South Korean Traders Flock to SXP and ICX Tokens, Trading Volumes and Prices Surge
Coco, a new crypto casino inspired by the Milady NFT project, has made a cracking debut on the Ethereum blockchain. According to etherscan data, the platform's native token (COCO) has surged to 8 cents, giving it a market capitalization of $8.8 million. The casino has already hit $36 million in transaction volume in the first 12 hours after its release. nnThe platform features a slot machine focused on popular memecoins pepe (PEPE) and dogecoin (DOGE), as well as three traditional casino table games in blackjack, baccarat, and casino hold'em. Coco brands itself as 'provably fair,' using the SHA256 algorithm to ensure that each game is tamper-proof. nnThe success of Coco has also had an impact on other crypto casinos, with Rollbit's native token (RLB) rising to 7 cents from 2 cents. The stable market this month has led to increased traction for crypto casinos like Rollbit and Coco. nnHowever, VanEck CEO Gabor Gurbacs does not think that Bitcoin ETFs will be approved by the SEC in May. He believes that the 'dominant narrative' driving Bitcoin's 2024 rally is not the ETFs, but rather the increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies and the growth of decentralized finance. nnMeanwhile, the supply of inactive Bitcoin for a year has dropped to an 18-month low, according to Glassnode. This could be a sign that the current Bitcoin rally may continue after the halving. nnIn other news, Eisenberg's $110 million fraud trial has opened, and the Foundation for the Study of Innovative Technologies (FSI) has called for consistency in stablecoin regulation. nnAs the wider crypto market continues to stagnate with a lack of volatility, crypto traders are frequently turning their attention to on-chain betting platforms like last week's phenomenon; hamster racing. The success of Coco and Rollbit suggests that crypto casinos may be the next big thing in the cryptocurrency space.The last bull market saw the launch of a raft of on-chain structured products, and the next bull-run will see more liquidity going into these projects, says Jordan Tonani from The Index Coop. Globally, asset management is a huge industry, with a large percentage of assets in each nation being held in ETFs, index funds, and other passive vehicles. In Europe, €28.4 trillion of assets are managed by the industry, of which 20% are held in passive strategies, about half in exchange-traded products and half in index funds. All told, passively-held assets under management have doubled since 2015, with around one fifth of European retail investors holding such products. Analysts predict that by 2027 ETFs will account for 24% of total assets in Europe, up from 12% in 2022. In the world of decentralized finance and digital assets, some commentators see the on-chain structured product market as analogous, but this sector has yet to capture much market share. On-chain structured products make up 0.07% of the crypto market overall currently, with a combined TVL of $2.46 billion across protocols. In comparison, the DeFi market is $48.29 billion, and the total crypto market is $1.18 trillion. Nevertheless, over the last several years, on-chain structured products have shown the kind of promise that led to these types of products' dominance in traditional markets. In 2020, the on-chain structured product market saw 20 projects launching, including nine projects that launched during what would come to be known as DeFi Summer. Yearn, Compound, and the Index Coop all started offering such products during this period. At the height of the 2021 bull market, Index Coop's on-chain structured products captured over $550 million in TVL. In total, 47 projects have launched in the on-chain structured product space since 2016, with the majority of projects offering index or yield-earning products. Of those, 37 are still operational. At the Index Coop, we're bullish on the long-term promise of on-chain structured products because of their advantages in transparency, security, accessibility, automation, and liquidity. Regrettably, the sector has been hampered by regulatory ambiguity, as well as nascent technology and market infrastructure. That said, some encouraging signs have emerged recently. If, as seems likely, BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF and Grayscale's spot Ethereum ETFs are approved in the U.S., that would represent a major step forward for the on-chain structured product sector. As digital asset markets mature, we expect to see more growth in the on-chain structured product market, especially as correlations reduce across digital assets. Currently, high correlation across digital assets means that different assets move together, reducing the value of a diversification strategy. As digital assets become less correlated, diversification will become a more attractive proposition. Additionally, improvements in UX and cross-chain infrastructure could contribute to growth in our space. Long-term, we expect on-chain products to prevail because of their unique advantages, enabling underlying tokens to reach wider audiences. You can learn more about the on-chain structured product space in our annual report on the state of the industry.The floor price of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection has slumped to a five-month low of 55.59 ether (ETH), according to Cryptowatch data. The slide in non-fungible token (NFT) prices occurred after pseudonymous holder 'franklinisbored' said on Twitter that he sold the majority of his collection. On-chain data shows that the user sold at least 27 BAYC NFTs over a 12-hour period, securing 1439.5828 ETH ($2.8 million) in the process. Franklinisbored explained his decision was due to 'unfortunate' real-life issues that prompted him to liquidate his NFTs. He fell victim to a rug pull on a nearly 2,000 ETH investment, which appeared 'credible' due to who else had invested in it. ApeCoin (APE), the native governance token for the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem, remains flat over the past 24 hours in terms of its dollar valuation despite falling against ether trading pairs.