This CryptoPunk Was Lost On Purpose

GM Readers!📪 It's BitDegree Insider, let's open that Web3 gate.

⭐️Today's selection:

• 👋CryptoPunk Lost & Not Found
• 🧋Wednesday Bubbles (Bitcoin & OP)
• 👌Selected Meme of The Day
• 📰Bite-Sized News

CryptoPunk LOST & NOT FOUND

Just yesterday, we opened a discussion on whether wallet addresses are double-checked before sending.

Well, there's a case in point. Another CryptoPunk NFT was lost recently.

Regrettably, #4051 was accidentally sent to an incorrect wallet address during a trade attempt, and is now essentially: burned/lost forever.

There's also another one (#8611) that was purposely sent to the 0x00000000 (null address).

Why… why would anyone do that?

Basically, it's a marketing strategy!

#8611, (the one that was yeeted off to the null address) becomes the first to be burned on Ethereum to be inscribed onto Bitcoin network.

And that's some headline material.

The average price for a CryptoPunk is 50 ETH. Ant an NFT of this value was just teleported out of this existence into the null address.

So… Was this money (50 ETH) lost… or not really? It's like paying for an ad.

All of this is done to secure a spot in one of the most expensive collections (3 Bitcoin floor price) on the Ordinals (Bitcoin inscriptions) market.

So, when you look from this perspective, the move probably isn't that audacious.

TL;DR: Another CryptoPunk NFT (#4051) was accidentally sent to the wrong wallet address and is now lost forever, while another one (#8611) was intentionally sent to the null address as a marketing strategy to secure a place in the expensive Ordinals (Bitcoin inscriptions) market. The move, although seemingly audacious, is akin to paying for advertising rather than losing money.

WEDNESDAY BUBBLES

Let's get a room with a view:

Bitcoin

Firstly, let's talk about the Orange internet coin (Bitcoin, of course), which is $29k today!

Bitcoin dominance accounts for more than 50% of the total market capitalization, even if just momentarily, according to various data collection tools!

Furthermore, the $Bitcoin/ $USDT trading pair flash pumped to $138,070 on BinanceUS earlier today.

You may wonder why and how this is possible?

Well, a flash pump, or sometimes known as a "flash spike", can occur due to various reasons, often when there's an imbalance in market orders.

In a less liquid market, if someone places a very large buy order, the price can momentarily surge as the order is filled by increasingly higher sell orders on the order book.

This leads to a rapid and drastic increase in the price - a "flash pump."

So, overall, the rally started following news about the launch of a proprietary cryptocurrency exchange by leading Wall Street players.

Companies such as Citadel Securities, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab announced that they are preparing a crypto platform for institutional players.

It will be called EDX Markets.

TL;DR: Bitcoin's price reached $29k today with over 50% dominance in the market, while a flash pump occurred on the Bitcoin/USDT trading pair due to a large buy order, leading to a temporary surge in price, and the rally was influenced by news of major Wall Street players preparing to launch a cryptocurrency exchange called EDX Markets for institutional players.

Optimism

Now, let's talk about Optimism. Because, as you can see in the bubbles image, the market is greenish. Or… Optimistic!

So, what about Optimism? Any extra reasons behind its growth?

Optimism is advancing towards the implementation of Superchain.

Superchain is a platform designed to consolidate disparate Layer-2 networks into a unified ecosystem.

These networks will share bridges, standards, governance, security, updates, and much more.

This will allow for the genuine scalability of Ethereum, as opposed to the current situation where there are dozens of Layer-2 networks operating independently of each other.

Superchain is still far from realization. At this stage, it's simply a concept and may undergo significant changes over time.

Currently, the Optimism team is actively developing a tool called OP Stack, which allows anyone to create their own Layer-2 network running atop Ethereum.

For example, Coinbase's network, Base, was also developed using OP Stack.

And, another development is that BNB Chain, a blockchain ecosystem based on Binance's BNB token, has launched a Layer-2 network named opBNB in testnet.

opBNB is an EVM-compatible solution for Layer-2 scaling based on the Optimism network.

The product from Optimism will help to increase transaction speed and reduce fees.

TL;DR: Optimism is developing Superchain to consolidate multiple Layer 2 networks for better Ethereum scalability. The BNB Chain also launched the Layer 2 network opBNB for testing, aiming for higher transaction speeds and lower fees.

SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY

BITE-SIZED NEWS

• Apple Takes Down Fraudulent App Impersonating Crypto Hardware Wallet Trezor. At the time of writing, it is unknown whether any crypto investor fell for the fake app.
• US Authorities Join Forces to Create Crypto Anti-Crime Task Force. It's called The Darknet Marketplace and Digital Currency Crimes Task Force.
• Core Scientific Advances Bankruptcy Proceedings, Files Chapter 11 Plan. Core Scientific is slowly moving toward the end of its bankruptcy proceedings.