📈DeFi Assets Outperform: DeFi Week of July 16

This week, Cami Russo was joined by Nicolas Liochon, the global lead for Linea, the new zkEVM rollup from Consensys.

Rollups play a crucial role in scaling Ethereum as they reduce computational load on the main network by processing transactions off-chain. The two leading types of rollup on Ethereum are Zero-Knowledge (ZK) Rollups and Optimistic Rollups, and Linea is the latest ZK Rollup to launch.

In the conversation, we explore how Linea sets itself apart in the already highly competitive Ethereum Layer 2 landscape, in addition to Nicolas’s background in crypto and web3.

• Upcoming Congressional Meeting To Review Two Digital Asset Bills U.S. lawmakers will convene for a “markup” on July 26 to discuss two bills concerning digital assets and stablecoins. The meeting follows a critical ruling in the Ripple vs SEC case.
• MetaMask To Support Cross-Chain Interactions With 'Snaps' By 2024 MetaMask, the popular Ethereum wallet from ConsenSys, plans to launch its long-awaited Snaps protocol before the end of 2023, allowing wallet users to access new applications and execute cross-chain protocol interactions.
• DEXs Account For 5% Of Global Stablecoin Trading: Kaiko Decentralized exchanges account for just 5% of global stablecoin trading, despite the figure spiking to 45% in March amid drama in the U.S. banking sector. Stablecoin trading also makes up 74% of total activity on centralized exchanges.

• Utopia Labs Enables USDC ‘Transfers’ to US Bank Accounts Utopia Labs, a Paradigm-backed payments firm, launched a new service allowing companies to send USDC to U.S. bank accounts on July 20. Utopia Labs hopes the service will reduce friction when transacting between the web3 and legacy financial ecosystems.
• Lens Doubles Down On Developer-First Focus With v2 Iteration Lens, the highly-anticipated social media protocol from Aave, announced its v2 iteration on July 15. V2 to bolster Lens’ composability with external protocols and appsTs with the end goal of enabling “two-way [interactions] between any type of web application and Lens.”

• Polygon Proposes Revamped Governance Model For 2.0 Roadmap Polygon Labs, a leading Ethereum scaling team, proposed a new governance strategy as part of its Polygon 2.0 overhaul. Polygon named managing its community treasury, system smart contracts, and core protocol as three core “pillars” of governance moving forward.

• DeFi Assets Consolidate Gains As Market Cools Top DeFi assets are on a tear despite the broader markets pulling back since July 14, with $60M wiped from the combined cryptocurrency market cap in five days. SNX led the charge with a 30% gain, ranking as the second-best performing digital asset among the top 100 over the past seven days.
• Uniswap Releases DEX Aggregator Protocol Uniswap Labs, the company behind DeFi’s leading decentralized exchange, unveiled its second major product in roughly one month. UniswapX is a DEX aggregator protocol offering gasless swaps and MEV protection.
• OpenSea Suspends Trading Of EtherFi NFTs Liquid staking protocol EtherFi released an open letter condemning OpenSea after the NFT marketplace suspended trading for EtherFi’s staked ETH-backed NFT collection. EtherFi told The Defiant the collection was suspended despite the two firms collaborating on a marketing campaign for its launch.

• Layer 2 Network zkSync Era Upgrades Proving System Matter Labs, the team behind zkSync Era, Ethereum’s third-largest Layer 2 network, shipped an upgraded proving system for the first time since launching zkSync Lite in mid-2020. Matter Labs said the new system will bolster decentralization by reducing provers’ computational requirements by 80%.
• Polygon Introduces New POL Token to Replace MATIC Polygon Labs, an Ethereum scalability team, announced a revamp of its MATIC token – which boasts a $7B market cap. The new POL token would accrue staking fees from securing Polygon’s proof-of-stake chain.