The Bittensor blockchain was temporarily halted after an attack on several user wallets, causing a 15% drop in TAO prices.

Investigations are ongoing into the attack, which is suspected to have been caused by a private key leakage, and Bittensor has been put into "safe mode" to prevent further transactions until more information is available.

The Bittensor blockchain was temporarily halted early Wednesday as team members detected an attack on several user wallets, with at least one wallet drained of $8 million worth of the project’s TAO tokens.

TAO prices dropped as much as 15% in the aftermath of the attack, but slightly recovered as core members said steps were in place to mitigate further mishaps.

“We are investigating, and in an abundance of caution, have recently fully halted transactions on-chain until there is more information available to us about the nature of this attack,” a Bittensor core team member wrote on the project’s Discord channel.

Later, co-founder Ala Shaabana confirmed on X that the chain was put on “safe mode,” meaning blocks were getting produced but no transactions were being processed. Blockchain trackers for the Bittensor network show the latest transactions and blocks were processed at or around 23:00 UTC on Tuesday.

By way of an update, we have contained the attack and put the chain into safe mode (blocks producing but no transactions are permitted).We’re still mid investigation and are considering all possibilities. Stay tuned.

— Ala (@shibshib89) July 3, 2024

Meanwhile, independent security researcher @ZachXBT said on his Telegram channel that one user was drained of 32,000 TAO, worth $8 million at the time, and suspected a private key leakage that led to the attack. A private key is a string of letters and numbers that acts as a password to protect and manage tokens in a wallet.

Investigations for the attack are ongoing as of Wednesday morning.

Bittensor connects machine learning models owned by various individuals worldwide. It is one of the biggest artificial intelligence-focused crypto projects with a market capitalization of $1.6 billion.

A U.S. judge in Massachusetts has denied a motion to dismiss a class action suit against DraftKings alleging its NFTs are securities.

This sets the stage for a future trial about NFTs as securities.

A U.S. Judge in Massachusetts has denied a move by DraftKings to dismiss a class action lawsuit brought on by buyers of its non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The suit alleges that the tokens are investment contracts, setting the stage for a future court battle on whether NFTs are securities. DraftKings offers sports-themed NFTs on its marketplace via the Polygon blockchain.

Justin Dufoe, a buyer, first filed suit against DraftKings, on behalf of other owners in March 2023, alleging that these NFTs met the prongs for the Howey test.

In this recent ruling, a court agreed that DraftKings' NFTs involved an investment of money, pooled assets into a common enterprise with shared risks and profits, and created a reasonable expectation of profit from DraftKings' efforts, thus plausibly classifying them as securities under the Howey test.

It is plausibly alleged that the NFTs' values were dependent on the success of the DraftKings Marketplace, the court found, noting that the value moves in tandem with interest in that specific marketplace, an issue that has been addressed in prior cases examining NFTs.

Dapper Labs faced a similar case

All this comes after Dapper Labs agreed in June to pay $4 million to settle a similar class action suit. It was reported earlier by Fortune that the SEC had once launched an investigation into Dapper Labs but closed it in September 2023.

However, the difference between Dapper Labs' NFTs and those offered by DraftKings is that Dapper uses its own proprietary blockchain called Flow, while DraftKings issues its tokens on Polygon.

The use of Flow, a private chain, the court decided, means Dapper Labs runs a higher risk of violating securities laws because its Flow blockchain created a dependency on Dapper’s managerial efforts and success, satisfying the Howey test criteria of a common enterprise and expectation of profit.

A date to continue the DraftKings class action suit has not yet been set.

Polymarket bettors give a 55% chance that Biden will drop out of the Presidential race.

Barack Obama has privately expressed concerns over Biden's campaign performance, according to the Washington Post

The chance that President Biden drops out of the race for the White House hit an all-time high of 55% on Polymarket after former president Barack Obama expressed concerns about the Biden campaign and debate performance.

The Washington Post reported late Tuesday that former president Barack Obama, concerned about Biden’s reelection chances after a poor debate performance, as well as highlighting his belief that Trump has strong electability, has been privately advising and supporting him while publicly expressing confidence in his campaign.

Bettors are less sure as to when Biden will withdraw.

The market is giving a 42% chance that Biden drops out before the Democratic convention, scheduled for August 19.

Democratic party bosses have already prepared a scenario for Biden pulling out of the election, according to reports from the New York Times, and the process of securing a new nominee will be a complex one.

