🎯Weekly Recap: SEC Sets Sights On Liquid Staking Sector

Happy weekend Defiers!

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit against Consensys for facilitating access to Lido and Rocket Pool. The complaint alleges that the liquid staking protocols operate in violation of securities laws.

The move comes weeks after the SEC dropped its investigation into whether Ethereum is a security. It also coincides with the U.S. Department of Justice ruling that a crypto asset comprises a security for the first time.

SOL enjoyed a bullish week after VanEck filed for a spot Solana ETF. However, the fund’s chances of approval could be low, with ongoing SEC lawsuits alleging that SOL is a security asset. The Solana ecosystem also celebrated the testnet deployment of ZK Compression and the mainnet launch of Actions and Blinks this past week.

SOL’s performance bucked the crypto meta-trend, with only 30 of the top 100 digital assets posting gains of more than 1% this week. The crypto markets retreated in response to news that Mt. Gox would begin distributing 142,000 Bitcoins to creditors next week and failed to rebound despite inflation easing in the U.S.

Airdrop season continues. Blast dropped 17% of the supply for its long-awaited token to early adopters at a $420 million market cap before pulling back 15%.

A fresh round of incentives on Scroll propelled the Layer 2’s TVL above $800 million, positioning it as the eighth-largest L2. Zeta also distributed 10% of its ZEX token to users, with 30% earmarked for future incentives.

Meanwhile, declining activity amid the end of Blur’s Season 3 incentives led to OpenSea reemerging as the top NFT marketplace by volume. The NFT markets are struggling despite OpenSea’s resurgence, inspiring Mark Cuban to try and offload $100,000 worth of non-fungible tokens.

Drama continues to hang over CertiK after the controversial security auditor was outed for siphoning $3 million from Kraken and seeking to leverage the funds to negotiate a bounty. Researchers allege that a CertiK-linked platform is front-running bug bounties, while security experts are questioning the rigor of CertiK’s audits.

Plus, Stripe and Coinbase partner up, Arbitrum DAO plots RWA investments, Republican Congressman advocates for tax payments in BTC, and the crypto community celebrates Julian Assange’s release.

And don’t miss our latest podcast with Suji Yan, the founder of Mask Network.

Enjoy!

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PODCAST & INTERVIEWS

Bridging Web2 and Web3: Suji Yan on Mask Network's Vision

In this week’s podcast, Cami Russo was joined by Suji Yan, the founder of Mask Network, a privacy platform offering privacy and encryption to web2 social media users.

The conversation explores the tools offered by Mask Network, the web2 and web3 social media landscapes, the challenges associated with SocialFi, and Yan’s background.

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We take a deep dive into the meteoric comeback of Solana — a blockchain that battled endless adversities to redefine its own destiny. From an ambitious launch and explosive rise to overcoming nearly catastrophic setbacks, the network’s journey through innovation, endurance, and rebirth is unique.

But what exactly was it that allowed Solana to survive against all odds, to cement itself as one of the leading Layer 1 blockchains today?

TON Airdrop Season Is Here (You're Not Late)

While Bitcoin Ethereum, and Solana prices all retraced significantly in the past week, The Open Network (TON)’s TVL has continued to surge — boasting growth of 4500% since January and flipping DOGE by market cap.

Similar to the surging activity enjoyed by Solana and Base earlier in the year, TON’s rise to prominence has been propelled by memecoin and airdrop speculation. Despite the project already distributing four rounds of $TON token airdrops, upcoming airdrop opportunities are still available.

Check out our airdrop guide for The Open Network, which walks you through four ways to get started on the network and qualify for both confirmed and anticipated upcoming airdrops!

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GURU offers an AI Orchestration Network that creates and coordinates markets on-chain. Through existing tools such as their Flow Orchestrator App, in addition to upcoming releases, GURU looks to blend two of the hottest sectors in modern technology.

Friday

• SEC Targets Ethereum Liquid Staking The SEC alleges that top liquid staking providers Lido and Rocket Pool operate in violation of U.S. securities law.
• Crypto Markets Drop Despite Cooling U.S. Inflation Digital assets tumbled in spite of U.S. inflation easing.
• Stripe To Support Base Amid Coinbase Partnership Stripe will launch support for USDC on Base as part of a deal with Coinbase.
• Yei Finance Pushes Sei Network TVL Above $60 Million Yei’s TVL surged by 122% in one week after launching rewards for lenders.
• Manta-Based MUSD Stablecoin Leverages BlackRock’s BUIDL For Backing MUSD holders will earn monthly yields derived from BUIDL’s investments in U.S. treasuries.

