📈 Weekly Recap: A Tentative Market Recovery

Happy weekend Defiers!

Crypto markets are tentatively holding up after recovering from last week’s macro sell-off.

Bitcoin is changing hands near $60,000 while Ethereum trying to hold $2,600 after rebounding roughly 20% from last week’s brutal lows. However, bears stepped in after BTC and ETH tested $61,500 and $2,750 respectively.

BitGo’s plan to hand control of Wrapped Bitcoin over to a joint venture involving BiT Global and Justin Sun ruffled feathers across web3. MakerDAO has prevented users from minting DAI against WBTC, while Aave is similarly planning to replace WBTC with tBTC. Coinbase announced plans to launch its Bitcoin-backed ERC-20 token, cbBTC, after smelling blood in the water.

Memecoins continue to drive drama throughout the sector.

The daily revenue earned by PumpFun, the booming Solana memecoin launchpad, surged to a new all-time high of $5.33 million. However, onlookers criticize the platform for giving creators the dibs on buying their tokens. Nevertheless, Justin Sun and Tron are looking to get in on the action with the launch of SunPump, a Tron-native memecoin launchpad.

Sahil Arora, the controversial memecoin creator accused of using celebrity-linked tokens to orchestrate pump-and-dump schemes, is estimated to have made off with millions this year. Arora said he plans to “expos[e]” many of the celebrities he worked with in the coming weeks.

A new filing from Goldman Sachs revealed that the firm is the largest holder of Bitcoin ETF shares among major U.S. banks. Goldman Sachs holds $418 million worth of Bitcoin ETF shares, followed by Morgan Stanley with $269 million.

PayPal USD is now the sixth-largest stablecoin after its market cap nearly doubled in 30 days. Roughly $418 million worth of PYUSD resides on Solana after launching the network two-and-a-half months ago.

The Arbitrum community voted in favor of introducing an ARB staking mechanism. Offchain Labs, the team behind Arbitrum, also launched an incubator division to foster innovation in the Arbitrum ecosystem.

EigenLayer said it will introduce permissionless token listings, allowing any ERC-20 token to secure its restaking layer. EigenLayer employees were also accused of pressuring partner projects for airdrop allocations.

Customers Bancorp is the latest crypto-friendly bank to cop an enforcement action in the United States. Critics say the move is the latest chapter in a coordinated attack designed to cut off crypto firms’ access to the mainstream financial system.

Plus, Eric Trump hints at plans for blockchain-powered digital real estate platform, Ethereum gas fees sink to four-month low, Optimism plots native Superchain interoperability for 2025, Blast adoption falters post-airdrop, and Celsius sues Tether for $3.5 million.

Also, check out our podcast with Tory Green, Muneeb Ali, the co-founder of Stacks, to learn about Bitcoin’s Layer 2 ecosystem.

Enjoy!

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PODCAST & INTERVIEWS

Why Building Bitcoin L2s Matter | Stacks Co-Founder Muneeb Ali

In this week’s podcast, Cami Russo was joined by Muneeb Ali, the co-founder of Stacks, one of Bitcoin’s largest Layer 2 networks. Ali was an early entrant into the blockchain space, informing his unique perspectives on web3.

The conversation dives into the role of Layer 2s within the Bitcoin ecosystem, Bitcoin’s sound money value proposition, Bitcoin’s burgeoning DeFi ecosystem, and how Bitcoin can fit into the broader smart contract ecosystem.

"We're an ETH Maxi Firm" | Paul Brody, Global Blockchain Leader at EY

The Defiant sat down with Paul Brody, the global blockchain leader at Ernst & Young (EY), one of the world’s largest professional services networks. Paul was the driving force behind EY's bold decision to invest heavily in blockchain technology, with a particular focus on Ethereum, one decade ago.

Paul shares the inner workings of EY's blockchain initiatives, exploring the challenges they faced, the significant achievements they've made, and the exciting milestones they aim to achieve in the future.

API3's Approach to Redefining Blockchain Oracles and Enhancing DeFi Efficiency

The Defiant spoke to Ugur Mersin, the strategy lead at API3, a decentralized network focused on providing real-world data to blockchain applications through decentralized APIs (dAPIs).

Ugur discusses how API3 strives to eliminate intermediaries by enabling data providers to run their own oracle nodes. He touches on the challenges within the current oracle ecosystem, the concept of Oracle Extractable Value, and what dAPIs could mean for DeFi protocols.

VIDEO & TUTORIALS

What Is Polkadot 2.0?

Jack Dunham breaks down the key concepts underpinning Polkadot’s coming Polkadot 2.0 overhaul. The roadmap revolves around its JAM upgrade, which will pave the way for elastic scaling, agile coretime, and asynchronous backing.

Saturday

Ex Sushi CTO Joseph Delong’s New Venture is a SocialFi Dapp Called Untitled The platform facilitates a Dutch auction-powered economy for web3-native social posting.