The easiest route would be to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris, Biden's running mate.

Sensing that this would be the path of least resistance, the market pushed up Harris' odds of becoming the Democratic nominee to 31% on Tuesday, CoinDesk reported earlier.

Meanwhile, Polymarket bettors give a 13% chance to Harris winning the presidential election, and a 16% chance to Joe Biden.

More than $211 million has been bet on the general presidential election contract on Polymarket, while nearly $10 million has been bet on Biden dropping out.

Vice president Kamala Harris' odds of becoming the Democratic nominee for president this year more than quadrupled on Tuesday, according to traders on Polymarket, the crypto-based prediction market platform that's seen torrid growth in an election year.

"Yes" shares in a contract asking whether she will get the nod traded as high as 31 cents in the afternoon New York time, indicating the market saw a 31% chance it will happen, up from 7% earlier in the day. The shares retraced some gains and recently traded at 23 cents.

Each share pays out $1 (in USDC, a stablecoin, or cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar) if the prediction comes true, and zero if not.

Officially, President Joe Biden is still the presumptive Democratic nominee. But many supporters are calling on him to step aside, and some of them want Harris to step up following her boss's doddering performance at last week's debate with former commander-in-chief and almost-certain Republican standard-bearer Donald J. Trump.

"We should do everything we can to bolster her, whether it’s in second place or the top of the ticket," Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C, said on television Tuesday.

A Newsweek op-ed by former Congressman Tim Ryan, the first presidential candidate to endorse Biden in 2020, was more blunt: "Kamala Harris Should Be the Democratic Nominee for President in 2024." An analysis by The Wall Street Journal called Harris "Biden’s Likeliest Replacement."

The trend was similar Tuesday on PredictIt, a more traditional prediction market platform where bets are settled in dollars rather than crypto. "Yes" shares for Harris there more than doubled to 35 cents. PredictIt's volume on the question of who will win the Democratic nomination totals $31 million, dwarfed by Polymarket at $75 million.

Under a settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Polymarket is barred from doing business in the U.S., whereas PredictIt is allowed to operate in the country under a regulatory exemption.

Tuesday was Polymarket's fifth-largest volume day in its four-year history, with $5.7 million in trading, according to Dune Analytics data. June was the first month Polymarket saw more than $100 million in volume.

Its largest contract by far, with $211 million in bets, asks who will win the U.S. presidency in November. Trump remains the favorite, with a 66% chance of victory.

Meanwhile, KAMA, a meme coin named after the vice president, rallied Tuesday, more than doubling in price over 24 hours to $0.007815.

Lawyers for Digital Currency Group, Barry Silbert and Michael Moro filed responses to New York Attorney General Letitia James' latest effort to support a lawsuit against the crypto company and executives.

The NYAG's office sued DCG and the affiliated executives last year.

Lawyers for cryptocurrency firm Digital Currency Group (DCG) and two of its top executives – CEO and founder Barry Silbert and Soichiro “Michael” Moro, the former CEO of DCG’s wholly-owned trading arm Genesis – have made a final effort to convince a judge to toss out New York Attorney General (NYAG) Letitia James’ civil fraud suit against them.

The court documents filed last Friday are the latest volley in the legal back-and-forth between NYAG and the respondents, who – along with crypto exchange Gemini and the now-bankrupt Genesis – have been accused of defrauding investors by working together to cover up a gaping $1 billion hole in Genesis’ balance sheet caused by the wipe-out of Singapore-based crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC).

In her lawsuit, James alleged that Genesis and DCG made “false assurances” on Twitter that DCG had absorbed Genesis’ losses from 3AC’s implosion, which were crafted to put investors at ease and prevent them from calling in their open loans. But, instead of actually filling the billion-dollar hole with a cash injection, DCG allegedly just patched it over with a promissory note, pledging to pay Genesis $1.1 billion over ten years at 1% interest. According to James, DCG has “never made a single payment under the Note.”

Genesis and Gemini have settled with NYAG, but DCG, Silbert and Moro have fought the accusations of fraud, calling the suit “meritless.” Each filed a motion to dismiss the case in March, vehemently denying that the promissory note was a sham, arguing that the note was fully vetted and legally binding and that, in addition to the note, DCG transferred hundreds of millions of dollars and assets into Genesis to fill the hole in its balance sheet.

