Partnered With:

Weekend Reading: US regulation tightens, BUSD controversy continues; NFT and Layer2 markets join forces.

Read this article in 16 Minutes

Reviewing this week's hot topics: examining well-known projects that have been fined by the SEC in history; which tokens are held by Jump, A16z, Wintermute, and others? Will the Blur airdrop be a watershed moment for the NFT market?

This week, the market sectors are still rotating rapidly, and regulatory uncertainties have not yet dissipated. The NFT market is particularly lively due to the release of Blur tokens, and the first NFT AMM protocol, sudoswap, also launched its governance token SUDO transfer over the weekend. Bitcoin and Ethereum have reached critical pressure levels, while Layer2 heat is accelerating, with multiple derivative projects on Arbitrum appearing on trading platforms such as Binance and OKX.

This week's hot events, have you caught them all? Let's review the exciting content of the past week in this article, for the convenience of readers to review and collect high-quality content, track the latest developments of projects, understand market trends, and learn and discuss. BlockBeats will regularly summarize high-quality content for readers. If you have any suggestions, opinions, submissions, or viewpoints to discuss, please contact us through the method at the end of this article.

《150 billion US dollar stablecoin empire's rise and fall in four years: the ambition and regret of BUSD》

On the 14th of this month, the New York State Department of Financial Services ordered Paxos Trust Co., an encrypted financial institution, to stop issuing more BUSD Tokens. The stablecoin giant, which was once among the top three in market value, declared the end of its rule. This "Libra successor" backed by the world's largest exchange rose from zero to one billion and then to tens of billions in just four years, but hastily withdrew from the stablecoin competition stage following a rumor. Let's take a look back at the rise and fall of this "coin circle powerhouse".

"Will Binance reach a settlement with the SEC? Take a look at well-known projects that have been fined by the SEC in history."

On February 13th, Paxos, a stablecoin issuer, will face a lawsuit from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) due to issues related to BUSD. The SEC claims that the BUSD issued and listed by Paxos is an "unregistered security" and plans to sue Paxos for violating investor protection laws, and may take enforcement action. In the past, crypto projects investigated by the SEC have had a difficult time avoiding severe penalties. What level of punishment will Binance and Paxos face in this incident? This article summarizes the investigated projects and their fine amounts in the past.

"8 Top VC Wallet Addresses Tracked: What Tokens Do Jump, A16z, Wintermute, and Others Hold?"

Discovering profit opportunities from VC wallets, there are over 1200 wallets for the top 20 cryptocurrency funds. I have been closely monitoring them throughout January and February. Here, I will introduce the 8 largest venture capital firms, their largest holdings, and recent investments.

Disclaimer: We cannot guarantee that VC is the "smart money", so please use this information with caution. Also, due to the existence of multiple wallets on various chains, it is difficult to obtain these balances completely accurately. There may be unknown assets in wallets that I cannot track, so please be careful.

《Blur unveils economic model: initial total of 3 billion coins, 51% allocated to the community》

Blur airdrop benefits have always been a focus of market attention. This week, Blur Token officially launched and distributed 360 million airdrops to trading users, blind box holders, and creators in the past three months. Users who joined the waiting list in May last year and closed beta testers will also receive additional airdrops. Blur stated that this is only the first season, and the current Blur has opened the second season, but the specific reward details have not been announced. This article briefly describes the Blur airdrop situation and economic model.

《Blur Airdrop Landing: Will it be the "Bull-Bear Watershed" of the NFT Market?》

Discussions about $BLUR are rampant in the market: some believe that the landing of good news is actually bad news, and that the NFT market is about to decline; others believe that the wealth effect it brings will radiate to various fields of the NFT market, causing speculation and then pushing the NFT market into a new stage. Since the launch of Yuga Labs game in late December last year, the NFT market has been in a "bull market" cycle, and will the landing of the Blur airdrop be a "watershed" for the bull and bear market? This article takes us to explore the truth.

《NFT Market Storm is Coming: SUDO Enables Transfers; OpenSea Battles Against Blur's Royalties》

With the emergence of Blur and its novel gameplay, the "catfish effect" has stirred up the entire NFT market. From royalties to the "Bid" trading method, Blur has repeatedly attacked the former NFT leader OpenSea. Today (February 19th), the NFT trading protocol Sudoswap opened the transfer of governance token SUDO, once again setting off a wave of NFT trading frenzy. When the times abandon you, you won't even say "goodbye". Realizing that without making changes, market share will be completely consumed. OpenSea, which is under attack from all sides, finally announced the launch of a limited-time zero transaction fee trading activity yesterday. OpenSea has been harshly taught a lesson by the cruel market competition. In order to facilitate readers to better follow the latest developments in the NFT market this week, BlockBeats has compiled this week's NFT industry information in the text for easy reading.

