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Week Ahead Industry Previews: First Week of March 2024

Foresight News
Foresight News
March 4, 2024 · 5 minutes
  • The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to make a resolution this week regarding the Ethereum spot ETFs of Fidelity and BlackRock.
  • MYX is set to launch an airdrop incentive program called Origin.
  • The airdrop claim deadline for AltLayer and Connext has ended.
  • Bitcoin Singapore 2024 is scheduled for March 9.
  • Foresight News is introducing Foresight Loong, with a Free Mint release on March 5 at 1500.

Key Events

Following the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETFs in the United States in January, which led to a continuous increase in Bitcoin prices, the decision on Ethereum spot ETFs has garnered significant market attention. This week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed the decision on Fidelity’s Ethereum spot ETF to March 5 and BlackRock’s to March 10. In the initial January resolutions, the SEC cited the need for a longer period to take action on the proposed rule changes, allowing sufficient time to address the issues raised. Some cryptocurrency ETF providers believe that the SEC might potentially approve Ethereum spot ETFs as early as May.

South Korean telecom giant KT plans to shut down its non-NFT platform, MINCL, starting from March 4. The company cited changes in business conditions as the reason for closing the platform. Users holding KT Wiz Rookie Pack NFTs are instructed to transfer these NFTs to wallets outside of MINCL. After the service termination date, users will not be able to view or download any remaining NFTs. KT, with total assets exceeding $32 billion, launched its NFT platform MINCL in April 2022, providing NFT minting, trading, and wallet services for retail and institutional users. KT is not the only South Korean company abandoning Web3 business, as other companies like Netmarble F&C and Com2uS have undergone restructuring or terminated related services in recent months. The move suggests that company executives may not see a near-term future for Web3 businesses generating substantial revenue.

Project Updates

This week, several protocols are hosting airdrop events, and here are some notable ones:

  • MYX is launching an airdrop incentive program called “Origin,” allocating 20% of its total token supply for airdrop activities. The first phase of the airdrop will officially start on March 4, lasting for 28 days, distributing 20 million MYX tokens. Community members can earn token rewards by participating in relevant activities.
  • MOBOX will airdrop 600 ETH to MODragon NFT holders on March 4. The snapshot for this airdrop was completed on February 29 at 18:00.
  • The second phase of the airdrop for Rollup.Finance, a zkSync ecosystem derivatives protocol, will conclude on March 4. In the second quarter of 2024, the native token ROP will be launched. This airdrop is designed for ecosystem rewards, including incentives for staking and trading activities.
  • On March 7, Frax Finance will airdrop FXTL tokens to veFXS stakers based on their veFXS balances. In the second week after this airdrop, the Flox mechanism will be launched, allowing users to earn points from each block.

Additionally, it’s crucial not to miss the deadline for claiming airdrops for the following projects:

  • AltLayer is distributing the ALT token as part of the first-season airdrop to Celestia stakers. The deadline for users to claim is March 5 at 16:00.
  • The airdrop claim window for Connext, a Layer2 interoperability protocol, will close on March 5 at 21:00 Beijing time, and the claim window will not be extended.
  • The first-season airdrop claim period for SocialFi and antivirus software De.Fi runs from February 15 to March 7. In this airdrop, 3.8 million DEFI tokens are distributed, and the snapshot was completed on February 7 at 21:00.

In terms of network upgrades, several projects are set to undergo important upgrades this week:

  • The Endurance upgrade for Fusionist Mainnet is scheduled for March 4 at 10:00. After the upgrade, staking and validator functionalities will be activated. On the day of the upgrade, withdrawals and deposits on CEX will be temporarily suspended, and the upgrade process is expected to last for 24 hours.
  • The Sunset upgrade for the BNB Beacon Chain Testnet is set for March 4 at 14:00. Node operators on the testnet must switch their software versions to v0.10.17 by March 4.
  • The Durango upgrade for the Avalanche Mainnet will be activated on March 7. Durango introduces Avalanche Warp Messaging to the C-Chain, bringing native cross-chain communication to each EVM chain in the Avalanche ecosystem and establishing standards for future virtual machines to communicate using AWM.
  • The Elderberry upgrade for Polygon zkEVM is expected to take place on the mainnet on March 7. This upgrade includes significant optimizations for ROM, reducing certain out-of-gas errors on the network. Additional fixes for the Etrog upgrade from the previous month are also included in this update.

