🚀Weekly Recap: Trump Win Sends Crypto Flying
Happy weekend Defiers!
Crypto markets roared in response to Donald Trump winning the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Bitcoin surged to tag new all-time highs for the first time since March after gaining 10% in seven days to test $77,000, while the combined crypto market cap is at its highest level since June at $2.7 trillion. BlackRock’s IBIT spot Bitcoin ETF hosted $1 billion worth of volume in 20 minutes amid the frenzy.
Investors are betting that Trump will make good on the many pro-crypto promises made throughout his campaign. That includes plans to build up a national “strategic Bitcoin reserve,” which Senator Cynthia Lummis appeared to confirm will happen.
Altcoins outperformed, with ETH up 16.7%, Solana surging 21.2%, and Dogecoin rallying 22.5% over the past week. DeFi tokens did even better, with Aave up 25% and Raydium soaring 40%. However, Trump-themed memecoins quickly pumped before suffering violent sell-offs.
Trump wasn’t the only candidate championing web3 who secured electoral victory, with 247 pro-crypto politicians scoring seats after the votes were tallied. However, Elizabeth Warren comfortably defeated John Deaton to secure her third term in office.
Polymarket was also a major beneficiary of the election, with the platform hosting more volume in five days than it did during all of 2023.
State and municipal governments are also embracing crypto. The State of Michigan Retirement System became the first state pension to buy Ethereum ETF shares while Florida wants to invest in Bitcoin ETFs, and Detroit plans to become the largest U.S. city supporting tax payments in crypto.
The Argentinian Supreme Court of Mendoza also inked a deal with Kleros to trial its decentralized dispute resolution system.
The Ethereum Foundation released its long-awaited conflict of interest policy for employees and contractors. The move came after top researchers Justin Drake and Dankrad Feist stood down from controversial advisory positions at EigenLayer.
DeFi protocols are facing increasing calls to redistribute revenue to tokenholders. Wintermute proposed that Ethena activate a fee switch for ENA stakers, while Curve wants to distribute 10% of revenue from its stablecoin to scrvUSD holders.
Research from Binance found that three-quarters of all memecoins were launched in 2024. However, 97% have already failed, with just 0.23% retaining a seven-figure market cap.
MakerDAO has finally locked in its Sky rebrand. Governance delegates backed the plan with 80% support.
Plus, Citi and Fidelity team up to pilot an on-chain money market fund, Eclipse launches the first Solana Virtual Machine-powered Ethereum Layer 2, and Protocol Guild has distributed $20 million to support core Ethereum development.
Also, don’t forget to check out our podcast with Hart Lambur, the co-founder of Across Protocol and UMA, and our interviews with top crypto executives at SmartCon 2024.
Enjoy!
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PODCAST & INTERVIEWS
"By 2025, Ethereum Will Feel Like One Unified Network" | Hart Lambur, Across Protocol
In this week’s podcast, Cami Russo was joined by Hart Lambur, the co-founder of Across Protocol and UMA.
Lambur discussed Across’s mission to enable fast and cheap asset transfers between Ethereum Layer 2s. He explains how the protocol’s “intent architecture” leverages third-party solvers to improve cross-chain interactions, offering a cohesive way for users to transfer assets and execute transactions across different Ethereum networks.
Lambur also emphasizes the importance of Ethereum’s upcoming account abstraction upgrades to achieving a unified ecosystem, allowing actions on any Ethereum chain from a single wallet. He envisions a future by 2025 where Ethereum feels like a unified network, improving user experience significantly.
Chainlink’s Next Big Move: Introducing Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE) | Sergey Nazarov
The Defiant spoke to Sergey Nazarov, the co-founder of Chainlink to learn about the Chainlink Runtime Environment upgrade at SmartCon 2024.
