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The cryptocurrency market is experiencing another surge this week.

On May 20, Bitcoin rose to US$71,705.47 in North American night trading, regaining US$71,000, a cumulative increase of approximately 68.59% compared to the beginning of the year. The cryptocurrency superstar of this period, Ethereum, also experienced a "wild surge". On May 21, Ethereum touched $3,800 per coin for the first time since March 5, rising 8.57% during the day.

It is reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday asked Nasdaq and Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) to slightly modify the Ethereum spot ETF listing application, which means that regulatory agencies may approve the listing of Ethereum ETF on May 23. According to people familiar with the matter, the U.S. SEC has contacted at least one exchange and at least one potential spot Ethereum ETF issuer to update relevant 19b-4 filings. Accordingly, Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas has increased the probability of approval of the Ethereum ETF from 25% to 75%.

There are 9,963 types of cryptocurrency, with a total market value of US$2.43 trillion. Among them, the market values ​​of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Biancoin, Solana, Ripple, Dogecoin, Toncoin, Cardano, and Shiba Inucoin are 1.40 trillion, 442.84 billion, 88.33 billion, 83.07 billion, 29.67 billion, 23.57 billion, 22.73 billion, 17.85 billion, and 14.96 billion US dollars respectively. Based on three-month average daily transactions, the trading volumes of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Biancoin, Solana, Ripple, Dogecoin, Toncoin, Cardano, and Shiba Inucoin were 37.168 billion, 17.39 billion, 2.07 billion, 4.22 billion, 1.83 billion, 283 million, 2.39 billion, 625 million, and 1.46 billion US dollars respectively.

Most cryptocurrencies have even outperformed the S&P 500 so far this year. As of May 21 from the beginning of this year, Bitcoin has risen by 68.10% and Ethereum has risen by 60.9%. Other cryptocurrencies rose even more strongly, with Binance Coin up 91.5%, Solana up 81.5%, Dogecoin up 82.4%, Shiba Inu Coin up 145.3%, and Toncoin up 180.5%. Among the niche cryptocurrencies, Ripple fell by 13.4%, ADA fell by 15.9%, and the S&P 500 index rose by 11.56% during the same period.

Cryptocurrency has become mainstream in the investment community amid digital transformation

Looking back at the cryptocurrency market trends since the beginning of the year, the driving force is still the regulatory agencies. Or to be more precise, despite the strong opposition to cryptocurrencies in the United States, institutional investors have used their powerful lobbying power to change the attitude of regulators. In January this year, the Bitcoin spot ETF was approved for listing and trading. This is another milestone event in the world of cryptocurrency, because ETF provides a relatively safe and convenient trading channel for investors, especially retail investors, and also marks that cryptocurrency has gained more and more mainstream recognition in the investment community. Judging from the net inflows of ETF funds, the listing and trading of Bitcoin spot ETFs is undoubtedly very successful, and its future development momentum is unstoppable.

At present, it seems that there is a large gap in the strength of fund companies engaged in Bitcoin spot ETF management. In terms of returns, since the beginning of the year, Bitcoin spot fund returns have been roughly the same, with only Hashdex and Grayscale (GBTC) performing slightly lower than the market performance. But in terms of daily trading volume (fund units), these funds perform very differently. The most popular among investors are funds owned by big-name fund companies, such as BlackRock, Fidelity Assets and Grayscale, while other funds have been left out. In terms of management fees, most funds have the same charging standards, with only Grayscale and Hashdex charging higher than the average.

Faced with such high returns, investors were enthusiastic. According to Morningstar data (an authoritative U.S. fund company research institution), between January 11 and April 30, 2024, a total of US$12.1 billion of funds flowed into Bitcoin spot ETFs, of which more than 80% of the funds flowed into BlackRock's iShare Fund or Fidelity Investment Fund. The brand effect is very obvious. Grayscale worked hard to lobby the US Securities and Exchange Commission, but its funds dropped sharply from US$27.2 billion in January to US$17.6 billion.

Cryptocurrency’s reputation has recovered and future development is expected

Cryptocurrencies have also been rocked by scandals.

Among them, the one with the greatest impact is the rapid collapse of FTX (a cryptocurrency exchange registered in the Bahamas, full name "Futures Exchange") in November 2022 and the domino effect it generated. However, the most dramatic thing was the subsequent liquidation process of FTX. At that time, FTX encountered a liquidity crisis, with a funding gap of up to US$8 billion, and FTX could only declare bankruptcy. According to the previous company liquidation procedures, the process took a long time and the compensation ratio was low. However, less than two years after FTX collapsed, investors were compensated for their principal and interest. Since the collapse of FTX, the price of Bitcoin has risen from US$16,000 to more than US$70,000 today. The Bitcoin assets and other investments owned by FTX have appreciated rapidly, making them fully capable of fully compensating investors at the price when FTX collapsed. There is no doubt that FTX’s case is a free advertisement for cryptocurrencies.

In addition to fund management companies, many commercial banks, insurance companies, investment banks and other financial institutions have already been involved in cryptocurrency assets because they are well aware of customer needs and must keep up with the general trend of the digital era, otherwise they will be abandoned by the next round of financial wealth creation. Dimon, the president of JPMorgan Chase Bank, has always been an opponent of Bitcoin and has not changed yet. But paradoxically, the banking giant also holds a Bitcoin ETF. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's 13F report, at the end of the first quarter, JPMorgan Chase held a Bitcoin spot ETF worth $731,264, of which the Bitcoin spot ETF managed by BlackRock was worth $477,425; Wells Fargo held a Grayscale Bitcoin spot ETF worth $141,817.

The Bitcoin market is still a game for big capital players

The supply side of Bitcoin is tightening and mining costs are increasing.

As of April this year, approximately 19.69 million Bitcoins are in circulation. As the limit of 21 million is getting closer and closer, only about 1.31 million coins can be issued through mining rewards. Mining requires increasingly higher computer computing power and costs continue to rise. It is difficult to guarantee mining profits by network fees alone. Bitcoin mining is no longer a hobby for ordinary investors, but a game for capital predators. As the number of new Bitcoins becomes smaller and smaller, the price of Bitcoin will theoretically continue to rise.

Initially, the Bitcoin mining reward was 50 Bitcoins, which dropped to 25 Bitcoins on November 28, 2012, to 12.5 Bitcoins on July 9, 2016, to 6.25 Bitcoins on May 11, 2020, and to 3.125 Bitcoins on April 19 this year. It is expected to drop to 1.625 Bitcoins in 2028. The halving of Bitcoin mining rewards will affect the profits of mining companies to a certain extent. According to reports, 10 listed Bitcoin mining companies in the United States had received US$2 billion in equity financing before April, up from US$1.25 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023. It is difficult to say whether the rise in Bitcoin prices is related to the halving of rewards, but some institutions predict that the price of Bitcoin will rise to US$1 million in 2030.

The Bitcoin market is monopolized by a small number of super-rich people, and the vast majority of accounts are "lambs" who are left to be slaughtered. The distribution of Bitcoin addresses or accounts is a typical inverted pyramid. The top 2,126 accounts account for less than 0.004% of the total number, but control 40.14% of Bitcoin ownership, giving them sufficient ability to manipulate the market. Their buying and selling transactions are enough to affect Bitcoin prices and market liquidity. The Bitcoin market is destined to be a highly volatile and high-risk market. The amount of Bitcoin held by Bitcoin ETF funds pales in comparison to the amount of Bitcoin held by these ultra-rich individuals.

