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<title>Exploring Monad's Early DeFi Ecosystem</title>
<description>Slowly but surely, we are inching closer toward one of the most anticipated launches of this cycle — Monad.The parallelized, EVM-compatible L1, which boasts $225M in funding from Coinbase, Electric Capital, and Paradigm, has been in testnet since March. The chain has already reached 10,000 transactions per second, an achievement that's led to hype around the chain's potential to supercharge DeFi. With the chain continuing to grow mindshare, more teams are building on it, providing us with an early sense of how Monad’s DeFi landscape will take shape. Let's dig into a few of the hyped, early projects 👇🍬 TayaSwapWebsite | TwitterTayaSwap is a DeFi Hub for Monad, which aims to bring established features like Concentrated Liquidity Pools and Dynamic Liquidity Pools to the ecosystem and make trading customizable with its Dapp as a Service (DaaS) platform.Concentrated Liquidity Pools lets liquidity providers focus assets in specific price ranges, boosting capital efficiency, further enhanced by Monad’s high throughput and low transaction costs. On the other hand, Dynamic Liquidity Pools automatically adjust positions based on market conditions, reducing the need for manual management and keeping liquidity optimized during price fluctuations.&nbsp;Together, these lay a bedrock for Monad’s DeFi ecosystem, which Tayaswap looks to expand on through its DaaS platform —&nbsp; a no-code terminal for designing custom dapps. Anyone can create and deploy dapps with custom liquidity pools, trading pairs, and fee structures. 🪨 KintsuWebsite | TwitterKintsu is a liquid staking protocol set to launch on Monad. The team aims to ensure that liquid staking is prioritized early on in Monad’s history.&nbsp;The team argues that liquid staking not only boosts the network's security by incentivizing staking participation but also serves as a critical catalyst for the growth of DeFi on Monad. New L1s like Monad may face a cold start problem, where liquidity is initially scarce, and natively staked gas tokens are locked and thus can't contribute to an early, vibrant DeFi ecosystem. Kintsu enhances Monad's security and liquidity by integrating liquid staking from the get-go, an effort the team believes is setting the network up for success.&nbsp;🍀 KuruWebsite | TwitterKuru is a Monad DEX that leverages a Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) instead of the widely used Automated Market Makers (AMMs) to provide tighter spreads.&nbsp;This model is closer to traditional market systems on centralized exchanges and allows market makers to offer better prices to users. Kuru aims to replace AMMs entirely, supporting a variety of assets and simplifying the process of providing liquidity, ensuring that even less experienced market makers can participate effectively without active position management, unlike AMMs.Beyond championing the CLOB, Kuru aims to streamline the user experience by integrating discovery, research, and trading into a single interface. ⚙️ aPrioriWebsite | TwitteraPriori is another upcoming liquid staking protocol for Monad that increases staking rewards with MEV —&nbsp;the additional profits miners or validators can earn by determining the order of transactions in a block.&nbsp;aPriori introduces a specialized MEV infrastructure explicitly designed for Monad. It optimizes how Monad handles transactions, allowing the protocol to make informed guesses about the best way to organize transactions and generate additional value that aPriori can use to increase staking rewards. aPriori uses these profits to enhance staking yields.By aiming to increase staking participation through higher yields, aPriori may further strengthen Monad’s overall security. Higher staking rates contribute to a more robust network consensus, ensuring the long-term resilience and security of the network.➡️ More on the WayWith Kuru, TayaSwap, Kintsu, and aPriori helping lead the way, Monad is showing early signs it is already attracting a diverse array of projects to its budding DeFi ecosystem.These early movers highlight the potential of Monad’s speed and transaction cost to offer highly efficient DeFi products, from Kuru’s CLOB-based DEX to TayaSwap’s advanced liquidity pools and DApp creation tools, and from Kintsu’s liquid staking to aPriori’s MEV optimization. As anticipation builds for Monad’s mainnet, many other EVM-based protocols, like Curvance and Nostra, are also preparing to deploy on the chain, suggesting that this new L1 could have some promising early protocols aboard at launch to bring in new users. </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/exploring-monads-early-defi-ecosystem</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>Bitcoin L2 Stacks Activates Nakamoto Upgrade</title>
<description>Bitcoin L2 Stacks is activating its long-awaited Nakamoto upgrade after months of delay.What’s the Scoop?Performance Benefits: While Bitcoin’s 10-minute block times had previously imposed long wait times for Stacks transactions, the Nakamoto upgrade will allow transactions to be confirmed inside of a given block, increasing Stacks block production by 120 times to reduce transaction wait times from many minutes to seconds.Rollout Schedule: Today marks the commencement of the Nakamoto Activation Sequence, and Stacks node operators will have one Stacking cycle (roughly two weeks) to implement the upgrade, after which a final hard fork will be selected and the Nakamoto consensus rules will come into effect.Pegged Stable: Beyond increasing transaction speeds, the Nakamoto upgrade also creates sBTC. This decentralized pegged representation of BTC issued will be issued by the Stacks blockchain and can be used to pay for gas on Stacks or transfer BTC between the Bitcoin and Stacks networks.Bankless Take:Nakamoto will boost transaction speeds and transform Stacks into an actually usable L2, and it is imperative that this upgrade attracts new users and their capital to the ecosystem. Despite the vast improvements promised by Stacks technological upgrade, token price tumbled today alongside broader crypto markets, meanwhile, STX has collapsed 60% off its early-April highs from when it was identified as a BTC beta play coming into the Halving.Nakamoto Activation Window Begins 🟧Today marks the beginning of a sequence to safely bring the Nakamoto upgrade and its fast blocks and Bitcoin finality to the Stacks layer!Celebrate with 21 days of events, big news, collaborations, giveaways, and more. 🧡More 🧵 1/4 pic.twitter.com/tTwJ9Glxv5— stacks.btc (@Stacks) August 28, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/bitcoin-l2-stacks-activates-nakamoto-upgrade</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>OpenSea Receives Wells Notice from SEC</title>
<description>OpenSea has received a Wells Notice from the SEC, signaling potential legal action that classifies NFTs as securities.What's the scoop?OpenSea’s Response: Devin Finzer, OpenSea’s CEO, expressed shock at the SEC's move, highlighting the threat this poses to creatives overall. He emphasized OpenSea's commitment to defending not just the platform but the broader NFT ecosystem. "We're shocked the SEC would make such a sweeping move against creators and artists. But we're ready to stand up and fight," Finzer declared.Legal and Financial Support: In response, OpenSea has pledged $5M to assist NFT creators and developers who might face similar legal challenges, aiming to protect the industry's grassroots from regulatory overreach.Bankless Take:The SEC's Wells Notice to OpenSea marks a pivotal moment for the NFT sector, which has seen legal action heat up over the past month with companies like DraftKings discontinuing their NFT marketplace over securities fears, while NFT artists themselves have begun taking aim at the SEC with their own suits. Given the range of applications for NFTs, devising proper legal classifications for them will prove difficult. Overall, this suit seems malicious through its targeting of a marketplace rather than specific NFTs that may fit the definition of securities.OpenSea has received a Wells notice from the SEC threatening to sue us because they believe NFTs on our platform are securities.We're shocked the SEC would make such a sweeping move against creators and artists. But we're ready to stand up and fight.Cryptocurrencies have long…— Devin Finzer (dfinzer.eth) (@dfinzer) August 28, 2024
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<link>https://www.bankless.com/opensea-receives-wells-notice-from-sec</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>TON Bounces Back after Memecoin-Led Crash</title>
<description>The TON blockchain faced over six hours of downtime due to overwhelming activity from the new meme coin, DOGS, and a resulting surge in transactions.Update 1:45pm EST: It's down again.What's the scoop?The Downtime Event: TON faced a major outage today due to the DOGS memecoin launch which overwhelmed validators, causing a consensus loss and halting the network. This led to significant disruptions, with major exchanges like Bybit and Binance suspending TON-related transactions due to network instability.Community and Market Reaction: While some expressed disappointment over TON's infrastructure failing under stress, the negligible impact on TON's price showcase that investors still see unrealized value in the chain. The incident sparked discussions on TON's capacity for handling high transaction volumes, especially from viral memecoins like DOGS.Bankless Take:It’s been a rough week for TON, from Durov’s arrest to this recent downtime. While this can be viewed as symptom of success, we have recently talked about the impending need for TON to scale, which this news serves as a testament to. The chain just joins the long list of other chains —&nbsp;Solana, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Base —&nbsp;that have experienced downtime in the past. Looks like @ton_blockchain failed stress test, as infrastructure crashes in DOGS airdrop.Only max of 280 TPS (transactions per second) reached. This is far less than earlier claimed theoretical 55,000 TPS. https://t.co/GrXb8OQWZo pic.twitter.com/mMTELqRnMM— Mikko Ohtamaa (@moo9000) August 26, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/ton-bounces-back-after-memecoin-led-crash</link>
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<pubDate>Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>Can EigenLayer Make Restaking Math Work?</title>
<description>Restaking was all of the rage in early 2024 as airdrop hunters sought profit for the simple task of depositing into EigenLayer, yet the meta stalled out shortly after EigenLayer’s first drop in April, and TVL has failed to grow since – falling 8% in ETH-denominated terms. With no restaking services actually live yet, deposits continue to be incentivized by promised future airdrops. But this paradigm is set to change the moment that the Actively Validated Services (AVSs) that leverage restaked security go live, with their activation bringing real yields to depositors and showcasing where the demand for restaking lies.Today, we’re exploring EigenLayer’s top 5 AVSs by restaked capital to get a sense of just how much revenue they could be expected to produce. 👇🌐 EigenDAWebsite | TwitterETH Restaked: 3.64M ($9.8B)EIGEN Restaked: 71.4M ($247M est.)Over $10B in crypto collateral has been restaked to secure EigenDA (assuming an EIGEN pre-launch price of $3.46 at the time of writing), making it the largest AVS by TVL.EigenDA is the flagship EigenLayer application and is being developed as a proof-of-concept for restaking; it is a data availability network that will let L2s store historical transaction data with restaking operators instead of Ethereum, translating to rollup cost savings.Data availability competitor Celestia stunned crypto investors on its run to a $20B fully-diluted valuation this February, however, the protocol has only earned ~3.5k TIA ($20k at analysis) in payments for data availability since its October 2023 mainnet, making it difficult to envision how EigenDA can yield returns of significance for its $10B+ in restaked capital.🗣️ eOracleWebsite | TwitterETH Restaked: 2.91M ($7.8B)EIGEN Restaked: N/AOracles are a critical component of blockchain infrastructure that enhance onchain programmability by allowing developers to integrate real-world information into smart contracts. One of the most common oracle applications is for lending markets, in which centralized exchange price feeds are ingested and used to inform automated onchain liquidations.eOracle leverages restaking to enhance the capital efficiency of oracle operation and creates a competitive oracle marketplace where anyone can independently provide or consume data.Competitive oracle network Chainlink makes 98% of its revenues off price feed, and while this line item has tapered significantly since June, the protocol earned $36.7M from price feeds during the first six months of 2024, equating to annualized returns of just under 1% for eOracle restakers in the unlikely event it can steal the entirety of Chainlink’s market share.👀 Witness ChainWebsite | TwitterETH Restaked: 2.60M ($7.0B)EIGEN Restaked: N/AWitness Chain positions itself as the “EigenLayer AVS for DePIN coordination.” It is a system that enables off-chain DePIN networks to convert their physical attributes (i.e., location and compute capacity) into verifiable onchain proofs.By maintaining a repository of physical information, Witness Chain hopes to empower DePIN projects to connect with each other, thereby creating an “end-to-end supply chain of decentralized infrastructure.”Although potential revenues for the network promising to revolutionize decentralized infrastructure sharing could certainly be enormous, the broader decentralized infrastructure sector has achieved limited adoption in comparison to centralized alternatives. As DePIN largely remains a proof-of-concept, the potential yield Witness Chain can generate remains a mystery.⏩ Hyperlane AVSWebsite | TwitterETH Restaked: 2.32M ($6.3B)EIGEN Restaked: N/AHyperlane is a permissionless interoperability layer, or bridge, enabling smart contracts to transmit arbitrary information across different blockchains. The protocol is currently deployed on over 35 chains, including EVM, Cosmos, and Sealevel.Developers can tailor Hyperlane’s security to meet their specific needs by selecting their validator set, setting rate limits, and adjusting the stake securing their application using programmable Interchain Security Modules (ISMs).On a year-to-date basis, the Across Network has grossed $5.43M in fees from its bridging services; this would correspond to an annualized yield of 0.1% for Hyperlane AVS restakers, given the current amount of ETH restaked.🧾 Lagrange ZK Prover NetworkWebsite | TwitterETH Restaked: 2.27M ($6.1B)EIGEN Restaked: N/AThe Lagrange ZK Prover Network generates ZK proofs from arbitrary blockchain data sets and stores packages with a decentralized network of “Gateway” nodes, which transmit requested information to provers for translation into readable data. The network can process smart contract information on any EVM-based chain and answer queries about the contracts on another chain without the need for a third-party bridging solution.When utilized in combination with the Lagrange State Committee, a separate EigenLayer AVS secured by 2.02M restaked ETH ($5.5B), Lagrange can provide fast confirmations for optimistic rollups, enabling them to work around standard 7-day fraud challenge periods during normal operations to eliminate cross-chain bridging latency.Should Lagrange become the de facto interchain communication standard in a multichain future, its immense utilization could churn out astronomical profits for restakers. The protocol must first gain adoption, however, and will be forced to compete against established bridging solutions and upcoming alternatives like the Polygon AggLayer to achieve it.Restaking SustainabilityRestaking is about more than the yield potential of any one platform, but in order for EigenLayer to succeed, its underlying AVSs will need to win big, too.While expected revenues from AVSs in isolation may appear inadequate to satisfy existing deposits, optional pooled restaking enables operators to simultaneously secure multiple AVSs with the same capital, a cornerstone feature of EigenLayer that would create unprecedented capital efficiency in crypto-economic security.Beyond this real yield, yes, restaked depositors will be compensated with native tokens, though the values of these inflationary incentives and the broader EigenLayer ecosystem will again be wholly reliant on the adoption of the underlying AVSs over the long run.We're still in the early innings of restaking, and while competing services like Symbiotic are attracting deposits in a battle for restaking supremacy, there are still plenty of questions about the long-term sustainability of the sector and its current kingpin. </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/eigenlayers-challenging-road-ahead</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>Vitalik Weighs in on DeFi's Value</title>
<description>Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin addressed recent speculation on Twitter regarding his and the Ethereum Foundation’s stance on DeFi, emphasizing his support for DeFi with a focus on long-term sustainability.What's the scoop?In his comments, Vitalik expressed enthusiasm for DeFi apps that are both useful in a sustainable way and that adhere to core principles like permissionlessness and decentralization. He praised decentralized exchanges, decentralized stablecoins like RAI, and prediction markets like Polymarket.On the other hand, he said he didn’t respect 'unsustainable' DeFi practices, such as the 2021 liquidity farming craze, which he viewed as temporary and lacking in long-term viability.Vitalik concluded by highlighting the importance of decentralized technologies in other areas, such as messaging, identity systems, and social media, and the role that DeFi can play in combating centralization across these other sectors.Bankless take:Vitalik’s comments reaffirm his commitment to a sustainable DeFi ecosystem that aligns with Ethereum’s core values. His insights also serve as a reminder that while DeFi is crucial, the broader crypto space must additionally focus on other areas where decentralization can counter the growing centralization of power in technology and society. Still, his answer may not satisfy all critics who believe the EF needs to take a more active role in supporting the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem.The kinds of applications that I want to see are applications that are (i) useful in a sustainable way, and (ii) don't sacrifice on the principles (permissionlessness, decentralization, etc)I think DEXes are great, and I use them every week.I think decentralized stablecoins…— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 25, 2024
Sadly have the feeling that’s a vision stuck in 2021.@aave LM allowed to create what is the best example of a well functioning DAO by distributing the governance rights.We have incentives but they all come from the actual economic activity of the protocol.DeFi in 2024 is…— Marc “Billy” Zeller 👻 🦇🔊 (@lemiscate) August 25, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/vitaliks-thoughts-on-defi</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<title>Robinhood Brings Solana Support to its Wallet</title>
<description>Robinhood now supports certain types of Solana transactions in its Web3 wallet.What’s the Scoop?New Network: The Robinhood Wallet has added token swap and send/receive functionality for Solana native tokens, complementing existing support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, Base, and Dogecoin transactions.No SOL: Despite Robinhood’s willingness to offer Solana support in its wallet and ongoing acceptance of Solana-native USDC transfers to the exchange, SOL remains delisted for the exchange’s American users.Bankless Take:While Robinhood unexpectedly curtailed Solana trading support in June 2023 after the SEC sent it a legal complaint alleging that SOL is a security, the firm is doubling down on efforts to provide onchain functionality for the network, potentially indicating that it perceives a growth opportunity in the ecosystem.Unfortunately, SOL is likely to remain delisted from the Robinhood exchange for the foreseeable future, considering that recent reporting indicates the SEC denied pending spot SOL ETF applications on the grounds that it still believes the underlying token is a digital asset security.Super excited to announce that the Solana network is now live on Robinhood Wallet!Starting today, you can self-custody @solana tokens and send + receive over the Solana blockchain.— Johann Kerbrat (@JohannKerbrat) August 27, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/robinhood-brings-solana-support-to-its-wallet</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>MakerDAO Rebrands to Sky</title>
<description>The MakerDAO “Endgame” is coming to life with its transition to Sky.What’s the Scoop?Awaited Upgrade: MakerDAO had been teasing a major protocol overhaul for months, and today, it presented Sky, the culmination of more than two years of meticulous work by the ecosystem.New Tokens: The launch of Sky introduces two “new” tokens. Alongside MKR, the rejuvenated protocol will be governed by the SKY token, which is convertible with MKR at a 24,000:1 ratio. Additionally, Sky introduces USDS to replace yield-bearing sDAI, which remains redeemable for DAI.Inflationary Incentives: SKY is set to inflate by 600M tokens per year – representing a 2.5% increase to the current circulating supply. These emissions will be utilized to reward USDS stakers on the Sky protocol, and users who sign up with sky.money before September 18 can double their SKY rewards during their first month of staking.&nbsp;Spark Airdrop: Maker’s Spark lending market subDAO (now termed a “Star”) will airdrop 66.66M SPK to participants once the token goes live after September 18. Annual subsidies of 1B SPK will be distributed over the following four years to incentivize USDS and Maker token activation programs.Skylink: Ethereum and its major L2s will receive “Skylink” deployments following the deployment of sealed activation, providing native access to Sky ecosystem assets.Bankless Take:Although immense planning appears to have gone into the rollout of Sky, MKR price barely budged on the announcement, gaining a negligible 4.5% and failing to retrace its weekend slide. Core alterations to Maker revolve around the rebrand and inflationary token incentives, and while such changes will likely catalyze renewed short-term excitement for the protocol, it remains to be seen whether they can result in sustained benefits.Sky is here. The best and easiest place to get rewarded for saving without giving up control.Discover the upgraded tokens, new features, and boosted Sky Token Rewards for early sign-ups. Follow this thread for the latest news and updates about SkyLaunch. pic.twitter.com/Qc25KRPzR8— Sky (@SkyEcosystem) August 27, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/makerdao-rebrands-sky</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>CryptoPunks 2024: Taking the Pulse of Ethereum’s Most Iconic NFTs</title>
<description>CryptoPunks are Ethereum’s most historic and iconic digital collectibles.&nbsp;Released quietly and with little fanfare in 2017, they remained relatively obscure until their explosive rise in 2021. This journey from obscurity to fame is arguably the NFT scene’s most insane "rags to riches" story.With over $2.87 billion in all-time sales volume and an $800 million market cap today, the CryptoPunks remain a dominant force. They’re also part of a small club of projects whose floor prices have reached +100 ETH at their peaks.&nbsp;However, while the ‘Punks floor has climbed 50% to 29 ETH over the past few weeks, this price is still a far cry from the 113 ETH all-time high that the collection notched in Oct. 2021 at the height of the previous NFT bull run.&nbsp;The grand question on many NFT aficionados minds, then, is can the ‘Punks return to their former glory? Can their floor price reach +100 ETH once more?I think the answers to these questions are yes and yes. And that’s because, in my opinion, the collection continues to rank very well across the 10 main criteria I use when analyzing digital collectibles. Here’s what I mean:CryptoPunks - August 2024&nbsp;🧑🎨️ Creator reputation - 9/10🎨 Aesthetic value - 9/10🔩 Technical quality - 10/10🎭 Cultural impact - 10/10👥 Community - 7/10🪄 Usefulness - 7/10🙊 Project management - 7/10🪙 Market activity - 10/10👄 Hype - 7/10🔮 Future prospects - 10/10My overall score: 86/100That said, let’s dig into each of these criteria to get the full picture of why I’m bullish on the CryptoPunks now and long-term.Creator Reputation - 9/10CryptoPunks were created by Larva Labs, founded by Matt Hall and John Watkinson, who are now considered pioneers in the NFT space. They released the collection as a one-off experiment and afterwards were hands-off, which helped the project to take on a life of its own. This work inspired Ethereum’s ERC-721 NFT standard and the generative 10k collection meta, both of which have been widely adopted ever since. As such, Larva Labs are legends here, and CryptoPunks are their most popular creations.&nbsp;Aesthetic Value - 9/10Wrapped in nostalgia, the 24x24 pixel art style of CryptoPunks has become iconic. While simple, the ‘Punks distinct visual identity has stood the test of time and become instantly recognizable, even outside the crypto community. The limited palette and variety of attributes contribute to their lasting charm and collectability.Technical Quality - 10/10We’ve already mentioned how CryptoPunks helped inspire the ERC-721 standard. But did you know the original ‘Punks smart contract also innovated the “hashed onchain” storage technique, where the composite images of the collection were stored in a cryptographic hash on Ethereum? Later, Larva Labs moved the entire collection completely onchain by storing every single ‘Punks image directly on Ethereum, too. The recent introduction of the CryptoPunks721 wrapper contract also poses new composability possibilities going forward, so there’s a lot to admire here.Cultural Impact - 10/10As far as NFTs go, CryptoPunks have had an enormous cultural impact, both within and beyond crypto. Inside the space, they’ve inspired hundreds of derivative projects—technically and aesthetically—from conceptual art collections like Wiiides to newer sillier drops like PNUKS. And in the mainstream, they’ve been displayed in major art galleries, sold at the world’s biggest art auction houses, and featured in popular media outlets around the world. This legacy and inertia here positions the CryptoPunks to have growing cultural significance in the years ahead.&nbsp;Community - 7/10The 2019-2021 era of the CryptoPunks Discord was regarded as a golden time for the ‘Punks community, when it was still tight-knit and a watering hole for some of the best minds in crypto. Admittedly, things have died down since then, but it remains true that some of the best people here are ‘Punks holders. The potential of this community is still significant accordingly.&nbsp;Usefulness - 7/10The CryptoPunks license grants holders the right to make derivative works of their ‘Punks. That’s interesting, but it’s also something many holders likely will never explore. Where ‘Punks currently offer the most direct utility is in being one of the premier and most desirable collateral assets in the NFTfi ecosystem. Whether you’re looking to borrow or lend, you won’t struggle to find options among platforms like Blur, GONDI, and NFTfi.com.Project Management - 7/10Yuga Labs, the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, acquired the CryptoPunks IP from Larva Labs in 2022. It was a controversial move that some saw as a threat to the CryptoPunks legacy. And while Yuga has had a couple of small fumbles here since then, mainly with regard to comms, they’ve generally handled the transition smoothly and have shown a commitment to preserving the legacy of the ‘Punks. Where they’ve shined is adding value at the edges, like supporting museum exhibitions and innovating the CryptoPunks721 wrapper. I’m optimistic on the stewardship if we continue to get more of the same.&nbsp;Market Activity - 10/10The CryptoPunks are a cornerstone of the contemporary NFT market, with their trading volume stats consistently at the top or near the top of all NFT collections. The demand remains strong. And with well over 1,000 ‘Punks currently available for sale, buyers have plenty of options. Let’s just say that if you’re in the market for buying or selling a ‘Punk, you won’t be facing a major struggle.&nbsp;Hype - 7/10CryptoPunks launched in 2017, and Yuga Labs is steering things in a hands-off fashion these days. That said, obviously the hype level of ‘Punks is more subdued compared to newer, more actively marketed projects. But ‘Punks don’t need to be actively marketed, they simply need to exist, as they’re already among the most coveted networked goods in the entire world. The hype now is mostly intrinsic then, it’s the aura that comes from ‘Punks being as special and historic and ownable as they are. The CryptoPunks Twitter account might not be posting roadmap updates every day, but that won’t stop the ‘Punks from proceeding on as gravity wells of intrigue.&nbsp;Future Prospects - 10/10When you consider all the criteria above, the future prospects of CryptoPunks looks very bright—arguably brighter than the prospects of any other NFT collection that exists today. It’s just that no other NFT project rates as well across all these pillars right now. Probably the project that comes the closest is the Nouns, and it’s obviously weaker than the ‘Punks in certain areas like “Market Activity” and “Hype.” This dominance stems from the OG collection’s iconicness, its special rise, and how its characters are artworks, digital collectibles, historical artifacts, and financial collateral all wrapped up in one. As the NFT space continues to mature, the ‘Punks are accordingly well-positioned to see their value and cultural significance reach new heights once more.&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/cryptopunks-2024-ethereum-analysis</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<title>Solana's Polymarket Challenger</title>
<description>Everyone is taking a closer look at decentralized predictions markets this year thanks to the breakout success of Polymarket. And while Polymarket is far and away the leader of the sector, with monthly volume, active users, and open interest stats currently near all-time highs amid 2024 presidential election excitement, there are other players to watch too.&nbsp;If you’re a Solana user, then you ought to check out BET!Last week, the popular Solana decentralized exchange Drift announced BET, for “Bullish on Everything,” a capital-efficient prediction market built atop the Drift Protocol.&nbsp;The grand vision? Offer a prediction marketplace where users can tap into Solana’s signature speed and low costs while also earning yield on their underlying positions before event outcomes.&nbsp;Also, BET goes wide on token support. While Polymarket is centered around USDC trading, BET supports trading with over 30 different cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins and Solana liquid staking tokens (LSTs). Out of the gate, BET has launched a handful of markets centered around the upcoming U.S. Elections, e.g., Will Kamala Harris win the popular vote in 2024? Going forward, Drift will add more market categories, like sports, and shift toward fully permissionless markets.All that said, if you’re interested in trying these first markets for yourself, head over to app.drift.trade/bet and connect your Solana wallet. At this point, you will need to fund and create an account. Select your preferred deposit approach and approve the account creation, which costs ~0.03 SOL.&nbsp;After this, you can click into one of the available markets on the BET platform to dive in. First things first, note the market’s “Resolves on” date so you know how long it will run for. Then head over to the “Market” tab and select “BET YES” or “BET NO” depending on your prediction.&nbsp;Now, it’d be time to size your trade. In the trading interface, input the amount of yes or no shares you want to acquire using the “Cost per share” metric to help you decide. Once this is done, the interface will show you additional info, like your potential profit and how much FUEL you stand to earn.&nbsp;If everything looks good, press the final “BET” button and complete the purchase transaction with your wallet. Boom, that’s all it takes!With your position locked in, you can use the “Positions” tab beneath the market interface to monitor your bet’s performance or close it early ahead of its resolution date. This is where you’ll also find a “Balances” tab for depositing, withdrawing, swapping, or transferring your assets as needed.&nbsp;There are some more advanced things you can do with BET, like making limit orders, and there are some additional services you might be interested in here, like staking DRIFT to earn extra FUEL. But the walkthrough above shows that even just the basics here are straightforward and compelling.&nbsp;Of course, Polymarket has already laid out the blueprint for how an onchain prediction marketplace can achieve major popularity; the question is now whether BET can meet (or surpass) Polymarket's success by following a similar playbook with its own flourishes. </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/solanas-polymarket-challenger</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 25 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<title>Abra Settles with SEC Over 'Auto-Magic' Crypto Earn Program</title>
<description>Crypto platform Abra has yet again run afoul of American regulators for offering access to unregistered financial instruments.What’s the Scoop?SEC Settlement: Abra has settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over Abra Earn, a lending product which promised users “auto-magic” returns on their crypto assets. Deposits into the program were subsequently deployed by the platform to generate income and fund interest payments.Warning Shot: The settlement requires Abra to cease and desist from the activities in question and pay court-mandated civil penalties. It also sends a clear warning sign to groups offering crypto-based earn products to Americans without registering them as securities.Prior Settlements: Abra has already settled with 25 states for operating without a license and agreed to return more than $82M to U.S. customers. Additionally, the firm paid $150k to both the SEC and CFTC in 2020 to resolve an investigation into its unregistered swap products.Bankless Take:Compared to the often contentious regulatory enforcement actions levied against the crypto industry, Abra's case is more straightforward, involving a centralized entity that managed user funds to generate profit while failing to register the offering as a security with the SEC.SEC complaint and settlement re Abra Earn. "AUTO-MAGICALLY". Are you serious? "In or around July 2020, Abra began to offer and sell Abra Earn in the United States. Abra Earn allowed U.S. investors to tender their crypto assets to Abra in exchange for Abra’s promise to pay… pic.twitter.com/1j2r6eV4W1— Bill Hughes : wchughes.eth 🦊 (@BillHughesDC) August 26, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/abra-settles-with-sec-over-auto-magic-crypto-earn-program</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 25 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>Ethereum Foundation Transaction Spurs Calls for More Transparency</title>
