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OPTIMISM ABOUT CRYPTO: EMERGING MARKET USE-CASES

COINBASE'S MAGICSPEND

MagicSpend is a new chain abstraction product from Coinbase that allows anyone to spend their Coinbase balance onchain.

UNBOUND FUND - THE FIRST GOLDEN VISA ELIGIBLE FUND THAT GIVES YOU EXPOSURE TO BITCOIN

Unbound Fund introduces a novel pathway to Portuguese/EU citizenship through an investment in Bitcoin worth €500K.

JOEY KRUG ON FOUNDERS FUND'S $11M INVESTMENT INTRO PUDGY PENGUINS

Founders Fund backs Pudgy Penguins, Igloo Inc, and Abstract Chain due to their unique and profitable user acquisition strategy, which leverages physical retail partnerships with major stores like Walmart and Target.

BUNNI LAUNCHES A NEW DECENTRALIZED EXCHANGE

Bunni v2 testnet is live, introducing a new approach to liquidity with automated, customizable, and programmable features for liquidity providers (LPs).

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SEC OFFICIALLY APPROVES SPOT ETHEREUM ETF TRADING

ANY NEAR-TERM REBOUND IN CRYPTO MARKET LIKELY TO BE TEMPORARY: JPMORGAN

JPMorgan anticipates that any near-term rebound in the crypto market will be short-lived, as Bitcoin's current price is deemed too high relative to its production cost ($43,000) and its volatility-adjusted comparison to gold ($53,000). Bitcoin and gold may gain from a potential Trump election win due to perceived crypto-friendly policies.

OKX LAUNCHES BITCOIN PRICE GUESSING GAME 'OKX RACER' AS TELEGRAM MINI-APP CRAZE CONTINUES

OKX, one of the largest crypto exchanges, launched the free-to-play ‘OKX Racer' game as a Telegram mini-app. The game, which has users guess Bitcoin price movements every five seconds, is the first from an established company to leverage Telegram's app ecosystem and its 900 million potential users. There is an expectation, but no confirmed plans, that the TON blockchain will be integrated.

TOKENIZED ASSET MANAGER SUPERSTATE DEBUTS NEW FUND TO PROFIT FROM BITCOIN, ETHER 'CARRY TRADE'

Blockchain-based asset management firm Superstate has launched a new tokenized fund that employs a "cash and carry" investment strategy to generate yield for investors. Superstate buys spot bitcoin and ether while simultaneously taking equivalent short positions in BTC and ETH futures. This fund is for qualified investors and emphasizes a highly-regulated, low-risk approach to generating yield.

BITCOIN LAYER 2 REPORT | Q2 2024

This report analyzes 12 L2s and sidechains. CORE had almost 9x more unique addresses (19.2M) than second-place BounceBit. BSquared, CORE, and BOB had the most transactions. Merlin and Bitlayer are tied for the highest TVL at slightly below $400M. These chains are still in their infancy and actively developing their ecosystems.

KEY CHARTS FROM BINANCE'S H1 REPORT

Binance's H1 2024 Research Report highlights key trends in the cryptocurrency market, including the rise of Bitcoin dominance, the impact of BlackRock's ETFs, and the surprising performance of runes and sequencers. It also discusses the growth of decentralized exchanges on Solana, the challenges faced by zk-rollups, and the enduring strength of DeFi on Ethereum.

WHAT IS POLYMARKET? DECENTRALIZED PREDICTION MARKETS EXPLAINED

Polymarket is a decentralized prediction market on Ethereum and Polygon that allows users to bet on outcomes like elections or sporting events without using traditional intermediaries. It has increased liquidity and privacy compared to more centralized markets and is arguably more financially accessible (uses crypto), although it faces regulatory challenges as it is decentralized.

ETHEREUM'S PECTRA UPGRADE: A SHALLOW DIVE

The new EVM Object Format (EOF) optimizes the developer experience and increases the EVM's speed. PeerDAS improves Ethereum DA by allowing blobs to be sharded across nodes. BLS12-381, a new signature aggregation scheme, improves multisigs and proving things on the execution layer, while historical block hashes in the state will move validators toward verifying a transaction without needing all the data. Other upgrades include increasing the Ethereum validator maximum balance and smart contract account capabilities for regular wallets.

A BRIEF LOOK INTO BINANCE REWARDS

Users automatically qualify for four types of rewards by "subscribing" BNB to Simple Earn: APR on holdings, new project tokens through Launchpool, exclusive airdrops through Megadrop, and historical balance-based airdrops with Hodler Airdrops.

ATARI LAUNCHES ONCHAIN ARCADE ON BASE

Atari has launched an onchain arcade on Base. Its first game is Asteroids.

