Alpaca Finance Institutional Newsletter #32
Highlights:
- Ethereum’s long-awaited Shapella upgrade opened withdrawals of staked ETH
- BNB Greenfield hits testnet, decentralized storage coming to BNB Chain
- FTX has recovered $7.3B in assets, and will consider rebooting exchange in Q2 2024
After many delays, the highly anticipated Shanghai-Capella (Shapella) upgrade on the Ethereum protocol happened this week. The upgrade finally allows for staked ETH withdrawals from the Beacon chain. The question now is how will this change things in the crypto industry?
Historically, institutional investors have been reluctant to take on duration risk on Ethereum staking, as a result of having been forced to lock up funds without a clear withdrawal option (ignoring liquid staking options). That has now changed. Research and brokerage firm AB Bernstein stated in a late-February research report that the upgrade could bring in staking demand from new institutional investors. Likewise, Blockdaemon’s Zwanzger, whose firm has many institutional clients, foresees more interest in Ethereum staking opportunities from large professional investors.
BNB chain also had a significant milestone achieved this week with the launch of the Greenfield testnet, a decentralized storage solution. Data permission can be moved cross-chain to the BNB Smart Chain, allowing data to be turned into tradeable digital assets that can be integrated with a variety of decentralized finance (DeFi), nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and GameFi apps on the BNB Chain.
In an April 12 hearing in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, FTX’s lawyers Sullivan & Cromwell said that FTX had recovered roughly $7.3 billion in liquid assets, and that they would consider rebooting the exchange. The price of the FTX Token FTT surged from $1.32 to $2.80 at roughly the same time lawyers announced the potential reboot of the exchange. It remains to be seen, however, if the FTX brand retains any value and if anyone would use such a rebooted exchange after they lost billions in user assets through alleged fraud.
News
- Coinbase head of exchange departs and plans to start new crypto project
- G20 countries aim to develop global framework against crypto-related risks
- Ethereum’s Shapella hard fork executed on mainnet
- IMF to publish CBDC handbook in response to increasing demand for guidance
Products
- MetaMask launches new fiat purchase function for cryptocurrency
- Ripple, Montenegro sign deal on project for unspecified national digital currency
- Twitter to launch crypto and stock trading in partnership with eToro
- T. Rowe Price, WisdomTree join Avalanche subnet for forex testing
Regulation
- French central bank looks at certification, incorporation as part of DeFi regulation
- Wyoming defends crypto-friendly bank charter regime in Custodia Bank’s lawsuit with Fed
- Argentina securities regulator approves Bitcoin futures index
- Paxos set to withdraw from Canada amid regulatory uncertainty