<description>The Ethereum Foundation (EF) recently transferred 35,000 ETH, or ~$95 million, to Kraken, sparking calls within the Ethereum community for more transparency from the organization.What's the scoop?Aya Miyaguchi, Executive Director of the EF, sought to clarify on X that the transaction was part of the EF’s regular treasury management activities. The funds are earmarked for grants, salaries, and other expenses that require fiat currency.Miyaguchi noted EF’s budget is roughly $100 million annually, with much of it allocated to behind-the-scenes support for the Ethereum ecosystem, including legal protection, infrastructure, and research collaborations. Miyaguchi also noted that regulatory issues had delayed the transaction, preventing the EF from sharing their plans in advance.Community pushback largely focused on frustration around how the EF has remained far too reactionary in its external communications, with some noting that the group's recent scandals could have been avoided by more timely, transparent disclosures.Bankless take:While the EF’s $100 million budget covers essential and often unseen activities that support the Ethereum network, the community’s response underscores a growing demand for more regular financial disclosures. The EF operates with a philosophy of “subtraction,” focusing on coordination rather than taking the spotlight. However, as the network matures and the stakes grow higher, there’s a clear need for the EF to balance its discretion with the community’s expectations for transparency. More frequent and detailed financial reports would be a definite step in that direction.It's a big issue that it takes people raising a fuss on Twitter to ever get ANY info out like this. Seriously, how hard is it release a quarterly report with financials and basic updates? Expenses, expected upcoming sales, how/where the money is being spent, team size and…— eric.eth (@econoar) August 24, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/ethereum-foundation-transparency</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 25 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<title>Telegram CEO Pavel Durov Arrested</title>
<description>Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France this weekend; the billionaire CEO's arrest triggered wide rebuke across crypto.What’s the Scoop?Airport Arrest: Pavel Durov, the 39-year old Russian-born billionaire founder behind social messaging platform Telegram, was apprehended by French authorities on Saturday after landing at Le Bourget airport outside of Paris by national cyber crime and fraud officers for failing to curb criminal activities on Telegram.TON Tumbles: While Telegram is officially distinct from the decentralized TON blockchain, its token cratered 20% on news of the arrest, an unsurprising result considering that TON’s narrative strength has been largely driven by promised synergies with Telegram.Oversight Unknowns: Telegram group messages cannot be encrypted and individual user messages are not encrypted by default, meaning the company has visibility into the vast majority of user conversations occurring on its platform.Bankless Take:Europe's increasingly hostile regulatory regime took a major leap with this weekend's arrest. This saga spawns more concerns about precedents that could result in the imprisonment of additional software developers, but it is important to note that Telegram’s lack of default encryption likely exposed the firm and its founder to added regulatory scrutiny.They started arresting crypto developers a couple years ago. Now they’ve moved to messenger app developers.It won’t stop here.If we don’t preserve free speech as code we’ll lose our democracies.Europe is falling.The U.S. is hanging by a thread. pic.twitter.com/iHad8qX4gG— RYAN SΞAN ADAMS - rsa.eth 🦄 (@RyanSAdams) August 25, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-arrested</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 25 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>Bitcoin's Presidential Shakeup</title>
<description>1️⃣ Presidential ShakeupLong-time BTC bull Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘paused’ his White House bid Friday and detailed that he was endorsing Donald Trump. Kennedy announced that he would be removing his name from the ballots in swing states and encouraged supporters there to support Trump over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.RFK Jr. made a splash in crypto circles long before Trump signaled a shift in support. Kennedy, whose bid never appeared anything beyond a long-shot, was still polling very well for a third-party candidate, and his dropping out from the race could change the equation in razor-thin swing state polling.RFK Jr. put #Bitcoin on the presidential ticket when he announced his run. Today's endorsement of the Trump campaign brings us one step closer to a bright orange future 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/VnUpRcEiDt— The Bitcoin Conference (@TheBitcoinConf) August 23, 2024
2️⃣ Crypto Awaits Trump’s DeFi PlayWhile political eyes fell on Chicago, where the Democratic National Convention was minting Harris as the party’s nominee, Trump was posting through the week on his Truth Social account, at one point highlighting a crypto project his sons Eric and Donald Jr. are behind — The Defiant Ones.“For too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites.” Trump writes in the message, “It's time we take a stand—together. #BeDefiant.”Details are limited on what exactly the platform has planned, though it's rumored to be a “digital real estate” play, though whether it leans towards metaverse land parcels or RWAs is unknown.JUST IN: Former President Donald Trump has promoted his family’s upcoming cryptocurrency platform called “The DeFiant Ones."A post calls the Telegram group chat “the only official Telegram channel for the Trump DeFi project” which is building “the future of finance.”— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) August 22, 2024
3️⃣ Rate Cuts ComingCrypto ended the week breaking out of its consistent $60K range, and it owed the pump to comments made by Fed chair Jerome Powell, which strongly hinted at near-term rate cuts. At this point, traders are feeling near-certain on September cuts, but are less sure about the scale and whether it will be a 0.50% or 0.25% cut.BREAKING: Jerome Powell says “the time has come” for interest rate cuts pic.twitter.com/1vRGTyX5UU— Exec Sum (@exec_sum) August 23, 2024
4️⃣ Judge Doesn’t Toss Kraken SuitIn a Friday ruling, a federal judge refused to dismiss the SEC’s lawsuit against the Kraken crypto exchange. Kraken had argued that the SEC had failed to make a convincing argument that transactions on the platform constituted investment contracts, but it appears the judge, at least in part, disagreed.&nbsp;Today, the Federal Court for the Northern District of California ruled, as matter of law, that none of the tokens trading on Kraken are securities. This is a significant win for Kraken, for the principle of clarity and for crypto users everywhere. It also confirms Kraken’s…— Marco Santori (@msantoriESQ) August 23, 2024
5️⃣ Mango Markets DAO SettlementThe community behind Solana-based exchange Mango Markets has voted to propose a settlement with the SEC over alleged securities violations. As part of the settlement offer, the DAO would pay a $223K fine, destroy its MNGO holdings, and delist the token.The crypto token holders that manage Mango Markets voted to approve a settlement with the SEC even though the agency hasn’t charged the DeFi platform with any wrongdoing https://t.co/uSvRazy72r— Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) August 20, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/bitcoins-presidential-shakeup</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 22 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Bankless</author>
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<item>
<title>WazirX Starts Rupee Withdrawals Following Major Hack</title>
<description>Hacked Indian crypto exchange WazirX is commencing Rupee withdrawals, but it is unlikely any of the exchange’s depositors will be satisfied with the unwind plan.What’s the Scoop?Disastrous Hack: Just over one month ago, the WazirX exchange was hacked for $230M of customer crypto deposits – 45% of its reserves according to a June asset attestation – in an attack attributed to North Korean actors.Repayment Plan: Crypto withdrawals cannot be processed at this time due to the significant loss of tokens, and Indian Rupee holders can only withdraw 66% of their assets at this time. The remaining 34% of cash deposits are frozen pending legal investigation.Bankless Take:Holding your crypto with an exchange places the burden of custody on a third party, and key infrastructure mismanagement can result in the disastrous or total loss of crypto deposits. It’s best to treat centralized exchanges like public restrooms: get in, do your business, and get out.📢 Important Announcement About INR Withdrawals and Crypto Next StepsThe last month has been a difficult time for users of the WazirX platform due to the cyberattack on 18 July 2024 and the subsequent suspension of withdrawals and trading to mitigate impact to the platform. We… pic.twitter.com/XdAr3V3TOp— WazirX: India Ka Bitcoin Exchange (@WazirXIndia) August 23, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/wazirx-starts-rupee-withdrawals-following-major-hack</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 22 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>Jerome Powell Gets Ready to Cut Interest Rates</title>
<description>The time has come for rate cuts, according to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.What’s the Scoop?Dovish Developments: Markets rallied as Powell took the stage at Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole Policy Symposium this morning, proclaiming that “the worst of the pandemic-related economic distortions are fading, inflation has declined significantly, [and] the labor market is no longer overheated.”Powell Pivot: Although the Fed has previously been focused on reining in inflation as part of its dual mandate, Chair Powell announced that “the balance of risks has changed” as the upside risks to inflation have diminished while the downside risks to employment have increased.Employment in Focus: Powell indicated he does not welcome a cooling labor market and will do everything possible to maintain its strength to prevent it, but maintained that rising unemployment was due to slowing hiring and increasing labor supply instead of outright layoffs, a welcomed development that does not appear to impose immediate downside economic risks.New Paradigm: For Powell, the future direction for rates is clear and the time has come to adjust monetary policy; he remains optimistic that an appropriate dialing back of policy restraint will enable the economy to get back to 2% inflation while supporting a strong labor market.Bankless Take:Anticipation for Fed rate cuts enabled market participants to shrug off deteriorating economic data throughout 2024, yet not even the strongest confirmation to date for their arrival could prompt the S&amp;P 500 to achieve the 1.15% gain needed to break all-time highs. &nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/jerome-powell-gets-ready-to-cut-interest-rates</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 22 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<item>
<title>Sony Introduces Soneium Ethereum L2</title>
<description>Sony Block Solutions Labs has announced its development of Soneium, an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) network for bringing onchain possibilities into the mainstream.&nbsp; What's the Scoop?Soneium is designed to be a versatile, general-purpose blockchain that will cater to a variety of industries, developers, creators, and communities.The network will initially target crypto enthusiasts, with plans to integrate Sony’s extensive portfolio, including Sony Bank, Sony Music, and Sony Pictures, within the next two years.Soneium will leverage Optimism’s OP Stack for its infrastructure, allowing compatibility with other networks in the Superchain ecosystem like Base and Zora Network.&nbsp;Bankless Take:This news demonstrates how some of the biggest companies in the world are still embracing blockchain applications, e.g. in this case building a custom chain as a Sony hub atop Ethereum. It also demonstrates the appeal of the OP Stack in offering a streamlined way to launch robust, custom L2s without these mainstream enterprises having to start development from scratch. We’ll see what happens from here, but either way, Soneium is now a project to watch in the coming years. </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/sony-introduces-soneium-its-ethereum-l2-network</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 22 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<item>
<title>Getting Started with the Midjourney Web Editor</title>
<description>Midjourney, the popular AI platform for generating art via text prompts, just opened its highly-anticipated web editor to everyone and is offering free trials to test the new tool through the end of the week.&nbsp;Why it mattersvia MidjourneyPreviously, Midjourney was only usable through commands issued to bots in the Midjourney Discord server. For some users, the Discord UX was unfamiliar and daunting.&nbsp;In contrast, the new web editor release offers a streamlined, one-stop hub for easily tapping into Midjourney features, like inpainting (using text prompts to “repaint” parts of an image) and outpainting (generating new imagery beyond an image’s original frame).&nbsp;How to navigate the Midjourney web editor1) ExploreOnce you’ve started a free trial or signed in with an existing account (base plans start at $10 per month), you’ll arrive on the Explore tab of the web editor.This is where you can surf through recent Midjourney creations by other users via filters like “Hot” or “Random” and click into pictures to review their underlying prompts and style parameters. Use the heart button on the right side to like photos and quickly come back to them later.&nbsp;Here, you can also start remixing or building off of images you find by clicking on the “Image,” “Style,” or “Prompt” buttons on the lower right side of the web editor.&nbsp;2) CreateBelow the Explore tab in the web editor, you’ll find the Create hub. Here you can easily create, review, and remix your art.&nbsp;You can use the text bar at the top of the editor to input your desired text prompts, while the center and right side of the Create page displays your previous outputs, prompts, style parameters, and remix options like “Rerun” (run the prompt again to generate 4 new results) and “Use” (this copies parameters to your clipboard for remixing into a new prompt).&nbsp;Of course, you can always just try firing off basic text commands and see what results you get. But if you’re looking to start mastering Midjourney, I recommend familiarizing yourself with the basics of Midjourney’s style parameters. For example, let’s consider this prompt:The initial text “magic wand” text is the visual instructions for the type of scene you want to illustrate“ar” defines the desired aspect ratio“sref” implements style reference codes, of which there are over 4 billion, and each has a unique aesthetic and can be mixed with others&nbsp;“sw” is the style weight, which defines from 0-1000 the strength of stylization of your chosen style references“stylize” defines how closely your outputs will match your prompt artistically“v” defines which version of Midjourney you want to use, with 6.1 being the newest and most optimized model availableThese are not all of the existing parameters, but they demonstrate the kind of flexibility you can enjoy when creating art on Midjourney. Again, you can always just try basic text prompts but the results won’t always be great or what you’re looking for.&nbsp;For instance, using the “magic wand casting a shiny spell on a gold coin” prompt, the image on the left side below was made without any parameters and the image on the right was made with the parameters shown above. The latter approach offers you much more control, e.g. if you’re seeking a hand-painted aesthetic rather than something more photographic like here:3) Organize, Chat, and TasksThe main attractions of the Midjourney web editor are the Explore and Create hubs, but there are a few other helpful resources. First is the Organize tab, where you can review, filter, and edit all your recent creations or organize them into custom folders. This area is useful if you want to readily archive and keep track of specific prompting approaches you’ve previously used or seen.&nbsp;Then there is the Chat tab, which is essentially a slick frontend for surfing some of the Midjourney Discord’s most popular prompting rooms. Lastly, the Tasks center hosts a series of simple quests you can undertake to help Midjourney, like taking surveys or ranking images. Some of these quests offer “fast hours” as rewards, granting you the ability to generate outputs faster.&nbsp;The bottom lineThanks to AI, the ability to turn ideas into images quickly is a new sort of superpower. As such, Midjourney’s new web editor is notable because it makes this superpower that much easier to wield.&nbsp;If you haven’t tried Midjourney before, I recommend giving it a spin while the limited-time free trials are live or even just trying out the base plan for a month. Whether you’re an artist exploring AI or just keen on making some silly social media content, this web editor is now one of the best ways to do so! </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/midjourney-web-editor-guide</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<title>Grayscale Unveils AVAX Trust</title>
<description>Crypto’s oldest asset manager is launching a new investment vehicle that will offer certain individuals exposure to Avalanche.What’s the Scoop?New Trust: The Grayscale Avalanche Trust will offer AVAX exposure to qualified investors under its private placement model.Restricted Access: Like many other Grayscale products, the AVAX fund will only be available via private placement, meaning that redemptions are unavailable, which could cause the product to trade at extreme discounts and premiums, and only accredited investors can purchase shares, subject to a one-year mandatory holding period. Bankless Take:While the pathway towards spot AVAX ETFs was illuminated by a Coinbase Derivatives filing in late June to list AVAX futures, the presence of private placement Grayscale Trusts with loose registration criterias yields zero bearing on the future likelihood of spot ETF approval for any digital asset.We are proud to announce the creation of a new single-asset crypto investment fund, available through private placement: Grayscale Avalanche Trust $AVAX.Available to eligible accredited investors.Read the press release: https://t.co/XwKfjPD9Tw pic.twitter.com/HdzlNfwkQ8— Grayscale (@Grayscale) August 22, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/grayscale-debuts-ava</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>Donald Trump Pitches Sons' 'Digital Real Estate' Project</title>
<description>U.S. Presidential hopeful Donald Trump is publicizing his sons’ upcoming crypto project to followers on his Truth Social social media platform.What’s the Scoop?Digital Real Estate: Limited information is available about the DeFiant project, but in an exclusive interview with the New York Post, Eric Trump stated that it will be an “equitable” digital real estate project offering everyone access to collateral.Ultimate KOL: This morning, Donald Trump posted to Truth Social that “For too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites.” He advised those who want to “take a stand” to join the DeFiant Telegram channel.Devs Cooking: DeFiant’s Telegram contains no additional information on the project and notes that updates and announcements will be shared via the channel in the coming days.Bankless Take:While it would certainly be encouraging for the state of the crypto industry to have the Trump family launch some form of tokenized real estate application, there seems to be an outsized chance this ends up looking like more of a 'metaverse' play than one pushing boundaries on real-world utility. </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/trump-defiant-project</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>Magic Eden Makes $ME Token Announcement</title>
<description>Magic Eden, one of the largest NFT marketplaces by trading volume, has announced its official ecosystem token, $ME.&nbsp;What's the scoop?Rebranded from Non-Fungible DAO and $NFT, the ME Foundation and $ME will serve as central pillars of the Magic Eden ecosystem going forward.&nbsp;The ME Foundation, a non-profit entity, will oversee the governance of $ME and the development of open-source protocols that Magic Eden and potentially other platforms will adopt.As for the $ME token, it has been designed to incentivize users to engage with Magic Eden products across a growing stable of supported blockchains.The specific tokenomics haven’t been announced yet, but $ME will be exclusively claimable through the Magic Eden Wallet, available on both desktop and mobile.&nbsp;Bankless Take:As one of the main tour de force presences in the contemporary NFT space, Magic Eden is positioned to make a big splash with the rollout of $ME. The specifics of the launch time and community governance processes aren’t clear yet, but we should know more soon. Whether the token can truly shake up the decentralized app scene remains to be seen, but if nothing else, Magic Eden is daring to go where one of its biggest competitors—OpenSea—hasn’t yet.&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/magic-eden-token</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<title>Grayscale’s Bull Market Bets</title>
<description>OG crypto asset manager Grayscale has been awfully busy lately. When Grayscale announces a new Trust for a particular asset, the market often reacts with a mix of excitement and skepticism. It's a bit like a double-edged sword: a signal of saturation for some and a beacon of hope for others.Some might interpret the launch as a sign that the market for that asset is reaching saturation or at least limited upside potential in crypto terms. On the one hand, it’s a stamp of approval from a major player in the crypto space. It can lend legitimacy to the asset, potentially attracting institutional investors, and, at the very least, boost media coverage.Grayscale has been adding new investment products at a faster clip, showcasing their conviction that we’re in the middle innings of a crypto bull market fueled by a grand slam of bullish signals: Bitcoin ETF inflows, the long-awaited ETH ETF launch, increasing stablecoin adoption, and steady growth in TVL across DeFi.As a quiet giant in the industry, investors continue to watch what Grayscale is backing and what that says about their impressions of which direction the industry is headed. What assets have caught their attention lately? Let's find out. 👇Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund (FIL, NEAR, RNDR, LPT, TAO)Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund is a first-of-its-kind fund that invests solely in native tokens of decentralized AI protocols. It currently includes Filecoin, Near, Render, Livepeer, and Bittensor.Breakdown of holdings in Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund. Source: GrayscaleGrayscale points out the concerns of a future dominated by centralized AI and the potential of crypto to create a more equitable and transparent ecosystem. They believe that while the crypto x AI sector is early, it holds immense promise. By leveraging the power of crypto, we can build a more equitable, transparent, and trustworthy AI ecosystem.&nbsp;Grayscale Dynamic Income Fund (SOL, CBETH, NEAR, Others)The Grayscale Dynamic Income Fund (GDIF) is designed to capitalize on the growing staking rewards offered by various tokens like SOL, ETH, NEAR, and several others. This fund aims to maximize returns by strategically allocating capital to tokens with attractive staking yields.Grayscale is known for its diversified approach to crypto investing. While they typically diversify across sectors, GDIF marks a new frontier: diversifying across different types of tokens. This offers investors a distinct yield opportunity beyond the potential upside of the underlying tokens.Grayscale |
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<title>Exploring Monad's Early DeFi Ecosystem</title>
<description>Slowly but surely, we are inching closer toward one of the most anticipated launches of this cycle — Monad.The parallelized, EVM-compatible L1, which boasts $225M in funding from Coinbase, Electric Capital, and Paradigm, has been in testnet since March. The chain has already reached 10,000 transactions per second, an achievement that's led to hype around the chain's potential to supercharge DeFi. With the chain continuing to grow mindshare, more teams are building on it, providing us with an early sense of how Monad’s DeFi landscape will take shape. Let's dig into a few of the hyped, early projects 👇🍬 TayaSwapWebsite | TwitterTayaSwap is a DeFi Hub for Monad, which aims to bring established features like Concentrated Liquidity Pools and Dynamic Liquidity Pools to the ecosystem and make trading customizable with its Dapp as a Service (DaaS) platform.Concentrated Liquidity Pools lets liquidity providers focus assets in specific price ranges, boosting capital efficiency, further enhanced by Monad’s high throughput and low transaction costs. On the other hand, Dynamic Liquidity Pools automatically adjust positions based on market conditions, reducing the need for manual management and keeping liquidity optimized during price fluctuations.&nbsp;Together, these lay a bedrock for Monad’s DeFi ecosystem, which Tayaswap looks to expand on through its DaaS platform —&nbsp; a no-code terminal for designing custom dapps. Anyone can create and deploy dapps with custom liquidity pools, trading pairs, and fee structures. 🪨 KintsuWebsite | TwitterKintsu is a liquid staking protocol set to launch on Monad. The team aims to ensure that liquid staking is prioritized early on in Monad’s history.&nbsp;The team argues that liquid staking not only boosts the network's security by incentivizing staking participation but also serves as a critical catalyst for the growth of DeFi on Monad. New L1s like Monad may face a cold start problem, where liquidity is initially scarce, and natively staked gas tokens are locked and thus can't contribute to an early, vibrant DeFi ecosystem. Kintsu enhances Monad's security and liquidity by integrating liquid staking from the get-go, an effort the team believes is setting the network up for success.&nbsp;🍀 KuruWebsite | TwitterKuru is a Monad DEX that leverages a Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) instead of the widely used Automated Market Makers (AMMs) to provide tighter spreads.&nbsp;This model is closer to traditional market systems on centralized exchanges and allows market makers to offer better prices to users. Kuru aims to replace AMMs entirely, supporting a variety of assets and simplifying the process of providing liquidity, ensuring that even less experienced market makers can participate effectively without active position management, unlike AMMs.Beyond championing the CLOB, Kuru aims to streamline the user experience by integrating discovery, research, and trading into a single interface. ⚙️ aPrioriWebsite | TwitteraPriori is another upcoming liquid staking protocol for Monad that increases staking rewards with MEV —&nbsp;the additional profits miners or validators can earn by determining the order of transactions in a block.&nbsp;aPriori introduces a specialized MEV infrastructure explicitly designed for Monad. It optimizes how Monad handles transactions, allowing the protocol to make informed guesses about the best way to organize transactions and generate additional value that aPriori can use to increase staking rewards. aPriori uses these profits to enhance staking yields.By aiming to increase staking participation through higher yields, aPriori may further strengthen Monad’s overall security. Higher staking rates contribute to a more robust network consensus, ensuring the long-term resilience and security of the network.➡️ More on the WayWith Kuru, TayaSwap, Kintsu, and aPriori helping lead the way, Monad is showing early signs it is already attracting a diverse array of projects to its budding DeFi ecosystem.These early movers highlight the potential of Monad’s speed and transaction cost to offer highly efficient DeFi products, from Kuru’s CLOB-based DEX to TayaSwap’s advanced liquidity pools and DApp creation tools, and from Kintsu’s liquid staking to aPriori’s MEV optimization. As anticipation builds for Monad’s mainnet, many other EVM-based protocols, like Curvance and Nostra, are also preparing to deploy on the chain, suggesting that this new L1 could have some promising early protocols aboard at launch to bring in new users. </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/exploring-monads-early-defi-ecosystem</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/exploring-monads-early-defi-ecosystem</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>Bitcoin L2 Stacks Activates Nakamoto Upgrade</title>
<description>Bitcoin L2 Stacks is activating its long-awaited Nakamoto upgrade after months of delay.What’s the Scoop?Performance Benefits: While Bitcoin’s 10-minute block times had previously imposed long wait times for Stacks transactions, the Nakamoto upgrade will allow transactions to be confirmed inside of a given block, increasing Stacks block production by 120 times to reduce transaction wait times from many minutes to seconds.Rollout Schedule: Today marks the commencement of the Nakamoto Activation Sequence, and Stacks node operators will have one Stacking cycle (roughly two weeks) to implement the upgrade, after which a final hard fork will be selected and the Nakamoto consensus rules will come into effect.Pegged Stable: Beyond increasing transaction speeds, the Nakamoto upgrade also creates sBTC. This decentralized pegged representation of BTC issued will be issued by the Stacks blockchain and can be used to pay for gas on Stacks or transfer BTC between the Bitcoin and Stacks networks.Bankless Take:Nakamoto will boost transaction speeds and transform Stacks into an actually usable L2, and it is imperative that this upgrade attracts new users and their capital to the ecosystem. Despite the vast improvements promised by Stacks technological upgrade, token price tumbled today alongside broader crypto markets, meanwhile, STX has collapsed 60% off its early-April highs from when it was identified as a BTC beta play coming into the Halving.Nakamoto Activation Window Begins 🟧Today marks the beginning of a sequence to safely bring the Nakamoto upgrade and its fast blocks and Bitcoin finality to the Stacks layer!Celebrate with 21 days of events, big news, collaborations, giveaways, and more. 🧡More 🧵 1/4 pic.twitter.com/tTwJ9Glxv5— stacks.btc (@Stacks) August 28, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/bitcoin-l2-stacks-activates-nakamoto-upgrade</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/bitcoin-l2-stacks-activates-nakamoto-upgrade</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>OpenSea Receives Wells Notice from SEC</title>
<description>OpenSea has received a Wells Notice from the SEC, signaling potential legal action that classifies NFTs as securities.What's the scoop?OpenSea’s Response: Devin Finzer, OpenSea’s CEO, expressed shock at the SEC's move, highlighting the threat this poses to creatives overall. He emphasized OpenSea's commitment to defending not just the platform but the broader NFT ecosystem. "We're shocked the SEC would make such a sweeping move against creators and artists. But we're ready to stand up and fight," Finzer declared.Legal and Financial Support: In response, OpenSea has pledged $5M to assist NFT creators and developers who might face similar legal challenges, aiming to protect the industry's grassroots from regulatory overreach.Bankless Take:The SEC's Wells Notice to OpenSea marks a pivotal moment for the NFT sector, which has seen legal action heat up over the past month with companies like DraftKings discontinuing their NFT marketplace over securities fears, while NFT artists themselves have begun taking aim at the SEC with their own suits. Given the range of applications for NFTs, devising proper legal classifications for them will prove difficult. Overall, this suit seems malicious through its targeting of a marketplace rather than specific NFTs that may fit the definition of securities.OpenSea has received a Wells notice from the SEC threatening to sue us because they believe NFTs on our platform are securities.We're shocked the SEC would make such a sweeping move against creators and artists. But we're ready to stand up and fight.Cryptocurrencies have long…— Devin Finzer (dfinzer.eth) (@dfinzer) August 28, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/opensea-receives-wells-notice-from-sec</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/opensea-receives-wells-notice-from-sec</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>TON Bounces Back after Memecoin-Led Crash</title>
<description>The TON blockchain faced over six hours of downtime due to overwhelming activity from the new meme coin, DOGS, and a resulting surge in transactions.Update 1:45pm EST: It's down again.What's the scoop?The Downtime Event: TON faced a major outage today due to the DOGS memecoin launch which overwhelmed validators, causing a consensus loss and halting the network. This led to significant disruptions, with major exchanges like Bybit and Binance suspending TON-related transactions due to network instability.Community and Market Reaction: While some expressed disappointment over TON's infrastructure failing under stress, the negligible impact on TON's price showcase that investors still see unrealized value in the chain. The incident sparked discussions on TON's capacity for handling high transaction volumes, especially from viral memecoins like DOGS.Bankless Take:It’s been a rough week for TON, from Durov’s arrest to this recent downtime. While this can be viewed as symptom of success, we have recently talked about the impending need for TON to scale, which this news serves as a testament to. The chain just joins the long list of other chains —&nbsp;Solana, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Base —&nbsp;that have experienced downtime in the past. Looks like @ton_blockchain failed stress test, as infrastructure crashes in DOGS airdrop.Only max of 280 TPS (transactions per second) reached. This is far less than earlier claimed theoretical 55,000 TPS. https://t.co/GrXb8OQWZo pic.twitter.com/mMTELqRnMM— Mikko Ohtamaa (@moo9000) August 26, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/ton-bounces-back-after-memecoin-led-crash</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/ton-bounces-back-after-memecoin-led-crash</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>Can EigenLayer Make Restaking Math Work?</title>