The social media posts about Genesis’ “strong” balance sheet weren’t lies meant to defraud, the lawyers argued, but simply “corporate puffery.”

In her response, James pushed back, arguing that the tweets weren’t “corporate puffery” but instead a “misrepresentation of existing facts” purposely crafted to mislead investors – a violation of New York’s strict anti-fraud law, the Martin Act.

Her response to the motions to dismiss attached a transcript of messages sent by Silbert, Moro and other employees during a late-night strategy meeting after 3AC’s collapse in June 2022.

Good-faith efforts?

In the latest set of court documents, lawyers for DCG agree that the late-night strategy meeting took place, but argue that it’s not evidence of any conspiracy: instead, they say, those communications are evidence of the company’s “lawful, good-faith efforts…to support a subsidiary.”

“DCG did what a responsible parent company should do, offering advice, providing financial support, and, in certain instances, reviewing and commenting on Genesis’s communications,” DCG’s lawyers wrote.

In a June 28, 2022 email attached to Silbert’s filing, Silbert wrote to Moro and other employees:

“It is certainly our hope and intention to help Genesis address the equity hole — hopefully by 6/30. To that end, the Genesis team should be working 24/7 with the DCG and DCGI teams to figure out all possible ways to do so…There are probably lots of different ways to do so, each with their own ramifications that we just need to all understand before we start moving assets around.”

The email, Silbert’s lawyers argue, demonstrates that efforts to fill the billion-dollar hole were genuine.

DCG’s lawyers restated their claim that the promissory note at the heart of the case was an “entirely proper financial transaction…[and] one of the most valuable assets in the Genesis estate, one that will provide an enormous benefit to Genesis’ creditors far beyond what they would have received had DCG not acted so supportively without any obligation to do so.”

The promissory note, DCG’s lawyers say, allowed Genesis to weather the storm caused by 3AC’s collapse – it wasn’t until FTX imploded that Genesis was forced to halt withdrawals.

Lawyers for Silbert similarly agreed that he “discussed ways to support Genesis in the wake of the 3AC default, and ultimately signed the Promissory Note in order to do so” but denied that there was anything fraudulent about his actions.

The fact that Silbert ultimately signed the promissory note, his lawyers say, was evidence of his good faith and continued belief in Genesis’ viability despite its financial woes.

When did I get interested in DePIN? It goes back to SETI, a 2000s-era crowdsourced search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and my own family. We have always found a hobby in setting up airplane antennas and watching the planes on radar for fun. I never thought there would be a decentralized version of this network, where individuals could contribute radar data and be rewarded for these contributions instead of just a hobby. Little did I know that, years later, it would be a worldwide movement called DePIN.

This op-ed is part of CoinDesk's new DePIN Vertical, covering the emerging industry of decentralized physical infrastructure.

If you have been here for a few cycles or even since the last bull run, you’ve already heard a lot of broken promises with different buzzword metas and acronyms such as HODL to WAGMI. As most of the last cycles' promises fade away, there’s a new acronym and utility taking front and center stage. This time it stands for something REAL. DePIN. Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks.

What is DePIN?

DePIN takes current blockchain tech and transforms how physical infrastructure like IoT devices and machines operate and interact with each other. By using decentralized control, DePIN allows machines to autonomously trade value, offer services and also sustain themselves. The DePIN approach creates a scalable, faster and people-owned infrastructure.

This enables real world assets like vehicles and sensors to function as part of a friendly ecosystem, creating machine composability and value in the form of tokens for all participants. We call this the “Economy of Things.” This DePIN model also reduces dependency on large corporations, cuts capital expenditure (CapEx) and operational expenditure (OpEx) and enhances any system's strength and durability.

If this is your first time hearing about DePIN, let me explain it in more simple terms. Instead of big companies profiting millions off all kinds of your data, imagine you’re rewarded for the data you create or for any extra resource you might have. That could include your GPS location, supplying weather data, extra bandwidth from your internet, flight data or even the extra power your house or GPU generates. This is the same data and resources that in most cases, you have been giving away for free for years and sometimes even decades. DePIN cuts out middlemen and gives the power and data back to the people.

Another exciting concept that's already starting to form within the DePIN space is parallel markets. Take a DePIN like Farmsent on peaq. One part of the network is soil sensors for farmers. They can now put another DePIN like a weather antenna up and get a better weather insurance rate now that they’re supplying up-to-date weather data directly from the farm. Now you have one sector of data connecting to another and creating value for both sides. This leads to better pricing models, a better network, and even bringing communities together who might not have been introduced otherwise.

