2024-02-14 15:39

The firm tested a variety of use cases through Avalanche's subnet with a focus on private markets. Citibank used layer-1 blockchain Avalanche’s (AVAX) Spruce Subnet to explore the tokenization of private equity funds to re-architect capital markets. Citi worked with traditional finance giants WisdomTree and Wellington Management to carry out its proof-of-concept trial that was issued on Avalanche’s Spruce, according to a press release. Spruce is an Evergreen subnet designed for large financial institutions looking to use public blockchain infrastructure. Citi joining the subnet is the latest bet from a Wall Street giant looking to dive further into the use cases of blockchain adoption. TradFi firms such as T. Rowe Price, WisdomTree, Wellington Management and Cumberland joined the subnet in April last year to make trade execution and settlements more efficient. “The growing use of Avalanche by leading financial services firms like Citi, Wellington, WisdomTree, and DTCC Digital Assets continues to cement Avalanche as an institutional blockchain leader,” said Morgan Krupetsky, senior director of business development, institutions and capital markets at Ava Labs, in a conversation with CoinDesk. The new test by Citi included end-to-end token transfers, secondary transfer to enable trading and validating new capabilities through collateralized lending. The bank’s proof-of-concept demonstrated how smart contracts could enable greater automation and potentially create enhanced compliance and controls for investors and issuers, according to the press release. “We believe that by testing the tokenization of private assets, we are exploring the feasibility to open-up new operating models and create efficiencies for the broader market,” said Nisha Surendran, emerging solutions lead for Citi Digital Assets. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/02/14/citi-bank-tests-tokenization-of-private-equity-funds-on-avalanche/

