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👇Bitcoin ETF Flows Evaporate
The Defiant Daily
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Bitcoin ETF flows are at a record low, with just $106M worth of assets moving through spot BTC exchange-traded funds on Feb. 6.
Ethereum's Dencun upgrade passed its final testnet deployment, with onlookers describing the Dencun Holesky fork as "uneventful." The price of ETH also tagged a two-week high after Ark amended its Ether ETF filing amid speculation that spot ETFs investing in ETH could receive regulatory approval come May.
Airdrops continue to capture the imagination of web3 users, with 100M PYTH set to be distributed amid the second phase of Pyth's token drop. Wormhole, the popular cross-chain bridge, also announced plans to drop a token to early adopters.
Plus, Ondo will launch its treasury-backed stablecoin USDY on Sui, while ERC-404 tokens push past a $170M market cap.
✍️ In today’s newsletter:
- BTC ETF activity recedes
- Dencun live on Holesky
- ETH rallies amid ETF hype
- Pyth launches second airdrop phase
- Wormhole unveils upcoming airdrop
- Ondo's USDY comes to Sui
- ERC-404 tokens rally
🎙️The Defiant Podcast & Interviews:
📈 Markets in last 24 hrs:
| Ticker | Value | 24h |
|---|---|---|
| BTC | $44,165 | ↗ 2.5% |
| ETH | $2,423 | ↗ 2.13% |
| S&P 500 | $4,995 | ↗ 0.82% |
| GOLD | $2,035 | ↗ 0.03% |
| Arch WEB3 | 1.31pts | ↗ +2.52% |
| ↳ FINANCE | 1.15pts | ↗ 2.19% |
| ↳ INFRA | 1.64pts | ↗ 2.67% |
| ↳ CONSUMER | 1.32pts | ↗ 3.14% |
Learn more about Arch Indices here.
🎬 WATCH
Check out our discussion with Tina and Teddy to learn more about EigenLayer, the pioneering Ethereum restaking protocol. Also watch our podcast with Thomas Mattimore, CEO of ABC Labs, to find out about creating asset-backed stablecoins using Reserve Protocol.
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The Reserve protocol empowers anyone to launch and govern currencies called “RTokens” backed by baskets of onchain collateral. Preserve your spending power with yield-bearing RTokens like ETH+ and hyUSD.
Markets
Spot Bitcoin ETF Flows Slow To Record Low
TLDR Total spot Bitcoin ETF flows have slumped to their lowest level on record, with just $106M circulating through BTC ETFs on Feb. 6. The figure equates to only 23% of the average daily flow since the sector's inception last month.
SO WHAT Spot Bitcoin ETFs were among the most hyped digital asset products to date, with many analysts tipping that the sector's regulatory approval could pave the way for enormous investment into BTC from entities including pension funds, brokers, and other legacy institutions. However, the sector's initial wave of momentum appears to be dying down, as demonstrated by falling daily flows and trade volume.
READ MORE: Spot Bitcoin ETF Flows Slow To Record Low
Ethereum
Ethereum’s Dencun Upgrade Completes Testnet Trials, Mainnet Comes Next
TLDR Ethereum's highly-anticipated Dencun upgrade has passed its final testnet dress-rehearsal, with Dencun now live on the Holesky network.
SO WHAT Dencun is set to significantly reduce transaction fees, particularly on Layer 2, by replacing gas-intensive call data with Binary Large Objects (blobs). Analysts estimate Layer 2 transaction fees will drop as much as 80% once Dencun is live on mainnet.
READ MORE: Ethereum’s Dencun Upgrade Completes Testnet Trials, Mainnet Comes Next
Stablecoins
Ether Hits 2-Week High After Ark Amends ETF Filing
TLDR The price of ETH is at a two-week high, last trading hands for more than $2,400 after posting a partial recovery from January's lows.
SO WHAT The milestone follows Ark Invest amending its spot Ether ETF application on Feb. 7. With the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission continuing to delay pending spot Ether applications, prominent analysts believe the SEC could be gearing up to give the prospective sector the green light ahead of the final deadline for the SEC's decision on VanEck's Ether ETF proposal in May.
READ MORE: Ether Hits 2-Week High After Ark Amends ETF Filing
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Aidrops
Pyth Network Kicks Off Second Phase Of Airdrop
TLDR Pyth network, a bubbling web3 oracle provider, announced it will begin distributing native tokens according the second phase of its airdrop. More than 160 projects utilizing its oracle services can claim the aridrop.
SO WHAT The first phase of Pyth's airdrop distributed $50M worth of native tokens to web3 dApps in November. The token shed roughly half of its value between November and January, but has since ramped up to retest its previous all-time highs.
Airdrops
Wormhole Unveils Tokenomics and Upcoming Airdrop
TLDR Wormhole, the prominent cross-chain interoperability solution, has unveiled plans to airdrop native tokens to core contributors, early adopters, strategic partners, and its own treasury.
SO WHAT The token launch will make Wormhole the latest project to drop tokens to users amid a spate of high-profile airdrops. However, Wormhole has garnered significant controversy, suffering a hack in February 2022 that rans as the second-largest DeFi exploit to date.
DeFi
Ondo To Bring RWA-Backed Stablecoins Onto Sui
TLDR Ondo Finance, a leading protocol bringing real-world assets on-chain, announced plans to launch its U.S Treasuries-backed stablecoin, USDY, on Sui Network.
SO WHAT Ondo's planned Sui integration follows meteoric gains for Sui, with the network's TVL tripling since mid-December. Sui now ranks as the ninth-largest smart contract network with a $513M TVL.
Markets
Experimental ERC-404 Token Rockets To $170M Market Cap
TLDR Ethereum assets built on top of the new ERC-404 token standard have rallied to a more than $170M market cap thanks to the surging growth of PANDORA, which accounts for more than 97% of the sector's capitalization.
SO WHAT The ERC-404 token standard seeks to blend fungible and non-fungibles, paving the way for token-based utility on Ethereum.
READ MORE: Experimental ERC-404 Token Rockets To $170M Market Cap