Nazarov also discussed Chainlink’s growing adoption within the DeFi and traditional finance sectors. He highlighted how Chainlink's evolving technology and privacy-preserving tools support both decentralized and institutional finance. Nazarov also emphasizes the integration of real-world assets, stablecoins, and tokenized funds as central to DeFi's future and capital markets.
Real Time Inflation on the Blockchain: Stefan Rust Introduces Truflation and Synthetic Indexes
We caught up with Stefan Rust, founder and CEO of Truflation, at SmartCon 2024
Rust shared how his company uses blockchain to provide real-time, transparent inflation data, offering an alternative to traditional government metrics. Rust discussed the potential of synthetic indexes, which allow users globally — especially in underserved markets — to access diverse investment opportunities.
Rust also highlighted Truflation's collaboration with Argentina to deliver an independent inflation tracker, ensuring reliable data for one of the world's most inflation-affected economies.
Space and Time: Exploring ZK-Proven Data Solutions for Blockchain and AI | Scott Dykstra, Co-Founder
The Defiant chatted with Scott Dykstra, the CTO and co-founder of Space and Time, at SmartCon 2024 to discuss his team’s solution for ZK-proven, tamper-proof data access to smart contracts and AI agents.
Dykstra explained how Space and Time's SQL-powered platform serves as a decentralized database, allowing various applications to query blockchain data securely, making it especially useful for DeFi and AI-driven agents. Dykstra also highlighted Chainlink and Microsoft's support in co-engineering tools for on-chain data access. Looking ahead, he envisions a convergence of AI and blockchain, where AI agents leverage smart contracts for secure, data-driven transactions.
Why DeFi’s Future Could Be on Bitcoin | Botanix Labs’ Vision with Spiderchain
Alisia Painter, the co-founder and COO of Botanix Labs, sat down with The Defiant to share how Botanix Labs is pioneering Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions with Spiderchain, Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible network built on Bitcoin.
Painter discussed her shift from Ethereum focused work to building on Bitcoin, motivated by a belief in Bitcoin's potential to fulfill crypto’s original mission of democratizing financial access. Additionally, she addresses the challenges and opportunities in expanding DeFi within the Bitcoin ecosystem, emphasizing Botanix Labs' commitment to creating a world where Bitcoin serves as the foundational layer for decentralized applications.
Friday
- Bitcoin Touches $77,000 as Spot ETFs Attract Record $1.4 Billion On Thursday, the Fed cut benchmark U.S. interest rates by 0.25%.
- Polygon TVL Drops 20% as Polymarket Fever Cools Many election traders on Polymarket promptly removed their funds from Polygon as soon as the election markets closed.
- Ethereum Foundation Reveals Conflict Of Interest Policy Ethereum Foundation researchers taking paid positions at third-party projects has been an issue of community contention.
- Detroit to Become Largest U.S. City Accepting Crypto for Taxes At least five U.S. states support various government service payments in the form of crypto.
- Wintermute Calls For Ethena To Share Revenue With Stakers If passed, sENA holders would receive a share of the revenue generated by Ethena.
- MakerDAO Governance Confirms Sky Rebrand Will Go Ahead MakerDAO rebranded to Sky on Sept. 18, but community members expressed confusion.
Thursday
- GRASS Token Soars to $3 Billion Valuation The bandwidth-sharing DePIN project’s price action suggests that airdrops are not dead after all.
- Eclipse Launches Public Mainnet Eclipse describes itself as the first Ethereum Layer 2 powered by the Solana Virtual Machine.
- Bitcoin Soars Above $76,000 Ahead of Fed Decision Ethereum and Solana rallied 8% and 5%, respectively.
- Protocol Guild Has Distributed $20M To Support Ethereum Development The Ethereum community is rallying behind Protocol Guild, a collective funding mechanism supporting 181 developers working on core Ethereum protocols.
- Cynthia Lummis Announces U.S. ‘Strategic Bitcoin Reserve’ After Trump Win Trump pledged that his administration would retain all U.S. government-held Bitcoin if elected.