2024-02-14 12:11

Developers Ethan Heilman and Armin Sabouri view OP_CAT as a simple opcode that offers some of the general purpose functionality currently missing in Bitcoin OP_CAT has the goal of restoring functionality that was available in early versions of the network software but was removed by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2010. The BIP's developers see OP_CAT as a simple upgrade to introduce greater functionality for the building of L2s, decentralized exchanges or even file hosting. Such concepts however often prove contentious among some members of the Bitcoin community. As Bitcoin developers experiment with features and upgrades that increasingly resemble the vibrant activity on alternative blockchains like Ethereum, some of programmers are pushing for a revival of a piece of code that existed on the network in its early days. A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) for a new version of the "OP_CAT" code, introduced in October, aims to restore functionality that was available in early versions of the blockchain's software but was removed by its elusive and likely pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, in 2010. The "cat" in the proposed operational code is short for "concatenate" – since technically the function was used to join two elements in a script. Nakamoto was concerned that OP_CAT exposed the network to security concerns, such as the risk of a denial-of-service (DoS) attack if it were used in conjunction with other opcodes to create very large stack elements. Another concern was the potential for "exponential" memory requirements. The developers behind the new proposal, BastionZero co-founder Ethan Heilman and Botanix Labs lead software engineer Armin Sabouri, describe their refreshed version of OP_CAT as a simple piece of coding – just a dozen or so lines. They say it could provide the general-purpose functionality that's been missing from Bitcoin since its very early days, and that's been a key driver of growth on Ethereum, the second-biggest blockchain. If launched, so-called layer-2 networks might be easier to build atop Bitcoin, along with other innovations like decentralized exchanges or file hosting. The developers argue that technological advances since 2010 and other changes to the Bitcoin code have already addressed many of the risks that worried Nakamoto. "Having worked with Bitcoin for a really long time and having built a number of protocols on top of it, one of the big problems I kept running into is that variables in the programmability of the network can't really be combined," Heilman told CoinDesk in an interview. "My biggest use case for CAT is introducing protocols that have the ability to post something on the layer 1 and have another transaction reference it, showing that one element proves another element and so on," Sabouri explained. Such functionality could provide smart contract-like features and trustless bridges to layer 2s, he said. It would also enhance the building of vaults – a type of Bitcoin smart contract or “covenant” that puts constraints on how a bitcoin can be spent. These systems can help deter hackers or other malicious parties from attacking decentralized apps. "It's pretty common in second-layer designs to have to combine things in order to sign or hash them, Merkle trees being a really good example," Sabouri said. "The fact that you cannot do that in the scripting language of Bitcoin is a pretty big shortcoming." Philosophical conflicts The proposal could prove contentious among some members of the Bitcoin community who believe adding functionality to the network is at odds with the blockchain's original ethos of providing a store of value and a peer-to-peer payments network. The Ordinals protocol, for example, was a notable development for essentially bringing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to Bitcoin for the first time, by allowing users to "inscribe" data on chain. However, the congestion that the inscriptions caused, and the premium they added to fees, drew ire from some Bitcoin purists. Luke Dashjr, an influential Bitcoin developer who has mounted campaigns to fight what he terms as "spam" transactions on the 15-year-old blockchain, told CoinDesk in a direct message that he is "not familiar enough with the use cases for OP_CAT to comment on it specifically right now." "Building on Bitcoin is fine. Attacking Bitcoin (eg, "ordinals") is not," Dashjr wrote. "There is the camp that believes Bitcoin should entirely ossify and not change much because its such a vital piece to this core new money system," André Neves, co-founder and chief technology officer of Bitcoin payments company Zebedee, told CoinDesk via email. "Other camps/devs believe Bitcoin is far from ready to ossify, as there's a lot more to be added/fixed/improved." "There are people who want Bitcoin to work forever just how it is working now," Heilman said. "I don't think they are wrong; it's just a question of the philosophy and the direction that the greater community wants to go in." OP_CAT might indirectly help to relieve network congestion, according to the authors. "We need to be looking at how we can get Ordinals onto a second layer, so it's on a completely different network which has a Bitcoin peg but does not consume any on-chain footprint," Sabouri said. "Things like CAT enable more layer 2s, so really it's a toolbox to enable the building of those trust-minimized pegs onto different off-chain protocols." Holding pattern At this point, OP_CAT is still in a holding pattern, up for discussion but without much apparent movement. It was assigned a BINANA (Bitcoin Inquisition Numbers And Names) number of BIN-2024-0001, which would allow it to be added onto the Signet test network, but it still has not been assigned a "BIP" number as a formal Bitcoin Improvement Proposal. Theoretically, the proposal would be subject to extensive public reviews and meetings where other developers will raise issues with the code, discuss improvements and so on. Heilman said this will commence in early March with hopes of it being approved by the end of the month. But major proposals like this can be tough to push through on Bitcoin – seen as perhaps the most leaderless and decentralized blockchain, often relying on volunteers to maintain the code repository – unless there is a groundswell of community support that leads to overall consensus about an update. "It is really hard to predict how long from this point it will take for CAT to be activated into Bitcoin," he added. "It is possible that the CAT code will be merged into Bitcoin Core in April and the soft-fork activation process could begin soon after. It is also possible that it takes a year or more or that the community decides they don't want CAT at all." Dashjr, for his part, said he doubts OP_CAT will get incorporated "in the near future." However, another proposal, known as CTV, for "OP_CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY," is likely closer to reality. That function would introduce new scripting logic for how a transaction can spend specific coins. Bob Bodily, CEO of Bioniq, an Ordinals marketplace, said that "even though CTV is the technically better proposal, CAT has way more positive mindshare in the Bitcoin ecosystem, and almost everyone wants it, regardless of the specific Bitcoin camp you are part of." Litmus Test Indeed, the OP_CAT proposal's fate might be seen as a litmus test for where the community sees Bitcoin going: Will it become a more general-purpose, programmable blockchain or preserved strictly as a peer-to-peer payments system and settlement layer for financial transactions? "We all know what the problems with Bitcoin are to do with scalability and so on, and we've got to solve them at some point, or otherwise it won't work for mass adoption," Sabouri said. "There's going to be much bigger, more complicated upgrades, but OP_CAT's such a simple and easy one that I think will set the template for how future upgrades should go." If OP_CAT isn't adopted, other proposals for added functionality, such as "covenants" might do the trick, according to Neves, the Zebedee co-founder. OP_CAT was recently honored by Bitcoin Ordinals project Taproot Wizards with a NFT-like collection of digital cats. Despite multiple technical difficulties and delays in the minting process, the 3,000 collectibles priced at 0.1 BTC ($4,300) each sold out, bringing in total revenue of nearly $13 million. They're now changing hands on the secondary marketplace Magic Eden for nearly 0.3 BTC. Less than 24 hours later, buyers were already flipping them for more than twice the original price. The episode might offer a market indicator of how much pent-up demand there is for Ethereum-style functionality on Bitcoin, still the largest blockchain by far, with a market capitalization of $929 billion. "Taproot Wizards approached us after we put out the proposal, asking us how they could help," Sabouri said. "They wanted to know what resources they could provide to see OP_CAT go through as the next software, which they're really determined to see happen." One might say it's a ball of yarn to be unraveled. https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/02/14/satoshi-era-bitcoin-function-op-cat-dusted-off-as-development-fervor-grows/

