6 September 2024
Macro/TradFi
Spot BTC ETFs saw continued net outflows exceeding US$325M over the past week, with US$287.8M on September 3 alone - the largest outflow since May 1, according to SoSoValue. The outflows were driven by negative sentiment stemming from recession fears following recent U.S. economic data.
Vice President Kamala Harris' odds of winning against Donald Trump in the November election have dropped to 47%, down from a 50-50 split last week, according to Polymarket, which now has over US$777M in bets on U.S. election outcomes.
Mastercard has launched a new euro-denominated debit card for spending cryptocurrencies from self-custodial wallets at over 100M merchants, advancing its efforts to integrate crypto with TradFi.
Crypto
L1/L2:
The Bitcoin network hashrate, representing the total computing power securing the network, hit a new all-time high of over 742 exahashes per second (EH/s), according to data from CryptoQuant.
Arbitrum has launched Arbitrum Stylus on its mainnet, a tool designed to simplify Web3 DApp development by supporting WebAssembly (WASM) languages.
Matter Labs, developer of ZKsync, has cut its workforce by 16%, with CEO Alex Gluchowski attributing the reduction to shifting market conditions. Active addresses on zkSync Era have dropped to ~92,620, a sharp decline from over ~455,000 in April.
Unstoppable Domains, the Web3 domain service, is expanding to Base, extending its support beyond Polygon and Ethereum.
DeFi:
In August, DeFi protocols saw monthly fees drop by 24.4% to US$288M, the lowest since February, as activity slowed across the DeFi sector.
Bloomberg Terminal has integrated Polymarket election data, expanding the prediction market platform's reach to a wider audience as it experiences record adoption and gains traction in mainstream political discourse.
EigenLayer has rolled out the EigenPod upgrade, designed to make native ETH restaking simpler and more rewarding. Meanwhile, the protocol also unveiled its Season 2 “stakedrop”, with plans to distribute 86M EIGEN to various stakeholders.
Ethena announced a partnership with Etherfi, enabling users to deposit USDe in exchange for a new liquid restaking token (LRT), called eUSDe. eUSDe serves as the first ever dollar-pegged collateral asset for EigenLayer restaking.
Penpie, a protocol built on Pendle, was exploited on September 3, resulting in the loss of US$27M in client funds.
Stablecoins:
Ripple is close to launching its U.S.-dollar pegged stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD), with CEO Brad Garlinghouse stating a launch within weeks. RLUSD will be fully backed by U.S. dollar assets and will operate on both the XRP Ledger and Ethereum blockchain.
Others:
Samsung Next, the investment arm of Samsung, has invested in Startale Labs, a Web3 infrastructure company. This follows Startale Labs' strategic collaboration with Sony to launch the Layer 2 blockchain, Soneium.
Web3 security firm Hypernative has raised US$16M in a Series A funding round led by Quantstamp.
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