📉Weekly Recap: Markets Lose Ground

Happy weekend Defiers!

Digital Assets continued to shed value this past week as investors hedged their positions ahead of new inflation data and FUD surrounding FTX’s bid to begin offloading its multi-billion crypto portfolio.

On Wednesday, FTX received approval for financial services firm Galaxy Digital to start selling its $3.4B digital asset holdings in tranches of up to $200M per week. Assets comprising FTX’s largest holdings were the week’s poorest performing tokens.

Media firms that sought to cash in on the hype surrounding NFTs last bull run remain in regulators’ crosshairs following last week’s landmark charges against Impact Theory. On Sept. 13, the SEC levied charges against Stoner Cats, the NFT-funded animated series from Ashton Kutcher and Milla Kunis. However, the charges were settled for $1M on the same day.

We also spoke to experts from the Blockchain Association, General Markets Advisory Commission, and 0x to learn more about the ramifications of last week’s CFTC action targeting three derivatives DEXes.

In bullish news, Sony announced it will develop a blockchain in partnership with Startale Labs, a team that spun out from the high-flying Polkadot project, Astar Network. The network will host future blockchain-based offerings from Sony, with the company adding it hopes Sony Chain will also emerge as a “backbone” of the global web3 industry.

LayerZero, a popular cross-chain interoperability protocol, tapped Google Chrome for oracle services. The news comes as Google Cloud is expanding its web3 footprint, with the company recently launching node management services for Proof of Stake validators.

Polygon published proposals seeking to formalize the initial stages of its “2.0” roadmap. The project will first migrate its native token from MATIC to POL, before making POL the network and staking token of the Polygon ecosystem, and launching a new staking layer for the project.

The week was also marked by exploits, with hackers believed to be affiliated with North Korea stealing tens of millions from the centralized exchange, CoinEx. The exchange said that it will compensate all users impacted by the hack.

The famed billionaire, Mark Cuban, also delivered a cautionary reminder of the importance of maintaining robust security practices when one of his web3 wallets was breached and drained of nearly $1M in tokens.

And the highly-anticipated launch of BANANA, the token for the Telegram trading bot, Banana Gun, ended in tears after a contract bug was identified in its contracts. After enjoying a post-launch rally, the token lost more than 99% of its value in a matter of hours.

Enjoy!

DeFi Alpha

Earn up to 30% APR on Stablecoins with BaseSwap

This week, our resident DeFi degens teach you how to earn up to 40% by providing stablecoin liquidity on BaseSwap, a decentralized exchange operating on Coinbase’s Layer 2, Base. Plus, we recap all of the hottest yields available across the broader Ethereum ecosystem.

Video

Does Chronicle Solve DeFi's Oracle Problem?

We dive into Chronicle Protocol, a veteran in the web3 oracle and data space that's been exclusively powering MakerDAO since 2017. By the end of this video, you'll know what oracles are and why they’re critical to DeFi. Plus, we find out how Chronicle is setting new standards in scalability, verifiability and user accessibility.

Friday

Mark Cuban Loses $870,000 In Wallet Hack Billionaire investor and crypto enthusiast Mark Cuban has confirmed that one of his wallets was hacked, resulting in a loss of over $870,000. The exploit was first reported by WazzCrypto, who questioned why the long-dormant wallet belonging to Cuban was suddenly moving all its assets.
Latest CFTC Enforcement Actions Challenge Core Tenets of DeFi Last week, the CFTC charged three DEXes with illegally offering unlicensed securities to U.S. users. We spoke to representatives from the Blockchain Association, the CFTC’s Global Markets Advisory Committee, and 0x to learn more about the enforcement action.
Polygon Targets Q4 For MATIC Token Migration Polygon published the first set of improvement proposals for its Polygon 2.0 overhaul, laying the groundwork for its token migration from MATIC to POL and launch of a new staking layer.

Thursday

Sony Unveils Plans To Develop Blockchain Sony Network Communications, a subsidiary of the $106B multinational conglomerate, is teaming up with Astar Network’s spin-off, Startale Labs, to develop a blockchain. Sony intends for the network to serve as the backbone of its blockchain-based offerings.
ZRX-backed Loan On Aave V2 Gets Closer To Liquidation A wallet that has an outstanding loan of $2.5M on Aave V2 against roughly $8M worth of ZRX could face liquidation if the price of ZRX drops by 22%. ZRX is down more than 90% from its 2021 all-time high.
LayerZero Taps Google Cloud Oracle For Message Verification Google Cloud now provides oracle services for all applications based on LayerZero’s cross-chain interoperability protocol. The move comes as Google Cloud is expanding its web3 presence.

Wednesday

SEC Reaches $1M Settlement With Ashton Kutcher’s Stoner Cats NFT Project On Sep. 13, the SEC charged the company behind the Stoner Cats NFT project with selling the tokens in an unregistered securities offering. The company has already settled for $1M and will also return investors’ money as well as destroy any NFTs in its possession.
Crypto Assets Slump Ahead Of US Inflation Report Crypto markets had a shaky start to the week ahead of US inflation data and potential asset sales by the failed FTX crypto exchange. Most assets ranked among the top 20 by market cap slumped between 2% and 4% on Monday, with Bitcoin dropping 2% to $25,000 and Ether tumbling 3.5% to $1,560.

Tuesday

zkSync Airdrop Farmer Deploys 21,877 Wallets A single entity commanding 21,877 wallets on ZkSync Era, likely in a bid to game any future airdrop, was flagged on the network. The user even launched a closed decentralized exchange and token to trade between their wallets.
Hyped Banana Token Launch Wrecked By Contract Bug The team behind the Banana Gun trading bot is planning to relaunch its token after a botched launch. BANANA went live yesterday and surged to a $70M market capitalization in less than an hour, but quickly crashed more than 99% after the discovery of a bug in its contract.
CoinEx Exchange Hacked For $28M Hackers made off with tens of millions after breaching the CoinEx centralized exchange’s hot wallets. The CoinEx team said it will compensate affected users.

Monday

SOL Drops Ahead Of Court Verdict On FTX Asset Sales Markets are bracing for a possible sell-off as failed centralized exchange, FTX, seeks court approval to begin offloading billions in digital assets. The assets would be sold by Galaxy Digital on FTX’s behalf.