🐻 Weekly Recap: Bears In The Driver's Seat

Happy weekend Defiers!

The crypto markets continue to crash, with BTC testing $52,500 and Ethereum sinking as low as $2,150. The downward momentum follows ETH’s worst month in more than two years, while recent Bitcoin buyers are sitting on mounting losses.

The Trump family revealed they are working closely with Aave on their upcoming DeFi project. While details regarding the project are scant, the endeavor appears to be shaping into a stablecoin-focused lending protocol.

NFTs continue to make a comeback despite the crypto market downtrend. Bored Ape Yacht Club is bringing back its Dookey Dash mini-game with a seven-figure prize pool, while CryptoKitties latest Eggs collection rallied more than 3,000% from its mint price.

Another project bucking the bear market is EtherVista, with the Ethereum-based memecoin launchpad’s VISTA token surging by 3,900% in four days.

Polymarket is also continuing its ascent, with the dominant web3 prediction market scoring an integration with Bloomberg Terminal. Polymarket election data is now hosted on Bloomberg’s popular platform alongside reputable polling results.

The week hosted high-profile settlements between crypto companies and regulators. Uniswap Labs settled with the CFTC for $175,000 after receiving a cease and desist letter, with the move coming amid rumors that Uniswap’s investors have been contacted by regulators.

Robinhood Crypto also settled with the U.S. Department of Justice over claims it failed to allow users to withdraw cryptocurrency from the platform between 2018 and 2022, while the Galois Capital hedge fund settled with the SEC over alleged custody failures, including holding customer funds with the failed FTX exchange.

We take you behind the scenes of Aleph, the recent pop-up web3 city in Argentina’s capital. The event attracted web3 developers hailing from 20 different countries, local lawmakers, and members of Argentina’s booming grassroots crypto community.

Argentina’s crypto boom comes in contrast to El Salvador. Despite the Salvadoran’s ambitious policy of recognizing Bitcoin as legal tender, the Financial Action Task Force of Latin America found that local adoption is lagging, with just 1% of remittances taking the form of digital assets.

Vitalik Buterin said he will donate the proceeds from his investments into Layer 2s and other web3 projects. Buterin added that he won’t be investing in any new crypto ventures anytime soon, and will instead opt to support new projects via donations. The comments follow sustained scrutiny surrounding Vitalik’s transactions.

Plus, Polygon completed its long-awaited token migration, Fantom launched its Sonic testnet, Telegram’s CEO pushed back against alleged charges, and Coinbase oversaw the first AI-to-AI token transfer.

Also, don’t forget to check out our podcast with Ripio co-founder Sebastian Serrano to learn about Latin America’s emerging crypto industry.

Enjoy!

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PODCAST & INTERVIEWS

Latin America's Crypto Revolution | Ripio Co-Founder, Sebastian Serrano

In this week’s podcast, Cami Russo was joined by Sebastian Serrano, the co-founder and CEO of Ripio, one of Latin America’s largest crypto asset platforms.

In the episode, Sebastian discusses Ripio's evolution from a retail wallet to a comprehensive crypto platform spanning an exchange, OTC desk, and B2B services. Serrano also highlights Ripio's strategic partnerships with major companies in the region, and the development of Mercado Libre’s stablecoin. He shares his insights on the future of crypto adoption in Latin America, highlighting the potential of tokenization and real-world assets in the region.

Future of Ethereum, Layer 2s, and Arbitrum With Co-Founder Ed Felten

The Defiant spoke to Ed Felten, the co-founder and chief scientist at Offchain Labs — the development team behind Arbitrum, the largest Ethereum Layer 2 network.

In the interview, Ed discusses the evolution of Layer 2 technologies, and highlights Arbitrum's focus on security, decentralization, and fast block times. Ed also shares his outlook for the Layer 2 sector moving forward, predicting further advancements in governance and multi-chain interoperability.

Decoding The Truth Behind 'Vitalik Hates DeFi' With Stani Kulechov

In our latest episode of Crypto With Cami, we get the perspective of Stani Kulechov, the founder and CEO of Aave, on Vitalik Buterin’s apparent disdain for the DeFi sector. Plus, Cami explores all of last week’s top web3 headlines.

Friday

• Want to Quit Smoking? Vape-to-Earn Is Here Puffpaw wants to use token incentives to help smokers quit.
• Crypto Markets Plunge after August Jobs Report Misses Expectations The Crypto Fear and Greed Index has dropped to 22, indicating extreme fear.
• Fantom’s Rebranded Blockchain Sonic Labs Launches Testnet The testnet has already hosted more than 106 million transactions.
• Crypto Travel Agency Travala Joins Skyscanner Skyscanner’s 110 million monthly users can now use more than 100 cryptocurrencies to book travel.
• Vitalik Plans To Donate ERC-20 Holdings and Cease Investing In Web3 Projects Vitalik’s comment as transactions from his wallet face sustained scrutiny.
• Mastercard Joins Forces With Mercuryo To Launch Non-Custodial Crypto Card in Europe The new crypto card supports payments from 40 cryptocurrencies at 100 million merchants.
• Synthetix To Launch SNAXchain Appchain On Sept. 16 SNAXchain’s launch will coincide with Synthetix’s next governance epoch commencing.
• Detained Telegram CEO Pushes Back Against Charges Durov said claims Telegram is bereft of content moderation are “absolutely false.”
• Short-term Bitcoin Holders’ Unrealized Losses Are Piling Up: Glassnode Veteran investor Arthur Hayes expects further pain in the market.

