After a three-year absence, the FAT Awards 2024 selection initiated by Odaily Planet Daily is officially launched .
FAT is a list ceremony + summit forum brand founded by Odaily Planet Daily in 2020. It aims to reward leaders and innovators in the Web3 and crypto industries, focusing on value paradigms and consensus moments. It has been held in Beijing for two consecutive years, with more than 500 first-line projects and more than 3,000 participants, covering more than 5 million people.
In 2024, as the crypto industry is changing with each passing day and narratives are recognized by the mainstream world, fresh narratives are emerging, the ecosystem is flourishing, and high-quality projects are launched one after another. Odaily has once again started the FAT list selection and will hold a summit forum and awards ceremony at the Conrad Centennial in Singapore on September 16.
As a warm-up chapter for the collection of activities and lists, Odaily has selected and outlined the top ten turning point events from Q3 2023 to the present.
Among them, there are regulatory milestones such as the approval of ETFs, the SECs cessation of investigation into ETH, and Binances settlement with the US Department of Justice, as well as major events in the native crypto world such as the explosion of inscriptions and Meme sectors and the setback of the highly anticipated airdrop of a famous project.
Let us review these ten turning points one by one, feel the magnificent ups and downs of the industry, and invest confidence in the future development of Web3.
Bitcoins new phase: ETF approval, halving and record highs
Looking back over the past year, Bitcoin is undoubtedly the biggest narrative in the crypto space from bear to bull.
On January 10, 2024, the official approval of the Bitcoin ETF marked the further integration of the cryptocurrency market with the traditional financial market, and also opened a new door for Bitcoin. The approval of the Bitcoin ETF by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has enabled asset management giants such as BlackRock and Fidelity to launch investment products based on Bitcoin. This not only provides a more convenient and secure investment channel for institutional investors, but also allows more traditional investors to have the opportunity to participate in Bitcoin investment. The launch of the ETF quickly ignited the enthusiasm of the market, investor confidence increased, and the price of Bitcoin began to rise significantly.
In March 2024, Bitcoin finally broke through $70,000, reaching a new all-time high. This new high not only marks Bitcoins full recovery from the market downturn since the FTX crash, but also demonstrates its strong appeal as a global asset. The renewed surge in Bitcoin prices has attracted widespread attention from the global media, and speculative enthusiasm in the market has also risen, with a large amount of funds flowing into Bitcoin and its ETFs.
In April 2024, Bitcoin ushered in the fourth halving event in history. Bitcoins halving mechanism is designed to simulate scarcity by reducing the supply of new coins, halving every four years to control the total supply. Historical experience shows that after each halving event, the market usually sees a strong upward trend. This time, the price of Bitcoin had already reached a high level before the halving, and the supply tightening effect caused by the halving provided strong support for the price of Bitcoin.
ORDI explodes, inscriptions and new Bitcoin protocols bloom everywhere
In the second half of 2023, the ORDI token was just an unpopular asset with a price of $3. Just a few months later, by January 2024, ORDI had broken through the $70 mark and became the focus of the market. At the same time, behind ORDI is the rapid development of hundreds of Bitcoin inscription projects, which use Bitcoins inscription technology and preemptive casting similar to NFT to create an active digital inscription asset market.
The success of the ORDI token is mainly due to the markets expectation for new themes in the future bull market and the lack of new narratives in the bear market. After ORDI, the concept of the Bitcoin Inscription Project spread rapidly in the crypto community and gained a lot of attention from users and favor from investors, which in turn led to the growth of inscriptions on other mainstream public chains and the launch of several well-known wallet inscription markets. As a representative token in this field, ORDIs price has shown exponential growth driven by both community support and market demand.
The impact of this event is not limited to the increase in price and market value. More importantly, it has led to a new product line, which has brought a lot of vitality to the bear market at that time. Various inscription projects and protocol standards inspired by this have emerged and become the new favorites in the market. This prosperity has also driven the development of related technologies and tools, injecting new vitality and innovation into the Bitcoin ecosystem and even various public chains.
