Fuzenomics Weekly #14

Your route to web3 alpha in the MENA region. Whether you’re a seasoned HODLer or just getting into crypto - we’ve got something for everyone to keep you ahead of the curve. By the community, for the community - Fuzenomics Weekly.

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Birds Eye View (vs Last 7 Days)

💵 Overall Crypto Market Cap: $2.11 Trillion (+4.4%)

🔶 BTC Dominance: 53.49% (+0.51 PPT)

💵 Price Snapshot:

🟠 Bitcoin: $57166 (+4%)

🔵 Ethereum: $3071 (+5.2%)

🟡 BNB: $521 (+9%)

🟣 Solana: $135 (+5.4%)

🇺🇸 A Deep Dive into Ethereum ETFs Debut Day: $1 Billion+ Trading Volume!

United States listed spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) generated approximately $1.08 billion in cumulative trading volume (and $107 MLN net inflows!) on their first day of trading, which is about 23% of the volume that spot Bitcoin ETFs saw on their opening day.

The converted Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) and BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) had the highest volumes on July 23, with $458 million and $248.7 million, respectively, according to preliminary data from Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas. The Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH) and Bitwise Ethereum ETF (ETHW) followed, with $137.2 million and $94.3 million in trading volume. The 21Shares-issued spot Ether ETF had the lowest volume, not exceeding the $10 million mark.

Balchunas remarked that the $625 million in volume from the "Newborn Eight" products — excluding Grayscale’s ETHE — was "healthy" and he anticipates that a "sizeable chunk" of this volume will convert into inflows.

His fellow Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart predicts inflows for the new spot Ether ETFs to range between $125 million and $325 million, depending on the number of investors lined up by these firms.

In January, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $655.2 million in inflows on their first day of trading, including a $95 million outflow from Grayscale’s converted Bitcoin product.

The new Ether ETFs launched following the US securities regulator's approval of the final S-1 forms, allowing them to trade on the Nasdaq, NYSE Arca, and Chicago Board Options Exchange.

Fidelity, 21Shares, Bitwise, Franklin, and VanEck have waived fees on their ETFs for a set period or until the products reach a specified amount in net assets. After the initial period, all spot Ether ETFs, except ETHE, will charge a base fee between 0.15% and 0.25%. ETHE’s fee remains at 2.5%.

BlackRock is offering a discounted fee of 0.12% for the first 12 months or until the fund reaches $2.5 billion in net assets, whichever comes first. After that, the fee will increase to 0.25%.

The Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust will start with a 0.12% fee, moving to 0.25% after 12 months or when net assets reach $2 billion. The Invesco Galaxy-issued spot Ether ETF is set at a 0.25% fee.

Where is ETH’s price headed next after this successful debut day for ETFs? Let us know in the comments below if you’re feeling bullish or bearish! 👇

🇯🇵 Sony announces its new crypto exchange! 🤯

Yes - you heard that right! Sony makes a massive move into the crypto space as it launches its own exchange. After acquiring one of the largest exchanges in the world; WhaleFin - Sony has renamed it to S.BLOX Co., which plans to collaborate with Sony Group’s other businesses to generate additional value for its crypto trading services.

The revamp also includes a redesign of the user interface and a new mobile app that will be easier to use, the release said. The exact launch date of the S.BLOX crypto exchange has not been announced.

The crypto trading entity was initially the Japanese crypto exchange DeCurret, which was first acquired by the Japanese subsidiary of Singapore’s Amber Group in 2022. In August 2023, Sony’s wholly-owned subsidiary Quetta Web Co. acquired the platform.

Sota Watanabe, founder and CEO of Startale Labs, revealed on X on Monday that Startale’s external director is going to lead Sony’s new crypto exchange, though he did not provide further details.

It is important to add here also that this is not Sony’s first entry into the crypto space, and that the PlayStation maker also filed a patent last year for more flexible use of NFTs as in-game assets that it dubbed “super-fungible tokens.”

This is major news as one of the largest multimedia conglomerates ventures into crypto with a bang - and we’ll keep you updated as the story progresses. But what do you think? Should other traditional giants also take the same path and venture into crypto? Let us know in the comments below! 👇

🇺🇸 Blackrock Bitcoin ETF records massive $523 Million inflow while 🇯🇵 Mt.Gox sees an even larger $3.2 Billion outflow

Blackrock BTC ETF In-Flow

BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) recorded its largest single-day inflow in over four months, with over $523 million entering the fund on Monday.