Thursday

• OpenSea Claws Back Market-Share from Blur Waning activity on Blur amid the end of its Season 3 incentives paved the way for OpenSea’s return to dominance.
• SOL Surges on VanEck Spot Solana ETF Filing The price of SOL bounced 5% in 30 minutes after VanEck filed an S-1 registration statement for a spot Solana ETF with the SEC.
• Crypto Markets Rally as VanEck Files For Spot Solana ETF Digital assets rebounded in response to VanEck filing for a spot Solana ETF.
• Marathon Digital Mines Millions In KAS As Kaspa Surges Marathon has mined $16 million worth of KAS since September 2023.
• Zeta Markets Launches ZEX Airdrop Zeta allocated 10% of ZEX’s supply to early adopters and 30% to incentivize adoption moving forward.
• Scroll TVL Crosses $800 Million After Kicking Off Next Phase of Points Program Scroll now ranks as the eighth-largest Layer 2 network by TVL.

Wednesday

• Crypto Markets Flounder Ahead of Friday’s Mammoth Options Expiry BTC and ETH options with a notional value exceeding $10 billion expired on June 28.
• Unstoppable Domains Launches Marketplace Supporting ‘.com’ Tokenization Users can tokenize and trade both web3 and ‘.com’ domains on the newly launched Unstoppable Marketplace.
• Long-Awaited BLAST Token Drops At $420M Market Cap Blast airdropped 17% of its supply to developers and network users.
• CertiK Accused Of Front-Running Bug Bounties Through Subsidiary Security researchers have flagged OpenBounty, a platform affiliated with CertiK, for allegedly front-running bug bounty reports.
• DoJ Sentences HYDRO Founders In First Ruling That A Cryptocurrency Is A Security Two of Hydrogen Technology’s executives were sentenced for securities fraud after manipulating the price of HYDRO with wash trades and spoof orders.
• Blast Layer 2 Unveils Tokenomics Ahead of Airdrop Blast developers and users were earmarked 7% of the token’s supply each, with 3% going to the Blur ecosystem.
• Rainbow WalIet Introduces ETH Rewards Program The multi-chain wallet will distribute ETH to its top users on a weekly basis.

Tuesday

• “The Crypto Community Effectively Freed Julian Assange,” Says AssangeDAO Lawyer The DAO estimates more than 11,000 ETH went to Assange’s defense and campaigning.
• Crypto Markets Bounce After Rough Monday Digital assets briefly rebounded after more than $500 million worth of margin calls propelled bearish momentum on Monday.
• Republican Congressman Introduces Bill To Allow Federal Tax Payments in Bitcoin “By enabling taxpayers to use Bitcoin for federal tax payments, we can promote innovation, increase efficiency, and offer more flexibility to American citizens,” said Congressman Matt Gaetz.
• Arbitrum DAO Plans To Invest $29M Worth Of ARB Into On-Chain RWAs Arbitrum’s STEP Committee plans to invest 1% of DAO treasury assets into real-world asset products every year.
• Mark Cuban Wants To Offload $100K In NFTs Cuban sold 14 NFTs, including a Pudgy Penguin.
• Solana Foundation Launches New Developer Tooling To Promote Mainstream Adoption Solana’s “actions” and “blockchain links” features allow developers to embed web3 transactions into websites, social media, and QR codes.

Monday

• Ethereum Gas Prices Tag Multi-Year Low As ETH Supply Inflates Average Ethereum gas fees dropped to their lowest level since April 020 at $1.34.
• Former CertiK Clients Question Security Firm’s Stronghold On Protocol Audits Security researchers accuse CertiK of doing the bare minimum when completing smart contract audits.
• Crypto Markets Plummet on Mt. Gox Repayment Fears Cryptocurrency exchange-traded products shed $1.1 billion in two weeks.
• Solana's 'ZK Compression’ Scaling Solution Ignites Controversy Onlookers argue that ZK Compression closely resembles a Layer 2 network.
• Mt. Gox To Repay Creditors Next Month Amid Heavy Bitcoin Miner Sell-Off The Mt. Gox rehabilitation trustee said the defunct exchange will begin repaying 142,000 Bitcoin to creditors next month.

TRENDING

• Unstoppable Domains Launches Marketplace Supporting ‘.com’ Tokenization
• Long-Awaited BLAST Token Drops At $420M Market Cap
• CertiK Accused Of Front-Running Bug Bounties Through Subsidiary
• DoJ Sentences HYDRO Founders In First Ruling That A Cryptocurrency Is A Security
• Blast Layer 2 Unveils Tokenomics Ahead of Airdrop
• Rainbow WalIet Introduces ETH Rewards Program
• “The Crypto Community Effectively Freed Julian Assange,” Says AssangeDAO Lawyer
• Crypto Markets Bounce After Rough Monday
• Republican Congressman Introduces Bill To Allow Federal Tax Payments in Bitcoin
• Arbitrum DAO Plans To Invest $29M Worth Of ARB Into On-Chain RWAs
• Mark Cuban Wants To Offload $100K In NFTs
• Solana Foundation Launches New Developer Tooling To Promote Mainstream Adoption
• TON Airdrop Season Is Here (You're Not Late)
• Former Certik Clients Question Security Firm’s Stronghold On Protocol Audits
• Crypto Markets Plummet on Mt. Gox Repayment Fears