Ethereum ETF unexpectedly approved: a new compliance milestone for the native crypto industry
On May 23, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially approved the Ethereum spot ETF, providing investors with a new way to invest in Ethereum through traditional financial channels. This decision is seen as an important endorsement of the cryptocurrency industry, making Ethereum the second cryptocurrency ETF approved by the SEC after Bitcoin. This approval not only marks a major progress in Ethereums compliance path, but also represents a further deepening of the integration of cryptocurrency and traditional financial markets.
The approval process for Ethereum ETFs has been full of twists and turns. Since September 2023, major fund institutions have successively applied for Ethereum ETFs, including spot and futures products. However, the SECs attitude was relatively cold at first, and many investors and analysts were not optimistic about the approval of Ethereum ETFs. In mid-May, Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas suddenly raised the probability of approval of the spot Ethereum ETF from 25% to 75%, suggesting that there may be political reasons behind it. Subsequently, multiple sources showed that the SEC asked exchanges to speed up the update of relevant listing application documents, further suggesting that approval is imminent.
In July 2024, the Ethereum ETF officially began trading. Ethereum funds related to ETHE began to flow out, but the market reaction was flat, and the price of Ethereum did not fluctuate as much as the market expected. This shows that the market has gradually digested this expectation before the news was announced, and investors response to the ETF is relatively rational.
Bomes market value increased 100 times overnight, and Solana meme exploded
On March 14, 2024, BOOK OF MEME (BOME) launched by Pepe meme artist Darkfarm swept all major social platforms in just a few hours. Only three hours after its launch, the price of BOME soared 20 times, and its market value exceeded 80 million US dollars. Behind this rapid rise, not only does it show the strong influence of meme culture in the crypto community, but it also marks that the meme project in the Solana ecosystem has entered a new period of explosion.
At the same time, the unexpected popularity of the SLERF project further boosted the popularity of meme culture in the Solana ecosystem. Due to operational errors in the early stages of the project, the SLERF team accidentally destroyed all liquidity and airdrop tokens. This incident almost declared the early failure of the project. However, the SLERF team unexpectedly won a lot of community support through public apologies and transparent communication with the community, causing the token price to soar by 50% in just 24 hours. This death and rebirth reversal operation not only created a miracle in the history of encryption, but also made SLERF quickly become the new king in the Memecoin market.
With the help of waves of meme projects, the Solana ecosystem has gradually ushered in a meme coin boom. On July 24, 2024, the cumulative revenue of pump.fun, the Solana ecosystem meme coin issuance platform, exceeded US$70 million, becoming a phenomenal product in this cycle.
The explosion of this series of meme projects is also accompanied by the rise of the Solana ecosystem in the traditional financial market. At the end of June 2024, VanEck submitted an application for a spot Solana ETF to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a move that was seen as a major endorsement of Solana. Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, emphasized Solanas decentralized nature, high practicality, and economic viability in a post on the X platform, reinforcing the potential of SOL as a valuable commodity.
Trump attends Bitcoin conference and promotes BTC to national strategic reserve status
On July 27, 2024, former US President and presidential candidate Trump appeared at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville and delivered a speech. In his speech, he fully recognized Bitcoins status as a safe-haven asset, and even said that BTC may surpass gold in the future and become the worlds largest asset class.
In this speech, Trump revealed a series of radical policy measures aimed at completely reforming the regulation of cryptocurrencies in the United States. He promised to immediately fire Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), once he returned to power, a move that was seen as a strong counterattack against the current hostile regulatory environment. In addition, Trump also announced the creation of a cryptocurrency task force with the goal of ending the current hostile regulations within 100 days and providing a more friendly development environment for the crypto market.
Even more striking is that Trump has proposed a plan to keep Bitcoin as a national strategic reserve, explicitly stating that these reserves will never be sold. This strategy not only gives Bitcoin unprecedented national importance, but also hints at a potential shift in the United States influence in the global financial system. Trump emphasized that unlike the Biden-Harris administration, he would not impose a tax of up to 50% on cryptocurrency gains, a statement that won widespread support from the crypto community.
