This report sheds light on salary, equity, and token compensation trends within the crypto industry. Based on a survey of 49 portfolio firms, it uncovers key insights, including that U.S.-based companies offer higher salaries and equity/token packages compared to those internationally. It also highlights that most companies pay in fiat currency, although international organizations tend to utilize crypto, primarily for cross-border transactions. The data also outlines that most crypto startups consider adopting tokens, especially international firms.
2024.03.20·dccr23.dragonfly.xyz·17 min read·TLDR Crypto Cryptocurrency could be the future of the attention economy as it offers a more efficient market compared to the current web2 model. New "attention assets" like memecoins, NFTs, and tokens capture real-time attention value. These enable users to invest in and own assets that represent beliefs about a particular meme, media, or network's future attention. This system allows everyone in the value chain to benefit.
Grayscale's GBTC had its largest day of outflows yet, contributing $642.5 million to a total net outflow of $154.4 million across all spot bitcoin ETFs. This occurred despite the $451.5 million inflow into BlackRock's IBIT ETF. The total net inflow into these ETFs currently stands at over $12 billion.
Grayscale Investments submitted a revised Ethereum ETF application for NYSE listing amidst SEC delays and debate on the viability of Ethereum ETPs.
MicroStrategy acquired more bitcoin via another note offering, bringing its holdings to over 1% of the Bitcoin supply.
Risky memecoin presales on Solana have drawn legal and ethical concerns after traders sent hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assets to unverified addresses, sparking scams and drawing regulatory attention.
Backpack survived a harsh crypto winter and managed to generate $27.5 billion in trading volume in its beta, despite FTX being one of its main backers.
Fidelity has amended its spot Ether ETF proposal to include staking to give customers an option to earn income on their holdings. If accepted, the firm will stake an undisclosed portion of its assets using one or multiple reliable staking providers. The news temporarily boosted Lido, a leading Ethereum staking protocol. While this is a seemingly positive development, analysts and betting markets are putting the likelihood of an Ether ETF approval by May at 35% or less.
OKX, the world's fourth largest cryptocurrency exchange, is discontinuing its support for Tether trading pairs in the European Economic Area. This move comes ahead of the EU's implementation of the Markets in Crypto-Assets law, which restricts the use of certain stablecoins. OKX also plans to roll out new product offerings and Euro fiat onramps for EEA customers.
Canto's proposed Cyclone Stack is a set of upgrades aimed at improving the network's performance and scalability via a parallel execution engine. The update involves three steps: the Callisto Upgrade, which will transition Canto towards ABCI 2.0; the Elara Upgrade, which implements the Cyclone EVM for concurrent transaction processing; and the Kallichore Upgrade, which will integrate mem-IAVL to address storage bottlenecks. All existing apps are expected to function normally post-upgrade. The new changes are set to be launched by H2 2024.
Light is a new approach meant to address the fragmentation of user experience across EVM chains. The tool enables users to interact with any EVM chain, including L2s and L3s, as if using one network. It functions like network abstraction, cross-chain asset management, and batch transaction execution. Light is fully open source and aligns with open standards such as ERC-4337 and ERC-7579.
Solana's program security is critical to ensuring applications behave as intended, affecting performance, scalability, and interoperability. As such, developers must understand potential attack vectors and vulnerabilities such as logic bugs, data validation flaws, and access control vulnerabilities and employ strategies like rigorous testing and code auditing to mitigate risks. This comprehensive guide delves into common vulnerabilities developers might face, offering insights and mitigation strategies to safeguard Solana programs against exploits.
MEV has returned to Bitcoin due to the introduction of Ordinal Theory, leading to a reordering of blocks in Bitcoin’s chain and threats to the network's decentralization and neutrality. This analysis explores different forms of MEV in Bitcoin, such as Replace-By-Fee, Lightning Watch Tower Attacks, and Sniping Sidechain Auctions, emphasizes the importance of recognizing and addressing these issues, and proposes several potential solutions, including Rollups, BitVM, and Bitcoin-backed stake chains.
Slerf, a sloth-themed memecoin on Solana, recently attracted $10 million in funding from a presale. The developer subsequently accidentally burned the liquidity pool and the presale proceeds. The coin unexpectedly surged in value due in part to the attention the mishap drew to the project. Despite the colossal mistake, Slerf recorded $1.7 billion in trading volume and was listed on several exchanges.
This article discusses the rising prominence and potential of the DePin space, an often overlooked sector in crypto. DePin uses blockchain technology to accelerate and make infrastructure projects more efficient and globally accessible. With over 650 projects in six core subsectors, DePin's market cap is anticipated to reach about $3.5T by 2028.
A Utah court sanctioned the SEC for abuse of power and undermining judicial integrity, highlighting the impact on taxpayers for the Commission's litigation misconduct.