According to statistics from relevant websites, a few individuals, companies and exchanges hold the most Bitcoins. As far as personal accounts are concerned, the mysterious "father of Bitcoin" Satoshi Nakamoto holds the most Bitcoins. The Winklevoss Twins account holds 70,000 Bitcoins. The value of Bitcoins held by Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, is estimated to be more than 100 billion US dollars. As far as corporate accounts are concerned, the Grayscale investment portfolio holds 643,572 Bitcoins, accounting for approximately 3% of the total issuance, software company Microstrategy holds 129,699 Bitcoins, accounting for 0.6% of the total issuance, and Tesla holds 10,725 Bitcoins.

Cryptocurrency exchanges and market competition

Cryptocurrency exchange competition is fierce because powerful investors are very optimistic about the development of this market.

In the past few years, many cryptocurrencies have gone bankrupt due to various reasons, but new investors have continued to pour in, such as investment institutions in offshore financial center cities such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dubai. On April 29, the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission approved the initial issuance of six digital currency spot ETFs under ChinaAMC (Hong Kong), Boshi International and Harvest International, and they were officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on April 30. This is also one of the important arrangements for the future development of Hong Kong's international financial center. It is estimated that Binance (Binance, registered in Malta) holds 252,597 Bitcoins, and its two cold storage accounts (the most secure accounts that are not connected to the Internet) hold 143,314 and 125,351 Bitcoins respectively; Coinbase, the largest Bitcoin exchange in the United States, holds about 9,000 Bitcoins; Bitfinex (registered in the U.S. Virgin Islands) holds 168,010.

According to the Kaiko quarterly research report, in the first quarter of 2024, Binance exchange accounted for 48% of the total Bitcoin trading volume, Bybit (Singapore cryptocurrency exchange) accounted for 7.9%, Coinbase accounted for 7.2%, OKX (located in the Seychelles, founded by Chinese Xu Mingxing) accounted for 6.3%, and other exchanges accounted for a total of 30.6%. In the first quarter of 2023, Binance Exchange’s market share accounted for 75.4%, Bybit, Coinbase, and OKX each accounted for 1.6%, 3.9%, and 2.5%, and other exchanges accounted for a total of 16.6%. Binance exchange canceled zero-fee trading in March last year, during which the U.S. court detained and tried Changpeng Zhao. These two events had a certain impact on the exchange's business.

Due to the U.S. regulatory system and financial advantages, many exchanges are trying their best to enter the U.S. market in order to obtain greater profits and development space. According to Kaiko research, from 2012 to 2024, the Bitcoin market was very active during the US trading hours, and its market share remained stable. The listing of Bitcoin spot ETF has helped the U.S. market share reach a record high.

Future development and price trends of the cryptocurrency market

Bitcoin occupies an overwhelming position in the cryptocurrency market, and its volatility level is much higher than that of most financial assets. However, Bitcoin's huge returns have attracted investors. Since January 2023, Bitcoin’s returns have been higher than the S&P 500 Index most of the time, especially after the end of October last year, which widened the gap with the stock index.

The Bitcoin trading market is controlled by a small number of super-rich people, and the market risks are extremely high. However, these large investors must also adapt to changes in the general trend of the market and will never go against the trend. They need to observe and study the financial market environment, especially changes in the S&P 500 Index and the interest rate market. The current Bitcoin market has undergone greater changes than in the past, and is more synchronized with the stock market. In other words, a rise in the U.S. stock market will inevitably drive up the price of Bitcoin. On the contrary, if the stock index is depressed or falling, the price of Bitcoin will behave accordingly. At present, the market should pay attention to the decision of the US Securities Regulatory Commission on May 23: If the Securities Regulatory Commission lights up the "green light", the cryptocurrency market will have a short upward trend; if the Securities Regulatory Commission decides contrary to market expectations, the cryptocurrency market will be brought back to its original shape.

According to Blockdata, 13 banks in the United States have invested in cryptocurrency and blockchain; Coinbase, Ripple and other companies are supported by major banks; in addition, 55% of the world's 100 largest banks have invested in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, including Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of New York Mellon, Citibank, UBS, BNP Paribas, etc. The cryptocurrency track will definitely be crowded in the future. In the long run, Bitcoin's continued value lies in its properties as a currency. If Bitcoin is not widely used for payment of goods and services, but only for speculative transactions, Bitcoin will sooner or later be replaced by other cryptocurrencies.

On February 10, according to electrek, Ferrari officially announced the name of its first pure electric model: Ferrari Luce.

The Italian supercar brand unveiled part of the interior design of its new car in San Francisco. The car's interior was co-created by LoveFrom, a creative studio founded by former Apple design director Jony Ive. The interior design abandons large-screen touch controls and prioritizes physical control buttons.

"Luce" means "light" in Italian, and Ferrari said the name means "electrification is a means, not an end".

Ferrari has been working with Studio LoveFrom, co-founded by former Apple chief design officer Sir Jony Ive and designer Marc Newson, for five years and has been deeply involved in the full-scale design of the car.

Since the new car was exposed during road testing at the Maranello factory, the outside world has continued to pay attention to this Ferrari's first pure electric model. Its underlying technology was officially announced in October last year. Now, LoveFrom’s design concept is finally presented in the interior.

This interior deliberately targets the current trend of large screens in pure electric vehicles. Ferrari said it "breaks the industry convention that electric vehicles must have large screens as the core" and instead uses mechanical buttons, knobs, levers and switches as the core control method, focusing on "intuitive and rich control texture".

Interior core highlights

Steering wheel: Simple three-spoke design, inspired by the classic Nardi wooden steering wheels of the 1950s and 1960s. The steering wheel is made of 19 CNC machined parts and is made of 100% recycled aluminum alloy. It is 400 grams lighter than a regular Ferrari steering wheel. The control area is divided into two modules, and the layout pays homage to F1 racing cars.

Car key and starting ceremony: The key is made of Corning fused 5 glass and equipped with an electronic ink screen, which is the first application in the industry. Insert the key into the base, the screen will turn from yellow to black, and the cockpit lights will light up in a "carefully designed sequence".

Instrument panel: It can move synchronously with the steering wheel to ensure the best viewing angle. It is equipped with two overlapping Samsung OLED screens. The screen has three cutouts to reveal the second screen at the rear, which is also the first in the world. The ultra-light panel was custom-developed by Ferrari and Samsung display engineers.

Control panel: It adopts a ball-and-socket hinge structure and can be tilted toward the main driver or passenger driver; the panel is equipped with a "multi-function dial" with three built-in independent motors, which can switch between four modes: clock, chronograph, compass, and start control.

Interior materials: The entire car is precision cut from 100% recycled aluminum alloy solid billet, and precision milled Corning Fused 5 glass is used in many places.

The appearance of the Ferrari Luce will be officially unveiled in Italy in May 2026.

Ferrari initially confirmed that this pure electric supercar would be launched in 2025. As one of six new cars that year, the appearance release has now been postponed to May this year. Officials stated that the price of this pure electric supercar will exceed 500,000 euros (approximately US$535,000). (Reprinted from the tram industry)

Visa is expanding support for stablecoins, adding settlement support for three additional currencies as well as two new blockchains.