<description>Restaking was all of the rage in early 2024 as airdrop hunters sought profit for the simple task of depositing into EigenLayer, yet the meta stalled out shortly after EigenLayer’s first drop in April, and TVL has failed to grow since – falling 8% in ETH-denominated terms. With no restaking services actually live yet, deposits continue to be incentivized by promised future airdrops. But this paradigm is set to change the moment that the Actively Validated Services (AVSs) that leverage restaked security go live, with their activation bringing real yields to depositors and showcasing where the demand for restaking lies.Today, we’re exploring EigenLayer’s top 5 AVSs by restaked capital to get a sense of just how much revenue they could be expected to produce. 👇🌐 EigenDAWebsite | TwitterETH Restaked: 3.64M ($9.8B)EIGEN Restaked: 71.4M ($247M est.)Over $10B in crypto collateral has been restaked to secure EigenDA (assuming an EIGEN pre-launch price of $3.46 at the time of writing), making it the largest AVS by TVL.EigenDA is the flagship EigenLayer application and is being developed as a proof-of-concept for restaking; it is a data availability network that will let L2s store historical transaction data with restaking operators instead of Ethereum, translating to rollup cost savings.Data availability competitor Celestia stunned crypto investors on its run to a $20B fully-diluted valuation this February, however, the protocol has only earned ~3.5k TIA ($20k at analysis) in payments for data availability since its October 2023 mainnet, making it difficult to envision how EigenDA can yield returns of significance for its $10B+ in restaked capital.🗣️ eOracleWebsite | TwitterETH Restaked: 2.91M ($7.8B)EIGEN Restaked: N/AOracles are a critical component of blockchain infrastructure that enhance onchain programmability by allowing developers to integrate real-world information into smart contracts. One of the most common oracle applications is for lending markets, in which centralized exchange price feeds are ingested and used to inform automated onchain liquidations.eOracle leverages restaking to enhance the capital efficiency of oracle operation and creates a competitive oracle marketplace where anyone can independently provide or consume data.Competitive oracle network Chainlink makes 98% of its revenues off price feed, and while this line item has tapered significantly since June, the protocol earned $36.7M from price feeds during the first six months of 2024, equating to annualized returns of just under 1% for eOracle restakers in the unlikely event it can steal the entirety of Chainlink’s market share.👀 Witness ChainWebsite | TwitterETH Restaked: 2.60M ($7.0B)EIGEN Restaked: N/AWitness Chain positions itself as the “EigenLayer AVS for DePIN coordination.” It is a system that enables off-chain DePIN networks to convert their physical attributes (i.e., location and compute capacity) into verifiable onchain proofs.By maintaining a repository of physical information, Witness Chain hopes to empower DePIN projects to connect with each other, thereby creating an “end-to-end supply chain of decentralized infrastructure.”Although potential revenues for the network promising to revolutionize decentralized infrastructure sharing could certainly be enormous, the broader decentralized infrastructure sector has achieved limited adoption in comparison to centralized alternatives. As DePIN largely remains a proof-of-concept, the potential yield Witness Chain can generate remains a mystery.⏩ Hyperlane AVSWebsite | TwitterETH Restaked: 2.32M ($6.3B)EIGEN Restaked: N/AHyperlane is a permissionless interoperability layer, or bridge, enabling smart contracts to transmit arbitrary information across different blockchains. The protocol is currently deployed on over 35 chains, including EVM, Cosmos, and Sealevel.Developers can tailor Hyperlane’s security to meet their specific needs by selecting their validator set, setting rate limits, and adjusting the stake securing their application using programmable Interchain Security Modules (ISMs).On a year-to-date basis, the Across Network has grossed $5.43M in fees from its bridging services; this would correspond to an annualized yield of 0.1% for Hyperlane AVS restakers, given the current amount of ETH restaked.🧾 Lagrange ZK Prover NetworkWebsite | TwitterETH Restaked: 2.27M ($6.1B)EIGEN Restaked: N/AThe Lagrange ZK Prover Network generates ZK proofs from arbitrary blockchain data sets and stores packages with a decentralized network of “Gateway” nodes, which transmit requested information to provers for translation into readable data. The network can process smart contract information on any EVM-based chain and answer queries about the contracts on another chain without the need for a third-party bridging solution.When utilized in combination with the Lagrange State Committee, a separate EigenLayer AVS secured by 2.02M restaked ETH ($5.5B), Lagrange can provide fast confirmations for optimistic rollups, enabling them to work around standard 7-day fraud challenge periods during normal operations to eliminate cross-chain bridging latency.Should Lagrange become the de facto interchain communication standard in a multichain future, its immense utilization could churn out astronomical profits for restakers. The protocol must first gain adoption, however, and will be forced to compete against established bridging solutions and upcoming alternatives like the Polygon AggLayer to achieve it.Restaking SustainabilityRestaking is about more than the yield potential of any one platform, but in order for EigenLayer to succeed, its underlying AVSs will need to win big, too.While expected revenues from AVSs in isolation may appear inadequate to satisfy existing deposits, optional pooled restaking enables operators to simultaneously secure multiple AVSs with the same capital, a cornerstone feature of EigenLayer that would create unprecedented capital efficiency in crypto-economic security.Beyond this real yield, yes, restaked depositors will be compensated with native tokens, though the values of these inflationary incentives and the broader EigenLayer ecosystem will again be wholly reliant on the adoption of the underlying AVSs over the long run.We're still in the early innings of restaking, and while competing services like Symbiotic are attracting deposits in a battle for restaking supremacy, there are still plenty of questions about the long-term sustainability of the sector and its current kingpin. </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/eigenlayers-challenging-road-ahead</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/eigenlayers-challenging-road-ahead</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>Vitalik Weighs in on DeFi's Value</title>
<description>Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin addressed recent speculation on Twitter regarding his and the Ethereum Foundation’s stance on DeFi, emphasizing his support for DeFi with a focus on long-term sustainability.What's the scoop?In his comments, Vitalik expressed enthusiasm for DeFi apps that are both useful in a sustainable way and that adhere to core principles like permissionlessness and decentralization. He praised decentralized exchanges, decentralized stablecoins like RAI, and prediction markets like Polymarket.On the other hand, he said he didn’t respect 'unsustainable' DeFi practices, such as the 2021 liquidity farming craze, which he viewed as temporary and lacking in long-term viability.Vitalik concluded by highlighting the importance of decentralized technologies in other areas, such as messaging, identity systems, and social media, and the role that DeFi can play in combating centralization across these other sectors.Bankless take:Vitalik’s comments reaffirm his commitment to a sustainable DeFi ecosystem that aligns with Ethereum’s core values. His insights also serve as a reminder that while DeFi is crucial, the broader crypto space must additionally focus on other areas where decentralization can counter the growing centralization of power in technology and society. Still, his answer may not satisfy all critics who believe the EF needs to take a more active role in supporting the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem.The kinds of applications that I want to see are applications that are (i) useful in a sustainable way, and (ii) don't sacrifice on the principles (permissionlessness, decentralization, etc)I think DEXes are great, and I use them every week.I think decentralized stablecoins…— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 25, 2024
Sadly have the feeling that’s a vision stuck in 2021.@aave LM allowed to create what is the best example of a well functioning DAO by distributing the governance rights.We have incentives but they all come from the actual economic activity of the protocol.DeFi in 2024 is…— Marc “Billy” Zeller 👻 🦇🔊 (@lemiscate) August 25, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/vitaliks-thoughts-on-defi</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/vitaliks-thoughts-on-defi</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<title>Robinhood Brings Solana Support to its Wallet</title>
<description>Robinhood now supports certain types of Solana transactions in its Web3 wallet.What’s the Scoop?New Network: The Robinhood Wallet has added token swap and send/receive functionality for Solana native tokens, complementing existing support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, Base, and Dogecoin transactions.No SOL: Despite Robinhood’s willingness to offer Solana support in its wallet and ongoing acceptance of Solana-native USDC transfers to the exchange, SOL remains delisted for the exchange’s American users.Bankless Take:While Robinhood unexpectedly curtailed Solana trading support in June 2023 after the SEC sent it a legal complaint alleging that SOL is a security, the firm is doubling down on efforts to provide onchain functionality for the network, potentially indicating that it perceives a growth opportunity in the ecosystem.Unfortunately, SOL is likely to remain delisted from the Robinhood exchange for the foreseeable future, considering that recent reporting indicates the SEC denied pending spot SOL ETF applications on the grounds that it still believes the underlying token is a digital asset security.Super excited to announce that the Solana network is now live on Robinhood Wallet!Starting today, you can self-custody @solana tokens and send + receive over the Solana blockchain.— Johann Kerbrat (@JohannKerbrat) August 27, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/robinhood-brings-solana-support-to-its-wallet</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>MakerDAO Rebrands to Sky</title>
<description>The MakerDAO “Endgame” is coming to life with its transition to Sky.What’s the Scoop?Awaited Upgrade: MakerDAO had been teasing a major protocol overhaul for months, and today, it presented Sky, the culmination of more than two years of meticulous work by the ecosystem.New Tokens: The launch of Sky introduces two “new” tokens. Alongside MKR, the rejuvenated protocol will be governed by the SKY token, which is convertible with MKR at a 24,000:1 ratio. Additionally, Sky introduces USDS to replace yield-bearing sDAI, which remains redeemable for DAI.Inflationary Incentives: SKY is set to inflate by 600M tokens per year – representing a 2.5% increase to the current circulating supply. These emissions will be utilized to reward USDS stakers on the Sky protocol, and users who sign up with sky.money before September 18 can double their SKY rewards during their first month of staking.&nbsp;Spark Airdrop: Maker’s Spark lending market subDAO (now termed a “Star”) will airdrop 66.66M SPK to participants once the token goes live after September 18. Annual subsidies of 1B SPK will be distributed over the following four years to incentivize USDS and Maker token activation programs.Skylink: Ethereum and its major L2s will receive “Skylink” deployments following the deployment of sealed activation, providing native access to Sky ecosystem assets.Bankless Take:Although immense planning appears to have gone into the rollout of Sky, MKR price barely budged on the announcement, gaining a negligible 4.5% and failing to retrace its weekend slide. Core alterations to Maker revolve around the rebrand and inflationary token incentives, and while such changes will likely catalyze renewed short-term excitement for the protocol, it remains to be seen whether they can result in sustained benefits.Sky is here. The best and easiest place to get rewarded for saving without giving up control.Discover the upgraded tokens, new features, and boosted Sky Token Rewards for early sign-ups. Follow this thread for the latest news and updates about SkyLaunch. pic.twitter.com/Qc25KRPzR8— Sky (@SkyEcosystem) August 27, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/makerdao-rebrands-sky</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/makerdao-rebrands-sky</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>CryptoPunks 2024: Taking the Pulse of Ethereum’s Most Iconic NFTs</title>
<description>CryptoPunks are Ethereum’s most historic and iconic digital collectibles.&nbsp;Released quietly and with little fanfare in 2017, they remained relatively obscure until their explosive rise in 2021. This journey from obscurity to fame is arguably the NFT scene’s most insane "rags to riches" story.With over $2.87 billion in all-time sales volume and an $800 million market cap today, the CryptoPunks remain a dominant force. They’re also part of a small club of projects whose floor prices have reached +100 ETH at their peaks.&nbsp;However, while the ‘Punks floor has climbed 50% to 29 ETH over the past few weeks, this price is still a far cry from the 113 ETH all-time high that the collection notched in Oct. 2021 at the height of the previous NFT bull run.&nbsp;The grand question on many NFT aficionados minds, then, is can the ‘Punks return to their former glory? Can their floor price reach +100 ETH once more?I think the answers to these questions are yes and yes. And that’s because, in my opinion, the collection continues to rank very well across the 10 main criteria I use when analyzing digital collectibles. Here’s what I mean:CryptoPunks - August 2024&nbsp;🧑🎨️ Creator reputation - 9/10🎨 Aesthetic value - 9/10🔩 Technical quality - 10/10🎭 Cultural impact - 10/10👥 Community - 7/10🪄 Usefulness - 7/10🙊 Project management - 7/10🪙 Market activity - 10/10👄 Hype - 7/10🔮 Future prospects - 10/10My overall score: 86/100That said, let’s dig into each of these criteria to get the full picture of why I’m bullish on the CryptoPunks now and long-term.Creator Reputation - 9/10CryptoPunks were created by Larva Labs, founded by Matt Hall and John Watkinson, who are now considered pioneers in the NFT space. They released the collection as a one-off experiment and afterwards were hands-off, which helped the project to take on a life of its own. This work inspired Ethereum’s ERC-721 NFT standard and the generative 10k collection meta, both of which have been widely adopted ever since. As such, Larva Labs are legends here, and CryptoPunks are their most popular creations.&nbsp;Aesthetic Value - 9/10Wrapped in nostalgia, the 24x24 pixel art style of CryptoPunks has become iconic. While simple, the ‘Punks distinct visual identity has stood the test of time and become instantly recognizable, even outside the crypto community. The limited palette and variety of attributes contribute to their lasting charm and collectability.Technical Quality - 10/10We’ve already mentioned how CryptoPunks helped inspire the ERC-721 standard. But did you know the original ‘Punks smart contract also innovated the “hashed onchain” storage technique, where the composite images of the collection were stored in a cryptographic hash on Ethereum? Later, Larva Labs moved the entire collection completely onchain by storing every single ‘Punks image directly on Ethereum, too. The recent introduction of the CryptoPunks721 wrapper contract also poses new composability possibilities going forward, so there’s a lot to admire here.Cultural Impact - 10/10As far as NFTs go, CryptoPunks have had an enormous cultural impact, both within and beyond crypto. Inside the space, they’ve inspired hundreds of derivative projects—technically and aesthetically—from conceptual art collections like Wiiides to newer sillier drops like PNUKS. And in the mainstream, they’ve been displayed in major art galleries, sold at the world’s biggest art auction houses, and featured in popular media outlets around the world. This legacy and inertia here positions the CryptoPunks to have growing cultural significance in the years ahead.&nbsp;Community - 7/10The 2019-2021 era of the CryptoPunks Discord was regarded as a golden time for the ‘Punks community, when it was still tight-knit and a watering hole for some of the best minds in crypto. Admittedly, things have died down since then, but it remains true that some of the best people here are ‘Punks holders. The potential of this community is still significant accordingly.&nbsp;Usefulness - 7/10The CryptoPunks license grants holders the right to make derivative works of their ‘Punks. That’s interesting, but it’s also something many holders likely will never explore. Where ‘Punks currently offer the most direct utility is in being one of the premier and most desirable collateral assets in the NFTfi ecosystem. Whether you’re looking to borrow or lend, you won’t struggle to find options among platforms like Blur, GONDI, and NFTfi.com.Project Management - 7/10Yuga Labs, the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, acquired the CryptoPunks IP from Larva Labs in 2022. It was a controversial move that some saw as a threat to the CryptoPunks legacy. And while Yuga has had a couple of small fumbles here since then, mainly with regard to comms, they’ve generally handled the transition smoothly and have shown a commitment to preserving the legacy of the ‘Punks. Where they’ve shined is adding value at the edges, like supporting museum exhibitions and innovating the CryptoPunks721 wrapper. I’m optimistic on the stewardship if we continue to get more of the same.&nbsp;Market Activity - 10/10The CryptoPunks are a cornerstone of the contemporary NFT market, with their trading volume stats consistently at the top or near the top of all NFT collections. The demand remains strong. And with well over 1,000 ‘Punks currently available for sale, buyers have plenty of options. Let’s just say that if you’re in the market for buying or selling a ‘Punk, you won’t be facing a major struggle.&nbsp;Hype - 7/10CryptoPunks launched in 2017, and Yuga Labs is steering things in a hands-off fashion these days. That said, obviously the hype level of ‘Punks is more subdued compared to newer, more actively marketed projects. But ‘Punks don’t need to be actively marketed, they simply need to exist, as they’re already among the most coveted networked goods in the entire world. The hype now is mostly intrinsic then, it’s the aura that comes from ‘Punks being as special and historic and ownable as they are. The CryptoPunks Twitter account might not be posting roadmap updates every day, but that won’t stop the ‘Punks from proceeding on as gravity wells of intrigue.&nbsp;Future Prospects - 10/10When you consider all the criteria above, the future prospects of CryptoPunks looks very bright—arguably brighter than the prospects of any other NFT collection that exists today. It’s just that no other NFT project rates as well across all these pillars right now. Probably the project that comes the closest is the Nouns, and it’s obviously weaker than the ‘Punks in certain areas like “Market Activity” and “Hype.” This dominance stems from the OG collection’s iconicness, its special rise, and how its characters are artworks, digital collectibles, historical artifacts, and financial collateral all wrapped up in one. As the NFT space continues to mature, the ‘Punks are accordingly well-positioned to see their value and cultural significance reach new heights once more.&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/cryptopunks-2024-ethereum-analysis</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<title>Solana's Polymarket Challenger</title>
<description>Everyone is taking a closer look at decentralized predictions markets this year thanks to the breakout success of Polymarket. And while Polymarket is far and away the leader of the sector, with monthly volume, active users, and open interest stats currently near all-time highs amid 2024 presidential election excitement, there are other players to watch too.&nbsp;If you’re a Solana user, then you ought to check out BET!Last week, the popular Solana decentralized exchange Drift announced BET, for “Bullish on Everything,” a capital-efficient prediction market built atop the Drift Protocol.&nbsp;The grand vision? Offer a prediction marketplace where users can tap into Solana’s signature speed and low costs while also earning yield on their underlying positions before event outcomes.&nbsp;Also, BET goes wide on token support. While Polymarket is centered around USDC trading, BET supports trading with over 30 different cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins and Solana liquid staking tokens (LSTs). Out of the gate, BET has launched a handful of markets centered around the upcoming U.S. Elections, e.g., Will Kamala Harris win the popular vote in 2024? Going forward, Drift will add more market categories, like sports, and shift toward fully permissionless markets.All that said, if you’re interested in trying these first markets for yourself, head over to app.drift.trade/bet and connect your Solana wallet. At this point, you will need to fund and create an account. Select your preferred deposit approach and approve the account creation, which costs ~0.03 SOL.&nbsp;After this, you can click into one of the available markets on the BET platform to dive in. First things first, note the market’s “Resolves on” date so you know how long it will run for. Then head over to the “Market” tab and select “BET YES” or “BET NO” depending on your prediction.&nbsp;Now, it’d be time to size your trade. In the trading interface, input the amount of yes or no shares you want to acquire using the “Cost per share” metric to help you decide. Once this is done, the interface will show you additional info, like your potential profit and how much FUEL you stand to earn.&nbsp;If everything looks good, press the final “BET” button and complete the purchase transaction with your wallet. Boom, that’s all it takes!With your position locked in, you can use the “Positions” tab beneath the market interface to monitor your bet’s performance or close it early ahead of its resolution date. This is where you’ll also find a “Balances” tab for depositing, withdrawing, swapping, or transferring your assets as needed.&nbsp;There are some more advanced things you can do with BET, like making limit orders, and there are some additional services you might be interested in here, like staking DRIFT to earn extra FUEL. But the walkthrough above shows that even just the basics here are straightforward and compelling.&nbsp;Of course, Polymarket has already laid out the blueprint for how an onchain prediction marketplace can achieve major popularity; the question is now whether BET can meet (or surpass) Polymarket's success by following a similar playbook with its own flourishes. </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/solanas-polymarket-challenger</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 25 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<title>Abra Settles with SEC Over 'Auto-Magic' Crypto Earn Program</title>
<description>Crypto platform Abra has yet again run afoul of American regulators for offering access to unregistered financial instruments.What’s the Scoop?SEC Settlement: Abra has settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over Abra Earn, a lending product which promised users “auto-magic” returns on their crypto assets. Deposits into the program were subsequently deployed by the platform to generate income and fund interest payments.Warning Shot: The settlement requires Abra to cease and desist from the activities in question and pay court-mandated civil penalties. It also sends a clear warning sign to groups offering crypto-based earn products to Americans without registering them as securities.Prior Settlements: Abra has already settled with 25 states for operating without a license and agreed to return more than $82M to U.S. customers. Additionally, the firm paid $150k to both the SEC and CFTC in 2020 to resolve an investigation into its unregistered swap products.Bankless Take:Compared to the often contentious regulatory enforcement actions levied against the crypto industry, Abra's case is more straightforward, involving a centralized entity that managed user funds to generate profit while failing to register the offering as a security with the SEC.SEC complaint and settlement re Abra Earn. "AUTO-MAGICALLY". Are you serious? "In or around July 2020, Abra began to offer and sell Abra Earn in the United States. Abra Earn allowed U.S. investors to tender their crypto assets to Abra in exchange for Abra’s promise to pay… pic.twitter.com/1j2r6eV4W1— Bill Hughes : wchughes.eth 🦊 (@BillHughesDC) August 26, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/abra-settles-with-sec-over-auto-magic-crypto-earn-program</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 25 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>Ethereum Foundation Transaction Spurs Calls for More Transparency</title>
<description>The Ethereum Foundation (EF) recently transferred 35,000 ETH, or ~$95 million, to Kraken, sparking calls within the Ethereum community for more transparency from the organization.What's the scoop?Aya Miyaguchi, Executive Director of the EF, sought to clarify on X that the transaction was part of the EF’s regular treasury management activities. The funds are earmarked for grants, salaries, and other expenses that require fiat currency.Miyaguchi noted EF’s budget is roughly $100 million annually, with much of it allocated to behind-the-scenes support for the Ethereum ecosystem, including legal protection, infrastructure, and research collaborations. Miyaguchi also noted that regulatory issues had delayed the transaction, preventing the EF from sharing their plans in advance.Community pushback largely focused on frustration around how the EF has remained far too reactionary in its external communications, with some noting that the group's recent scandals could have been avoided by more timely, transparent disclosures.Bankless take:While the EF’s $100 million budget covers essential and often unseen activities that support the Ethereum network, the community’s response underscores a growing demand for more regular financial disclosures. The EF operates with a philosophy of “subtraction,” focusing on coordination rather than taking the spotlight. However, as the network matures and the stakes grow higher, there’s a clear need for the EF to balance its discretion with the community’s expectations for transparency. More frequent and detailed financial reports would be a definite step in that direction.It's a big issue that it takes people raising a fuss on Twitter to ever get ANY info out like this. Seriously, how hard is it release a quarterly report with financials and basic updates? Expenses, expected upcoming sales, how/where the money is being spent, team size and…— eric.eth (@econoar) August 24, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/ethereum-foundation-transparency</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 25 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<title>Telegram CEO Pavel Durov Arrested</title>
<description>Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France this weekend; the billionaire CEO's arrest triggered wide rebuke across crypto.What’s the Scoop?Airport Arrest: Pavel Durov, the 39-year old Russian-born billionaire founder behind social messaging platform Telegram, was apprehended by French authorities on Saturday after landing at Le Bourget airport outside of Paris by national cyber crime and fraud officers for failing to curb criminal activities on Telegram.TON Tumbles: While Telegram is officially distinct from the decentralized TON blockchain, its token cratered 20% on news of the arrest, an unsurprising result considering that TON’s narrative strength has been largely driven by promised synergies with Telegram.Oversight Unknowns: Telegram group messages cannot be encrypted and individual user messages are not encrypted by default, meaning the company has visibility into the vast majority of user conversations occurring on its platform.Bankless Take:Europe's increasingly hostile regulatory regime took a major leap with this weekend's arrest. This saga spawns more concerns about precedents that could result in the imprisonment of additional software developers, but it is important to note that Telegram’s lack of default encryption likely exposed the firm and its founder to added regulatory scrutiny.They started arresting crypto developers a couple years ago. Now they’ve moved to messenger app developers.It won’t stop here.If we don’t preserve free speech as code we’ll lose our democracies.Europe is falling.The U.S. is hanging by a thread. pic.twitter.com/iHad8qX4gG— RYAN SΞAN ADAMS - rsa.eth 🦄 (@RyanSAdams) August 25, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-arrested</link>
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<pubDate>Sun, 25 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>Bitcoin's Presidential Shakeup</title>
<description>1️⃣ Presidential ShakeupLong-time BTC bull Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘paused’ his White House bid Friday and detailed that he was endorsing Donald Trump. Kennedy announced that he would be removing his name from the ballots in swing states and encouraged supporters there to support Trump over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.RFK Jr. made a splash in crypto circles long before Trump signaled a shift in support. Kennedy, whose bid never appeared anything beyond a long-shot, was still polling very well for a third-party candidate, and his dropping out from the race could change the equation in razor-thin swing state polling.RFK Jr. put #Bitcoin on the presidential ticket when he announced his run. Today's endorsement of the Trump campaign brings us one step closer to a bright orange future 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/VnUpRcEiDt— The Bitcoin Conference (@TheBitcoinConf) August 23, 2024
2️⃣ Crypto Awaits Trump’s DeFi PlayWhile political eyes fell on Chicago, where the Democratic National Convention was minting Harris as the party’s nominee, Trump was posting through the week on his Truth Social account, at one point highlighting a crypto project his sons Eric and Donald Jr. are behind — The Defiant Ones.“For too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites.” Trump writes in the message, “It's time we take a stand—together. #BeDefiant.”Details are limited on what exactly the platform has planned, though it's rumored to be a “digital real estate” play, though whether it leans towards metaverse land parcels or RWAs is unknown.JUST IN: Former President Donald Trump has promoted his family’s upcoming cryptocurrency platform called “The DeFiant Ones."A post calls the Telegram group chat “the only official Telegram channel for the Trump DeFi project” which is building “the future of finance.”— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) August 22, 2024
3️⃣ Rate Cuts ComingCrypto ended the week breaking out of its consistent $60K range, and it owed the pump to comments made by Fed chair Jerome Powell, which strongly hinted at near-term rate cuts. At this point, traders are feeling near-certain on September cuts, but are less sure about the scale and whether it will be a 0.50% or 0.25% cut.BREAKING: Jerome Powell says “the time has come” for interest rate cuts pic.twitter.com/1vRGTyX5UU— Exec Sum (@exec_sum) August 23, 2024
4️⃣ Judge Doesn’t Toss Kraken SuitIn a Friday ruling, a federal judge refused to dismiss the SEC’s lawsuit against the Kraken crypto exchange. Kraken had argued that the SEC had failed to make a convincing argument that transactions on the platform constituted investment contracts, but it appears the judge, at least in part, disagreed.&nbsp;Today, the Federal Court for the Northern District of California ruled, as matter of law, that none of the tokens trading on Kraken are securities. This is a significant win for Kraken, for the principle of clarity and for crypto users everywhere. It also confirms Kraken’s…— Marco Santori (@msantoriESQ) August 23, 2024
5️⃣ Mango Markets DAO SettlementThe community behind Solana-based exchange Mango Markets has voted to propose a settlement with the SEC over alleged securities violations. As part of the settlement offer, the DAO would pay a $223K fine, destroy its MNGO holdings, and delist the token.The crypto token holders that manage Mango Markets voted to approve a settlement with the SEC even though the agency hasn’t charged the DeFi platform with any wrongdoing https://t.co/uSvRazy72r— Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) August 20, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/bitcoins-presidential-shakeup</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 22 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Bankless</author>
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<item>
<title>WazirX Starts Rupee Withdrawals Following Major Hack</title>
<description>Hacked Indian crypto exchange WazirX is commencing Rupee withdrawals, but it is unlikely any of the exchange’s depositors will be satisfied with the unwind plan.What’s the Scoop?Disastrous Hack: Just over one month ago, the WazirX exchange was hacked for $230M of customer crypto deposits – 45% of its reserves according to a June asset attestation – in an attack attributed to North Korean actors.Repayment Plan: Crypto withdrawals cannot be processed at this time due to the significant loss of tokens, and Indian Rupee holders can only withdraw 66% of their assets at this time. The remaining 34% of cash deposits are frozen pending legal investigation.Bankless Take:Holding your crypto with an exchange places the burden of custody on a third party, and key infrastructure mismanagement can result in the disastrous or total loss of crypto deposits. It’s best to treat centralized exchanges like public restrooms: get in, do your business, and get out.📢 Important Announcement About INR Withdrawals and Crypto Next StepsThe last month has been a difficult time for users of the WazirX platform due to the cyberattack on 18 July 2024 and the subsequent suspension of withdrawals and trading to mitigate impact to the platform. We… pic.twitter.com/XdAr3V3TOp— WazirX: India Ka Bitcoin Exchange (@WazirXIndia) August 23, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/wazirx-starts-rupee-withdrawals-following-major-hack</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 22 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>Jerome Powell Gets Ready to Cut Interest Rates</title>
<description>The time has come for rate cuts, according to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.What’s the Scoop?Dovish Developments: Markets rallied as Powell took the stage at Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole Policy Symposium this morning, proclaiming that “the worst of the pandemic-related economic distortions are fading, inflation has declined significantly, [and] the labor market is no longer overheated.”Powell Pivot: Although the Fed has previously been focused on reining in inflation as part of its dual mandate, Chair Powell announced that “the balance of risks has changed” as the upside risks to inflation have diminished while the downside risks to employment have increased.Employment in Focus: Powell indicated he does not welcome a cooling labor market and will do everything possible to maintain its strength to prevent it, but maintained that rising unemployment was due to slowing hiring and increasing labor supply instead of outright layoffs, a welcomed development that does not appear to impose immediate downside economic risks.New Paradigm: For Powell, the future direction for rates is clear and the time has come to adjust monetary policy; he remains optimistic that an appropriate dialing back of policy restraint will enable the economy to get back to 2% inflation while supporting a strong labor market.Bankless Take:Anticipation for Fed rate cuts enabled market participants to shrug off deteriorating economic data throughout 2024, yet not even the strongest confirmation to date for their arrival could prompt the S&amp;P 500 to achieve the 1.15% gain needed to break all-time highs. &nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/jerome-powell-gets-ready-to-cut-interest-rates</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 22 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<item>
<title>Sony Introduces Soneium Ethereum L2</title>
<description>Sony Block Solutions Labs has announced its development of Soneium, an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) network for bringing onchain possibilities into the mainstream.&nbsp; What's the Scoop?Soneium is designed to be a versatile, general-purpose blockchain that will cater to a variety of industries, developers, creators, and communities.The network will initially target crypto enthusiasts, with plans to integrate Sony’s extensive portfolio, including Sony Bank, Sony Music, and Sony Pictures, within the next two years.Soneium will leverage Optimism’s OP Stack for its infrastructure, allowing compatibility with other networks in the Superchain ecosystem like Base and Zora Network.&nbsp;Bankless Take:This news demonstrates how some of the biggest companies in the world are still embracing blockchain applications, e.g. in this case building a custom chain as a Sony hub atop Ethereum. It also demonstrates the appeal of the OP Stack in offering a streamlined way to launch robust, custom L2s without these mainstream enterprises having to start development from scratch. We’ll see what happens from here, but either way, Soneium is now a project to watch in the coming years. </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/sony-introduces-soneium-its-ethereum-l2-network</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 22 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<item>
<title>Getting Started with the Midjourney Web Editor</title>
