This Is PeaNUTs 🐿️

Plus, Curve’s value vault, Election jitters, Coinbase’s “free” listings, and more!

Nov 05, 2024

Happy Tuesday! I’m Juan Aranovich, managing editor of Unchained.

In today’s edition:

🥜 Nuts for PNUT
💸 Curve: A cut for crvUSD
🚧 Stuck in neutral: Base on L2BEAT
💰 Pension fund punts on ETH
💲 Bitcoin ETFs: What’s that gurgling sound?
🔍 Costing Coinbase: Lucre for listing
🐹 Hamster Kombat stares at defeat
🔗 Robinhood, Kraken and stablecoins: Network effect

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What’s Poppin’?

Meet PNUT: The Memecoin Inspired by a Beloved Squirrel

And now for something completely different: enter Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT), a new memecoin that’s taken the crypto community—and even the U.S. presidential race—by storm.

Created through Pump.Fun, PNUT’s launch follows the viral story of Peanut, a domesticated squirrel that became an internet sensation before tragically being euthanized by New York’s Department of Environment Conservation.

PNUT quickly skyrocketed to a market cap of $135.5 million before settling at around $50 million at the time of writing.

The coin has caught the attention of big names like Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr., both of whom referenced the squirrel on social media and at political rallies. Musk even encouraged his followers to “Vote for PNUT! For Liberty! For Freedom!”

Curve DAO Votes on Redirecting Fees to Boost crvUSD Stablecoin

Over the weekend, governance members of Curve DAO started voting on a proposal to redirect 10% of fees from its crvUSD stablecoin borrows to a savings vault for crvUSD users.

Curve, currently the 15th largest DeFi protocol with a total value locked of $1.7 billion, is hoping this shift will drive up crvUSD’s market cap from its current $60 million.

The proposal, backed by Curve founder Michael Egorov, aims to make borrowing cheaper and increase crvUSD’s supply, though it would mean that veCRV holders—those holding Curve’s governance tokens—would sacrifice some revenue in the short term.

Supporters argue that the potential long-term growth of crvUSD could ultimately benefit veCRV holders by bringing in more overall revenue. It’s a classic case of short-term sacrifice for long-term gain, and if passed, it could help strengthen Curve’s stablecoin presence in the DeFi space.

Why Base Is Still at Stage 0 on L2BEAT

Base recently introduced fraud proofs, but L2BEAT, which measures the level of decentralization across rollups, is not giving the Coinbase-incubated blockchain a “Stage 1” level.

L2BEAT upgraded Base’s risk ratings, marking improvements in State Validation and Proposer Failure thanks to new fraud proofs and permissionless exits. Despite these advancements, Base remains at Stage 0.

The reason? Two key issues: Base still lacks a Security Council for decentralized oversight, and its contracts are instantly upgradable through a 2/2 multisig between Base and the Optimism Foundation. This setup, while efficient, introduces centralization risks since changes can be made without broader consensus.

L2BEAT is optimistic, though, and will update Base’s stage if it addresses these governance and security elements. Until then, Base’s progress is a step forward, but not yet enough for a full upgrade.

Michigan Pension Fund Makes Contrarian Bet on Ethereum

The State of Michigan Retirement System disclosed a $10 million stake in Grayscale’s Ethereum ETF, outpacing its $7 million Bitcoin ETF holding. This move stands out because ETH has faced a fair amount of skepticism in the crypto community lately, with many favoring BTC.

"Pretty big win for ether which could use one,” said Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas.

Michigan’s decision signals contrarian confidence in Ethereum, even as others turn away. By betting on ETH amid bearish sentiment, Michigan’s pension fund seems to believe in the long-term resilience and potential of Ethereum.

Bitcoin ETFs See $541 Million Outflows on Eve of U.S. Election

Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds saw their second-biggest day of outflows ever on Nov. 4, the eve of the U.S. presidential election.

The 12 spot bitcoin ETFs saw $541.1 million in net outflows, according to data from SoSoValue.

The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) was the only bitcoin ETF to record a positive inflow, with $38.4 million incoming on the day, while the Fidelity Bitcoin Trust (FBTC) — usually a close competitor to BlackRock’s IBIT in terms of inflows — saw $169 million of outflows.

Ark Invest’s ARKB saw sizable outflows of $138 million, Bitwise’s BITB saw just shy of $80 million drain away, and Grayscale’s GBTC saw almost $64 million leave its coffers.

The funds recorded $2.2 billion in trading volume as bitcoin retreated to below $68,000 and the total crypto market cap dropped nearly 3% to $2.3 trillion.