According to analysis by Visa, the adoption of stablecoins is surging, with total global transactions reaching $27 trillion by 2024 and transaction volume reaching 1.25 billion. In 2023, the card plans to pilot a program to allow customers to fulfill settlement obligations in USDC, becoming one of the first major payment networks to settle transactions in stablecoins.

Through its partnership with Paxos, Visa is now adding support for U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins Global Dollar (USDG) and PayPal USD (PYUSD), as well as Circle’s euro-backed EURC. Additionally, the payments giant added support for the Stellar and Avalanche blockchains, on top of the already supported Ethereum and Solana.

Visa has previously stated that every money transmitter needs a stablecoin strategy. Its mission is to “build an interoperable layer that enables stablecoin payments to operate at scale.”

In recent months, Visa has taken a stake in stablecoin infrastructure platform BVNK and formed a partnership with Stripe-owned Bridge to help bring stablecoin-linked cards to more people in more places.

Rubail Birwadker, global head of growth products and strategic partnerships at Visa, said: “We believe that when stablecoins are trustworthy, scalable and interoperable, they can fundamentally change the way money moves around the world.”

A graphics card with an official guide price of less than 4,000 yuan now costs 10,000 yuan to get it. The promising Bitcoin market has driven up the price of computer graphics cards, making it even harder to find a card. Recently, a virtual currency called Chia Coin has made hard drives a sought-after "hard currency", revealing the trend of shortages and price increases.

"It's too difficult for ordinary computer gamers!" Hardware prices have skyrocketed in turn, leaving netizens who like to save their own computers, gamers who need high-end configurations, and even scientific researchers in professional laboratories in a helpless situation – if you buy it, it is too expensive; if you don't buy it, you will have no hope of waiting for price reductions.

Netizens joked that mediocre computer hardware is now more popular than Moutai. Hardware consumption plus electricity costs, virtual currency has caused a huge waste of physical resources.

Prices soared and quadrupled in half a year

"Last month I was complaining that selling 10,000 yuan on Xianyu was too exaggerated, but now it's gone up to nearly 17,000 yuan. There is no hope of buying a computer this year." He wanted to buy a computer with a slightly higher configuration to improve his gaming experience, but was stuck with the high price of graphics cards. This was something that the player Xiaolu never expected.

Since the second half of last year, graphics card prices have been soaring, and this year they are even more expensive. Asus, Gigabyte, Colorful… computer graphics card products using high-end graphics chips such as Nvidia produced by various brands have seen an overall price increase.

Take the RTX3080 graphics card released by NVIDIA in October last year as an example. The official website price was 5,499 yuan. In January this year, the wholesale price of the corresponding graphics card products had risen to more than 8,000 yuan. In March, the new card was completely out of stock, and the second-hand price rose to 12,000 yuan. In April, the price of 17,000 yuan has become the norm.

"The entry-level model of RTX2070 was only 4,100 yuan a year ago. Now it costs more than 5,000 yuan on Xianyu. After using it for a year, I made 1,000 yuan." Xiaolu laughed.

Graphics card prices have continued to rise, while hard drive prices have continued to rise.

The reporter checked on mainstream e-commerce platforms and found that enterprise-level hard drives of 6T and above from traditional brands Seagate and Western Digital are basically out of stock, and many people are selling them at high prices on second-hand platforms.

The original price of the 8T enterprise disk was about 1,200 yuan, but it rose to nearly 3,000 yuan in a few days. "If you want to buy it, buy it quickly. If you go around again, it won't be the same price." The price of hard drives in offline stores keeps changing, showing a trend of crazy rise.

“Mining” is all the rage Hardware is in short supply

In the context of the decline of desktop computers, many consumers are puzzled by such a surge in hardware prices. The initiator behind the price increase is the popularity of virtual currencies represented by Bitcoin.

"The main function of the graphics card is mining." Tian Yu, an Internet practitioner, explained that the so-called "mining" is actually a common name for earning digital currency. To put it simply, "mining" Bitcoin is like solving a math problem. The first one to solve the problem can get the corresponding reward. This process of solving and verifying is mining.

Because the complexity of this calculation is low and quite repetitive, a graphics card is more suitable than a CPU. "Currency prices have a profound impact on the supply and demand of graphics cards, and in the short term, chip manufacturers also lack the ability to supply large quantities of chips."

The rise in hard drive prices stems from a virtual currency called Chia.

On March 19, Chia Coin went online and opened the “mining” function. Unlike most cryptocurrencies that use computing power to "mine", Chia uses disk space on your hard drive for allocation. The income of a "miner" is directly proportional to the hard disk storage space. The larger the hard disk space, the higher the mining efficiency.

With the popularity of Chia currency, the demand for hard disks has increased, and hard disk prices have increased across the board. The hardest hit area is the 6T and above enterprise disks that are most suitable for mining.

When enterprise-grade hard drives are out of stock, some people resort to the next best thing and buy surveillance-grade hard drives, which heats up the related market. The shortage of mechanical hard drives has also driven up the price of solid-state drives, with ordinary solid-state drives generally rising by one to two hundred yuan.

Income is questionable and huge resources are wasted

"Now ordinary consumers cannot purchase related products at normal and low prices; at the same time, this problem has also led to a large-scale waste of scientific research funds in all levels and professional laboratories that need to purchase computer graphics cards." On the website of the State Administration for Market Regulation, many consumers left messages to complain.

However, regulatory authorities have no way to intervene in this wave of price increases caused by market supply and demand. The State Administration for Market Regulation has made it clear that graphics card prices are market-regulated prices, and operators can independently set prices and implement clearly marked prices. If the operator implements extra-price increases without notifying or marking them in advance, it will be suspected of price violations.

The huge waste of physical resources has made the behavior of “mining” widely criticized.

The Bitcoin power consumption index published by foreign researchers shows that the annual power consumption of Bitcoin mining is approximately 121.36 terawatt hours (1 terawatt hour is 1 billion kilowatt hours of electricity). This number has exceeded the annual power consumption of 12 African countries. To this end, the founder of Chia Coin proposed to create a more environmentally friendly virtual currency system and use idle hard disk space for "green" mining.

However, the irony is that due to the profitability, "miners" bought hard drives aggressively after the launch of Chia currency, and agents and dealers hoarded them, further pushing up the price.

A large number of graphics cards and hard drives are consumed, can it bring expected benefits?

Xuan Jiyou, director of Qianmen Asset Investment Research, said that “mining” is definitely not suitable for ordinary investors. Seven ministries including the central bank have made it clear that digital token issuance is essentially an act of illegal public financing without approval. “This means that if there is an investment dispute similar to Bitcoin in the future, you will not be able to obtain compensation or be protected by national laws and regulations.”

According to the industry, Bitcoin “mining” has long been grouped, and according to the rules, the efficiency of currency issuance is already about 25% of the past. This means that the difficulty of mining continues to rise, and it is difficult for ordinary people to have the opportunity to obtain expected profits.

In addition, there is currently no theoretical support for the value of digital currency. Once the currency price collapses, investors will lose all their money.

) On the other hand, the crypto faithful who turned SBF (Singapore Business Federation) into a pseudo-savior of billionaires also cheered his conviction, declaring the verdict a belated cleansing of a bad apple.