<description>Midjourney, the popular AI platform for generating art via text prompts, just opened its highly-anticipated web editor to everyone and is offering free trials to test the new tool through the end of the week.&nbsp;Why it mattersvia MidjourneyPreviously, Midjourney was only usable through commands issued to bots in the Midjourney Discord server. For some users, the Discord UX was unfamiliar and daunting.&nbsp;In contrast, the new web editor release offers a streamlined, one-stop hub for easily tapping into Midjourney features, like inpainting (using text prompts to “repaint” parts of an image) and outpainting (generating new imagery beyond an image’s original frame).&nbsp;How to navigate the Midjourney web editor1) ExploreOnce you’ve started a free trial or signed in with an existing account (base plans start at $10 per month), you’ll arrive on the Explore tab of the web editor.This is where you can surf through recent Midjourney creations by other users via filters like “Hot” or “Random” and click into pictures to review their underlying prompts and style parameters. Use the heart button on the right side to like photos and quickly come back to them later.&nbsp;Here, you can also start remixing or building off of images you find by clicking on the “Image,” “Style,” or “Prompt” buttons on the lower right side of the web editor.&nbsp;2) CreateBelow the Explore tab in the web editor, you’ll find the Create hub. Here you can easily create, review, and remix your art.&nbsp;You can use the text bar at the top of the editor to input your desired text prompts, while the center and right side of the Create page displays your previous outputs, prompts, style parameters, and remix options like “Rerun” (run the prompt again to generate 4 new results) and “Use” (this copies parameters to your clipboard for remixing into a new prompt).&nbsp;Of course, you can always just try firing off basic text commands and see what results you get. But if you’re looking to start mastering Midjourney, I recommend familiarizing yourself with the basics of Midjourney’s style parameters. For example, let’s consider this prompt:The initial text “magic wand” text is the visual instructions for the type of scene you want to illustrate“ar” defines the desired aspect ratio“sref” implements style reference codes, of which there are over 4 billion, and each has a unique aesthetic and can be mixed with others&nbsp;“sw” is the style weight, which defines from 0-1000 the strength of stylization of your chosen style references“stylize” defines how closely your outputs will match your prompt artistically“v” defines which version of Midjourney you want to use, with 6.1 being the newest and most optimized model availableThese are not all of the existing parameters, but they demonstrate the kind of flexibility you can enjoy when creating art on Midjourney. Again, you can always just try basic text prompts but the results won’t always be great or what you’re looking for.&nbsp;For instance, using the “magic wand casting a shiny spell on a gold coin” prompt, the image on the left side below was made without any parameters and the image on the right was made with the parameters shown above. The latter approach offers you much more control, e.g. if you’re seeking a hand-painted aesthetic rather than something more photographic like here:3) Organize, Chat, and TasksThe main attractions of the Midjourney web editor are the Explore and Create hubs, but there are a few other helpful resources. First is the Organize tab, where you can review, filter, and edit all your recent creations or organize them into custom folders. This area is useful if you want to readily archive and keep track of specific prompting approaches you’ve previously used or seen.&nbsp;Then there is the Chat tab, which is essentially a slick frontend for surfing some of the Midjourney Discord’s most popular prompting rooms. Lastly, the Tasks center hosts a series of simple quests you can undertake to help Midjourney, like taking surveys or ranking images. Some of these quests offer “fast hours” as rewards, granting you the ability to generate outputs faster.&nbsp;The bottom lineThanks to AI, the ability to turn ideas into images quickly is a new sort of superpower. As such, Midjourney’s new web editor is notable because it makes this superpower that much easier to wield.&nbsp;If you haven’t tried Midjourney before, I recommend giving it a spin while the limited-time free trials are live or even just trying out the base plan for a month. Whether you’re an artist exploring AI or just keen on making some silly social media content, this web editor is now one of the best ways to do so! </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/midjourney-web-editor-guide</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<title>Grayscale Unveils AVAX Trust</title>
<description>Crypto’s oldest asset manager is launching a new investment vehicle that will offer certain individuals exposure to Avalanche.What’s the Scoop?New Trust: The Grayscale Avalanche Trust will offer AVAX exposure to qualified investors under its private placement model.Restricted Access: Like many other Grayscale products, the AVAX fund will only be available via private placement, meaning that redemptions are unavailable, which could cause the product to trade at extreme discounts and premiums, and only accredited investors can purchase shares, subject to a one-year mandatory holding period. Bankless Take:While the pathway towards spot AVAX ETFs was illuminated by a Coinbase Derivatives filing in late June to list AVAX futures, the presence of private placement Grayscale Trusts with loose registration criterias yields zero bearing on the future likelihood of spot ETF approval for any digital asset.We are proud to announce the creation of a new single-asset crypto investment fund, available through private placement: Grayscale Avalanche Trust $AVAX.Available to eligible accredited investors.Read the press release: https://t.co/XwKfjPD9Tw pic.twitter.com/HdzlNfwkQ8— Grayscale (@Grayscale) August 22, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/grayscale-debuts-ava</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<item>
<title>Donald Trump Pitches Sons' 'Digital Real Estate' Project</title>
<description>U.S. Presidential hopeful Donald Trump is publicizing his sons’ upcoming crypto project to followers on his Truth Social social media platform.What’s the Scoop?Digital Real Estate: Limited information is available about the DeFiant project, but in an exclusive interview with the New York Post, Eric Trump stated that it will be an “equitable” digital real estate project offering everyone access to collateral.Ultimate KOL: This morning, Donald Trump posted to Truth Social that “For too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites.” He advised those who want to “take a stand” to join the DeFiant Telegram channel.Devs Cooking: DeFiant’s Telegram contains no additional information on the project and notes that updates and announcements will be shared via the channel in the coming days.Bankless Take:While it would certainly be encouraging for the state of the crypto industry to have the Trump family launch some form of tokenized real estate application, there seems to be an outsized chance this ends up looking like more of a 'metaverse' play than one pushing boundaries on real-world utility. </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/trump-defiant-project</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>Magic Eden Makes $ME Token Announcement</title>
<description>Magic Eden, one of the largest NFT marketplaces by trading volume, has announced its official ecosystem token, $ME.&nbsp;What's the scoop?Rebranded from Non-Fungible DAO and $NFT, the ME Foundation and $ME will serve as central pillars of the Magic Eden ecosystem going forward.&nbsp;The ME Foundation, a non-profit entity, will oversee the governance of $ME and the development of open-source protocols that Magic Eden and potentially other platforms will adopt.As for the $ME token, it has been designed to incentivize users to engage with Magic Eden products across a growing stable of supported blockchains.The specific tokenomics haven’t been announced yet, but $ME will be exclusively claimable through the Magic Eden Wallet, available on both desktop and mobile.&nbsp;Bankless Take:As one of the main tour de force presences in the contemporary NFT space, Magic Eden is positioned to make a big splash with the rollout of $ME. The specifics of the launch time and community governance processes aren’t clear yet, but we should know more soon. Whether the token can truly shake up the decentralized app scene remains to be seen, but if nothing else, Magic Eden is daring to go where one of its biggest competitors—OpenSea—hasn’t yet.&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/magic-eden-token</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<item>
<title>Grayscale’s Bull Market Bets</title>
<description>OG crypto asset manager Grayscale has been awfully busy lately. When Grayscale announces a new Trust for a particular asset, the market often reacts with a mix of excitement and skepticism. It's a bit like a double-edged sword: a signal of saturation for some and a beacon of hope for others.Some might interpret the launch as a sign that the market for that asset is reaching saturation or at least limited upside potential in crypto terms. On the one hand, it’s a stamp of approval from a major player in the crypto space. It can lend legitimacy to the asset, potentially attracting institutional investors, and, at the very least, boost media coverage.Grayscale has been adding new investment products at a faster clip, showcasing their conviction that we’re in the middle innings of a crypto bull market fueled by a grand slam of bullish signals: Bitcoin ETF inflows, the long-awaited ETH ETF launch, increasing stablecoin adoption, and steady growth in TVL across DeFi.As a quiet giant in the industry, investors continue to watch what Grayscale is backing and what that says about their impressions of which direction the industry is headed. What assets have caught their attention lately? Let's find out. 👇Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund (FIL, NEAR, RNDR, LPT, TAO)Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund is a first-of-its-kind fund that invests solely in native tokens of decentralized AI protocols. It currently includes Filecoin, Near, Render, Livepeer, and Bittensor.Breakdown of holdings in Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund. Source: GrayscaleGrayscale points out the concerns of a future dominated by centralized AI and the potential of crypto to create a more equitable and transparent ecosystem. They believe that while the crypto x AI sector is early, it holds immense promise. By leveraging the power of crypto, we can build a more equitable, transparent, and trustworthy AI ecosystem.&nbsp;Grayscale Dynamic Income Fund (SOL, CBETH, NEAR, Others)The Grayscale Dynamic Income Fund (GDIF) is designed to capitalize on the growing staking rewards offered by various tokens like SOL, ETH, NEAR, and several others. This fund aims to maximize returns by strategically allocating capital to tokens with attractive staking yields.Grayscale is known for its diversified approach to crypto investing. While they typically diversify across sectors, GDIF marks a new frontier: diversifying across different types of tokens. This offers investors a distinct yield opportunity beyond the potential upside of the underlying tokens.Grayscale |
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<title>Exploring Monad's Early DeFi Ecosystem</title>
<description>Slowly but surely, we are inching closer toward one of the most anticipated launches of this cycle — Monad.The parallelized, EVM-compatible L1, which boasts $225M in funding from Coinbase, Electric Capital, and Paradigm, has been in testnet since March. The chain has already reached 10,000 transactions per second, an achievement that's led to hype around the chain's potential to supercharge DeFi. With the chain continuing to grow mindshare, more teams are building on it, providing us with an early sense of how Monad’s DeFi landscape will take shape. Let's dig into a few of the hyped, early projects 👇🍬 TayaSwapWebsite | TwitterTayaSwap is a DeFi Hub for Monad, which aims to bring established features like Concentrated Liquidity Pools and Dynamic Liquidity Pools to the ecosystem and make trading customizable with its Dapp as a Service (DaaS) platform.Concentrated Liquidity Pools lets liquidity providers focus assets in specific price ranges, boosting capital efficiency, further enhanced by Monad’s high throughput and low transaction costs. On the other hand, Dynamic Liquidity Pools automatically adjust positions based on market conditions, reducing the need for manual management and keeping liquidity optimized during price fluctuations.&nbsp;Together, these lay a bedrock for Monad’s DeFi ecosystem, which Tayaswap looks to expand on through its DaaS platform —&nbsp; a no-code terminal for designing custom dapps. Anyone can create and deploy dapps with custom liquidity pools, trading pairs, and fee structures. 🪨 KintsuWebsite | TwitterKintsu is a liquid staking protocol set to launch on Monad. The team aims to ensure that liquid staking is prioritized early on in Monad’s history.&nbsp;The team argues that liquid staking not only boosts the network's security by incentivizing staking participation but also serves as a critical catalyst for the growth of DeFi on Monad. New L1s like Monad may face a cold start problem, where liquidity is initially scarce, and natively staked gas tokens are locked and thus can't contribute to an early, vibrant DeFi ecosystem. Kintsu enhances Monad's security and liquidity by integrating liquid staking from the get-go, an effort the team believes is setting the network up for success.&nbsp;🍀 KuruWebsite | TwitterKuru is a Monad DEX that leverages a Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) instead of the widely used Automated Market Makers (AMMs) to provide tighter spreads.&nbsp;This model is closer to traditional market systems on centralized exchanges and allows market makers to offer better prices to users. Kuru aims to replace AMMs entirely, supporting a variety of assets and simplifying the process of providing liquidity, ensuring that even less experienced market makers can participate effectively without active position management, unlike AMMs.Beyond championing the CLOB, Kuru aims to streamline the user experience by integrating discovery, research, and trading into a single interface. ⚙️ aPrioriWebsite | TwitteraPriori is another upcoming liquid staking protocol for Monad that increases staking rewards with MEV —&nbsp;the additional profits miners or validators can earn by determining the order of transactions in a block.&nbsp;aPriori introduces a specialized MEV infrastructure explicitly designed for Monad. It optimizes how Monad handles transactions, allowing the protocol to make informed guesses about the best way to organize transactions and generate additional value that aPriori can use to increase staking rewards. aPriori uses these profits to enhance staking yields.By aiming to increase staking participation through higher yields, aPriori may further strengthen Monad’s overall security. Higher staking rates contribute to a more robust network consensus, ensuring the long-term resilience and security of the network.➡️ More on the WayWith Kuru, TayaSwap, Kintsu, and aPriori helping lead the way, Monad is showing early signs it is already attracting a diverse array of projects to its budding DeFi ecosystem.These early movers highlight the potential of Monad’s speed and transaction cost to offer highly efficient DeFi products, from Kuru’s CLOB-based DEX to TayaSwap’s advanced liquidity pools and DApp creation tools, and from Kintsu’s liquid staking to aPriori’s MEV optimization. As anticipation builds for Monad’s mainnet, many other EVM-based protocols, like Curvance and Nostra, are also preparing to deploy on the chain, suggesting that this new L1 could have some promising early protocols aboard at launch to bring in new users. </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/exploring-monads-early-defi-ecosystem</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/exploring-monads-early-defi-ecosystem</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>Bitcoin L2 Stacks Activates Nakamoto Upgrade</title>
<description>Bitcoin L2 Stacks is activating its long-awaited Nakamoto upgrade after months of delay.What’s the Scoop?Performance Benefits: While Bitcoin’s 10-minute block times had previously imposed long wait times for Stacks transactions, the Nakamoto upgrade will allow transactions to be confirmed inside of a given block, increasing Stacks block production by 120 times to reduce transaction wait times from many minutes to seconds.Rollout Schedule: Today marks the commencement of the Nakamoto Activation Sequence, and Stacks node operators will have one Stacking cycle (roughly two weeks) to implement the upgrade, after which a final hard fork will be selected and the Nakamoto consensus rules will come into effect.Pegged Stable: Beyond increasing transaction speeds, the Nakamoto upgrade also creates sBTC. This decentralized pegged representation of BTC issued will be issued by the Stacks blockchain and can be used to pay for gas on Stacks or transfer BTC between the Bitcoin and Stacks networks.Bankless Take:Nakamoto will boost transaction speeds and transform Stacks into an actually usable L2, and it is imperative that this upgrade attracts new users and their capital to the ecosystem. Despite the vast improvements promised by Stacks technological upgrade, token price tumbled today alongside broader crypto markets, meanwhile, STX has collapsed 60% off its early-April highs from when it was identified as a BTC beta play coming into the Halving.Nakamoto Activation Window Begins 🟧Today marks the beginning of a sequence to safely bring the Nakamoto upgrade and its fast blocks and Bitcoin finality to the Stacks layer!Celebrate with 21 days of events, big news, collaborations, giveaways, and more. 🧡More 🧵 1/4 pic.twitter.com/tTwJ9Glxv5— stacks.btc (@Stacks) August 28, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/bitcoin-l2-stacks-activates-nakamoto-upgrade</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/bitcoin-l2-stacks-activates-nakamoto-upgrade</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>OpenSea Receives Wells Notice from SEC</title>
<description>OpenSea has received a Wells Notice from the SEC, signaling potential legal action that classifies NFTs as securities.What's the scoop?OpenSea’s Response: Devin Finzer, OpenSea’s CEO, expressed shock at the SEC's move, highlighting the threat this poses to creatives overall. He emphasized OpenSea's commitment to defending not just the platform but the broader NFT ecosystem. "We're shocked the SEC would make such a sweeping move against creators and artists. But we're ready to stand up and fight," Finzer declared.Legal and Financial Support: In response, OpenSea has pledged $5M to assist NFT creators and developers who might face similar legal challenges, aiming to protect the industry's grassroots from regulatory overreach.Bankless Take:The SEC's Wells Notice to OpenSea marks a pivotal moment for the NFT sector, which has seen legal action heat up over the past month with companies like DraftKings discontinuing their NFT marketplace over securities fears, while NFT artists themselves have begun taking aim at the SEC with their own suits. Given the range of applications for NFTs, devising proper legal classifications for them will prove difficult. Overall, this suit seems malicious through its targeting of a marketplace rather than specific NFTs that may fit the definition of securities.OpenSea has received a Wells notice from the SEC threatening to sue us because they believe NFTs on our platform are securities.We're shocked the SEC would make such a sweeping move against creators and artists. But we're ready to stand up and fight.Cryptocurrencies have long…— Devin Finzer (dfinzer.eth) (@dfinzer) August 28, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/opensea-receives-wells-notice-from-sec</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/opensea-receives-wells-notice-from-sec</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>TON Bounces Back after Memecoin-Led Crash</title>
<description>The TON blockchain faced over six hours of downtime due to overwhelming activity from the new meme coin, DOGS, and a resulting surge in transactions.Update 1:45pm EST: It's down again.What's the scoop?The Downtime Event: TON faced a major outage today due to the DOGS memecoin launch which overwhelmed validators, causing a consensus loss and halting the network. This led to significant disruptions, with major exchanges like Bybit and Binance suspending TON-related transactions due to network instability.Community and Market Reaction: While some expressed disappointment over TON's infrastructure failing under stress, the negligible impact on TON's price showcase that investors still see unrealized value in the chain. The incident sparked discussions on TON's capacity for handling high transaction volumes, especially from viral memecoins like DOGS.Bankless Take:It’s been a rough week for TON, from Durov’s arrest to this recent downtime. While this can be viewed as symptom of success, we have recently talked about the impending need for TON to scale, which this news serves as a testament to. The chain just joins the long list of other chains —&nbsp;Solana, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Base —&nbsp;that have experienced downtime in the past. Looks like @ton_blockchain failed stress test, as infrastructure crashes in DOGS airdrop.Only max of 280 TPS (transactions per second) reached. This is far less than earlier claimed theoretical 55,000 TPS. https://t.co/GrXb8OQWZo pic.twitter.com/mMTELqRnMM— Mikko Ohtamaa (@moo9000) August 26, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/ton-bounces-back-after-memecoin-led-crash</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/ton-bounces-back-after-memecoin-led-crash</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>Can EigenLayer Make Restaking Math Work?</title>
<description>Restaking was all of the rage in early 2024 as airdrop hunters sought profit for the simple task of depositing into EigenLayer, yet the meta stalled out shortly after EigenLayer’s first drop in April, and TVL has failed to grow since – falling 8% in ETH-denominated terms. With no restaking services actually live yet, deposits continue to be incentivized by promised future airdrops. But this paradigm is set to change the moment that the Actively Validated Services (AVSs) that leverage restaked security go live, with their activation bringing real yields to depositors and showcasing where the demand for restaking lies.Today, we’re exploring EigenLayer’s top 5 AVSs by restaked capital to get a sense of just how much revenue they could be expected to produce. 👇🌐 EigenDAWebsite | TwitterETH Restaked: 3.64M ($9.8B)EIGEN Restaked: 71.4M ($247M est.)Over $10B in crypto collateral has been restaked to secure EigenDA (assuming an EIGEN pre-launch price of $3.46 at the time of writing), making it the largest AVS by TVL.EigenDA is the flagship EigenLayer application and is being developed as a proof-of-concept for restaking; it is a data availability network that will let L2s store historical transaction data with restaking operators instead of Ethereum, translating to rollup cost savings.Data availability competitor Celestia stunned crypto investors on its run to a $20B fully-diluted valuation this February, however, the protocol has only earned ~3.5k TIA ($20k at analysis) in payments for data availability since its October 2023 mainnet, making it difficult to envision how EigenDA can yield returns of significance for its $10B+ in restaked capital.🗣️ eOracleWebsite | TwitterETH Restaked: 2.91M ($7.8B)EIGEN Restaked: N/AOracles are a critical component of blockchain infrastructure that enhance onchain programmability by allowing developers to integrate real-world information into smart contracts. One of the most common oracle applications is for lending markets, in which centralized exchange price feeds are ingested and used to inform automated onchain liquidations.eOracle leverages restaking to enhance the capital efficiency of oracle operation and creates a competitive oracle marketplace where anyone can independently provide or consume data.Competitive oracle network Chainlink makes 98% of its revenues off price feed, and while this line item has tapered significantly since June, the protocol earned $36.7M from price feeds during the first six months of 2024, equating to annualized returns of just under 1% for eOracle restakers in the unlikely event it can steal the entirety of Chainlink’s market share.👀 Witness ChainWebsite | TwitterETH Restaked: 2.60M ($7.0B)EIGEN Restaked: N/AWitness Chain positions itself as the “EigenLayer AVS for DePIN coordination.” It is a system that enables off-chain DePIN networks to convert their physical attributes (i.e., location and compute capacity) into verifiable onchain proofs.By maintaining a repository of physical information, Witness Chain hopes to empower DePIN projects to connect with each other, thereby creating an “end-to-end supply chain of decentralized infrastructure.”Although potential revenues for the network promising to revolutionize decentralized infrastructure sharing could certainly be enormous, the broader decentralized infrastructure sector has achieved limited adoption in comparison to centralized alternatives. As DePIN largely remains a proof-of-concept, the potential yield Witness Chain can generate remains a mystery.⏩ Hyperlane AVSWebsite | TwitterETH Restaked: 2.32M ($6.3B)EIGEN Restaked: N/AHyperlane is a permissionless interoperability layer, or bridge, enabling smart contracts to transmit arbitrary information across different blockchains. The protocol is currently deployed on over 35 chains, including EVM, Cosmos, and Sealevel.Developers can tailor Hyperlane’s security to meet their specific needs by selecting their validator set, setting rate limits, and adjusting the stake securing their application using programmable Interchain Security Modules (ISMs).On a year-to-date basis, the Across Network has grossed $5.43M in fees from its bridging services; this would correspond to an annualized yield of 0.1% for Hyperlane AVS restakers, given the current amount of ETH restaked.🧾 Lagrange ZK Prover NetworkWebsite | TwitterETH Restaked: 2.27M ($6.1B)EIGEN Restaked: N/AThe Lagrange ZK Prover Network generates ZK proofs from arbitrary blockchain data sets and stores packages with a decentralized network of “Gateway” nodes, which transmit requested information to provers for translation into readable data. The network can process smart contract information on any EVM-based chain and answer queries about the contracts on another chain without the need for a third-party bridging solution.When utilized in combination with the Lagrange State Committee, a separate EigenLayer AVS secured by 2.02M restaked ETH ($5.5B), Lagrange can provide fast confirmations for optimistic rollups, enabling them to work around standard 7-day fraud challenge periods during normal operations to eliminate cross-chain bridging latency.Should Lagrange become the de facto interchain communication standard in a multichain future, its immense utilization could churn out astronomical profits for restakers. The protocol must first gain adoption, however, and will be forced to compete against established bridging solutions and upcoming alternatives like the Polygon AggLayer to achieve it.Restaking SustainabilityRestaking is about more than the yield potential of any one platform, but in order for EigenLayer to succeed, its underlying AVSs will need to win big, too.While expected revenues from AVSs in isolation may appear inadequate to satisfy existing deposits, optional pooled restaking enables operators to simultaneously secure multiple AVSs with the same capital, a cornerstone feature of EigenLayer that would create unprecedented capital efficiency in crypto-economic security.Beyond this real yield, yes, restaked depositors will be compensated with native tokens, though the values of these inflationary incentives and the broader EigenLayer ecosystem will again be wholly reliant on the adoption of the underlying AVSs over the long run.We're still in the early innings of restaking, and while competing services like Symbiotic are attracting deposits in a battle for restaking supremacy, there are still plenty of questions about the long-term sustainability of the sector and its current kingpin. </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/eigenlayers-challenging-road-ahead</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/eigenlayers-challenging-road-ahead</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>Vitalik Weighs in on DeFi's Value</title>
<description>Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin addressed recent speculation on Twitter regarding his and the Ethereum Foundation’s stance on DeFi, emphasizing his support for DeFi with a focus on long-term sustainability.What's the scoop?In his comments, Vitalik expressed enthusiasm for DeFi apps that are both useful in a sustainable way and that adhere to core principles like permissionlessness and decentralization. He praised decentralized exchanges, decentralized stablecoins like RAI, and prediction markets like Polymarket.On the other hand, he said he didn’t respect 'unsustainable' DeFi practices, such as the 2021 liquidity farming craze, which he viewed as temporary and lacking in long-term viability.Vitalik concluded by highlighting the importance of decentralized technologies in other areas, such as messaging, identity systems, and social media, and the role that DeFi can play in combating centralization across these other sectors.Bankless take:Vitalik’s comments reaffirm his commitment to a sustainable DeFi ecosystem that aligns with Ethereum’s core values. His insights also serve as a reminder that while DeFi is crucial, the broader crypto space must additionally focus on other areas where decentralization can counter the growing centralization of power in technology and society. Still, his answer may not satisfy all critics who believe the EF needs to take a more active role in supporting the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem.The kinds of applications that I want to see are applications that are (i) useful in a sustainable way, and (ii) don't sacrifice on the principles (permissionlessness, decentralization, etc)I think DEXes are great, and I use them every week.I think decentralized stablecoins…— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 25, 2024
Sadly have the feeling that’s a vision stuck in 2021.@aave LM allowed to create what is the best example of a well functioning DAO by distributing the governance rights.We have incentives but they all come from the actual economic activity of the protocol.DeFi in 2024 is…— Marc “Billy” Zeller 👻 🦇🔊 (@lemiscate) August 25, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/vitaliks-thoughts-on-defi</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/vitaliks-thoughts-on-defi</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<title>Robinhood Brings Solana Support to its Wallet</title>
<description>Robinhood now supports certain types of Solana transactions in its Web3 wallet.What’s the Scoop?New Network: The Robinhood Wallet has added token swap and send/receive functionality for Solana native tokens, complementing existing support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Optimism, Base, and Dogecoin transactions.No SOL: Despite Robinhood’s willingness to offer Solana support in its wallet and ongoing acceptance of Solana-native USDC transfers to the exchange, SOL remains delisted for the exchange’s American users.Bankless Take:While Robinhood unexpectedly curtailed Solana trading support in June 2023 after the SEC sent it a legal complaint alleging that SOL is a security, the firm is doubling down on efforts to provide onchain functionality for the network, potentially indicating that it perceives a growth opportunity in the ecosystem.Unfortunately, SOL is likely to remain delisted from the Robinhood exchange for the foreseeable future, considering that recent reporting indicates the SEC denied pending spot SOL ETF applications on the grounds that it still believes the underlying token is a digital asset security.Super excited to announce that the Solana network is now live on Robinhood Wallet!Starting today, you can self-custody @solana tokens and send + receive over the Solana blockchain.— Johann Kerbrat (@JohannKerbrat) August 27, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/robinhood-brings-solana-support-to-its-wallet</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>MakerDAO Rebrands to Sky</title>
<description>The MakerDAO “Endgame” is coming to life with its transition to Sky.What’s the Scoop?Awaited Upgrade: MakerDAO had been teasing a major protocol overhaul for months, and today, it presented Sky, the culmination of more than two years of meticulous work by the ecosystem.New Tokens: The launch of Sky introduces two “new” tokens. Alongside MKR, the rejuvenated protocol will be governed by the SKY token, which is convertible with MKR at a 24,000:1 ratio. Additionally, Sky introduces USDS to replace yield-bearing sDAI, which remains redeemable for DAI.Inflationary Incentives: SKY is set to inflate by 600M tokens per year – representing a 2.5% increase to the current circulating supply. These emissions will be utilized to reward USDS stakers on the Sky protocol, and users who sign up with sky.money before September 18 can double their SKY rewards during their first month of staking.&nbsp;Spark Airdrop: Maker’s Spark lending market subDAO (now termed a “Star”) will airdrop 66.66M SPK to participants once the token goes live after September 18. Annual subsidies of 1B SPK will be distributed over the following four years to incentivize USDS and Maker token activation programs.Skylink: Ethereum and its major L2s will receive “Skylink” deployments following the deployment of sealed activation, providing native access to Sky ecosystem assets.Bankless Take:Although immense planning appears to have gone into the rollout of Sky, MKR price barely budged on the announcement, gaining a negligible 4.5% and failing to retrace its weekend slide. Core alterations to Maker revolve around the rebrand and inflationary token incentives, and while such changes will likely catalyze renewed short-term excitement for the protocol, it remains to be seen whether they can result in sustained benefits.Sky is here. The best and easiest place to get rewarded for saving without giving up control.Discover the upgraded tokens, new features, and boosted Sky Token Rewards for early sign-ups. Follow this thread for the latest news and updates about SkyLaunch. pic.twitter.com/Qc25KRPzR8— Sky (@SkyEcosystem) August 27, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/makerdao-rebrands-sky</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/makerdao-rebrands-sky</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
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<title>CryptoPunks 2024: Taking the Pulse of Ethereum’s Most Iconic NFTs</title>
