↕️Weekly Recap: Post-Halving Volatility; Consensys Fights the SEC

Happy weekend Defiers!

Crypto markets have been all over the place in the wake of Bitcoin’s long-awaited halving event. The week started with bullish action for Bitcoin mining stocks. While digital assets enjoyed a brief bounce in anticipation of U.S. economic data, the gains were quickly erased when the numbers came in weaker than expected.

In other Bitcoin news, the Ordinals-based Runes protocol is driving the lion’s network activity despite suffering a major drawdown since last week’s airdrop snapshot was taken. Miscellaneous Bitcoin collectibles also fetched seven figures from bidders at auction last week.

Renzo, the second-largest liquid restaking protocol with more than $3 billion in TVL, suffered a violent depeg that abruptly liquidated leveraged points farmers. The move resulted from a flurry of traders offloading its ezETH restaking token as misinformation spread regarding the terms of its imminent airdrop.

Despite the Renzo drama, liquid restaking continues to outperform as the leading DeFI segment on Ethereum. Data from Dune Analytics shows EtherFi taking in $1.2 billion in the past month while users pulled $1.4 billion out of Lido over the same period.

Ethereum’s broader ecosystem is also enjoying record activity, with more than 10 million wallets active and 60 million transactions executed in the past month. Despite strong on-chain volume, Ether’s supply is at a six-week high after low gas fees drove two weeks of ETH inflation.

It was a big week for law and regulation, with Consensys filing a lawsuit against the SEC. The blockchain software company hopes to force a court ruling formalizing that ETH does not comprise a security, with the move following Consensys receiving a Wells Notice — which precedes a formal legal complaint from the SEC.

Also, two SEC attorneys reportedly resigned after getting the agency sanctioned as part of its case against Debt Box, the founders of the privacy-focused Samourai wallet were arrested and charged with facilitating billions in unlawful transactions, and U.S. prosecutors want a three-year prison sentence for CZ, Binance’s former CEO.

The fourth-largest CryptoPunk sale was recorded last week, with Punk 635 changing hands for $12 million. Elsewhere in NFTs, Yuga Labs announced it is restructuring after following a protracted downtrend suffered by its ecosystem.

Also, Chainlink completed the permissionless rollout for its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol, Reya’s liquidity generation event quickly attracted $200 million, Grayscale filed for a mini spot Bitcoin ETF, and SAFE debuted at a $1.2 billion market cap.

Enjoy!

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The conversation focused on Dixon’s where we focused on his recent book, Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet — an essential read for anyone looking to grasp the essence of the Web3 movement. Dixon offers an approachable take on complex web3 topics, including tokenization, the evolution of internet technologies, and central bank digital currencies.

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A New Era In Bitcoin | Runes Protocol

We walk you through the surging Bitcoin Runes Protocol, which leverages Ordinals to offer NFT-like collectibles on the Bitcoin network. This video is going to cover the ins and outs of what the Runes protocol is, how to get your hands on Rune Tokens, and why some think this trend is here to stay.

Stripe Adds Crypto Payments, Consensys Sues the SEC, Renso’s ezETH Depegs

We go through all the major headlines this week with analysis on why they matter. This week, major news include Stripe adding USDC payments, Consensys sues the SEC, and Renzo’s ez ETH de-pegged.

Friday

• Bitcoin Layer 2 Stacks Prepares for Nakamoto Upgrade, its Largest Hard-Fork Ever The upgrade is expected to reduce Stacks’ block times from 10 minutes to less than 11 seconds. “Stacks is transforming into a true L2,” said Rena Shah of Trust Machines.
• Two Vulnerabilities Caught in Optimism Testnet The bugs were identified by Offchain Labs, the team behind Optimism’s primary competitor, Arbitrum.
• Yuga Labs to Restructure and Renew Focus on Otherside The company best known for the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection is restructuring after a two-year downtrend.
• Renzo Updates Airdrop Terms After Explosive ezETH Depeg The second-largest LRT protocol changed its upcoming airdrop allocations following community pushback and a recent violent depeg event.
• Ether Inflates After Gas Fees Plummet The circulating supply of Ether has inflated to its highest level since March 14 after a sustained run of low gas fees drove down Ethereum’s burn-rate.

Thursday

• Bitcoiners Spend Millions On ‘Buy Bitcoin’ Sign and First Sat Of Halving Bidders paid seven figures for unique Bitcoin collectibles at auction.
• Consensys Sues SEC In Bid To ‘Defend Ethereum’ Consensys wants a U.S. court to rule that Ether does not comprise a security. The lawsuit follows Consensys receiving a Wells Notice from the SEC.
• Payments Giant Stripe Adds Crypto Again Starting With USDC, TechCrunch Reports Stripe is launching support for USDC across multiple networks in the firm’s latest move to embrace crypto
• Franklin Templeton Enables P2P Transfers for BENJI Fund Investors in Franklin Templeton’s OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund can now transfer their shares on-chain.
• Bitcoin and Ethereum Prices Tumble as GDP Data Comes In Weaker Than Expected Crypto markets are trading lower as data shows the U.S. economy grew slower than expected.
• Punk 635 Sold for $12M in 4th-Highest CryptoPunk Sale Ever The sale marks the fourth-largest in dollar terms for a CryptoPunk, and it lands the transaction in sixth place in terms of ETH.
• Chainlink Completes Permissionless Rollout For Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol Chainlink’s CCIP is now live for anyone to use after generating $6,700 in daily fees since the start of March during its permissioned launch phase.
• Avail Announces Data Availability Integrations With Five Leading L2 Teams Developers leveraging tech stacks from Arbitrum, Optimism, ZkSync, Polygon, and StarkWare will have access to AvailDA.
• Frax and PotatoSwap Team Up On OKX’s New L2 X Layer Frax Finance announced a partnership with PotatoSwap that will bring its assets onto X Layer, the Ethereum Layer 2 from OKX.
• Fantasy.Top Attracts $56 Million Ahead of Mainnet Launch Investors are backing a Blast-based Social-Fi game borrowing mechanism from fantasy sports.