2024-02-14 11:26

Total crypto market cap climbed to $2 trillion for the first time since April 2022. U.S.-listed crypto companies rose Wednesday as bitcoin {{BTC}} climbed past $51,000 for the first time since December 2021, taking its market cap to $1 trillion. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, added about 2.9% in the last 24 hours, while the CoinDesk 20 Index, a measure of the largest digital assets, rose around 2.1%. Ether {{ETH}}, the second-largest cryptocurrency, gained 3.2% to $2,754, the highest since May 2022, while the total crypto market cap touched $2 trillion for the first time since April that year. Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) rose more than 7%, and software company MicroStrategy (MSTR), which holds around 190,000 BTC on its balance sheet, gained about 6.5%. BlackRock’s bitcoin exchange-traded fund (IBIT), which has the highest inflows among the new spot BTC ETFs, added around 3%. Robinhood (HOOD), a trading platform that supports cryptocurrencies, climbed 12% after reporting higher-than-forecast fourth-quarter revenue and saying crypto revenue rose 10% from a year earlier to $43 million. Iris Energy (IREN) led gains among miners, surging 14%. Marathon Digital (MARA) added 11% and Riot Platforms (RIOT) 8%. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/02/14/crypto-stocks-advance-pre-market-as-bitcoin-tops-51k-market-cap-hits-26-month-high/

2024-02-14 09:30

Some traders are targeting the $64,000 level in the coming weeks as demand from spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund products grows. Bitcoin hit $52,000 Wednesday, surpassing $1 trillion in market value and shrugging off Tuesday's dip. Cardano's ADA and dogecoin led the altcoin bounce, outperforming the CoinDesk20 Index's 4.7% advance. Genesis received court approval to redeem its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust holdings worth $1.3 billion, Bloomberg reported. The bitcoin (BTC) price hit $52,000 during Wednesday surpassing the $1 trillion market capitalization after 26 months, with traders eyeing even more gains anticipating the rally has room to run. The largest and oldest cryptocurrency shrugged off Tuesday's dip below $50,000 on a hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data, reclaiming the psychologically significant price level during European trading hours. Throughout its history, BTC only had 145 daily closes (midnight UTC time) over $50,000, CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (XBX) data shows. Wednesday's rally also brought BTC's market value to back over $1 trillion, surpassing the milestone for the first time since Dec. 2021. Bitcoin was up 4.7% over the past 24 hours, the same amount as the broad-market CoinDesk20 Index's (CD20) advance. Altcoins also bounced, with Cardano's ADA (ADA) and popular meme token dogecoin (DOGE) gaining 6% during the day. Ether (ETH) also rose over 5% to $2,750, its highest price since May 2022. The broad-market rise came amid bullish sentiment around bitcoin continue running higher, with options traders betting on prices to touch as much as $75,000 in the coming months. Some traders are targeting the $64,000 level in the coming weeks as demand from spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) products grows. Strong inflows into U.S.-listed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) supported to positive sentiment, with BlackRock’s IBIT experiencing nearly $500 million in net inflows Tuesday with gradually slowing outflows from the incumbent Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). However, redemptions might pickup soon as crypto lender Genesis received bankruptcy courrt approval to sell its GBTC holdings worth $1.3 billion, Bloomberg reported. Swissblock analysts noted in a Wednesday report that BTC will continue its uptrend until holding key support level at $46,000, but warned of slowing momentum. "Diminishing spikes in value signal a momentum slowdown, possibly leading to a market stabilization or slight pullback," the report said. " https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/02/14/bitcoin-hits-51k-regains-1t-market-capitalization/

