1. Eigen Foundation announces the launch of EIGEN Season 2 Stakedrop, which will be available before September 17th link
The Eigen Foundation announced the launch of the EIGEN Season 2 Stakedrop. The total amount of EIGEN allocated to stakers and operators in the second quarter is about 70 million EIGEN (about 4.2% FDV), and the snapshot time is August 15, 2024; the total amount of EIGEN allocated to ecosystem partners (including AVS, LRT, Rollups, RaaS, and other major contributors to the EigenLayer ecosystem) is up to 10 million EIGEN (about 0.6% FDV); the total amount of EIGEN allocated to the community is about 6 million EIGEN (about 0.35% FDV), including open source contributors, early advocates, and long-term contributors. The second quarter EIGEN claim time will be open on or before September 17.
2. Ethena Season 2 airdrop activity has officially ended, and will be open for inquiry on September 9th link
Ethena Labs officially announced that the second season of the Ethena protocol ended on September 2. During the second season, the supply of USDe increased from 1.3 billion to nearly 3 billion, and generated more than $105 million in revenue for the protocol. The third season rewards will automatically start on September 2. Users can view the available ENA through claim.ethena.fi on September 9 and claim it on September 30. In addition, Ethena launched sENA, a liquid and transferable staking token. Users need to convert the locked ENA into sENA to receive rewards in the third season.
3. Aleo discloses incentive plan airdrop targets, including ambassador program and other participating users link
The programmable privacy network Aleo has disclosed the recipients of the incentive plan airdrops and will open the claim of reward tokens to eligible participants after the mainnet launch. These include the following users who participated and received rewards: Ambassador Program, Setup Ceremony, Testnet 2, Top 100 Rewards, Credits Mined, GitHub PR, Pool Tester, Pool Operator, Testnet 3, Prover Rewards, Deployment Rewards, Test Version Testnet, Validator Rewards II, ZPrize 2022/2023, zkML Initiative, Enigma. Officials said that the claimed tokens will be locked for 1 year and can be used to deploy programs, execute transactions, and pay fees.
f2pool announced the launch of the Aleo (ALEO) mining pool and implemented a 1% PPLNS payment scheme. Aleo is an L1 blockchain platform that uses zero-knowledge proof technology to support the establishment of scalable and private applications. Aleo network consensus AleoBFT is a hybrid structure of PoS and PoW, which generates kSNARKs proofs in PoW and achieves real-time block finalization in PoS. Currently, you can use NVIDIA graphics cards to access f2pool to participate in Aleo mining.
4. Ripple plans to launch XRPL EVM sidechain in 2025 link
Ripple announced key announcements in South Korea and Japan this week, and Ripple and the XRP community are committed to bringing new programmability to the XRPL development ecosystem in 2025 through the XRPL EVM sidechain (already in progress), including smart contracts, and exploring native functionality on the XRPL mainnet. In addition, metaverse startup Futureverse has partnered with Ripple Custody to securely custody its assets. Futureverse has adopted the XRPL NFT standard, uses XRP as a gas token on its Root network, and integrates with the XRPL DEX to provide network liquidity.
5. ApeChain is about to go live and will launch a new program called BluePrint link
A co-founder of Yuga Labs said that ApeCoin is re-planning its roadmap and launching a series of new plans called BluePrint, a BAYC-themed project aimed at launching consumer-oriented applications. An employee of Yuga Labs confirmed that Ethereum Layer2 ApeChain will be launched soon. Greg Solano, who recently took over as CEO of Yuga Labs, said that ApeChain bets on applications most importantly and provides a full set of developer tools. On Wednesday, many well-known BAYC holders and Yuga employees posted new ApeChain banners on Twitter, and the outside world speculated that the launch is imminent. It is worth noting that the price of ApeCoin tokens has fallen 97% since its peak.
In addition, ApeCoin released its Q1 2024 transparency report. As of March 31, 2024, there were 326 million APE in the treasury, 255,060 APE in accounts payable, and 59 million APE reserved for grants; there was no APE inflow in the first quarter, and 1 million APE operating expenses outflowed, including 148,627 APE to support community activities, and a total of 20.6 million APE in foundation grants.
