🪂Weekly Recap: Airdrop Season Kicks Into High Gear

Happy weekend Defiers!

Airdrop season is well and truly in full swing.

LayerZero launched its long-awaited ZRO token, distributing nearly 24% of the supply to 1.28 million wallets. Despite the token debuting at a $1.1 billion market cap, many recipients predictably complained about the value of their allocations.

LayerZero’s airdrop also drove a spike in activity and revenue on Arbitrum. Combined with a surge in action on the Xai Layer 3 network, the combined throughput of the Ethereum ecosystem tagged new all-time highs.

In other airdrop news, the second phase of EigenLayer’s stakedrop is claimable (but not transferable), nearly half of ZkSync’s airdrop was claimed in less than two hours, and Blast is readying to launch its token next week.

CertiK made headlines after taking advantage of a vulnerability to siphon $3 million from Kraken as part of purported “research.” The company returned the funds after coming under fire from the crypto community after Kraken accused the company of holding the funds hostage to negotiate a bug bounty.

Consensys, the blockchain software company that recently sued the SEC over the agency’s efforts to regulate Ethereum, announced that the SEC said it is dropping its investigation into whether ETH is a security.

Despite the news driving a brief rally for digital assets, most cryptocurrencies traded lower for the week, with only five assets ranked among the top 100 by market cap posting gains of more than 1%.

Altcoins were hit particularly hard, with many tokens posting double-digit draw-downs. DEX activity on Solana is also in decline as memecoin mania winds down.

Ethereum-based NFT collections continue to crash amid the end of Blur’s third season of incentives. Each of the top five collections by market cap posted heavy losses over the past 30 days.

Aave is throwing its weight behind the recently launched Lido Alliance. Aave’s community greenlit the launch of a stETH-focused deployment of Aave v3.

Plus, we took a deep dive into Ethereum’s trove of 1.5 million messages to gain insights into life on-chain, Tether is looking to compete against DeFi with the launch of its “Tethered asset” platform Alloy, and the Bitcoin community is divided on a recently resurrected Satoshi-era script.

And don’t miss our latest podcast with Gabby Dizon, the co-founder of Yield Guild Games.

Enjoy!

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PODCAST & INTERVIEWS

YGG's Guild Protocol, Onchain Reputation, And The Next Wave Of Web3 Gaming With Gabby Dizon

In this week’s podcast, Cami Russo was joined by Gabby Dizon, the co-founder of Yield Guild Games (YGG), a decentralized autonomous organization and web3 gaming collective that invests in virtual world assets.

The conversation explores new games within the YGG ecosystem, Dizon's thoughts regarding the on-chain gaming guild sector at large, trends in on-chain reputation, and how blockchain gaming can attract a mainstream audience.

‘Ethos or Mass Adoption. Can't Have Both’ | Anthony Pompliano

The Defiant sat down with Anthony Pompliano, the co-founder of the Morgan Creek digital asset management firm and a tenured Bitcoin advocate, at the Consensus 2024 conference.

Pomp shares his thoughts on why web3 mass adoption and decentralization are incompatible, why he is a Bitcoin maxi, TradFi and regulation, and his perspective on crypto market cycles.

VIDEO & TUTORIALS

Trade TON Memecoins Like a Pro (3 DEGEN TIERS)

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Friday

• Solana DEX Volumes Hit Lowest Level Since March On-chain trading on Solana is in a steady downtrend as memecoin mania fizzles out.
• Is the Bear Market Back? Data Says Yes One analyst believes the recent crypto bull market was driven by macroeconomic trends.
• LayerZero’s Airdrop Drives Record Arbitrum Fee Revenue Despite the surge in activity, community members are criticizing the mandatory Protocol Guild donations associated with claiming ZRO tokens.
• Aave Community Backs Lido Alliance, Greenlighting stETH-Focused V3 Deployment Aave’s community passed a proposal to launch a Lido-focused deployment of v3 designed to facilitate recursive stETH borrowing.
• 3iQ Submits Prospectus For Solana ETP in Canada The proposed Solana Fund would provide exposure to SOL price fluctuations and staking yields.

Thursday

• Crypto Markets Turn Lower as Tech Stocks Dip The pullback coincides with the German government reportedly trimming its multi-billion dollar BTC holdings.
• Konami Taps Avalanche For Yen-Based NFT Marketplace 'Resella' Konami hopes to attract mainstream brands and consumers with its forthcoming NFT marketplace.
• Certik Returns $3 Million To Kraken Amid Controversy For Holding Funds ‘Hostage’ CertiK returned the funds after copping widespread backlash from the web3 community.
• Blast Readies To Airdrop Tokens Next Week Blast’s long-awaited airdrop will evenly divide tokens between developers and users.
• ZRO Trades At $1.1B Market Cap After LayerZero Launches Claims LayerZero’s highly anticipated token launched at a ten-figure valuation.
• EigenLayer Launches Claims For Second Phase Of Season 1 Airdrop EigenLayer said it will soon announce airdrop allocations for its second points season after enabling claims for all Season 1 point holders.
• LayerZero Airdrop Allocations Disappoint DeFi Users Many users who qualified for LayerZero’s airdrop are complaining of small token allocations.
• Certik Holds $3 Million ‘Hostage’ From Kraken as Exchange Threatens Employees The cybersecurity firm claims it siphoned $3 million from Kraken in a bid to explore and “test” a vulnerability in the crypto exchange.

