✅Dencun Passes First Testnet Deployment Despite Hiccups

TLDR Ethereum's Dencun upgrade is now live on the Dencun testnet. The fork was finalized after initially triggering a network split due to the Prysm client encountering a bug.

SO WHAT The highly anticipated upgrade will next go live on the Holesky testnet in two weeks before deploying on mainnet one week later. Dencun will drive a significant reduction in the costs associated with transacting on Layer 2 by replacing calldata with blobs.

READ MORE: Dencun Finalizes On Goerli After Rocky Fork

TLDR The freshly-launched spot Bitcoin ETFs drove a whopping $9.8B in volume a hosted $894 worth of in-flows during their first three days of trading. Grayscale's ETF accounted for more than half of the volume despite suffering sizable outflows.

SO WHAT Eric Balchunas, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg, described the funds' performance as "insane." For comparison, Balchunas noted that the 500 ETFs that launched in 2023 drove $450M worth of daily volume combined — less than that of Grayscale's or BlackRock's Bitcoin ETFs by themselves.

READ MORE: Spot Bitcoin ETFs Drive ‘Insane’ $9.8B In Volume Over Three Days

TLDR A court hearing on the SEC's lawsuit against Coinbase ended with web3 advocates generally viewing proceedings favorably. While the judge is yet to decide whether to throw out the case per Coinbase's request, analysts believe the court is unlikely to side with the SEC.

SO WHAT “My top level take is that Judge Failla exposed that the emperor (Chair Gensler) has no clothes,” Orlando Cosme, a lawyer advising several cryptocurrency projects, told The Defiant. “Her obvious conclusion, as is the conclusion of any lawyer who has dealt with crypto and securities laws seriously... is that the securities laws absolutely are not clear as applied to crypto.”

READ MORE: Crypto Advocates See Coinbase’s SEC Hearing as a “Step Forward”

TLDR Claims for the ongoing airdrop from Dymension will end in just a few days. Web3 users that were active on the Ethereum, Solana, and Cosmos networks can claim DYM tokens until Jan. 21.

SO WHAT Dymension is the latest project to launch an airdrop allocating tokens to a broad array of users from across web3. The event follows similar drops from Celestia and Pyth, which now boast market caps of $2.77B and $524M respectively.

READ MORE: Dymension Airdrop Claim To End In Four Days

TLDR AltLayer, a restaked rollup provider, announced plans to launch a token on Jan. 25. Early adopters will be eligible to claim ALT, including AltLayer NFT holders, EigenLayer restakers, and Celestia stakers.

SO WHAT AltLayer is among a cohort of projects benefiting from the increasing popularity of modular blockchains. AltLayer will allow users to launch rollups that are secured by EigenLayer's restaking protocol.

READ MORE: AltLayer To Launch Token On Jan. 25

TLDR Moody's, the global asset risk advisor, penned a report espousing the efficiency benefits of bringing legacy assets on-chain. The report notes that the value of tokenized funds exploded from $100M to $800M last year.

SO WHAT Moody's said tokenizing mainstream assets offers significant efficiency gains for mainstream investors and predictable yields for DeFi degens. However, the report also discusses many of the risks that are unique to tokenized assets, including technological failure and the evolving regulatory landscape surrounding digital assets.

READ MORE: Moody’s Vouches For Efficiency Benefits Of Tokenization

• Scammers take control of Rocket Pool's X account
• Offchain Labs designs feature to combat MEV
• Blast launches testnet

• Frax Finance's Layer 2 Fraxtal to Debut in February: Founder (Coindesk)
• TrueUSD deploys new reserve audit system in attempt to recover dollar peg (Cointelegraph)
• Trump pledges to block Central Bank Digital Currency if elected for second term (CryptoSlate)