ETH IS THE HIGH QUALITY LIQUID ASSET (HQLA) OF CRYPTO

ETH is the most suitable candidate for a natively digital High Quality Liquid Asset (HQLA) in the crypto world due to its superior liquidity, economic fundamentals, low inflation, and positive real yield.

THE NUFFLE FAST FINALITY LAYER (NFFL)

The Nuffle Fast Finality Layer is an EigenLayer AVS aiming to bring finality and interoperability to L2s.

RYAN SELKIS QUITS AS MESSARI CEO FOLLOWING INFLAMMATORY TWEETS

Ryan Selkis has resigned as Messari's CEO after making controversial tweets, which included inflammatory political statements and hostile remarks towards immigrants, that placed his team at risk. He made the decision after receiving intense criticism for his social media conduct. Messari's Chief Revenue Officer Eric Turner will take over the position as interim CEO.

BINANCE GETS COURT APPROVAL TO INVEST CUSTOMER FUNDS IN US TREASURY BILLS

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has received court approval to invest US customer funds in US Treasury Bills, marking a significant step in utilizing low-risk government debt securities. This comes after a settlement for criminal charges with the US Justice Department that included a $4.3 billion fine and the resignation of former CEO Changpeng Zhao.

MOONSHOT LAUNCHES

Moonshot is the first app on the App Store that allows users to buy and sell memes with Apple Pay. It offers a seamless sign-up with email and FaceID with no need for blockchain knowledge or wallet addresses. Users can earn money through trades and referrals. The app is now available in over 130 countries.

ZELLULAR, AN ALTERNATIVE TO SMART CONTRACTS

Zellular introduces a Consensus Layer and Sequencing Service for developing decentralized applications (zApps) using both high-level and low-level programming languages. Key features include rapid state finalization, unlimited throughput through horizontal scaling, robust interoperability, dynamic security, Byzantine Fault Tolerance, and a decentralized transaction explorer.

BINANCE HALF-YEAR REPORT 2024 (2 HOUR READ)

The crypto market cap grew 37.3% in H1 2024, with significant gains in L1s, L2s, and DeFi sectors. Notable developments include Bitcoin's increased dominance post-halving, ETF approvals, the Ethereum restaking boom, and a surge in L2 activity driven by airdrop speculation. The second half of 2024's key themes will be Bitcoin ecosystem developments, ownership economy applications, and real-world assets.

L2 SECTOR PERFORMANCE IN Q2

There are now 6x more active users of L2s than mainnet, with Arbitrum and Base leading the charge at 550,000 and 350,000 daily active addresses each. Thanks to EIP-4844, ETH fees dropped by $679M, and L2 fees are 13% of Ethereum's, even with 9x more transactions on L2 than L1. Arbitrum has the lowest transaction fees and value to TVL, while Base has the most transactions and smart contracts deployed.

THE ECONOMICS OF L3S

L3s struggle to break even unless they have 50M+ monthly transactions or fees no more than 3x cheaper than L2s. Their primary use case is as an economic bootstrapping tool for onchain games and unique experiences, though they may be running at a loss for their developers. Applications retain most of the benefits of L3s, but priority fees and native gas tokens could introduce more value to the chain.

BANANA GUN: KING OF ORDERFLOW

Telegram bots like Banana Gun, which allow for trading tokens in a Telegram chat on Ethereum or Solana, are a misunderstood and valuable business operation. Its 150k users are willing to pay high fees for a simple UX, and the bot is on track to generate nearly $8 billion in volume and $60 million in cash flow this year. Its adjusted market cap is $345 million. It pays 40% of revenue to token holders, using the rest for expenses and growth initiatives.

SCROLL HALTS CHAIN AFTER RHOMARKET EXPLOIT

The Scroll team temporarily delayed chain finalization while investigating an exploit on the RhoMarket protocol.

FRACTAL ID'S DATA BREACH

On July 14, a rogue account compromised Fractal ID's system, exfiltrating data from about 0.5% of users.

XRP PRICE, ACTIVITY RISE AS RIPPLE'S CEO SAYS HE EXPECTS LEGAL RESOLUTION 'VERY SOON'

The XRP token is up 40% in the past few weeks on the expected end of this case.

SMART ACCOUNTS ON BASE CONTINUE TO GROW

Base has seen a large increase in the number of weekly active smart accounts, rising to nearly 200k in mid-July.

WAZIRX SUFFERS $230M HACK

A detailed investigation into the $230M+ WazirX hack, beginning from the original exploiter address, revealed preliminary transactions made on July 10th using Tornado Cash. The tactic involved hints at the potential involvement of the Lazarus Group.

