📉Ethereum L2 Throughput Sinks 32% In Six Weeks

TLDR Layer 2 activity has slumped 32% since peaking at 64.2 transactions per second in mid-September. The downtrend means Ethereum's relative dominance is at a two-month high.

SO WHAT The initial frenzy surrounding freshly deployed Layer 2s like Base and ZkSync Era is dying down with transaction volumes dropping 50% and 85% from their record highs respectively. However, Layer 2s have still facilitated a roughly 400% increase in combined Ethereum throughput without spiking fees.

READ MORE: Ethereum Mainnet Reclaims Dominance From Layer 2s

TLDR Gary Gensler, the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, took to the social media network formerly known as Twitter to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Bitcoin Whitepaper. However, Gensler's tweets quickly devolved into thinly veiled threats aimed at the broader web3 industry.

SO WHAT The SEC has copped criticism from elected lawmakers, crypto industry stakeholders, and even judges for overstepping its jurisdiction to wage an aggressive campaign of regulation-by-enforcement targeting web3 under Gensler's oversight.

Read More: Gary Gensler Posts Halloween-Tinged Wishes for Bitcoin White Paper Anniversary

TLDR WalletConnect, a prominent infrastructure provider enabling connections between wallets and dApps, has blocked Russian IP addresses from accessing its platform.

SO WHAT WalletConnect rolled out the restrictions in response to the U.S. Treasury Department updating its sanctions guidance. Certain Ukrainian regions were temporarily impacted by the new guidelines.

READ MORE: Updated U.S. Sanctions Prompts WalletConnect To Block Russian Users

TLDR Anecdotal reports from crypto users around the world and research from a major hedge fund indicate Tron now leads the stablecoin sector by user base.

SO WHAT While Tron is a centralized blockchain, users in emerging markets are flocking to the network for its low-fee transactions. However, Ethereum L2s now offer stable tokens transfers at an order of magnitude cheaper to savvier users.

Read More: Tron Quietly Becomes the Leading Blockchain for Stablecoin Transfers

TLDR Aave's decentralized stablecoin, GHO, has consistently traded below its $1 peg. Aave governance has noted, and is now considering measures intended to shore up its price.

SO WHAT With users of the world's largest web3 lending protocol able to mint GHO against their deposits, the stablecoin was tipped to claims significant market share. However, GHO adoption has been sluggish at best, and the token has traded close to $0.97 since deployment.

Read More: Aave Floats New Plan To Restore GHO Peg

TLDR Circle, the company behind the second-largest stablecoin, USDC, has began eliminating accounts held by retail users. However, Circle said the decision was taken to off-board said accounts in September 2021.

SO WHAT Onlookers criticized Circle for winding down redemption services for retail users. The company emphasized that "hundreds of services worldwide, via retail exchanges, brokerages or wallet services" will allow individual users to purchase or "redeem" USDC after the Nov. 30 deadline.

Read More: USDC Issuer Circle is Shutting Down Consumer Accounts

TLDR The highly anticipated "modular blockchain," Celestia, is now live on mainnet. The milestone introduces data availability sampling and facilitates permissionless blockchain deployment for Celestia.

SO WHAT Celestia's mainnet debut coincided with an airdrop intended to distribute Celestia's TIA token to a wide cross-section of the web3 userbase, including Cosmos stakers, protocol developers, and active Ethereum Layer 2 wallets.

Read More: Modular Blockchain Celestia Goes Live With Traders Receiving TIA Tokens

TLDR Hashflow, a novel decentralized exchange facilitating trades from market makers, launched trading fees alongside a fee-sharing mechanism. HFT stakers will receive 50% of revenue, with 20% of fees supporting the Hashflow Foundation, and 30% funding HFT buy-backs.

SO WHAT The rollout follows controversy in the Uniswap community after Uniswap Labs imposed a 0.15% fee on trades executed through its front-end interface. Uniswap Labs is pocketing 100% of fees — projected to reach tens of millions annually — despite UNI tokenholders long calling for a share of protocol revenue.

Read More: Hashflow Turns On ‘Fee Switch’, Redistributing 50% Of Revenue To Stakers

TLDR Lookonchain, an on-chain research team, flagged suspicious SUSHI transactions executed on decentralized exchanges. Lookonchain concluded an entity is seeking to manipulate the price of SUSHI for personal gain.

SO WHAT The news marks the latest drama facing the Sushi community. The project has faced a multi-year governance saga, and, recently, legal challenges from the SEC.

Read More: Observers Suspect Market Manipulation As SUSHI Rallies 20%

• MetaMask taps Blockaid for user security alerts
• Starknet announces 50M STRK for early developers
• Gearbox Protocol details v3 iteration

• CFTC says most whistleblower tips in 2023 involved crypto (The Block)
• HSBC and Ant Group test tokenized deposits under HKMA sandbox (Cointelegraph)
• Maple Finance Launches on Base Network, Targeting Institutional Activity (Decrypt)