EigenLayer Announces Increase in Liquidity Re-staking Limits for stETH, rETH, and cbETH on August 22

EigenLayer has officially announced its plan to once again increase the liquidity re-staking limits for stETH, rETH, and cbETH on August 22nd. The specific criteria state that when the re-staking amount for any of these three assets reaches 100,000 units, the protocol deposits will be temporarily paused again.  EigenLayer is a protocol built on Ethereum that introduces the concept of re-staking native staked ETH or using Liquidity Staking Tokens (LST). Users have the option to participate in the EigenLayer smart contract to re-stake their ETH or LST, extending cryptographic economic security to other applications on the network and earning additional rewards.  EigenLayer previously opened its staking on June 15th and raised the re-staking limit on July 13th. This marks the second increase in re-staking limits.  

2023-08-14Deep Dive

US Judge Revokes SBF's Bail,SBF's Legal Team Files Appeal

According to information disclosed by Inner City Press on Twitter, US Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan, during a hearing at the Southern District Court of New York, has decided to revoke the bail of SBF. The judge cited at least two attempts by SBF to interfere with witnesses.  The US Department of Justice had previously accused SBF of leaking private diaries of Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, to the media. SBF is facing seven different charges related to the collapse of FTX, including telecommunications, commodities, and securities fraud.  Subsequently, Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett tweeted that Judge Lewis Kaplan had denied the defenses request to postpone detention during the appeals process. SBF was incarcerated on August 12th.  Less than an hour after SBFs detention, their legal team had already filed an appeal for release and had paid the $505 application fee.  

2023-08-14Deep Dive

NEAR Protocol Q2 Roadmap Update

NEAR Protocol has released its Q2 roadmap update, with the Pagoda development team submitting three proposals to implement account extensions. These proposals include the NEP for account namespaces, the NEP for wasm submodules, and the NEP for shared contract code storage.  The team has made significant improvements to the mainnet, achieving an 8x increase in state read performance. Backend writing capabilities are currently in progress, potentially reducing state writing costs by threefold. Additionally, cold storage has been fully deployed, significantly lowering the costs associated with running archival nodes.  In the realm of state synchronization enhancements, nodes are now capable of syncing the mainnet state within 3 hours. A fully-featured new state synchronization tool is projected to be delivered in the third quarter. The team has also delivered Finite Wasm and its integration with nearcore, enhancing the security and stability of NEAR contract runtime.  In the “Experience” section of the roadmap, there are two changes: the required changes for implementing account extensions are temporarily shelved, and the protocol team will focus on addressing storage refunds. In the core part of the roadmap, the third quarter will pivot towards the second phase of sharding. This involves re-sharding the current mainnet state and removing the requirement

2023-08-14Deep Dive

Will ApeCoin Hold The $2 Price To Get Through The Crisis?

Key Points:  Apecoin (APE) plummets 90% from its 2022 peak, disappointing NFT holders.  APE battles a 6-month decline amidst Bitcoins stagnant phase.  Low volume and NFT sector disinterest cloud APEs future.  The trajectory of Apecoin (APE) has taken a challenging course as it continues to chart lower highs and lower lows on the daily chart.  While Bitcoin‘s sideways price movement has cast a shadow over many altcoins, APE has borne the brunt of this trend, registering six consecutive months of decline. The renowned cryptocurrency pioneer’s narrow trading range has left little room for altcoins to thrive, including Apecoin.  Presently, this digital asset finds itself in a substantial slump, plummeting by a staggering 90% from its 2022 peak. The projects performance has left Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) holders disheartened, as their optimism for APE crypto has met with disappointment.  Despite attempts at recovery, APEs price has remained relatively stagnant in recent days, mirroring the subdued movement seen among other altcoins. The market anticipates a significant Bitcoin shift that could potentially reinvigorate these digital assets.  Presently, APE‘s fate seems intricately tied to broader market cues for resurgence, lacking support from the NFT sector despite its association with the BAYC’s NFT collection.  In the context of recent trading activity, ApeCoin has

2023-08-14Deep Dive

Pepe Coin Is Showing Bullish Signal As Price $0.000001 Holds

Pepe coin rebounds with whale investments, signaling a positive trend.  The chart shows a recovery, breaching resistance at $0.00000135.  Whales invest heavily, and speculation remains; Pepe trades at $0.00000133, targeting $0.00000142 resistance.  Pepe coin has recently shown signs of recovery, bolstered by substantial investments from influential investors and a surge in social interactions. This resurgence hints at a potential positive turnaround for the meme-based cryptocurrency and its holders.  Examining the daily chart, the Pepe coin, known for its frog theme, has traced a notable recovery from its combined support at $0.00000106. This upward momentum is potentially linked to the emergence of a bullish reversal pattern referred to as an ending diagonal.  Notably, the coins price has breached a local resistance point of $0.00000135, pointing towards the possibility of further upward movement.PEPE price chart. Source: TradingView  The involvement of significant investors, commonly known as whales, can have mixed consequences. While it can generate short-term upward price shifts, it also exposes investors to the risk of abrupt sell-offs by these influential entities, potentially leading to substantial losses for holders.  Insights from Lookonchain have illuminated a considerable uptick in whale interest in PEPE. A substantial investment of 1 million USDC was employed to secure a staggering 807 billion PEPE tokens,

