【Data Intelligence】
Average daily open interest in CME cryptocurrency products reaches 106,000 contracts
Crypto derivatives on CME Group posted record open interest and above-average daily trading volume in the second quarter, even as the sell-off in digital asset markets intensified. According to the derivatives exchange’s report Wednesday, the average daily open interest in its cryptocurrency products was 106,000 contracts, an all-time quarterly high. Average daily volume of about 57,000 contracts was the second highest quarterly total. Especially for Ethereum futures, the average daily trading volume in the second quarter reached 6,600 contracts, a record high and an increase of 27% from the first quarter. A record 26,500 contracts were traded on June 15. The total number of large open interest holders of what the firm calls CME Group cryptocurrency futures hit a high of 404 in the third week of June, indicating growing interest from institutional investors.
The Fed raised its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points to a range of 2.25%-2.50%
The Federal Reserve raised the benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points to a range of 2.25%-2.50%, marking two consecutive hikes of 75 basis points. Federal Reserve FOMC statement: The Committee is highly concerned about inflation risks. Scheduled to accelerate balance sheet shrinkage in September, monthly drawdown caps for mortgage-backed securities (MBS) will rise to $35 billion, while treasuries will see monthly drawdown caps rise to $60 billion.
【 Regulatory News 】
UK Law Commission Treats Cryptocurrencies as a New Type of Property
The U.K. Law Commission wants to expand the country’s property rules to cover cryptocurrencies and NFTs, according to a consultation paper published Thursday. In addition to legally defining digital assets as personal property, the proposed reforms could make it easier for crypto investors to pursue legal action to claim losses in hacks or scams. In a statement, the committee said the seemingly crypto-friendly proposal was partly aimed at helping the government achieve its goal of turning the country into a global hub for cryptocurrencies. To accommodate digital assets, the Law Commission is proposing the creation of a new category called "data objects," which would explain things that consist of data in electronic form such as databases, software, digital records, domain names and encryption.
Russia Prepares to Regulate NFTsThrough Legislative Amendments
The Ministry of Economic Development of Moscow, Russia is planning to propose several amendments to the Civil Code and the Law on Digital Financial Assets to regulate the NFT market in the Russian Federation. The news comes from a meeting of a task force held at the ministry's initiative. During the discussions, participants provided legal definitions for digital collectibles and drafted necessary legislative changes. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) and Russian social media network Vkontakte, which earlier this year announced its intention to introduce support for blockchain and NFTs on its platform. The Bank of Russia, known for its tough stance on cryptocurrencies, has insisted that the Economy Ministry should not deal with issues related to the regulation of digital tokens. According to the monetary authority, these fall under its remit and that of the Ministry of Finance. Regulators oppose legalizing the circulation of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin in Russia and their use for payments.
【Industry Trends】
OpenSea: Will not host user NFTs as it restricts users and compromises security
On July 28th, OpenSea stated that it has recently seen a lot of discussions about hosting NFT in the Solana market. In this regard, OpenSea believes that the market should not require the ownership of users' NFTs to sell their pending orders. This practice is more common with Solana NFTs. While some marketplaces require sellers to host the NFTs of their listings, OpenSea does not. Marketplaces for hosting user NFTs limit choice and utility, and compromise security. Users are forced to relinquish ownership when they must escrow NFTs to the marketplace. The NFT leaves the user's wallet, i.e. the user can no longer benefit from ownership until the user's item is sold. This practice also limits the user's security options, as the NFT leaves the user's wallet and is held by the market's smart contract. As a result, users lose the ability to choose how or where to secure NFTs. Even if the market goes wrong, users will no longer be able to access their NFTs. OpenSea concluded by stating that it therefore will not host user NFTs as it develops the Solana NFT marketplace.
Ethereum's mainnet has completed its 10th shadow fork, 26 hours earlier than expected
Ethereum’s tenth shadow fork went into effect yesterday, 26 hours earlier than expected, when the Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD) was overridden to 54,892,065,290,522,348,390,492 at block height 15217902. The shadow fork brings the project one step closer to ethereum's September mainnet upgrade. The third and final testnet merge, Goerli, is expected to happen on August 10th. Parithosh Jayanthi, an ethereum DevOps engineer, said the shadow fork will test a version close to the one that will be used in the Goerli merge. As for why it happened earlier than expected, Jayanthi said it was a noticeable change in the hash rate, which could speed up the process. This will not be the last mainnet shadow fork, Ethereum will continue to run the mainnet shadow fork until merged.
