The Defiant

Ethereum’s long-awaited Dencun upgrade went off without a hitch this week, paving the way for a new era of Layer 2 scalability via EIP-4844. Fees across leading L2s have already dropped by between 50% and 98%, readying Ethereum’s Layer 2 ecosystem for mass adoption.

Bitcoin continued to post record highs throughout the week, eventually topping out above $73,500, according to CoinGecko. However, BTC’s weekly gains have since been extinguished amid a flurry of profit-taking, with Bitcoin last changing hands for $68,500.

Memecoins continue to post eye-watering gains, with BOME emerging as Solana’s latest novelty token of choice with a market cap of more than $600 million just a couple of days after launching. Dogwifhat also rallied 20% for the week after its community raised $691,000 to plaster the Las Vegas Sphere with its logo.

GameFi projects are posting gains, with Ronin also jumping 20% in seven days amid the expansion of its gaming ecosystem and Axie Infinity upgrades. Starknet is looking to foster its own vibrant web3 gaming ecosystem, seeding a new Gaming Committee with more than $100 million worth of STK to attract developers and gamers.

Projects in the artificial intelligence segment also continued to outperform, with the combined capitalization of AI tokens up more than 800% in four months.

It was a big week for MakerDAO, with its co-founder, Rune Christensen, aiming to embark on the project’s Endgame overhaul this summer. MakerDAO also hiked its stability fees by more than 140%and the DAI Savings Rate to 15% from 5%, in response to a drop in Dai supply and USDC reserves.

Prominent voices from across web3 are throwing their support behind new legislation in Wyoming recognizing DAOs and Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Associations (DUNAs). The landmark bill established a legal framework for DAOs. allowing them to enter into legal contracts with third parties, allow them to pay taxes, and provide the organizations with limited liability.

Grayscale filed for a mini Bitcoin ETF. If approved, the low-fee exchange-traded fund would be seeded with GBTC — shares in its recently converted spot Bitcoin ETF. The move follows consistent heavy outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.

And the liquid restaking sector continues to trend hot, with EtherFi moving its token generation one month and its ETHFI token now set to hit exchanges next week. Thetanuts is the latest project to get in on the booming liquid staking token sector, with the project teaming up with Pendle to offer leveraged exposure to LRTs.

Plus, don’t miss our podcast with Evan Cheng, the co-founder and CEO at Mysten Labs, to learn about the surging Sui Network.