Blast Mainnet Launches | Cryptocurrency Trends

1. Mainstream Exchange Trends:

• Binance launches Portal (PORTAL) futures on February 29, 11:00 PM (UTC+8).
• Bybit pre- market trading lists Wormhole (W). Pre-market trading for W will begin on March 1, 10:30 AM (UTC+0).

2. Cryptocurrency Trends:

• The Blast mainnet launches on March 1, 5:00 AM (UTC+8). Early access users can bridge to the mainnet and use DApps on Blast.
• Telegram proposes to sell TON at a discount to long-term investors to limit its position to 10%.
• Aevo announces that two rounds of snapshots have been taken, and another will be taken at the end of next weekend.
• Coinbase becomes the fourth largest listed exchange in the world. According to Ming Pao, Coinbase, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency trading platform, has seen its market capitalization rise since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced its approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF listing in January, with its market capitalization topping $50 billion this week (now $48.649 billion), surpassing Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX, with a market capitalization of about $41.01 billion) and Deutsche Börse.
• Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of the sports and entertainment public chain Chiliz Chain, says on social media that the PEPPER airdrop is coming soon to Chiliz Chain.
• Tap Protocol, a Bitcoin DeFi protocol, announces on social media that it has completed its first airdrop snapshot at a block height of 832433, with a second snapshot due in Q2. TRAC and PIPE holders during both snapshots will be awarded an additional 50% airdrop allocation.
• Crypto mining company Marathon Digital announces the launch of Anduro, a Bitcoin sidechain development platform.

3. Financing Trends:

• Figure, an AI robotics company, raises $675 million in a funding round at a $2.6 billion valuation with participation from Microsoft, OpenAI Startup Fund, NVIDIA, Jeff Bezos (via Bezos Expeditions), Parkway Venture Capital, Intel Capital, and Align Ventures.
• Imaginary Ones, an NFT project, closes a funding round with participation from Cypher Capital Group, Animoca Brands, MH Ventures, Illuminati Capital, Andromeda Capital, and others.
• Rarestone Ventures announces an investment in Flash Protocol, a Taproot asset distribution protocol. Using FlashVM, the Flash protocol will provide asset issuance and DeFi (staking, trading, and lending) services for Bitcoin.
• LinkTo, a Web3 traffic aggregation marketing platform, announces the completion of a seed funding round with participation from Adaverse, Ruby Capital, Warrior Wealth Fund, BitValue Capital, and Block Infinity Limited.

4. Regulatory Trends:

• Grayscale presses SEC to approve Bitcoin spot ETF options trading.
• Julia Leung, Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), says that relevant service providers must end their operations in Hong Kong on or before May 31 if they have not submitted their license applications. The list of relevant applicants is expected to be updated in the near future.