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REASONS TO BE EXCITED ABOUT CRYPTO

The chart shows the monthly active users (MAUs) for the top 20 blockchain projects, with Solana posting the highest numbers closely followed by Tron and Base.

MONTENEGRIN COURT ONCE AGAIN POSTPONES DO KWON'S EXTRADITION TO SOUTH KOREA

A Montenegrin court has again postponed extraditing Do Kwon, former Terraform Labs CEO, to South Korea as it awaits a decision from the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office on the Request for Protection of Legality.

UK REGULATOR FCA HAS ISSUED OVER 1K WARNINGS TO CRYPTO FIRMS SINCE OCTOBER

Since new financial promotion rules took effect in October, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued over 1,000 warnings to crypto firms, leading to the removal of 48 apps from U.K. app stores. The FCA continues to crack down on unregistered crypto companies illegally promoting to the U.K. market while also providing guidance to ensure firms properly categorize their customers.

BITCOIN VOLATILITY HITS 20-MONTH HIGH, TRADERS HEDGE AGAINST FURTHER SLUMP

Bitcoin's volatility index has surged to a 20-month high, driven by recent price drops below $50,000, prompting traders to hedge against potential further declines. While some traders anticipate more downside, others see this as a buying opportunity, with expectations of a possible near-term recovery.

SYNTHETIC DOLLAR PROTOCOL ETHENA EXPANDS TO SOLANA, INCLUDES SOL AS BACKING ASSET

Ethena Labs expanded its synthetic dollar protocol, Ethena, to Solana to improve the scalability and stability of USDe. USDe aims to maintain a $1 peg and currently offers a 12.3% annual yield for staked assets. SOL will be used as a backing asset alongside other crypto, improving the financial strength of USDe and potentially unlocking billions in additional futures market interest.

ZORA UPGRADE

Zora has launched a major protocol upgrade, integrating with Uniswap to create on-chain secondary markets that allow creators to earn royalties from trades after a mint ends. This upgrade introduces new features like Secondary Rewards, efficient price discovery, and instant liquidity, enhancing the experience for both creators and collectors.

WHY ETHEREUM FEES WERE DOWN $679M IN Q2 (57%)

Ethereum's fees dropped by 57% in Q2 after the EIP-4844 upgrade, which increased block space and reduced costs, boosting L2 scalability. While this might look like a financial dip, it's actually a positive sign — L2 transactions and users have surged, showing Ethereum's network is scaling and improving.

PERFORMANCE OF TOKENS LISTED ON BINANCE YTD

Since the start of 2024, Binance has listed 30 new tokens, but the majority have experienced declines in performance. This trend indicates that most of these newly listed tokens are underperforming, reflecting broader market challenges or specific issues within the projects.

THE RACE TO DOMINATE STABLECOINS

Stablecoins could transform global finance by challenging banks and payment networks. As competition among issuers, banks, and tech companies intensifies, the race to dominate this new "operating system for money" could reshape the future of finance, with regulators playing a key role in determining the market's outcome. The likely result is a market with multiple stablecoins offering faster, cheaper payments, benefiting consumers but potentially sidelining current issuers.

THOUGHTS ON JUMP SUPPOSEDLY LEAVING CRYPTO

Jump Crypto might be exiting its "building" ventures, where it invested in crypto projects in exchange for token allocations, following a series of setbacks like Luna, Wormhole, and FTX. However, its core trading operations likely remain active and profitable, with recent wallet activity suggesting it is offloading its crypto holdings as it scales back its involvement in the space.

HOW IS FANTASY TOP DOING?

Fantasy is stabilizing, with consistent tournament participation despite a declining holder count and slowed market activity.

PACMOON MIGRATES TO SOLANA

Pacmoon is migrating from the Blast blockchain to Solana and rebranding as $ARMY.

JUDGE IMPOSES $125 MILLION CIVIL PENALTY ON RIPPLE

A federal judge has ordered Ripple to pay a $125 million civil penalty in its lawsuit with the SEC.