The Current Landscape of DePIN

What excites me most is that DePIN is breaking traditional sectors and changing how we think about these legacy systems. There’s so many amazing projects being built. Projects like Silencio (also on peaq) allow you to be rewarded for measuring noise pollution from your iPhone. MapMetrics gathers mapping and carbon data. And platforms like TENEO are unlocking access and liquidity with the tokenization of machines like a fleet of Teslas. Combinder gives people access to green microgrids while YOM offers sustainable alternatives by using a network of existing gaming machines instead of building more data centers.

New and exciting sectors are constantly popping up within DePIN, such as agriculture and robotics. Farmsent is transforming the agricultural world through decentralized farming data networks, while XMAQUINA is allowing you to own fractions of all sorts of machines with tokenized robotics solutions. RWA/DePIN hybrid projects like penomo are making investments in renewable energy and allowing for big machines like EV charging stations and solar turbines more accessible to all.

DePIN is more than just a clever acronym or another Web3 meta. It’s the Web3 Bat Signal for a fundamental change in our approach to building, managing, and interacting with physical infrastructure. The projects I've engaged with, the events I've spoken at, and the communities I've helped uplift, all underscore one truth. DePIN is where Web3 gets REAL. It's a complete pivot from speculative vaporware and tribalism to creating real world value and real world progress.

As the founder of DePIN Daily and Growth Lead at peaq, I've seen the influence of an organic, engaged community fighting the good fight of taking our data back. From people making their own devices with Raspberry Pi’s to helping other community members with their setups, everyone is here to build and uplift each other. The chain tribalism and PFP wars have been left behind in 2021. The DePIN community acts as a foundation for builders, founders, and users to exchange ideas, collaborate, and push this DePIN movement forward.

Conclusion

People are frightened and struggling all across the world, from AI taking their jobs to finding and earning passive income to help with bills due to inflation. DePIN can help with this. From owning a fraction share of an AI robot-cafe to earning a few extra bucks a day for sharing your cars data or GPS location, the change starts now. Stepping into DePIN and real world applications, while working at peaq has opened a whole new horizon and has me so excited for the future. Let’s bring blockchain back to what it was meant to do and give power back to the people. DePIN Summer is here.

Note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc. or its owners and affiliates.

Spot bitcoin ETFs saw net inflows of $790 million even as the price of bitcoin tumbled 7% in June.

Previously, the funds experienced heavy outflows when the underlying cryptocurrency declined sharply, for example in April.

The idea that the rapid growth in assets for the spot bitcoin ETFs was a result of the herd chasing "number go up" price action received a setback in June.

Data from Bloomberg Intelligence shows the spot funds saw net inflows of $790 million even as the price of bitcoin {{BTC}} tumbled 7%. Leading the way was what's now the largest of the spot ETFs, BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), where inflows topped $1 billion, offsetting by itself what continue to be sizable outflows from the high-fee Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).

The action stands in contrast to that of April, when the spot funds as a group saw large outflows as bitcoin's price declined 15% that month.

“Boomers are much better holders than some make them out to be,” wrote Bloomberg Intelligence senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, possibly taking aim at well-followed analyst James Bianco, who has continually tried to make the case that it's weak-handed hot money that's been behind the massive asset gathering of the spot ETFs.

Part of the positive inflow streak in June could also come from enthusiasm tied to the possibility of a spot ether ETF, which regulators and potential issuers have visibly been working on getting approved. While the arrival of a rival spot crypto ETF could pull money from the bitcoin funds, it might also be a positive in that it signals regulators are finally embracing the industry as part of the financial system.

Ether ETF issuers have been asked to re-submit an important filing before July 8, according to reports, which spurred hopes that the ETFs will likely hit the market this month.

The first Securities and Exchange Commission witness in Nigeria's trial against Binance and its executives has been cross-examined.

The money-laundering trial reconvenes on July 5.

Tigran Gambaryan's health is deteriorating in jail, his family said.

Nigeria's money laundering trial against Binance and two executives was adjourned until July 5 following the cross-examination on Monday of the first witness from the country's Securities and Exchange Commission.