<description>CryptoPunks are Ethereum’s most historic and iconic digital collectibles.&nbsp;Released quietly and with little fanfare in 2017, they remained relatively obscure until their explosive rise in 2021. This journey from obscurity to fame is arguably the NFT scene’s most insane "rags to riches" story.With over $2.87 billion in all-time sales volume and an $800 million market cap today, the CryptoPunks remain a dominant force. They’re also part of a small club of projects whose floor prices have reached +100 ETH at their peaks.&nbsp;However, while the ‘Punks floor has climbed 50% to 29 ETH over the past few weeks, this price is still a far cry from the 113 ETH all-time high that the collection notched in Oct. 2021 at the height of the previous NFT bull run.&nbsp;The grand question on many NFT aficionados minds, then, is can the ‘Punks return to their former glory? Can their floor price reach +100 ETH once more?I think the answers to these questions are yes and yes. And that’s because, in my opinion, the collection continues to rank very well across the 10 main criteria I use when analyzing digital collectibles. Here’s what I mean:CryptoPunks - August 2024&nbsp;🧑🎨️ Creator reputation - 9/10🎨 Aesthetic value - 9/10🔩 Technical quality - 10/10🎭 Cultural impact - 10/10👥 Community - 7/10🪄 Usefulness - 7/10🙊 Project management - 7/10🪙 Market activity - 10/10👄 Hype - 7/10🔮 Future prospects - 10/10My overall score: 86/100That said, let’s dig into each of these criteria to get the full picture of why I’m bullish on the CryptoPunks now and long-term.Creator Reputation - 9/10CryptoPunks were created by Larva Labs, founded by Matt Hall and John Watkinson, who are now considered pioneers in the NFT space. They released the collection as a one-off experiment and afterwards were hands-off, which helped the project to take on a life of its own. This work inspired Ethereum’s ERC-721 NFT standard and the generative 10k collection meta, both of which have been widely adopted ever since. As such, Larva Labs are legends here, and CryptoPunks are their most popular creations.&nbsp;Aesthetic Value - 9/10Wrapped in nostalgia, the 24x24 pixel art style of CryptoPunks has become iconic. While simple, the ‘Punks distinct visual identity has stood the test of time and become instantly recognizable, even outside the crypto community. The limited palette and variety of attributes contribute to their lasting charm and collectability.Technical Quality - 10/10We’ve already mentioned how CryptoPunks helped inspire the ERC-721 standard. But did you know the original ‘Punks smart contract also innovated the “hashed onchain” storage technique, where the composite images of the collection were stored in a cryptographic hash on Ethereum? Later, Larva Labs moved the entire collection completely onchain by storing every single ‘Punks image directly on Ethereum, too. The recent introduction of the CryptoPunks721 wrapper contract also poses new composability possibilities going forward, so there’s a lot to admire here.Cultural Impact - 10/10As far as NFTs go, CryptoPunks have had an enormous cultural impact, both within and beyond crypto. Inside the space, they’ve inspired hundreds of derivative projects—technically and aesthetically—from conceptual art collections like Wiiides to newer sillier drops like PNUKS. And in the mainstream, they’ve been displayed in major art galleries, sold at the world’s biggest art auction houses, and featured in popular media outlets around the world. This legacy and inertia here positions the CryptoPunks to have growing cultural significance in the years ahead.&nbsp;Community - 7/10The 2019-2021 era of the CryptoPunks Discord was regarded as a golden time for the ‘Punks community, when it was still tight-knit and a watering hole for some of the best minds in crypto. Admittedly, things have died down since then, but it remains true that some of the best people here are ‘Punks holders. The potential of this community is still significant accordingly.&nbsp;Usefulness - 7/10The CryptoPunks license grants holders the right to make derivative works of their ‘Punks. That’s interesting, but it’s also something many holders likely will never explore. Where ‘Punks currently offer the most direct utility is in being one of the premier and most desirable collateral assets in the NFTfi ecosystem. Whether you’re looking to borrow or lend, you won’t struggle to find options among platforms like Blur, GONDI, and NFTfi.com.Project Management - 7/10Yuga Labs, the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, acquired the CryptoPunks IP from Larva Labs in 2022. It was a controversial move that some saw as a threat to the CryptoPunks legacy. And while Yuga has had a couple of small fumbles here since then, mainly with regard to comms, they’ve generally handled the transition smoothly and have shown a commitment to preserving the legacy of the ‘Punks. Where they’ve shined is adding value at the edges, like supporting museum exhibitions and innovating the CryptoPunks721 wrapper. I’m optimistic on the stewardship if we continue to get more of the same.&nbsp;Market Activity - 10/10The CryptoPunks are a cornerstone of the contemporary NFT market, with their trading volume stats consistently at the top or near the top of all NFT collections. The demand remains strong. And with well over 1,000 ‘Punks currently available for sale, buyers have plenty of options. Let’s just say that if you’re in the market for buying or selling a ‘Punk, you won’t be facing a major struggle.&nbsp;Hype - 7/10CryptoPunks launched in 2017, and Yuga Labs is steering things in a hands-off fashion these days. That said, obviously the hype level of ‘Punks is more subdued compared to newer, more actively marketed projects. But ‘Punks don’t need to be actively marketed, they simply need to exist, as they’re already among the most coveted networked goods in the entire world. The hype now is mostly intrinsic then, it’s the aura that comes from ‘Punks being as special and historic and ownable as they are. The CryptoPunks Twitter account might not be posting roadmap updates every day, but that won’t stop the ‘Punks from proceeding on as gravity wells of intrigue.&nbsp;Future Prospects - 10/10When you consider all the criteria above, the future prospects of CryptoPunks looks very bright—arguably brighter than the prospects of any other NFT collection that exists today. It’s just that no other NFT project rates as well across all these pillars right now. Probably the project that comes the closest is the Nouns, and it’s obviously weaker than the ‘Punks in certain areas like “Market Activity” and “Hype.” This dominance stems from the OG collection’s iconicness, its special rise, and how its characters are artworks, digital collectibles, historical artifacts, and financial collateral all wrapped up in one. As the NFT space continues to mature, the ‘Punks are accordingly well-positioned to see their value and cultural significance reach new heights once more.&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/cryptopunks-2024-ethereum-analysis</link>
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<pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<item>
<title>Solana's Polymarket Challenger</title>
<description>Everyone is taking a closer look at decentralized predictions markets this year thanks to the breakout success of Polymarket. And while Polymarket is far and away the leader of the sector, with monthly volume, active users, and open interest stats currently near all-time highs amid 2024 presidential election excitement, there are other players to watch too.&nbsp;If you’re a Solana user, then you ought to check out BET!Last week, the popular Solana decentralized exchange Drift announced BET, for “Bullish on Everything,” a capital-efficient prediction market built atop the Drift Protocol.&nbsp;The grand vision? Offer a prediction marketplace where users can tap into Solana’s signature speed and low costs while also earning yield on their underlying positions before event outcomes.&nbsp;Also, BET goes wide on token support. While Polymarket is centered around USDC trading, BET supports trading with over 30 different cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins and Solana liquid staking tokens (LSTs). Out of the gate, BET has launched a handful of markets centered around the upcoming U.S. Elections, e.g., Will Kamala Harris win the popular vote in 2024? Going forward, Drift will add more market categories, like sports, and shift toward fully permissionless markets.All that said, if you’re interested in trying these first markets for yourself, head over to app.drift.trade/bet and connect your Solana wallet. At this point, you will need to fund and create an account. Select your preferred deposit approach and approve the account creation, which costs ~0.03 SOL.&nbsp;After this, you can click into one of the available markets on the BET platform to dive in. First things first, note the market’s “Resolves on” date so you know how long it will run for. Then head over to the “Market” tab and select “BET YES” or “BET NO” depending on your prediction.&nbsp;Now, it’d be time to size your trade. In the trading interface, input the amount of yes or no shares you want to acquire using the “Cost per share” metric to help you decide. Once this is done, the interface will show you additional info, like your potential profit and how much FUEL you stand to earn.&nbsp;If everything looks good, press the final “BET” button and complete the purchase transaction with your wallet. Boom, that’s all it takes!With your position locked in, you can use the “Positions” tab beneath the market interface to monitor your bet’s performance or close it early ahead of its resolution date. This is where you’ll also find a “Balances” tab for depositing, withdrawing, swapping, or transferring your assets as needed.&nbsp;There are some more advanced things you can do with BET, like making limit orders, and there are some additional services you might be interested in here, like staking DRIFT to earn extra FUEL. But the walkthrough above shows that even just the basics here are straightforward and compelling.&nbsp;Of course, Polymarket has already laid out the blueprint for how an onchain prediction marketplace can achieve major popularity; the question is now whether BET can meet (or surpass) Polymarket's success by following a similar playbook with its own flourishes. </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/solanas-polymarket-challenger</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/solanas-polymarket-challenger</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 25 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
</item>
<item>
<title>Abra Settles with SEC Over 'Auto-Magic' Crypto Earn Program</title>
<description>Crypto platform Abra has yet again run afoul of American regulators for offering access to unregistered financial instruments.What’s the Scoop?SEC Settlement: Abra has settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over Abra Earn, a lending product which promised users “auto-magic” returns on their crypto assets. Deposits into the program were subsequently deployed by the platform to generate income and fund interest payments.Warning Shot: The settlement requires Abra to cease and desist from the activities in question and pay court-mandated civil penalties. It also sends a clear warning sign to groups offering crypto-based earn products to Americans without registering them as securities.Prior Settlements: Abra has already settled with 25 states for operating without a license and agreed to return more than $82M to U.S. customers. Additionally, the firm paid $150k to both the SEC and CFTC in 2020 to resolve an investigation into its unregistered swap products.Bankless Take:Compared to the often contentious regulatory enforcement actions levied against the crypto industry, Abra's case is more straightforward, involving a centralized entity that managed user funds to generate profit while failing to register the offering as a security with the SEC.SEC complaint and settlement re Abra Earn. "AUTO-MAGICALLY". Are you serious? "In or around July 2020, Abra began to offer and sell Abra Earn in the United States. Abra Earn allowed U.S. investors to tender their crypto assets to Abra in exchange for Abra’s promise to pay… pic.twitter.com/1j2r6eV4W1— Bill Hughes : wchughes.eth 🦊 (@BillHughesDC) August 26, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/abra-settles-with-sec-over-auto-magic-crypto-earn-program</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/abra-settles-with-sec-over-auto-magic-crypto-earn-program</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 25 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
</item>
<item>
<title>Ethereum Foundation Transaction Spurs Calls for More Transparency</title>
<description>The Ethereum Foundation (EF) recently transferred 35,000 ETH, or ~$95 million, to Kraken, sparking calls within the Ethereum community for more transparency from the organization.What's the scoop?Aya Miyaguchi, Executive Director of the EF, sought to clarify on X that the transaction was part of the EF’s regular treasury management activities. The funds are earmarked for grants, salaries, and other expenses that require fiat currency.Miyaguchi noted EF’s budget is roughly $100 million annually, with much of it allocated to behind-the-scenes support for the Ethereum ecosystem, including legal protection, infrastructure, and research collaborations. Miyaguchi also noted that regulatory issues had delayed the transaction, preventing the EF from sharing their plans in advance.Community pushback largely focused on frustration around how the EF has remained far too reactionary in its external communications, with some noting that the group's recent scandals could have been avoided by more timely, transparent disclosures.Bankless take:While the EF’s $100 million budget covers essential and often unseen activities that support the Ethereum network, the community’s response underscores a growing demand for more regular financial disclosures. The EF operates with a philosophy of “subtraction,” focusing on coordination rather than taking the spotlight. However, as the network matures and the stakes grow higher, there’s a clear need for the EF to balance its discretion with the community’s expectations for transparency. More frequent and detailed financial reports would be a definite step in that direction.It's a big issue that it takes people raising a fuss on Twitter to ever get ANY info out like this. Seriously, how hard is it release a quarterly report with financials and basic updates? Expenses, expected upcoming sales, how/where the money is being spent, team size and…— eric.eth (@econoar) August 24, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/ethereum-foundation-transparency</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/ethereum-foundation-transparency</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 25 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
</item>
<item>
<title>Telegram CEO Pavel Durov Arrested</title>
<description>Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France this weekend; the billionaire CEO's arrest triggered wide rebuke across crypto.What’s the Scoop?Airport Arrest: Pavel Durov, the 39-year old Russian-born billionaire founder behind social messaging platform Telegram, was apprehended by French authorities on Saturday after landing at Le Bourget airport outside of Paris by national cyber crime and fraud officers for failing to curb criminal activities on Telegram.TON Tumbles: While Telegram is officially distinct from the decentralized TON blockchain, its token cratered 20% on news of the arrest, an unsurprising result considering that TON’s narrative strength has been largely driven by promised synergies with Telegram.Oversight Unknowns: Telegram group messages cannot be encrypted and individual user messages are not encrypted by default, meaning the company has visibility into the vast majority of user conversations occurring on its platform.Bankless Take:Europe's increasingly hostile regulatory regime took a major leap with this weekend's arrest. This saga spawns more concerns about precedents that could result in the imprisonment of additional software developers, but it is important to note that Telegram’s lack of default encryption likely exposed the firm and its founder to added regulatory scrutiny.They started arresting crypto developers a couple years ago. Now they’ve moved to messenger app developers.It won’t stop here.If we don’t preserve free speech as code we’ll lose our democracies.Europe is falling.The U.S. is hanging by a thread. pic.twitter.com/iHad8qX4gG— RYAN SΞAN ADAMS - rsa.eth 🦄 (@RyanSAdams) August 25, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-arrested</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-arrested</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 25 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
</item>
<item>
<title>Bitcoin's Presidential Shakeup</title>
<description>1️⃣ Presidential ShakeupLong-time BTC bull Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘paused’ his White House bid Friday and detailed that he was endorsing Donald Trump. Kennedy announced that he would be removing his name from the ballots in swing states and encouraged supporters there to support Trump over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.RFK Jr. made a splash in crypto circles long before Trump signaled a shift in support. Kennedy, whose bid never appeared anything beyond a long-shot, was still polling very well for a third-party candidate, and his dropping out from the race could change the equation in razor-thin swing state polling.RFK Jr. put #Bitcoin on the presidential ticket when he announced his run. Today's endorsement of the Trump campaign brings us one step closer to a bright orange future 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/VnUpRcEiDt— The Bitcoin Conference (@TheBitcoinConf) August 23, 2024
2️⃣ Crypto Awaits Trump’s DeFi PlayWhile political eyes fell on Chicago, where the Democratic National Convention was minting Harris as the party’s nominee, Trump was posting through the week on his Truth Social account, at one point highlighting a crypto project his sons Eric and Donald Jr. are behind — The Defiant Ones.“For too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites.” Trump writes in the message, “It's time we take a stand—together. #BeDefiant.”Details are limited on what exactly the platform has planned, though it's rumored to be a “digital real estate” play, though whether it leans towards metaverse land parcels or RWAs is unknown.JUST IN: Former President Donald Trump has promoted his family’s upcoming cryptocurrency platform called “The DeFiant Ones."A post calls the Telegram group chat “the only official Telegram channel for the Trump DeFi project” which is building “the future of finance.”— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) August 22, 2024
3️⃣ Rate Cuts ComingCrypto ended the week breaking out of its consistent $60K range, and it owed the pump to comments made by Fed chair Jerome Powell, which strongly hinted at near-term rate cuts. At this point, traders are feeling near-certain on September cuts, but are less sure about the scale and whether it will be a 0.50% or 0.25% cut.BREAKING: Jerome Powell says “the time has come” for interest rate cuts pic.twitter.com/1vRGTyX5UU— Exec Sum (@exec_sum) August 23, 2024
4️⃣ Judge Doesn’t Toss Kraken SuitIn a Friday ruling, a federal judge refused to dismiss the SEC’s lawsuit against the Kraken crypto exchange. Kraken had argued that the SEC had failed to make a convincing argument that transactions on the platform constituted investment contracts, but it appears the judge, at least in part, disagreed.&nbsp;Today, the Federal Court for the Northern District of California ruled, as matter of law, that none of the tokens trading on Kraken are securities. This is a significant win for Kraken, for the principle of clarity and for crypto users everywhere. It also confirms Kraken’s…— Marco Santori (@msantoriESQ) August 23, 2024
5️⃣ Mango Markets DAO SettlementThe community behind Solana-based exchange Mango Markets has voted to propose a settlement with the SEC over alleged securities violations. As part of the settlement offer, the DAO would pay a $223K fine, destroy its MNGO holdings, and delist the token.The crypto token holders that manage Mango Markets voted to approve a settlement with the SEC even though the agency hasn’t charged the DeFi platform with any wrongdoing https://t.co/uSvRazy72r— Bloomberg Crypto (@crypto) August 20, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/bitcoins-presidential-shakeup</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 22 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Bankless</author>
</item>
<item>
<title>WazirX Starts Rupee Withdrawals Following Major Hack</title>
<description>Hacked Indian crypto exchange WazirX is commencing Rupee withdrawals, but it is unlikely any of the exchange’s depositors will be satisfied with the unwind plan.What’s the Scoop?Disastrous Hack: Just over one month ago, the WazirX exchange was hacked for $230M of customer crypto deposits – 45% of its reserves according to a June asset attestation – in an attack attributed to North Korean actors.Repayment Plan: Crypto withdrawals cannot be processed at this time due to the significant loss of tokens, and Indian Rupee holders can only withdraw 66% of their assets at this time. The remaining 34% of cash deposits are frozen pending legal investigation.Bankless Take:Holding your crypto with an exchange places the burden of custody on a third party, and key infrastructure mismanagement can result in the disastrous or total loss of crypto deposits. It’s best to treat centralized exchanges like public restrooms: get in, do your business, and get out.📢 Important Announcement About INR Withdrawals and Crypto Next StepsThe last month has been a difficult time for users of the WazirX platform due to the cyberattack on 18 July 2024 and the subsequent suspension of withdrawals and trading to mitigate impact to the platform. We… pic.twitter.com/XdAr3V3TOp— WazirX: India Ka Bitcoin Exchange (@WazirXIndia) August 23, 2024
&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/wazirx-starts-rupee-withdrawals-following-major-hack</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/wazirx-starts-rupee-withdrawals-following-major-hack</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 22 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
</item>
<item>
<title>Jerome Powell Gets Ready to Cut Interest Rates</title>
<description>The time has come for rate cuts, according to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.What’s the Scoop?Dovish Developments: Markets rallied as Powell took the stage at Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole Policy Symposium this morning, proclaiming that “the worst of the pandemic-related economic distortions are fading, inflation has declined significantly, [and] the labor market is no longer overheated.”Powell Pivot: Although the Fed has previously been focused on reining in inflation as part of its dual mandate, Chair Powell announced that “the balance of risks has changed” as the upside risks to inflation have diminished while the downside risks to employment have increased.Employment in Focus: Powell indicated he does not welcome a cooling labor market and will do everything possible to maintain its strength to prevent it, but maintained that rising unemployment was due to slowing hiring and increasing labor supply instead of outright layoffs, a welcomed development that does not appear to impose immediate downside economic risks.New Paradigm: For Powell, the future direction for rates is clear and the time has come to adjust monetary policy; he remains optimistic that an appropriate dialing back of policy restraint will enable the economy to get back to 2% inflation while supporting a strong labor market.Bankless Take:Anticipation for Fed rate cuts enabled market participants to shrug off deteriorating economic data throughout 2024, yet not even the strongest confirmation to date for their arrival could prompt the S&amp;P 500 to achieve the 1.15% gain needed to break all-time highs. &nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/jerome-powell-gets-ready-to-cut-interest-rates</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 22 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
</item>
<item>
<title>Sony Introduces Soneium Ethereum L2</title>
<description>Sony Block Solutions Labs has announced its development of Soneium, an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) network for bringing onchain possibilities into the mainstream.&nbsp; What's the Scoop?Soneium is designed to be a versatile, general-purpose blockchain that will cater to a variety of industries, developers, creators, and communities.The network will initially target crypto enthusiasts, with plans to integrate Sony’s extensive portfolio, including Sony Bank, Sony Music, and Sony Pictures, within the next two years.Soneium will leverage Optimism’s OP Stack for its infrastructure, allowing compatibility with other networks in the Superchain ecosystem like Base and Zora Network.&nbsp;Bankless Take:This news demonstrates how some of the biggest companies in the world are still embracing blockchain applications, e.g. in this case building a custom chain as a Sony hub atop Ethereum. It also demonstrates the appeal of the OP Stack in offering a streamlined way to launch robust, custom L2s without these mainstream enterprises having to start development from scratch. We’ll see what happens from here, but either way, Soneium is now a project to watch in the coming years. </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/sony-introduces-soneium-its-ethereum-l2-network</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/sony-introduces-soneium-its-ethereum-l2-network</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 22 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
</item>
<item>
<title>Getting Started with the Midjourney Web Editor</title>
<description>Midjourney, the popular AI platform for generating art via text prompts, just opened its highly-anticipated web editor to everyone and is offering free trials to test the new tool through the end of the week.&nbsp;Why it mattersvia MidjourneyPreviously, Midjourney was only usable through commands issued to bots in the Midjourney Discord server. For some users, the Discord UX was unfamiliar and daunting.&nbsp;In contrast, the new web editor release offers a streamlined, one-stop hub for easily tapping into Midjourney features, like inpainting (using text prompts to “repaint” parts of an image) and outpainting (generating new imagery beyond an image’s original frame).&nbsp;How to navigate the Midjourney web editor1) ExploreOnce you’ve started a free trial or signed in with an existing account (base plans start at $10 per month), you’ll arrive on the Explore tab of the web editor.This is where you can surf through recent Midjourney creations by other users via filters like “Hot” or “Random” and click into pictures to review their underlying prompts and style parameters. Use the heart button on the right side to like photos and quickly come back to them later.&nbsp;Here, you can also start remixing or building off of images you find by clicking on the “Image,” “Style,” or “Prompt” buttons on the lower right side of the web editor.&nbsp;2) CreateBelow the Explore tab in the web editor, you’ll find the Create hub. Here you can easily create, review, and remix your art.&nbsp;You can use the text bar at the top of the editor to input your desired text prompts, while the center and right side of the Create page displays your previous outputs, prompts, style parameters, and remix options like “Rerun” (run the prompt again to generate 4 new results) and “Use” (this copies parameters to your clipboard for remixing into a new prompt).&nbsp;Of course, you can always just try firing off basic text commands and see what results you get. But if you’re looking to start mastering Midjourney, I recommend familiarizing yourself with the basics of Midjourney’s style parameters. For example, let’s consider this prompt:The initial text “magic wand” text is the visual instructions for the type of scene you want to illustrate“ar” defines the desired aspect ratio“sref” implements style reference codes, of which there are over 4 billion, and each has a unique aesthetic and can be mixed with others&nbsp;“sw” is the style weight, which defines from 0-1000 the strength of stylization of your chosen style references“stylize” defines how closely your outputs will match your prompt artistically“v” defines which version of Midjourney you want to use, with 6.1 being the newest and most optimized model availableThese are not all of the existing parameters, but they demonstrate the kind of flexibility you can enjoy when creating art on Midjourney. Again, you can always just try basic text prompts but the results won’t always be great or what you’re looking for.&nbsp;For instance, using the “magic wand casting a shiny spell on a gold coin” prompt, the image on the left side below was made without any parameters and the image on the right was made with the parameters shown above. The latter approach offers you much more control, e.g. if you’re seeking a hand-painted aesthetic rather than something more photographic like here:3) Organize, Chat, and TasksThe main attractions of the Midjourney web editor are the Explore and Create hubs, but there are a few other helpful resources. First is the Organize tab, where you can review, filter, and edit all your recent creations or organize them into custom folders. This area is useful if you want to readily archive and keep track of specific prompting approaches you’ve previously used or seen.&nbsp;Then there is the Chat tab, which is essentially a slick frontend for surfing some of the Midjourney Discord’s most popular prompting rooms. Lastly, the Tasks center hosts a series of simple quests you can undertake to help Midjourney, like taking surveys or ranking images. Some of these quests offer “fast hours” as rewards, granting you the ability to generate outputs faster.&nbsp;The bottom lineThanks to AI, the ability to turn ideas into images quickly is a new sort of superpower. As such, Midjourney’s new web editor is notable because it makes this superpower that much easier to wield.&nbsp;If you haven’t tried Midjourney before, I recommend giving it a spin while the limited-time free trials are live or even just trying out the base plan for a month. Whether you’re an artist exploring AI or just keen on making some silly social media content, this web editor is now one of the best ways to do so! </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/midjourney-web-editor-guide</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/midjourney-web-editor-guide</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
</item>
<item>
<title>Grayscale Unveils AVAX Trust</title>
<description>Crypto’s oldest asset manager is launching a new investment vehicle that will offer certain individuals exposure to Avalanche.What’s the Scoop?New Trust: The Grayscale Avalanche Trust will offer AVAX exposure to qualified investors under its private placement model.Restricted Access: Like many other Grayscale products, the AVAX fund will only be available via private placement, meaning that redemptions are unavailable, which could cause the product to trade at extreme discounts and premiums, and only accredited investors can purchase shares, subject to a one-year mandatory holding period. Bankless Take:While the pathway towards spot AVAX ETFs was illuminated by a Coinbase Derivatives filing in late June to list AVAX futures, the presence of private placement Grayscale Trusts with loose registration criterias yields zero bearing on the future likelihood of spot ETF approval for any digital asset.We are proud to announce the creation of a new single-asset crypto investment fund, available through private placement: Grayscale Avalanche Trust $AVAX.Available to eligible accredited investors.Read the press release: https://t.co/XwKfjPD9Tw pic.twitter.com/HdzlNfwkQ8— Grayscale (@Grayscale) August 22, 2024
</description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/grayscale-debuts-ava</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
</item>
<item>
<title>Donald Trump Pitches Sons' 'Digital Real Estate' Project</title>
<description>U.S. Presidential hopeful Donald Trump is publicizing his sons’ upcoming crypto project to followers on his Truth Social social media platform.What’s the Scoop?Digital Real Estate: Limited information is available about the DeFiant project, but in an exclusive interview with the New York Post, Eric Trump stated that it will be an “equitable” digital real estate project offering everyone access to collateral.Ultimate KOL: This morning, Donald Trump posted to Truth Social that “For too long, the average American has been squeezed by the big banks and financial elites.” He advised those who want to “take a stand” to join the DeFiant Telegram channel.Devs Cooking: DeFiant’s Telegram contains no additional information on the project and notes that updates and announcements will be shared via the channel in the coming days.Bankless Take:While it would certainly be encouraging for the state of the crypto industry to have the Trump family launch some form of tokenized real estate application, there seems to be an outsized chance this ends up looking like more of a 'metaverse' play than one pushing boundaries on real-world utility. </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/trump-defiant-project</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/trump-defiant-project</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Jack Inabinet</author>
</item>
<item>
<title>Magic Eden Makes $ME Token Announcement</title>
<description>Magic Eden, one of the largest NFT marketplaces by trading volume, has announced its official ecosystem token, $ME.&nbsp;What's the scoop?Rebranded from Non-Fungible DAO and $NFT, the ME Foundation and $ME will serve as central pillars of the Magic Eden ecosystem going forward.&nbsp;The ME Foundation, a non-profit entity, will oversee the governance of $ME and the development of open-source protocols that Magic Eden and potentially other platforms will adopt.As for the $ME token, it has been designed to incentivize users to engage with Magic Eden products across a growing stable of supported blockchains.The specific tokenomics haven’t been announced yet, but $ME will be exclusively claimable through the Magic Eden Wallet, available on both desktop and mobile.&nbsp;Bankless Take:As one of the main tour de force presences in the contemporary NFT space, Magic Eden is positioned to make a big splash with the rollout of $ME. The specifics of the launch time and community governance processes aren’t clear yet, but we should know more soon. Whether the token can truly shake up the decentralized app scene remains to be seen, but if nothing else, Magic Eden is daring to go where one of its biggest competitors—OpenSea—hasn’t yet.&nbsp; </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/magic-eden-token</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/magic-eden-token</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
</item>
<item>
<title>Grayscale’s Bull Market Bets</title>
<description>OG crypto asset manager Grayscale has been awfully busy lately. When Grayscale announces a new Trust for a particular asset, the market often reacts with a mix of excitement and skepticism. It's a bit like a double-edged sword: a signal of saturation for some and a beacon of hope for others.Some might interpret the launch as a sign that the market for that asset is reaching saturation or at least limited upside potential in crypto terms. On the one hand, it’s a stamp of approval from a major player in the crypto space. It can lend legitimacy to the asset, potentially attracting institutional investors, and, at the very least, boost media coverage.Grayscale has been adding new investment products at a faster clip, showcasing their conviction that we’re in the middle innings of a crypto bull market fueled by a grand slam of bullish signals: Bitcoin ETF inflows, the long-awaited ETH ETF launch, increasing stablecoin adoption, and steady growth in TVL across DeFi.As a quiet giant in the industry, investors continue to watch what Grayscale is backing and what that says about their impressions of which direction the industry is headed. What assets have caught their attention lately? Let's find out. 👇Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund (FIL, NEAR, RNDR, LPT, TAO)Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund is a first-of-its-kind fund that invests solely in native tokens of decentralized AI protocols. It currently includes Filecoin, Near, Render, Livepeer, and Bittensor.Breakdown of holdings in Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund. Source: GrayscaleGrayscale points out the concerns of a future dominated by centralized AI and the potential of crypto to create a more equitable and transparent ecosystem. They believe that while the crypto x AI sector is early, it holds immense promise. By leveraging the power of crypto, we can build a more equitable, transparent, and trustworthy AI ecosystem.&nbsp;Grayscale Dynamic Income Fund (SOL, CBETH, NEAR, Others)The Grayscale Dynamic Income Fund (GDIF) is designed to capitalize on the growing staking rewards offered by various tokens like SOL, ETH, NEAR, and several others. This fund aims to maximize returns by strategically allocating capital to tokens with attractive staking yields.Grayscale is known for its diversified approach to crypto investing. While they typically diversify across sectors, GDIF marks a new frontier: diversifying across different types of tokens. This offers investors a distinct yield opportunity beyond the potential upside of the underlying tokens.Grayscale |
TonyRL
reviewed
Aug 31, 2024
lib/routes/bankless/article.ts
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| }; | ||
| async function handler() { | ||
| const response = await ofetch(baseUrl); |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Please use the API endpoint /api/read/filter-content instead
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There is no needs to provide the api, only /read page is useful.