Trump also said he would release Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht on his first day in office. His campaign rhetoric has received mixed reviews from the crypto industry, but his campaign funds already include millions of dollars worth of crypto assets donated by the crypto industry.
SEC stops investigating ETH, signaling policy reversal
On June 18, 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the end of its investigation into Ethereum 2.0 and decided not to take any enforcement action against Consensys, the core development company of Ethereum. This decision is widely seen as a major victory for the Ethereum ecosystem and is also believed to be a possible foreshadowing of a major shift in U.S. cryptocurrency policy.
The end of this investigation has brought relief to Ethereum developers, technology providers, and the entire Ethereum community. The SECs investigation stems from a previous case in which Consensys countersued the SEC, in which the SEC questioned the legal nature of Ethereum 2.0, especially whether Ethereum is considered a security. On June 18, the SEC issued a carefully worded notice stating that although it did not fully agree with the previous legal conclusions, based on the information currently available, it decided not to recommend further enforcement measures against Consensys. However, the SEC also made it clear that this notice should not be regarded as a final ruling on Ethereums innocence or a guarantee that it will no longer be investigated.
Consensys issued a statement immediately on the day of the incident, touting the result as a major victory and calling on the SEC to abandon its opaque enforcement regulation and provide much-needed regulatory clarity to the industry. Consensys emphasized that this decision is crucial to the stable development of the Ethereum ecosystem and also provides a reference for other blockchain projects to comply with the US market.
Settlement with the US Department of Justice, CZ imprisoned, Binance enters the regulatory maturity stage
On November 21, 2024, cryptocurrency trading giant Binance and its CEO CZ formally admitted criminal charges of anti-money laundering and violating US sanctions, and reached a settlement agreement with US regulators. According to the agreement, Binance agreed to plead guilty and pay a fine of more than $4 billion, while CZ agreed to resign and pay a personal fine of $50 million, and Richard Teng took over as the new CEO. In a court in Seattle, CZ also formally pleaded guilty. This settlement marks the end of the US Department of Justices years-long investigation into Binance.
The settlement involves multiple U.S. regulators, including the U.S. Treasury Department, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). According to the agreement, Binance was charged with three counts: money laundering violations, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmission business, and violating U.S. sanctions. However, the judiciary did not accuse Binance of misappropriating any user funds, nor did it accuse Binance of engaging in any market manipulation.
On April 30, 2024, CZ was formally sentenced in the U.S. Federal Court in Seattle to four months in prison for violating anti-money laundering laws. For the crypto industry, this case not only demonstrates the strict attitude of the U.S. Department of Justice in enforcing laws on cryptocurrency exchanges, but also sets an important regulatory benchmark for the future development of the global cryptocurrency market.
Despite this major legal challenge, Binance has remained robust in its “de-CZ” process, with its market position and business data increasing instead of decreasing. This demonstrates Binance’s strong strength in terms of user fund security and brand stability.
It will take time to observe the long-term impact of this incident on Binance and the entire crypto industry, but in terms of trends, the global cryptocurrency market is entering a more mature and regulated era. This shift will undoubtedly have a profound impact on the future market landscape.
SBF sentenced to 25 years in prison, the industry gradually repairs reputation damage
On March 28, 2024, a U.S. court sentenced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) to 25 years in prison for fraud and ordered him to pay a fine of $11 billion. This verdict marks the end of one of the former giants in the crypto world and is also the final legal ruling on the FTX collapse. Although this sentencing standard is lower than the 40 to 50 years in prison recommended by federal prosecutors, it far exceeds the five to six and a half years recommended by SBFs lawyers.
Judge Kaplan, who presided over the case, made it clear during his sentencing that he had never heard SBF express any remorse for his serious crimes. The judge pointed out that SBFs performance was unprecedented in his 30-year career as a federal judge. SBF frequently used I dont know to avoid key questions during the trial, and was repeatedly silenced by prosecutors, all of which made the jury more resolute in its judgment of guilt.
SBF and his lawyers have been trying to portray him as a harmless nerd throughout the trial, trying to blame the collapse of FTX on the inadvertent mistakes of a clumsy math geek. However, prosecutors insist that the collapse of FTX was not due to a liquidity crisis or mismanagement, but rather the theft of billions of dollars in funds from customers around the world.