Thursday

• VISTA Token Surges 40x as EtherVista Aims to Create a Rugpull-Free Memecoin Launchpad The platform boasts a no-code token launchpad and seeks to mitigate quick rugpulls.
• EigenLayer Reveals Details of Second EIGEN Stakedrop The Ethereum restaking protocol has allocated 86 million EIGEN tokens to Season 2 participants.
• Behind-the-Scenes in Argentina’s Crypto Scene Now that the Aleph Pop-Up City is Over Argentina’s grassroots crypto movement says a new phase for the industry is just beginning.
• Crypto Markets Drop on U.S. Labor Market Concerns The number of active addresses on the Bitcoin network has hit the lowest level since 2021.
• Injective Enables Traders to Bet On Growth of BlackRock's BUIDL Fund Injective users can now speculate on BUIDL’s market cap using perpetual futures.
• Robinhood Settles With DoJ For Failing To Allow Crypto Withdrawals The $3.9 million settlement brings Robinhood’s latest conflict with regulators to a close.
• Bitcoin Is Not Economically Significant In El Salvador Says GAFILAT The Latin American Financial Action Task Force said El Salvador’s ambitious Bitcoin policy hasn't disrupted the nation’s economy.
• BNB Chain Welcomes yBTC and Core Launches LstBTC As Bitcoin Staking Heats Up An increasing number of projects are vying for Bitcoin staking dominance.
• Trump Family Is Working With AAVE On DeFi Project World Liberty Financial appears to be working on a stablecoin-focused lending protocol.
• Justin Drake Says Ethereum Foundation Offloading ETH Improves Decentralization The Ethereum Foundation currently ranks as the 19th-largest ETH holder with 0.226% of Ether’s supply.

Wednesday

• BAYC Offers $1 Million in Prizes for New Mini-game, Dookey Dash: Unclogged Yuga Labs is reviving its hit mini-game Dookey Dash with a sequel and seven-figure cash prize pool.
• Polygon Migrates MATIC to POL Token in Road to Polygon 2.0 The migration brings additional utility to the token.
• Bitcoin Trades Flat as Crypto Market Cap Hovers at $2 Trillion Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of $287.8 million on September 3.
• CFTC Orders Cease and Desist Against Uniswap Labs Uniswap Labs will pay a $175,000 settlement fine.
• Sui Creator Mysten Labs Launches Handheld Web3 Gaming Device Preorders for Mysten’s upcoming SuiPlay0X1 are now live.
• Euler Finance Rises From The Ashes With Modular v2 Release Developers can build and chain together money market vaults using Euler v2.
• Movement Labs Claims One Second L2 Transaction Confirmations Are Possible Movement Labs said its new postconfirmation finalization mechanism could unlock new DeFi applications.
• Bloomberg Terminal Integrates Polymarket Election Data The integration comes as Polymarket is enjoying record adoption.

Tuesday

• Bitcoin Price Drops to Kick Off Historically Bearish September Traders are looking ahead to Friday’s jobs numbers and the Fed meeting later this month.
• Pendle Pauses Contracts After Yield Protocol Penpie Suffers $27 Million Exploit Pendle said it prevented Penpie from losing more than $100 million to the hack.
• Galois Capital Settles With the SEC Over Alleged Custody Failures The defunct crypto hedge fund said it is glad to put this matter behind it.
• CryptoKitties’ ‘Eggs’ Soar 30x as NFT Community Calls for a Comeback The open edition mint from CryptoKitties flew under the radar.
• Matter Labs Lays Off Staff for the First Time Since Inception The company behind Ethereum Layer 2 ZKsync is firing 24 employees in a bid to remain “agile and effective.”
• Arbitrum Ships Stylus Upgrade Stylus introduces support for WebAssembly programming languages across the Arbitrum ecosystem.
• Web3 And TradFi Collide Through Anemoy’s DeFi Yield Fund The fund issues shares as digital tokens but is fully regulated in the British Virgin Islands.

Monday

• Cardano Moves To Embrace Decentralized Governance With First Chang Hard Fork Cardano's governance is now in the hands of Delegated Representatives, Stake Pool Operators, and the project’s Interim Constitutional Committee.
• Crypto Markets Trade Flat After BTC and ETH Had Worst Week in a Month Nearly 61,200 traders were liquidated in 24 hours, with total liquidations amounting to $166.72 million.
• SafeDAO Proposes Collecting Swap Fees As Revenue Should the proposal pass, SafeDAO will use the fees to accumulate SAFE tokens for the project’s treasury.
• Ethereum Clocks Worst Month in Over Two Years Disappointing ETFs, Vitalik’s anti-DeFi comments, and lackluster Layer 1 activity are driving ETH sell pressure.
• Coinbase Says It Unlocked First AI-to-AI Crypto Transaction According to Brian Armstrong, AI agents used tokens to buy tokens.

TRENDING

• Crypto Markets Plunge after August Jobs Report Misses Expectations
• Vitalik Plans To Donate ERC-20 Holdings and Cease Investing In Web3 Projects
• Short-term Bitcoin Holders’ Unrealized Losses Are Piling Up: Glassnode
• VISTA Token Surges 40x as EtherVista Aims to Create a Rugpull-Free Memecoin Launchpad
• EigenLayer Reveals Details of Second EIGEN Stakedrop
• Behind-the-Scenes in Argentina’s Crypto Scene Now that the Aleph Pop-Up City is Over