Solana's DeFi Summer? 😮
In today’s edition: 🔥 Solana-based memecoin WEN to burn 25%, 💻 OKX adds inscriptions, 🔐 PeckShield's recovery report, 📉 Record low annualized BTC volatility, and more!
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Note: In yesterday's newsletter, we incorrectly indicated within the sub-heading that Arbitrum was closing in on an all-time high (ATH); it was the amount of ether held in Arbitrum's smart contracts that's near an ATH. We apologize for this error.
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What’s Poppin’?
by Sam Sriram, Brandy Betz and Sage Young
Solana-Based DEX Aggregator Jupiter Hits All-Time High in Weekly Traders
Last week, decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator Jupiter reached over 578,000 traders on the platform, the most in a single week, ahead of a much-anticipated airdrop expected to occur on Wednesday.
Solana-Based Memecoin WEN Supply to Decrease by 25% as Airdrop Ends
Crypto users who transacted on Jupiter, the Solana-based DEX aggregator, were able to claim WEN tokens for a few days until Monday morning. All unclaimed WEN tokens, worth about $35 million, will be burned, according to the token’s creators.
OKX Adds Bitcoin, Dogecoin Inscriptions to Its Wallet
The crypto exchange OKX will add Atomicals (ARC-20), Stamps (SRC-20), Runes, and Doginals (DRC-20) to its wallet and marketplace to make inscription trading more accessible on major blockchains.
$674 Million of Stolen Crypto Recovered in 2023: PeckShield
Around 25% of the $2.6 billion stolen in over 600 major crypto hacks last year has been recovered, according to PeckShield’s Crypto Security Annual Report.
Bitcoin’s 12-Month Volatility Falls to Record Low
Bitcoin’s 12-month annualized volatility has fallen to 45% — the lowest level in 12 years, which some analysts are attributing to the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs earlier this month.
Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner of a16z crypto, believes the internet’s early ideals of democratization and community ownership have been subverted by the consolidation of power into just a few small companies such as Facebook and Google. He’s written a new book called Read Write Own in which he writes about this phenomenon, and argues that blockchain technology can help reverse the trend by providing an environment in which developers and entrepreneurs can once again build direct relationships with their audiences.
Dixon joins Unchained to discuss criticisms of crypto venture capital firms, how he feels now about a16z’s previous investment in Facebook, how crypto has become overly politicized in the US, why Facebook’s Libra project was ultimately shut down, the significant promise of restaking and EigenLayer in particular, and why he believes that creator royalties are essential for the NFT market.
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Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
🔐 Binance now permits larger traders to store assets with external banks, possibly due to concerns arising from its recent $4.3 billion U.S. regulatory fine.
📝 dYdX Foundation has requested $30 million for a three-year budget, aiming to maintain operations until mid-2026.
⚖️ The SEC charged Sam Lee and Brenda Chunga ("Bitcoin Beautee") in the HyperFund scheme, with Chunga settling for undisclosed disgorgement and penalties.
🔽 Invesco and Galaxy Asset Management reduced its spot bitcoin ETF fee from 0.39% to 0.25%, aligning with most competitors' rates.
🔒 Nexus Mutual, a crypto insurance protocol, requested $153,500 in NXM tokens for a six-month operational budget, focusing on salaries, travel, and R&D.
🔄 Coinbase announced a 0.1% fee for institutional clients converting over $75 million from USDC to USD per 30-day period.
🔗 Starknet collaborated with Celestia to enhance data availability for Layer 3 chains, leveraging Celestia's Blobstream for efficient data storage.
💧 dYdX Chain introduced liquid staking support in its latest update, allowing users to trade or use staked DYDX in DeFi applications.
🎮 Ethereum Layer-2 network Immutable zkEVM launched in early access, with plans to open to all developers later in 2024.
The $$$ Corner…
💳 PayPal Ventures invested $6.5 million, including $5 million in its PYUSD stablecoin, into Mesh, a crypto transfer platform, marking a venture into Web3 investments.
💰 Gevulot garnered $6 million in a seed round, planning to launch a Layer 1 blockchain utilizing zero-knowledge proofs for scalable applications.
What Do You Meme?
Recommended Reads
Unchained: What Are DePINs in Crypto?
Are "chains just servers w/ superpowers"? By polynya
DL News: Ether ETFs, more regulation, and privacy battles — Here’s what’s coming in crypto
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is up 2.7%, trading at $43,434
ETH is up 1.7%, trading at $2,313
BTC dominance: 48.73%
Crypto market cap: $1.75T
*All data as of today, 06:18 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
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