In the weeks following the verdict, U.S. authorities achieved another major law enforcement victory. Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, the founder of the most popular cryptocurrency trading platform Binance, pleaded guilty as part of a $4 billion settlement. Faryar, chief policy officer at Coinbase “2023 will be a bad year for scammers and a good year for builders,” said Shirzad. “We’re going into 2024 and a lot of the worst scammers will be out of business, which is a good thing. In the two weeks after Changpeng Zhao (CZ) pleaded guilty, Bitcoin surged 23% to $44,000 — its highest level in 18 months, as investors look forward to more positive news.

Bitcoin bulls dig deep

The main event for cryptocurrency in 2024 could come as early as next month, when U.S. regulators are expected to approve the first applications of cryptocurrencies. Spot Bitcoin ETF (Exchange TRDE Fund) exchange-traded fund, or exchange-traded fund, in the US market.

Simply put, a spot Bitcoin ETF (Exchange Trade Fund) allows investors to track the price of Bitcoin without actually owning the digital currency. This appeals to mainstream investors for several reasons. First, it gives everyday investors wary of cryptocurrencies a relatively safe way to test the waters of this notoriously volatile market.

ETFs (Exchange Trade Funds) are also traded on traditional stock exchanges, which means investors can access them through their reliable broker rather than creating a new account in the crypto universe. Of course, the prospect of regulatory oversight adds another layer of protection and transparency.

The upshot: There could soon be a flood of new money flowing into Bitcoin. Even more optimistic: Bitcoin’s halving, or scarier “halving.” While this is typically a buy-the-hype-sell news event, Bitcoin's halving does push Bitcoin higher. At its core, Bitcoin is a finite asset, and every four years the number of new coins that can enter circulation is algorithmically reduced by half (hence the name).

"The 'halving' is the ultimate geeky event for Bitcoin users in 2024," Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of crypto lender Nexo, said in a statement. "So if history repeats itself… we may have to wait until sometime in 2025 to see Bitcoin peak, with 2024 becoming the main event main course."

Trenchev said that the approval of a spot ETF (Exchange Trade Fund) and the expected halving in the spring will push the Bitcoin price to $100,000, which is 45% higher than the all-time high of $69,000 set in November 2021.

“The road to $100,000 will be filled with unexpected potholes and double-digit Bitcoin drops,” Trenchev said. “To paraphrase one of the biggest naysayers, Warren Buffett, ‘move money from the impatient to the patient.’”

If you want a more optimistic prediction, look no further than Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital and a long-time Bitcoin evangelist.

“Bitcoin ended the year at $140,000,” he told digital news outlet Semafor

Old man translation

Bitauto News On February 9, Ferrari officially announced that its new pure electric sports car will be named Luce and unveiled the new car’s interior design concept. Luce means "light" or "illumination" in Italian. As the latest and most important model among Ferrari's mass-produced models, Ferrari Luce adopts a new naming strategy, which fully demonstrates the Prancing Horse brand's firm belief in focusing on the future.

The Ferrari Luce cockpit is shaped as a pure and complete space, and its shape is carefully optimized around the driving experience, creating a quiet, focused and spacious cockpit atmosphere. Thanks to the simultaneous development of hardware and software, the physical architecture and human-computer interaction interface are perfectly integrated. Core components such as the instrument panel, control panel and center console are clearly laid out based on the logic of "input" (control) and "output" (display).

The Ferrari Luce's steering wheel design pays homage to Ferrari's rich heritage while also incorporating modern innovation. The design team chose a simple three-spoke steering wheel shape to reinterpret the classic wooden three-spoke Nardi steering wheel from the 1950s and 1960s. The aluminum alloy spokes of the steering wheel are exposed and carefully processed to enhance their visual presence, thereby highlighting the strength and luster of the material itself. This alloy material developed specifically for Ferrari Luce is made of 100% recycled aluminum alloy. It not only has excellent mechanical strength, but also provides ideal conditions for the use of anodizing processes. The entire steering wheel is assembled from 19 components precisely machined by CNC machines. The overall weight is 400 grams lighter than the standard Ferrari steering wheel.

The control buttons on the steering wheel are carefully laid out and divided into two independent physical control areas. While taking into account functionality, they present a clear and distinct visual effect. This intuitive design also echoes the control layout of an F1 single-seat racing car. Each button has been carefully developed and completed more than 20 evaluation tests by Ferrari test drivers to ensure a harmonious unity of mechanical feedback and auditory feedback.

Ferrari Luce is equipped with three displays, namely the driver's side instrument panel, control panel and rear control panel. The three displays are carefully designed to ensure clear and orderly interfaces and clear functions. The project team invested a lot of energy and carefully considered the combination logic of input (control) and output (display) to ensure an intuitive and convenient user experience. In addition, Ferrari drew inspiration from classic brand fonts and Italian engineering font styles to design a low-key and novel custom font for the new car, injecting a unified text style into the interactive interface and overall vision.

The shape design of the instrument panel draws on representative masterpieces such as Veglia and Jaeger from the 1950s and 1960s. The core of this design concept is to reduce the driver's cognitive load as much as possible. The designers drew on the design logic of mechanical watch dials that are simple and intuitive, making it easy to read time quickly, and strive to make the control buttons and display interface of the new car achieve the same intuitive effect. All visual elements follow clear and concise design principles, allowing drivers to access key information quickly and easily, ensuring their attention remains focused on the road ahead.

The central control screen of the new car is installed on a ball joint that can rotate in multiple directions, allowing the screen to be freely turned towards the driver or passengers. In addition, the palm rest area specially designed for the control panel allows the driver to perform precise operations intuitively without visual inspection, further optimizing the interactive experience.

Based on LoveFrom’s groundbreaking design concept, Ferrari Luce’s interactive interface focuses on clear tactile feedback, clear visual presentation and intuitive operation logic. The design team prioritized the use of tactile physical control buttons to establish a close connection between the driver and the vehicle. Ferrari Luce completely breaks the industry convention that "pure electric vehicles must be equipped with large-size touch screens". Instead, it uses precision-tuned mechanical control buttons to bring an intuitive and pleasant control experience, making every human-vehicle interaction more concise and to the point. The interactive interface of Ferrari Luce draws inspiration from classic sports cars and F1 single-seat racing cars. Each component is clearly and reasonably laid out, eliminating redundancy and focusing only on core functions.

The multi-function display in the central display screen is equipped with a patented movement, and three independent motors drive the pointers to operate independently. Three anodized aluminum hands glide smoothly over the minimalist dial, which is covered with a Corning® Fusion5® glass cover. With the help of an advanced electronic control system, the display offers four modes: clock, chronograph, compass and ejection start.

The shift mechanism of the new car is made of Corning® Fusion5® glass, which combines functionality, sturdiness and elegant form. The glass manufacturing process used is also used in the automotive interior field for the first time. In order to meet Ferrari's strict requirements for precision, engineers used laser technology to drill microscopic holes in the glass that are only half the thickness of a hair, and accurately filled in ink to ensure that the surface graphics present a uniform and perfect color texture. Fusion5 glass has better surface durability, impact resistance and scratch resistance than traditional glass. It has been applied to the control panel, instrument panel and central control area surface of new cars.

Former Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive: Touchscreens are not suitable as the main interaction method in cars

If we look at the expectation of interest rate cuts + the halving of Bitcoin's cyclical supply + the damage to the US dollar's credit + the regulatory friendliness of the Trump administration, it has supported the rise of cryptocurrencies from 2022 to the present.

As of June 23, the cryptocurrency market reached $3.3 trillion, an increase of nearly three times since 2023. Among them, the most well-known one, Bitcoin, which is the largest and contributes more than 60% of the market value, has also risen from less than 30,000 US dollars in mid-2023 to more than 100,000 US dollars today.