Before the verdict, SBF had a chance to defend himself. In his speech, he expressed regret for past wrong decisions and apologized to his former colleagues. He said that as the CEO of FTX, the ultimate responsibility lies with him.
Ten years later, the Mt.Gox incident came to an end.
Around June 24, 2024, Mt.Gox initiated compensation for Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). As one of the most famous hacking incidents in the history of cryptocurrency, Mt.Goxs repayment plan not only marks the end of this decade-long incident, but also brings potential shocks and uncertainties to the market.
The bankruptcy of Mt.Gox and the subsequent compensation can be traced back to December 21, 2023, when some Japanese users received compensation in the form of yen through PayPal. However, what makes this compensation so special is that it is the first time that Mt.Gox has made repayments in the form of BTC and BCH. According to an email notice from Nobuaki Kobayashi, the bankruptcy liquidator of Mt.Gox, repayments will begin in July 2024. This means that the 141,686 BTC (and an equivalent amount of BCH) held by Mt.Gox will begin to flow into the market. These BTCs account for 0.72% of the total supply of Bitcoin in circulation, worth approximately US$8.54 billion.
The details of the compensation show that Mt.Gox will calculate the proportion of each creditors claims based on the BTC price when the company went bankrupt in 2014, and distribute the existing BTC according to this proportion. Since the amount of BTC held by Mt.Gox cannot cover all its liabilities, creditors can only recover about 21.5% of BTC. However, considering the sharp rise in the price of Bitcoin in recent years, for those creditors holding BTC, although this compensation has caused huge losses in terms of currency standard, it has made a huge profit in terms of fiat currency standard, which is equivalent to passively locking up BTC for many years.
The markets reaction to this compensation is full of concerns and expectations. On the one hand, the massive amount of BTC entering the market may bring selling pressure, leading to increased price volatility; on the other hand, this also means that a decade-long debt liquidation in the history of cryptocurrency is about to end, laying the foundation for the mature development of the entire industry.
LayerZero airdrop requires donation sparks controversy, the old airdrop era ends
In May 2024, LayerZero announced an airdrop snapshot, which attracted widespread attention from the market. However, in the following two months, with the witch cleansing and constant questioning and controversy, LayerZero remained at the forefront of public opinion. When the community thought that they could finally claim the airdrop, LayerZero launched a new Claim mechanism called Proof-of-Donation, requiring users to donate $0.1 USDC, USDT or native ETH for each ZRO.
As an important business model in the crypto industry, airdrops have become an important means for project parties to give back to the community and users since the creation of Uniswap. However, with the development of the market, the airdrop model has also exposed more and more problems. A large number of bad currency projects use complex airdrop task models to attract traffic, increase volume, and even deceive investors, while a large-scale witch army pretends to be core users to compete for the airdrop shares that belong to real users. This game has gradually evolved into a lose-lose situation, where bad currency projects squeeze the living space of high-quality projects, and real users face the dilemma of having their airdrop shares diluted.
From the users perspective, LayerZeros donation mechanism has also sparked mixed discussions. Although some users expressed disgust, on-chain data shows that many users still chose to support and participate in the airdrop. According to LayerZero CEO Bryan Pellegrinos post on the X platform, more than 119,000 addresses received the airdrop just 3 hours after the Claim was opened, and the Arbitrum networks revenue also soared 166 times to $3.43 million due to LayerZero token collection, showing that user enthusiasm was not greatly affected by the donation requirements.
Bryan Pellegrino said that the purpose of proof of donation is to make the community stop and think for 2 seconds and donate to an amazing cause. Even if each donation is only a few cents, everyone can benefit greatly from it. This innovative airdrop model is undoubtedly an exploration of existing problems. Although there are still some imperfections in the execution, it also provides new ideas for future airdrop mechanisms.
This move by LayerZero and other events that have attracted much attention from the community, such as the ZKsync insider trading scandal, may be heralding the end of the old airdrop era and opening up new possibilities for the healthy development of the crypto industry.
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