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If a site uses its API to provide articles, the feed should prioritize the API instead of scraping the site's HTML
There was a problem hiding this comment.
If a site uses its API to provide articles, the feed should prioritize the API instead of scraping the site's HTML
Where can find the site's api?I didn't see it.
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Oh, I saw it. But the api need authencation and api key, I think it's not easy for users to use it, right?
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Visit
RSSHub/lib/routes/bankless/article.ts
Line 6 in ef8c08d
and search
/api/read/filter-content in the DevTools
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Visit
RSSHub/lib/routes/bankless/article.ts
Line 6 in ef8c08d
and search
/api/read/filter-contentin the DevTools
Ok, I see. But it will take me much more time to deal with the filter type, can you merge the current route which with the whole first 40 articles at first?
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Switching to API does not require much effort, and it's expected to get it fixed before merging
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Successfully generated as following: http://localhost:1200/bankless/article - Success ✔️<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Bankless Articles</title>
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<title>Russia Set to Trial Cross-Border Crypto Payments</title>
<description><p>Russia is set to trial cross-border crypto payments, in a move that's likely designed to bypass international sanctions, but experts are skeptical about their ability to evade detection.</p><h2 id="what%E2%80%99s-the-scoop">What’s the scoop?</h2><ul><li><strong>Legislation Passed:</strong> Russia's new law, signed by President Vladimir Putin, allows for cross-border crypto payments while maintaining the ban on using crypto as legal tender within the country.</li><li><strong>Experimental Regime:</strong> The law grants the Russian central bank the authority to oversee an "experimental" regime, though the exact parameters and rules remain undefined.</li><li><strong>Sanctions Evasion:</strong> Russia's new legislation aims to evade Western sanctions from its Ukraine invasion, but blockchain traceability and secondary sanctions remain big hurdles, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/08/30/russia-is-about-to-try-using-crypto-to-get-around-sanctions/?ref=bankless.ghost.io">CoinDesk</a> notes.</li></ul><h2 id="bankless-take">Bankless Take:</h2><p>Though this certainly does not play well for optics going into a legislatively-busy September, Russia's move to use crypto for avoiding sanctions may not be as effective as they hope. With blockchain analytic companies like <a href="https://www.chainalysis.com/?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Chainalysis</a> and <a href="https://www.trmlabs.com/?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">TRM Labs</a> already working with governments to navigate onchain flows, the West will likely have the intelligence to institute effective countermeasures. However, this continues Russia’s foray into crypto following its legalization of crypto mining last month.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-bookmark-card"><a class="kg-bookmark-container" href="https://www.bankless.com/russia-legalizes-crypto-mining?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><div class="kg-bookmark-content"><div class="kg-bookmark-title">Russia Legalizes Crypto Mining on Bankless</div><div class="kg-bookmark-description">The Duma passed a law to fully legalize crypto mining starting in November.</div><div class="kg-bookmark-metadata"><img class="kg-bookmark-icon" src="https://www.bankless.com/assets/img/favicon/apple-touch-icon.png" alt="" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><span class="kg-bookmark-author">Bankless</span><span class="kg-bookmark-publisher">David C</span></div></div><div class="kg-bookmark-thumbnail"><img src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/07/lu.ma._russian_russian_duma_82533f20-5575-4cf8-9978-312beadc83ba.webp" alt="" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></div></a></figure> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/putin-russia-cross-border-crypto</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 29 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>U.S. House Committee Planning Crypto Hearings Blitz in September</title>
<description><p>The U.S. House Financial Services Committee is gearing up for a series of crypto-focused hearings in September, including topics like DeFi, SEC enforcement, and "pig butchering" scams, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/08/29/us-house-committee-plans-for-heap-of-crypto-hearings-in-september/?ref=bankless.ghost.io">CoinDesk</a> reports.</p><h2 id="whats-the-scoop">What's the scoop?</h2><ul><li><strong>DeFi Under Scrutiny:</strong> On September 10, a subcommittee will examine decentralized finance (DeFi), which has faced regulatory scrutiny. New federal rules could challenge DeFi projects.</li><li><strong>SEC Enforcement Practices:</strong> <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/08/29/us-house-committee-plans-for-heap-of-crypto-hearings-in-september/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>September 18</u></a> will have two hearings: one on SEC enforcement actions and another on "pig butchering" scams, where romantic partners defraud victims.</li><li><strong>Gary Gensler on the Hot Seat: </strong>The full committee will hold a hearing on September 23 with SEC Chair Gary Gensler and the commission. Lawmakers will question the SEC's approach to digital assets as they consider legislation potentially reducing the SEC's authority over crypto.</li></ul><h2 id="bankless-take">Bankless Take:</h2><p>While September’s typically a dull month for Bitcoin price action, it certainly will not be for regulation. With the SEC's enforcement practices under the microscope and legislation up for debate that could shift power away from the SEC to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the outcomes of these discussions could hold significant implications for America’s crypto future. Though the possibility of passing new crypto legislation remains uncertain, with September’s schedule and Chuck Schumer’s recent call for passing legislation this year, momentum certainly seems to be ramping up.</p> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/u-s-house-committee-planning-crypto-hearings-blitz-in-september</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 29 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>$250+ Billion Dogecoin Lawsuit Against Elon Musk Dismissed</title>
<description><p>A U.S. District Judge dismissed a class action lawsuit that was seeking $258B in damages against Elon Musk and Tesla. The suit alleged that Musk's comments had manipulated the Dogecoin market.</p><h3 id="what%E2%80%99s-the-scoop">What’s the scoop?</h3><ul><li><strong>Allegations of Manipulation:</strong> Investors claimed that Musk's public statements, including tweets about DOGE and aspirations like becoming the token’s CEO and putting a Dogecoin on the moon, were misleading.</li><li><strong>Judge’s Ruling: </strong>The judge ruled Musk's statements as "<a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/313881/elon-musk-cleared-in-dogecoin-class-action-lawsuit?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>aspirational and puffery</u></a>," unreliable for investors. Allegations of market manipulation were found groundless, with no evidence of a "pump and dump" scheme or insider trading.</li></ul><h3 id="bankless-take">Bankless Take:</h3><p>The dismissal of the lawsuit looks to spread the message of “follow influencers at your own peril.” While Musk’s influence on the market is undeniable, this ruling suggests that broad, non-specific comments, even from a high-profile figure, are difficult to pin down as actionable market manipulation, a sentiment echoed in the prompt dismissal of a lawsuit against <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/roaring-kitty-sued-over-alleged-142121511.html?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Roaring Kitty in late June</a> by a GME holder.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">In 2021 this would have sent <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24DOGE&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">$DOGE</a> up 200% in a single candle <a href="https://t.co/nlka3QZXDr?ref=bankless.ghost.io">https://t.co/nlka3QZXDr</a></p>— Wazz (@WazzCrypto) <a href="https://twitter.com/WazzCrypto/status/1829296336912752906?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">August 29, 2024</a></blockquote>
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<link>https://www.bankless.com/250-billion-dogecoin-lawsuit-against-elon-musk-dismissed</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 29 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>What I'm Minting on Base This Week</title>
<description><h3 id="1%EF%B8%8F%E2%83%A3-a-basename-domain">1️⃣ A Basename domain</h3><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><a href="https://www.base.org/names?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><img src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T112702.981.png" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="806" height="491" srcset="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w600/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T112702.981.png 600w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T112702.981.png 806w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></a><figcaption><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">via </span><a href="https://www.base.org/names?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Base</span></a></figcaption></figure><p>Powered by the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) tech stack, <a href="https://www.base.org/names?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Basenames</a> is the new native onchain identity system for the <a href="javascript:;" tabindex="0" style="cursor:pointer;" data-bs-container="body" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-placement="top" data-bs-content="<span class='popoverTitle'><img src='https://cdn.bankless.com/stubs/base4460250-icon.png' alt='Base' /> Base <span class='popoverCategory'>L2</span></span><span class='popoverDescription'>Base is an L2 built on OP Stack.</span><a href='https://www.bankless.com/basel2' class='popoverBtn'>View Profile</a>" class="stubHighlight">Base</a> ecosystem. </p><p>The grand idea? Make it easier <strong>1)</strong> to send transactions with readable addresses, and <strong>2)</strong> to manage and grow onchain profiles on Base. Like on ENS, these profiles are respectively underpinned by unique domain NFTs. </p><p>The registration price to mint your profile starts at 0.0001 ETH per year for +10 character names, but registering a coveted 3 character name like "abc.base.eth" would annually cost 0.1 ETH. Personally, I picked <strong>peaster.base.eth</strong> and paid 0.001 ETH, or ~$2.55 at the current ETH/USD exchange rate. </p><h3 id="2%EF%B8%8F%E2%83%A3-base-colors-soulbounds">2️⃣ Base Colors Soulbounds</h3><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><a href="https://www.basecolors.com/soulbounds?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><img src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T120742.645.png" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1151" height="844" srcset="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w600/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T120742.645.png 600w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w1000/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T120742.645.png 1000w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T120742.645.png 1151w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></a><figcaption><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">via </span><a href="https://www.basecolors.com/soulbounds?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Base Colors</span></a></figcaption></figure><p>Created as a collab between <a href="https://x.com/0FJAKE?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">JAKE</a> and <a href="https://x.com/apex_ether?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Apex777</a>, <a href="https://www.basecolors.com/?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Base Colors</a> is an NFT collection featuring +16 million tokens, each representing a unique color in the RGB system. Collectors can mint, name, and own these colors as they please. </p><p>I love the minimalist experimentation here, but as a fan of projects that uniquely "illustrate" crypto addresses into visual form, it's actually the Base Colors spinoff collection <a href="https://www.basecolors.com/soulbounds?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Soulbounds</a> that really caught my eye and compelled me to mint. </p><p>For example, the screenshot above shows my Soulbound, i.e. my Ethereum address as adapted into the Base Colors system. The NFTs of this secondary collection are non-transferrable, hence their name, but with a minting cost of only 0.001 ETH it's a light and fun way to visualize your onchainness.</p><h3 id="3%EF%B8%8F%E2%83%A3-wazoo-wegends">3️⃣ Wazoo Wegends</h3><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><a href="https://create.party.app/mint/base/0xfCFfB65Fd94141936Eb34d42814124450f24f421?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><img src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T121306.701.png" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1082" height="657" srcset="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w600/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T121306.701.png 600w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w1000/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T121306.701.png 1000w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T121306.701.png 1082w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></a><figcaption><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">via </span><a href="https://create.party.app/mint/base/0xfCFfB65Fd94141936Eb34d42814124450f24f421?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Party</span></a></figcaption></figure><p>This week, Party unveiled the <a href="https://x.com/prtyDAO/status/1828880094208897409?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">V2 of its new Sets tool</a> that lets creators easily release NFT collections as mixed-rarity open edition releases, and they released <a href="https://x.com/prtyDAO/status/1828845660277297471?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Kazoo Legends</a> as a 24-hour drop to demonstrate the V2 in action.</p><p>That mint is now over, but cryptoart legend Gremplin, the creator of CrypToadz and a contributor to the Nouns art, immediately followed the release with his own Set in his signature style, <a href="https://create.party.app/mint/base/0xfCFfB65Fd94141936Eb34d42814124450f24f421?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Wawoo Wegends</a>. </p><p>Mints cost 0.0005 ETH a pop, so it's a great avenue to collect some iconic Gremplin pieces if you haven't before, and if you're lucky you'll pull the rarest "Legendary" Wizod edition. Keep in mind that minting closes tomorrow, August 30th at ~10:00am PT / 1:00 PM ET, so collect before then to try your luck!</p><h3 id="4%EF%B8%8F%E2%83%A3-creature-cubes">4️⃣ Creature Cubes</h3><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><a href="https://creaturecubes.art/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><img src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-125607.png" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1556" height="782" srcset="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w600/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-125607.png 600w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w1000/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-125607.png 1000w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-125607.png 1556w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></a><figcaption><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">via </span><a href="https://creaturecubes.art/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Create Cubes</span></a></figcaption></figure><p>The latest from Danny Cole's Creature World art project, <a href="https://creaturecubes.art/?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Creature Cubes</a> is a <a href="https://x.com/creatureworld/status/1828531562490798517?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">404-style experiment</a> where the collection is composed of both NFTs and fungible $CUBE tokens. </p><p>The cost to collect one Cube is 0.008 ETH, and doing so will net you 1 NFT and an associated sum of 1,000 $CUBE. Transfer the NFT, and the tokens follow, trade some of the tokens and the NFT will be burned until you gain 1,000 $CUBE again, etc. </p><p>The idea is to pave the way for exploring new collecting mechanics within the Creature World community. Plus, the art is downright charming—per usual for Danny Cole and co. </p><p>Note, this drop is only open for 24 hours, so be sure to collect before ~12:20pm PT / 3:20 PM ET on August 30th if you're interested in joining in! </p><h3 id="5%EF%B8%8F%E2%83%A3-dappmon-starter-package">5️⃣ Dappmon Starter Package</h3><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><a href="https://play.dappmon.xyz/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><img src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T110427.615.png" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1919" height="908" srcset="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w600/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T110427.615.png 600w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w1000/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T110427.615.png 1000w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w1600/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T110427.615.png 1600w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T110427.615.png 1919w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></a><figcaption><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">via </span><a href="https://play.dappmon.xyz/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Dappmon</span></a></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://x.com/dappmon/status/1828553530694832138?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Dappmon</a> is a new virtual pet game on Base, with all its in-game creatures and assets powered via NFTs and its app logic built atop MUD, an open-source framework for building apps like fully onchain games.</p><p>Collect, raise, train, and battle your pets to become a champion, or just play casually to explore the early Base gaming scene. Up to you!</p><p>To get started, minting a <a href="https://x.com/dappmon/status/1828553547534999589?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Dappmon Starter Package</a> costs 0.0066 ETH and will grant you everything you need to dive in, including a starter egg, food, bandages, and more to help you manage your pets. If you're looking for a chill Base app to check out, this one's worth a try.</p> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/minting-on-base-this-week</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 28 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<title>The Bankless Guide to Cosmos</title>
<description><p>Cosmos is a decentralized network of independent, scalable, and interoperable blockchains, creating an ecosystem where highly customizable and performant chains can seamlessly communicate and transact across each other.&nbsp; </p><h2 id="key-takeaways"><strong>Key takeaways</strong></h2><ul><li>Cosmos uses the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol to enable interoperability between different blockchains and a unique consensus mechanism called Tendermint, which offers fast finality and high security.</li><li>Cosmos Hub, powered by the ATOM token, serves as the central blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem.</li><li>Right now, the largest network built atop Cosmos is <a href="https://defillama.com/chains/Cosmos?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>Hyperliquid</u></a>, which currently boasts $670 million in total value locked (TVL), making it the 10th-largest DeFi chain today.&nbsp;</li></ul><hr><h2 id="what-is-cosmos"><strong>What is Cosmos?</strong></h2><p>Cosmos aims to overcomes the weaknesses that traditional blockchains sometimes face by creating an ecosystem of interconnected blockchains. As such, the network is designed to address three primary challenges—scalability, usability, and interoperability—and it’s credited with pioneering the “app-chains” model accordingly.&nbsp;</p><p>In powering independent parallel blockchains, Cosmos allows for high transaction throughput and enables different projects to retain their sovereignty while still being able to interact with other chains in the network.</p><p>The Cosmos ecosystem itself is centered around the Cosmos Hub, the first blockchain launched on the network. The Hub serves as a central ledger that keeps track of the state of all connected blockchains, facilitating seamless communication and token transfers between them.</p><h2 id="how-does-cosmos-work"><strong>How does Cosmos work?</strong></h2><p>Cosmos operates on several key technical pillars that enable its unique functionality:</p><ul><li><strong>🍬 Tendermint Consensus</strong>: Cosmos uses an implementation of the Tendermint consensus algorithm, CometBFT. This Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus mechanism allows for quick transaction processing and confirmation.</li><li><strong>🌐 Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol</strong>: The IBC protocol is a core feature of Cosmos, enabling secure communication and data transfer between independent blockchains. It allows different blockchains to exchange messages in a standardized manner, facilitating interoperability across the network.</li><li><strong>🌌 Zones and Hubs</strong>: In the Cosmos ecosystem, individual blockchains are called "zones," while "hubs" like the Cosmos Hub facilitate communication between these zones. Each zone can have its own validator set and governance system, maintaining sovereignty while still being part of the larger network.</li><li><strong>🧱 Cosmos SDK</strong>: This software development kit provides developers with tools to build application-specific blockchains, i.e. app-chains, quickly and easily. It offers common blockchain functionalities like staking and governance, allowing developers to focus on their attention elsewhere.</li></ul><h2 id="why-cosmos"><strong>Why Cosmos?</strong></h2><p>Unlike many Layer 1 (L1) blockchains that struggle with throughput as they grow, Cosmos allows for horizontal scaling. By enabling the creation of numerous sovereign Zones that can interact, Cosmos circumvents the scalability limitations of monolithic blockchain architectures.</p><p>Additionally, Cosmos is great on customization, as it empowers developers to create purpose-built blockchains tailored to specific applications or use cases. This level of flexibility allows for optimized performance and governance structures that best suit each project's needs, without sacrificing interoperability.</p><p>That said, the Cosmos ecosystem is <a href="https://www.bankless.com/cosmos-at-a-crossroads?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>currently facing challenges</u></a> like internal strife and a demoralized community. To reclaim its position, Cosmos must address these issues by rebuilding trust, doubling down on user experience, further empowering developers, and clarifying its unique value proposition. </p><p>These goals are all achievable, and Cosmos has many bright thinkers in its community, so revitalizing the network’s ecosystem is absolutely possible.&nbsp;</p><h2 id="how-to-invest-in-cosmos"><strong>How to invest in Cosmos?</strong></h2><p>The native cryptocurrency of the Cosmos Hub, ATOM, plays a crucial role in the network. It's used for staking, governance, and as a reserve currency for the ecosystem. Validators and delegators can stake ATOM to secure the network and earn rewards.</p><p>At the time of this guide's update, ATOM was trading around $5.05 per token with a market capitalization of approximately $1.97 billion, making it the 42nd-largest cryptocurrency in the market.If you’re interested in staking ATOM, the yield is currently 14.7% APR. To begin, you could follow these steps:</p><ul><li><strong>👛 Create a Cosmos wallet</strong> — We recommend <a href="https://www.keplr.app/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>Keplr</u></a>, a user-friendly browser wallet for Cosmos chains that also offers a streamlined staking interface.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>⚛️ Acquire ATOM</strong> — The easiest path here is to buy ATOM on a crypto exchange like Coinbase or Kraken. When you have the funds you want to stake ready to go, deposit them into the Cosmos Hub address provided in your Keplr wallet.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>🪙 Stake through Keplr</strong> — With your ATOM in hand, click on the “Manage Portfolio in Keplr Dashboard” button in your wallet. In the “Staking” hub, click on “Cosmos Hub,” and then choose a validator to stake with from the provided list. Input the amount of ATOM you want to stake and approve the final transaction with your wallet. You can also unstake through this dashboard when you’re ready.&nbsp;</li></ul><h2 id="top-cosmos-projects"><strong>Top Cosmos projects</strong></h2><p>When it comes to user-facing activities, the main Cosmos Hub chain isn’t used for much besides ATOM staking. Where most of the action is found is in the dozens of independent app-chains that exist atop the Cosmos network today. Some of the top app-chains to explore here include:</p><ul><li>🌊 <a href="https://hyperliquid.xyz/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><strong><u>Hyperliquid</u></strong></a><strong> </strong>— a popular perpetuals exchange</li><li>💱 <a href="https://dydx.trade/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><strong><u>dYdX</u></strong></a><strong> </strong>— a DeFi derivatives chain</li><li>🧪 <a href="https://osmosis.zone/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><strong><u>Osmosis</u></strong></a>— a decentralized exchange app-chain and DeFi ecosystem&nbsp;</li><li>⛓️ <a href="https://www.sei.io/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><strong><u>Sei</u></strong></a> — a newer L1 with parallelized transactions</li><li>📁 <a href="https://www.bankless.com/the-bankless-guide-to-celestia?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><strong><u>Celestia</u></strong></a><strong> </strong>— a leading data availability (DA) blockchain</li></ul><hr><h2 id="more-about-cosmos"><strong>More about Cosmos</strong></h2><p>👉 <a href="https://www.bankless.com/cosmos?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>Bankless Cosmos Profile</u></a><br><br><br><br></p> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/the-bankless-guide-to-cosmos</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 28 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Bankless</author>
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<title>Trump Teases Rebranded Crypto Platform, Banks $2M in NFT Sale</title>
<description><p>Donald Trump’s new NFT collection faces mixed reception amid continued teases of a bigger crypto project.</p><h3 id="what%E2%80%99s-the-scoop">What’s the scoop?</h3><ul><li><strong>Sales Numbers:</strong> Donald Trump's “America First Edition” NFT collection has made over $2M since Tuesday, surpassing CryptoPunks' $754K in 24-hour sales. Despite strong initial sales, only about 20.7K of the 360K available NFTs have been minted — <a href="https://decrypt.co/246895/trump-latest-nfts-top-2-million-sales-5-percent-sold?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>5.7% of the total supply</u></a>.</li><li><strong>Historical Context: </strong>Trump’s previous NFT collections sold out quickly but were significantly smaller in scale. His last collection, which featured 100K NFTs, only sold half.</li><li><strong>Usage Limitations: </strong>The NFTs from this collection cannot be resold on secondary marketplaces until January 31, 2025, similar to the restrictions on his previous collection.</li><li><strong>Website Live for World Liberty Financial:</strong> Trump continues to tease his upcoming crypto project, World Liberty Financial, with a new website that says the project will connect users to "<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/08/29/trumps-new-crypto-business-to-offer-access-to-high-yield-investments-website-says/?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">decentralized finance's best tools</a> for secure, high-yield crypto investments.</li></ul><h3 id="bankless-take">Bankless Take:</h3><p>Trump’s latest NFT venture presents a mixed bag. On one hand, raking in over $2M in a weak market is no small feat, especially when compared to established collections like CryptoPunks. However, the low percentage of minted NFTs signals potential oversupply with the collection’s size. If the collection ultimately sells out, though, the $35.6M haul he’ll yield will be hard to dismiss. Beyond the NFTs, Trump’s repeated teases of his larger crypto project have failed to yield concrete details, aside from these new clues about “high-yield crypto investments,” which build on his son’s previous comments to the <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/08/29/trump-keeps-teasing-his-new-crypto-project-but-details-remain-scant/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>New York Post</u></a> that WLF may also involve getting loans without traditional banks.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/worldlibertyfi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">@worldlibertyfi</a> <a href="https://t.co/mwhVIzPJyq?ref=bankless.ghost.io">pic.twitter.com/mwhVIzPJyq</a></p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1829141447087648796?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">August 29, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/trump-new-project-nft-sales</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 28 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>DraftKings Faces $65M Lawsuit from NFL Players Association</title>
<description><p>The NFL Players Association is suing DraftKings, claiming the company owes nearly $65M for unpaid obligations related to its defunct NFT fantasy game.</p><h2 id="whats-the-scoop">What's the scoop?</h2><ul><li><strong>Licensing Dispute:</strong> The dispute involves a licensing agreement allowing DraftKings to use NFL players' likenesses in its Reignmakers NFT product. DraftKings ended the agreement after closing the Reignmakers platform last month.</li><li><strong>Legal Background:</strong> The shutdown followed a legal setback for DraftKings, as a Massachusetts federal court denied the company’s motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit claiming the NFTs were unregistered securities.</li><li><strong>Termination Clause:</strong> DraftKings claims a clause lets them exit if regulators deem NFTs as securities. The NFLPA disagrees, saying market conditions and regret don’t excuse DraftKings from their obligations.</li><li><strong>Financial Context:</strong> <a href="https://decrypt.co/246845/nflpa-nfl-draftkings-nft-lawsuit?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">The NFLPA’s lawsuit points ou</a>t that DraftKings executives received $261M in compensation since 2021, roughly four times the amount the union claims it’s owed.</li></ul><h2 id="bankless-take">Bankless Take:</h2><p>Legal pressures continue to plague NFTs. While this particular case involves specific agreements and commitments between companies, it showcases a dicey road ahead and casts NFTs in a negative light, portraying them —&nbsp;as many were during 2021 —&nbsp;as a corporate, cash-grab tactic rather than a new method for producing and distributing media. </p> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/draftkings-faces-65m-lawsuit-from-nfl-players-association</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 28 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>Crecimiento & Aleph: Argentina's Crypto Moment</title>