The court was also made aware that, despite several court orders, the prison where Tigran Gambaryan is being held has not released the medical records from his only visit to hospital, which took place a month ago. Gambaryan's health is deteriorating, according to his family. Justice Emeka Nwite again ordered that the reports should be provided to Gambaryan's lawyers by Friday.

Gambaryan, the crypto exchange's head of financial crime compliance, has been detained in the most populous African nation since February and is being held in Kuje prison alongside the likes of terrorist group Boko Haram. Another executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, who also faces the money laundering charges, has since escaped.

"Tigran’s health continues to deteriorate in detention and he complained of numbness in his foot as well as back pain," a statement from the family's spokesperson said. "He has had double pneumonia and malaria whilst in prison."

"As I have stated many times before and as the evidence in court is showing, Tigran has never been a decision-maker at Binance, and there is no justification for his continued detention," Yuki Gambaryan, Tigran’s wife, said. "It is time for the Nigerian authorities to do the right thing and release my innocent husband."

U.S. members of Congress visited Gambaryan recently and urged the U.S. to take further action.

Binance is also the sole defendant in a tax evasion case that is adjourned until July 12 after charges against Gambaryan and Anjarwalla were dropped.

Binance declined to comment. CoinDesk reached out to Nigeria SEC and Economic and Nigeria's Financial Crimes Commission for comment.

Read more: Nigeria Drops Tax Charges Against Binance Executives

Kraken is considering using nuclear energy as a power source for its data centers.

The crypto exchange is looking to partner with energy providers that can supply small modular reactors.

The company is exploring nuclear power options in North America and Europe.

Kraken is considering using nuclear energy to power its data centers, amidst an expected boom in decentralized finance (DeFi) and increased demand for its services, the company’s chief technical officer, Vishnu Patankar, said in an exclusive interview with CoinDesk.

Kraken is not looking to build its own reactors, but is considering partnering with energy providers that can supply nuclear power with small modular reactors (SMRs). These reactors can be co-located with data centers and don’t have space or weather constraints, according to Patankar.

“With institutions moving into the crypto asset class and activity moving on-chain, the need for reliable fiat onramps continues to grow,” Kraken’s CTO said. “Bolstering our energy resiliency means we strengthen a direct avenue into the crypto ecosystem, supporting its continued growth.”

The crypto exchange is looking to secure its energy supply given the massive surge in demand from artificial intelligence (AI) and high performance computing (HPC) firms which is changing the landscape in terms of power stability, Patankar said.

Kraken is exploring nuclear power options in North America and Europe.

“Crypto’s round-the-clock and global nature means Kraken needs a constant supply of energy, particularly as we facilitate a larger proportion of global trading volumes,” Patankar said. Due to the 24/7 demands of running a cryptocurrency business and expected mass adoption of crypto over time, Kraken is looking at how it can scale its business in terms of energy supply and latency.

Nuclear backup

Kraken's exploration of the idea comes as more tech companies explore deals with nuclear operators to power data centers needed to meet the demands of artificial intelligence. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the trend is increasingly apparent, with firms including Amazon Web Services seeking to lock in contracts with nuclear plants to power data centers.

Surging demand from power-hungry AI companies has seen bitcoin miners pivot away from crypto mining to supplying infrastructure for these firms. Core Scientific (CORZ) signed a deal with artificial intelligence firm CoreWeave earlier this month.

“A nuclear backup means Kraken can continue to operate even if there was major disruption to local energy supply,” Patankar said, noting that “it adds redundancy and protects our energy resiliency so we can continue to offer round-the-clock products and services to our clients globally.”

Whether running nodes for validators or for transactions, Patankar said Kraken is expecting a big boom in DeFi and because of this the firm’s energy needs could potentially be exponentially higher in the future.

Whilst a final decision has not been made yet, Patankar said Kraken was definitely considering nuclear power as an option as other alternatives such as wind and solar are weather dependent and energy storage also posed a challenge.

A criticism often leveled at the crypto industry is that it is extremely wasteful in terms of energy usage, with proof-of-stake blockchains such as Bitcoin requiring huge amounts of processing power. Nuclear energy also suffers from similar negative perception but for different reasons, however, in this case it might be a more environmentally friendly solution. Any excess energy that is generated by the reactors can be captured and used to power the cooling systems of the data centers.

A common trope of those who discredit Web3 is that it’s trying to solve a problem no one has. And, perhaps it’s easy to see it that way when you mostly see celebrities launching meme coins to self-enrich themselves and leaving their fans being the bag holders when the tokens go to zero. Or the animal JPEGs from the last cycle in 2021 that had values as high as six and seven figures. I’ve found myself disillusioned at those things too.

