Gate.io Blog Daily News | SOL Price Breaks $200, Market Cap Rises to TOP4; Ether.fi Announces Airdrop; Less than 5,000 Blocks Remaining from Bitcoin Halving

Daily News | SOL Price Breaks $200, Market Cap Rises to TOP4; Ether.fi Announces Airdrop; Less than 5,000 Blocks Remaining from Bitcoin Halving

18 March 12:12

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## Crypto Daily Digest: $SOL broke through 200U, and the market value rose to TOP4; Ether.fi announced an airdrop of re-staking protocol; Less than 5000 blocks remaining until Bitcoin is halved
First, let's take a look at the trading activity of <a href="/price/bitcoin-btc" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Bitcoin</a> ETFs. According to Farside Investor data, on March 15th (last Friday), Grayscale's Bitcoin spot ETF had a GBTC outflow of $139.4 million; Meanwhile, Fidelity Bitcoin spot ETF (FBTC) inflow of $155.6 million, Bitwise Bitcoin spot ETF (BITB) inflow of $20.5 million, and WisdomTree Bitcoin spot ETF (BTCW) net inflow of $3.3 million.

The active and strong presence on the <a href="/price/solana-sol" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Solana</a> chain has driven up prices. According to DeFilLama data, the transaction volume of DEX on the Solana chain exceeded $3.8 billion on March 16, and the meme coin BOME received widespread attention because PEPE artists created it. On March 14, the day BOME was launched, the number of active addresses on the Solana network peaked in nearly a month, about 1.2 million, with the highest increase of over 100% in active addresses within a month.

Therefore, in the past two days, the number of new Memes issued by Solana Network has surged. The price of the native token SOL has also increased accordingly, with Solana (SOL) breaking through $200 and its market value exceeding $88 billion. According to Coingecko data, Solana's market value reached a historic high of $90.355 billion. Currently, Solana's market value has surpassed <a href="/price/bnb-bnb" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">BNB</a>'s ranking and risen to fourth place.

Ether.fi, the largest liquidity re-staking protocol on <a href="/price/ethereum-eth" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Ethereum</a>, announced its governance token ETHFI and details of airdrops starting on March 18.

The token is named ETHFI, with a total supply of 1 billion coins and an initial circulation of 115.2 million coins. The first phase of airdrop will release 6% of the total token supply, covering activities before March 15. The second season will release 5% of the remaining tokens, covering activities from March 15 to unspecified future dates. According to the token economics distribution of the protocol, the remaining tokens will be distributed among investors, partners, core contributors, and the protocol finance department.

Ether.fi provides various eligibility criteria for airdrops, including holding eETH, recommending friends to use the protocol, or participating in the early adopter program of the protocol. According to Ether.fi's announcement, the Whale Wallet will need to wait three months to collect tokens, while smaller wallets can collect them immediately.

In addition, after the announcement was released, community members discovered that controversial <a href="/price/tron-trx" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">TRON</a> founder Justin Sun received nearly 3.5 million tokens from the initial 60 million token distribution after depositing 20,000 ETH two days ago. The project team believes that it will not change the established rules as a result.

According to DeFi Llama's data, with the support of the refinancing protocol EigenLayer, Ether.fi has locked in a total value of over $3 billion, which is more than twice its closest competitor.

The data shows that the height of Bitcoin blocks is expected to be less than 33 days away from the "halving of block rewards" time. Every 210,000 blocks will experience a halving, so the next Bitcoin block reward halving is expected to occur in April 2024. When the block height reaches 840,000, the block reward will decrease from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.

## Market trends: BTC rebounds after a sharp drop, and the market is about to usher in a frenzy of Altcoin season
Last week, the market experienced a sharp decline and then rebounded. BTC has fallen sharply for the first time after breaking through a historic high, which is often seen as a signal of the start of the Altcoin season, as the market continues to hype around the Solana ecosystem, AI concepts, and Meme concepts.