<description><blockquote>Dear Bankless Nation,&nbsp;I spent all of August in Argentina, attending <a href="https://www.aleph.crecimiento.build/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><em><u>‘Aleph’</u></em></a> – a crypto pop-up city in the heart of Buenos Aires.&nbsp;<br><br>Aleph is one part <a href="https://www.bankless.com/everything-i-learned-at-zuzalu?ref=bankless.ghost.io">Zuzalu</a>, one part Devconnect. Significant top-down support and coordination from Protocol Labs was met with hundreds of volunteers, community leaders, and ecosystem partners who took up arms to create an environment to foster the next generation of crypto startups in Argentina.&nbsp;<br><br>At the Aleph Hub, a 1,000-person co-working space, crypto startups, venture capitalists, and the Argentine government all met and mingled for a month of collaboration, support, and growth.&nbsp;<br><br>While Aleph is a 1-month event that will come to an end, the sparks it ignites will hopefully grow into a wildfire across the country of Argentina and then all of Latam. <strong>This wildfire is ‘Crecimiento’ – <em>growth. </em></strong></blockquote><hr><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.00.27-PM.png" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1462" height="568" srcset="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w600/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.00.27-PM.png 600w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w1000/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.00.27-PM.png 1000w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.00.27-PM.png 1462w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><h2 id="why-argentina">Why Argentina?</h2><p><strong>Argentina is the spearhead of crypto.</strong>&nbsp;</p><p>While developed nation VCs and Crypto Twitter's degens hypothesize about use-cases, adoption, and ‘attracting retail investors.’ In Argentina, crypto has already been adopted by millions of people&nbsp;<strong>who have a present and urgent need for Crypto’s value and services.</strong></p><p>Argentina is the perfect breeding ground for the crypto economy. The intersection of easy&nbsp;internet access, currency inflation, capital controls, and traditional business frictions has produced an environment where the power of crypto can truly shine.&nbsp;</p><p>This recent Gwart tweet made me chuckle, but the irony here is that in Argentina, millions of “well-adjusted adults with 9-5 jobs with monthly expenses and obligations” have all found crypto as a means to let them live better lives.&nbsp;</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Retail is coming. You know, well-adjusted adults with 9-5 jobs with monthly expenses and obligations. They’re coming to trade digital commodities with us. That’s what they’re going to do. just be patient, retail is on their way.</p>— Gwart (@GwartyGwart) <a href="https://twitter.com/GwartyGwart/status/1822669808640417945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">August 11, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>There is a stark difference between the crypto-economy of Argentina and the perceived ‘use-cases’ and ‘metas’ that are often hypothesized about on Crypto Twitter.&nbsp;Local Argentines can’t all afford to bet on the next shiny alt-L1 or be in the memecoin trenches; their money could be worth 1% less tomorrow and 1% less again the day after that.&nbsp;</p><p>Of course, Argentina has its own crypto-natives who play in the degen games, but degen activity is dwarfed by the millions of Argentine citizens who don’t care about crypto and the fake world that degens on Crypto Twitter have generated but nonetheless are using their favorite crypto app (<em>Lemon, Belo, BuenBit, or Ripio</em>) to escape inflation, buy coffee, and protect their wealth.&nbsp;</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Meeting Argentine startups really makes the CT &amp; VC crypto games seem so silly <br><br>- The 15th restaked supercharged AltVM L2?<br>- The 5,000th political memecoin?<br>- DePIN this, Crypto AI that <br><br>Nah, just real cash-flowing businesses serving millions of local Argentines <a href="https://t.co/BUex3s2l2q?ref=bankless.ghost.io">https://t.co/BUex3s2l2q</a></p>— DavidHoffman.eth 🦇🔊 (@TrustlessState) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrustlessState/status/1823437363898392792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">August 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>In Argentina, <em>crypto is real.&nbsp;</em></p><hr><h1 id="the-bottom-up-100-more-startups">The Bottom-Up: <em>100 More Startups</em></h1><p>While the government of El Salvador has been praised by Bitcoiners for its Bitcoin-forwardness, the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-58579415?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>citizens of El Salvador do not share similar excitement</u></a> for the country's top-down investment into Bitcoin.&nbsp;</p><p>In contrast, the citizens of Argentina are truly excited about crypto or<em>, at worst, </em>indifferent<em>. </em>Certainly, not every Argentine uses crypto, but its usage is normalized and culturally accepted.<em> </em>The average Argentine has either directly had their lives materially improved by crypto due to easy access to dollars, payment services, and bankless banking, <strong>or they know someone with this experience</strong><em>.&nbsp;</em></p><p><strong>The bottom-up support and acceptance of crypto is stronger in Argentina than anywhere else in the world.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>A north star of <em>Crecimiento</em> and the <strong>Aleph</strong> pop-up city is the belief that Argentina is “100 good startups away” from a wildfire of crypto-enabled economic growth and prosperity spreading across the nation.&nbsp;</p><p><em>Just ~100 more startups, creating ~5,000 more crypto-powered jobs, bringing the value of crypto into Argentina</em>… and Argentina could be the first country to reach crypto-escape velocity and become the first end-to-end crypto-powered country on Earth.&nbsp;</p><p>At Aleph, 67 crypto startups, from pre-seed to series A, are working together at a common co-working space, collaborating on problems and supporting each other along their journey.&nbsp;There, 22 mentors from venture capital firms, crypto teams, and successful entrepreneurs are present at the Hub, offering time, advice, and perspective in order to pass wisdom onto the younger generations of startups.&nbsp;</p><p>A score of high-profile speakers &amp; experts came to speak with startups IRL each day during Aleph – from Seba Serrano (Ripio) to Alec Oxenford (OLX) to Nico Berman (Kaszek) to Marta Cruz (NXTP Ventures). Every day at the Aleph Hub, there was a university-level curriculum showcasing the skills needed to build in Web3. Workshops, talks, and mentorship were available – highlighting some of the industry's most technical frontiers.&nbsp;</p><blockquote><a href="https://zksync.mirror.xyz/ZvYUbumy_1sLJVsqcBr0pVhD1fJTO0gAfYfitLOoiio?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">A huge shoutout to ZKsync here</a> – startup builders and hackathon attendees overwhelmingly cited the presence and support that the ZKsync team provided to Aleph. The 3rd week of Aleph was ‘ZK week,’ and the ZKsync LATAM Devrel team went above and beyond providing education in both English and Spanish for the builders here.</blockquote><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdtLlGqHhtjqWhr7ddhEx_V0cqqEmV3TwGs4L1dhIfmbQQFiu_VpVWZp3IPMp36chHq1Bhd6A96FtkXLU8yTNH2XFk5URppnO8HyO-6Ob5JGskyeeNcGm9fHQK3cOuvNCP_wP-Bi67xeiKiNS7fiKtFrTo3?key=_BKZXidlkfgZW9gaNwgXjA" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1600" height="1502" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Here’s just a snapshot of what a day at Aleph looked like for builders&nbsp;</span></figcaption></figure><hr><h1 id="the-top-down-milei%E2%80%99s-digital-transformation">The Top Down:&nbsp;Milei’s Digital Transformation</h1><p>Argentina is the only country on Earth that has a strong grassroots crypto industry, which is being met by a strong, top-down, pro-crypto state government.&nbsp;</p><p>This is the potential that <em>Crecimiento</em> is trying to unlock. </p><p>Argentina's new leader, Javier Milei, is, in many ways, deeply crypto in spirit. With this new administration making radical changes to the Argentine government, the country's crypto leaders see a path to permanently embed crypto in Argentina's growth plans for the next decade and beyond.</p><p>Milei is pro-technology, pro-investment, and pro-acceleration. He has an actual “blockchain consultant,” Sergio Morales, in his cabinet. Milei's interest in Bitcoin and crypto is part of his broader economic philosophy, which includes dollarizing the economy (stablecoins, anyone?) and reducing government intervention.</p><p>Milei drafted legislation that balances crypto-innovation and investor protections and has collaborated with the crypto industry to provide regulatory clarity. Part of Milei’s initial “economic mega-decree" included the elimination of legal tender laws, allowing contracts to be denominated in any currency.&nbsp;</p><p>These are good steps for the legality of crypto in Argentina, but there is still a long way to go.&nbsp;</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcetI5FQH629_yEjOL1fJEWEvDPEtHay6O4jLp0RKyLVwSuZuA20ncsTnYMNpBzvJVTB0bjkRKH92y35KFCwGIOCeYiUN95aB3Rw3zQkCkC9rurjJLGJHZnnz7OyzdYjzmYfHCdBWiMHgYd7zTFGzbIm41o?key=_BKZXidlkfgZW9gaNwgXjA" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1109" height="613" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>The real challenge for the crypto industry here is whether Argentina can build a strong pro-crypto regulatory framework that gives crypto entrepreneurs assurances that crypto will be legal and protected for multiple decades.<strong> Can crypto protections be established that will transcend the current administration?&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong>What if a new administration comes and attempts to wipe out the pro-crypto progress that the Milei administration has made, as has happened so many times in the past for other industries in Argentina?&nbsp;</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Gary Gensler of Argentina - Roberto Silva - said at the <a href="https://twitter.com/crecimientoar?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">@crecimientoar</a> Regulation Day:<br><br>“We are 100% in favor of normalization of technology of the crypto world.” <br><br>"The SEC model is to sue cryptocurrencies, claiming they are irregular. We do not follow that model." <a href="https://t.co/vIXOwYV6gp?ref=bankless.ghost.io">pic.twitter.com/vIXOwYV6gp</a></p>— DavidHoffman.eth 🦇🔊 (@TrustlessState) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrustlessState/status/1827110058913562659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">August 23, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>On the 22nd of August, Aleph hosted ‘Regulatory Day,’ where leaders in the Milei administration came to the Aleph Hub for a day of discussions and workshops, all focusing on what crypto businesses and startups need from the Milei Administration.&nbsp;</p><p>It’s not just Milei. Here’s the previous president of Argentina walking in the Aleph coworking space. </p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/zksync?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">@zksync</a>'s ELI5 book on Zero Knowledge Proofs is for everyone.<br><br>Doesn't matter if you're the founder of <a href="https://twitter.com/lemonapp_ar?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">@lemonapp_ar</a>, a President of Argentina, or the innovation secretary for Buenos Aires.<br><br>Read it yourself 👉 <a href="https://t.co/fDFCeuJ9Ra?ref=bankless.ghost.io">https://t.co/fDFCeuJ9Ra</a> <a href="https://t.co/c3UH4cG5ku?ref=bankless.ghost.io">pic.twitter.com/c3UH4cG5ku</a></p>— ZKsync (∎, ∆) (@zksync) <a href="https://twitter.com/zksync/status/1827077558627598467?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">August 23, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>This is like if Bill Clinton attended the ETH Denver hackathon.&nbsp;</p><p>Unlike in the United States, the crypto industry in Argentina is deeply appreciated and encouraged by state officials.&nbsp;</p><hr><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.22.02-PM.png" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1100" height="626" srcset="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w600/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.22.02-PM.png 600w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w1000/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.22.02-PM.png 1000w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.22.02-PM.png 1100w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><h1 id="aleph-the-network-state">Aleph: The Network State</h1><p>Aleph is pioneering crypto-native technology that's dog-fooded by the 2,300+ Aleph citizens! </p><p><a href="https://quarkid.org/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>QuarkID</u></a> is an app incubated by the City of Buenos Aires that uses verifiable credentials, decentralized identifiers, and zero-knowledge cryptography to produce a user-sovereign identity system for all the citizens of Aleph.&nbsp;</p><p>After purchasing my ticket (citizenship) to Aleph, I was issued a verifiable credential that allowed my iPhone to open the door to the Aleph Hub and access the co-working space. My rights and privileges as a citizen of Aleph mean I get an allowance of 100 MORFI tokens per week. </p><p>MORFI tokens are an ERC20 token on ZKsync Era that are redeemable for 1,000 Argentine pesos at local businesses that have signed up to accept MORFI for payment for food, coffee, or other services around the Aleph Hub. One thousand pesos is about $1 (depending on when you're reading this). All of this is running on the ZKsync Era mainnet and represents a real prototype for a Baljian network state running on crypto rails.&nbsp;</p><p>Maybe you’re thinking, “How did they get over 50 different local businesses to accept crypto for payment?” The sales pitch is pretty easy when you learn that accepting regular peso payments over fintech rails results in a 2-3 month settlement time… meaning businesses don’t get their Pesos until they've lost a significant portion of their value. </p><p>Last month, Argentina experienced its lowest month of inflation in over five years, at 4%. That's 4% in a <em>month</em>, not a year. You think 2.9% credit card fees are bad? Imagine a business losing 10% due to currency debasement simply because the banking rails hold their money for months before giving it to the businesses. When Argentine businesses are informed that they are able to get their money instantly, it’s an easy sell.&nbsp;</p><p>Later this year, QuarkID will build its own independent Elastic Chain on the ZK Stack and be a part of the ZKsync Hyperchain. QuarkID has plans to build more traditional services into their app, from driver's licenses and other government-issued credentials to user-controlled wallets. For all intents and purposes, this would become the Argentina L2.&nbsp;</p><p>If you want to go further down this rabbit hole, check out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YM4waNkR9U&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>the interview I did with Diego Fernandez</u></a>, the Secretary of Innovation of Buenos Aries, last January.&nbsp;</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><iframe width="200" height="113" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_YM4waNkR9U?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="no-referrer" allowfullscreen="" title="Crypto Will Save Argentina"></iframe></figure><hr><h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion </h2><p>As Aleph comes to a close, the gringos, VCs, and mentors will all have to leave. We all have homes to return to. The Aleph co-working space is on a three-year lease and will remain open for Crypto startups to use as a common hub for the crypto industry moving forward. Support networks have been created, and connections, friendships, and investments have been made.&nbsp;</p><p>Will Aleph be the final push over the edge for the crypto industry in Argentina?</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BREAKING: <br><br>Ethereum and Solidity are now formally integrated into high school education programs in Buenos Aires<br><br>High schools students will learn to write <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ethereum?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">#Ethereum</a> smart contracts<br><br>Vamos Argentina! 🇦🇷 <a href="https://t.co/i3Wz5OrFEq?ref=bankless.ghost.io">pic.twitter.com/i3Wz5OrFEq</a></p>— Bankless (@BanklessHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/BanklessHQ/status/1827076890206859735?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">August 23, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>Argentina certainly has more than its fair share of problems to deal with. There's the convoluted taxation system that even regulators know means rampant tax-dodging. There are business registration constraints. This, not to mention decades of entrenched pseudo-communism that have held millions of voters locked in poverty and government handouts.&nbsp;</p><p>But if there’s one thing that has consensus in Argentina, it's that the homegrown, grassroots crypto industry is one of its brightest stars on the horizon. While many Argentines that I know have become fantastically wealthy thanks to the fortunes of crypto, many of them are committed to staying in Argentina.&nbsp;They love Argentina and its people. It’s not a place to escape, but a culture worth experiencing and a country trying to become worthy of reinvestment.&nbsp;</p><p>I don’t know if crypto can single-handedly elevate Argentina, <em>the jurisdiction,</em> into a higher quality of living, but we’ve already seen crypto elevate millions of Argentines out of poverty and free them from currency debasement. </p><p>Perhaps the governments in the modern age are simply too calcified to rebuild productively.&nbsp;That’s sad but fine. </p><p><strong>Crypto can help people help themselves, regardless of whether their country can. <em>And if their country can help crypto along as well, that’s even better.&nbsp;</em></strong></p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><iframe width="200" height="113" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LtqMkYTLpSA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="no-referrer" allowfullscreen="" title="How Crypto Is Transforming Argentina's Economy"></iframe></figure> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/crecimiento-aleph-argentinas-crypto-moment</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 28 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David Hoffman</author>
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<title>Binance, Bybit to Launch Solana Liquid Staking Tokens</title>
<description><p>Binance and Bybit are set to launch their proprietary Solana liquid staking tokens, BNSOL and bbSOL, via Sanctum.</p><h2 id="what%E2%80%99s-the-scoop">What’s the scoop?</h2><ul><li><strong>Sanctum's Role:</strong> The tokens will be deployed through Sanctum, a platform for whitelisted validators to launch LSTs, which introduced <a href="https://www.bankless.com/getting-started-in-sanctum-wonderland?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Jupiter Exchange’s LST —&nbsp;JupSOL</a>.</li><li><strong>Implications for SOL LST TVL:</strong> While Solana has more of its native token staked than Ethereum, <a href="https://www.bankless.com/solanas-liquid-staking-landscape?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">it lacks in liquid staking</a>. Ethereum has ~65% of its staked ETH in liquid form, while Solana has only ~6% in liquid staking tokens (LSTs). BNSOL and bbSOL could change this.</li></ul><h3 id="bankless-take">Bankless Take:</h3><p>The launch of BNSOL and bbSOL via Sanctum marks a significant moment for Solana DeFi, potentially jumpstarting the expansion of Solana’s LSTs and marking further institutional interest in its ecosystem. This development also hints at a broader trend of major exchanges launching their own derivative assets. Following Binance and Bybit’s move with Solana, other exchanges like could follow suit – consider Coinbase's recent tease of their <a href="https://www.bankless.com/wbtc-gets-wrapped-in-controversy?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">version of wrapped BTC (cbBTC) recently</a>. While this trend can mean increasing capital in these ecosystems — a good thing —&nbsp;it is always important to remain wary of centralized actors pushing further into decentralized environments.&nbsp;</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="ht" dir="ltr">BNSOL</p>— Binance (@binance) <a href="https://twitter.com/binance/status/1829111814094741707?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">August 29, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/binance-bybit-to-launch-solana-liquid-staking-tokens</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/binance-bybit-to-launch-solana-liquid-staking-tokens</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 28 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>Exploring Monad's Early DeFi Ecosystem</title>
<description><p>Slowly but surely, we are inching closer toward one of the most anticipated launches of this cycle — <strong>Monad</strong>.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.bankless.com/monad-technical-innovations?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>parallelized</u></a>, EVM-compatible L1, which boasts $225M in funding from Coinbase, Electric Capital, and Paradigm, has been in testnet since March. The chain has already reached 10,000 transactions per second, an achievement that's led to hype around the chain's potential to supercharge DeFi. </p><p>With the chain continuing to grow mindshare, more teams are building on it, providing us with an early sense of how Monad’s DeFi landscape will take shape. <strong>Let's dig into a few of the hyped, early projects</strong> 👇</p><hr><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><a href="https://tayaswap.xyz/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfAm4Btv14HHqqAYTh38ITzDiQYtRtWkEdi6GRp1--eJBOT3DCwCayQvInlKuGVDho6VaztBls6bVjkbA78dRFXfEYah-eTOISa9yWaETGdpeiOBZ2AEHDiypu9rLkDwQDb3vpwhgR5RT6ZPlvB3Q?key=jgxDb4mNVhtCU2KCZRiNYw" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1600" height="841" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></a></figure><h3 id="%F0%9F%8D%AC-tayaswap">🍬 TayaSwap</h3><p><a href="https://tayaswap.xyz/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><strong><u>Website</u></strong></a><strong> | </str |
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<title>Russia Set to Trial Cross-Border Crypto Payments</title>
<description><p>Russia is set to trial cross-border crypto payments, in a move that's likely designed to bypass international sanctions, but experts are skeptical about their ability to evade detection.</p><h2 id="what%E2%80%99s-the-scoop">What’s the scoop?</h2><ul><li><strong>Legislation Passed:</strong> Russia's new law, signed by President Vladimir Putin, allows for cross-border crypto payments while maintaining the ban on using crypto as legal tender within the country.</li><li><strong>Experimental Regime:</strong> The law grants the Russian central bank the authority to oversee an "experimental" regime, though the exact parameters and rules remain undefined.</li><li><strong>Sanctions Evasion:</strong> Russia's new legislation aims to evade Western sanctions from its Ukraine invasion, but blockchain traceability and secondary sanctions remain big hurdles, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/08/30/russia-is-about-to-try-using-crypto-to-get-around-sanctions/?ref=bankless.ghost.io">CoinDesk</a> notes.</li></ul><h2 id="bankless-take">Bankless Take:</h2><p>Though this certainly does not play well for optics going into a legislatively-busy September, Russia's move to use crypto for avoiding sanctions may not be as effective as they hope. With blockchain analytic companies like <a href="https://www.chainalysis.com/?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Chainalysis</a> and <a href="https://www.trmlabs.com/?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">TRM Labs</a> already working with governments to navigate onchain flows, the West will likely have the intelligence to institute effective countermeasures. However, this continues Russia’s foray into crypto following its legalization of crypto mining last month.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-bookmark-card"><a class="kg-bookmark-container" href="https://www.bankless.com/russia-legalizes-crypto-mining?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><div class="kg-bookmark-content"><div class="kg-bookmark-title">Russia Legalizes Crypto Mining on Bankless</div><div class="kg-bookmark-description">The Duma passed a law to fully legalize crypto mining starting in November.</div><div class="kg-bookmark-metadata"><img class="kg-bookmark-icon" src="https://www.bankless.com/assets/img/favicon/apple-touch-icon.png" alt="" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><span class="kg-bookmark-author">Bankless</span><span class="kg-bookmark-publisher">David C</span></div></div><div class="kg-bookmark-thumbnail"><img src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/07/lu.ma._russian_russian_duma_82533f20-5575-4cf8-9978-312beadc83ba.webp" alt="" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></div></a></figure> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/putin-russia-cross-border-crypto</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 29 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>U.S. House Committee Planning Crypto Hearings Blitz in September</title>
<description><p>The U.S. House Financial Services Committee is gearing up for a series of crypto-focused hearings in September, including topics like DeFi, SEC enforcement, and "pig butchering" scams, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/08/29/us-house-committee-plans-for-heap-of-crypto-hearings-in-september/?ref=bankless.ghost.io">CoinDesk</a> reports.</p><h2 id="whats-the-scoop">What's the scoop?</h2><ul><li><strong>DeFi Under Scrutiny:</strong> On September 10, a subcommittee will examine decentralized finance (DeFi), which has faced regulatory scrutiny. New federal rules could challenge DeFi projects.</li><li><strong>SEC Enforcement Practices:</strong> <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/08/29/us-house-committee-plans-for-heap-of-crypto-hearings-in-september/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>September 18</u></a> will have two hearings: one on SEC enforcement actions and another on "pig butchering" scams, where romantic partners defraud victims.</li><li><strong>Gary Gensler on the Hot Seat: </strong>The full committee will hold a hearing on September 23 with SEC Chair Gary Gensler and the commission. Lawmakers will question the SEC's approach to digital assets as they consider legislation potentially reducing the SEC's authority over crypto.</li></ul><h2 id="bankless-take">Bankless Take:</h2><p>While September’s typically a dull month for Bitcoin price action, it certainly will not be for regulation. With the SEC's enforcement practices under the microscope and legislation up for debate that could shift power away from the SEC to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the outcomes of these discussions could hold significant implications for America’s crypto future. Though the possibility of passing new crypto legislation remains uncertain, with September’s schedule and Chuck Schumer’s recent call for passing legislation this year, momentum certainly seems to be ramping up.</p> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/u-s-house-committee-planning-crypto-hearings-blitz-in-september</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 29 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>$250+ Billion Dogecoin Lawsuit Against Elon Musk Dismissed</title>
<description><p>A U.S. District Judge dismissed a class action lawsuit that was seeking $258B in damages against Elon Musk and Tesla. The suit alleged that Musk's comments had manipulated the Dogecoin market.</p><h3 id="what%E2%80%99s-the-scoop">What’s the scoop?</h3><ul><li><strong>Allegations of Manipulation:</strong> Investors claimed that Musk's public statements, including tweets about DOGE and aspirations like becoming the token’s CEO and putting a Dogecoin on the moon, were misleading.</li><li><strong>Judge’s Ruling: </strong>The judge ruled Musk's statements as "<a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/313881/elon-musk-cleared-in-dogecoin-class-action-lawsuit?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>aspirational and puffery</u></a>," unreliable for investors. Allegations of market manipulation were found groundless, with no evidence of a "pump and dump" scheme or insider trading.</li></ul><h3 id="bankless-take">Bankless Take:</h3><p>The dismissal of the lawsuit looks to spread the message of “follow influencers at your own peril.” While Musk’s influence on the market is undeniable, this ruling suggests that broad, non-specific comments, even from a high-profile figure, are difficult to pin down as actionable market manipulation, a sentiment echoed in the prompt dismissal of a lawsuit against <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/roaring-kitty-sued-over-alleged-142121511.html?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Roaring Kitty in late June</a> by a GME holder.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">In 2021 this would have sent <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24DOGE&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">$DOGE</a> up 200% in a single candle <a href="https://t.co/nlka3QZXDr?ref=bankless.ghost.io">https://t.co/nlka3QZXDr</a></p>— Wazz (@WazzCrypto) <a href="https://twitter.com/WazzCrypto/status/1829296336912752906?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">August 29, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/250-billion-dogecoin-lawsuit-against-elon-musk-dismissed</link>
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<pubDate>Thu, 29 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>What I'm Minting on Base This Week</title>
<description><h3 id="1%EF%B8%8F%E2%83%A3-a-basename-domain">1️⃣ A Basename domain</h3><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><a href="https://www.base.org/names?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><img src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T112702.981.png" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="806" height="491" srcset="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w600/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T112702.981.png 600w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T112702.981.png 806w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></a><figcaption><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">via </span><a href="https://www.base.org/names?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Base</span></a></figcaption></figure><p>Powered by the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) tech stack, <a href="https://www.base.org/names?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Basenames</a> is the new native onchain identity system for the <a href="javascript:;" tabindex="0" style="cursor:pointer;" data-bs-container="body" data-bs-trigger="focus" data-bs-toggle="popover" data-bs-html="true" data-bs-placement="top" data-bs-content="<span class='popoverTitle'><img src='https://cdn.bankless.com/stubs/base4460250-icon.png' alt='Base' /> Base <span class='popoverCategory'>L2</span></span><span class='popoverDescription'>Base is an L2 built on OP Stack.</span><a href='https://www.bankless.com/basel2' class='popoverBtn'>View Profile</a>" class="stubHighlight">Base</a> ecosystem. </p><p>The grand idea? Make it easier <strong>1)</strong> to send transactions with readable addresses, and <strong>2)</strong> to manage and grow onchain profiles on Base. Like on ENS, these profiles are respectively underpinned by unique domain NFTs. </p><p>The registration price to mint your profile starts at 0.0001 ETH per year for +10 character names, but registering a coveted 3 character name like "abc.base.eth" would annually cost 0.1 ETH. Personally, I picked <strong>peaster.base.eth</strong> and paid 0.001 ETH, or ~$2.55 at the current ETH/USD exchange rate. </p><h3 id="2%EF%B8%8F%E2%83%A3-base-colors-soulbounds">2️⃣ Base Colors Soulbounds</h3><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><a href="https://www.basecolors.com/soulbounds?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><img src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T120742.645.png" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1151" height="844" srcset="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w600/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T120742.645.png 600w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w1000/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T120742.645.png 1000w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T120742.645.png 1151w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></a><figcaption><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">via </span><a href="https://www.basecolors.com/soulbounds?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Base Colors</span></a></figcaption></figure><p>Created as a collab between <a href="https://x.com/0FJAKE?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">JAKE</a> and <a href="https://x.com/apex_ether?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Apex777</a>, <a href="https://www.basecolors.com/?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Base Colors</a> is an NFT collection featuring +16 million tokens, each representing a unique color in the RGB system. Collectors can mint, name, and own these colors as they please. </p><p>I love the minimalist experimentation here, but as a fan of projects that uniquely "illustrate" crypto addresses into visual form, it's actually the Base Colors spinoff collection <a href="https://www.basecolors.com/soulbounds?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Soulbounds</a> that really caught my eye and compelled me to mint. </p><p>For example, the screenshot above shows my Soulbound, i.e. my Ethereum address as adapted into the Base Colors system. The NFTs of this secondary collection are non-transferrable, hence their name, but with a minting cost of only 0.001 ETH it's a light and fun way to visualize your onchainness.</p><h3 id="3%EF%B8%8F%E2%83%A3-wazoo-wegends">3️⃣ Wazoo Wegends</h3><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><a href="https://create.party.app/mint/base/0xfCFfB65Fd94141936Eb34d42814124450f24f421?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><img src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T121306.701.png" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1082" height="657" srcset="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w600/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T121306.701.png 600w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w1000/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T121306.701.png 1000w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T121306.701.png 1082w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></a><figcaption><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">via </span><a href="https://create.party.app/mint/base/0xfCFfB65Fd94141936Eb34d42814124450f24f421?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Party</span></a></figcaption></figure><p>This week, Party unveiled the <a href="https://x.com/prtyDAO/status/1828880094208897409?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">V2 of its new Sets tool</a> that lets creators easily release NFT collections as mixed-rarity open edition releases, and they released <a href="https://x.com/prtyDAO/status/1828845660277297471?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Kazoo Legends</a> as a 24-hour drop to demonstrate the V2 in action.</p><p>That mint is now over, but cryptoart legend Gremplin, the creator of CrypToadz and a contributor to the Nouns art, immediately followed the release with his own Set in his signature style, <a href="https://create.party.app/mint/base/0xfCFfB65Fd94141936Eb34d42814124450f24f421?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Wawoo Wegends</a>. </p><p>Mints cost 0.0005 ETH a pop, so it's a great avenue to collect some iconic Gremplin pieces if you haven't before, and if you're lucky you'll pull the rarest "Legendary" Wizod edition. Keep in mind that minting closes tomorrow, August 30th at ~10:00am PT / 1:00 PM ET, so collect before then to try your luck!</p><h3 id="4%EF%B8%8F%E2%83%A3-creature-cubes">4️⃣ Creature Cubes</h3><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><a href="https://creaturecubes.art/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><img src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-125607.png" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1556" height="782" srcset="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w600/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-125607.png 600w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w1000/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-125607.png 1000w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-125607.png 1556w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></a><figcaption><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">via </span><a href="https://creaturecubes.art/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Create Cubes</span></a></figcaption></figure><p>The latest from Danny Cole's Creature World art project, <a href="https://creaturecubes.art/?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Creature Cubes</a> is a <a href="https://x.com/creatureworld/status/1828531562490798517?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">404-style experiment</a> where the collection is composed of both NFTs and fungible $CUBE tokens. </p><p>The cost to collect one Cube is 0.008 ETH, and doing so will net you 1 NFT and an associated sum of 1,000 $CUBE. Transfer the NFT, and the tokens follow, trade some of the tokens and the NFT will be burned until you gain 1,000 $CUBE again, etc. </p><p>The idea is to pave the way for exploring new collecting mechanics within the Creature World community. Plus, the art is downright charming—per usual for Danny Cole and co. </p><p>Note, this drop is only open for 24 hours, so be sure to collect before ~12:20pm PT / 3:20 PM ET on August 30th if you're interested in joining in! </p><h3 id="5%EF%B8%8F%E2%83%A3-dappmon-starter-package">5️⃣ Dappmon Starter Package</h3><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><a href="https://play.dappmon.xyz/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><img src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T110427.615.png" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1919" height="908" srcset="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w600/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T110427.615.png 600w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w1000/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T110427.615.png 1000w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w1600/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T110427.615.png 1600w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/image---2024-08-29T110427.615.png 1919w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></a><figcaption><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">via </span><a href="https://play.dappmon.xyz/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Dappmon</span></a></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://x.com/dappmon/status/1828553530694832138?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Dappmon</a> is a new virtual pet game on Base, with all its in-game creatures and assets powered via NFTs and its app logic built atop MUD, an open-source framework for building apps like fully onchain games.</p><p>Collect, raise, train, and battle your pets to become a champion, or just play casually to explore the early Base gaming scene. Up to you!</p><p>To get started, minting a <a href="https://x.com/dappmon/status/1828553547534999589?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Dappmon Starter Package</a> costs 0.0066 ETH and will grant you everything you need to dive in, including a starter egg, food, bandages, and more to help you manage your pets. If you're looking for a chill Base app to check out, this one's worth a try.</p> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/minting-on-base-this-week</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 28 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>William M. Peaster</author>
