🚀Weekly Recap: EigenLayer Realizes Restaking Vision With Mainnet Rollout

Happy weekend Defiers!

EigenLayer’s mainnet launch dominated headlines this week, with the pioneering restaking protocol onboarding Actively Validated Services (AVSs) for the first time. The launch allows Ethereum stakers to earn additional yields on top of staking rewards by securing third-party AVSs in exchange for taking on additional slashing risks.

EigenLayer’s mainnet deployment proved an immediate success, with AVSs attracting $500 million worth of delegated stake within 24 hours. EigenLayer already ranked as the second largest DeFi protocol prior to its mainnet launch amid booming growth in the liquid restaking ecosystem.

Other protocols are trying to cash in on the restaking boom set in motion by EigenLayer, with Karak announcing the completion of a $48 million Series A funding round backing its plans for a “universal restaking layer.” However, Karak is facing backlash after being outed as the second reincarnation of Risk Habor, a project accused of making off with $7 million meant to underwrite Terra’s failed UST stablecoin.

The other major piece of news this week was that the SEC sent a Wells Notice to Uniswap Labs, meaning the U.S. securities watchdog plans to bring a lawsuit against the company behind the top decentralized exchange, Uniswap. Uniswap Labs said it is “ready to fight” any alleged securities violations brought against it. The outcome of the case stands to become a watershed moment for crypto and DeFi.

Markets continued on a bearish trajectory this week, with leading assets quickly giving up short-lived gains amid higher-than-expected U.S. inflation data.

It was a big week for the Bitcoin ecosystem, with reports claiming that ETFs investing in Bitcoin could garner regulatory approval in Hong Kong as soon as next week.

Ordinals have been enjoying a resurgence, with Runestones flipping Bored Ape Yacht Club to emerge as the second-largest collection of non-fungibles by market cap just one month after its airdrop. Looking ahead, Runestones plans to follow up on its success by dropping memecoins to holders.

However, on-chain research revealed that 47% of newly minted Bitcoin are going to a single crypto custodian, Cobo, servicing nine of the largest mining pools. The data has once again called Bitcoin’s decentralization into question as a result of its industrial mining ecosystem.

Analysts remain bearish on the prospects of a spot Ether ETF receiving regulatory approval next month, despite the SEC hosting meetings with Ethereum exchange-traded fund applicants.

Plus, Sushi’s core team is under fire for seeking to transfer its DAO’s treasury to a centralized entity, Ethereum developers want to expand wallet functionality at the expense of new attack vectors, Monad Labs closed 2024’s largest web3 funding round at $225 million, Marginfi’s CEO resigned after vowing to block any airdrop for points holders, and a community-led takeover of a rugpull is raising money for Ross Ulbricht’s family.

Enjoy!

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ALPHA INTEL

Earn 60% Fixed APR on ETH with Pendle Principal Tokens

Our resident DeFi degens show you how to access elevated yields on liquid restaking tokens using Pendle, the leading yield tokenization platform. The booming demand for exposure to restaking derivatives has propelled LRT yields to as much as 60% on Pendle, and we walk you through how to get in on the action!

Plus, check out our technical analysis covering the recent performance of leading crypto assets!

PODCAST & INTERVIEWS

"Really Crazy Stuff Will Happen With AVSs," EtherFi Founder Mike Silagadze

Cami Russo was joined by Mike Silagadze, founder of EtherFi, an Ethereum restaking protocol, and Nikhil Raghuveera, co-founder of Aethos, a decentralized policy engine being built on EigenLayer.

With liquid restaking recently emerging as the hottest trend in the Ethereum ecosystem, we discuss the innovative use cases that restaking unlocks via Active Validating Services (AVSs) on EigenLayer.

PODCAST & INTERVIEWS

Meet Blend: Stellar’s Modular Liquidity Layer

Cami chatted with Markus Paulson-Luna, the founder of Script3, to gain a deeper insight into their mission and vision for building Blend Capital.

Script3 is a decentralized finance studio developing projects for the Stellar ecosystem. Script3 also contributes to Blend Capital, which enables the deployment of decentralized lending pools created by users, DAOs, and institutions.

PODCAST & INTERVIEWS

Avalanche vs. The World: Emin Gün Sirer Saw It Coming

The Defiant spoke to Emin Gün Sirer, the founder and CEO of Ava Labs, the company behind the Avalanche Layer 1 blockchain, to get his no-holds-barred take on the expanding Layer 2 sector.

Sirer also discussed Avalanche's position within the blockchain ecosystem, emerging sectors including GameFi and SocialFi on Avalanche, and the convergence of real-world finance and web3.

VIDEO & TUTORIALS

The SEC Must Lose Vs. Uniswap; EigenLayer Launch; The Defiant’s Memecoin Experiment

In Crypto With Cami, your concise guide to the week's most significant developments in DeFi and Web3, all in 30 minutes or less, we talk about Uniswap’s fight agains the SEC, EigenLayer’s new functionality, The Defiant’s memecoin experiment, and more.