Wednesday

• Crypto Markets Bounce after SEC Closes Ethereum 2.0 Investigation Digital assets notched gains despite $152 million exiting spot Bitcoin ETFs on Tuesday.
• Modular Liquidity Protocol Mitosis Kicks Off Next Phase of Airdrop Campaign Mitosis’ TVL jumped 300% to $34 million over the past six weeks.
• Analyst Pins Martin Shkreli as the Potential Creator of the Donald Trump Memecoin Arkham Intelligence offered a $150,000 bounty to whoever could reveal the identity of the individual behind the DJT memecoin.
• Love, Loss, and Protest: Digging Through Ethereum’s 1.5M On-Chain Messages The trove of 1.5 million messages posted to the Ethereum blockchain offers a vibrant cross-section of life on-chain.
• APhone Launches Web3 App Store To Compete With Apple and Google APhone’s AppNest will support both web3 and web3 applications and won’t impose fees on developers.
• LayerZero Announces 1.28 Million Wallets Are Eligible For Airdrop LayerZero is set to distribute 23.8% of its token’s supply to nearly 1.3 million users.
• Moonwell Launches Two New Vaults On Morpho Blue Base’s leading money market protocol tapped Morpho to launch WETH and USDC lending vaults.
• Consensys Says SEC Is Ending Investigation Into Whether ETH Is A Security The web3 community rejoiced after learning the SEC is abandoning its investigation into Ethereum.

Tuesday

• Ethereum NFTs Crater as Blur Incentives Wind Down Ethereum NFT collections continue to crash as liquidity providers pull their bids as Blast’s Season 3 incentives end.
• Old Addresses Holding BTC Hit All-Time High While New Wallets Are at Lowest Since 2018 The number of new wallets holding Bitcoin on-chain has sank to its lowest level in six years.
• “It Might Be Hard Explaining Future Devs Why We Did These Things With OP_CAT” Says BIP Author A Bitcoin script deleted by Satoshi Nakamoto 2011 is dividing developers after being resurrected in a new proposal.
• Markets Drop as Altcoin Liquidations Top $440 Million Altcoins continue to suffer heavy losses as Bitcoin and Ethereum post minor drawdowns.
• Base Network Surpasses Binance Chain in Active DEX Users Sustained action in the memecoin markets has propelled the number of on-chain Base traders to new heights.
• Ronin Network Unveils Permissionless zkEVM Ronin has tapped Polygon’s tech for infrastructure, allowing developers to launch Ronin-based Layer 2s.
• Tether Looks To Compete Against DeFi With Upcoming Synthetic Asset Platform Tether launched a gold-backed overcollateralized USD stablecoin to demonstrate its upcoming Alloy platform.

Monday

• PleasrDAO Suing Martin Shkreli Over IP Rights Is a Sign of a Maturing Ecosystem The lawsuit shows decentralized organizations increasingly need legal structures to operate in the off-chain world.
• Crypto Markets Trade Lower as Institutions Offload Millions in Bitcoin Institutional investors sold $600 million worth of crypto ETP shares last week.
• Coinbase Advanced to Offer Pre-Launch Token Trading Coinbase Advanced users will be able to access markets for tokens that are yet to launch.
• Nearly Half Of Airdropped ZkSync Tokens Claimed In Just Two Hours 225,000 addresses claimed 45% of airdropped ZK tokens within two hours.
• Soaring Xai Adoption Propels L2 and L3 TVL To All-Time High Ethereum’s combined ecosystem processed more than 240 transactions per second as Xai’s TPS rocketed past 100.

TRENDING

• Crypto Markets Turn Lower as Tech Stocks Dip
• Konami Taps Avalanche For Yen-Based NFT Marketplace 'Resella'
• Certik Returns $3 Million To Kraken Amid Controversy For Holding Funds ‘Hostage’
• ZRO Trades At $1.1B Market Cap After LayerZero Launches Claims
• EigenLayer Launches Claims For Second Phase Of Season 1 Airdrop
• LayerZero Airdrop Allocations Disappoint DeFi Users
• Certik Holds $3 Million ‘Hostage’ From Kraken as Exchange Threatens Employees
• Crypto Markets Bounce after SEC Closes Ethereum 2.0 Investigation
• Modular Liquidity Protocol Mitosis Kicks Off Next Phase of Airdrop Campaign
• Analyst Pins Martin Shkreli as the Potential Creator of the Donald Trump Memecoin
• Love, Loss, and Protest: Digging Through Ethereum’s 1.5M On-Chain Messages
• APhone Launches Web3 App Store To Compete With Apple and Google
• LayerZero Announces 1.28 Million Wallets Are Eligible For Airdrop
• Consensys Says SEC Is Ending Investigation Into Whether ETH Is A Security
• Ethereum NFTs Crater as Blur Incentives Wind Down