Ethena Labs Announces Airdrop Details, SBF Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison
Market Update
- U.S. equities are flat on the day heading into the holiday weekend. The SPY has risen 0.07%, holding above $523, while the QQQ is down 0.06%, trading at $444. Although the market is closed tomorrow, the February PCE report will be released, and Fed Chair Powell will speak at the Macroeconomics and Monetary Policy in San Francisco. Surprises at either event could have an impact on markets. Crypto assets are rising today, with BTC (+2.25%) rising above $71k and ETH 4.75% (+2.02%) hovering around $3,575. Memecoins are outperforming today, with DOGE, BONK, and WIF gaining 13.82%, 11.15%, and 9.29%, respectively. Asset manager Hashdex has converted its Bitcoin futures ETF into a spot ETF under the ticker DEFI, representing the 11th spot ETF.
- Ethena Labs, a synthetic dollar protocol offering native yield via delta-neutral strategies, announced it will airdrop 750 million ENA tokens to qualified users starting on April 2nd. The airdropped tokens represent 5% of Ethena’s total supply of 15 billion ENA, and users will receive ENA in proportion to how much they are engaged with the protocol. ENA will also be listed on centralized exchanges when claims go live. The largest wallets will be subject to a 50% linear, pro-rata vesting schedule over six months. A second season of airdrop qualifications will begin, allowing new users to earn eligibility for future airdrops. Users who participated in the first season and continue to participate will receive a loyalty boost for the next airdrop. Ethena’s growth in the last six weeks has been impressive, garnering over $1.4 billion in TVL, 119,000 users, and offering yields north of 30%. Many blue-chip DeFi protocols have begun integrating USDe, including Maker, Frax, Curve, and Aave. The ENA token is trading at approximately $0.74 in pre-launch markets, valuing Ethena at an $11.1 billion FDV.
- Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. SBF was convicted in November on all seven counts of defrauding FTX customers, lenders, and investors. FTX had achieved a valuation of over $30 billion in 2021 before its monumental collapse in 2022 during crypto’s downturn. The prosecutors were seeking 40-50 years, while his defense lawyers asked for 6-7 years. In opening statements, SBF's lawyers tried to argue that there were no losses as a result of SBF's actions because all creditors are expected to be repaid in full through the bankruptcy process. In response to the arguments, Judge Lewis Kapan stated, “I reject entirely that there was no actual loss.” He also pointed out that Bankman-Fried perjured himself multiple times in his November trial. Despite those comments, Judge Kaplan only sentenced Bankman-Fried to 25 years. It is expected the defense will appeal the decision.
Daily Technical Strategy
Mark L. Newton, CMT
Head of Technical Strategy
Bitcoin cash has begun to accelerate following its push back to new yearly highs and the highest levels since mid-2021. Its breakout last month of the eight-month shallow base jumpstarted this rally on above-average volume, and following just two weeks of minor consolidation, BCH 0.08% has pushed higher to test and exceed the peaks of this former large weekly range which defined the breakout last month near $528.74. This is quite constructive in the short run and should drive prices up to $655-$686 initially, which lines up with an Equal-wave projection along with a 38.2% Fibonacci retracement of the entire decline from 2021. A more important intermediate-term resistance zone lies between $845-$870 which represents the 50% retracement of the decline from 2021 and an equal-weighted Fibonacci alternative retracement of the most recent breakout surge. Overall, BCH 0.08% has begun to pick up some notable momentum and further gains look likely in the weeks ahead.
Daily Important Metrics
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All metrics as of March 28, 2024 9:39 AM
All Funding rates are in bps
Crypto Prices
| Symbol | Market Cap | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
 BTC | $1.39T | $70,759 | ↑ 2.64% | ↑ 68% | |
 ETH | $428B | $3,565 | ↑ 1.79% | ↑ 57% | ↓ -11% |
 SOL | $83B | $186 | ↑ 2.44% | ↑ 83% | ↑ 16% |
 DOGE | $32B | $0.2196 | ↑ 16% | ↑ 147% | ↑ 79% |
 ADA | $23B | $0.6525 | ↑ 2.67% | ↑ 10% | ↓ -57% |
 DOT | $14B | $9.55 | ↑ 1.44% | ↑ 18% | ↓ -50% |
 LINK | $11B | $19.31 | ↑ 0.65% | ↑ 29% | ↓ -39% |
 MATIC | $10.0B | $1.01 | ↓ -1.50% | ↑ 4.99% | ↓ -63% |
 NEAR | $7.7B | $7.29 | ↑ 0.60% | ↑ 102% | ↑ 35% |
Exchange Traded Products (ETPs)
| Symbol | Premium to Nav | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
| BITW | ↓ -32% | $34.46 | ↓ -1.51% | ↑ 48% | ↓ -20% |
| ETHE | ↓ -24% | $26.53 | ↑ 5.61% | ↑ 37% | ↓ -31% |
News
QUICK BITS
The Block Avalanche’s Codebase accelerator program chooses first cohort Avalanche has chosen its first cohort consisting of 15 early-stage web3 startups for its Codebase accelerator program. |
MARKET DATA
The Block BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF amasses 250,000 BTC as Fidelity’s crosses $10 billion AUM Meanwhile, Ark Invest 21Shares’ ARKB spot Bitcoin ETF generated its best daily inflows of more than $200 million on Wednesday. |
DOSE OF DEFI
The Block Ethena Labs to airdrop 750 million ENA tokens on April 2 The ENA token will be airdropped to eligible participants on April 2. |
CRYPTO INFRASTRUCTURE
The Block Ethereum blobs are now being used to create inscriptions like on Bitcoin Increased blob inscriptions today also coincided with a Base fee spike, reaching $300 falling down to about $30. |
FUNDRAISING AND M&A
BTC Manager A16z co-founder, Galaxy Digital back 1kx’s new $75m crypto fund Venture capital veterans as well as crypto management firms have lined up to back 1kx’s new fund focused on crypto consumer apps. Crypto investment firm that sp... |
The Block Web3 AI training firm FLock raises $6 million in seed funding FLock will use the funds to grow its team and develop an AI training platform powered by federated learning. |
MINING
Bitcoin.com Bitcoin Miner Bitdeer Seeks $100 Million for Mining Capacity Expansion Bitcoin miner Bitdeer is reportedly in discussions with private credit firms to secure $100 million in funding to expand its mining capacity. It is believed tha... |
INVESTMENT PRODUCTS
CoinDesk BlackRock's Tokenized Fund Quickly Rakes in $245M, Right Behind Franklin Templeton's Older Offering The tokenized U.S. Treasury market is poised to reach $1 billion "very soon" given the growth of BlackRock's BUIDL, an analyst noted. |
CryptoPotato Hashdex Converts Futures Fund Into Latest US Spot Bitcoin ETF, DEFI Crypto asset management firm Hashdex has become the latest to join the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund market with its own product. |
HACKS, EXPLOITS, AND SCAMS
The Block Prisma Finance appears to have been hacked for $9 million in ongoing exploit Prisma Finance appears to have been exploited for $9 million, according to on-chain data from blockchain security experts. |
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