Shanghai Composite Index (.SSEC) rose slightly by 0.25%; The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index (.HSI) opened a new tab, dragged down by a 0.9% drop in technology stocks, falling 0.1% (.HSTECH).
Regarding commodities, Brent crude oil rose 8 cents to $84.11 per barrel, while US crude oil rose 7 cents to $79.79 per barrel.
Spot gold remained stable at $2,174.69 per ounce.
