🔥⛏ Record Bitcoin Hashrate as Miner Reserves Hit Lows

In today’s edition: 🌟 $1 billion up for grabs at MakerDAO, 🛑 Aave warns against WBTC risk-off rush, 💼 The case for clear signing in blockchains, and more!

Aug 13, 2024

👯‍♀️ Refer Unchained with a friend and earn a Premium subscription

Gevulot is the universal proving infrastructure for ZK. Try ZkCloud with free usage, plus extended grant opportunities for premier customers, until 'Q1 2025.

Cartesi has a challenge for all talented devs! Try to hack their Honeypot dApp. Compete in a bug-bounty initiative to test, scrutinize, and refine the underlying code of Cartesi Rollups! Learn more.

The Cryptopians in Seoul! 🇰🇷

Laura is coming to Seoul for an exclusive book event, with the support of DeSpread 🎉

The event will take place at Kemistri in Gangnam on Monday, August 19 at 7 pm KST.

Don’t miss the chance to attend—RSVP now! 💌

What’s Poppin’?

by Sage D. Young and Sam Sriram

Bitcoin Hashrate Hits Record High as Miner Reserves Drop to 3-Year Low

Bitcoin miner reserves have dropped to a level last seen in January 2021, as network hashrate sits at 627 EH/s.

Applications Open for MakerDAO’s $1 Billion Tokenization Competition

The majority of firms participating in Arbitrum’s real-world asset treasury diversification program are also looking to join MakerDAO’s $1 billion tokenization competition.

Aave DAO’s Chaos Labs Says ‘Risk-Off’ Recommendation for WBTC ‘Premature’

Aave’s Chaos Labs and Marc Zeller caution against hasty decisions on WBTC, following MakerDAO’s proposal to off-board the asset.

Opinion: Why Blockchain Institutions Need to Switch From Blind Signing to Clear Signing ASAP

by Sebastian Higgs

Institutions that use blind signing to approve transactions are recklessly risking their clients’ dollars.

Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍️

🏹 Three Arrows Capital liquidators filed a $1.3 billion lawsuit against Terraform Labs, alleging that the firm manipulated the market for Luna and TerraUSD, leading to 3AC's massive losses during the 2022 collapse.
📈 US spot Ethereum ETFs saw $4.9 million in inflows, with Grayscale's ETHE ending its 14-day outflow streak, while spot bitcoin ETFs attracted $27.8 million in inflows.
📰 Polymarket partnered with Perplexity AI to provide users with AI-driven news summaries and real-time probability predictions, enhancing the platform's analytical tools.
📜 The DeFi Education Fund acquired a patent that was at the center of lawsuits against MakerDAO and Compound, leading to the immediate dismissal of the cases and plans to make the patent publicly available.
🇳🇬 The family of detained Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan is calling for his release as his health deteriorates, with reports indicating he is mostly bedridden due to untreated medical conditions.
🔗 Optimism outlined a roadmap to improve interoperability between its affiliated blockchains, aiming to make its Superchain ecosystem function more seamlessly as a unified network.
📊 Solana's DEX trading volume dropped by over 10% in the past week, while Ethereum, Base, and Sui networks saw double-digit gains during the same period.
🔻 DeFi market dominance reached a three-year low, falling from 3.82% to 2.84% last week, marking its lowest point since January 2021.
🐉 Dragonfly and Crypto.com criticized the CFTC's proposed rules for prediction markets, arguing that the regulations overreach and are too broad, especially in light of the recent Chevron court ruling.
💥 Jarett Dunn, who stole $2 million from the Solana-based Pump.fun platform, pleaded guilty in London and faces up to seven years in prison.
🚨 The SEC charged the founders of NovaTech with running a $650 million Ponzi scheme, which primarily targeted the Haitian-American community through a fraudulent crypto investment program.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

🏦 Singapore's largest bank, DBS, launched a pilot for blockchain-powered treasury tokens in collaboration with Ant International, aiming to enhance multi-currency treasury and liquidity management across various markets.

The $$$ Corner…

💵 Marathon Digital plans to raise $250 million through convertible notes to purchase more bitcoin and to support general corporate purposes, although the offering is subject to market conditions.
💰 Ion Protocol raised an additional $4.8 million to develop Nucleus, a platform that helps rollups and appchains generate native yield, bringing its total funding to $7 million.
💸 Venture capital funding in crypto hit $2.7 billion in Q2, with a focus on fewer but higher-quality investments, signaling a shift towards more concentrated opportunities.
🔄 Bitcoin miner Argo Blockchain repaid a $35 million bailout loan from Galaxy Digital ahead of schedule, stabilizing its operations after financial struggles last year.

What Do You Meme?

📈 Your Market Update 📉

BTC is down 0.1%, trading at $58,605
ETH is down 0.4%, trading at $2,616
BTC dominance: 53.64%
Crypto market cap: $2.17T

*All data as of today, 06:30 am ET. Source: CoinGecko

We Are Hiring!

A Bitcoin Reporter to cover all things Bitcoin. See the details and apply here.
A Regulatory Reporter to cover regulatory topics in the space. See the details and apply here.
A Senior Editor to help assign and edit daily news stories, as well as work on features and other editorial projects as needed. See the details and apply here.
An Audience Development Director to broaden the reach of the publication’s content, whether through the web, social media, newsletters, podcast platforms, or videos. See the details and apply here.

🔝 Are you hiring and want to promote the postings in the Unchained newsletter? Let us know!

Thank you for reading Unchained. This post is public so feel free to share it. 📩📤