💥 Not so Fast, Elizabeth
Plus, 👍 a crypto-savvy lawmaker in charge, 🏦 BlackRock’s bitcoin risk formula, 🏗️ Base drives Ethereum code, and more!
I’m Juan Aranovich, managing editor of Unchained.
In today’s edition:
🔥 Schumer’s strategy: Test Warren’s influence
🌞 Solana shines in dev boom
💾 Base’s Ethereum code surge
📜 House Financial Services goes crypto
💰 Why 2% BTC is "reasonable"
🔑 EigenLayer invests in Protocol Guild
🆕 Grayscale’s new trusts
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What’s Poppin’?
By Veronica Irwin, Sage D. Young and Tikta
How Warren’s Power on Senate Banking Is Backfiring in Caroline Crenshaw Confirmation
The odds of Democratic U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw being confirmed by the Senate for another term are waning after her nomination became a political lightning rod for the Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday.
Rather than waiting to put her confirmation to a vote in the next Senate session, Democrats have decided to push a committee vote through during the Biden administration’s lame duck period, inflaming political tensions.
The vote would bring Crenshaw’s confirmation to the Senate floor in the hope that members confirm her before the current session ends.
That strategy, sources say, stems partly from the influence Senator Elizabeth Warren has gained over the Democratic SEC commissioner selection process, which Unchained reported on last week.
However, it is also partly a political test of Warren by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who faces pressure from progressive lobbying groups to bring a vote to the floor.
A Big 2024 Crypto Trend: Devs Flock to Solana
The number of developers in crypto has grown over the long term, but this year’s bull market has seen new trends among builders that reflect a shifting balance both geographically and by blockchain network, according to venture firm Electric Capital’s 2024 developer report, published on Thursday.
Solana is the No. 1 ecosystem for new developers. Among the 39,148 new developers exploring crypto this year, 7,625 come from Solana, according to Electric Capital’s research.
According to Maria Shen, a general partner on the firm’s investment team, Solana’s role in attracting a record number of new developers is momentous, because, she says, “This is the first year that Solana has brought on more new developer interest than Ethereum.”
Base Behind 42% of New Code in Ethereum Ecosystem
Of all the new code written in the Ethereum ecosystem, Coinbase’s layer 2 network, Base, is alone responsible for 42%, according to Electric Capital.
The firm found that Base owns 97% of NFT minting volume and ranks second after Solana in decentralized exchange usage, based on unique trading wallets.
That concentrated developer activity comes amid blockchain infrastructure builders’ shift in focus from Ethereum — which nevertheless remains the top ecosystem for total developer activity — to Solana.
However, the fastest growing ecosystems based on overall developer activity are EigenLayer, which grew 167%, year on year, and Aptos, which expanded 96%.
Crypto-Savvy Rep. French Hill Will Chair House Financial Services Committee
Arkansas Republican Rep. French Hill will chair the House Financial Services Committee during the next Congressional session starting on Jan. 3, putting him in charge of a committee critical to passing crypto legislation focused on stablecoins and market structure, and making him an important figure in the oversight of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Eigen Foundation to Allocate 1% of EIGEN Supply to Protocol Guild
The Eigen Foundation, the independent, shareholder-less organization behind Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer, plans to allocate 1% of the EIGEN token supply to a group of its core developers through the onchain fund Protocol Guild.
The Protocol Guild is a 180-plus member group that will use the funds to build on client development, research, specifications, testing, and coordination.
“By pledging 1% of EIGEN supply, we aim to help the Protocol Guild sustain Ethereum’s core development and maintain its decentralized future,” the Eigen Foundation said on X.
Data from CoinMarketCap show that there are roughly 210.8 million EIGEN tokens in circulation among a total supply of 1.68 billion.
At press time, EIGEN was trading at $5.16 with a fully diluted value of $8.66 billion.
Grayscale Launches Lido DAO, Optimism Trusts
Crypto investment manager Grayscale has launched two new trusts as it aims to broaden its offerings across the Ethereum ecosystem.
The Grayscale Lido DAO Trust and the Grayscale Optimism Trust will provide accredited investors with exposure to governance tokens LDO and OP.
"Lido is helping to democratize staking on Ethereum, and Optimism is critical in allowing Ethereum to scale to compete with newer, faster layer 1 blockchains," Grayscale’s head of product and research, Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, said in a statement announcing the launches.
In the 24 hours to press time, LDO has rallied 17% to an intraday high of $2.37, while OP has gained 8% to trade at an intraday high of $2.66.
BlackRock Calls 2% Bitcoin Allocation a ‘Reasonable Range’
BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, has asked investors interested in a multi-asset portfolio that includes bitcoin to consider a 1%-2% allocation to the original cryptocurrency.
In a report published on Thursday, BlackRock said that allocation was comparable with the amount of portfolio risk associated with the so-called “magnificent seven” stocks — Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla — in a traditional 60%-40% portfolio.
“We think that’s a reasonable range for bitcoin exposure,” BlackRock said.
BlackRock’s spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund, the iShares Bitcoin Trust, has seen a steady stream of inflows over the past week. It raked in $431 million on Dec. 12 and holds $53.44 billion of net assets.
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Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍
📊 Texas lawmakers introduced a bill on Thursday to create a state-level Bitcoin reserve, proposing cold storage holdings and prohibiting international transactions as the state continues attracting Bitcoin miners with its energy incentives.
🏗️ Riot Platforms, the operator of North America's biggest bitcoin mining facility by developed capacity, saw a 10% stock surge after activist investor Starboard Value pushed it to diversify by converting facilities to support hyperscalers, aligning with trends in AI and cloud infrastructure.
💹 The Polygon community is evaluating a proposal to deploy $1.3 billion of stablecoin reserves for yield generation via ERC-4626 vaults, potentially recovering $70 million annually in unrealized value.
The $$$ Corner…
🏔️💸 Decentralized layer 1 Avalanche raised $250 million in a token sale led by digital asset and blockchain firm Galaxy Digital and early-stage crypto investor Dragonfly Capital following its Avalanche9000 testnet upgrade, which significantly reduces validator and transaction costs.
🎮 SocialFi trading card game Fantasy.top closed $4.25 million from Dragonfly and VC firm Manifold Ventures to launch Fantasy V2, introducing new trading card features, social media integrations, and expanded prize pools.
🌾 Solana-based digital marketplace AgriDex secured $4 million in funding led by VC shop Portal Ventures, aiming to tokenize $4.5 billion of agricultural trades, including cocoa and wheat, and improve transparency in global supply chains.
What Do You Meme?
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is flat, trading at $100,366
ETH is down 0.1%, trading at $3,907
BTC dominance: 52.47%
Crypto market cap: $3.79T
*All data as of today, 06:50 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
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