The Defiant

GM Defiers!

The TVL is Bitcoin Layer 2s has rallied past $2B after users piled nearly $1.6B into Merlin Chain in three weeks. Merlin’s explosive growth follows the launch of its Merlin’s Seal campaign, through which users can qualify for a future airdrop by bridging assets onto the network.

In other news, the decentralized physical infrastructure sector is booming, EtherFi raised $23M in a Series A funding round, Centrifuge is set to introduce protocol fees, and Fidelity’s Canadian subsidiary advocates for portfolio allocations of between 1$ and 3%.

Plus, Lens, the social media protocol from Aave, has completed its permissionless launch.

✍️ In today’s newsletter:

Bitcoin Layer 2s boom
DePIN sector grows 150% in six months
EtherFi’s $23M funding round
Centrifuge projects $4M in 2024 fee revenue
Fidelity vouches for crypto allocations
Lens goes permissionless

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Trading via lending protocols - the how and the why

📈 Markets in the last 24 hrs:

	Ticker	Value	24h

Ticker	Value	24h
Bitcoin	$56,9184.48	%
Ethereum	$3,253 2.49	%
Gold	1st Future$2,034 0.27	%
S&P 500	5078.18 0.17	%
Arch Web	32.62 0.20	%
Learn more about Arch Indices ,[object Object]		%

🎬 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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🚀 Merlin Chain’s Surging Growth Pushes Bitcoin’s DeFi TVL Past $2B

The meteoric success of Merlin Chain’s fair launch campaign has pushed Bitcoin DeFi’s TVL past $2B. Merlin has attracted nearly $1.6B in deposits since launching its Merlin’s Seal campaign three weeks ago. The TVL in Stacks, a rival Bitcoin L2, is also up 1,600% since the start of October, while Rootstock’s TVL has doubled over the same period.

⬆️ DePIN Sector Sees Resurgence In 2024

Decentralized physical infrastructure projects are booming this year, with the sector’s market cap rallying 150% since late August. EV3, a DePIN-focused venture capital firm, estimates the number of projects operating in the sector has grown from 25 to nearly 1,000 since 2022. The analysis follows recent growth from leading DePIN projects including Helium, Filecoin, and Render.

💰 EtherFi Closes $23M Series A Round As Eigenlayer TVL Surpasses $9B

EtherFi, the leading Ethereum liquid restaking protocol, completed a $23M Series A funding round led by Bullish Capital and CoinFund. The round also attracted participation from the founders of Aave, Polygon, and Curve. The TVL of liquid restaking projects has grown more than 1,500% since the year began, with EtherFI accounting for 36% of the total.

💵 Centrifuge Proposal Set To Introduce Protocol Fees Collected By Treasury

A governance proposal for Centrifuge, the leading real-world asset protocol, appears poised to introduce a 0.4% protocol fee on loans. If passed, the Centrifuge treasury would collect the fees, with the treasury also set to accumulate a portion of Centrifuge Chain transaction fees in the near future. The proposal has unanimous support and voting is set to close on March 8.

🔓 Lens Protocol Goes Permissionless

Lens, the decentralized social protocol from Aave, is now permissionless, allowing any user to access the platform. The team behind Lens is hoping to bolster the protocol’s adoption, with daily transactions dropping from 160,000 one year ago to 10,000 today, and just 1,000 of its 376,000 all-time user base currently active on the platform each day.

🦬 Fidelity Canada Recommend 1-3% of Crypto Allocation in Portfolios

The website of Fidelity’s Canadian subsidiary now advocates for investors to allocate at least 1% of their investment portfolios into cryptocurrency. Fidelity’s recently launched spot Bitcoin ETF is among the sector’s top funds alongside BlackRock, ranking second by all-time inflows with $5.3B in total.

🌍 ELSEWHERE

VanEck launches NFT marketplace and digital assets platform SegMint (The Block)
Sam Bankman-Fried lawyers decry proposed 100 year sentence as ‘barbaric,’ seeks 78 months (CryptoSlate)
Telegram ad platform to launch via TON blockchain (Cointelegraph)