Election-related caution appears to have contributed to the increased withdrawals, with bitcoin’s volatility having grown during the weeks leading up to the poll.

Are Coinbase Listings Really Free? Justin Sun and Andre Cronje Beg to Differ

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has urged crypto projects looking to list a token to drop the exchange a note via its Asset Hub, saying “asset listings on Coinbase are free.”

Armstrong was responding to an X post by Moonrock Capital CEO Simon Dedic, who wrote that Binance had asked a “tier 1” crypto project for 15% of its token supply in order to be listed on the exchange.

Yearn Finance founder Andre Cronje had a different version of events, posting that Binance had not charged fees to list tokens, but that Coinbase had asked for payments of $300 million, $50 million, $30 million, and more recently $60 million to secure a listing.

“Lots of respect. But this is simply not true,” Cronje said, referring to Armstrong’s claim.

Tron founder Justin Sun had a similar story, writing in a post that Binance had charged Tron $0 to list TRX, but that Coinbase had required a payment of 500 million TRX, worth $80 million, and demanded a $250 million BTC deposit in Coinbase Custody to boost its performance.

Hamster Kombat Runs Out of Fight

Telegram-based tap-to-earn game Hamster Kombat has seen a massive decline in players.

According to a report by Protos, the number of active users in Hamster Kombat had dropped 86% from a peak of 300 million players to around 41 million at the time of writing.

The value of the game’s native token, HMSTR, has seen a similar slump, plummeting 64.5% from its all-time high at launch in September. The only way to earn HMSTR tokens is to play the viral game.

The TON blockchain-based game saw significant interest from both users and venture capitalists around the time of its launch.

In August, the game’s administrators criticized Web3 projects for building audiences “only to use them as exit liquidity for their venture capital backers.”

But the delay in Hamster’s airdrop, originally scheduled for late July, subsequent gameplay issues and unimpressive AI-generated art appear to be to blame for the nosedive in its user numbers.

Robinhood and Kraken Get Serious About Stablecoins

Centralized exchanges Kraken and Robinhood have teamed up with crypto bank Anchorage Digital, virtual asset platform Galaxy Digital, crypto exchange Bullish, payment processor Nuvei and digital asset firm Paxos to launch a global stablecoin network.

In a joint press release posted on Paxos’s website, the firms said the open Global Dollar Network is designed to accelerate stablecoin usage worldwide.

The network will be built around a new stablecoin named USDG, issued by Paxos from Singapore, and will be directed by a network advisory committee made up of representatives from the partner firms.

Singapore’s DBS Bank will be the primary banking partner at launch for cash management and custody of USDG reserves.

Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi said the lack of competition in the regulated stablecoin market had prevented the industry from reaching its full potential.

New entrants to the stablecoin market can be expected to face an uphill battle, given that Tether’s USDT accounts for around 70% of the market and Circle’s USDC accounts for 20%.

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Mark Your Calendars! 📆

Tomorrow, November 6, Bits + Bips will do a live-streamed show at 4:30 pm ET! Join hosts James Seyffart and Alex Kruger, with special guest Noelle Acheson, to discuss all things election! Link and more details to come.

Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍

🚚 Defunct exchange Mt. Gox moved $2.2 billion in Bitcoin this week, transferring 32,371 BTC after a recent extension on its repayment timeline as Bitcoin’s value fluctuated.
🇺🇸 a16z crypto pledged $23 million to the Fairshake PAC in support of pro-crypto lawmakers for the 2026 U.S. midterms, aiming to foster bipartisan regulatory support and introduce policymakers to blockchain entrepreneurs.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

🇬🇧 A UK pension fund allocated 3% of its assets to Bitcoin, marking the first such investment in Britain as Cartwright, a pension specialist, also announced plans to create a Bitcoin Employee Benefits scheme.

The $$$ Corner…

🇨🇭 Standard Chartered-backed Zodia Custody began raising $50 million to fund geographical expansion and attract diverse investors, seeking to expand its digital asset services globally.
💻 Ethereum-focused Vlayer secured $10 million in pre-seed funding to develop Solidity 2.0, a new layer of verifiable data infrastructure designed to enhance smart-contract capabilities on Ethereum.
🔐 Solana-based Arcium acquired Web2 competitor Inpher, taking on its technology and team to advance confidential computing, with the aim of offering secure onchain applications.

What Do You Meme?

📈 Your Market Update 📉

BTC is down 0.4%, trading at $68,703
ETH is down 1.6%, trading at $2,436
BTC dominance: 56.81%
Crypto market cap: $2.4T

*All data as of today, 07:23 am ET. Source: CoinGecko

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