Encryption Weekly: Bitcoin rose 44% this month, reaching a 3-year high, while Layer 2 and LSD continue to strengthen.

Welcome to this week's Crypto Assets market summary. We bring you key market trends, in-depth insights into emerging protocols, and the latest industry developments, aimed at enhancing your expertise in Crypto Assets and Web3.

Layer 2 Overview:

Last week, Layer 2 showed positive growth, with Starknet experiencing the most significant increase at 15.67%. Protocols such as JOJO, VaultCraft, Basemax, XY Finance, and Nostra demonstrated notable TVL growth rates.

Overview of the LSD field:

In the LSD sector, both the Ethereum deposit volume and total withdrawal volume have increased, but the withdrawal volume has risen more significantly at 2.88%. In terms of market share, all blue-chip LSDs have seen a considerable increase, with wstETH showing the most significant growth at 16.28%.

Overview of RWA Field:

Last week, the market value of real-world assets grew by 13.85%, with a 24-hour trading volume increase of 43.93%. RWA tokenized treasury rose by 1.6%, while the value of tokenized U.S. Treasury bonds increased by 0.08%. Notable growth tokens include $DEXTF, $LMR, and $BST, while tokens like $BRTR, $LNDX, and $SOB experienced significant losses.

Main Topic

Macro Overview:

• US Stocks vs Crypto Assets

This week's major events:

• Bitcoin sees its largest monthly gain in three years

Weekly Protocol Recommendations:

• OpSec

Weekly VC Investment Focus:

• Octav (400 million USD )

• BounceBit(600 million USD)

• READYgg (400万 )

Macro Overview

This week, the SPX and NASDAQ in the stock market rose by 1.33% and 2.06%, respectively. In the coming week, major events to watch include the S&P Global Services PMI, ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI, Spring Forecast Report, ADP Non-Farm Employment Change, and the Bank of Canada's interest rate decision.

Major Events This Week

Bitcoin sees the largest monthly increase in three years

Bitcoin is on track for its strongest monthly close since December 2020. Even though the price is nearing its all-time high, analysts say this bull market is far from peaking. The largest crypto asset grew by 44% in February, breaking through $50,000 and $60,000 for the first time in years, and reached a high of $64,000 on Wednesday. This surge followed a market sell-off after the debut of the U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund at the end of January, which saw prices briefly dip below $40,000.

Bitcoin is expected to reach its highest end-of-month price ever. To do this, it needs to surpass $61,357 before midnight Coordinated Universal Time, which is the closing price from October 2021, close to the peak of the previous market cycle. As of the time of writing, BTC is trading at around $61,200.

In February, the Crypto Assets in the CoinDesk 20 index grew by over 40%. Governance tokens from a certain decentralized exchange, tokens from a decentralized data storage network, and popular meme coins were the best performers in CD20, surpassing the increase of BTC.

Although the price of Bitcoin is nearing an all-time high, some analysts remain optimistic about its further increase.

The research director of a certain company believes that the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF is a "game changer," providing stable and recently accelerated demand for BTC. Meanwhile, about 75% of the Bitcoin supply is owned by long-term holders who have not yet been willing to sell at the recent price levels.

An analyst from a data analysis company pointed out that the on-chain transaction volume on the Bitcoin network and retail interest in Crypto Assets remain well below the levels seen during previous peak periods. An analyst from a certain institution said in a report on Thursday, "The persistent buying pressure and strong bullish signals from oscillators and moving averages indicate that BTC is poised to continue its upward momentum."

Weekly Protocol Recommendations

This week, we have chosen OpSec, a decentralized physical infrastructure network cloud computing platform provider that utilizes AI technology.

OpSec is based on blockchain technology and utilizes artificial intelligence to provide a secure, efficient, and decentralized cloud computing platform.

Currently, OpSec provides the following solution services to help Web3 users and developers offer a friendly cloud service experience:

• OpSec Cloudverse: mainly consists of three parts: Nodes, VPS, and GPU. Nodes users can deploy and manage nodes to promote network security and decentralization; VPS serves as a basic tool for node operations and computations; OpSec provides a more decentralized GPU solution.

• OpSec Network: OpSec's Layer 1 Network combines the functionalities of AI and modular architecture to enhance scalability, security, and flexibility. By leveraging POS and POC mechanisms, it establishes cloud proof consensus based on cloud resources such as processing power/storage/bandwidth while enhancing network security, thus reducing the development overhead of OpSec.

• CloudSec: CloudSec is an advanced routing device that utilizes a powerful decentralized network architecture to enhance online privacy and security. By routing data across multiple nodes and employing onion routing, CloudSec supports anonymous communication over public networks, making it difficult for attackers to trace the source and destination of the data.

