By incentivizing users to stay liquid and continuously bid, NFT marketplace Blur may have had the lowest floors, but at the cost of incrementally devaluing NFTs on its platform. Activity on the marketplace, which rewards users with BLUR tokens, was an effective strategy to capture market share and volume in the short term, but it was not strong enough to keep competitor Magic Eden from doubling its daily trading volume and becoming the leading NFT marketplace by revenue. Part of this is due to Magic Eden’s adoption of Bitcoin Ordinals instead of Blur’s focus on Ethereum mainnet.
The fund operates on Ethereum with the transfer agent Securitize LLC, issuing monthly yield in BUIDL tokens, while using USDC for investments and redemptions.
Users within the Pendle ecosystem can tokenize and trade future yields, engage in money markets to borrow against principal tokens (PTs), get insurance for asset protection, and more.
A Deutsche Bank survey indicates increased positivity towards cryptocurrencies, with 40% believing Bitcoin will thrive in the future.
Coinbase’s L2, Base, has recently surpassed $40 million in revenue after exponential transaction volume growth.
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Optimism about the Ethereum ETFs being approved in May has decreased as experts continue to share their opinions. VanEck CEO Jan van Eck stated that he believes the company's ETF application will be rejected in May and CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti said he does not think any Proof-of-Stake coins will be approved this year.
a16z has released an open-source code for Jolt, a zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM), marking a commitment to deep tech R&D. Jolt, which supports RISC-V ISA and Rust language applications, uses cryptographic techniques to enhance the scalability, speed, and privacy of blockchain operations. This tech can be integrated into zkEVMs and blockchain-based ZK applications.
Franklin Templeton’s Digital Asset Division released a one-page report on EigenLayer. The report introduces the restaking narrative, describing it as a way to secure multiple networks simultaneously and increase the yield from staking ETH. EigenLayer’s immense growth over the past year is attributed to the potential token airdrop to stakers. It has captured over 1% of the total ETH supply with over 2 million ETH restaked in the protocol.
Much like how broadband revolutionized the utility of the internet, Layer 2 scaling solutions have brought new possibilities for blockchain applications. This article expands on how Arbitrum, a portfolio company, is leading the L2 landscape in terms of total value locked, revenue share, and developer activity. It also covers other stories, including how UNI’s fee switch legitimizes token value, regulatory updates, and debunks arguments about the death of crypto.
Christie's inaugural auction for Bitcoin Ordinals will showcase the "Ordinal Maxi Biz" collection curated by ZK Shark. Bidding will be open from April 9 to 16 on the Christie's website. The sale reflects the growing cultural significance of Ordinals in the web3 and digital art space.
Arthur Hayes, chief investment officer at Maelstrom and co-founder and former CEO of BitMEX, recounts personal experiences of missed opportunities and unexpected market resilience in the face of anticipated downturns. Drawing parallels between skiing and trading, the narrative explores financial strategies and predictions, ultimately choosing caution in trading activities until potentially more favorable conditions emerge in May.
2024.04.10·cryptohayes.substack.com·9 min read·TLDR Crypto Instead of basing a token on a meme, creators could focus on specific projects or groups to generate attention and create utility.
PayPal USD, a stablecoin issued by PayPal and Paxos, experienced a 38% drop in market cap in March, falling from ~$304 million in February to $188.5 million.
Monad Labs, an EVM-compatible alt-L1, aims to improve transaction throughput - it claims to have processed about 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) in its testnet phase, compared to Ethereum's TPS of ~20.
The token will be distributed with an initial airdrop to users and communities, giving recipients the chance to participate in governance, stake, and trade.
Coinbase’s L2 continues to grow in popularity, becoming the third-largest Ethereum L2 by total value locked. It recorded an all-time high of over 36 transactions per second, with over 3 million transactions each day this weekend. Memecoins have been very popular on the L2, causing DEX daily volumes to surpass $1 billion last week.
Harvest Fund and Southern Fund, two large Chinese asset managers, have applied to launch Bitcoin ETFs in Hong Kong. Bitcoin Magazine alleges that the institutional interest from Chinese players, despite domestic regulatory resistance to crypto, may mark a shift in Bitcoin's acceptance and usage in Asia.