2023-08-14Deep Dive

FedNow Supports Hedera’s Dropp Payment Platform, HBAR Soars 16%

Key Points:  The US Federal Reserve‘s instant payments system, FedNow, has added Hedera’s (HBAR) Dropp payment platform.  Currently, Dropp allows small-sized payments in HBAR, USD, and USDC.  Hederas native HBAR tokens surged 16% after the news.  The US Federal Reserve‘s instant payments system, FedNow, has added Hedera’s (HBAR) Dropp payment platform to its list of service providers.  Dropp plans to partner with banks that use FedNow Services to provide merchants with an innovative option for year-round, end-of-day real-time and instant payments services, providing the ability to direct access to money from customers for high-value transactions. The platform will also enable retail-level instant payments for everyday purchases by joining FedNow.  Currently, Dropp allows micropayments for small-value transactions in both HBAR, USD, and USDC. Merchants save money and grow their businesses, while consumers get convenient access to life-enriching products and services. In addition, Dropp allows for NFT storage, transactions, transfers, and viewing of NFT transaction history and details and associated fees.  Dropp, a cost-effective digital micropayment transaction platform, has officially launched on the Hedera Hashgraph blockchain. It is built on high throughput, low latency distributed ledger technology for instant payments. Dropp currently uses ACH to fund consumer wallets and make payments to merchants at the end of the day.  Hedera‘s

2023-08-14Deep Dive

Coinbase Ventures Announces Strategic Investment in Rocket Pool

Coinbase Ventures officially announced that it has made a strategic investment in the Rocket Pool project by acquiring RPL tokens directly from the Rocket Pool team.  Rocket Pool is a decentralized liquidity staking protocol that, similar to Lido, enables users to stake ETH while retaining their liquidity. Users can participate by staking their ETH in Rocket Pool to receive rETH, thereby unlocking liquidity.  Presently, Rocket Pools network boasts over 3,100 active node operators, with Ethereum staking totaling over 780,000 ETH. It holds a 3.06% market share of all protocols providing staking services, second only to the Kraken exchange.  

2023-08-11Deep Dive

Binance Labs Invests $10 Million in Helio Protocol to Support its Transformation into a Liquidity St

Binance Labs has invested $10 million in Helio Protocol to facilitate its transformation into a liquidity staking platform.  Currently built on BNB Chain, Helio aims to utilize this new funding to expand its platform onto other chains. A spokesperson from Binance Labs stated, “Helios goal is to launch on Ethereum and subsequently on Layer 2 networks like Arbitrum and zkSync.”  Previously, Helio only offered stablecoin minting services, allowing users to mint HAY, a decentralized stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, backed by overcollateralized BNB. This functionality is similar to Makers DAI and the recently launched GHO stablecoin by Aave.  In July, Helio Protocol merged with staking provider Synclub, and during the same month, it announced the diversification of collateral to support HAY.  Since then, Helio BNB deposits have seamlessly transformed into a basket of LST tokens, including AnkrBNB (ANKR), snBNB (Synclub), BNBx (Stader), and stkBNB (Pstake). Although users account balances are denominated in BNB, they have the option to withdraw any of the mentioned LST tokens.  As of now, Helio ranks as the 13th largest DeFi protocol on BNB Chain, with 11,000 HAY holders contributing $300 million in Total Value Locked (TVL), including $260 million staked in Synclubs validator nodes, making it the second-largest validator

2023-08-11Deep Dive

Circle CEO Advocates for the Establishment of an On-Chain US Dollar System Embracing the DeFi World

Circles Co-founder and CEO, Jeremy Allaire, has released a promotional video urging the United States to “make a choice” regarding digital currencies and reaffirming the threats faced by the US dollar.  In the video, Allaire discusses the capability of cryptocurrencies to “fundamentally change the way payments work.” He draws a comparison between the late 1990s dial-up internet era and the present state of modern networks driven by technologies like smartphones and artificial intelligence, stating that the “only thing that hasnt kept up with the technological momentum is the US dollar.”  Allaire asserts that the dominant position of the US dollar in todays global economy is being challenged. He advocates for the creation of an on-chain US dollar, describing it as a robust developer primitive that embraces a multi-chain, dynamic DeFi world, encompassing microtransactions and even large-scale capital markets. He proposes the establishment of this system within the United States and emphasizes that regulatory authorities in the country are ensuring the security, transparency, and adherence to bank-level regulatory risk management standards for these systems.  

2023-08-11Deep Dive

Bittrex Agrees To Pay $24 Million Fine Against Alleged SEC Securities Violation

Key Points:  Struggling crypto exchange, Bittrex has agreed to pay a $24 million fine for allegedly violating the US SECs securities laws.  Despite this, the company and its co-founder William Shihara have neither acknowledged nor denied the allegations.  The SEC in April alleged that Bittrex operated as a stock exchange.  The lawsuit between Bittrex and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ended after the exchange agreed to a $24 million fine, without admitting or denying the allegations, according to an official SEC announcement.  Specifically, the penalty includes $14.4 million in restitution, $4 million in profits earned under the court ruling, and $5.6 million in civil penalties.  Even so, the companies and co-founder William Shihara have not admitted or denied the regulators allegations. Shihara, who did not pay the fine, called the settlement plan “a good outcome” and said he hoped it would help the US strike a balance between protecting investors and promoting innovation.  Bittrex is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the US, having had a 23% market share at the beginning of 2018. But with competition and the downturn of the crypto industry, the exchange is slowly losing its grip position.  In April, Bittrex announced its withdrawal from the United States. A month later,

2023-08-11Deep Dive
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