Crypto Market Downturn: TVL Drops, Bitcoin ETFs Surge, Shopify Expands Crypto Payments
Crypto Market Analysis
The cryptocurrency market is experiencing a slight downturn in its Total Value Locked (TVL) on Layer 2 (L2) networks. As of today, the total TVL on L2 Beat stands at $9.84 billion, down from $10.07 billion yesterday.
Among the top L2 networks, Arbitrum's TVL is currently $3.01 billion, reflecting a -1.37% change from yesterday. Blast follows with a TVL of $2.08 billion, marking a -1.89% decline. Base has seen a more significant drop of -3.73%, bringing its TVL to $1.66 billion. Optimism's TVL is now $746.88 million, down by -3.01%. Lastly, Linea holds a TVL of $678.29 million, a -1.22% change from the previous day.
The prices of major cryptocurrencies have also dipped. Bitcoin (BTC) is currently priced at $67,390, down from $68,234 yesterday. Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $3,517, compared to $3,560 the day before.
In the fundraising arena, today's total funding amounts to $38.10 million. The biggest rounds include Layer3, which raised $15.00 million, followed by Pixelverse with $5.50 million, and Kima with $5.00 million. The cumulative fundraising over the current week totals $95.20 million.
On the news front, U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs have returned to net inflows, with $101 million pouring in on Wednesday. MicroStrategy has proposed a $500 million convertible note offering to acquire more bitcoin, adding to its existing holdings of 214,400 BTC. The firm also announced the redemption of $650 million of its 2025 convertible senior notes.
In Texas, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) CEO testified that the state's power grid capacity will need to double in the next decade to handle the increasing demand from AI and bitcoin mining. This comes as the Lieutenant Governor of Texas calls for more scrutiny on this industry.
Meanwhile, Shopify has expanded its crypto capabilities by supporting hundreds of crypto tokens through Solana Pay via Helio. This allows payments in Solana or BONK and offers buyers access to NFT airdrops and token-gated features.
In a related development, researchers from Harvard and Google DeepMind have created a virtual rat with an AI brain, aiming to improve the movement of real rats and understand how neural circuits guide complex behaviors. This innovation could mean better robots in the future.
