Weekly Market Highlights - Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade is activated

15 March 2024 Macro/TradFi Bitcoin's market cap soared past US$1.4T earlier this week, exceeding silver's value and making it the world's eighth most valuable asset. VanEck has slashed fees for its Bitcoin spot ETF to zero, applying to the first US$1.5B of funds in its Bitcoin Trust ETF until March 31, 2025. MicroStrategy has acquired an additional 12,000 Bitcoin, bringing its total holdings to 205,000 Bitcoin. The recent purchase was made at approximately US$68,477 per BTC. Crypto L1/L2: Ethereum has rolled out the Dencun upgrade on its mainnet, which introduces "blobs" aimed at reducing the cost of Layer-2 transactions, along with 8 other code updates. BNB Chain has introduced a rollup-as-a-service (“RaaS”) solution to support the development of Layer-2s in its ecosystem, offering cost-effective and no-code infrastructure for dApps to deploy custom rollups. Swell, a liquid restaking (“LRT”) protocol, collaborates with AltLayer and EigenDA to launch its own layer-2 restaked rollup built on Polygon CDK. Metis has launched an alpha version of its decentralized sequencer, marking a key step in its roadmap to decentralize its Layer-2 network infrastructure. Zerion is developing the ZERO Network, a Layer-2 network aiming for zero fees, with a planned launch in late Q2 or early Q3 this year. DeFi: PancakeSwap has announced V4, scheduled for release later this year, with four new features: hooks, custom pool types, singleton, and flash accounting, aiming to make on-chain trading cheaper and more efficient. EigenLayer has released its final roadmap for the mainnet launch, emphasizing a smooth and secure rollout with a multi-phased approach. MakerDAO will launch the first phase of its Endgame plan in summer 2024, introducing two new tokens, NewStable and NewGovToken. Stablecoin: Tether's USDT is set to launch on Celo, with the integration aimed at enhancing cross-border payments and peer-to-peer transactions, particularly in emerging markets. Other: Eclipse, Ethereum's first SVM Layer-2, has secured US$50M in funding ahead of its mainnet launch. Polyhedra Network, known for the zkBridge protocol, has achieved a US$1B valuation after securing US$20M in a strategic funding round. Modular network Elixir has secured US$8M in a Series B funding round co-led by Mysten Labs and Maelstrom, bringing its valuation to US$800M ahead of its mainnet launch in August 2024. NFTfi, a lending protocol for non-fungible tokens, secured US$6M in its Series A1 funding round, led by Placeholder VC. Latest Binance Research Publications  Check out our latest publications: Orbiting the Cosmos Ecosystem Monthly Market Insights - March 2024  Scaling Blockchains: Embracing Modularity Explore our Binance Research website for more project and macro research. For more frequent market updates and insights, follow us on Twitter @BinanceResearch. Have a minute? Please share with us any feedback you may have via this form. That’s a wrap! Binance Research Read more https://research.binance.com/en/analysis  About 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.