Bitget Research: BTC Surpasses $72,000 to Reach New High; Cancun Upgrade Holds Wealth-Creation Opportunities
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Bitget Research: BTC Surpasses $72,000 to Reach New High; Cancun Upgrade Holds Wealth-Creation Opportunities
In the past 24 hours, several new trending cryptocurrencies and topics have emerged in the market—perhaps they represent the next wealth-building opportunity.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Bitget Research
Summary
Bull market engine MicroStrategy continues to ramp up, spending approximately $800 million to purchase 12,000 BTC, helping BTC break through $72,000 and reach a new all-time high. Key highlights:
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Wealth-generating sectors: Blue-chip sector, legacy public chain projects;
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User trending tokens & topics: Blast ecosystem's leading Dapps, METIS, UNIBOT, CELO, GROK;
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Potential airdrop opportunities: Mode Network, Stack.
Historically, March 12 has seen sharp corrections in the crypto market, so investor sentiment remains cautiously bullish. The trend of MicroStrategy and Wall Street capital continuously buying BTC remains unchanged, suggesting BTC is likely to continue rising. The Cancun upgrade will activate on the mainnet on March 13, and token projects benefiting from it are highly likely to present wealth opportunities, including ARB, METIS, IMX, etc.
Data collection time: March 12, 2024, 4:00 (UTC+0)
I. Market Environment
Over the past 24 hours, BTC reached a new all-time high by breaking the $72,000 mark, while ETH surged past $4,000, hitting a new interim peak. MicroStrategy, the bull market engine of the crypto market, spent about $800 million to acquire 12,000 BTC—this was a key driver behind BTC’s critical breakout. Market bullish sentiment is strong, with unusually active on-chain capital, indicating that BTC may continue to rise.
Yesterday, two U.S. presidential candidates sent positive signals toward the crypto market: Biden indicated that the Federal Reserve is poised to cut interest rates, while Trump stated that he would not crack down on BTC if elected. In a presidential election year, fiscal policy tends to be aggressive, and macro liquidity supports sustained upward momentum in the crypto market. Influenced by liquidity, the MEME sector may remain volatile—recommended to monitor closely.
II. Wealth-Generating Sectors
1) Sector Movement: Blue-Chip Sector (BTC, ETH)
Main reasons: 1. MicroStrategy directly invested $800 million into BTC; 2. BTC ETFs continue net inflows;
Price performance: BTC broke above $72,000, setting a new all-time high; ETH stabilized above $4,000;
Factors influencing future outlook:
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Sustainability of BTC ETF net inflows: BTC ETFs have maintained net inflows over several trading sessions, but the volume of inflows is gradually decreasing. Continued monitoring is needed to determine whether net inflows can persist. If the first net outflow occurs, consider reducing leverage;
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Crypto market sentiment: Today is March 12, historically a day of significant market corrections. Market participants will be wary of pullback risks and likely adopt a cautiously bullish strategy. It is recommended to set appropriate stop-loss levels over the next two trading days to guard against unexpected market corrections.
2) Sector Movement: Legacy Public Chain Projects (XRP, LTC)
Main reasons: 1. Breakout gains in BTC and ETH drove broader market rally; 2. Hot money inflows caused open interest in XRP and LTC to surge significantly;
Price performance: XRP, LTC, and RVN rose around 15%;
Factors influencing future outlook:
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Change in trading strategy: After BTC hit new highs, XRP and LTC significantly underperformed relative to the broader market, triggering catch-up rallies. Taking LTC as an example, LTC is currently at $100, with a bottom support at $70 and a previous high at $270. With a maximum drawdown of only 30%, yet offering a potential return of 270%, its risk-reward ratio is very attractive, drawing market attention. XRP and LTC are likely to see further catch-up rallies in the near term—recommended to monitor;
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Changes in open interest: Open interest for XRP and LTC spiked yesterday, signaling hot money inflows. Traders need to push up spot prices before closing positions for profit. Based on recent patterns of major players pumping assets, spot assets are likely to experience two or three rounds of pump-and-dump cycles. Therefore, changes in open interest for XRP and LTC should be closely monitored.
3) Sector to Watch: Cancun Upgrade Sector
Main reason: The ETH Cancun upgrade will activate tomorrow (March 13), improving transaction execution efficiency on the ETH network and expanding narrative space for ecosystem projects;
Specific token list:
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ARB: Arbitrum ecosystem TVL has continued growing during the bear market, providing foundational capital for ecosystem development and project deployment. However, ARB token performance has been weak, leaving room for catch-up gains;
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METIS: The first project to simultaneously use OP Rollup and ZKPs Rollup. Its network performance will significantly improve post-Cancun upgrade. METIS has recently gained traction on exchanges and is likely to see substantial upside;
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IMX: A leading Game L2 project. Post-upgrade, TPS will increase noticeably, making on-chain game data more feasible and lowering user interaction costs. IMX will directly benefit from the Cancun upgrade.
