😯 Insiders? 🦄
In today’s edition: ⚡ Unichain layer 2 promises faster and cheaper DeFi, 🎙️ Aave's Stani Kulechov discusses Chokepoint 2.0 and Ethereum’s future, and more!
Transform financial services through DeFi & Tokenization at Meridian 2024. Stellar Development Foundation’s annual conference will take place in London, UK, from October 15 to 17. Learn More.
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What’s Poppin’?
by Sage D. Young
Uniswap’s UNI Token Jumps 14% as Announcement About New L2 Leaks Ahead of Time
A tweet roughly eight hours ahead of the official announcement strongly implied that the news was coming.
Uniswap Labs Announces New Unichain Layer 2 to Improve the Fragmented DeFi Experience
Unichain, intended to offer faster and cheaper transactions, unifies the experience cross chain and was made in collaboration with Flashbots, a firm known for its research in maximal extractable value (MEV).
Earn bitcoin on Gemini here.
The Chopping Block w/ Stani Kulechov: Operation Chokepoint 2.0, Ethereum Innovation Push, & Polymarket Whales
Operation Chokepoint 2.0, Ethereum Innovation Push, & Polymarket Whales (feat. Stani Kulechov)
Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and special guest Stani Kulechov, who is the founder of DeFi protocol Aave, chop it up about the latest in crypto. In this episode, the crew dives into the latest speculation about Satoshi Nakamoto, spurred by the just-released HBO documentary. They also discuss Ethereum’s big debate over block times and blob storage expansion, exploring whether these changes can keep Ethereum competitive. The conversation gets heated with talk of a Trump whale on PolyMarket, Operation Chokepoint 2.0, and TikTok’s role in onboarding memecoin buyers.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍
🚨 The SEC charged Cumberland DRW LLC with acting as an unregistered dealer in $2 billion worth of crypto transactions, alleging that the company treated the assets as securities without providing required protections.
📜 Ripple plans to file a cross-appeal to preserve its legal arguments in its ongoing case with the SEC, ensuring that the company's defenses remain intact as the regulator’s own appeal progresses through the courts.
🏙️ Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority issued fines and cease-and-desist orders against seven crypto entities for operating without licenses and violating marketing rules, a rare action as the emirate aims to solidify itself as a global crypto hub.
💰 World Liberty Financial, a DeFi project linked to former President Trump, plans to raise $300 million through a token sale at a $1.5 billion valuation, with governance tokens locked for 12 months but available for immediate voting on platform decisions.
🌍 Justin Sun, founder of Tron, was elected prime minister of the Bitcoin-backed micronation Liberland, where he vows to promote libertarian values like small government and a laissez-faire crypto economy,
🪙 Ethena announced a $46 million investment in tokenized real-world asset products from BlackRock, Mountain, Superstate, and Sky.
🕵️♀️ Prosecutors have recommended that Heather 'Razzlekhan' Morgan, involved in laundering the proceeds of the 2016 Bitfinex hack, receive a reduced sentence of 18 months due to her later involvement in the crime and cooperation with authorities.
🇳🇬 Tigran Gambaryan, a Binance executive detained in Nigeria since February, has been denied bail despite serious medical conditions, as his family and lawyers continue to appeal for his release.
The $$$ Corner…
🎮 Web3 gaming developer PiP World secured $10 million in seed funding from UAE-based Exinity, months after acquiring a Roblox stock simulator, and is set to launch a blockchain-based mobile game, PiP Trader, later this year.
💵 Yala, a startup developing a bitcoin-backed stablecoin called YU, closed $8 million in seed funding led by Polychain Capital and Ethereal Ventures, aiming to expand decentralized finance on Bitcoin.
What Do You Meme?
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is flat, trading at $61,038
ETH is up 0.7%, trading at $2,412
BTC dominance: 53.91%
Crypto market cap: $2.24T
*All data as of today, 06:38 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
Recommended Reads
The New York Times: The Downfall of FTX’s Ryan Salame and Crypto Advocate Michelle Bond
DL News: Almost half of hedge funds invest in crypto. Here are their four strategies, and biggest fear
Crypto writer Jeremy Batchelder on “The Stablecoin Value Accrual Puzzle”
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