VIDEO & TUTORIALS

Easiest Way To Create & Trade Solana Memecoins

Against the backdrop of the memecoin sector bubbling to a $56 billion market cap, we walk you through the process of launching your very own meme token using Pump.fun, a no-code platform for creating and deploying memecoins on Solana.

Friday

• Ethereum Upgrade To Improve Wallets But Unlock New Attacks EIP-3074 will introduce smart contract functionality for regular Ethereum wallets as part of the Pectra upgrade, but onlookers warn that users will face increased risk from hackers.
• Hot New Restaking Project Karak Faces Backlash Over Team’s Past Karak has been outed as the second reincarnation of Risk Harbor, a protocol accused of running off with millions earmarked as insurance for Terra’s failed UST stablecoin.

Thursday

• Chainlink Launches Cross-Chain Bridging App ‘Transporter’ Transporter leverages Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), which is enjoying a recent surge in adoption.
• Marginfi CEO Resigns Amid Points Controversy and SolBlaze Dispute Marginfi launched a loyalty points campaign last July, but its founder recently vowed to block any plans to airdrop a token to points holders.
• EigenLayer Launches Six Actively Validated Services EigenLayer is onboarding new AVSs following its mainnet launch earlier this week.
• FriendTech Sees Renewed Interest Ahead Of Anticipated Airdrop SocialFi platform FriendTech saw a $7.4 million inflow and more than 40,000 transactions on April 8, its highest levels since October 2023.
• Pantera-Backed Rollup Omni Network Announces Airdrop 3% of OMNI’s total supply will be airdropped to EigenLayer restakers, ETH stakers, various NFT holders, and Omni community members.
• Masa Network Launches Marketplace For Tokenized Data To Train AI Models Web3 projects continue to embrace artificial intelligence, with Masa Network celebrating its mainnet launch.

Wednesday

• First 24 Hours of EigenLayer Brings $500M In Delegated Stake As TVL Hits All-Time High EigenLayer, the pioneering restaking protocol, onboarded 28 operators and nearly $500 million in restaked ETH in the 24 hours following its mainnet launch.
• SEC to Sue Uniswap Labs; Team is "Ready to Fight" The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing to sue Uniswap Labs, the company behind the Uniswap DEX, according to founder Hayden Adams.
• Liquid Staking Lands On Bitcoin As Layer 2 Race Heats Up Nomic DAO unveiled liquid staking for BTC while Thesis announces its Bitcoin “Economic Layer.”
• Layer N Launches Testnet, Aims To Host Unified Ecosystem Of Appchains Layer N’s first testnet phase allows developers and users to experiment with NordVM, an application-specific rollup optimized for asset exchanges.
• Single Entity Controls Keys to Nearly 50% of All Newly Mined Bitcoin Cobo, a crypto custodian, is receiving 47% of new BTC mining rewards from nine leading mining pools.
• Analysts Remain Bearish On Ether ETF Prospects Despite SEC Meetings The SEC met with Ether ETF hopefuls, but discussions reportedly lacked meaningful feedback.
• NFT Volumes Climb to 12-Month High Driven by Once Stagnant Bitcoin Runestones recently flipped Bored Apes to become the second most valuable NFT collection after CryptoPunks.

Tuesday

• SilkRoad Foundation Raises Funds For Ulbricht Family After Repurposing Rug-Pull The organization was founded through a “community takeover” commandeering the SILKROAD memecoin rug-pull.
• TON Becomes Top 10 Cryptocurrency After 35% Surge The Open Network’s TVL tripled over the past month amid a popular incentive campaign.
• Stacks To Integrate Portal DeFi For Bitcoin To Layer 2 Atomic Swaps Portal DeFi is teaming up with Stacks, a leading Bitcoin L2, to facilitate non-custodial transfers between Stacks and Bitcoin’s base layer.
• Fantom Founder Wants To Create a Safer Memecoin Environment Andre Cronje said the Fantom Foundation is looking to partner up with memecoin projects that provide a safe environment for users.
• EigenLayer Launches on Ethereum Mainnet The pioneering restaking protocol EigenLayer is now live on the Ethereum mainnet following among the most highly-anticipated launches on the network.
• Monad Labs Raises $225M in This Year’s Biggest Funding Round Monad Labs closed a massive $225 million round featuring participation from Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures, and prominent angel investors.

Monday

• Sushi Team Under Fire For Proposed Treasury Takeover Sushi’s head chef said his team is trying to safeguard treasury assets from an ongoing “governance attack,” but many in the community said the team is staging a centralization attack.
• Airdrop April Continues as Solana NFT Platform Tensor Launches Token Tennsor airdropped $250 million worth of TNSR tokens to early users at a $1.9 billion fully-diluted valuation.
• Markets Rally as Old Holders Are Met By New Money A wave of green is splashing over the crypto market as most tokens notch up green candles to kick off the week.