2024-02-14 09:27

Starknet is set to launch its native token STRK through an airdrop of 728 million coins on Feb. 20. Layer 2 scaling solution Starknet is set to airdrop over 700 million STRK tokens on Feb. 20. Decentralized exchange Aevo's pre-launch futures suggest an inception price of $1.65, implying a market cap of $1.2 billion. Layer 2 scaling solution Starknet, focused on improving the performance of decentralized applications on Ethereum, is set to debut its native token STRK on Feb. 20 through an airdrop or free distribution of 728 million tokens to around 1.3 million wallets. Price discovery in the pre-debut futures listed on decentralized Aevo indicates that the highly-anticipated token could debut with a market capitalization of over $1 billion. As of writing, STRK/USD pre-launch perpetual futures changed hands at $1.65 on Aevo, implying a market cap of $1.2 billion. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of circulating coins ($728 million) with the going market price of the contract ($1.65). The impending airdrop of 728 million tokens represents nearly 7% of the total supply. So, the pre-listing price of $1.65 implies a fully diluted market cap (FDV) of over $16 billion. FDV is a projection of the market cap once all the tokens in a project are in circulation. "The market is clearly extremely excited about Starknet, as it is the most well-known ZK chain," Aevo’s co-founder and CEO Julian Koh told CoinDesk. Aevo listed the STRK/USD pre-launch contract early Wednesday. The decentralized exchange unveiled the pre-listing perpetual futures market in August last year, allowing traders to speculate on the token’s ideal inception price. These pre-listing perpetual futures are similar to “I owe you” or IOU futures offered by some exchanges. Once the token goes live, the pre-listing perpetuals will reference the STRK price and collect funding rates from traders to keep perpetual prices in sync with the token’s spot price. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/02/14/starknets-strk-could-debut-with-market-cap-of-over-1b-aevos-pre-launch-futures-suggest/

2024-02-14 09:22

Excluding Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust, the bitcoin exchange-traded funds have accumulated over $11 billion worth of BTC a month after going live. Demand for bitcoin ETFs continues to grow as outflows from Grayscale decrease, while inflows for BlackRock’s IBIT increase. Some traders, who previously predicted a sell-off following the ETF introductions, now forecast a BTC price of $64,000, citing technical analysis. Inflows into popular spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) products show no signs of slowing, with nearly $630 million added on Tuesday across all products. BlackRock’s IBIT took the lion's share, adding nearly $500 million, data shows, and retaining its position as the leading provider across the 11 ETFs. Excluding Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), the ETFs have accumulated over $11 billion worth of the largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Outflows from GBTC appear to have gradually eased, reducing selling pressure according to some analysts and buoying bullish sentiment. The bitcoin price rose above $51,000 in early European hours on Wednesday, up 2% in the past 24 hours. The CD20 Index gained 0.8%. Some traders are forecasting a jump to $64,000 in the short term, citing technical analysis and buying demand from institutional investors. “We are formally seeing the beginning of the Fibonacci pattern, the target of which looks to be the $63.7K area,” Alex Kuptsikevich, the FxPro senior market analyst, said in an email to CoinDesk. “This is close to historical highs and is unlikely to be the end of the global rally, although a significant shakeout is expected.” The Fibonacci trading strategy is a controversial method of analyzing and making trades based on the Fibonacci sequence to determine entry and exit points for trades of all time frames. It’s not only technical chartists vying for the $65,000 level: Options traders have scooped up bullish bets on bitcoin crossing its lifetime peak of $69,000 in the coming months, with some options bets targeting as high as $75,000. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/02/14/bitcoin-traders-target-64k-as-blackrock-etf-nears-500m-in-single-day-inflow/