The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) acquired 7,759 Bitcoin on July 22, equivalent to over $523 million at the time, according to data from Hey Apollo, cited by its co-founder in a July 23 post on X.

The July 22 inflows bring the total assets under management (AUM) for BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) to 333,000 BTC, valued at around $22 billion at current prices. 🤯🤯

This inflow marks the seventh-largest day on record for IBIT in terms of U.S. dollar value. IBIT's largest single-day inflow occurred on March 18, with $849 million worth of Bitcoin added to the fund. The second-largest day was March 5, with the fund seeing $788 million in inflows, according to FarSide Investors data.

The substantial inflows to BlackRock’s fund coincided with the approval of a series of spot Ether ETFs for trading in the U.S. Industry analysts predict that spot Ether ETFs could generate 10% to 20% of the flows that spot Bitcoin ETFs have garnered since their launch in January.

Several analysts are optimistic about Bitcoin's prospects in the short to mid-term. They cited U.S. President Joe Biden's unexpected dropout from the presidential race and the increased chances of Donald Trump winning the election as potential positive catalysts for Bitcoin's price.

Markus Thielen (Founder - 10x Research) and Bryan Courchesne (Founder - DAIM) speculated that Trump could announce making Bitcoin a strategic reserve asset at the upcoming Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 25. Thielen believes this could lead to a significant increase in Bitcoin's price.

Mt.Gox Out-flows

Mt. Gox began moving significant funds again on July 23, transferring over 47,500 Bitcoin, valued at nearly $3.2 billion, to two unknown addresses at 5:05 am and 6:27 am UTC. Arkham Intelligence data showed that Mt. Gox originally held 90,344 Bitcoin worth $6.02 billion, but this information is outdated, with current holdings estimated at around 42,744 BTC, valued at approximately $2.85 billion.

Following a statement on July 5, the defunct exchange outlined plans to "promptly" proceed with repayments to creditors, and these recent movements suggest that the repayment process is well underway.

On July 23, the Mt. Gox wallet labeled “Mt. Gox: Cold Wallet (1Jbez)” transferred 5,110 BTC, valued at around $340 million, to an unknown wallet and the cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. Out of this, 2,871 BTC, worth approximately $191 million, was sent to an unknown address starting with 1JKMS, while the remaining 2,239 BTC, worth $149 million, was transferred to Bitstamp.

On July 22, Mt. Gox started preparing to repay creditors through Bitstamp, as evidenced by onchain fund movements. According to Arkham Intelligence, Mt. Gox addresses made a symbolic deposit of $1 to four separate Bitstamp deposit addresses. Bitstamp is one of the five exchanges collaborating with the Mt. Gox Trustee for the repayment process.

With the latest $3.2 billion in BTC shifted out of the Mt. Gox address, the total amount offloaded to creditors since July 16 now exceeds $12 billion. On July 16, the defunct exchange saw outflows of over 140,000 BTC after a two-week period of onchain inactivity. Within just three hours, nearly 190,000 BTC was moved, contributing to over $12 billion in volume movements as Mt. Gox proceeded with its promised repayments to creditors.

Huge moves have been happening in BTC - what is your prediction for BTC's price movement in the coming months? Let us know in the comments below! 👇

🇭🇰 Animoca and Standard Chartered team up in HKMA stablecoin sandbox

A day after concluding the consultation period on stablecoin issuer regulations, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced the first participants in its stablecoin issuer sandbox. The participants include a company affiliated with a major Chinese e-commerce retailer, a local fintech company, and a coalition comprising Standard Chartered Bank, Animoca Brands, and Hong Kong Telecommunications.

The participants will undergo an assessment process as the hopeful stablecoin issuers test their operational plans and communicate with regulators on the proposed regulatory regime. They will be prohibited from handling or soliciting funds from the public for activities related to the sandbox. HKMA deputy CEO Darryl Chan released comments on the sandbox in which he wrote:

“A key consideration is the need to propose concrete use cases for the stablecoin to help address pain points in economic activities and create value and new opportunities for our economy and financial services.”

Hong Kong-based Web3 software developer and venture capital firm Animoca Brands released a statement emphasizing the common interest of Animoca, Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), and HK Telecom in developing Hong Kong’s digital asset ecosystem and its applications in the real world.

The Animoca statement mentioned that the coalition will use the services of Zodia Custody. Zodia Custody, which is majority-owned by the bank and provides cold storage of digital assets.

