🔥 ⚔️ Political Lines Drawn Over DeFi
In today’s edition: 🗣🧨 Bons and Berckmans discuss the role of layer 2s in the Ethereum ecosystem: Are they beneficial or parasitic?
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ETH Is Down Bad, While Layer 2s Are Ripping. Are L2s Parasitic to Ethereum?
Ethereum scaled its layer 2s, but now they are raking in the fees while paying little to the base chain. Are layer 2s parasitic to Ethereum, or will things turn around? Justin Bons and Ryan Berckmans debate.
Ethereum’s layer 2 solutions are booming, but are they inadvertently holding back the value of ETH itself?
In this episode, Justin Bons and Ryan Berckmans engage in a heated debate over whether layer 2s are enhancing Ethereum’s ecosystem or siphoning off its potential. They discuss the impact of layer 2s on decentralization, network effects, and whether Ethereum, as a layer 1, can scale on its own or if the base layer and the rollups now have different incentives. Has Ethereum scaled appropriately for future usage, or was scaling via layer 2s the wrong roadmap for Ethereum?
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
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What’s Poppin’?
by Veronica Irwin and Jason Brett
First Congressional Hearing on DeFi Highlights Divide Between Republicans and Democrats
Clashes over the benefits and dangers of DeFi erupted along partisan lines during a Congressional hearing chaired by Rep. French Hill.
Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍
💰 FTX proposed a $14 million settlement with Emergent Fidelity Technologies to secure claims to over $600 million in Robinhood shares, as part of its reorganization plan.
📉 Solana's network fees have dropped to a six-month low, with daily fees averaging around 4,000 SOL, significantly down from the higher averages seen in the second quarter.
⚖️ Caroline Ellison, former co-CEO of Alameda, is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 24 for her involvement in the FTX scandal, where she faces serious fraud charges, but may receive a lighter sentence for assisting the authorities.
💻 Indonesian crypto exchange Indodax was hacked, losing over $22 million in various tokens, prompting the platform to halt operations for maintenance amid concerns of further security breaches.
💸 Ethereum's stablecoin transaction volume has hit an all-time high of $1.46 trillion this year, fueled by increasing interest in DeFi, with DAI seeing significant use, although USDT and USDC remain the most widely traded when adjusted for potential irregularities.
🔗 Paxos plans to expand its stablecoin and tokenization services to the Ethereum layer 2 network Arbitrum, aiming to enhance DeFi adoption on the platform.
🌉 BitGo selected LayerZero as its interoperability provider, enabling Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) to be natively minted on BNB Chain and Avalanche, reducing bridging risks for users.
💰 State Street Global Advisors launched three new crypto ETFs, focusing on blockchain, digital assets, and AI, in partnership with Galaxy Digital.
💼 tZERO received regulatory approval from the SEC and FINRA to act as a custodian for digital assets, making it the second US firm to achieve this status, following in the footsteps of Prometheum.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
🔗 PayPal and Venmo integrated Ethereum Name Service (ENS), allowing US users to send crypto payments by entering ENS names instead of copying wallet addresses.
💼 Tron, Tether, and TRM Labs launched the T3 Financial Crime Unit to combat illicit activities involving USDT on the Tron blockchain, which hosts nearly 45% of all illicit crypto volume.
The $$$ Corner…
💰 Huma Finance secured $38 million in funding to expand its tokenized real-world assets platform, with plans to extend its payment-finance services to Solana and Stellar’s Soroban network, aiming to enhance liquidity in trade financing.
What Do You Meme?
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is down 1%, trading at $56,536
ETH is down 1.3%, trading at $2,318
BTC dominance: 53.68%
Crypto market cap: $2.08T
*All data as of today, 06:43 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
Recommended Reads
Forbes: New Research Shows Bitcoin Mining Cuts Carbon Emissions
Blockworks: Without decentralization, our data will never be safe
CoinDesk: Why Every Crypto Founder Must Master Political Strategy
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