💥Blast Finally Announces Mainnet Launch Date

GM Defiers!

Blast has finally penciled in Feb. 29 for its mainnet launch. The news comes four months after the controversial Layer 2 began accepting deposits from users.

In other news, BTC is again leading the markets with a renewed rally, a fake Lido revenue sharing proposal sent LDO flying, Gauntlet teamed up with Morpho, Arkis closed a $2.2M pre-seed funding round, and Dune Analytics partnered with the cloud computing giant Snowflake.

Plus, Uniswap is set to debut new features including limit orders.

✍️ In today’s newsletter:

• Blast’s Feb. 29 mainnet launch
• BTC posts new 2024 highs
• Fake proposal spikes LDO price
• Morpho taps Gauntlet
• Arkis raises $2.2M
• Snowflake hosts Dune Analytics data sales
• Uniswap launches limit orders

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• Trading via lending protocols - the how and the why

📈 Markets in the last 24 hrs:

🎬 WATCH

Check out our video explaining how you can qualify for multiple airdrops through Ethereum restaking. Also watch our podcast with Avery Ching, the co-founder and CTO of Aptos, who discusses the roadmap and controversy surrounding the Layer 1 network developed by former Facebook engineers.

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A developer-friendly, Rust-based smart contracts platform designed for scale and sensibility. Coming soon to mainnet, Soroban seamlessly integrates with and works alongside the existing Stellar blockchain. Start building on Soroban today.

📅 Blast Schedules Mainnet Launch As TVL Pushed Above $2B

Blast has scheduled its long-awaited mainnet launch of its Layer 2 network for Feb. 29. The news coincides with the project’s total value locked surpassing $2B roughly four months after it began accepting deposits. Blast has attracted criticism for its strategy of using airdrop incentives to attract deposits without publishing code or launching its network for several months.

🦄 UNI Soars 60% On Fee Switch Proposal

UNI is rallying in response to a governance proposal advocating for the activation of Uniswap’s long-anticipated fee-switch to the benefit of UNI stakers. The price of UNI jumped 60% in a day in response to the news, with the token gaining 71% in two weeks to trade at its highest level since March 2022. The momentum positioned UNI as the second-strongest performing cryptocurrency of the past seven days.

🚀 Bitcoin Surges Above $54,000

The crypto markets continue to roar into new 2024 highs, with BTC last changing hands for more than $57,000 after record inflows to Bitcoin ETFs last week. The combined crypto market cap is above $2T for the first time since January 2022, with Ether trading at $3,250.

📈 LDO Spikes 10% On Fake Revenue Sharing Proposal

A now-deleted governance proposal appears to have comprised to catalyst for the price of Lido’s LDO governance token suddenly jumping 10% on Feb. 26. The proposal called for tokenholders to receive a share of Lido’s protocol revenue, taking inspiration from Uniswap’s recent fee-switch proposal.

🤝 Gauntlet Partners With Morpho As TVL Rises

Gauntlet, the web3 risk management firm, has announced a partnership with Morpho, the growing DeFi money market protocol. The news follows Aave and Gaunlet’s four-year collaberation coming to an end last week, and also comes amid the backdrop of proposal gaining momentum for Aave to offer incentives to users migrating their assets over from Morpho.

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Stellar Brings Smart Contracts to Mainnet

On Feb. 20, Stellar network validators voted to upgrade Mainnet to Protocol 20, kicking off a new era for the Stellar smart contracts tech stack, which delivers a secure, batteries-included developer experience built to scale and for real-world use.

Getting to this moment has been an incredible journey. For the last two years, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) and the Stellar community have discussed, designed, and built new functionality transforming the Stellar network. Join the developers and projects that are building next generation everyday financial services on Stellar.

Learn more about Soroban smart contracts on Stellar

READ MORE: Smart Contracts Are Live on Stellar Mainnet

💰 Arkis Raises $2.2 Million To Accelerate Institutional Adoption Of DeFi

Arkis has closed a $2.2M pre-seed funding round led by Gumi Cryptos Capital. Arkis will use the funds to build out DeFi products for institutional investors commanding at least $50M in assets, including undercollateralized lending, on-chain margin trading, and asset valuation services. Arkis is set to complete its public launch in the coming weeks following several months of private beta transactions.

☁️ Dune Analytics Partners With Cloud Computing Giant Snowflake

Dune Analytics, the popular web3 analytics platform, has teamed up with Snowflake, the cloud-computing giant worth $74B, to offer its data for sale via Snowflake’s marketplace. Dune Analytics’s data is now available alongside the likes of Mastercard, CapitalOne, and Crunchbase.

🦄 Uniswap Adds New Features Including Limit Orders

Uniswap, the leading decentralized exchange, is rolling out new features over the next four to six weeks. The DEX will begin by introducing limit orders, with a browser extension and real-time data platform set to go live in the coming weeks. Uniswap is also set to launch its v4 iteration later this year.

🌍 ELSEWHERE

• Spot Bitcoin ETFs accumulate 300K BTC as net inflow rises to $6B (Cointelegraph)
• BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Hits Record Volume of Over $1.3B for Second Consecutive Day (CoinDesk)
• Bitfinex Hacker Now US Government Witness in Classic Plot Twist (CoinGape)

🔥 TRENDING

• Ethereum Ecosystem Continues To Rally Into New Year-To-Date Highs
• Our Most Read Stories This Week: FIL/SOL Integration, UNI Spikes, ETH Burn Rate, STRK Airdrop
• Bitcoin Surges Above $54,000
• Burn Rate Surges Amid Spike In Ethereum On-Chain Activity
• FIL Rockets After Filecoin Integrates With Solana
• UNI Soars 60% On Fee Switch Proposal
• Parcl Announces Airdrop For DeFi Real Estate Traders
• Starknet’s $2 Billion Airdrop Is Crypto’s Biggest Yet
• Sam Altman-Backed Worldcoin Token Soars on Sora Launch
• Avalanche Stages Comeback Amid Growth In Memecoins, GameFi, and RWAs