Chiliz, Klaytn Tokens Surge Over 10% on M&A Hopes, Bitcoin Listless

Smaller cryptocurrencies are having their moment as bitcoin [BTC] trades listless in the wake of the recent debut of spot ETFs in the U.S.

Of particular note are CHZ, the native token of the Chiliz network used to purchase Fan tokens on Socios.com and KLAY, the utility token of Layer 1 blockchain network Klaytn, which is backed by Korean internet giant Kakao.

In the past 24 hours, CHZ has rallied 10%, topping $0.11 for the first time since May last year, and KLAY has rallied 14.7% to $0.228, CoinDesk data shows. Bitcoin has been primarily directionless, exchanging hands between $42,500 and $43,500.

On Tuesday, Chiliz’s CEO, Alexandre Dreyfus, said on X that Chiliz will pursue an aggressive merger and acquisition (M&A) strategy this year to create enormous ecosystems combining existing tokens and networks.

Meanwhile, Klaytn and Web3-focused Finschia Foundation proposed to merge the two chains to create an Asian Web3 powerhouse. Finschia is a public mainnet successor to the LINE blockchain.

“The proposed merger will bring together South Korea and Japan’s leading blockchains to form an ecosystem of over 420 DApps. The new blockchain will inherit Klaytn and Finschia’s integration with Kakaotalk and LINE, creating a user base of over 250 million across Asia," Klaytn said in a social media post on Tuesday.

Holders of KLAY and Finschia’s FNSA token will be able to swap their holdings for a new coin to be created upon completion of the merger, Klaytn added, noting the new coin will have low inflation, a burning mechanism and a zero reserve strategy. (FNSA token has dropped 6% in the past 24 hours).

We weren’t joking when we said 2024 is going to be wild - we’ve just submitted a governance proposal to merge the #Klaytn and @finschia blockchains to create Asia’s largest Web3 ecosystem! Details below 🧵https://t.co/rNsqxxjBsj pic.twitter.com/mvJHPGdYof

— Klaytn (@klaytn_official) January 16, 2024