Daily News | BTC Soaring; MicroStrategy was Included in Major Global Stock Indices; WLD Released a Sensitive Information Protection System, Stating that the User's Iris Code Was Deleted

Crypto Daily Digest: MicroStrategy was included in major global stock indices; Worldcoin released a “sensitive information protection ”, stating that the user’s iris code has been deleted; Yonsei University launched a metaverse that allows students to access

First, let’s examine the trading activities of Bitcoin ETFs. According to Farside Investor data, on May 15, Grayscale Bitcoin spot ETFs (GBTC) continued to receive inflows of $2,700 in funds; At the same time, Fidelity Bitcoin spot ETF (FBTC) inflow of $131.3 million, Bitwise Bitcoin spot ETF (BITB) inflow of $86.3 million, ARK 21Shares Bitcoin spot ETF (ARKB) inflow of $38.6 million, and WisdomTree Bitcoin spot ETF (BTCW) net inflow of $2.1 million.

After the opening of Wall Street, BTC hit a local high of $64,700. Due to the latest US Consumer Price Index (CPI) data exceeding the expectations of risky assets, Bitcoin bulls have been boosted.

The largest Bitcoin enterprise holder, business intelligence firm MicroStrategy, has been included in important global stock indices after its stock price soared.

On Tuesday, global investment decision support tool provider MSCI (formerly Morgan Stanley Capital International) announced that MicroStrategy has become one of the three largest new products by market value in its MSCI World Index, which will take effect on May 31.

Since the crypto market bottomed out in December 2022, MicroStrategy’s stock price has skyrocketed. According to TradeView’s data, its stock price has risen more than eight times since then, with a rise of over 87% so far this year, surpassing Bitcoin’s 45% increase in 2024.

Since its last acquisition of Bitcoin on April 29, MicroStrategy holds 214,400 Bitcoins, valued at approximately $13.5 billion. The total acquisition cost of MicroStrategy is $7.5 billion, with an average price of $35,180 per Bitcoin, which means the company earned approximately $6 billion in book profit from Bitcoin purchases.

Given its large holdings of Bitcoin (equivalent to over 1% of the total supply of 21 million Bitcoins), MicroStrategy is increasingly being used as a proxy for Bitcoin exposure in traditional markets, especially before the launch of Bitcoin exchange traded funds in the United States in January.

Earlier this month, MicroStrategy announced plans to launch a decentralized identity solution based on Bitcoin.

Worldcoin is seeking to establish “new standards” in data protection, stating that it has removed user iris codes. The Worldcoin Foundation has released an open-source that claims to improve the protection of sensitive information, including data generated when people register for Worldcoin projects.

A statement noted, “The has been made available to all organizations in the Github repository with the aim of setting new standards for data protection, including biometric data.” Worldcoin stated that this new open source is based on secure multi-party computing.

The World Coin Foundation said they have migrated to this new and have removed the old iris codes previously collected by scanning the eyeballs of users registered for the World Coin project through Orb devices during this process. When people register and scan their eyeballs to prove their identity and create digital identities, the World Coin project will provide them with cryptocurrency or WLD tokens.

Through secure multi-party computation (SMPC), data can be securely distributed across different locations. The World Monetary Fund stated in a statement, “This can be seen as obtaining a Secret and sharing multiple parts among different parties to enhance protection. The World Monetary Fund, in collaboration with the TACO and technical experts from Tools for Humanity, has successfully constructed a new implementation plan for SMPC to address previous issues that hindered others due to size and cost constraints.”

LG Uplus, a subsidiary of LG, recently launched the Metaverse Experience at Yonsei University in Seoul. This metaverse experience is known as the “Meta Yonsei,” characterized by the reconstruction of the university’s new village campus, including landmarks such as the school auditorium and library, and providing layered access to digital resources and private meeting spaces for teachers and students.

Unlike many other metaverse experiences, Yuan Yanshi restricts many functions to validated students. Although future students and other visitors seem to be able to stroll around the virtual campus, view its features and landmarks, using companion meeting tools and accessing certain areas of the virtual universe are limited to registered students. The experience of Metaverse Yonsei University has been well received by campus students.

Students and teachers can also interact through structured check-in and supervision activities. According to a report released by the project in 2023, up to 1000 users can participate in virtual events in the Metaverse Auditorium (a digital version of the university’s real facilities), including the ability to watch guest speakers and experts on a virtual stage.

