↕️Weekly Recap: ETFs Launch and Investors Sell

Happy weekend Defiers!

Most digital assets are down over the past seven days despite early-week bullishness surrounding the launch of more than half a dozen Ether futures ETFs in the United States. ETH last changed hands for $1,635 after tagging a high of $1,735 on Oct. 2.

The bearish price action came despite UBS Asset Management, the $3.1T asset manager, launching the pilot for a tokenized Variable Capital Company fund on Ethereum. The VCC fund is based in Singapore and is part of an initiative led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Uniswap v3 is now live on ZkSync Era, the surging Layer 2 network, via the Oku front-end interface. Oku was developed with support from the Uniswap Foundation in the form of a $1.6M grant.

Contango launched DeFi-native perpetuals leveraging the leading web3 lending protocol, Aave v3. Contango plans to launch similar products leveraging the MakerDAO, Compound, and Spark lending protocols in the future.

The emerging SocialFI sector suffered a tumultuous week, with SIM-swapping hackers increasingly targeting Friend Tech users. Manifold Trading estimates $20M worth of keys or 40% of the protocol’s TVL is presently vulnerable to the exploit.

The rise of Stars Arena, an Avalanche-based competitor to Friend Tech, came to a quick halt after a smart contract exploit and DDoS attack led to a $3M loss and left its TVL at zero.

THORSwap, the THORChain-based decentralized exchange, suspended trading after blockchain sleuths sizable flows of stolen funds moving through its contracts. One researcher estimated more than half of the ETH swapped to BTC via the protocol was of illicit origin.

Yuga Labs, the leading NFT studio, is undergoing a major restructuring following the prolonged NFT downtrend and ongoing legal battles. Yuga will eliminate several positions and focus on developing its metaverse project, Otherside.

The International Monetary Fund published a report warning that unregulated digital assets could foster the rise of an “alternative financial system.” Despite the IMF’s cautionary tone, conclusions were welcomed by the crypto community.

And in this week’s podcast, Spencer Bogart, a partner at Blockchain Capital, to learn more about the firm’s investment theses and history.

Enjoy!