6. The veteran DeFi protocol Synthetix announced the launch of the application chain SNAXchain link based on the Optimism Superchain infrastructure
The veteran DeFi protocol Synthetix announced the launch of the Synthetix application chain SNAXchain based on the Optimism Superchain infrastructure. As Synthetix expands to other chains and Layer 2, SNAXchain will serve as a neutral hub for governance and protocol decisions. Synthetix has partnered with Conduit to manage chain infrastructure and with Wormhole to enable cross-chain messaging between SNAXchain and Optimism and the Ethereum mainnet.
7. SSV Network submitted two important proposals, including applying for $6 million in SSV for technology development link
SSV Network recently submitted two important proposals on its governance forum, which are currently under discussion. The first proposal aims to continue and expand the previous DIP-16 community and marketing management proposal, seeking additional funds for new activities and marketing services. The proposal requests $191,830 and $150,000 worth of SSV tokens for PR, conferences, and specific marketing activities, and an additional $1 million worth of SSV tokens as compensation for previous work. The second proposal involves the technical upgrades and future development plans of SSV Network, including the Alan Fork upgrade, committee consensus upgrade, Pectra readiness upgrade and many other technical improvements. The proposal requests $6 million worth of SSV tokens to support these technical development and upgrade efforts.
8. ZKsync development company Matter Labs will lay off 16% of its employees link
Matter Labs, the company behind ZKsync, is laying off 16% of its staff, or 24 employees, the first layoffs since the company was founded six years ago. Matter Labs President Nana Murugesan said the layoffs were intended to make the team more “lean” as it enters the next phase.
9. DeFi protocol Penpie was hacked, and about $27 million in crypto assets were stolen link
Penpie, a DeFi protocol built on top of the tokenized yield platform Pendle, has been hacked. Blockchain data shows that hackers have stolen about $27 million in crypto assets from the protocol, including various types of staked Ethereum, Ethena's sUSDE, and wrapped USDC stablecoins. Pendle confirmed that it had discovered a security vulnerability in the Penpie protocol, adding that investors' funds are safe on Pendle, but as a precautionary measure, Pendle has temporarily suspended all contracts.
According to @EmberCN, Penpie was hacked due to a security vulnerability and assets worth $27.8 million were stolen, mainly some LRT assets (wstETH/agETH/rswETH, etc.). Most of these stolen assets were exchanged by hackers for 11,109 ETH (about $26.95 million), of which 1,000 ETH (about $2.42 million) was laundered by hackers through Tornado Cash on Wednesday. The initial funds from the address used by the hacker to steal assets were also received from Tornado.
Pendle released an analysis report on the Penpie attack. The report pointed out that Pendle quickly suspended the contract after discovering the security vulnerability, successfully protecting about $105 million in funds from loss. The attack began at 01:45 on Wednesday, and the first attack occurred on Penpie at 02:23. The Pendle team took action about 2 minutes later, suspending all contracts and notifying relevant protocols. After investigation, the attack was caused by a problem unique to Penpie. The vulnerability was found to be related to a unique feature that allowed the Pendle market to be listed on Penpie without permission. Subsequently, at 08:50, the Pendle contract was safely unsuspended and resumed normal operation.
10. Mino Games announced that its independent card game Dimensionals will fully switch to Web2 mode link
According to Nftplazas, Mino Games, a dimensional game company, recently announced that its independent card game Dimensionals will completely switch to the Web2 model, abandoning the previous blockchain technology and NFT integration. The shift stems from the huge economic losses caused by the project. The company's CEO Sash MacKinnon pointed out that Dimensionals' Web3 journey began with the free casting of the Genesis Stone series in March 2023, with the aim of increasing game awareness and attracting mainstream players, but the project has encountered many challenges since its launch, including robot swiping for whitelist gifts, multiple DDoS attacks, and changes in the NFT market environment that led to a sharp drop in revenue streams. After discussions with investors and consultants, the company decided to abandon the Web3 direction, position Dimensionals as a pure Web2 game, and release it on the Steam platform. Mino Games has raised more than $35 million from top VCs, including a16z, SYBO Games, Y Combinator, Standard Crypto, and more.