Karak takes the concept of EigenLayer and re-staking ETH but extends it to numerous other assets like stablecoins. New apps and protocols can leverage this security to create distributed secure services (DSS), similar to the actively validated service (AVS) on EigenLayer. Karak's team is also developing K2, a risk management L2 that will use DSS for security and act as the testing environment for DSS’ before launching on L1. Karak Private Access, which allows users to stake assets and earn points from several protocols, is live.
Tradable, a new platform for omnichain shared liquidity and distributed computing, has launched on 22 chains, aiming to address the fragmentation and limitations in current crypto applications. The platform introduces a Shared Liquidity Vault (SLV) and Omnichain IDs, allowing users to access liquidity across different apps and chains.
Pendle Finance allows users to manage yield through tokenization, which can then be traded or held for fixed returns. Its platform integrates with other DeFi protocols, providing various yield strategies. It includes governance features for token holders to influence protocol incentives and earn from transaction fees.
Stablecoins and other tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) have traditionally been used for arbitrage and as a volatility hedge. They are now increasingly being used for crypto-agnostic applications such as international remittances and inflation protection. With stablecoins settlement reaching $10T onchain annually, the utility of these digital assets extends to practical, everyday financial solutions. Other RWAs remain in the crypto-native phase, but as more options come on-chain, users will have access to less volatile investment options in assets like treasuries, stocks, and real estate.
The current issues with Solana are due to implementation bugs on its networking protocol, not fundamental design flaws, meaning the problems are more straightforward to fix. The team just has to swap out the faulty components. If a BMW has a steering problem, it doesn't imply that all cars are defective. Solana's choice of a buggy QUIC protocol implementation can be replaced without altering Solana's underlying architecture.
There is a lack of incentives for Layer 2s to continue decentralizing their operations. Centralization is great for product development and operations, allowing faster execution, more control over security, and quicker response to exploits in the form of chain freezes. Greater incentives are needed for L2s to upgrade to Stage 1 and 2 decentralization. Social pressure may not be sufficient to cause this transition.
NFTs are more likely to excel as digital collectibles rather than disrupting the traditional art market as their value hinges on the wider career of digitally native artists rather than any single collection.
Leading NFT exchange Tensor airdropped 12.5% of the total supply of TNSR tokens, worth $250 million, linearly distributed to early users based on their exchange volume.
The SushiSwap core Operations Team's proposal to centralize the project's treasury under a new Sushi Labs team has sparked community backlash and allegations of a "hostile takeover."
Trading bot jaredfromsubway exploited the frenzy around the newly launched ENA token from Ethena by making almost $300,000 in a day through sandwich attacks.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit confirmed that Coinbase did not violate the Securities Exchange Act by engaging in secondary sales of cryptocurrencies. This case was related to a lawsuit from Coinbase users accusing the platform of selling unregistered securities and violating related laws – not the recent SEC case alleging they are an unlicensed securities exchange and brokerage. The court ruled that without a contract that can be rescinded, there is no Exchange Act violation, meaning trading cryptocurrencies on Coinbase does not constitute securities trading.
The FTX estate has sold approximately $1.9 billion worth of locked-up Solana (SOL) tokens at a discounted price of $64 each to help clear the collapsed crypto exchange's debt. Galaxy Trading and other investors have shown significant interest in purchasing FTX's discounted SOL holdings.
Stride has partnered with dYdX to launch a one-click liquid staking system for dYdX tokens. The system automates compounding USDC rewards into dYdX and distributes staked tokens across validators to strengthen network security.
Sony Bank, a division of the Sony Group Corporation, is testing the issuance of a yen-backed stablecoin on the Polygon blockchain. The stablecoin is being considered as a potential payment method for businesses utilizing Sony Group's intellectual property, such as games and sports.
This thread discusses the QUIC protocol's challenges in blockchain networking, including susceptibility to packet overload but not inherent DDoS vulnerability. The author suggests improving QUIC server resilience and packet prioritization to manage the high packet traffic on Solana's network rather than changing protocols.