Jingdong Coinlink Technology Hong Kong is another participant in the stablecoin sandbox. Jingdong is an e-commerce retailer in China that operates as JD.com and created a blockchain arm in 2018.

The final participant, RD InnoTech, is a subsidiary of RD Technologies. RD InnoTech plans to test various use cases for its proprietary Hong Kong Dollar stablecoin, ‘HKDR,’ such as digital asset trading and cross-border trade payments. The HKDR is described on the company’s website as “coming soon.”

Stablecoins are coming out to be not just the future, but the present as well. If you or your clients are looking to get exposure to stablecoins - then this would be a great time to mention that you can do so by capitalizing on Fuze’s instant and zero-slippage OTC desk or by using our best-in-class embedded products.

Drop us an e-mail at support@fuze.finance and we’ll show you exactly how we launch tomorrow’s products - today.

🇭🇰 Hong Kong to launch Asia’s first inverse Bitcoin ETF

On July 23, Hong Kong launched Asia’s first Bitcoin futures inverse product, the CSOP Bitcoin Futures Daily (-1x) Inverse Product (7376.HK).

This new exchange-traded fund (ETF), introduced by CSOP Asset Management — one of China's largest asset managers — aims to offer investors a way to profit from declines in Bitcoin prices.

The CSOP Bitcoin Futures Daily (-1x) Inverse Product is designed to reflect the inverse daily performance of the S&P Bitcoin Futures Index. It achieves this through a futures-based replication strategy by investing directly in spot-month Chicago Mercantile Exchange Bitcoin Futures.

The product will be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) with a listing price of approximately 7.8 Hong Kong dollars per unit.

Tristan Frizza (Founder - Zeta Markets) commented on the launch, noting that the inverse Bitcoin ETF represents the growing sophistication of crypto financial products. He suggested that such instruments can balance speculative activities and contribute to market stability, which is essential for the maturation and acceptance of crypto as a mainstream investment asset.

HKEX has been trading spot crypto ETFs since late 2022, following the introduction of CSOP’s Bitcoin Futures ETF and Ether Futures ETF. Samsung Asset Management Hong Kong also launched its Bitcoin Futures ETF in January 2023. As of April 29, these crypto ETFs on HKEX had amassed 1.3 billion HKD (approximately $170 million) in assets under management.

We'll be back soon with an update to show you how Asia's first Bitcoin ETF has been performing. What are your thoughts on the rising number of BTC ETFs in the world? Will this help retail get easier access to crypto or instead increase institutional dominance? Let us know in the comments below! 👇

🇮🇳 Deep Dive into the $230 Million WazirX Breach

In one of the most significant cyber-attacks of the year, WazirX, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange, lost over $230 million from a multi-signature wallet.

WazirX reported the attack on one of its multisig wallets, which had used Liminal’s digital asset custody and wallet infrastructure since February 2023. The wallet featured six signatories: one from Liminal and five from WazirX, designed to ensure secure transactions through the requirement for multiple approvals.

The wallet breach occurred due to discrepancies between the data displayed on Liminal’s interface and the actual transaction contents. During the attack, the payload was replaced, allowing the hacker to gain control of the multisig wallet and steal funds held within it. Despite the use of security measures such as the Gnosis Safe multisig smart contract platform and a whitelisting policy, the attack was able to exploit these defenses. The Liminal Custody team said in a statement that they confirm that Liminal’s platform was not breached and that its assets, wallets, and infrastructure remain safe.

Joanna Cheng, (Associate General Counsel - Fireblocks) described India’s regulatory hurdles for crypto, noting an absence of specific guidelines for security measures, risk management, and consumer protection.

Due to a lack of a clear crypto regulatory framework, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a global crypto framework in August 2023 at the G20 Summit. Modi explained at the Summit that the nature of emerging technologies like blockchain and cryptocurrencies have a global impact and advocated for a comprehensive global framework for crypto regulation.

WazirX responded to the community on July 18 in an X post, outlining the details of the attack and assuring stakeholders that efforts are ongoing to retrieve the stolen assets. The Indian firm described the attack as “a force majeure event” and explained that, despite taking “all necessary steps to protect the customer assets,” the theft still occurred. Cheng discussed WazirX’s ability to invoke a force majeure clause, which typically excuses a party from fulfilling its contractual obligations due to unforeseen events.

What do you think are the fundamental reasons for so many malicious attacks in crypto, and what role should industry leaders play in building safer platforms for consumers? Let us know in the comments below! 👇

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