"Is ParaSpace, a full-collateralized NFT lending protocol, the 'BendDAO killer'?"

In the NFT lending field, the Peer-to-Peer model represented by NFTfi and the Peer-to-Pool model represented by BendDAO are the most well-known, each providing their own solutions but still lacking in some areas. Recently, a NFT lending protocol called ParaSpace has emerged, with innovations in mechanisms such as "full-position leverage" and "packaged collateral". With the help of Ape Coin's staking and mining activities, it rose to become the second-ranked NFT lending protocol in TVL in just two months after its launch on the mainnet. How did this NFT lending protocol become a rising star? Let's break it down.

"What are the characteristics of the first issuance project Arbitrove on the GRAIL?"

Arbitrum's ecosystem is gaining momentum, and the ecosystem dark horse Camelot will also launch its first Launchpad project, Arbitrove, today, which has caused quite a discussion in the community. This article will introduce what Arbitrove is doing and how to participate in this Public Sale.

"MetaLine: A medieval-themed SLG game on Arbitrum"

A game called MetaLine, which has chosen Arbitrum as its first official deployment network, has also attracted a lot of attention and discussion from players. This is a web3 sailing management and strategy game that has undergone two rounds of public testing on the OKC chain and Polygon, with thousands of players participating. Below, we will introduce this project and the gameplay.

"Balancer: Another Protocol Worth Paying Attention to in the LSD Track"

In the encrypted space of 2023, the rise of LSD is widely recognized, and to some extent, liquidity staking is also a relatively secure way for crypto users to profit. Protocols such as Lido, Rocket Pool, and Frax have taken off, and with the delay of the Shanghai upgrade, there may be even more favorable innovations on the LSD track. When it comes to competition on the LSD track, there is one protocol worth paying attention to - Balancer. Balancer has made improvements at the technical level and is committed to higher staking returns. DeFi researcher naly analyzed the advantages of the Balancer protocol on the LSD track.

"Selected Financing Highlights of Week 8 in 2023, GameFi Sector Strongly Rebounds"

Last week, the total number of financing rounds was 33, which is a slight increase compared to the previous week. The total amount raised was approximately 270 million US dollars, with an average financing amount of 8.2 million US dollars, which is a significant decrease compared to the previous week. The majority of the financing rounds were in the digital asset management/payment sector, with relatively more financing in the infrastructure and metaverse/GameFi sectors. Financing in the social sector saw a significant increase, while financing in the DeFi sector was relatively low and there was no financing in the NFT sector.

《Recent 20 new projects worth paying attention to》

"Take the initiative and reject FOMO." Tired of missing out on new projects and not knowing how to discover Alpha? Don't worry, in this article, cryptocurrency researcher Fungi Alpha introduces potential projects to pay attention to in the near future.

"Inventory of 22 niche potential projects worth paying attention to recently"

Don't stay in the emotion of missing out all the time. Take the initiative to discover some new projects worth paying attention to, code them and experience them, and become an early user of these projects. Cryptocurrency researcher Fungi Alpha introduces some potential projects that need attention recently.

"Ghost Boy: 8-year-old Cool Cats' good friend is about to 'live forever' on Ethereum"

Cool Cats Co-Founder injects vulnerability and authenticity into NFTs and brings them to the blockchain. The contemplation of death is the inspiration for Ghost Boy. As a good friend of Cool Cats, Ghost Boy rarely appeared in the past. During the daily graffiti challenge that Evan and Cool Cats Creative Director @cloncast could not persist in, the two had a rare appearance together.

《BAYC #1626 居然被「燃烧」了?》

Translation:

"BAYC #1626 was actually 'burned'?"

Although there are many difficulties in operation, the market attention received by Bitcoin NFT is not diminished. More and more Ethereum NFT projects are heading to the "orange market". While Ethereum NFT projects are heading to the Bitcoin NFT market, some individuals have also made big news. For example, a bored ape, BAYC #1626, with a final transaction price of 108 ETH, was "burned" by Bitcoin OG Jason A. Williams (@GoingParabolic)! What's going on exactly?

《Tutorial | How to Make Bitcoin NFTs Circulate on Ethereum through Emblem Vault?》

Emblem Vault plays the role of a "custodian" - entrusting Bitcoin NFTs to them in exchange for custody certificates that can be used to claim the corresponding NFTs. The Emblem Vault being introduced here packages Bitcoin NFTs and brings them to the Ethereum mainnet, allowing Bitcoin NFTs to be traded directly on OpenSea.