What does $3.3 trillion mean? It is equivalent to 3% of global GDP. If the overall crypto-assets are regarded as a national economy or a company called Crypto, then:

The current crypto-assets are equivalent to the economic level of an upper-middle-class developed country, beating France to rank 7th in the world;

It is also a company that has surpassed Apple (3 trillion) and become the third largest company in the world by market capitalization. Microsoft and Nvidia, which are at the top, have about 3.6 trillion. With the current trend, Crypto will become the global leader in just a short time.

Therefore, from the perspective of global asset allocation, cryptocurrency assets are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, and Mr. Dolphin decided to start tracking them.

Considering that regulation is still the biggest influencing factor at the moment and is still in the middle zone from strict to relaxed, we give priority to leading companies with good business models and high compliance attributes to conduct research.

The crypto asset series starts with $Coinbase(COIN.US). This article will mainly discuss Coinbase’s business model and the core logic of future growth. The next article will focus on stablecoins and calculate the future value of Coinbase and $Circle(CRCL.US).

The following is a detailed analysis

1. The exchange is not the end

If "cryptocurrency" is regarded as the target of a listed company in the stock market, or a commodity contract in the commodity market, then Coinbase is the New York Stock Exchange or CME Group. Its most basic function is to provide cryptocurrency quotations, matching, settlement and other exchange functions.

But unlike tradition, Coinbase has also seized the role of a "broker" – that is, it can directly face investors and provide services such as trading, lending, custody, staking, and cash withdrawals.

With the improvement of infrastructure such as digital wallets and merchant ecology, Coinbase quickly promoted payment scenarios mainly based on BTC. In 2019, it cooperated with Visa to launch Coinbase Card, allowing users to purchase physical goods with cards offline/online. However, an important reason for the slow promotion of payment scenarios is that the value of cryptocurrency fluctuates too much. Therefore, only after the stablecoin comes out and gets official recognition, Coinbase's payment scenario is expected to be truly promoted.

In addition to trading and payments, Coinbase is also applying for an equity token trading platform. Once approved by the SEC, it means that you can also invest in stocks indirectly on Coinbase.

At this point, Coinbase has a clearer blueprint for its future business landscape, which is to accelerate the listing of real assets on the chain and strive to create an on-chain comprehensive financial scenario platform, not just a pure cryptocurrency exchange.

Mr. Dolphin believes that payment and investment are key operations to expand the application scenarios of cryptocurrency, and the extension of scenarios means the expansion of the entire cryptocurrency market, which will also make more money for Coinbase, a "water seller."

In the cryptocurrency market, the existence of trading platforms such as Coinbase not only shortens the entire industry chain vertically, but also quickly and horizontally spans multiple demand scenarios. This is partly due to insufficient supervision of cryptocurrency in the past and the convenience of business expansion. For a leader like Coinbase, which is relatively top-notch in terms of scale and compliance, more penetration of supervision in the future will only help it eliminate potential opponents.

Therefore, we can naturally think that Coinbase should receive more profit distribution.

That's true, but Coinbase's performance has been inconsistent due to the high volatility of the cryptocurrency market. However, excluding the impact of special periods (such as listings, acquisitions, etc. that disturb short-term profit margins), profitability (measured by profit margins) in normal periods is still basically distributed in the range of 25% to 65%. Although the span is large, it can basically benchmark against mature traditional financial institutions.

Judging from the situation in 2024, Coinbase's profit margin is close to that of low-discount/commission-free brokers such as Robinhood, but lower than that of pure exchanges, indicating that it has not fully reflected the exchanges and more profit margins brought by the advantages of the industrial chain.

In the future, as crypto assets gain more universal recognition and continue to grow in the virtual currency market, as long as Coinbase's competitive position is stable, its profit margin upper limit will gradually be opened. In the end, Dolphin believes that it can reach a profit level that is more advantageous than traditional financial institutions.

2. Compliance advantages open up imagination space beyond “transaction”

So what kind of competitive environment does Coinbase face? Mr. Dolphin discussed the basic business and business model of Coinbase while sorting it out.

Looking directly at the figure below, from the perspective of revenue contribution categories, Coinbase has three main sources of revenue: transaction revenue, subscription revenue, and others.

Among them, trading revenue is highly susceptible to the impact of trading conditions, but it is also Coinbase’s current revenue generator, accounting for 50%. Subscription income and others (including custody settlement, staking, stablecoin, data/cloud, and company investment income, etc.) are more like a lubricant. Since the growth is relatively stable, it can slightly smooth the fluctuations in trading income.

But an obvious trend is that as scenarios broaden, competition intensifies, and the structure of incremental funding sources changes, Coinbase will become less and less dependent on transaction revenue in the future.

1. Transaction thresholds will gradually be lowered

Compared with its peers, Coinbase's product advantages are compliance and security, but its disadvantages are high handling fees for retail investors and a shortage of derivatives trading varieties. However, due to these two shortcomings, Coinbase has been rapidly catching up with its peers in the past 1-2 years.

Source: CoinDesk

Coinbase currently operates three exchanges, Coinbase Exchange for spot trading, Coinbase International Exchange (CIE) for non-U.S. professional individuals and institutional transactions, and Coinbase Derivatives Exchange (CDE), a derivatives exchange transformed through the acquisition of FairX.

The above three exchanges cover the vast majority of nearly 300 cryptocurrencies currently in the market. In the US spot trading market, Coinbase is the absolute leader in terms of product coverage (compliance thresholds prevent peers from launching long-tail currencies on a large scale). But if you look at global regions and include derivatives transactions, the trading types covered by Coinbase are not at the top. For example, the gap with Binance and Bybit is obvious.

In addition to the range of trading instruments, the biggest difference in Coinbase trading includes transaction costs. Like traditional securities trading, Coinbase’s trading fees are based on trade size and a certain (tiered) rate. For example, the figure below shows the fee details of Taker (quick order taker) traders. Maker (pending order) traders' fees are generally lower than Taker:

For ordinary retail investors, the above-mentioned different transaction methods (simple transaction, advanced transaction, Coinbase one transaction) have different transaction costs. User transaction cost = "transaction rate + official hidden spread":

1) The transaction cost for retail investors can be as low as 0.05% and as high as 2.5% (at the end of 2022, for retail investors’ transactions of more than US$200, the transaction rate will be reduced from 1.49% to a maximum of 0.6%).

2) For institutional users using Prime or Exchange VIP levels, the rate quotation is in the range of 0.03%-0.18%.

If we look directly at the comprehensive rates reflected in the final financial report, the transaction rates (including spread) for retail investors and institutions are 1.49% and 0.03% respectively. Compared with peers (especially exchange peers), this charging level is mainly for retail investors, and Coinbase does not have an advantage.

Taking Binance as an example, the highest-level fee rate for retail spot transactions is 0.1%, which is only 1/6 of Coinbase (after the Coinbase price reduction in 2023). If you use BNB (Binance Coin) to pay the handling fee, then this rate can be discounted by 25%.

As shown in the figure below, among other platforms that can trade cryptocurrencies, those with exchange attributes are cheaper than Coinbase. Other platforms that are mainly payment institutions will be more expensive. The transaction fees of discount brokers are also lower than Coinbase.