The OpSec Cloudverse business proposes a fundamental solution to the existing blockchain infrastructure. The nodes of the current blockchain infrastructure are hosted on centralized cloud services such as AWS and Google Cloud Platform. If they maliciously shut down nodes or attempt to control the network with malicious actions, then the blockchain will be in significant danger.

Cloudverse achieves automated node management and deployment by building on globally distributed cloud services, addressing malicious situations such as node dependency and insecurity. Currently, OpSec has established connections with numerous blockchain networks, including several public chains, keeping node control in its own hands.

The native token of OpSec will be launched on Ethereum, with a total supply cap of 100 million coins. It will primarily be used for network staking under the POS mechanism, to execute transactions/deploy contracts to pay fees, for node operation rewards, governance voting rights, and more.

As a provider of decentralized physical infrastructure networks, OpSec utilizes cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology to build, maintain, and operate blockchain infrastructure, ensuring the security and privacy of blockchain applications.

Our insights

OpSec is currently a hot topic in the AI + DePIN narrative, with DePIN currently valued at $23 billion and a total trading volume of $1.9 billion. There has been significant growth recently. According to predictions from a certain data platform, the DePIN industry is expected to reach $3.5 trillion in the next four years, suggesting that there will be nearly 135 times growth potential in this field.

Why can AI be combined with DePIN? DePIN can provide decentralized storage and computing resources, which is crucial for AI models that require a large amount of computing power. Decentralized nodes can offer hardware storage, computing capabilities, GPUs, or training data, and thus earn rewards, similar to the mining process of Bitcoin. AI can efficiently deploy computing based on this; conversely, AI can also intelligently manage the resources of the DePIN network, optimizing resource allocation, automatically executing complex operations such as network detection and maintenance, and improving network efficiency.

Currently, there are many projects under the AI+DePIN narrative such as Flux, Node AI, EMC Protocol, etc., which are essentially based on DePIN and focus on the business expansion of physical infrastructure. OpSec, as a cloud computing service, naturally leans towards the B-end, that is, how to direct decentralized node services towards more infrastructure projects, such as Layer 1 public chains.

Currently, OpSec has been launched on multiple networks, and there are many partners preparing to launch as well, indicating that OpSec has achieved certain results in business expansion. Recently, OpSec has successively cooperated with Commune AI and Dmail Network to launch the V2 test version, and sponsored the Eth Denver conference, demonstrating that the project team is continuously expanding its market influence.

Overall, OpSec provides a secure, efficient, and decentralized cloud computing platform that can host and run blockchain applications, offering various utilities to enhance the functionality and usability of Web3, leveraging the power of AI to optimize the platform's performance, security, and privacy, and delivering innovative solutions for Web3 users, developers, and builders.

Weekly VC Investment Focus

Octav

Octav is a free, anonymous, and editable data analysis platform that helps decipher decentralized finance investment activities. Get comprehensive DeFi portfolio information, such as cost basis, profit and loss, etc.

BounceBit

BounceBit is a native BTC staking chain that protects through the staking of Bitcoin and BounceBit tokens. BounceBit is supported by a certain organization and a certain company for the secure storage of Bitcoin. The PoS mechanism introduces a dual-token staking system that leverages the native BTC security with full EVM compatibility.

READYgg

A certain company is building social game infrastructure for the Web3 creator economy. It is creating mobile-first Web3 tools and technologies to democratize game creation. RGN is coordinating the economic interests between developers, creators, and players to create a sustainable, long-term distributed game ecosystem and creator economy.

protocol event

Worldcoin token price fell by 5% due to Musk suing OpenAI.

Delta upgrade leads to reduced fees on the Optimism ecosystem chain.

StarkWare announces the new open-source zero-knowledge prover Stwo

SynFutures launched V3 on the Blast mainnet and announced a points program; plans to issue tokens this year.

Some Wallet integrates Arbitrum for token exchange

Industry Update

Nigeria reportedly demands $10 billion in compensation from a certain exchange.

The asset management scale of a certain asset management company’s Bitcoin ETF has exceeded 10 billion USD.

Bank for International Settlements has released regulatory recommendations for global stablecoin arrangements.

The total locked value of decentralized lending has surpassed 30 billion USD for the first time since mid-2022.

Attorneys General from eight states in the United States challenge the SEC's authority in a lawsuit against a certain exchange through a joint amicus brief.

Twitter Alpha

There is a lot of Alpha contained in crypto Twitter, but navigating through thousands of Twitter threads can be challenging. Each week, we spend several hours researching and curating insightful threads to bring you a weekly selection.

![Gryphsis Crypto Assets Weekly Report: Bitcoin Sees Largest Monthly Increase in Three Years](