What if that wasn’t the case, though? What if Web3 was at the precipice of one of the most exciting times for building real-world value since the inception of the idea of blockchain? Welcome to Decentralized Science (DeSci).

DeSci is a movement leveraging blockchain technology to create a fair and equitable infrastructure for scientific research. It aims to enhance the processes of funding, creating, reviewing, crediting, storing, and disseminating scientific knowledge through the use of Web3 tools, including tokens, NFTs, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

By fostering an open and incentivized environment, DeSci seeks to empower community-driven collaboration in the scientific field. All the tools we've been using can now be applied in ways that create both societal and monetary value. Maybe the world wouldn’t hate us so much if we could deliver this across verticals but starting with scientific innovation is a good one.

One might be tempted to ask why we need DeSci if we already have the traditional scientific method that’s been delivering value for longer than most of us realize. Well, with just a bit of research, you’ll understand that traditional science really needs an overhaul. The problems lie with publishing, reproducibility, funding, the way IP works and even how the data is stored.

Publishing scientific work is fraught with challenges, starting with the exorbitant fees charged by publishers. These publishers rely on unpaid labor from scientists, reviewers, and editors to generate content, yet charge the public — who indirectly fund this research through taxes — high prices for access. Web3 tools have the potential to address this issue by creating open-access platforms that incorporate legitimacy and incentive mechanisms, effectively bridging this gap. Without naming the guilty publications, I’ll just say it’s all the best ones.

Ensuring reproducibility and replicability is crucial for high-quality scientific discovery. Reproducibility means researchers can consistently achieve the same results, while replicability means different groups can achieve the same outcomes using the same methods. Web3-native tools can embed these principles into scientific research by providing attestations for raw data, computational engines, and application results, all validated by a reliable network. This would avoid problems with important Alzheimer’s research that was allegedly fabricated.

The traditional funding model for scientific research is often inefficient and biased, leading to long delays and a hyper-competitive environment. Web3 introduces new funding models, such as retroactive public goods funding, quadratic funding, DAO governance, and tokenized incentive structures. These models promote a fairer and more efficient distribution of resources. At the moment, in the United States, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds a significant portion of all science in the country, letting these unaccountable institutions decide what is and isn’t legitimate inquiry. Seems like a broken model if you ask me. (Together, the NIH and NSF contribute about $57.5 billion to federal R&D funding, or approximately 33.6% of total federal R&D funding in 2022.)

In traditional science, intellectual property (IP) often gets stuck in universities or goes unused. Web3 offers a solution through digital asset ownership via NFTs, creating transparent value attribution chains that reward researchers and governing bodies. IP-NFTs can also serve as keys to decentralized data repositories and can integrate with DeFi for financialization, nurturing a new research ecosystem. Personally, I can’t wait for NFTs that actually have utility instead of the garbage we’ve been promised by popular projects for years.

Web3 technologies can significantly enhance the accessibility and storage of scientific data. Distributed storage solutions ensure data resilience and availability even in catastrophic events. Systems with proper verifiable credentials can enable secure data replication, redundancy, and censorship resistance, fostering collaboration. Decentralized public data solutions like IPFS, Arweave and Filecoin provide the foundation for open science, allowing researchers to create public goods without access restrictions or fees.

Now, take all of that and tell me there isn’t a time coming where we’ll see a DeSci Summer happen with tokens that will also take off in an unprecedented way. Instead of selling us on the 100th decentralized exchange, or another 3,000X DeFi protocol, investors might start reading white papers to understand where the next valuable company might come from. We’d get the smartest minds working on the hardest problems, instead of the next best tokenomics ponzi. It would mean societal and monetary value at the same time.

Imagine if the next breakthrough medication, akin to Pfizer or Tylenol, could be funded through a decentralized, transparent process? This would not only democratize the funding of critical research, but also ensure that the rewards and recognition are fairly distributed among all contributors. DeSci has the potential to revolutionize scientific research, making it more inclusive, efficient, and innovative, and paving the way for groundbreaking advancements that benefit society as a whole. Maybe if we do this right the world wouldn’t hate Web3 so much.

Note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc. or its owners and affiliates.

Pump.fun became the largest revenue generator of any blockchain or protocol over the past 24 hours, data shows.

