March 7, 2024

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-related tokens took the lead Thursday, with Fetch.ai (FET) rallying 35% in 24 hours, followed by SinglarityNET (AGIX), which jumped 30%. According to Miles Deutscher, a crypto analyst, AI-related tokens are pumping as the global AI Nvidia conference for developers and engineers approaches on March 18. Deutscher tweeted he expects the AI-run to continue. Render (RNDR), a GPU marketplace that lets users contribute computational power to 3D rendering projects and earn tokens in return, also rallied, gaining 31%. AI-related tokens witnessed a surge late last month after Nvidia beat fourth-quarter earnings estimates. Strahinja Savic, head of data and analytics at FRNT Financial, said it’s important to question how effective exposure is to artificial intelligence via these AI-themed tokens as most don’t actually have a direct connection to the adoption being driven by OpenAI or Google’s Gemini. Gemini is Google’s family of AI models, similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi, which was caught in the contagion of FTX and declared bankruptcy days after the exchange's collapse, has reached an "in principle" agreement with the estates of FTX and Alameda Research for nearly $1 billion, according to a court filing, which could lead to full value recovery for its customers. Under the settlement, BlockFi will receive a total of $874.5 million in claims against the two companies. $250 million will be treated as a secured claim, which will prioritize payment to BlockFi after FTX's plan to end bankruptcy, filed December, is approved by its creditors. In turn, FTX will drop its claims against BlockFi, allowing the lender's remaining claims to be paid out like other similar claims under FTX's plan according to the settlement. A judge still needs to sign off on the agreement.   

Figment Europe, an institutional staking services provider, and Apex Group, a global financial services provider based in Bermuda, plan to introduce exchange-traded products (ETPs) that give investors exposure to ether (ETH) and solana (SOL) prices along with additional rewards from staking. The two funds, Figment Ethereum Plus Staking Rewards (ETHF) and Figment Solana Plus Staking Rewards (SOLF), will be 100% backed at all times and will debut on the SIX Swiss Exchange on March 12, the companies said Thursday. The ETPs will provide investors exposure to ether and solana prices and additional staking rewards, including maximum extractable value (MEV), while bypassing complexities involved in staking as individuals. Staking yields will be reinvested into the ETPs to enhance their performance. MEV is the value derived from reordering transactions within the blocks over the standard block reward and gas fees.

This bitcoin bull run stands out in several ways. For one, as Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal explained in Wednesday's newsletter, the crypto community has been focused on market flows rather than narratives about how decentralized finance or Web3 will revolutionize traditional finance.

Another factor that makes this rally stand out is that prices have surged despite signs of strength in the U.S. dollar and Treasury yields, as opposed to 2020-21, when both were weakening.

One thing, however, remains the same. As in previous bull runs, the latest surge is accompanied by optimism directed toward technology stocks on Wall Street, characterized by a gain in the ratio between the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index and the broader S&P 500, the NDX-SPX ratio.

- Omkar Godbole