Daily Edition · Page 5

THE DAILY INDEX

Technology, AI, software, security, crypto and business

MARKETS & BUSINESS

TLDR Crypto

MONAD LABS IN TALKS TO RAISE MORE THAN $200 MILLION ROUND LED BY PARADIGM, VALUING THE JUMP CRYPTO–LINKED STARTUP AT $3 BILLION

Crypto venture firm Paradigm is leading a funding round for Monad Labs, a startup aiming to build an ‘Ethereum killer’. The deal, valuing Monad at $3 billion, includes over $200 million in funding, following the company’s $19 million seed round in February. If successful, it will be 2024's largest crypto fundraise to date. This not only shows that investors are interested in what Monad is building but also that VCs are starting to have an appetite for larger deals.

BASED ESPRESSO: AD-HOC SHARED SEQUENCING FOR ALL L2S, FROM BASED ROLLUPS TO VALIDIUMS

Espresso Systems is developing a marketplace for shared sequencing that will enable L2s on Ethereum to sell block space. The project aims to tackle the fragmentation that is happening in the Ethereum ecosystem without compromising the benefits of rollups and validiums, allowing for the unified and efficient execution of user intents across multiple chains. Espresso is also creating a decentralized finality gadget, HotShot, to improve transaction confirmation speeds and security. The goal of this is to facilitate greater interoperability and reduce transaction costs and latency for end-users.

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE ETH ETF DECISION IN MAY

While the crypto prediction platform, Polymarket, is putting the odds of an ETH ETF approval in May at a 24% chance, the author of this thread believes the chances are much higher. ETH continues to keep pace with BTC, even though BTC has had the benefit of incredibly strong ETF inflows. Regardless of whether or not the ETF is approved in May, the author of this thread is convinced that it will happen at some point and that the market is already attempting to account for that.

THE INTERNET OF AGENTS

This article discusses the prospects of combining blockchain infrastructure with AI agents. This could lead to an "Internet of Agents" where AI-driven activities are facilitated by blockchains’ cryptographic security, incentives, composability, and decentralization. Possible applications of this approach include AI prediction markets, user intent matching, action planning, and shared funds. However, there are potential risks such as the exposure of model vulnerabilities and the steep costs of implementing secure machine learning computations.

TLDR IndexPage 5