Popular memecoin WIF saw a sharp price increase after influential trader GCR acquired the original Dogwifhat meme image for 1,210 ETH.
Base, an Ethereum L2 network created by Coinbase, saw transactions soar to over 1 million and fees drop after the Dencun upgrade.
Data indicates that BlackRock's IBIT, the largest spot bitcoin ETF, with an average trade size of $13,000, has so far primarily attracted retail investors.
Sponsored
If you’re a Web3 developer, now is the time to make sure your app code is secure. Vulnerabilities in wallets, dApps, or new blockchain implementations can quickly lead to disaster. And with the crypto market on the rise, hackers are on the prowl. Over the past decade, Coinspect [4] has partnered with dozens of companies to audit, report vulnerabilities, and propose improvements [4] to Web3 code. Their experts will stress-test your app from every which way — uncovering the holes in your security strategy before the bad actors find them.
The memecoin frenzy that has been brewing on Solana has boosted on-chain volumes to new records, exceeding $3.79 billion in volume per day. The success of coins like dogwifhat and the Book of Meme presale helped drive these volumes to new heights. This trend has helped Solana pass Ethereum in on-chain DEX volumes and has pushed the price of Solana to over $200.
Cetera Financial Group will now let its advisors include four bitcoin ETFs into client portfolios. The approval of these ETFs, offered by BlackRock, Fidelity, Invesco, and Franklin Templeton, for client portfolios marks another important step in adoption with established wealth managers’ support. Cetera will provide educational training for its financial professionals on the Bitcoin ETFs. As of now, the firm manages $190 billion in assets, and it plans to continually assess the implications of bitcoin ETFs for its clients.
A new Ordinals collection called Runestones was airdropped to early ecosystem participants last week. Runestones will transform into Runes tokens with the launch of the new UTXO-based Runes protocol, pioneered by Ordinals' creator Casey Rodarmor, offering a more efficient alternative to the BRC-20 token.
Sturdy Finance has launched the Sturdy Subnet Bittensor subnetwork on testnet as part of its efforts to build yield optimization infrastructure. Sturdy, backed by Pantera and Y Combinator, utilizes a groundbreaking architecture that experts claim could cut risk while maintaining liquidity. Furthermore, the Sturdy Subnet opens up opportunities for DeFi protocols and off-chain funds to increase yields in a secure, decentralized manner.
This thread lays out two new crypto law concepts that were recently introduced - DUNAs (Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Associations) and BORGs (Cybernetic Organizations). DUNAs are intended to grant legal personhood to DAOs, allowing them to contract, sue, and pay taxes under US tax law. BORGs are legally wrapped multisigs that limit liability while setting parameters for their activities. Experts suggest these concepts, while not universal solutions, add to the growing toolkit for managing DAOs within a legal framework.
EigenLayer, a security abstraction and application layer, offers Ethereum validators the ability to earn additional revenue by lending out staked capital for various uses. By utilizing staked capital that's already serving as security collateral, modules established on EigenLayer can leverage the existing Ethereum validator pool and introduce additional slashing conditions. This process, known as "restaking," has the potential to reduce the financial strain associated with security for users of decentralized applications, lowering the bar for innovation and reshaping the landscape of protocol financing.
2024.03.18·dirtroads.substack.com·15 min read·TLDR Crypto Memecoins, from Dogecoin to lesser-known tokens, play a vital role in pushing the boundaries of financial freedom and societal commitment to digital property rights. Memecoins are both a cultural and a financial phenomenon that represent a form of collective expression gained through emerging technologies.
Policymakers' opposition to Bitcoin, especially Bitcoin ETFs, is more rooted in concerns about the financial system's stability than investor protection or criminal use. Bitcoin acts as a stark signaling device, highlighting problems with excessive government spending and monetary policy. The ETFs also provide an easy ‘exit ramp’ for all people, which could prove to be problematic for a regime reliant on excessive government spending.
The Avalanche Foundation disclosed the first five memecoins owned under its Culture Catalyst program.
In this interview, Coinbase's Chief Security Officer Philip Martin, discusses the pervasiveness of scams beyond crypto and emphasizes education and proactive measures for prevention.
Marathon Digital Holdings is investing $87.3 million in a Texas 200-megawatt Bitcoin mining facility to boost capacity and reduce costs by 20% to counter the impact of bitcoin's halving.
Over 64,000 Synthetix users received a memecoin airdrop on Optimism by Synthetix's founder to test reduced fees post-Dencun upgrade, resulting in total fees of around $4,000.