Coinbase has already had a fee reduction in August 2022, when Advanced Trade was launched. For users with a transaction volume of less than 10K in the past 30 days, the transaction cost (transaction fees Taker 0.6%, Maker 0.4%, basically no hidden spread) is less than half of Simple Trade (1.49% + about 0.5%spread).

The small number of trading varieties (mainly derivatives) and high transaction costs can easily affect retail investors’ enthusiasm for trading. Although the Coinbase platform has the largest number of cryptocurrency assets in the world (12% AUC), Coinbase only accounts for 5% in terms of transaction size. This is only for spot prices. If derivatives transactions are included, Coinbase’s total transaction size will be directly outside the TOP10.

Only in the United States, due to license compliance issues, Coinbase can dominate the market, accounting for more than 50% of the country's spot trading volume.

Why is Coinbase’s asset volume high, but its transaction size not large enough?

The problem lies in the turnover rate. Coinbase is significantly lower than its peers, and it does not have the high risk and high volatility characteristics of withdrawing crypto assets. But the turnover rate is just an appearance. Behind it is the difference in capital structure (user attributes), and user attributes are essentially caused by product features/advantages and disadvantages.

A common trading feature is that for current cryptocurrencies, the proportion of retail investors aiming for long-term asset allocation is constantly growing, and this group of users naturally trades at a low frequency. Currently, most institutions still use high-frequency trading to quantify fluctuation returns, but as mainstream funds are accelerating their entry, the overall trading frequency of institutions will decrease in the future.

Due to the limited number of trading varieties and higher transaction costs on Coinbase, it is not very attractive to high-frequency trading retail investors. However, its compliance and security have attracted high-net-worth retail investors with long-term allocations, as well as mainstream funds that also have strict compliance requirements for investment custody, both of which belong to low-frequency trading groups.

Of course, Coinbase is also very aware of its trading disadvantages and is working hard to catch up with its peers.

Regarding the problem of few trading varieties, Coinbase has accelerated the launch of new currency transactions and announced the acquisition of Deribit (the world's largest cryptocurrency options and futures trading platform) in early May to make up for its lack of derivatives trading varieties and related institutional customers. (For details about Deribit, Dolphin will discuss it after the Q2 financial report merges with Deribit)

Regarding the issue of high transaction costs, in fact, this is associated with the transaction scale. In the short term, Coinbase transaction fees remain high. In addition to bearing additional compliance costs and other technical fees (such as Base development costs), it may also be due to the low transaction scale, which makes it reluctant to lower the price to the bottom when "cutting oneself".

But from a longer-term perspective, Dolphin believes that Coinbase’s “price cuts” will continue soon.

(1) Relaxation of compliance, internal clearance, and intensified external competition

In the future, competition will not be limited to intra-industry competition among crypto asset exchanges. The growing threat will also come from external competition from traditional financial institutions.

In terms of current competition in the industry, Coinbase's main advantage is "compliance", especially in the US market. The key to Coinbase being the only publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange is that it was also the first to gain access to operate throughout the United States.

But the opposite of "compliance" is that it does not have an advantage in the types of trading assets (cryptocurrency types, derivative types). However, since 2025, with the active "platform" of the Trump administration, cryptocurrency has gradually been recognized by more mainstream officials.

The main method of “recognition” is to include it in the category of “friendly regulation” for non-suppressive purposes, of which the U.S. Market Structure Act and Stable Coin Act are the main drivers.

The Market Structure Act passed by the House of Representatives gives the CFTC exclusive jurisdiction over spot cryptocurrencies. If it continues to pass the Senate vote and the presidential signature and takes effect, it will mean the end of the jurisdictional dispute between the SEC and the CFTC.

The advantage of being regulated by the CFTC instead of the SEC is that it is more convenient to regulate:

1) No need to apply for an additional license (ATS+BD); 2) Reduce liquidation costs; 3) No information disclosure is required one by one for the listing of new tokens;

Under the jurisdiction of the CFTC, cryptocurrency exchanges that make derivatives only need to register with the broker, while those who make spot transactions do not even need to register with the CFTC. This not only saves high compliance costs (legal affairs, auditing, etc.), but also eliminates the need to modify the existing system to connect to the NMS-level clearing pipeline.

It is naturally a good thing that regulation is increasingly recognizing crypto assets. As more funds pour into the cryptocurrency market, leaders such as Coinbase that have done a good job in compliance will directly benefit, and long-tail small platforms will continue to clear out.

But at the same time, official recognition will also push traditional financial institutions to start boldly accelerating transformation. Especially some platforms that rely on business innovation to make breakthroughs will be more responsive to decisions at the forefront of the industry.

For retail users, such as brokerage Robinhood, or payment wallet Block, etc. The two platforms have supported the purchase and sale of cryptocurrency many years ago, and subsequently expanded into areas such as "merchant payment" by improving "investment scenarios". However, in view of compliance and security requirements, traditional financial institutions mainly focus on the top cryptocurrencies BTC, ETH, etc. "Fewer trading varieties" is their most obvious disadvantage facing the Coinbase platform.

However, as cryptocurrencies become more widely recognized, it is reasonable to imagine that traditional financial institutions will be more motivated to expand the scope of cryptocurrencies. These platforms with their own user and scenario advantages will compete more directly with Coinbase.

(2) More funds flow into institutions

Another impact of regulatory recognition is the change in the way capital flows. In the past, institutions involved in cryptocurrency market transactions mainly relied on the quantification of fluctuating returns. Mainstream institutions would have limited allocation scale due to compliance issues. However, as regulatory restrictions are opened, the participation of mainstream institutions will further increase in the future.

So for new retail investors, the way to allocate cryptocurrency may not necessarily require "in person". From the perspective of fund security and convenience, allocation can be done by investing in institutional funds.

Therefore, the market share of pure retail transactions will further shrink, and competition will not decrease but increase, and fee reduction will also become the only way for Coinbase.

2. Future added value will come from the expansion of on-chain scenarios

As of 1Q25, Coinbase's retail transaction revenue (transaction fees + spread) accounted for 92% of transaction revenue and 57% of total revenue. At the same time, the marginal profit brought by transactions is also very high, so if the fee reduction cannot immediately bring a significant increase in transaction size, then the fee reduction will have a very large impact on Coinbase's overall performance.

But since it is a major trend that cannot be changed, this means that developing non-trading income is crucial now and in the future.

Currently, Coinbase's non-trading revenue mainly refers to subscription revenue from comprehensive finance including custody, staking, stablecoins, and lending. For this part of the functional requirements, in addition to the development of payment scenarios, which relies more on retail users, the requirements for other scenarios mainly come from users with relatively large funds, so the service targets are mainly institutional customers.

Therefore, lowering the threshold for capital entry with lower transaction fees and expanding added value through comprehensive financial services are the reasons why Coinbase is more willing to go all the way to lower institutional transaction rates (to bring them in line with peer levels).

Let’s take a closer look at the segmented businesses that currently account for a relatively large proportion of the subscription business and will be able to simultaneously expand revenue scale as institutions enter the market in the future:

(1) Institutional custody: the easiest value-added service to develop

Fund custody is generally derived from trading business and is mainly for institutional customers. It provides services such as cold storage of cryptocurrency, 24*7 withdrawal process, insurance, auditing and compliance reconciliation reports. The calculated comprehensive custody fee is around 0.1%. (It will no longer be disclosed separately from the first quarter of 2025. The figure below shows Dolphin’s estimated value)

As rates are basically stable, the growth of custody revenue is mainly driven by the expansion of the institution's capital scale. For institutions, Coinbase’s compliance advantage is the first factor they consider when considering a platform. Therefore, for Coinbase, as long as the regulatory trend continues to be relaxed in the future, this revenue growth can continue.

