30 August 2024
Macro/TradFi
Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested at Bourget airport near Paris on Saturday evening. Toncoin (TON) plummeted nearly 17%, from $6.80 to $5.38 on the news.
Bitcoin surged past $64,000 after the Aug. 23 Wall Street open, following the U.S. Federal Reserve's first interest rate cuts since 2019. "The time has come for policy to adjust," said Fed Chair Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole symposium.
Nvidia's earnings beat expectations with $30.04 billion in revenue, but investors were unimpressed, leading to a ‘sell the news’ reaction and 8.4% drop in the stock. Challenges in manufacturing their new Blackwell processors also weighed on the stock. Bitcoin fell back below $60,000 in the same time.
Crypto
L1/L2:
The TON blockchain suffered two outages this week on August 28 and 29, both reportedly due to an overwhelming surge of transaction activity from the DOGS memecoin airdrop. The chain resumed normal operations on the 29th.
Stacks, aiming to bring Bitcoin into DeFi, has commenced its Nakamoto upgrade, introducing a DeFi-compatible Bitcoin (sBTC) on the Stacks blockchain.
Starknet's latest upgrade to version 0.13.2 introduces "parallel execution," allowing multiple transactions to run simultaneously on its Layer 2 chain.
BNB Chain has launched a new cross-chain bridge in collaboration with Celer, deBridge, and Stargate to enhance interoperability, liquidity, and user experience. This bridge, part of efforts to grow its stablecoin ecosystem, allows users to transfer assets, including stablecoins, from other blockchains.
DeFi:
Aave Labs proposed using BlackRock’s tokenized fund BUIDL to maintain the dollar peg of its stablecoin GHO. The update would allow exchanging USD Coin (USDC) for BUIDL shares, held in a smart contract until GHO is redeemed for USDC.
Maker Protocol has rebranded to Sky, aiming to make DeFi more accessible to everyone. The existing DAI stablecoin and MKR governance token will be upgradeable to the new USDS and SKY tokens. Maker also plans to launch a farm that will emit SKY tokens in the near future.
Solayer Labs, creator of the Solana restaking protocol Solayer, secured $12 million in a Polychain Capital-led seed funding round.
Uniswap Labs and Across Protocol have proposed ERC-7683, a new Ethereum token standard for cross-chain intents to address liquidity fragmentation. This standard aims to create a unified framework for specifying cross-chain actions in intents-based systems, automating blockchain interactions based on user outcomes.
Stablecoin
The stablecoin market cap continues its push towards its May 2022 all-time high of US$187B, clocking in 10 months consecutive growth bringing it to US$170B.
PayPal's USD-pegged stablecoin, PYUSD, has surpassed a $1 billion market cap. Over $650 million is on Solana, with $440 million locked as collateral on DeFi protocol Kamino.
NFT
Former President Donald Trump launched his fourth collection of digital trading card NFTs, offering high-rollers a piece of his debate suit with President Joe Biden. Buyers spending $24,750 will also get Trump sneakers, cocktails, and dinner at Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida.
OpenSea disclosed on Wednesday that it received a Wells Notice from the SEC, signaling an impending enforcement action. CEO Devin Finzer announced on X that the SEC believes NFTs on their platform are securities and is threatening to sue.
Others:
ParaFi Capital raised $120 million from investors like Theta Capital and Accolade Partners. The funds will partly be used to acquire general-partner stakes in other crypto funds.
Lemniscap, a crypto venture capital firm, has raised $70 million to invest in early-stage startups, anchored by Accolade Partners, a US-based fund of funds.
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