Wednesday

• Feds Arrest Samourai Wallet Founders on Money Laundering Charges The U.S. government alleges the pair knowingly facilitated $2 billion of unlawful transactions including $100 million in laundered criminal proceeds.
• Restaking Overtakes Liquid Staking In Monthly Inflows Users injected $1.2 billion into EtherFi but removed $1.4 billion from Lido over the past month.
• Bitcoin, Ethereum Trade Lower As Whales Show Signs Of FOMO Wallets holding between 1,000 BTC and 10,000 BTC have accumulated $17 billion worth of Bitcoin since the year began.
• Reya’s Liquidity Generation Event Attracts $100 Million Reya’s points campaign attracted nine figures worth of liquidity in less than 24 hours.
• Renzo’s Restaked ETH Depegs to $700 As Season 1 of Airdrop Ends The de-peg resulted in heavy liquidations on Gearbox Protocol and Morpho Labs.
• Grayscale Seeks SEC Nod To Introduce ‘Mini’ Ethereum ETF The filing comes despite analysts doubting the chances of spot Ethereum ETFs receiving regulatory approval anytime soon.
• U.S. Prosecutors Seek Three-Year Sentence For CZ In November, Binance’s former CEO pleaded guilty to charges of violating the Bank Secrecy Act and U.S. sanctions.

Tuesday

• Bitcoin’s New Runes Protocol Fuels Sky-High Transaction Fees The price of Runestones is down 70% after an airdrop snapshot for the project was taken.
• Arthur Hayes Says Ordinals ‘Bring Human Culture’ To Oldest Crypto Community The BitMEX co-founder believes Ordinals are memecoins are vehicles for bringing web3 culture on-chain.
• Ethereum Ecosystem Activity Soars to All-time High Weekly active wallets on Ethereum and Layer 2 pushed past 10 million while transaction volume surged above 60 million.
• Bitcoin, Ethereum Stage Relief Rally Ahead of U.S. Economic Data Crypto markets recovered on Tuesday, with Bitcoin edging closer to $67,000 despite growing concerns about a possible deeper correction.
• Safe Token Trades at $1.2B Market Cap After Community Votes to Unpause Transfers The price of SAFE pulled back 20% on its first day after debuting at a ten-figure valuation.
• Metis Introduces Decentralized Sequencer Mining With Phase 2 Rollout The second phase of Metis’ decentralized sequencer rollout introduces rewards for node stakers and operators.
• Millions In ‘Forgotten’ Crypto Lies Dormant On Bridges Data from Arkham Intelligence shows wallets associated with Vitalik Buterin and Coinbase among the owners of seemingly forgotten bridged assets.
• PayPal and Energy Web Team Up To Incentivize Green Bitcoin Mining PayPal is working with Energy Web to develop incentive mechanisms for Bitcoin miners to adopt clean electricity.
• SEC Attorneys Resign After Agency Sanctioned Over Debt Box Lawsuit Lead SEC attorneys Michael Welsh and Joseph Watkins reportedly stepped down from the agency.

Monday

• Nobody Is Buying Donald Trump's NFTs – So Melania Decided To Step Up Melania Trump released a $245 Mother’s Day necklace sold alongside a complimentary Solana-based NFT.
• Tether Partners With Telegram To Bring Crypto Payments To 900 Million Users Telegram integrated support for USDT, bringing the largest stablecoin onto the popular encrypted messaging app.
• Gambling Platform ZKasino Sends $33M To Lido Instead Of Returning Assets To Investors The shady gambling platform ZKasino took control of $33 million in its users’ ETH and staked the fund in Lido Finance.
• Bitcoin Mining Stocks Thrive While Hash Rate Slides Post-Halving Major mining stocks rallied by more than 17% within one week of the Bitcoin halving going live.
• Aave Community Votes On Next Network To Host GHO Avalanche and Arbitrum emerged as front-running candidates to host GHO's second deployment.

TRENDING

• Punk 635 Sold for $12M in 4th-Highest CryptoPunk Sale Ever
• Restaking Overtakes Liquid Staking In Monthly Inflows
• Bitcoin, Ethereum Trade Lower As Whales Show Signs Of FOMO
• Reya’s Liquidity Generation Event Attracts $100 Million In Less Than 24 Hours
• Renzo’s Restaked ETH Depegs to $700 As Season 1 of Airdrop Ends