Author: MIIX Capital

Introduction:

In the past week, the crypto market continued to demonstrate its evolving capabilities and vitality. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell hinted at a possible interest rate cut within the year, BTC achieved a record of five consecutive months of gains since the 2021 bull market, and Bitcoin spot ETFs reversed their downward trend over the past week, recording net inflows for six consecutive trading days. The enthusiasm for Restaking continues to rise, and these market signals have led investors to have a more optimistic outlook for the market in 2024. However, as the Chinese New Year holiday approaches, it is advisable to act cautiously regarding the market. BTC prices are fluctuating between the support level of $38,500 and the resistance level of $44,000, with short-term trends remaining unclear.

1. Investment and Financing Observation

Last week (01.29~02.04), there were 33 investment and financing events in the global blockchain sector, including 6 in the infrastructure field, 14 in DeFi, 7 in gaming and NFTs, and 6 in Web3, with a total funding scale of approximately $250 million. The top 5 projects ranked by investment amount are: Portal Network, Cube.Exchange, Clusters, Pixelmon, and Forgotten Playland.
From a month-on-month perspective: the frequency of investment and financing slightly increased last week, mainly concentrated in the DeFi direction. Additionally, Gate Ventures, OKX Ventures, and Waterdrip Capital were more active last week.

Portal is a DeFi project built on Bitcoin that enables anonymous, zero-knowledge transactions through a cross-chain DEX. Portal introduces trustless, bridge-less, and wrapped-less cross-chain atomic swaps, allowing developers to seamlessly integrate SDKs into their chains or dApps;
Cube.Exchange is a hybrid crypto trading platform that will first launch as a spot exchange and later expand to other products;
Clusters is a multi-chain domain service designed to address issues such as address fragmentation, wallet management complexity, and domain squatting. It is jointly launched by Delegate and the cross-chain interoperability protocol LayerZero;
Pixelmon is an open-world RPG NFT game where users can train, trade, battle, and evolve Pixelmon in the metaverse;
Forgotten Playland is a party gaming platform featuring a series of mini-games such as Bump-A-Ball and Jungle Rumble. Its launched The Social Hub is a dynamic interactive space where players can hang out and socialize within the game;

2. Industry Data

ETF has net inflows of 32,000 BTC

Data shows that as of the 17th trading day after the launch of the Bitcoin spot ETF, there has been a total net inflow of 32,002.7 BTC, equivalent to approximately $1.459 billion.

• BlackRock's IBIT has a net inflow of 72,411.9 BTC, making it the ETF with the highest net inflow;
• Fidelity's FBTC has a net inflow of 58,877.6 BTC, making it the second ETF with the highest net inflow;
• The other 9 ETFs have a net inflow of 175,562.2 BTC;

BTC whales increase holdings by approximately $3 billion

Data from IntoTheBlock on January 29 shows that crypto whales or large investors have accumulated Bitcoin worth $3 billion this month, with the number of Bitcoins held in wallets containing over 1,000 BTC increasing by approximately 76,000 BTC, reaching nearly 7.8 million BTC. Monitoring from Santiment shows that the number of wallet addresses for BTC whales fluctuated significantly last week:

• The number of wallet addresses holding between 1,000 and 10,000 BTC reached 1,958, a new high since November 2022;
• The number of wallet addresses holding between 100 and 1,000 BTC reached 13,735, a new low since November 2022;

Glassnode's latest report states that since the low point in 2022, Bitcoin's price performance has been remarkably similar to previous cycles, although the recovery speed is slightly slower, it is more resilient. Similarly, the amount of currency transferred on-chain, especially the amount transferred to exchanges, remains strong, similar to previous bull market cycles.

Although there has been a slight increase in the outflow of tokens from long-term holders after the ETF approval (related to GBTC), most long-term BTC investors seem to be patiently waiting, much like experienced fishermen navigating the calm waves of the market.

Smart money flows significantly into the LRT track

Benefiting from the emergence of the Restaking narrative, the LRT track has become a focal point in the industry, with significant smart money inflows last week. Among them, LSDFI concept tokens similar to Pendle showed impressive performance against the trend, with SmartMoney seeing inflows of approximately $4 million in 24 hours.


The direct reason for Pendle's rise and the significant increase in TVL is the addition of LRT project tokens such as ezETH, rseth, and eETH to its liquidity pool, providing these projects with more stable returns and smoothing future expectations.

Pendle can trade and hedge future yields within the AMM system. Yield hedgers can lock in future yields and receive upfront capital, while yield bulls can directly obtain yield streams in a more capital-efficient manner.

PYTH staking address count exceeds 150,000

Data from Dune on February 4 shows that there are currently 831,975,359 PYTH tokens staked, with a total staking value exceeding $391 million. The number of PYTH staking addresses has exceeded 150,000. Additionally, on-chain monitoring detected that 15 hours before Binance announced the listing of PYTH, a suspected market maker address transferred 188 million PYTH (approximately $92.72 million) to a new address (7GjA…x7xY) and locked it for 90 days.

3. Some VC Holdings Data

Note: The above data is sourced from https://platform.arkhamintelligence.com/; Statistics time: February 5, 2024, 12:00 (UTC+8).

4. This Week's Focus

February 5

• Galxe unlocks 5.18 million GAL tokens, accounting for approximately 5.76% of the current circulating supply

February 6

• The modular blockchain network Dymension in the Cosmos ecosystem plans to launch its mainnet
• The SEC's new deadline for a decision on Invesco Galaxy's Ethereum spot ETF
• TIA will hold an AMA on X on February 6, which will include some important announcements

February 7

• Ethereum's Holesky will undergo the Dencun upgrade at 7:35 PM
• Arkham gathering in Istanbul, Turkey

February 10

• Silly Dragon will release its latest announcement on February 10

5. Conclusion

This week, the market appears to be more active, with a noticeable increase in the frequency of investment and financing, especially in the DeFi and infrastructure sectors. Additionally, the performance data of ETFs and smart money, including BTC whale accumulation and smart money flowing into the Restaking track, remind us once again that long-term investors have always been the backbone of the industry. They enjoy the waves while navigating them, providing valuable reference data for industry users.
It is expected that in the new week, Restaking will remain the focus and main line of the market, and FOMO sentiment will further build up with the progress of LST projects, waiting for an impending explosion. Important events such as the Dymension mainnet launch, the SEC's decision on the Ethereum spot ETF, and the Ethereum Holesky upgrade are also worth our continued attention, especially with the Dencun upgrade approaching, which may bring new hot market trends.
Investing is like embarking on a journey full of unknowns, where there can be storms at any moment, but also surprises. Regardless of where the unknown comes from, how to perceive trends and follow them is what we must explore and learn during this journey. As the saying goes, choice is greater than effort; go with the flow!
Note: All opinions above are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. If there are any objections, please feel free to contact us for corrections.

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