DECAF LAUNCHES US ACCOUNTS

Decaf Wallet now offers US accounts, allowing users to receive USD as $USDC with no fees during early access.

ETHEREUM ENTITIES LARGELY COMPLIED WITH TORNADO CASH SANCTIONS, NY FED PAPER SAYS

A New York Fed report found that most Ethereum block builders are complying with sanctions against Tornado Cash, although some activity persists.

SEC CLAIMS COINBASE'S SUBPOENA FOR MILLIONS OF DOCUMENTS IS A WASTE OF TIME

The SEC has criticized Coinbase for excessively subpoenaing documents, including emails from Gary Gensler, labeling the demand as unnecessary and irrelevant to the case. It claims that it has already provided over 240,000 documents and that meeting Coinbase's request for millions more would involve an impractical review of potentially privileged communications, far exceeding the actual case requirements.

BITCOIN FALLS TO ‘EXTREME FEAR' ON AUG. 5 AS ETFS OUTFLOW $168M

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index dropped to an "Extreme Fear" level of 17 out of 100 on Monday, marking its lowest point since July 2022. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw major outflows totaling $168M, highlighting a sharp decline in market sentiment and investor confidence.

A BREAKDOWN OF ARBITRUM'S SHORT-TERM INCENTIVE PROGRAM

Arbitrum's Short-Term Incentive Program (STIP) distributed 71M ARB to increase network activity, leading to $15.2M in sequencer revenue — 43% of total revenue during the period. However, with the program costing $85.2M, the $60M loss highlights the need for more efficient incentive strategies in the future.

INITIA ACQUIRES BLOCK EXPLORER CELATONE

Initia has acquired Celatone, a leading blockchain explorer from Alles Labs, to enhance its Initia Scan, which will now serve as the primary tool for navigating interwoven rollups. The acquisition adds 10 new team members to Initia Labs, focusing on expanding Initia Scan's dominance, integrations, and tooling.

HOW JAPAN'S INTEREST RATE MIGHT HAVE AFFECTED CRYPTO

A small 25 basis point interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan triggered a massive sell-off in risk assets, including a sharp drop in Ethereum, due to the unwinding of the carry trade. This trade, where investors borrow cheap Yen to invest in higher-yield assets, is now collapsing as higher interest rates strengthen the Yen, forcing traders to sell assets to cover their more expensive Yen-denominated loans, leading to a cascade of liquidations.

BLACKROCK, NASDAQ MAKE THE PUSH FOR OPTIONS ON SPOT ETHEREUM ETF

BlackRock and Nasdaq have submitted a proposal to the SEC to list and trade options for the iShares Eth Trust (BlackRock's spot Eth etf), aiming to provide investors with cost-effective tools for exposure and hedging related to eth.

RONIN BRIDGE HACKED AGAIN, WHITEHAT RETURNS FUNDS

The stolen ETH (~$10M) has been returned, with the USDC expected to follow later today, thanks to vigilant white hats who will receive a $500K bounty. The Ronin bridge will remain closed pending an audit, with plans to transition its operations to a new structure in collaboration with Ronin validators.

BITCOIN'S DIGITAL GILDED YEARS ARE A WAY OFF YET

TRUMP-THEMED MEMECOIN DJT RUG-PULLS

The Trump-themed $DJT token crashed by 90% after a wallet holding 20% of the supply suddenly dumped its holdings.

STARKNET CEO STEPS DOWN

Starknet Foundation CEO Diego Oliva has stepped down after leading the organization since March 2023, with James Strudwick taking over as Executive Director.

TRUMP AND LUMMIS HAVE PUSHED FOR US BITCOIN RESERVES BUT CRITICS EXPRESS DOUBTS

Sen. Cynthia Lummis and former President Donald Trump have proposed creating U.S. bitcoin reserves, arguing that it could act as a buffer against market fluctuations.

