The Daily Blurt - January 17

Cryptocurrency market capitalization reaches $1 trillion

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization briefly breached the $1 trillion-dollar mark in the last 24 hours for the first time since mid-November. Bitcoin held above $21,000 in Tuesday morning trading in Asia, with a 1.4% increase to $21,155 in the 24 hours to 8:45 a.m. in Hong Kong, an increase of 22.9% over the past calendar week. Ether also rose along with Polygon and Solana on the top 10 list of non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies. Bradley Duke, co-CEO of crypto investment firm, ETC Group, said that the main driver behind this 20% BTC hike over the past week is the fact that some macro fears are subsiding with positive economic data in the US, including lower inflation stats and strong job growth numbers, he added that In Europe, the EU released unemployment stats which were the lowest in 23 years, and China lifted many of the border restrictions. This shift in sentiment was reflected in the BTC futures market, with traders betting long four days in a row based on the Long-Short ratio.

SushiSwap announces plans to "10x" market share by 2023

SushiSwap, a decentralized exchange (DEX) platform, has announced several updates to its product stack in an effort to "10x" its market share by 2023. CEO Jared Grey shared the plans in a recent Medium post, stating that the platform currently holds about 2% of the automated market maker (AMM) market and no share of the aggregation market. The new updates include a DEX aggregator set to launch in Q1 and a decentralized incubator planned for 2023. The DEX aggregator is intended to drive scalability and sustainability for the platform, while the incubator, called Sushi Studios, will support self-funded projects to aid in ecosystem growth without using the platform's treasury. Additionally, Sushi is developing a governance dashboard, focusing on user experience and launching several stealth products, including a NFT marketplace and a perpetual DEX platform.

Binance Research predicts macroeconomics to drive crypto returns in 2023

Binance Research has released a report outlining the potential developments that may impact the cryptocurrency market in 2023. According to the report, macroeconomics will be the main driver of returns for risk assets, and central bank policy, global GDP statistics, and recession risks will determine whether macro factors act as a tailwind or headwind for crypto. The report also predicts that real-world assets will be used as a growth driver for DeFi and NFT initiatives, and that increased regulatory clarity for cryptocurrency is likely in the future. Additionally, the report notes that Ethereum's upcoming Shanghai upgrade may lead to more interest in staking and fluctuations in market share. Binance Research also believes that NFTs' usefulness will be crucial for their widespread acceptance and that innovation in areas such as blockchain games and collaborations with Web2 enterprises will drive the next adoption phase for NFTs.

Alameda Research liquidators incur $11.5 million in losses

The liquidators of Alameda Research have reportedly incurred at least $11.5 million in losses since taking control of the trading accounts. On Jan. 16, a Twitter thread from Arkham Intelligence reported that one wallet under the control of the liquidators has seen a string of "significant losses" due to liquidations, some of which were "preventable losses." One example given was that if liquidators had used a function to immediately close the position by selling off collateral instead of pulling collateral from the wallet, at least $15 million could have been preserved rather than the recovered $11 million. This amounted to $4 million in preventable losses. Additionally, the liquidators lost $72,000 in digital assets while consolidating funds into a single wallet on the decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform Aave. This is the latest development in a "series of market movements that have busted multiple Alameda positions left open after bankruptcy."

Polygon's hard fork aims to regain its position in the top 10

Polygon (MATIC) has lost its place in the top 10 to Solana (SOL) but the network is introducing new features this month to regain its position. The community recently approved a proposal that brought changes to the staking of MATIC, making the network more secure by allowing delegators to see which validators are performing well and which are performing poorly. The network is also planning a hard fork, scheduled for Jan. 17, that will reduce the severity of gas spikes and address chain reorganizations to minimize the time to completion. The upgrade will make the network more accessible and efficient for users and help to mitigate the problem of high gas rates during peak usage.

The hard fork also aims to optimize the network's performance by realigning nodes more quickly, thus reducing the time required to finalize a block and confirm successful transactions. Additionally, the sprint length will be reduced from 64 to 16 blocks, resulting in an improvement in network efficiency. Despite the challenges, Polygon has established itself as a prominent player in the cryptocurrency market in 2022 and the upgrade to the network has the potential to help the platform continue to differentiate itself in the DeFi space and attract more partners.