Upcoming Events

  • The Solana Foundation, in collaboration with Colosseum Ventures, is hosting the 2024 Global Online Hackathon. Registration and event details will open on March 4. The organizers mention that the Solana Hackathon has already produced various ecosystem projects, including Tensor, Marinade, JitoLabs, and more.
  • Nervos CKB and ABCDE will jointly host Bitcoin Singapore 2024 on March 9, from 12:00 to 20:00 in Singapore. The conference will focus on the latest developments in the Bitcoin community. Speakers include Matt Quinn, Executive Director of the Nervos Foundation; Jeffrey Hu, CTO of HashKey Capital; Mi Zeng, BTCStudy contributor; Ben77, Founder of Discooco Labs and contributor to TaprootAssets; Shaoping Zhang, Co-founder of Spark Pool; Philipp Hoenisch, Founder of 10101 Finance; Yilin Hu, Associate Professor at Tsinghua University and Founder of Hesuan Dao; Arnaud, Board Member of LNP/BP Association; Cipher Wang, Founder of CELL Studio and author of the RGB++ protocol; Retric Su, Developer Advocate at Cryptape; BMAN, Co-founder and Managing Partner at ABCDE; and Jan Xie, Chief Cryptape Architect at Nervos.

Token Unlock

According to Token Unlocks data, this week will see significant one-time unlocks for tokens such as LQTY, GAL, and HFT, totaling over $14 million. The details are as follows:

1. Liquity Token (LQTY):

  • Unlocking 657,000 LQTY tokens on March 5 at 8:00. The value is approximately $1.16 million, constituting 0.69% of the circulating supply.

2. Galxe Token (GAL):

  • Unlocking 2.03 million GAL tokens on March 5 at 8:00. The value is approximately $6.98 million, representing 2.26% of the circulating supply.

3. Hashflow Token (HFT):

  • Unlocking 13.62 million HFT tokens on March 7 at 8:00. The value is approximately $6.47 million, accounting for 3.83% of the circulating supply.

Governance Votes

  • A proposal by Aevo to postpone the TGE (Token Generation Event) to mid-March started its voting on March 4. Additionally, AGP-1.5 suggests reducing the staking duration for sAEVO from 3 months (13 weeks) to 2 months (9 weeks). This adjustment aims to allow the earliest RBN/AEVO stakers to unlock their tokens promptly when initiating the RBN to AEVO migration in May.
  • The joint proposal for the second capital call and governance process update by Mirana Ventures and the core contributors of Mantle (MIP-29) has commenced community voting. The voting period will conclude on March 4. The proposal seeks approval for a second capital raise of 30 million USDC based on MIP-24, updating governance processes, and expanding the investment authority of the Mantle EcoFund.
  • The Uniswap Foundation’s proposal for the “Activation of Uniswap Protocol Governance” is undergoing a temperature check vote until March 7. The on-chain voting is set to be released on March 8. The new proposal aims to allocate protocol fees to UNI token holders who have staked their tokens.

NFT Minting Announcement

Foresight News is launching the 2024 Chinese Lunar New Year Commemorative NFT Series, named “Foresight Loong.” The total supply is set at 3,333 pieces, and the Free Mint release is scheduled for March 5 at 15:00 Beijing time. Holders of Foresight Pyxis, winners from official channels and cooperative communities of Foresight News, as well as popular NFT holders like Nobody, WeirdoGhostGang, Pudgy Penguins, Doodles, Moonbirds, and more, are eligible to participate in the minting process.