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<title>The Bankless Guide to Cosmos</title>
<description><p>Cosmos is a decentralized network of independent, scalable, and interoperable blockchains, creating an ecosystem where highly customizable and performant chains can seamlessly communicate and transact across each other.&nbsp; </p><h2 id="key-takeaways"><strong>Key takeaways</strong></h2><ul><li>Cosmos uses the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol to enable interoperability between different blockchains and a unique consensus mechanism called Tendermint, which offers fast finality and high security.</li><li>Cosmos Hub, powered by the ATOM token, serves as the central blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem.</li><li>Right now, the largest network built atop Cosmos is <a href="https://defillama.com/chains/Cosmos?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>Hyperliquid</u></a>, which currently boasts $670 million in total value locked (TVL), making it the 10th-largest DeFi chain today.&nbsp;</li></ul><hr><h2 id="what-is-cosmos"><strong>What is Cosmos?</strong></h2><p>Cosmos aims to overcomes the weaknesses that traditional blockchains sometimes face by creating an ecosystem of interconnected blockchains. As such, the network is designed to address three primary challenges—scalability, usability, and interoperability—and it’s credited with pioneering the “app-chains” model accordingly.&nbsp;</p><p>In powering independent parallel blockchains, Cosmos allows for high transaction throughput and enables different projects to retain their sovereignty while still being able to interact with other chains in the network.</p><p>The Cosmos ecosystem itself is centered around the Cosmos Hub, the first blockchain launched on the network. The Hub serves as a central ledger that keeps track of the state of all connected blockchains, facilitating seamless communication and token transfers between them.</p><h2 id="how-does-cosmos-work"><strong>How does Cosmos work?</strong></h2><p>Cosmos operates on several key technical pillars that enable its unique functionality:</p><ul><li><strong>🍬 Tendermint Consensus</strong>: Cosmos uses an implementation of the Tendermint consensus algorithm, CometBFT. This Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus mechanism allows for quick transaction processing and confirmation.</li><li><strong>🌐 Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol</strong>: The IBC protocol is a core feature of Cosmos, enabling secure communication and data transfer between independent blockchains. It allows different blockchains to exchange messages in a standardized manner, facilitating interoperability across the network.</li><li><strong>🌌 Zones and Hubs</strong>: In the Cosmos ecosystem, individual blockchains are called "zones," while "hubs" like the Cosmos Hub facilitate communication between these zones. Each zone can have its own validator set and governance system, maintaining sovereignty while still being part of the larger network.</li><li><strong>🧱 Cosmos SDK</strong>: This software development kit provides developers with tools to build application-specific blockchains, i.e. app-chains, quickly and easily. It offers common blockchain functionalities like staking and governance, allowing developers to focus on their attention elsewhere.</li></ul><h2 id="why-cosmos"><strong>Why Cosmos?</strong></h2><p>Unlike many Layer 1 (L1) blockchains that struggle with throughput as they grow, Cosmos allows for horizontal scaling. By enabling the creation of numerous sovereign Zones that can interact, Cosmos circumvents the scalability limitations of monolithic blockchain architectures.</p><p>Additionally, Cosmos is great on customization, as it empowers developers to create purpose-built blockchains tailored to specific applications or use cases. This level of flexibility allows for optimized performance and governance structures that best suit each project's needs, without sacrificing interoperability.</p><p>That said, the Cosmos ecosystem is <a href="https://www.bankless.com/cosmos-at-a-crossroads?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>currently facing challenges</u></a> like internal strife and a demoralized community. To reclaim its position, Cosmos must address these issues by rebuilding trust, doubling down on user experience, further empowering developers, and clarifying its unique value proposition. </p><p>These goals are all achievable, and Cosmos has many bright thinkers in its community, so revitalizing the network’s ecosystem is absolutely possible.&nbsp;</p><h2 id="how-to-invest-in-cosmos"><strong>How to invest in Cosmos?</strong></h2><p>The native cryptocurrency of the Cosmos Hub, ATOM, plays a crucial role in the network. It's used for staking, governance, and as a reserve currency for the ecosystem. Validators and delegators can stake ATOM to secure the network and earn rewards.</p><p>At the time of this guide's update, ATOM was trading around $5.05 per token with a market capitalization of approximately $1.97 billion, making it the 42nd-largest cryptocurrency in the market.If you’re interested in staking ATOM, the yield is currently 14.7% APR. To begin, you could follow these steps:</p><ul><li><strong>👛 Create a Cosmos wallet</strong> — We recommend <a href="https://www.keplr.app/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>Keplr</u></a>, a user-friendly browser wallet for Cosmos chains that also offers a streamlined staking interface.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>⚛️ Acquire ATOM</strong> — The easiest path here is to buy ATOM on a crypto exchange like Coinbase or Kraken. When you have the funds you want to stake ready to go, deposit them into the Cosmos Hub address provided in your Keplr wallet.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>🪙 Stake through Keplr</strong> — With your ATOM in hand, click on the “Manage Portfolio in Keplr Dashboard” button in your wallet. In the “Staking” hub, click on “Cosmos Hub,” and then choose a validator to stake with from the provided list. Input the amount of ATOM you want to stake and approve the final transaction with your wallet. You can also unstake through this dashboard when you’re ready.&nbsp;</li></ul><h2 id="top-cosmos-projects"><strong>Top Cosmos projects</strong></h2><p>When it comes to user-facing activities, the main Cosmos Hub chain isn’t used for much besides ATOM staking. Where most of the action is found is in the dozens of independent app-chains that exist atop the Cosmos network today. Some of the top app-chains to explore here include:</p><ul><li>🌊 <a href="https://hyperliquid.xyz/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><strong><u>Hyperliquid</u></strong></a><strong> </strong>— a popular perpetuals exchange</li><li>💱 <a href="https://dydx.trade/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><strong><u>dYdX</u></strong></a><strong> </strong>— a DeFi derivatives chain</li><li>🧪 <a href="https://osmosis.zone/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><strong><u>Osmosis</u></strong></a>— a decentralized exchange app-chain and DeFi ecosystem&nbsp;</li><li>⛓️ <a href="https://www.sei.io/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><strong><u>Sei</u></strong></a> — a newer L1 with parallelized transactions</li><li>📁 <a href="https://www.bankless.com/the-bankless-guide-to-celestia?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><strong><u>Celestia</u></strong></a><strong> </strong>— a leading data availability (DA) blockchain</li></ul><hr><h2 id="more-about-cosmos"><strong>More about Cosmos</strong></h2><p>👉 <a href="https://www.bankless.com/cosmos?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>Bankless Cosmos Profile</u></a><br><br><br><br></p> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/the-bankless-guide-to-cosmos</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 28 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>Bankless</author>
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<title>Trump Teases Rebranded Crypto Platform, Banks $2M in NFT Sale</title>
<description><p>Donald Trump’s new NFT collection faces mixed reception amid continued teases of a bigger crypto project.</p><h3 id="what%E2%80%99s-the-scoop">What’s the scoop?</h3><ul><li><strong>Sales Numbers:</strong> Donald Trump's “America First Edition” NFT collection has made over $2M since Tuesday, surpassing CryptoPunks' $754K in 24-hour sales. Despite strong initial sales, only about 20.7K of the 360K available NFTs have been minted — <a href="https://decrypt.co/246895/trump-latest-nfts-top-2-million-sales-5-percent-sold?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>5.7% of the total supply</u></a>.</li><li><strong>Historical Context: </strong>Trump’s previous NFT collections sold out quickly but were significantly smaller in scale. His last collection, which featured 100K NFTs, only sold half.</li><li><strong>Usage Limitations: </strong>The NFTs from this collection cannot be resold on secondary marketplaces until January 31, 2025, similar to the restrictions on his previous collection.</li><li><strong>Website Live for World Liberty Financial:</strong> Trump continues to tease his upcoming crypto project, World Liberty Financial, with a new website that says the project will connect users to "<a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/08/29/trumps-new-crypto-business-to-offer-access-to-high-yield-investments-website-says/?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">decentralized finance's best tools</a> for secure, high-yield crypto investments.</li></ul><h3 id="bankless-take">Bankless Take:</h3><p>Trump’s latest NFT venture presents a mixed bag. On one hand, raking in over $2M in a weak market is no small feat, especially when compared to established collections like CryptoPunks. However, the low percentage of minted NFTs signals potential oversupply with the collection’s size. If the collection ultimately sells out, though, the $35.6M haul he’ll yield will be hard to dismiss. Beyond the NFTs, Trump’s repeated teases of his larger crypto project have failed to yield concrete details, aside from these new clues about “high-yield crypto investments,” which build on his son’s previous comments to the <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/08/29/trump-keeps-teasing-his-new-crypto-project-but-details-remain-scant/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>New York Post</u></a> that WLF may also involve getting loans without traditional banks.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/worldlibertyfi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">@worldlibertyfi</a> <a href="https://t.co/mwhVIzPJyq?ref=bankless.ghost.io">pic.twitter.com/mwhVIzPJyq</a></p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1829141447087648796?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">August 29, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/trump-new-project-nft-sales</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 28 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>DraftKings Faces $65M Lawsuit from NFL Players Association</title>
<description><p>The NFL Players Association is suing DraftKings, claiming the company owes nearly $65M for unpaid obligations related to its defunct NFT fantasy game.</p><h2 id="whats-the-scoop">What's the scoop?</h2><ul><li><strong>Licensing Dispute:</strong> The dispute involves a licensing agreement allowing DraftKings to use NFL players' likenesses in its Reignmakers NFT product. DraftKings ended the agreement after closing the Reignmakers platform last month.</li><li><strong>Legal Background:</strong> The shutdown followed a legal setback for DraftKings, as a Massachusetts federal court denied the company’s motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit claiming the NFTs were unregistered securities.</li><li><strong>Termination Clause:</strong> DraftKings claims a clause lets them exit if regulators deem NFTs as securities. The NFLPA disagrees, saying market conditions and regret don’t excuse DraftKings from their obligations.</li><li><strong>Financial Context:</strong> <a href="https://decrypt.co/246845/nflpa-nfl-draftkings-nft-lawsuit?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">The NFLPA’s lawsuit points ou</a>t that DraftKings executives received $261M in compensation since 2021, roughly four times the amount the union claims it’s owed.</li></ul><h2 id="bankless-take">Bankless Take:</h2><p>Legal pressures continue to plague NFTs. While this particular case involves specific agreements and commitments between companies, it showcases a dicey road ahead and casts NFTs in a negative light, portraying them —&nbsp;as many were during 2021 —&nbsp;as a corporate, cash-grab tactic rather than a new method for producing and distributing media. </p> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/draftkings-faces-65m-lawsuit-from-nfl-players-association</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 28 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>Crecimiento & Aleph: Argentina's Crypto Moment</title>
<description><blockquote>Dear Bankless Nation,&nbsp;I spent all of August in Argentina, attending <a href="https://www.aleph.crecimiento.build/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><em><u>‘Aleph’</u></em></a> – a crypto pop-up city in the heart of Buenos Aires.&nbsp;<br><br>Aleph is one part <a href="https://www.bankless.com/everything-i-learned-at-zuzalu?ref=bankless.ghost.io">Zuzalu</a>, one part Devconnect. Significant top-down support and coordination from Protocol Labs was met with hundreds of volunteers, community leaders, and ecosystem partners who took up arms to create an environment to foster the next generation of crypto startups in Argentina.&nbsp;<br><br>At the Aleph Hub, a 1,000-person co-working space, crypto startups, venture capitalists, and the Argentine government all met and mingled for a month of collaboration, support, and growth.&nbsp;<br><br>While Aleph is a 1-month event that will come to an end, the sparks it ignites will hopefully grow into a wildfire across the country of Argentina and then all of Latam. <strong>This wildfire is ‘Crecimiento’ – <em>growth. </em></strong></blockquote><hr><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.00.27-PM.png" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1462" height="568" srcset="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w600/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.00.27-PM.png 600w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w1000/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.00.27-PM.png 1000w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.00.27-PM.png 1462w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><h2 id="why-argentina">Why Argentina?</h2><p><strong>Argentina is the spearhead of crypto.</strong>&nbsp;</p><p>While developed nation VCs and Crypto Twitter's degens hypothesize about use-cases, adoption, and ‘attracting retail investors.’ In Argentina, crypto has already been adopted by millions of people&nbsp;<strong>who have a present and urgent need for Crypto’s value and services.</strong></p><p>Argentina is the perfect breeding ground for the crypto economy. The intersection of easy&nbsp;internet access, currency inflation, capital controls, and traditional business frictions has produced an environment where the power of crypto can truly shine.&nbsp;</p><p>This recent Gwart tweet made me chuckle, but the irony here is that in Argentina, millions of “well-adjusted adults with 9-5 jobs with monthly expenses and obligations” have all found crypto as a means to let them live better lives.&nbsp;</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Retail is coming. You know, well-adjusted adults with 9-5 jobs with monthly expenses and obligations. They’re coming to trade digital commodities with us. That’s what they’re going to do. just be patient, retail is on their way.</p>— Gwart (@GwartyGwart) <a href="https://twitter.com/GwartyGwart/status/1822669808640417945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">August 11, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>There is a stark difference between the crypto-economy of Argentina and the perceived ‘use-cases’ and ‘metas’ that are often hypothesized about on Crypto Twitter.&nbsp;Local Argentines can’t all afford to bet on the next shiny alt-L1 or be in the memecoin trenches; their money could be worth 1% less tomorrow and 1% less again the day after that.&nbsp;</p><p>Of course, Argentina has its own crypto-natives who play in the degen games, but degen activity is dwarfed by the millions of Argentine citizens who don’t care about crypto and the fake world that degens on Crypto Twitter have generated but nonetheless are using their favorite crypto app (<em>Lemon, Belo, BuenBit, or Ripio</em>) to escape inflation, buy coffee, and protect their wealth.&nbsp;</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Meeting Argentine startups really makes the CT &amp; VC crypto games seem so silly <br><br>- The 15th restaked supercharged AltVM L2?<br>- The 5,000th political memecoin?<br>- DePIN this, Crypto AI that <br><br>Nah, just real cash-flowing businesses serving millions of local Argentines <a href="https://t.co/BUex3s2l2q?ref=bankless.ghost.io">https://t.co/BUex3s2l2q</a></p>— DavidHoffman.eth 🦇🔊 (@TrustlessState) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrustlessState/status/1823437363898392792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">August 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>In Argentina, <em>crypto is real.&nbsp;</em></p><hr><h1 id="the-bottom-up-100-more-startups">The Bottom-Up: <em>100 More Startups</em></h1><p>While the government of El Salvador has been praised by Bitcoiners for its Bitcoin-forwardness, the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-58579415?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>citizens of El Salvador do not share similar excitement</u></a> for the country's top-down investment into Bitcoin.&nbsp;</p><p>In contrast, the citizens of Argentina are truly excited about crypto or<em>, at worst, </em>indifferent<em>. </em>Certainly, not every Argentine uses crypto, but its usage is normalized and culturally accepted.<em> </em>The average Argentine has either directly had their lives materially improved by crypto due to easy access to dollars, payment services, and bankless banking, <strong>or they know someone with this experience</strong><em>.&nbsp;</em></p><p><strong>The bottom-up support and acceptance of crypto is stronger in Argentina than anywhere else in the world.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>A north star of <em>Crecimiento</em> and the <strong>Aleph</strong> pop-up city is the belief that Argentina is “100 good startups away” from a wildfire of crypto-enabled economic growth and prosperity spreading across the nation.&nbsp;</p><p><em>Just ~100 more startups, creating ~5,000 more crypto-powered jobs, bringing the value of crypto into Argentina</em>… and Argentina could be the first country to reach crypto-escape velocity and become the first end-to-end crypto-powered country on Earth.&nbsp;</p><p>At Aleph, 67 crypto startups, from pre-seed to series A, are working together at a common co-working space, collaborating on problems and supporting each other along their journey.&nbsp;There, 22 mentors from venture capital firms, crypto teams, and successful entrepreneurs are present at the Hub, offering time, advice, and perspective in order to pass wisdom onto the younger generations of startups.&nbsp;</p><p>A score of high-profile speakers &amp; experts came to speak with startups IRL each day during Aleph – from Seba Serrano (Ripio) to Alec Oxenford (OLX) to Nico Berman (Kaszek) to Marta Cruz (NXTP Ventures). Every day at the Aleph Hub, there was a university-level curriculum showcasing the skills needed to build in Web3. Workshops, talks, and mentorship were available – highlighting some of the industry's most technical frontiers.&nbsp;</p><blockquote><a href="https://zksync.mirror.xyz/ZvYUbumy_1sLJVsqcBr0pVhD1fJTO0gAfYfitLOoiio?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">A huge shoutout to ZKsync here</a> – startup builders and hackathon attendees overwhelmingly cited the presence and support that the ZKsync team provided to Aleph. The 3rd week of Aleph was ‘ZK week,’ and the ZKsync LATAM Devrel team went above and beyond providing education in both English and Spanish for the builders here.</blockquote><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdtLlGqHhtjqWhr7ddhEx_V0cqqEmV3TwGs4L1dhIfmbQQFiu_VpVWZp3IPMp36chHq1Bhd6A96FtkXLU8yTNH2XFk5URppnO8HyO-6Ob5JGskyeeNcGm9fHQK3cOuvNCP_wP-Bi67xeiKiNS7fiKtFrTo3?key=_BKZXidlkfgZW9gaNwgXjA" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1600" height="1502" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"><figcaption><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Here’s just a snapshot of what a day at Aleph looked like for builders&nbsp;</span></figcaption></figure><hr><h1 id="the-top-down-milei%E2%80%99s-digital-transformation">The Top Down:&nbsp;Milei’s Digital Transformation</h1><p>Argentina is the only country on Earth that has a strong grassroots crypto industry, which is being met by a strong, top-down, pro-crypto state government.&nbsp;</p><p>This is the potential that <em>Crecimiento</em> is trying to unlock. </p><p>Argentina's new leader, Javier Milei, is, in many ways, deeply crypto in spirit. With this new administration making radical changes to the Argentine government, the country's crypto leaders see a path to permanently embed crypto in Argentina's growth plans for the next decade and beyond.</p><p>Milei is pro-technology, pro-investment, and pro-acceleration. He has an actual “blockchain consultant,” Sergio Morales, in his cabinet. Milei's interest in Bitcoin and crypto is part of his broader economic philosophy, which includes dollarizing the economy (stablecoins, anyone?) and reducing government intervention.</p><p>Milei drafted legislation that balances crypto-innovation and investor protections and has collaborated with the crypto industry to provide regulatory clarity. Part of Milei’s initial “economic mega-decree" included the elimination of legal tender laws, allowing contracts to be denominated in any currency.&nbsp;</p><p>These are good steps for the legality of crypto in Argentina, but there is still a long way to go.&nbsp;</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcetI5FQH629_yEjOL1fJEWEvDPEtHay6O4jLp0RKyLVwSuZuA20ncsTnYMNpBzvJVTB0bjkRKH92y35KFCwGIOCeYiUN95aB3Rw3zQkCkC9rurjJLGJHZnnz7OyzdYjzmYfHCdBWiMHgYd7zTFGzbIm41o?key=_BKZXidlkfgZW9gaNwgXjA" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1109" height="613" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><p>The real challenge for the crypto industry here is whether Argentina can build a strong pro-crypto regulatory framework that gives crypto entrepreneurs assurances that crypto will be legal and protected for multiple decades.<strong> Can crypto protections be established that will transcend the current administration?&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong>What if a new administration comes and attempts to wipe out the pro-crypto progress that the Milei administration has made, as has happened so many times in the past for other industries in Argentina?&nbsp;</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Gary Gensler of Argentina - Roberto Silva - said at the <a href="https://twitter.com/crecimientoar?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">@crecimientoar</a> Regulation Day:<br><br>“We are 100% in favor of normalization of technology of the crypto world.” <br><br>"The SEC model is to sue cryptocurrencies, claiming they are irregular. We do not follow that model." <a href="https://t.co/vIXOwYV6gp?ref=bankless.ghost.io">pic.twitter.com/vIXOwYV6gp</a></p>— DavidHoffman.eth 🦇🔊 (@TrustlessState) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrustlessState/status/1827110058913562659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">August 23, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>On the 22nd of August, Aleph hosted ‘Regulatory Day,’ where leaders in the Milei administration came to the Aleph Hub for a day of discussions and workshops, all focusing on what crypto businesses and startups need from the Milei Administration.&nbsp;</p><p>It’s not just Milei. Here’s the previous president of Argentina walking in the Aleph coworking space. </p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/zksync?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">@zksync</a>'s ELI5 book on Zero Knowledge Proofs is for everyone.<br><br>Doesn't matter if you're the founder of <a href="https://twitter.com/lemonapp_ar?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">@lemonapp_ar</a>, a President of Argentina, or the innovation secretary for Buenos Aires.<br><br>Read it yourself 👉 <a href="https://t.co/fDFCeuJ9Ra?ref=bankless.ghost.io">https://t.co/fDFCeuJ9Ra</a> <a href="https://t.co/c3UH4cG5ku?ref=bankless.ghost.io">pic.twitter.com/c3UH4cG5ku</a></p>— ZKsync (∎, ∆) (@zksync) <a href="https://twitter.com/zksync/status/1827077558627598467?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">August 23, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>This is like if Bill Clinton attended the ETH Denver hackathon.&nbsp;</p><p>Unlike in the United States, the crypto industry in Argentina is deeply appreciated and encouraged by state officials.&nbsp;</p><hr><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.22.02-PM.png" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1100" height="626" srcset="https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w600/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.22.02-PM.png 600w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/size/w1000/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.22.02-PM.png 1000w, https://bankless.ghost.io/content/images/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-29-at-2.22.02-PM.png 1100w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></figure><h1 id="aleph-the-network-state">Aleph: The Network State</h1><p>Aleph is pioneering crypto-native technology that's dog-fooded by the 2,300+ Aleph citizens! </p><p><a href="https://quarkid.org/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>QuarkID</u></a> is an app incubated by the City of Buenos Aires that uses verifiable credentials, decentralized identifiers, and zero-knowledge cryptography to produce a user-sovereign identity system for all the citizens of Aleph.&nbsp;</p><p>After purchasing my ticket (citizenship) to Aleph, I was issued a verifiable credential that allowed my iPhone to open the door to the Aleph Hub and access the co-working space. My rights and privileges as a citizen of Aleph mean I get an allowance of 100 MORFI tokens per week. </p><p>MORFI tokens are an ERC20 token on ZKsync Era that are redeemable for 1,000 Argentine pesos at local businesses that have signed up to accept MORFI for payment for food, coffee, or other services around the Aleph Hub. One thousand pesos is about $1 (depending on when you're reading this). All of this is running on the ZKsync Era mainnet and represents a real prototype for a Baljian network state running on crypto rails.&nbsp;</p><p>Maybe you’re thinking, “How did they get over 50 different local businesses to accept crypto for payment?” The sales pitch is pretty easy when you learn that accepting regular peso payments over fintech rails results in a 2-3 month settlement time… meaning businesses don’t get their Pesos until they've lost a significant portion of their value. </p><p>Last month, Argentina experienced its lowest month of inflation in over five years, at 4%. That's 4% in a <em>month</em>, not a year. You think 2.9% credit card fees are bad? Imagine a business losing 10% due to currency debasement simply because the banking rails hold their money for months before giving it to the businesses. When Argentine businesses are informed that they are able to get their money instantly, it’s an easy sell.&nbsp;</p><p>Later this year, QuarkID will build its own independent Elastic Chain on the ZK Stack and be a part of the ZKsync Hyperchain. QuarkID has plans to build more traditional services into their app, from driver's licenses and other government-issued credentials to user-controlled wallets. For all intents and purposes, this would become the Argentina L2.&nbsp;</p><p>If you want to go further down this rabbit hole, check out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YM4waNkR9U&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>the interview I did with Diego Fernandez</u></a>, the Secretary of Innovation of Buenos Aries, last January.&nbsp;</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><iframe width="200" height="113" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_YM4waNkR9U?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="no-referrer" allowfullscreen="" title="Crypto Will Save Argentina"></iframe></figure><hr><h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion </h2><p>As Aleph comes to a close, the gringos, VCs, and mentors will all have to leave. We all have homes to return to. The Aleph co-working space is on a three-year lease and will remain open for Crypto startups to use as a common hub for the crypto industry moving forward. Support networks have been created, and connections, friendships, and investments have been made.&nbsp;</p><p>Will Aleph be the final push over the edge for the crypto industry in Argentina?</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BREAKING: <br><br>Ethereum and Solidity are now formally integrated into high school education programs in Buenos Aires<br><br>High schools students will learn to write <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Ethereum?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">#Ethereum</a> smart contracts<br><br>Vamos Argentina! 🇦🇷 <a href="https://t.co/i3Wz5OrFEq?ref=bankless.ghost.io">pic.twitter.com/i3Wz5OrFEq</a></p>— Bankless (@BanklessHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/BanklessHQ/status/1827076890206859735?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">August 23, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure><p>Argentina certainly has more than its fair share of problems to deal with. There's the convoluted taxation system that even regulators know means rampant tax-dodging. There are business registration constraints. This, not to mention decades of entrenched pseudo-communism that have held millions of voters locked in poverty and government handouts.&nbsp;</p><p>But if there’s one thing that has consensus in Argentina, it's that the homegrown, grassroots crypto industry is one of its brightest stars on the horizon. While many Argentines that I know have become fantastically wealthy thanks to the fortunes of crypto, many of them are committed to staying in Argentina.&nbsp;They love Argentina and its people. It’s not a place to escape, but a culture worth experiencing and a country trying to become worthy of reinvestment.&nbsp;</p><p>I don’t know if crypto can single-handedly elevate Argentina, <em>the jurisdiction,</em> into a higher quality of living, but we’ve already seen crypto elevate millions of Argentines out of poverty and free them from currency debasement. </p><p>Perhaps the governments in the modern age are simply too calcified to rebuild productively.&nbsp;That’s sad but fine. </p><p><strong>Crypto can help people help themselves, regardless of whether their country can. <em>And if their country can help crypto along as well, that’s even better.&nbsp;</em></strong></p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><iframe width="200" height="113" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LtqMkYTLpSA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="no-referrer" allowfullscreen="" title="How Crypto Is Transforming Argentina's Economy"></iframe></figure> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/crecimiento-aleph-argentinas-crypto-moment</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/crecimiento-aleph-argentinas-crypto-moment</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 28 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David Hoffman</author>
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<title>Binance, Bybit to Launch Solana Liquid Staking Tokens</title>
<description><p>Binance and Bybit are set to launch their proprietary Solana liquid staking tokens, BNSOL and bbSOL, via Sanctum.</p><h2 id="what%E2%80%99s-the-scoop">What’s the scoop?</h2><ul><li><strong>Sanctum's Role:</strong> The tokens will be deployed through Sanctum, a platform for whitelisted validators to launch LSTs, which introduced <a href="https://www.bankless.com/getting-started-in-sanctum-wonderland?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">Jupiter Exchange’s LST —&nbsp;JupSOL</a>.</li><li><strong>Implications for SOL LST TVL:</strong> While Solana has more of its native token staked than Ethereum, <a href="https://www.bankless.com/solanas-liquid-staking-landscape?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">it lacks in liquid staking</a>. Ethereum has ~65% of its staked ETH in liquid form, while Solana has only ~6% in liquid staking tokens (LSTs). BNSOL and bbSOL could change this.</li></ul><h3 id="bankless-take">Bankless Take:</h3><p>The launch of BNSOL and bbSOL via Sanctum marks a significant moment for Solana DeFi, potentially jumpstarting the expansion of Solana’s LSTs and marking further institutional interest in its ecosystem. This development also hints at a broader trend of major exchanges launching their own derivative assets. Following Binance and Bybit’s move with Solana, other exchanges like could follow suit – consider Coinbase's recent tease of their <a href="https://www.bankless.com/wbtc-gets-wrapped-in-controversy?ref=bankless.ghost.io" rel="noreferrer">version of wrapped BTC (cbBTC) recently</a>. While this trend can mean increasing capital in these ecosystems — a good thing —&nbsp;it is always important to remain wary of centralized actors pushing further into decentralized environments.&nbsp;</p><figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="ht" dir="ltr">BNSOL</p>— Binance (@binance) <a href="https://twitter.com/binance/status/1829111814094741707?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref=bankless.ghost.io">August 29, 2024</a></blockquote>
</figure> </description>
<link>https://www.bankless.com/binance-bybit-to-launch-solana-liquid-staking-tokens</link>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.bankless.com/binance-bybit-to-launch-solana-liquid-staking-tokens</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 28 Aug 2024 16:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<author>David C</author>
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<title>Exploring Monad's Early DeFi Ecosystem</title>
<description><p>Slowly but surely, we are inching closer toward one of the most anticipated launches of this cycle — <strong>Monad</strong>.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.bankless.com/monad-technical-innovations?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><u>parallelized</u></a>, EVM-compatible L1, which boasts $225M in funding from Coinbase, Electric Capital, and Paradigm, has been in testnet since March. The chain has already reached 10,000 transactions per second, an achievement that's led to hype around the chain's potential to supercharge DeFi. </p><p>With the chain continuing to grow mindshare, more teams are building on it, providing us with an early sense of how Monad’s DeFi landscape will take shape. <strong>Let's dig into a few of the hyped, early projects</strong> 👇</p><hr><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><a href="https://tayaswap.xyz/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfAm4Btv14HHqqAYTh38ITzDiQYtRtWkEdi6GRp1--eJBOT3DCwCayQvInlKuGVDho6VaztBls6bVjkbA78dRFXfEYah-eTOISa9yWaETGdpeiOBZ2AEHDiypu9rLkDwQDb3vpwhgR5RT6ZPlvB3Q?key=jgxDb4mNVhtCU2KCZRiNYw" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1600" height="841" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></a></figure><h3 id="%F0%9F%8D%AC-tayaswap">🍬 TayaSwap</h3><p><a href="https://tayaswap.xyz/?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><strong><u>Website</u></strong></a><strong> | </strong><a href="https://x.com/tayaswap?ref=bankless.ghost.io"><strong><u>Twitter</u></strong></a></p><p>TayaSwap is a DeFi Hub for Monad, which aims to bring established features like <em>Concentrated Liquidity Pools</em> and <em>Dynamic Liquidity Pools</em> to the ecosystem and make tra |
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