Bittensor is an open-source protocol that aims to decentralize the development of artificial intelligence using economic incentives similar to Bitcoin's to build a market for synthetic intelligence. Through its unique network design, Bittensor allows contributors to earn a native token (TAO) by participating in a variety of subnets catering to different AI applications, from text generation to financial predictions, democratizing AI development beyond the control of centralized entities.
Crypto VCs are currently debating the merits of investing in "useful" versus meme-driven projects, with some leaning into the hype while others focus on more substantive areas like stablecoins, real-world assets, and social applications. There is also debate around whether mainstream adoption will be driven by Web 2.5 apps that abstract away crypto complexities or Web3 apps with tokens and protocols front and center.
MakerDAO founder Rune outlines the two options for DAO decentralized governance: minimization of simple systems when oversight is not required and data-informed governance in complex systems - popularity-driven governance is dangerous, as it rewards the loudest solutions instead of those that may be the best.
There has been a 14% increase in Robinhood's BTC holdings from October 2023 to now, a 9% decrease in ETH holdings, and a 100% increase in LINK holdings.
Solana nodes are overwhelmed and can't process every tx - bots are spamming txs to the network in order to maximize the chance that a tx gets processed, hurting real users who can't spam at the same rate.
This article discusses Tensor’s token launch, including details about its points program and NFT collection Tensorians.
PayPal has launched a new feature that allows U.S. customers to make international transfers using the PYUSD stablecoin without incurring transaction fees. This service, available through Xoom, PayPal’s international payments platform, enables U.S. clients to convert PYUSD into USD and send it to recipients in ~160 countries. PayPal’s recent move aligns with the company’s broader strategy to increase the adoption of digital currencies and build its reputation in the digital asset space.
Enterprise blockchain company Ripple is creating a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar. It will be native to the XRP Ledger and backed by short-term government treasuries, dollar deposits, and cash equivalents. The company hopes these “rock solid” assets and transparency will differentiate it from other stablecoin issuers. The stablecoin will be released later this year.
Murphy Labs has released the beta version of the Strateg. Protocol, a DeFi platform enabling users to devise, manage, and invest in crypto asset strategies, on the Polygon PoS network. Strateg. leverages ERC-4626 tokenized vaults, offering strategists the ability to adjust investment parameters and monetize their expertise. It is still in beta, with V1 to launch after the protocol is tested and smart contracts are audited.
Essential is a new blockchain that uses constraints to perform state updates without the need for execution. All current blockchains use the imperative programming paradigm, causing poor UX and uncertain outcomes. Interactions in Essential are defined in terms of their outcomes using declarative programming and intents instead of instructions, leading to better developer and user experiences.
This article provides a deep dive into the Jupiter Perpetual Exchange, a new offering from the leading decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator in the Solana ecosystem. It analyzes Jupiter's dominance in Solana DeFi, the growth and economics of its perpetual futures product, and the potential for further expansion of the perpetual exchange.
2024.04.05·decentralparkcapital.substack.com·9 min read·TLDR Crypto This article provides an overview of the latest developments in the crypto market, covering notable airdrops, bridge flows, DEX volumes, and NFT trading activity. It highlights the accumulation and de-risking trends across various ecosystems such as Ethereum, Base, and Arbitrum while offering insights into upcoming token unlocks and their potential impact on market volatility.
2024.04.05·degensensei.substack.com·8 min read·TLDR Crypto Dune Analytics reports a high failure rate (~75%) for Solana transactions. This post contrasts Solana’s performance with Cardano’s, suggesting that Cardano's focus on security, decentralization, and scaling may soon establish it as a leader in blockchain solutions.
All successful crypto products are inherently consumer-oriented. Tokens are the true crypto products - this can be seen by examining universal attributes of thriving consumer brands like desire-based pricing, power law consumption, and addictive properties. This challenges the notion of “consumer crypto” as distinct from infrastructure by suggesting that the most successful crypto applications already possess the key traits of consumer adoption.
Five categories of memecoins based on how they start: meme-first, community-first, token-first, product-first, and event-based memecoins.