III. User Trending Topics
1) Popular Dapps
Top Dapps in the Blast ecosystem (Orbit Protocol, Pac Finance, etc.):
Blast officially announced that the annual yield rate of USDB, Blast’s native stablecoin, will be adjusted upward in line with MakerDAO’s yield parameters. USDB holders can earn a 15% annualized yield plus Blast points. The two leading lending protocols on Blast, Orbit Protocol and Pac Finance, have seen explosive growth in TVL—increasing by +367% and +423% respectively over the past 7 days, reaching $400 million and $280 million. Holding stablecoins as USDB in these lending protocols yields triple rewards: “high USD-denominated APY + Blast Points + protocol-specific incentives.”
2) Twitter
Metis (METIS):
METIS is the first innovative Ethereum Layer 2 to use a "decentralized sequencer." It currently has a TVL of $1.06 billion, ranking 7th among Ethereum Layer 2s, between Base and Mantle. The project has attracted market attention partly because one of its founders is Vitalik Buterin’s mother. Yesterday, Binance announced the listing of METIS, causing the token price to spike briefly above $145. It is currently trading at $132. In December last year, MetisDAO launched a $110 million ecosystem development fund, which has not yet shown full impact. Both METIS and its ecosystem projects still have significant upside potential in this bull run.
3) Google Search & Regional Trends
Globally:
(1) METIS:
Already covered in the Twitter trending section above.
(2) UNIBOT:
Yesterday, Unibot announced it had terminated cooperation with its Solana team and could no longer guarantee the safety of funds in Unibot’s Solana bots, causing the token price to plummet by 50%. Recently, 80% of Unibot’s meme trading volume came from the Solana chain. This negative news severely damaged the former Telegram bot leader. However, Unibot’s product stability and profitability were proven during the previous ETH-based meme season. If Unibot can deliver innovative solutions or properly resolve the Solana bot issues, the post-crash UNIBOT might represent a current value opportunity in the market.
Regional trends:
(1) Europe and North America show strong interest in CELO and GROK:
CELO is a DeFi-focused, EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain. Yesterday, Tether announced it would launch USDT on the Celo blockchain, causing CELO’s price to spike nearly 50% and appear in search trends across multiple Western countries including the U.S., UK, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, France, and Australia.
GROK also frequently appeared in Western search trends. Yesterday, Musk announced that xAI’s chatbot Grok would be open-sourced this week, causing the meme coin named GROK to double in price. Additionally, Grok’s open-source release marks a new phase in competition between OpenAI and xAI, potentially attracting more mid- and small-sized AI firms to join either camp, further benefiting hardware sellers like NVIDIA. AI, computing power, and storage will become enduring hot topics, and related tokens will likely face repeated market speculation.
(2) Asian markets primarily focused on METIS:
METIS appeared in search trends across most Southeast and South Asian countries. Secondly, the unaired project Monad ranked second in India’s trending searches, driven by yesterday’s news that Paradigm is negotiating to raise over $200 million for L1 blockchain project Monad Labs, potentially valuing the company at $3 billion. Future attention should be paid to Monad’s mainnet interactions, which may offer high-value airdrop opportunities.
IV. Potential Airdrop Opportunities
[Mode Network] Transparent airdrop “OP’s favored son,” low entry barrier, fast expected returns
Mode is one of the projects built on the OP Stack and has publicly announced it will distribute 550 million MODE tokens (5.5% of total supply) via airdrop incentives in April.
How to participate: Simply bridge ETH or other tokens to the Mode mainnet and hold them to earn points. Engaging in ecosystem activities with your tokens earns double points. Additional tips: Official cross-chain withdrawals to the ETH mainnet require a 7-day waiting period, while using Orbiter enables instant transfers, allows routing through other Layer 2 chains to save gas fees, and increases points on the Orbiter bridge.
[Stack] Coinbase-backed on-chain points solution, early-stage high-potential project
Stack provides an on-chain solution for converting loyalty points into ERC20 tokens. It just launched its mainnet yesterday—a dedicated “points chain” designed for on-chain loyalty programs. It recently completed a $3 million seed round led by Archetype, with Coinbase participating. Beyond the current popularity of airdrop point trading, as GameFi Summer kicks off in 2024, more 3A games may allow their in-game points to be traded. Stack holds significant future growth potential.
How to participate: Currently, you can register an account and join the project community. Starting engagement now allows early access to this high-potential project.
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