But it will also face the problem of external competition in the long term. When traditional financial institutions that are more compliant and have cross-market assets are "dimensionally reduced", how can Coinbase attract more mainstream funds?

(2) Pledge income: There is a ceiling for mid- to long-term growth

Before joining hands with Circle in 2022, the largest source of Coinbase's non-trading business was crypto asset staking, which once accounted for nearly 13% of total revenue.

Crypto-asset pledge income is similar to the income gained by users investing in crypto-assets in mining projects (becoming a verifier of a mainstream PoS public chain), in which Coinbase shares a custody service fee. After Coinbase receives the revenue from the front-end, 25% of the money is retained by Coinbase, and the remainder is given to users.

The staking yield can vary greatly between different currencies, and is usually related to the stability of the currency's currency value, the inflation rate (the proportion of supply increase), and the degree of crowding (total pledge amount) competing to become validators.

The staking yield of leading cryptocurrencies is generally low, mainly because their supply is fixed or decreasing. However, due to the relatively stable currency value, the competition for validators to "employ" is too crowded. Since you need to have more "margin" (pledged assets) to become a validator, the income from single-coin staking will be diluted.

As shown in the figure below, the Ethereum pledge return rate of the top ETH is 3.4%~4.5%, but the return rate of the small currency DOT Polkadot is 12%~15%.

In the short term, pledge income will basically expand with the expansion of the scale of pledged assets. However, in the medium to long term, when the supply is relatively limited, the block production rate of high-quality cryptocurrencies will trend downward. Even if the block production rate of low-quality/niche cryptocurrencies is high, the currency value may not be high or fluctuate. After the staking incentives are actually converted into U.S. dollar values, the actual staking yield is actually not high. Therefore, this trend will limit the long-term growth space of pledge business income.

It seems that (1)-(2), Coinbase’s subscription business, with the expansion of the cryptocurrency market pie and stable competitive advantages (security, compliance, official website) in the short and medium term, there is no need to worry about growth. However, if traditional institutions accelerate their demise in the long term, what is the reason why Coinbase can still be regarded as the “preferred” among mainstream institutions?

The answer is (3) stable currency business. On the one hand, the cryptocurrency pie will be enlarged. With official recognition, real assets will be uploaded to the chain faster. Funds will no longer flow into the cryptocurrency market due to speculative demand, but will become a more stable payment and store of value. On the other hand, Coinbase's excess advantage comes from its current special position in the USDC industry chain.

Therefore, the stablecoin business, which accounts for 15% of revenue, is the main artery for Coinbase's future growth, and is also the key to determining whether Coinbase's valuation has been reached. At present, Coinbase's comprehensive share ratio in the stablecoin business reaches 55%, but the actual USDC holdings on the platform only account for 17%. It is obvious that Coinbase has a "privilege".

But the problem is that part of Coinbase’s special position on stablecoins stems from its deep tie to Circle. However, the interests of both parties are not entirely consistent. Based on user demand, Coinbase may provide similar distribution facilities to USDT, another stablecoin with a larger market size. After Circle is listed, it will also demand growth in revenue, thereby trying to obtain a larger share ratio.

These business differences, as far as Coinbase currently has a small amount of equity investment in Circle (the Center alliance, in which both parties held 50-50 shares in the early days, was disbanded in 2023, and the USDC issuance rights were vested in Circle), it is difficult to guarantee that the expansion of the differences will not affect the cooperation between the two parties:

For example, at the end of last year, Binance, a competitor of Coinbase, was introduced into ecological cooperation. Although Binance's share is very low and almost negligible, it actually weakens Coinbase's competitive advantage due to USDC.

In addition, Circle is also increasing its share of total revenue by grabbing USDC balances (rebates through its Mint wallet to encourage market makers and local payment companies to keep funds to be issued in Mint instead of exchange wallets), and by expanding the demand scenarios that must be connected to issuers (such as cross-chain bridges, Tokenized T-Bills, and traditional clearing).

The 2023 agreement has an agreed period of 7 years, that is, before 2030, the sharing of interests between the two may not change much. Enlarging the USDC cake is certainly a top priority (the scarcity of Circle begins to be questioned after a 6-fold increase), but what about after seven years?

With the expected market size of trillions, how much can USDC get? In the USDC ecosystem, Coinbase and Circle, one owns the scenario side and the other controls the issuance side. In the end, who will have more say? In other words, who has greater value in the future, Coinbase or Circle? In the next article, Mr. Dolphin will focus on the discussion around stablecoins.

Risk disclosure and statement of this article: Dolphin Investment Research Disclaimer and General Disclosure

Recently, Ferrari officially announced that its first pure electric model is officially named “Luce”, and also announced the interior and interactive design of the new car. The model name “Luce” means “light” or “illumination” in Italian, and it also carries Ferrari’s brand vision for the future. It is reported that the new car will officially debut in Italy on May 25, 2026.

It is worth mentioning that the interior design of the car was led by the LoveFrom team, which was co-founded by Jony Ive, the former chief design officer of Apple, and the former vice president of design of Apple. In Luce’s design, Ferrari gave LoveFrom ample creative space, allowing it to lead the overall design direction from the beginning of the new car project, using a new cross-disciplinary design language to interpret the pure Ferrari experience.

Talking about the interior of the new car itself, Luce’s interior design is really eye-catching. The overall design adopts a nostalgic retro style. For example, the design of the three-spoke steering wheel is a tribute to the classic wooden three-spoke Nardi steering wheel of the 1950s and 1960s. However, two functional modules are embedded on the steering wheel body, which is divided into two independent physical control areas. This intuitive design echoes the control layout of the F1 single-seat racing car.

Luce’s instrument panel and steering wheel can rotate synchronously, which not only optimizes the driver’s field of vision for reading information, but also improves driving concentration and control performance. This is also the first time Ferrari has used an instrument panel integrated into the steering column in a production model. The instrument panel uses two overlapping OLED displays, which bring an unprecedented visual experience with clear picture quality, vivid colors and high contrast. The entire instrument panel integrates digital and physical elements into a separate module and is fixed on the steering column. It can move synchronously with the steering wheel’s angle adjustment and up-and-down telescoping to achieve seamless interaction.

In order to pursue the ultimate presentation of details, the Ferrari design team and Samsung Display engineers jointly developed an ultra-light and ultra-thin OLED panel, and pioneered the design of three large-sized openings on the panel, so that the information on the second rear display can be clearly displayed through the openings, creating a deep visual hierarchy. Each opening is covered with a transparent glass lens, which not only plays a protective role, but also further enhances the three-dimensional sense. The opening is also decorated with an anodized aluminum ring, creating just the right visual balance and harmoniously echoing the design style of the entire dashboard structure.

The control panel is mounted on a multi-directional ball joint, allowing the screen to be freely rotated towards the driver or passenger, aiming to enhance the shared experience in the cabin. In addition, the palm rest area specially designed for the control panel allows the driver to perform precise operations intuitively without visual inspection, further optimizing the interactive experience. This design philosophy of naturally integrating complex engineering into simple forms is the team’s ultimate interpretation of the concept of “reducing complexity into simplicity”.

