Clash of the DeFi OGs ⚔️
Plus, 🐙 Squid game, 🤝 Ethena goes to Trumpworld, 📈 Payday for Pump.fun, and more!
Here’s to Thursday! I’m Juan Aranovich, managing editor of Unchained.
In today’s edition:
💥 Polygon “manipulation”: Aave accused
🛠️ Kraken unveils layer 2
🔄 Sonic Labs marks Cronje’s return to the spotlight
💰 Synthetix: “Decembrrrr” LP incentives boost liquidity
🤝 Ethena’s sUSDe proposed as World Liberty collateral
🐧 Pump.fun shatters Solana revenue records
🔑 A way forward for market structure rules
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What’s Poppin’?
By Sage D. Young and Tikta
Polygon Community to Reject Proposal for Yield on Bridged Assets
Polygon’s proposal to try to earn yield on bridged assets is unlikely to progress following community feedback, as Polygon Labs and its co-founder, Sandeep Nailwal, called out Aave’s leadership for what they claimed was an attempt to manipulate the Polygon ecosystem through competitive threats.
Last week, Polygon community members submitted an initial governance proposal that entailed using Aave competitor Morpho to enable bridged assets to earn a yield.
Kraken Launches Ink Layer 2
Crypto exchange Kraken has launched an Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution named Ink on its mainnet.
The launch, which the exchange said in a blog had come “months ahead of schedule,” was a product of “strong interest” from builders.
Ink runs on Optimism’s Superchain technology stack, and is progressing towards stage 1 decentralization with permissionless fault proofs.
Since Ink was deployed on Kraken’s testnet in October, more than 8.17 million transactions have been processed and 90,600 tokens have been deployed.
The L2’s day-one partners include Curve, Frax, LayerZero, Pyth and Alchemy.
Andre Cronje’s Sonic Labs Announces L1 Launch, Token Airdrop
Sonic Labs announced on Wednesday the mainnet launch of a new L1, Ethereum virtual machine-compatible blockchain that has a fee monetization feature for application developers.
Although Sonic Labs is a rebrand of the Fantom Foundation, previously tasked with developing the Opera blockchain, which uses FTM as its native token, the freshly rolled-out network boasts a number of upgrades such as faster transaction finality and a new token.
Synthetix Reboots Exchange With Multi-Collateral Perps on Base
Decentralized finance protocol Synthetix is relaunching its exchange with support for multi-collateral perpetuals on the Base network.
Users can now trade using cbBTC, cbETH, wstETH, and wETH as collateral, in addition to U.S. dollars.
To boost liquidity, Synthetix has launched a four-week "Decembrrrr Base LP Incentives" program, offering rewards in SNX and USDC.
The relaunch represents a departure from Synthetix's previous strategy of providing back-end liquidity and infrastructure as it aims to evolve into a primary product issuer.
Ethena Labs Partners With Trump’s World Liberty Financial
Ethena Labs has formed a strategic partnership with World Liberty Financial (WLF), a DeFi project backed by president-elect Donald Trump.
The Ethena Labs team announced the partnership on X, also sharing details of a governance proposal to add Ethena’s staked synthetic dollar, sUSDe, to WLFI’s Aave V3 instance as collateral.
“Should it pass, this proposal will enable World Liberty Financial users to benefit from sUSDe rewards and also WLF token rewards,” Ethena Labs said.
Data from crypto analytics firm Arkham show that WLF has around $79.8 million of crypto assets in its portfolio. WLF’s biggest position is $54 million of ETH. It currently holds $815,000 of Ethena Labs’ native token, ENA.
Listen to Ethena Labs’ Guy Young’s interview with Laura on Tuesday's Unchained podcast.
Pump.fun Becomes First Solana DApp to Top $100M in Monthly Revenue
Pump.fun, a decentralized marketplace that allows users to create and trade memecoins, has become the first Solana-based protocol to generate more than $100 million in monthly revenue.
Research by decentralized asset management platform Syndica found that the protocol generated revenue of $106 million in November, representing more than a quarter of all revenue generated by Solana decentralized applications (DApps).
Solana-based memecoin DApps, specifically, have seen a 305x increase in monthly revenue this year and have generated a total of around $500 million of revenue.
In November, Unchained reported that Pump.fun had shattered records for monthly fees, daily active addresses, and daily tokens launched.
Kristin Smith on Why This Is Crypto’s Time to ‘Get Policy Done’
At the Blockchain Association Policy Summit in DC, BA CEO explains what a pro-crypto Congress and president mean for the industry and what could bring builders back to the U.S.
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Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍
🍌 CoinDesk has been embroiled in internal strife following the resignation of Editorial Chair Matt Murray amid pressure from Tron founder Justin Sun and its new owner, Bullish, to remove an article about Sun’s $6.2M banana-eating stunt, raising concerns about journalistic independence.
📉 Crypto market sentiment soured as the U.S Federal Reserve's cautious rate cut and reduced 2025 easing outlook sent BTC below $99,000, while traders rushed to hedge with short-term puts, reflecting the highest level of fear in three months.
⚖️ A federal judge ruled that Coinbase could proceed with delisting WBTC, rejecting BiT Global's request for a temporary restraining order in a case tied to Justin Sun's alleged involvement in the token’s custodian.
🇸🇻 El Salvador agreed to limit public bitcoin activity, including winding down its Chivo wallet, as part of a $1.4 billion International Monetary Fund loan deal aimed at addressing fiscal challenges and promoting economic stability.
⚠️ WazirX’s WRX token plummeted 60% after Binance announced its delisting, marking another setback for the troubled Indian crypto exchange.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
🏦 Hong Kong has accelerated its crypto licensing regime, approving four new exchanges — HKbitEX, Accumulus, DFX Labs, and EX.IO — as part of an effort to establish itself as a global crypto hub.
The $$$ Corner…
🌱 Blockchain startup Plume closed $20 million in series-A funding from major investors, advancing plans to tokenize real-world assets and launch its Ethereum virtual machine-compatible layer 1 blockchain early next year.
🔄 Fraction AI secured $6 million in pre-seed funding co-led by Spartan and Symbolic Capital to develop a decentralized data labeling platform combining human insights with AI for training advanced machine learning models.
What Do You Meme?
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is down 2.9%, trading at $101,890
ETH is down 4.8%, trading at $3,676
BTC dominance: 54.56%
Crypto market cap: $3.7T
*All data as of today, 08:00 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
Recommended Reads
Blockchain growth platform Flipside: 2024 Onchain Users Report
Digital asset hedge fund Capriole Investments’ market update
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