On the macroeconomic front, the US stock market experienced a significant decline this week, leading to a setback in expectations for interest rate cuts. The market generally expects the Federal Reserve to slow down quantitative tightening starting in May and ending in February next year. This period may correspond to the optimal investment market dividend period, and investors need to closely monitor the impact of macroeconomic factors on the market.
### Market hotspots
Solana Ecosystem continues to lead the market up: SOL prices once exceeded $200, reaching a new high since December 2021. At the same time, tokens such as WIF, MYRO, JUP, RAY, etc., in the Solana ecosystem have also shown a significant increase. The Solana ecosystem has attracted BTC's outflow of Altcoin funds, and market expectations have also increased accordingly. Musk's release of Green Hat Dog Twitter may bring new attention to WIF, and WIF will return to a price of $3.
The AI sector has obvious hype: AI concept tokens such as RNDR, NEAR, FET, AGIX, AR, etc. have surged. The NVIDIA AI conference is approaching, and the main team members of RNDR and NEAR will showcase at the conference, highlighting the increasingly obvious market hype.

The performance of Solana on chain Meme projects is differentiated: the Solana on chain Meme projects, led by BOME and SNAP, experienced a pullback after a significant increase. There is a market view that BOME is just a preview of the Solana me season in this bull market.

The MASK and CYBER projects have performed outstandingly. Both projects have announced their token staking plans, and staking MASK and CYBER can obtain token airdrops from their respective ecosystem partners, stimulating market enthusiasm for these two projects.

During the generally anticipated Altcoin season, investors must remain cautious and closely monitor changes in market hotspots and macroeconomic factors. At the same time, it is necessary to pay attention to market risks, diversify assets reasonably, and seek long-term value. For the upcoming NVIDIA AI conference and other important events, investors should adjust their investment strategies promptly, seize investment opportunities, and do a good job in risk control.

## Macro: Global stock market index declines, inflation data affects expected interest rate cuts
Reuters reported that on March 16, global stock market indices fell, with the S&P 500 index down 0.13%, the Dow Jones index down 0.02%, and the Nasdaq index down 0.73%. The MSCI Global Stock Index (.MIWD00000PUS) fell 5.07 points, or 0.66%, to 767.58.

This will break seven consecutive weeks of gains, while the US dollar is expected to rise to its strongest week since mid-January. The US inflation data continues to affect the direction of expected interest rate cuts.

In February, import prices in the United States slightly increased due to the soaring cost of petroleum products, partially offset by slight increases in other regions, indicating an improvement in the inflation situation.

Although it is expected that the Federal Reserve will not take any interest rate measures, last week's US producer and consumer price data was hotter than expected, leading traders to reduce their bets on future rate cuts. According to the CME FedWatch tool, traders currently expect to cut interest rates by 72 basis points this year, with a 56% chance of a first-rate cut.

The focus has shifted to whether policymakers will change this year's interest rate cut forecast or chart.

The Federal Reserve expects to implement 75 basis points, or three rate cuts, in December 2024. Strategists at NatWest suggest that last week's inflation report may put the Federal Reserve in a "wait-and-see" mode.

The US dollar remained stable on Monday, with traders looking ahead to a week dominated by global central bank meetings. The Bank of Japan seems to be ending negative interest rates, and market attention is focused on the number of future rate cuts.

Despite Friday's decline, both benchmark oil contracts rose nearly 4% last week. For most of last month, oil prices fluctuated within a range, but Thursday's optimistic demand report from the International Energy Agency pushed oil prices to their highest level since November.

Regarding commodities, Brent crude oil futures for delivery in May rose 3 cents to $85.37 per barrel. The April contract for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil in the United States rose 10 cents to $81.14.
The gold price is currently hovering at $2,153 per ounce, down 1% last week, far from historical highs.

<div class="blog-details-info">
<div>Author:**Sherry S. & Icing**, Gate.io Researcher
<div>Translator:Joy Z.
<div class="info-tips">\*This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
<div>\*Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.
</div>

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Daily News | SOL Price Breaks $200, Market Cap Rises to TOP4; Ether.fi Announces Airdrop; Less than 5,000 Blocks Remaining from Bitcoin Halving

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