Rune craze pushes up Bitcoin transaction fees, with Bitcoin halving only about 2 days away

Headlines

▌Rune craze pushes up Bitcoin transaction fees

Bitcoin is about to halve, but in addition to this exciting event, a new protocol called Rune has also attracted market attention. The protocol was launched by Bitcoin developer Casey Rodarmor and aims to achieve more efficient token issuance through the UTXO model. Rune is expected to become the next hot topic after its launch, and the transaction volume of the existing token PUPS on the BRC-20 market has soared. However, the Rune craze has also led to an increase in Bitcoin transaction fees. The average transaction fee in 7 days has risen from US$4.11 to US$12.17, even exceeding the fee level of Ethereum. This development shows the market's pursuit of new technologies and protocols, as well as concerns about Bitcoin network congestion.

▌Only about 2 days left before the Bitcoin block reward is halved

Data shows that there are 298 blocks left before the Bitcoin block reward is halved, which is about 1 day, 23 hours and 10 minutes.

Market

As of press time, according to Coingecko data:

BTC's latest transaction price is $61,340.39, with a daily increase or decrease of -4.0%;

ETH's latest transaction price is $2,978.82, with a daily increase or decrease of -3.77%;

BNB's latest transaction price is $532.55, with a daily increase or decrease of -1.28%;

ORDI's latest transaction price is $41.79, with a daily increase or decrease of -2.89%；

DOGE's latest transaction price is 0.1462 US dollars, with a daily increase or decrease of -6.41%；

SOL's latest transaction price is 131.04 US dollars, with a daily increase or decrease of -4.57%.

Policy

▌Grayscale ETF Global Head: Cryptocurrency ETFs other than Bitcoin and Ethereum will be 100% approved

David LaValle, Grayscale ETF Global Head, said he is 100% confident that exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin and Ethereum will eventually be available to investors.

▌Cyprus regulator extends suspension of FTX EU license to September 30

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has again extended the suspension of the license of FTX (EU) Ltd, the local subsidiary of the now defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX in Cyprus, with the latest suspension lasting until September 30, 2024. It is reported that the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission initially suspended the FTX EU license in November 2022 and has since extended the suspension several times. Although FTX EU has entered bankruptcy proceedings, the Cypriot regulator stressed that as long as the license is suspended, the exchange cannot "provide/carry out investment services/activities, enter into any commercial transactions with any person and accept any new transactions."

Blockchain Applications

▌Crypto Trading Card Game Fantasy Launches on Blast Mainnet

Crypto Trading Card Game Fantasy has been launched on the Blast mainnet after receiving strong attention during the testnet phase. The project also raised $600,000 from Alliance DAO, Manifold Trading, Fabric Ventures and angel investors in a round of funding that ended in February. The list of angel investors includes former ParaFi Capital partner Santiago Santos, LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino, and anonymous NFT influencer funds. Fantasy also offers points airdrop claims. This will be based on activity on social media platform X and on-chain metrics on a number of blockchains including Blast.

▌Scroll launches loyalty points program Session Zero, which will issue retroactive points to users

Ethereum second-layer network Scroll launched a loyalty program "Session Zero" to reward the community for participating in the Scroll ecosystem through Scroll Marks. Users can earn Scroll points by bridging assets to Scroll. Scroll said that to qualify for "Session Zero", users need to use LayerZero to cross-chain ETH and wstETH to Scroll through the native cross-chain bridge and STONE. In addition, Scroll will allocate retroactive points to members who have deployed assets on Scroll since October 10, 2023 (the date of the Scroll mainnet genesis block).

▌VR developer VictoriaVR releases a new roadmap

VR developer VictoriaVR released a new roadmap, announcing the key milestones and VR token functions of its future plans.

▌EY launches contract management solution OCM on Ethereum

EY (EY), one of the Big Four accounting firms, announced the launch of EY OpsChain Contract Manager (OCM), a blockchain-based contract management solution. The solution leverages the security and accessibility of the public Ethereum blockchain to achieve data privacy through zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology, enhance contract integrity and reduce value leakage.

Cryptocurrency

▌Memeland: 21 RSIC METAPROTOCOLs purchased and joined Runes Collective

NFT project Memeland announced that it has purchased 21 RSIC METAPROTOCOLs and joined Runes Collective (RSIC mining community).

▌US Bitcoin spot ETFs had a net outflow of $183.1 million yesterday, and GBTC had an outflow of $133 million

According to Farside Investors data, Grayscale Bitcoin spot ETFs had an outflow of $133 million yesterday. ARKB, the Bitcoin spot ETF issued by ARK Invest, had a net outflow of $42.7 million. In addition, US Bitcoin spot ETFs had a net outflow of $183.1 million.

▌600 million CROs were transferred from Crypto.com to the destruction address

According to Whale Alert monitoring, at around 7:31 Beijing time today, two transactions totaling 600,000,000 CROs (US$72,407,748) were transferred from Crypto.com to the destruction address.

▌BlackRock: Bitcoin is the most widely adopted digital asset in the world

BlackRock said that Bitcoin is the most widely adopted digital asset in the world.

▌10726 ETH transferred from unknown wallet to Coinbase

According to Whale Alert monitoring, at 8:15 Beijing time, 10,726 ETH (about 31,903,108 US dollars) were transferred from an unknown wallet to Coinbase.

Important Economic Dynamics

▌The probability of the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates unchanged in May is 96%

According to CME's "Fed Watch", the probability of the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates unchanged in May is 96%, and the probability of a 25 basis point rate cut is 4%. The probability of the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates unchanged by June is 83.1%, and the probability of a cumulative 25 basis point rate cut is 16.3%.

▌The three major U.S. stock indexes closed down collectively

The three major U.S. stock indexes closed down collectively, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.12%, the Nasdaq down 1.15%, and the S&P 500 down 0.58%. Most of the popular technology stocks fell, Nvidia fell more than 3%, and Tesla, Amazon, and Meta all fell more than 1%.

▌The U.S. dollar index DXY fell below 106, down 0.35% on the day

The U.S. dollar index DXY fell below 106, down 0.35% on the day.

▌Fed Beige Book: U.S. wage pressures eased, and people were cautiously optimistic about the economy

The Fed Beige Book maintained the growth characteristics of the "slight" expansion of the U.S. economy since February, while continuing a series of generally pessimistic descriptions of economic activity. However, this description actually improved - 10 regions reported growth and 2 stagnated, while the February report showed 8 regions growing, 3 flat and 1 shrinking. However, people are clearly more price sensitive and more willing to cut back on discretionary spending, and overall, participants are "cautiously optimistic" about economic growth. Employment is seen as growing at a "slight" rate, with labor supply improving but shortages still existing in some industries. Wage pressures continue to ease, and labor cost growth in some regions has returned to its long-term average.

Golden Encyclopedia

▌What is censorship resistance in blockchain technology?

The anti-censorship features of blockchain include: decentralization, immutable ledger, transparency, encryption. Bitcoin's decentralized consensus mechanism, anonymity and decentralized governance enable it to withstand censorship attempts by any centralized institution and maintain the immutability of its transactions. In the Bitcoin network, miners compete to add transactions to the blockchain and verify them by solving difficult mathematical puzzles. Since the network cannot be controlled by a single party, censorship becomes a challenging task. Any attempt to filter transactions must overwhelm the network's total processing power, which becomes increasingly difficult as the network grows larger.

Disclaimer: As a blockchain information platform, Golden Finance publishes articles for information reference only and is not intended as actual investment advice. Please establish correct investment concepts and be sure to increase risk awareness.