The multi-function display integrated into the central display screen is a model in the field of micro-engineering. This display, which symbolizes precision and innovation, is equipped with a patented movement, and three independent motors drive the hands to operate independently. Three anodized aluminum hands glide smoothly over the minimalist dial, which is covered with a Corning Fusion5 glass cover. With the help of an advanced electronic control system, the display offers four modes: clock, chronograph, compass and ejection start. The dynamic transition effect between modes is reminiscent of the sophisticated texture of a high-end chronograph. The overall design not only pays tribute to Ferrari’s historical heritage, but also redefines the driving experience by integrating watchmaking craftsmanship and cutting-edge technology, vividly interpreting the Prancing Horse brand’s unremitting pursuit of passion and excellence.

The shift mechanism is made of Corning Fusion5 glass, which combines functionality, sturdiness and elegant form. It can be called an ingenious work that combines technology and art. The glass manufacturing process used is also used in the automotive interior field for the first time. In order to meet Ferrari’s strict requirements for precision, engineers used laser technology to drill microscopic holes in the glass that are only half the thickness of a hair, and accurately filled in ink to ensure that the surface graphics present a uniform and perfect color texture. Fusion5 glass has better surface durability, impact resistance and scratch resistance than traditional glass. It has been applied to the control panel, instrument panel and central control area surface of new cars. (Compiled/Graduated from Autohome)

Ferrari has officially named its first all-electric model Ferrari Luce, opening a new chapter in the electric era for the Maranello brand. Although the appearance won't be revealed until May, the brand has taken the lead in unveiling a subversive cockpit concept jointly created by LoveFrom's Sir Jony Ive and Marc Newson. This collaboration boldly deviates from the current industry mainstream and returns the focus to real touch and material aesthetics, rather than blindly catering to the "screen-based" trend that can be seen everywhere in contemporary luxury electric vehicles.

This cockpit architecture draws heavily on inspiration from the fields of avionics and fine watchmaking to create a “concrete and participatory” interactive space. The central 12.86-inch instrument is presented in the form of solid aluminum hands superimposed on a high-contrast OLED display, which cleverly combines classic mechanical charm with digital precision. The three-spoke steering wheel is made of 100% recycled aluminum alloy. The body completely abandons plastic parts and uses physical buttons to switch driving modes, deliberately staying away from the cold experience of capacitive touch panels.

On the technological level, Luce introduced Fusion5 glass developed in cooperation with Corning for the first time – a material that has never been used in the automotive field before. The 10.12-inch central screen realizes multi-angle adjustment through a universal ball structure, while the magnetic base treats the car key as the visual protagonist, and uses E Ink technology to make its color gradually change from yellow to black after being connected. In terms of performance, this pure electric sports car will be equipped with a "surging" power system of more than 1,000 bhp, ensuring that the electrification transformation does not sacrifice the driving passion. More interior details can be found above. Ferrari Luce plans to complete the world debut of the complete vehicle appearance in May 2026.

Editor|Yang Shufang

The recent currency circle is destined to be unstable. On the one hand, the hacking incident occurred again, and on the other hand, the originally loose Japanese and American supervision suddenly tightened.

On the evening of March 7, Binance was hacked, which triggered an overall decline in digital currencies. Subsequently, various speculations and interpretations began to appear. There were many discussions about Binance's rollback technology and doubts about self-imposed theft. Technical theories and conspiracy theories were intertwined, making it difficult to distinguish the true from the false.

The price of Bitcoin soon fell below $10,000, then fell below $9,000 again, and repeatedly tested around 9,000. As of now, the price of Bitcoin is around US$9,200, which is approximately RMB 58,000.

The bad news doesn't stop there. Starting from March 8, news came from Japan and the United States that they will further strengthen the supervision of virtual digital currencies represented by Bitcoin.

In the history of virtual digital currency transactions, hackers have frequently stolen coins. The devil is as good as the devil, and most hacker and coin theft incidents end with the hacker succeeding. But Binance is different this time.

According to Binance, hackers have been using third-party phishing websites to steal users’ account login information for a long time. The earliest accounts that were phished can be traced back to early January, but most accounts were phished by the unicode Binance domain name around February 22. After obtaining the account, the trading API was automatically created and then lurked until yesterday.

During the two minutes of the hacker's operation, he first used the stolen API Key to programmatically place market price buy orders in the VIA/BTC trading market, and at the same time, 31 accounts that had pre-charged VIA coins sold VIA at a high price. I originally wanted to input BTC into 31 pre-prepared accounts and quickly withdraw BTC, but abnormal transactions triggered risk control, causing withdrawals to be suspended. VIA coins pre-deposited in 31 accounts were frozen, and the hacker's own coins were also detained.

Among them, rollback technology plays a key role. Rollback refers to the act of restoring a program or data to its last correct state due to program or data processing errors.

"Various ways can be used to compensate affected users, but rolling back transactions is unfair to those traders whose profits or losses have fluctuated significantly due to large fluctuations in transactions?" Ding Peng, chairman of the China Quantitative Investment Society, questioned the rollback of transactions in an interview with China Times.

He believes that Binance’s locking of transactions and prohibiting withdrawals shows that its risk control department responded quickly, but rolling back transactions is almost impossible for traditional capital markets. Because the hacker incident was an accident, accidents are also part of the market itself.

"It's like a casino owner can overturn a gambling game at any time and declare a gambling game invalid. Isn't this a very scary thing?" Ding Peng said that the biggest spirit of the blockchain is that data cannot be tampered with. When the platform invalidated the transaction, it tampered with its own transaction data, which obviously violated the spirit of the blockchain.

U.S. and Japan tighten regulations again

The decline in Bitcoin prices caused by hackers' stolen coins is slowly recovering, but the digital currency market is still sluggish amid the negative regulatory news from the United States and Japan.

On March 7, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that virtual digital currency trading platforms must register with the agency if their transactions meet the definition of securities. At the same time, entities operating alternative trading systems (ATS) are required to comply with regulatory requirements and register with the SEC as brokers.

The SEC warned, “Many online trading platforms appear to be registered and regulated with the SEC, but no exchange is actually registered with the SEC.”

Regarding the self-made rules and standards of some trading platforms, the SEC stated that these rules and standards have not been approved and supported by the SEC. It also stated that it will assist the new trading platform in complying with federal securities laws.

At the previous joint Senate hearing in February, the SEC chairman stated that he would formulate regulatory rules for virtual digital currency exchanges and investors, and stated that he would more strictly supervise initial digital coin offerings (ICOs).

At the same time, Japan, which has always been loose, has also tightened regulations on exchanges.

On March 8, the Japan Financial Services Agency issued seven fines, all of which were against virtual currency trading platforms. This strict supervision was caused by the recent theft of Coincheck, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in Japan's history, and supervision is systematically cracking down on cryptocurrency exchanges.

Currently, seven exchanges have received "administrative penalty notices". Among them, FSHO was required to suspend all virtual currency trading operations from March 8 to April 7, 2018, and five exchanges, Coincheck, Tech Bureau, GMO Coin, Bicrements and Mr. Exchange, were required to make rectifications.

The reason given by the Japan Financial Services Agency is that some exchanges’ internal audits and business operations have not complied with legal requirements, and the authenticity of operation and management cannot be ensured. Seven exchanges were ordered to adjust their management structures, improve anti-money laundering procedures, and provide feedback before March 22.