CRYPTO MARKET CRASH IN NUMBERS

The recent crypto market crash saw ~155K traders liquidated (~$573M in losses) and ~$300B wiped out from the crypto market cap.

BITCOIN PLUNGES BELOW $50,000, ETHER UNDER $2,200 AMID JUMP CRYPTO MOVES, US ELECTION UNCERTAINTY

Bitcoin hit its lowest price since February, and the rest of the market saw greater than 20% decreases in one of the biggest selloffs since FTX. Investors are reacting to several events, including Jump Crypto liquidating hundreds of millions of dollars of assets, the increasing chances of a Kamala Harris presidency, and a sharp decline in Japan's stock market. There are also fears about an impending recession, and ETHE investors are selling their positions in the Grayscale trust.

IN FEC COMPLAINT, MOLLY WHITE ALLEGE COINBASE VIOLATED CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAWS

Public Citizen and Molly White filed a complaint to the Federal Elections Committee (FEC) claiming that Coinbase violated campaign finance laws by donating $25 million to the pro-crypto group Fairshake Super PAC while negotiating government contracts with the DOJ. The complaint argues that Coinbase is a federal contractor due to its current work with the US Marshal Service (a unit within the DOJ), and is thus breaking "pay-to-play" laws.

GUIDE TO BREVIS

Brevis is an EigenLayer-secured ZK coprocessor that enables smart contracts to read historic onchain data. It allows dapps to introduce features like intent-based active liquidity management, loyalty trading programs, and account reputation. Its decentralized prover network and Brevis coChain allow for efficient and trust-minimized ZK-proof validation.

SOME OF THE MOST INTERESTING ROLLUP DESIGNS

This thread highlights some of the most innovative rollups with technological and cultural differentiations from Ethereum. It includes a chain for halal finance, one with an MEV-free crosschain DEX, and another with EVM and SVM apps running in parallel. There are also L2s requiring all users to KYC and designed for banks.

CROSS-L2 ROADMAP IN ONE TWEET

Cross-L2 interoperability problems require considerable effort, but we should quickly achieve a seamless UX across Ethereum-based rollups. Work is being done on chain-specific addresses, cross-L2 sends using liquidity providers, L2 light clients, and replayable account state updates. In Phase 2 of the roadmap, shared key management and proof aggregation will further improve the experience.

HOW BITCOIN HAS VALUE WITHOUT CASH FLOWS

Bitcoin's service is the trustless storage of wealth without relying on a centralized intermediary. Like a company offering a service, if more people want BTC's service and buy the asset, the price increases, and vice versa. There is no centralized entity to collect this value - it accrues to prior BTC holders.

EVALUATING THE CAUSES OF CRYPTO PANIC

Friday saw terrible macro signals, including the 10-year Treasury rate falling 40bps and poor equity performance, but there will likely be a rate cut in September, and it is still an election year. Jump Crypto sold hundreds of millions of ETH in a short period, contributing to the rapid price decline, and the negative ETF flows are hurting the market in the short term but necessary for new capital flows in the long term. Though a democratic election is perceived to hurt crypto, the Middle East tensions may not matter in the long term, and the Mt Gox and Genesis distributions are nearly complete.

COULD A CRYPTO APP BE THE ANSWER FOR STRUGGLING RESTAURANTS?

Blackbird aims to recharge the restaurant industry by integrating a crypto-based reward system ($FLY) that rewards users for dining check-ins, creating an interconnected, circular economy among participating restaurants. Although the app has been praised for its simple, consumer focused UX, many restaurant operators are hesitant about the crypto aspect, preferring traditional loyalty methods. Most restaurants do not currently accept $FLY, which could limit the app's impact. However, restaurant operators frequently praise the app's ability to help them better understand and reward customer loyalty.

VENTURE VS LIQUID

Solana ecosystem founders should prioritize community participation over lower-tier VCs for better long-term success.

