New Stablecoin Bill Introduced, Ronin Onboards Ragnarok
Market Update
- Equities and crypto assets are selling off in tandem today as inflation and geopolitical fears have spooked risk assets. The SPY and QQQ have decreased by 0.46% and 0.92%, respectively, while crypto is selling off more aggressively. BTC (-5.49%) has tested the high $59,000s and ETH (-4.42%) is trading below $3,000. Among a sea of red, SUI is showing relative strength, gaining 6.44% on the back of a partnership announcement with TikTok's parent company ByteDance to explore web3 use cases for the social media behemoth. TikTok boasts over 1.7 billion users worldwide, and ByteDance reported $120 billion in 2023 revenues. A successful partnership between the two could significantly impact Sui’s users and network activity.
- U.S. Senators Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand have proposed a new stablecoin bill to define a regulatory framework in the United States. Any dollar-pegged digital asset designed for payments would fall under the stablecoin definition, and stablecoins would not be considered securities. Tokens would have to be fully backed by reserve assets with clear disclosure of reserves. Issuers must be a non-depository trust company registered with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors or a depository institution authorized as a national payment stablecoin issuer. Any non-depository institution would have an asset issuance limit of $10 billion before needing to become a national payment stablecoin issuer. Under the proposed limit, Circle would have to obtain a depository trust charter. Both state and federal regulators would have oversight over issuers, and the bill would keep the dual-banking system intact, making regulation more clean-cut. Lummis and Gillibrand have tried to introduce crypto legislation in the past with limited success, but they continue to try and bring the industry forward.
- Ronin, a gaming EVM sidechain and one of our core strategy constituents, has onboarded Ragnarok: Monster World to its network. Ragnarok: Monster World is a web3 strategy game and the latest addition to the web2 franchise Ragnarok. This is the first web2 gaming IP on the Ronin network and should help bring a massive gaming audience to Ronin. The Ragnarok franchise has seen over 167 million downloads across 122 countries. Ronin has accumulated over 18 million unique wallets since launching in 2021 and has seen a steady increase in network activity over the past six months, generating close to $10,000 in daily fees. Monster World will allow players to collect different monster characters called “Ragmons” and earn ZENY points, which will be redeemable for ZENY tokens. The ZENY token will launch following the game's release in Q3 of this year.
Daily Technical Strategy
Mark L. Newton, CMT
Head of Technical Strategy
While cryptocurrencies have largely been undergoing consolidation since mid-March, the price action in Bitcoin mining issues has proven even more volatile in recent weeks. Shares of the Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI) have plunged more than 30% since late March to the lowest levels since February 2024. This downward pressure has violated the trend connecting lows since last November and remains within a sharp technical downtrend. Momentum is nearing oversold levels, yet until prices of WGMI either break out above the current downtrend from March, or reach levels of support, it's difficult to suggest that stabilization has begun. Downside technical support should materialize near $11-$11.50 and likely could provide a low to this steep slide. Unfortunately, given the extent of the momentum weakness during this selloff, bounce attempts likely won't gain much traction until/unless they recover above $17. While many are tempted at trying to buy dips in this ongoing decline, more needs to happen structurally with prices breaking out of this trend before growing too bullish on WGMI. Further selling down near early 2024 lows would make WGMI a very attractive risk/reward, but as of now, additional selling might still persist into early next week.
Daily Important Metrics
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All metrics as of April 17, 2024 1:22 PM
All Funding rates are in bps
Crypto Prices
| Symbol | Market Cap | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
 BTC | $1.20T | $60,961 | ↓ -2.25% | ↑ 44% | |
 ETH | $359B | $2,990 | ↓ -1.55% | ↑ 31% | ↓ -13% |
 SOL | $59B | $132 | ↓ -0.42% | ↑ 29% | ↓ -15% |
 DOGE | $21B | $0.1486 | ↓ -2.89% | ↑ 67% | ↑ 23% |
 ADA | $16B | $0.4416 | ↓ -2.29% | ↓ -25% | ↓ -70% |
 DOT | $9.4B | $6.52 | ↓ -0.89% | ↓ -20% | ↓ -64% |
 LINK | $7.7B | $13.13 | ↓ -0.46% | ↓ -12% | ↓ -57% |
 MATIC | $6.6B | $0.6700 | ↓ -3.00% | ↓ -30% | ↓ -75% |
 NEAR | $5.7B | $5.37 | ↑ 0.57% | ↑ 49% | ↑ 5.00% |
Exchange Traded Products (ETPs)
| Symbol | Premium to Nav | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
| BITW | ↓ -32% | $30.38 | ↓ -4.66% | ↑ 30% | ↓ -14% |
| ETHE | ↓ -26% | $21.09 | ↓ -3.08% | ↑ 8.76% | ↓ -36% |
News
DOSE OF DEFI
The Block Solana-based betting platform Parcl loses 40% TVL after airdrop Other Solana-based airdrop tokens W and TNSR have seen declines in value, while the network has been experiencing major congestion issues. |
CryptoSlate EigenLayer removes caps, sees record $157 million inflow as Lido dominance dips Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer saw inflows of approximately $157 million in Lido’s staked ETH during the last 24 hours, marking the digital asset’s high... |
REGULATION
CoinDesk U.S. Senators Lummis, Gillibrand Take on Stablecoin Legislation With New Bill U.S. Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) are taking another swing at crypto-specific legislation, with a narrowly tailored bill see... |
FUNDRAISING AND M&A
The Block Nebra raises $4.5 million seed round for ZKP technology led by Nascent and Bankless Nebra said the newly raised funds will be used to advance the development of the Shared Settlement Layer of the new internet. |
The Block Centrifuge raises $15 million in Series A funding for institutional DeFi adoption Centrifuge has raised $15 million in Series A funding and will establish a lending market on Coinbase's Base network. |
The Block Tokenization platform Huma Finance merges with Circle-backed liquidity platform Arf Huma Finance and Arf, both backed by notable venture investors, have merged to improve the adoption of tokenized assets. |
GAMING
The Block Ronin EVM sidechain onboards popular South Korean MMORPG IP Ragnarok “Ragnarok: Monster World” will be the first Web2 gaming IP to debut on Ronin, scheduled for the third quarter of this year, the company said. |
HIRING
The Block Top OKX executives Tim Byun and Wei Lan exit crypto exchange: report OKX has lost two senior executives as the cryptocurrency exchange works to expand its global footprint. |
GAMING
The Block Ronin EVM sidechain onboards popular South Korean MMORPG IP Ragnarok “Ragnarok: Monster World” will be the first Web2 gaming IP to debut on Ronin, scheduled for the third quarter of this year, the company said. |