Friday

MakerDAO Moves Away From WBTC Over Controversial Custodian The changes were implemented on August 15 after a proposal passed with voters casting nearly 113,000 MKR in support.
EigenLayer Responds to Claims it Pressured Projects for Token Allocations A news article reported the restaking platform is abusing its position as a leader in DeFi to secure airdrops.
Justin Sun Launches PumpFun Rival SunPump SunPump claims to be the Tron network's first memecoin launchpad.
Bitcoin Price Falls As Sellers Drive Price Action Digital assets continue to lose ground after sellers rejected BTC at $61,500.
Sahil Arora Says It Took “A Lotta Brain” Making Millions Off Celebrity Memecoins Sahil Arora is accused of engineering pump-and-dumps to profit from celebrity-promoted memecoins.
Blast Struggles After its Highly Anticipated Airdrop The Layer 2’s metrics are in free fall as airdrop farmers leave the ecosystem en masse.

Thursday

The Trumps' New Crypto Venture Reportedly Involves Digital Real Estate “It’s equitable. It's collateral anyone can get access to and do so instantly,” Eric Trump said in an interview with the New York Post.
Kamala Flips Trump on Polymarket As Dems Open Up To Crypto Kamala Harris is beating out Donald Trump to win the 2024 U.S. presidential election by 10 points.
Vitalik Sells 200 ETH of Memecoins to Donate to Charity Memecoin projects airdropped more than $500,000 worth of tokens to Vitalik over the last year, which Buterin liquidated to donate to charity.
PayPal’s PYUSD Becomes Sixth Largest Stablecoin After Solana Surge PYUSD’s market cap is up 97% in the last 30 days.
Base Completes Chainlink Rollout With Data Streams and VRF Base developers can access Chainlink’s Price Feeds, CCIP, Functions, Data Streams, and VRF products.
Bitcoin Price Pulls Back After Failing To Overcome Key Resistance Level BTC crashed 4.7% in 24 hours after failing to hold above resistance at $61,000.

Wednesday

Arthur Hayes Wants Bitcoiners to Show Off Their Wealth With New Ordinals Collection Hayes' fund announced an Ordinals collection where tokens’ images change based on holders’ Bitcoin portfolio.
EigenLayer Introduces Permissionless Token Support The upgrade will allow any ERC-20 token to power the project’s restaking layer.
PumpFun Smashes Revenue Records But Some Users Are Not Happy PumpFun raked in $5.33 million worth of fees in one day.
Neon EVM Unveils New Loyalty Points Program The campaign will reward users for all on-chain interactions executed.
'Bart Simpson' Pattern Pushes Bitcoin Price Below $60K Despite Inflation Slowing Digital assets slumped at BTC briefly rallied above $61,500.
Goldman Sachs Holds The Most Bitcoin ETF Shares Among US Investment Banks Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase also hold spot Bitcoin ETF shares.
Offchain Labs Launches Incubator Division Targeting Infrastructure Projects The new division aims to partner with blockchain applications and infrastructure projects building on top of Arbitrum’s tech.
TON Ventures Spins Out Of TON Foundation After $40 Million Raise Former TON Foundation members launched a TON-focused venture capital firm.
Coinbase Teases cbBTC Amid Wrapped Bitcoin Drama Coinbase tweeted that cbBTC is “coming soon,” while Base announced plans to foster a Bitcoin-based DeFi ecosystem.

Tuesday

Ethereum Layer 2s Push Gas Fees to Four-Year Lows Analysts say users shouldn’t be counting on transaction costs to remain low for long.
Arbitrum Community is About to Implement ARB Staking If passed, the proposal would introduce ARB staking in a bid to introduce new utility for the token and improve governance participation.
Curve Finance Inflation Drops 67% As Earnings Outpace Issuance Annual CRV inflation dropped to 6% from 20%.
Tether Says Celsius Lawsuit is a “Shake Down” Tether vowed to fight a lawsuit from Celsius demanding $3.5 billion.
MKR Rallies After Grayscale MakerDAO Trust Launch The Grayscale MakerDAO Trust will allow accredited investors to access exposure to MKR.
Ethereum Bounces as Grayscale’s Ether ETF Posts First Daily Inflow Spot Ether ETFs recorded $5 million in net inflows on Monday.
Backed Taps eNor Securities To Offer Tokenized RWAs To Latin America ENor Securities will offer tokenized securities to both retail and institutional investors.
Near Targets Bitcoin Interoperability With Aurora Light Client “There’s a lot of untapped value in the Bitcoin ecosystem,” said Alex Shevchenko, the CEO of Aurora Labs.

Monday

Canto Blockchain Suffers Multi-Day Outage Due To 'Consensus Problem' The Canto blockchain last processed a transaction two days ago.
Superstate Integrates Chainlink For Tokenized Treasuries Data Superstate said the integration bolsters the composability of its USTB token within DeFi.
Optimism Plans To Unlock Superchain Interoperability Next Year The launch of native Superchain interoperability is designed to make transacting across ecosystem networks feel like using a single chain.
Crypto Prices Dip As Institutional Demand Dries Up Spot Ethereum ETFs recorded net inflows of $104.8 million last week.
Customers Bancorp Becomes Latest Crypto-Friendly Bank Hit By Enforcement Action Web3 advocates described the move as the latest chapter in a coordinated attack on U.S. banks providing services to crypto firms.
MakerDAO Mulls Offboarding WBTC Amid Wrapped Bitcoin Restructure BiT Global and Justin Sun’ will soon exercise control over Wrapped Bitcoin through a joint venture with BitGo.