‘HE'S CHANGED HIS TUNE'—TRUMP REVEALS JPMORGAN CEO'S ‘SUDDEN' BITCOIN AND CRYPTO FLIP

In an interview with Bloomberg, Donald Trump said Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan's CEO, has ‘changed his tune a little bit' on Bitcoin. Previously, Dimon has criticized Bitcoin as a fraud and Ponzi scheme, but he has been overseeing the development of JP Morgan's proprietary blockchain and cryptocurrency to improve internal transactions. Trump also hinted that Dimon is being considered for U.S. Treasury Secretary under his administration.

POLYGON ANNOUNCES MATIC TO POL MIGRATION DATE

On September 4th, the MATIC to POL migration will occur within the Polygon network, making POL the primary gas and staking token, marking its first phase as a key element in future Polygon projects like AggLayer. For current MATIC holders on the Polygon PoS, no action will be required for this transition, while those on Ethereum or other platforms may need to engage with a migration process detailed by the community.

THE SINK L2: SOLVING LONG-TERM VALUE ALIGNMENT

Most general-purpose L2s are like retail brokerages, with little differentiation and non-unique applications. Introducing native yield allows L2s to monetize based on assets under management instead of sequencer fees. The Sink has two primitives – a V2 DEX with bribe mechanisms and a CDP with a stake-able stablecoin – to offer high, scalable yields. The idea is similar to Berachain and Blast combined.

RECAP OF CRYPTO AND POLICY IN DC

With the elections becoming more prevalent, crypto's political influence continues to shape policy and rhetoric, evidenced by the Trump-Vance ticket being the first to have a Bitcoin holder on the ballot. Though the GOP has been leading the charge on pro-crypto policy, Democrats are catching up and creating bipartisan momentum. The past few weeks have seen various political wins and losses, like the house voting not to override Biden's SAB 121 veto, a few CFTC and SEC hearings, and the SEC's dropped case against Paxos stablecoins.

DIVING INTO DARK POOLS

Public institutional moves have far-ranging consequences. Dark pools, a concept well-known in traditional finance, allow traders to be confidential when executing transactions. DeFi dark pools currently suffer from a lack of liquidity and must use novel methods like ZK proofs to comply with KYC/AML regulations, but they offer better security, privacy, and cost-efficiency than OTC trading.

MARK CUBAN'S THOUGHTS ON TRUMP, BITCOIN, AND SILICON VALLEY

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban believes Silicon Valley's support for Trump is a “bitcoin play.” Trump's support of crypto is excellent, but it does not significantly impact the price. However, it makes it easier to operate a business. Bitcoin's price could go extremely high because of lower tax rates, tariffs, and geopolitical uncertainty. Ultimately, it could become a global currency and safe haven asset.

“PERMISSIONS” LAYER OF CHAIN ABSTRACTION FRAMEWORK EXPLAINED

The CAKE (Chain Abstraction Key Elements) framework creates four layers of responsibility – applications, permissions, solvers, and settlement – that are independent of one another but critical for a clean crypto UX. The “permissions” layer deals with user transaction authorization and private key storage. Though current methods like MetaMask require both a “sign” and “submit” step, account abstracted (AA) wallets only require “sign.” Going one step further, policy-based agents require one “approve” step and then deal with everything else, like managing multiple networks and sub-transactions. This is the design employed by Telegram bots and Flashbots' SUAVE.

FARCASTER FRAME FOR POLYMARKET

Farcaster has created a simple way for users to access Polymarket, making it easy for users to cast bets on Polymarket using Frames.

POWER OF ZK ROLLUPS

Zero-knowledge (ZK) rollups allow assets to move quickly and securely between Layer 1 and Layer 2 without long delays, extra fees, or third parties, all thanks to cryptographic proofs.

GRAYSCALE LAUNCHES DECENTRALIZED AI FUND

Digital asset manager Grayscale has launched a new AI fund composed of Bittensor, Filecoin, Livepeer, Near, and Render.

THE ULTIMATE ETHEREUM RESTAKING DASHBOARD

This Dune dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of EigenLayer, Symbiotic, and Karak and information about liquid restaking tokens.

invest in the future.

open-to-the-public investment round.

This century will be defined by lithium. Don't miss your chance to

GERMAN BITCOIN SALE NETTED 'UNPRECEDENTED' €2.6 BILLION: DRESDEN PROSECUTOR

German authorities have finished its "emergency sale" of ~50k Bitcoin, netting an "unprecedented" €2.6B ($2.88B). The funds are held in custody pending the conclusion of ongoing criminal trials. The sale was expedited because of BTC's volatility.

POKÉMON TO LAUNCH NFTS

The Pokémon Company is set to launch official Pokémon NFTs that enable "users" to trade digital cards on blockchains. The company allegedly filed a patent application, "WO2024090317A1", which uses smart contracts to manage transactions and rewards, thereby improving player engagement and service integration.