- Over 75% of Memecoins Were Created in 2024, But 97% Are Dead Memecoins’ share of the altcoin market has nearly tripled since 2022.
- Bitcoin-dev Archives Purged From Linux, Re-Homed On Google Groups Historically, Bitcoin Core development discussions took place by email and on the BitcoinTalk.org forum.
- Polymarket Whales Cash Out Millions on Trump Win One user profited nearly $50 million across four Polymarket accounts.
Wednesday
- DeFi Tokens Outperform Amid Broad Crypto Rally Uniswap and Lido were the best-performing digital assets ranked among the top 100 by market cap.
- Trump Memecoins Plummet as Bitcoin Hits All-Time High Traders are dumping Trump-themed memecoins after his election victory.
- Crypto Markets Soar On Trump Election Victory BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin ETF recorded $1 billion in volume over 20 minutes as BTC surged to new all-time highs.
- Pro-Crypto Candidates Dominate 2024 Elections as Trump Reclaims Presidency 247 pro-crypto candidates won seats in the House of Representatives.
- Elizabeth Warren Defeats Pro-Crypto Deaton To Secure Third Senate Term The 2024 U.S. presidential election featured several tight Senate races involving pro-crypto candidates.
- Ethereum Foundation Researchers Resign From EigenLayer The resignations followed months of backlash from the Ethereum community.
- Bitcoin Tags All-Time High As Trump Takes Early Election Lead The combined cryptocurrency market cap is at its highest level since July.
Tuesday
- Kleros to Collaborate with Supreme Court of Mendoza The agreement marks a groundbreaking progression in the modernization of the judicial process in Argentina.
- Polymarket Does More Volume in 5 Days than All of 2023 Prediction market volumes are at all-time highs as the odds of a Trump presidency soar.
- Degens Hit the Memecoin Trenches to Gamble on Election Kamala Harris and Donald Trump memecoins traded in tandem with Polymarket odds for the candidates’ winning the election.
- Paxos Launches Yield-Bearing Stablecoin Backed By Industry Heavyweights USDG is backed by Anchorage Digital, Bullish, Galaxy Digital, Kraken, Nuvei, Paxos, and Robinhood.
- Bitcoin Rallies Above $70,000 On Election Day Dogecoin soared 12% to rank as biggest gainer among the top 100 digital assets.
- Michigan Hosts First U.S. Pension Fund to Buy Spot Ethereum ETF Shares The fund owns more than $11 million worth of Ethereum ETF shares.
- Curve Proposes Giving 10% Of crvUSD Revenue To Savings crvUSD Holders The measure aims to scale crvUSD to stabilize borrow rates and price fluctuations.
Monday
- Citi and Fidelity Announce On-Chain Money Market Fund The move comes just three days after UBS launched its own tokenized product.
- Metawin Casino Exploited for $4 Million The withdrawal system for the Ethereum and Solana-based casino was compromised.
- Coinbase and Binance Face Backlash Over Alleged Listing Fees Web3 projects claim that both Binance and Coinbase have requested sizable listing fees.
- Crypto Markets Drop for Sixth Day Ahead of U.S. Elections Digital asset investment products recorded over $2 billion of inflows in the past week despite the lackluster price action.
- Ethereum Spends $1.28 Per $1 of Fee Revenue, But Solana Pays Six Times As Much Solana emits $7.62 worth of SOL for every $1 generated in fee revenue.
TRENDING
- Bitcoin Soars Above $76,000 Ahead of Fed Decision
- Protocol Guild Has Distributed $20M To Support Ethereum Development
- Cynthia Lummis Announces U.S. ‘Strategic Bitcoin Reserve’ After Trump Win
- Over 75% of Memecoins Were Created in 2024, But 97% Are Dead
- Bitcoin-dev Archives Purged From Linux, Re-Homed On Google Groups
- Polymarket Whales Cash Out Millions on Trump Win