😮 Restaking Overtakes LSTs But Renzo Depegs

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The booming restaking sector is eating liquid staking’s lunch, with EtherFi enjoying $1.2 billion in monthly deposits while $1 billion exited Lido. However, leveraged liquid restaking degens are licking their wounds after Renzo suffered a brief but violent depeg.

Most digital assets are pulling back despite crypto stocks continuing to post strong gains. Reya Network’s liquidity generation event is also proving a success, with the protocol quickly attracting more than $100 million in assets.

In other news, Chainlink completes the mainnet rollout for its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, Avail teams up with five leading Layer 2 teams, PotatoSwap brings Frax’s assets to X Layer, and Blast’s Fantasy.Top attracts $56 million in deposits.

Plus, Samourai’s founders face charges of facilitating $2 billion in illicit transactions and $100 million in laundered criminal assets.

✍️ In today’s newsletter:

Restaking overtakes LSTs
Renzo’s brutal depeg
Crypto markets retrace
Reya attracts more than $100M
Chainlink completes CCIP rollout
Top L2s tap AvailDA
Frax teams up with PotatoSwap
Fantasy.Top raises $56M
Samourai founders arrested

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📈 Markets in the last 24 hrs:

Ticker	Value	24h
Bitcoin	$64,080	-3.46 %
Ethereum	$3,132	-2.63 %
Gold 1st Future	$2,330 0.10	%
S&P 500	5071.63 0.02	%
Arch Web	32.12	-5.08 %
Learn more about Arch Indices		%

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🚀Restaking Overtakes Liquid Staking In Monthly Inflows

Liquid restaking protocols are dominating Ethereum staking inflows, with EtherFi absorbing $1.2 billion worth of ETH in the past month, followed by Renzo with $429 million. However, this growth is coming at the expense of centralized exchanges and liquid staking incumbents, with Lido losing $1B over the same period while Binance, Coinbase, and OKX also posted notable withdrawals.

💥Renzo’s Restaked ETH Depegs to $700 As Season 1 of Airdrop Ends

Renzo delivered a cautionary reminder of the risks associated with leveraged DeFi derivatives when its liquid restaking token ezETH briefly depegging 70% amid the end of Renzo’s first airdrop campaign. The move triggered violent liquidations for users with heavily leveraged exposure to the token, with Morpho Blue and Gearbox Protocol users appearing to suffer the brunt of the margin calls.

📉Bitcoin, Ethereum Trade Lower As Whales Show Signs Of FOMO

Cryptocurrencies are pulling back this week, with the sector’s combined capitalization tumbling more than $112 billion since Monday. Despite the bearish momentum, on-chain data shows whales accumulating $17 billion worth of BTC since the year began.

💰Reya’s Liquidity Generation Event Attracts $100 Million In Less Than 24 Hours

Reya Network, a Layer 2 offering shared liquidity to native DEXes, garnered more than $100 million worth of deposits to its Liquidity Generation Event in less than 24 hours. After more than three days, the protocol now holds more than $181 million in USDC.

🔗Chainlink Completes Permissionless Rollout For Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol

Chainlink has launched general availability for its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, enabling permissionless access for DeFi developers and institutions. Chainlink said CCIP will remain its primary focus moving forward, with the protocol already driving around $6,700 in daily fee revenue since the start of March.

🤝Avail Announces Data Availability Integrations With Five Leading L2 Teams

Avail, a project that spun out of Polygon, announced its data availability solution will be integrated into the tech stacks of five leading Layer 2 teams. Developers leveraging infrastructure from Arbitrum, Optimism, ZkSync, Polygon, and StarkWare will be able to access AvailDA following its mainnet launch in the coming weeks.

🥔Frax and PotatoSwap Team Up On OKX’s New L2 X Layer

Assets native to Frax Finance will soon be live on OKX’s X Layer L2 thanks to a partnership with PotatoSwap. X Layer went live last week and has since attracted just $5.49 million in TVL.

💸Fantasy.Top Attracts $56 Million Ahead of Mainnet Launch

Fantasy.Top, a Blast-native SocialFi card game, has pulled in $56 million of deposits ahead of its mainnet launch. The project allows users to compete in fantasy sports-inspired tournaments and boasted 15,000 players on its testnet deployment.

🥷Feds Arrest Samourai Wallet Founders on Money Laundering Charges

The U.S. Department of Justice arrested and charged two founders behind Samourai, a privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet, for facilitating money laundering and unlicensed money transmission. The founders now face up to 20 years and five years behind bars respectively, with the charges attracting outcry from privacy and crypto advocates.

🌍 ELSEWHERE

Key Democrat Touts Progress on Stablecoin, Marijuana Legislation (Bloomberg)
Morgan Stanley Explores Letting Brokers Recommend Bitcoin ETFs (AdvisorHub)
Movement Labs Raises $38M for Rollup Based on Facebook's Move Language (CoinDesk)