Weekly Market Highlights -  Microstrategy acquires more Bitcoin

Macro/TradFi Microstrategy expanded its Bitcoin holdings by purchasing 16,130 BTC at an average price of US$36,785 per coin. This acquisition brings their total Bitcoin holdings to 174,530 BTC, with an average purchase price of around US$30,252 per coin.  Circle, the issuer of USDC stablecoin, has partnered with Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings, to expand its presence in Japan. This partnership comes after Japan's revision of the Payment Services Act in June, introducing new regulations for stablecoins. Pando Asset, a Swiss asset management company, has filed an application for a spot Bitcoin ETF, expanding its offerings beyond crypto exchange traded products already available in Europe. Nine Blocks Capital Management has become the first cryptocurrency hedge fund to receive a license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (“VARA”), as it moves to establish Dubai as its global headquarters. Standard Chartered has joined China's CBDC pilot program, providing e-CNY services to clients and exploring the potential applications of digital currency in China's financial ecosystem. Crypto L1/L2: Animoca Brands has become the largest validator of The Open Network (TON) Blockchain. They will also support the TON ecosystem with funding, research, and an analytics platform for mini-apps. The Cosmos Hub governance body approved a proposal to cap the Atom token's inflation rate at 10%, reducing it from the previous rate of around 14%. This adjustment is expected to lower Atom's annualized staking yield from approximately 19% to around 13.4%. DeFi: Chainlink has announced the launch of Staking v0.2, with a 45M LINK pool and a nine-day priority migration period for existing stakers. This expansion, part of Chainlink's Economics 2.0 plan, aims to enhance network security and open the door to a more diverse set of LINK holders. Talos, an institutional crypto trading platform, is tapping into Uniswap's liquidity, diversifying beyond its usual centralized exchange sources and allowing its institutional clients to access trading through Uniswap. This marks Talos' first integration with a decentralized exchange and Uniswap Labs' debut in enterprise API partnerships. Decentralized exchange dYdX has released 150M tokens, accounting for 30% of its allocation to investors, founders, and employees, marking its first major token emission event. Others: Wormhole, a cross-chain messaging protocol, has raised US$225M at a US$2.5B valuation. Wormhole also unveiled Wormhole Labs as a core contributor, which will specialize in products and tools that help expand cross-chain activity and development. A16z led a US$5M seed round for Setter, a consumer app for Web3-powered commerce, designed to help brands offer exclusive products and limited edition drops, while simplifying wallet technologies for easier Web3 access. Grove, a decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN) provider, secured US$7.9M in funding from Fidelity-affiliated Avon Ventures, Placeholder Capital, and Druid Ventures. Grove plans to use this capital to forge new partnerships and propel DePIN towards widespread adoption. Binance Labs has invested $3.15M in Open Campus, a community-led Web3 platform that tokenizes educational content, allowing creators to monetize their publications.  Latest Binance Research Publications  Check out our latest publications: Monthly Market Insights - December 2023 Decoding Cross-Chain Interoperability   Data Insights: Exploring Crypto Fundraises Explore our Binance Research website for more project and macro research reports and the Binance Legal website for latest updates and consultation responses. 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! 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