Lido proposes new terms for selling treasury Token with lock-up period to Dragonfly Capital
According to news on July 27, after being voted against by the community, Lido Finance, a liquid pledge agreement, once again submitted a revised proposal to Dragonfly Capital on the sale of Lido DAO (LDO) Token to Dragonfly Capital. The new proposal still calls for the sale of 10 million LDOs to Dragonfly, but the sale will come with a one-year lock-up period. In addition, instead of the previous flat selling price of $1.45 per LDO, the new plan adds a second pricing plan based on the 7-day average LDO price at the end of the voting process plus a 5% premium, and will select the lower of the two whichever is higher, and cannot be higher than $2.25. As previously reported, the token sale is part of Lido’s treasury diversification plan, which aims to sell some of its reserves to buy DAI.
Naoris Protocol Completes $11.5 Million Funding Led by Tim Draper
On July 27th, Naoris Protocol completed $11.5 million in financing, led by Tim Draper, and participated by Holt Xchange, Holdun Family Officer, SDC Management, Expert Dojo, Uniera, and Level One Robotics. It is reported that Naoris Protocol aims to transform blockchain network security.
Changpeng Zhao Discusses Blockchain Ecosystem and Crypto Assets with the Minister of Finance of Turkey
On July 27th, Turkish Finance Minister Nureddin NEBATİ held a video conference with Binance founder Zhao Changpeng to discuss the blockchain ecosystem and encrypted assets. As previously reported, Turkey is developing legislation to strengthen regulation of the cryptocurrency market and may impose taxes on some transactions involving crypto assets.
【Elite Viewpoint】
Michael Saylor: Ethereum Doesn't Look Like It's Finished or Stabilized in 36 Months
MicroStrategy founder and CEO Michael Saylor elaborated on his views on Ethereum on Wednesday at Blockchain Economy in Istanbul. MicroStrategy holds 129,218 bitcoins, worth about $2.8 billion at current prices, noting that he was speaking as an institutional investor, and in that regard, people "have to wait until the agreement is done." He noted that ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said in a presentation last week that ethereum was 40 percent complete and had a three- to four-year roadmap, meaning the protocol doesn't look like it will be released in 36 months. completed or stabilized within. Saylor also questioned the lack of time-tested information on ethereum, saying it has led to concerns about the protocol’s technical reliability and security.
Powell: Another big rate hike possible, but will be data-driven
On July 28th, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said in the Federal Reserve's interest rate meeting: I don't think we have to experience a recession. The chances of a soft landing have shrunk significantly. Restoring price stability and reducing inflation are both things we have to do, and we don't think it's a trade-off. Doing too little before increases the cost of dealing with the problem later. I don't think the US is currently in recession. Overall, the GDP data does have a tendency to be substantially revised. We'll be watching all the data ahead of the September meeting to see where policy needs to work. No specific guidance will be provided for the September meeting. Another big rate hike is possible, but will be data-driven and no decision has been made on when to slow rate hikes.
【What to watch today】
The Goerli/Prater merger of the Ethereum testnet began on August 4th, and the Goerli name will be retained after the merger
On July 28th, the Ethereum protocol support team issued a Goerli-Prater merger announcement, saying that in the last testnet PoS conversion, Goerli will soon merge with Prater, and the merged network will retain the name of Goerli. The merger process is divided into two steps. First, the network upgrade Bellatrix on the consensus layer is expected to start at 12:24 UTC on August 4, 2022 (20:24 on August 4, Beijing time), followed by the execution layer The Paris upgrade is expected to take place between August 6th and 12th, 2022 UTC (total difficulty 10790000). Post-merger, Goerli's validator network will remain open for stakeholders to run testnet validators. Assuming no issues are found during the Goerli/Prater merger, once the client releases a fully functional version, a slot height will be selected for the Bellatrix upgrade on the mainnet beacon chain and a total difficulty value will be set for the mainnet transition. The client will then publish a version that enables The Merge on mainnet.
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