11,528 tokens were deployed on Monday, bringing the cumulative total up to 1.2 million.

The number of tokens created can be attributed to the ongoing celebrity-themed token narrative.

Celebrity-inspired meme coins spurred a surge in revenue for token launchpad Pump.fun over the past 24 hours, lifting the protocol's revenue above the Ethereum blockchain's for the first time.

Pump.fun racked up $2 million in daily revenue in the time period, pipping Ethereum's $1.91 million and making it the largest revenue generator of any blockchain, according to data on DefiLlama.

Data from Dune Analytics shows that 11,528 tokens were deployed on Monday bringing the cumulative total up to 1,199,685. Cumulative revenue on the platform has now reached $50.9 million. In March, Pump.fun was on track to hit $66 million in annual revenue, a figure that is likely to be surpassed before the year is out if current activity continues.

The narrative around celebrity-themed meme coins began in late May when the likes of Caitlyn Jenner, Iggy Azalea, Trippie Redd, and Davido all set up meme coins on Solana.

Crypto natives have been looking to cash in on the trend, creating tokens on Pump.fun in hope that one catches viral attention, thus increasing in value.

It's worth noting that Solana, the blockchain Pump.fun is based on, is relatively cheap compared with Ethereum. This means that bad actors can create tokens and conduct rug pulls for cheaper than on Ethereum.

Israeli crypto firm Ironblocks is spearheading a new security layer called Venn that will vet blockchain transactions before they're executed, potentially averting multimillion-dollar attacks and hacks.

Venn is a security product: its customers – lending protocols and beyond – will pay a small fee in exchange for what's essentially an extra set of eyes making sure nothing suspicious is happening on their books. But instead of one pair, they'll get many operators on the lookout for fraud, says Ironblocks CEO Or Dadosh.

That's because Venn is set to be a decentralized network much like the blockchains that all DeFi protocols live on top of. It will consist of a series of node operators that work together to reach a consensus. While such operators on Ethereum and other blockchains add transactions to the chain's economic history (the ledger), the ones on Venn will act as a gatekeeper and determine whether proposed transactions are too suspect to get there.

Venn is the latest attempt to address crypto's ever-present crime problem. In any given week, projects big and small lose six-figure sums or more to fraud, theft, economic attacks and other costly capers that drain their customers' crypto. All these transactions happen on the blockchain, where they're irreversible; there's no rewind button to move stolen money back into a victim account.

Venn doesn't add a "rewind" button to the blockchain so much as a "review and revoke" feature.  Transactions being fed into it haven't actually happened yet, Dadosh told CoinDesk. They're on their way to finality – as long as they make it past Venn's vettors, that is.

Though Venn isn't yet live, Dadosh explained in an interview how it will work. Actual crypto users won't necessarily be aware of Venn as they won't have to do anything special to be included in the network. If, however, they're using a protocol that's a customer of Venn, part of their gas fee will pay for their transaction to be checked for malicious activity through Venn.

Most transactions will (presumably) make it through Venn just fine in around 100-200 milliseconds, much faster than the transactor would likely notice. All of this happens in the background and privately, meaning there's no opportunity for bots to front-run trades or employ other controversial MEV strategies. Cleared transactions move on to the main chain for execution.

But if Venn's operators detect something suspicious about a transaction, they'll freeze it before it has a chance to execute. Security teams will be alerted and investigate the matter. Meanwhile, normal transactions will proceed to execution unimpeded.

"It's about making sure that the assets themselves are protected against malicious transactions," Dadosh said, "ensuring there is no kind of malicious transactions being executed."

Decentralized network

Venn is scheduled to go to testnet in the coming weeks. The security of the network itself will come from restaking; Venn is a so-called "actively validated service" that gets the shared economic security of the EigenLayer ecosystem.  Dadosh said Venn has lined up well-known lending protocols as early customers, but demurred when asked which.

The customers, whoever they are, will have a high degree of autonomy in deciding what transactions to feed into Venn. They won't necessarily send every user-initiated action through the security layer, but they could.

Eventually, customers will have the option to add extra security checks on top of the baseline oversight that Venn will apply to all transactions passing through it, Dadosh said. These will be managed and offered by individual operators – the security firms running the nodes.

Within all of this is Ironblocks, the security firm that first conceived of Venn and organized, built and maintains it. That said, Venn won't be an Ironblocks product in the same way that its other security products are. The fees Venn collects go to all of its operators, of which Ironblocks is one.

