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This post critiques the SEC's settlement with eToro, highlighting the platform's structure, which involved contracts for difference (CFD) rather than direct crypto purchases. It argues that the SEC's press release misrepresented the situation by focusing on token removals instead of the actual issue — securities based on token prices — and calls for greater transparency in regulatory communications.
Vitalik Buterin believes rollups should be at stage 1 decentralization or higher by the end of 2024 and refuses to mention rollups that aren't secured by cryptographic trust.
Ether.Fi's season 3 airdrop starts on September 17th - participants have until the 15th to decide to claim their tokens on mainnet, Base, or Arbitrum.
Base daily transactions are approaching 5 million while the average transaction fee trends towards zero, indicating high adoption.
Bunni, a DEX built on Uniswap v4, introduces features like customizable liquidity curves, automated yield maximization, and dynamic fee structures.
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Surging demand for AI chips has made NVIDIA investors rich. Lithium might be next in line: demand is expected to grow 20x by 2040 as automakers go fully electric, far outstripping supply.
Sony Bank is planning to launch a Stable Yen on Sony's upcoming L2, Soneium. The experimental process to determine its legal status will last several months. The project's goal is to make money transfers faster and cheaper.
The U.K. government has introduced a bill to clarify the legal status of digital assets like crypto and NFTs. The bill will establish them as personal property, which will help with legal disputes and improve protections against fraud and scams. It introduces a new personal property category, strengthening legal clarity for digital asset ownership and protection.
Atlas, a blockchain focused on verifiable finance, merges the speed and performance of traditional finance with the transparency of DeFi. It is built on a custom Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) and settles on Ethereum for security. Atlas has launched its private testnet and is inviting developers to apply for access.
g8keep offers a platform for launching a token in just 30 seconds from your phone, making the token instantly tradable on all decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and safeguarded from bots and snipers. It streamlines token creation while ensuring security from automated trading exploits.
Technological and social developments are prereqs for advancements in DeFi, which mirror the gradual evolution of internet technologies from dial-up to high-speed broadband. The upcoming launch of Sonic aims to overcome several technological barriers in blockchain, such as latency and user onboarding, potentially enabling not only financial dapps, but also broader apps, similar to how credit scores revolutionized traditional finance.
These authors explore the challenges of Ethereum indexing, revealing how what seems like a simple task — tracking balances and transfers — becomes operationally complex due to issues with tracing, RPCs, and handling reorgs. They share lessons from their indexing journey, highlighting their latest streamlined setup, which filters and processes data before writing to a database, and propose a more efficient indexing solution for real-time and historical data.
Ethereum revenue has dropped 99% year-to-date, challenging the “ultrasound money” narrative that relies on fee burning for value accrual. The activity shift to L2 solutions has reduced fees and MEV revenue for the base layer, while the L2s retain most of the execution fees and sequencing rewards. Though some now advocate for its role as “programmatic money,” this stance faces competition from stablecoins and the potential abstraction of ETH as a gas token on L2s.
With restaking protocols like EigenLayer and Symbiotic expanding beyond ETH, new supply-demand dynamics are unfolding where yield-seeking behavior drives supply. However, the demand side faces challenges in justifying the use of restaked assets over native tokens. Restaking is a complementary feature, offering insurance and enhancement rather than core economic security. Developers will likely choose restaked assets based on functionality and ecosystem alignment.
India leads in Chainalysis' global crypto adoption index, ahead of countries like Nigeria and the USA.
Ethereum's primary value proposition is to provide robust digital property rights, making it a censorship-resistant settlement and data availability layer for rollups.
Despite relative high betting volumes on Polymarket, neither Trump nor Harris mentioned Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies during their presidential debate.
The Digital Chamber has urged Congress to clarify the legal status of NFTs, advocating for them to be classified as consumer goods rather than securities in response to the SEC's potential regulatory action against OpenSea. This comes after OpenSea received a Wells notice, which suggests the SEC might take enforcement steps, reflecting broader concerns over regulation in the NFT space.
The 2024 congressional elections are seen as pivotal for the future of crypto regulation, with much of the industry's political spending focused on key Senate and House races rather than the presidential election. The crypto sector is supporting candidates from both parties who favor innovation-friendly policies.
Tether, TRON, and TRM Labs have launched the T3 Financial Crime Unit (T3 FCU), a groundbreaking private sector initiative aimed at combating crypto-related crimes on the TRON blockchain, especially involving USDT. By combining blockchain intelligence and anti-crime expertise, the unit has already assisted law enforcement in freezing over $12 million linked to various scams, marking a proactive step in safeguarding the crypto ecosystem.
ENS (Ethereum Name Service) integration on PayPal and Venmo now allows US users to send crypto using ENS names instead of long wallet addresses, simplifying transactions and enhancing security. This feature will expand to more regions soon, promoting a more connected and user-friendly approach to crypto transfers.
"Based Rollups" could significantly boost demand for ETH by restructuring validator incentives. By allowing Layer 2 rollups to tap into Layer 1 validators for processing, validators can earn additional income, enhancing ETH staking returns without increasing supply, potentially driving long-term ETH value higher as Ethereum becomes more deflationary and yield remains competitive.
Hardware wallets, often misunderstood as long-term storage devices for private keys, actually serve to securely generate and use private keys for signing transactions, functioning like a mini air-gapped computer. They do not replace the need for a robust protocol for physically or digitally storing and recovering your private key, given that hardware wallets can fail and passwords may be lost.
