Last Week in Review: Lightning Network levels peak, Cardano gets a stablecoin, and SP500 ETF now on Uniswap

by Team Luno
· 3 minute read
Dari mana Cardano berasal

The highlights from last week’s headline grabbers. All the important news, numbers and events from the crypto industry in easy-to-read, digestible news bites. 

News from the block

⚡ The Lightning Network clocks all-time high Bitcoin capacity 

  • The network has more than 5,490 BTC in capacity, an increase of  63% since the beginning of 2022, according to data by The Block Research. 
  • It’s a strong indication that Bitcoin is increasingly being used to transact with. 
  • The Lightning Network (LN) belongs to a group of blockchains known as layer-2 networks, which help ease the load on layer-1 blockchains such as Bitcoin. Essentially, the LN does for Bitcoin what Visa does for the traditional banking system. 
  • READ HERE about the central role of the LN in helping Bitcoin become a global payment system. 

💵 Cardano’s USD stablecoin goes live 

  • The Djed stablecoin tracks the US Dollar. 
  • The stablecoin keeps its peg to the Dollar by using an algorithmically controlled minting and burning mechanism. The protocol is backed by 400-800% of Cardano’s cryptocurrency, ADA, while using SHEN as a reserve coin. 
  • Djed is a collaboration between blockchain firm Coti and Cardano’s core developer Input Output. 
  • What does this mean for Cardano? Ultimately, the stablecoin is expected to boost the value locked in the Cardano ecosystem. There were no major price movements of ADA following the launch. 
  • Read more about the different types of stablecoin collateral ✨ HERE. 

🚦Proposed crypto regulation in UK to bring crypto in line with mainstream finance

  • The UK government released a consultation paper last week in which it proposed new regulations for crypto investing and trading. The proposals have generally been met with approval from the crypto industry. 
  • In a nutshell, crypto exchanges in the UK will soon be more transparent about their operations, including their risk management practices and financial resources. 
  • Luno’s take on the proposed regulation 
  • “Regulation and innovation are not mutually exclusive,” Nick Taylor, Head of EMEA public policy at Luno, commented to The Block. 
  • “The blueprint outlined today will give businesses a level of certainty about the medium-term operating environment, making the UK a more competitive place to do business.”
  • “This would allow companies to plan, attract investment and create more jobs in the UK.”

🦄 SP500 ETF tokenised on Uniswap 

  • BlackRock’s iShares Core S&P 500 ETF(CSPX) has been tokenised on Ethereum and can be traded on Uniswap, a decentralised exchange built on Ethereum. 
  • What this essentially means is that you can now buy a tokenised share of an exchange traded fund (ETF) and trade it on Uniswap, a decentralised exchange, whereas in the past, ETF shares could only be traded on traditional exchanges. 
  • The project is still in the early stages, with only 100 tokens minted, but it’s one of many tokenisation efforts currently in development. Many experts believe that all assets will be tokenised in future, including shares, gold, vehicles and real estate.  

TL;Did read

Bitcoin Magazine dives into Bitcoin user adoption, exploring why it’s best to think about Bitcoin user adoption in stages, or as different buckets. In which bucket are you? 

Crunching the numbers

5,490 – The Lightning Network currently facilitates 5,490 BTC across the various payment channels plugged into the network. 

8.49% – The annualised Bitcoin perpetual funding rates across major exchanges reached 8.491% last week, the highest it’s been since December 2021, when Bitcoin was trading around $57,000. 

0.25% – The Fed raised interest rates by 25 basis points (0.25%) last week, the softest increase since the aggressive rate hike cycle started in March last year. 

69% – The Bitcoin halving progress is at 69% at the time of writing. Bitcoin’s halving means that Bitcoin miners are rewarded with half the amount of newly-created coins after each halving event, decreasing the supply of Bitcoin. The next halving is expected in mid-March 2024. 

The crypto time capsule

You play long or short?

Crypto trivia

If Bitcoin is the gateway to crypto, it’s a good place as any to start your learning journey. ✨READ HERE how Bitcoin transactions are recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain. 

Worth a watch

Bitcoin’s 14-year evolution in 90 seconds. 

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