MOONWELL PROCESS $4M IN LIQUIDATIONS

Moonwell founder, Luke Youngblood, says that onchain finance protocols like Moonwell will disrupt TradFi solutions, many of which experienced delays or slight issues, because they are able to process transactions without any downtime.

POLYMARKET BETTORS THINK BITCOIN WILL GO BELOW $45,000 BEFORE SEPTEMBER

At the time of writing, 41% of Polymarket traders believe that the BTC price will drop below $45K before September, highlighting a large shift in sentiment from earlier predictions as the BTC price fell sharply amid a broader market sell-off.

WHAT ARE DATACHAINS AND WHY DO WE NEED THEM?

A datachain is optimized for reliably storing data, providing economic or cryptographic guarantees of stored information.

CFTC SUBPOENAS BEN ‘BITBOY' ARMSTRONG'S FORMER COMPANY IN FRAUD INVESTIGATION

The CFTC has subpoenaed Hit Network, a crypto-focused media company that previously had Ben 'BitBoy' Armstrong as its public face. It has requested information about trading activity and wallets associated with 15 tokens featured in the company's media content, some that were in videos speculating about 100x returns. Armstrong, who was forcibly removed from the company after legal issues, "could not be more happy about" the subpoena.

JUMP CRYPTO MOVES HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS IN CRYPTO AS PRICES SLIDE

Jump Crypto has been actively liquidating its crypto holdings since July 25th, including hundreds of millions of dollars in stEth. This coincides with the recent launch of US-based spot ether ETFs and a broader downturn in crypto asset prices.

A NEW INTERNATIONAL MONEY: ORE V2

ORE is a Solana-based token that uses a CPU-friendly proof-of-work mining mechanism. Its v2 update will introduce ORE staking to boost mining rewards and change the algorithm so that mobile phones can mine. With a total supply of 21 million, Ore is similar to Bitcoin and could ultimately become the BTC of Solana if its high early inflation does not hinder adoption.

INTRODUCING LAVA PUBLIC MAINNET

Lava is creating a modular and decentralized RPC infrastructure layer for all blockchains. RPC providers can stake LAVA on a Cosmos-based chain and earn incentives from any chains they support. The LAVA token is launching DEX-first with high float and a market-derived FDV, contrary to the "low float, high FDV" meta.

EXPLORING AI X CRYPTO

AI x Crypto primarily focuses on decentralized compute networks, model coordination platforms, AI tools and services, and applications. AI agents are becoming an increasingly popular way to seamlessly interact with onchain protocols and open-source AI coordination is fostering greater innovation and development into model training. Over $230 million was invested in the space in July alone.

AVOIDING TOKEN RUG PULLS

Scammers manipulate DEX Screener's Trending tokens by using wash trading to inflate the number of holders and trading volume, which makes these tokens seem legitimate. For example, the $FWILLY token scam involved distributing supply across multiple wallets and manipulating transaction data before ultimately rugging token holders, where the developers withdrew all liquidity, leaving holders with worthless tokens.

A DEEP DIVE INTO POLYMARKET GROWTH

While a large portion of Polymarket's growth this year can be attributed to the U.S. election, the platform has also seen an increase in non-election-related trading. Although 42% of new users initially traded in election-related markets, there has been a 391% YTD growth in volume across various other markets, indicating consumer interest beyond political events.

ZKX INVESTORS, MARKET MAKERS SAY THEY WERE BLINDSIDED BY SUDDEN SHUTDOWN

Investors and market makers of the ZKX DEX were surprised by its shutdown, claiming they received no notice. Blockchain investigators claim that this might have been a rug pull. The token's value has decreased ~93.6% since it was launched.

WHICH BLOCKCHAINS ARE ACTUALLY PROFITABLE

Ethereum is the clear leader in L1 revenue, with $2.2B in the past year, though the transition to L2s is hurting its profits.

COINBASE STABLECOIN REVENUE CONTINUES GROWING

Investing in stablecoin adoption is a promising strategy as stablecoin supply growth and revenue increases for platforms like Coinbase.