Market Trends: BTC surged, US CPI data better than expected

The price of BTC has broken through $66,000, reaching a new high, which has also driven the overall rise of Altcoins. However, the ETH/BTC exchange rate has hit a new low in nearly three years, indicating Ethereum‘s weakness relative to Bitcoin.

In terms of macroeconomics, the US stock market has continued to rise, reaching a historic high, while the US dollar index has sharply declined. The April CPI data released yesterday in the United States showed a month on month decline, which led the market to generally expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in September, and the market’s expectation for this has exceeded 80%.

Market Hotspots:

The Meme coins of the US election concept, including tokens such as PEOPLE, MAGA, BODEN, TREMP, etc., have seen a significant increase in price. It is expected that these concept tokens will continue to receive market hype before the November US election.

AI concept tokens, including AR, PHB, LPT, OCTA, etc., have seen significant increases in the current market trend. The concepts of AI and Meme have always been the main driving forces of the market, and these related tokens have shown general strength in the rising market.

Solana eco: Tokens such as JTO, GMX, and BOME have seen significant price increases, possibly benefiting from Robinhood’s SOL staking activity. Tokens under the Solana eco have shown a relatively active trend in the market.

Gate.io launched the Ton Eco Meme project Notcoin: The total number of NOT chips is 100 billion, and the chips are fully circulated. The market predicts that its market value is around $800 million. This move has attracted market attention to the project and may also become one of the future hotspots.

Popular Layer2 Network Blast Airborne Tokens: Blast is the Layer2 of NFT trading platform Blur, which announced that it will air drop tokens on June 26th. This move may be aimed at stimulating trading volume on the Blur platform, especially after being surpassed by Magic Eden on the Solana platform, which needs to increase its trading activity by attracting more users.

In the current market, although BTC has reached a recent high, ETH’s performance relative to BTC is relatively weak. In terms of macroeconomics, the US stock market continues to rise, but the US dollar index has shown a downward trend. The market hotspots mainly focus on the US election concept, AI concept, and Solana eco. Investors need to closely monitor these hotspots and analyze and operate them in conjunction with their own investment strategies.

Macro: CPI data drives interest rate cut bets, Wall Street closes at a historic high, and Asian markets rise

On Wednesday, May 15, all three major Wall Street stock indexes closed higher, with the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq setting closing records, both rising more than 1%. The three major stock indices all hit historic highs during the trading session, with technology stocks leading the way. The blue chip stock market is one step closer to the milestone of 40,000 vehicles.

The data released by the United States on Wednesday showed that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.3% in April, lower than the expected 0.4% increase, increasing hopes that the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates twice this year.

Specifically, the three major indices: the Dow Jones index rose 0.88%, the Standard & Poor’s index rose 1.17%, and the Nasdaq index rose 1.40%.

The lukewarm data on the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) in April indicates that inflation is slowing after three consecutive months of higher than expected data, sparking Optimism among people. This has led traders to increase their bets that the Federal Reserve will lower policy rates in September and December.

On May 16, the Asian stock market rose. The MSCI Asia Pacific Stock Index rose 1.44%. The Hong Kong Hang Seng Index rose 0.9%, while the Australian stock benchmark rose 1.5%.

The Nikkei Index in Japan initially rose 1.3%, but due to pressure from some disappointing late performance on the last day of Wednesday’s financial reporting season, as well as concerns about a significant rise in the yen, the stock reduced its increase to 0.6%.

The US dollar is still in a downward trend, falling to several weeks of new lows against currencies such as the euro and pound. The yield of US treasury bond bonds continued to fall in Tokyo trading, falling to a new six week low. Despite data showing that the Japanese economy contracted more than expected in the first quarter, this still helped the heavily damaged yen continue to recover.

Federal funds futures have lowered interest rates by 52 basis points this year, with the September rate cut now fully priced.

Brent crude oil futures rose 42 cents, or 0.5%, to $83.17 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil in the United States rose 43 cents, or 0.6%, to $79.06 per barrel, further exacerbating Wednesday’s strong gains.

Gold prices rose 0.39% to $2,395.39, approaching a historical high of $2,431.29 since April 12.