Multicoin Capital has built a large position on Drift, the native token of a derivatives DEX on Solana, predicting substantial growth due to how it leverages "Open Finance". Drift's unique features, like dynamic AMM and decentralized order books, are expected to secure its position as a leader in decentralized finance, particularly in derivatives trading. Full details and projections are provided in a 25-page report, which provides a valuation model and price target for Drift.
Brian Armstrong, co-founder & CEO of Coinbase, highlights the impact of decentralized, low-cost, fast payment solutions like stablecoins on global finance, noting the potential to revolutionize everyday transactions and payments by reducing costs and increasing efficiency, similar to the drastic shift seen in the messaging industry.
Uniswap had over 9 million monthly active users in August, representing 60% of the DEX market share and only 4 million less than Robinhood.
Aave has re-enabled the feature that allows users to repay with collateral in their v3 markets.
The issue with Friendtech isn't just its failure - it's that the team launched a token, incentivized its adoption without accountability, profited from these incentives, and left investors with losses, all while not providing token holders any control over the generated revenue.
Ethereum Researcher Justin Drake says the long-term plan to scale the L1 limitlessly is to use SNARKs, a type of zero-knowledge cryptography.
A leaked video suggests that Chainalysis may have found ways to trace Monero (XMR) transactions and identify associated IP addresses, raising concerns about the privacy claims of the cryptocurrency. While Monero's team has not yet commented, some see the firm's efforts as potentially helping to improve the blockchain's security.
The TON network saw a sharp rise in activity following Telegram founder Pavel Durov's arrest, with daily transactions spiking by over 160% and active addresses hitting record highs. Despite this surge in usage, the TON token's price has plummeted by 30%, likely influenced by both the arrest and broader market conditions.
Rabby has launched "GasAccount", a mechanism that simplifies gas fee payments by allowing users to deposit USDT/USDC and automatically pay for gas on any network without holding gas tokens in their addresses. Transactions are processed in seconds with gas fees pre-estimated and charged in USD, with any unused gas remaining in the user's address without additional charges beyond a small transaction fee.
Ether.fi has partnered with Scroll_ZKP to make Scroll's platform the settlement layer for the new Ether.fi Cash credit card, which offers up to 8% cash back on transactions. The card is accepted wherever VISA is and also includes perks like a complimentary pass to the Token2049 conference for certain cardholders. It promises a blend of efficient, cost-effective onchain and real-world utility.
Blockchains have successfully created organic communities and cultures. Though some are purely driven by financial motives, the drama and sense of belonging cannot be overstated, with Ethereum and other chains providing a sense of social alignment. Blockchains are blank canvases for all of society's activities.
To effectively penetrate the Korean market, crypto projects should try to use the vast trading volume from Korea's major CEXs and engage with local media, advisory, and consulting firms. Tailoring marketing strategies to align with local preferences and trends and respecting the nuanced understanding of Korean investors, is crucial for establishing a strong presence.
Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), which aggregate and coordinate small-scale energy resources across homes and businesses, are emerging as a potential solution to bridge the growing energy supply-demand gap in the US and China. Though they have enormous potential and government support, the market remains nascent, with current projects connecting less than 0.25% of US households. Crypto-enabled DePIN solutions could accelerate adoption with network effects and incentivize participation.
EF researcher Justin Drake sees the value accrual thesis for ETH as “ETH is money.” He argues it cannot be the settlement layer of the internet without becoming programmable money, and needs to grow to tens of trillions of dollars to provide economic bandwidth, security, and salience. The important metric is not fees but the percentage of ETH used as collateral money.
a16z's Crypto Startup Accelerator (CSX) Fall 2024 program has launched in New York City with 21 startups from 11 countries participating in an 8-week program featuring lessons from top crypto founders, support from a16z crypto's teams, and networking opportunities.
With Bitcoin trading 24/7, it has now accumulated more active trading hours than the stock market since the 1971 Nixon Shock reset its currency.
Socket has introduced a chain abstraction solution using Modular Order Flow Auctions (MOFA).
M^0 is challenging Tether's stablecoin dominance by focusing on incentivizing applications rather than end users.
Friend Tech has shut down and transferred control of its smart contracts to a null Ethereum address.
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The global economy invests trillions into renewable energy annually. A lot is riding on lithium-ion batteries, which are essential for energy storage.
Kalshi, a US-regulated prediction market platform, won its lawsuit against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over launching markets on which party will control the Senate and House of Representatives after the November elections. Though Kalshi does not integrate blockchain, this is a win for prediction markets like Polymarket, which have been operating solely outside of the United States. The CFTC has filed an emergency motion to stop Kalshi from listing its markets.
Bloomberg's ‘Odd Lots' podcast this week covered stablecoins and their legitimate use globally as a payment and settlement platform. Stablecoins significantly improve legacy payment systems by offering cheap, near-instant, and light-regulation options for citizens of any country to send US dollar-backed digital assets. This marks one of the leading legitimate use cases of the highly speculative crypto industry.
MUFG, SMBC, and Mizuho, the megabanks of Japan, are piloting a cross-border stablecoin transfer platform. The initiative, “Project Pax,” will use stablecoins issued by bank-backed Progmat and run by Datachain and TOKI. It will use SWIFT's existing APIs to settle on blockchain networks and be commercialized by 2025.
The Grass Foundation has launched an airdrop eligibility checker for its decentralized movement aimed at returning control of the internet to users. This first airdrop distributes 10% of the 1 billion GRASS tokens. Some users claim it is not yet live and others have warned about scams.