Sponsored
Ready to save up to $2,000 on every vacation for life? Dollar Flight Club has your back—TRY THE CLUB FOR JUST $1 IF YOU SIGN UP IN THE NEXT 12 HOURS [4]. That means; Hawaii from $174, Iceland from $215, or Greece from $245 round trip. Join over 1 million members saving on travel this year. You just missed out on 2024 flight deals like:
2024.03.15·app.dollarflightclub.com·Sponsor·TLDR Crypto The Arbitrum Foundation plans to set aside approximately $400 million over two years to promote gaming projects through its new "Gaming Catalyst Program". The project, which is awaiting approval from the Arbitrum DAO, will primarily use the funds to encourage builders and publishers to create video games using its blockchain. The foundation believes this strategy will attract quality game creators and retain new users within Arbitrum.
Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has added crypto exchange Bybit, along with 11 of its products, to its list of suspicious investments. The SFC warned that Bybit is unlicensed and investors risk losing their entire investments on the platform. The move is part of Hong Kong's efforts to balance investor protection with its aim to portray itself as a global crypto hub.
Crypto wallet Zerion is developing an Ethereum-based L2, ZERO Network, anticipated to launch in late Q2 or early Q3 of this year. It aims to offer free transactions to improve the user experience and accessibility for newcomers. Zerion believes the cost of subsidizing transactions will decrease over time with technological improvements and the network will increase its wallet's visibility, generating additional revenue to offset expenses. It expects to share the cost of subsidizing transactions with dapp developers.
Blockchain-based platform Story Protocol has joined forces with AI startup Ritual to enable the creation and documentation of AI models. Story Protocol will use its IP-tracking system to register AI models created by Ritual's users. Modeling platform MyShell will be the first to host its models on Ritual as IP Assets on Story Protocol, which ensures protection for usage, branding, and profit sharing.
This post lays out some of the issues with the current monopolization and fragmentation within the industry and a potential solution for it. The existing infrastructure is limited to specific activities and ecosystems, causing inefficiency and lack of trust for both users and developers. Mitosis proposes a scalable solution to unlock the full potential of locked assets, enabling broad network coverage and solidifying security design. By addressing these issues, the protocol intends to enhance yield for LPs, user experience, and connectivity for developers.
This thread lays out top altcoin picks for a potential ‘altcoin summer’. The choices span a variety of sectors, including AI, DeFi, and more. Some noteworthy picks include Bittensor and io.net in AI, EigenLayer and Kelp DAO in restaking, Chainlink and Frax Finance in DeFi, and Solana and Kujira as L1 solutions.
A recent survey by Paradigm revealed the growing importance of crypto in the US, indicating policymakers should be paying attention. The poll suggests that dissatisfaction with traditional financial institutions is driving people toward crypto, with 19% of respondents owning it. Ownership is highest amongst college graduates and minorities. The survey also shows that crypto holders make up a significant voting bloc, enough to potentially influence election outcomes, indicating political parties should develop thorough crypto policies.
Analysts forecast that the cryptocurrency market cap might reach $7.5 trillion by 2025, a threefold increase from today’s prices. This is predicted to be primarily driven by Bitcoin and Ethereum due to higher institutional adoption. The analysts also expect Robinhood's stock to outperform, courtesy of the crypto comeback, with its crypto revenues increasing significantly.
Modulus encoded GPT2-XL, a 1.5 billion parameter AI, into the Ethereum blockchain and proved it with a zk proof.
A UK Judge ruled Dr. Craig Wright is not Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, refuting Wright's long-standing claims about the identity and Bitcoin whitepaper.
In this interview, Farcaster's founder, Dan Romero, talks about how he aims to disrupt social media by leveraging nerd sniping, prediction markets, and diverse monetization strategies, including a user fee to reduce spam.
The SEC charged 17 individuals in a $300 million crypto Ponzi scheme that targeted 40,000 mainly Latino investors with false "risk-free" returns.
Ethereum has activated the Dencun upgrade, which is expected to catalyze growth on L2 networks like Arbitrum and Polygon by reducing fees. The hard fork accomplished this through "proto-danksharding", adding a new place for data storage on the blockchain at a lower cost. The upgrade is expected to make transaction settlements more efficient and cheaper for rollup networks, which will in turn bring down fees for end users.
A US district judge has rejected the requests of crypto exchange Gemini and crypto lender Genesis to dismiss a case initiated by the SEC concerning the Gemini Earn program. Judge Edgardo Ramos found that the SEC "plausibly alleged" that both parties offered and sold unregistered securities. Genesis and Gemini were first charged by the SEC in January 2023.
Grass plans to tackle data transparency issues in AI training by using a network of nodes hosted on residential devices to scrape, clean, and convert web data into structured datasets for AI model training. It is building a layer 2 solution comprising a Grass Data Ledger to store all data scraped with provenance metadata and a ZK processor to assist in recording the data's provenance and provide a persistent lineage of each dataset.
Block, formerly Square, has launched a self-custodial Bitcoin wallet called Bitkey. The device enables users to control their private keys, offering direct custody of their assets. Integrations with Coinbase and Cash App allow users to purchase Bitcoin directly using the wallet. Tools are in place to recover funds even if users lose their devices.