Read more: Crypto Security Firm Ironblocks Builds 'Firewall' for DeFi Protocols

Eventually, Venn will be managed by a security council that will call the shots on its operations, Dadosh said. When asked if Venn would issue a token – a common (and valuable) tool for crypto networks to distribute power among users – Dadosh said he couldn't talk about it right now. But he said Venn will run a points program that will recognize network usage. Many crypto protocols use points as a precursor to token releases.

"The original idea was to create a prevention layer for malicious exploits and make sure it is aligned with Web3," Dadosh said.

RedStone, a provider of oracle data feeds for blockchains, announced Tuesday that it raised $15 million in a series A round, led by Arrington Capital.

The fresh round of capital will go towards hiring new team members, according to a press release. Participation in the round included SevenX, IOSG Ventures, Spartan Capital, White Star Capital, Kraken Ventures, Amber Group, Protagonist, gumi Cryptos, Christian Angermayer's Samara Asset Group and HTX Ventures.

The announcement comes as RedStone focuses on bringing its oracles to Ethereum’s emerging restaking landscape. In April, RedStone inked a deal with Ether.fi, the largest restaking service on EigenLayer, securing $500 million to help bring RedStone's data oracles to its ecosystem.

“Restaking is one of the areas where we are developing and very attractive for various reasons,” said Jakub Wojciechowski, CEO of RedStone Oracles, in an interview with CoinDesk.

“First, we have a first mover advantage," Wojciechowski said. "A lot of LRTs (liquid restaking tokens, referring to the liquid restaking protocols) started working with us. Second, it is a pretty complex challenge to technically start providing price points, especially for LRTs. We have a very modular and flexible design to cater for that. And in our view, on the business side, it is a very fast, growing and attractive market.”

In addition to providing oracles for restaking protocols, RedStone provides data feeds for Ethereum, zkSync Era, Avalanche, Base, Polygon, Linea, Celo, Optimism, Arbitrum, Fantom, BNB Chain and Blast, according to the press release.

Read more: Ether.Fi Inks $500M Restaking Deal With RedStone Oracles

Pi Squared, a company setting out to enable verifiable computing through the use of zero-knowledge technology, announced Tuesday that it raised $12.5 million in a seed round led by Polychain Capital.

Participation in the round included ABCDE, Bloccelerate, Generative Ventures, Robot Ventures and Samsung Next, as well as angel investors including the Ethereum Foundation's Justin Drake and EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kanaan.

The fresh round of capital will be used to expand on the products the company plans on launching.

Pi Squared’s first product is its “Universal Settlement Layer,” which settles blockchain transactions – or as they call them, “claims” – in any programming language, Grigore Rosu, CEO of Pi Squared, said in an interview with CoinDesk.

Rosu is a professor in computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the idea for Pi Squared came out of his career in academia.

“I've done this research with my students over many, many years,” Rosu told CoinDesk.

The company is also building a “Universal ZK Circuit,” which uses zero-knowledge technology to enable “trustless remote computing, AI and interoperable smart contract for any blockchain or dApp,” Pi Squared wrote in a press release.

“This will be made possible through the creation of a universal and disarmingly small ZK circuit that checks the integrity of mathematical proofs, which will provide verifiable-computing correctness guarantees to all languages and virtual machines (VMs) alike directly from their formal semantics, without any translation to a common language, VM or instruction set architecture (ISA),” according to the company.

Pi Squared is still in its proof-of-concept phase. Rosu said the project should be in testnet by the end of 2024.

"Restaking" is all the rage in Ethereum blockchain circles. It allows users to earn interest by leveraging their staked assets to help secure other blockchain apps. Even developers on other ecosystems, like Solana, are trying to replicate Ethereum's restaking popularity.

So it was only a matter of time before restaking made its way to the most valuable blockchain: Bitcoin.

In partnership with Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon, the startup Lombard has raised $16 million to build out Bitcoin-based restaking. In addition to capitalizing on the restaking hype, Lombard is the latest startup to integrate Bitcoin into the wider world of decentralized finance (DeFi) – an industry that so far has mostly been lacking on Bitcoin.

"Lombard aims to elevate BTC from a store of value into a productive asset which flows into the Web3 economy and drives sustainable growth," the company said in a statement shared with CoinDesk.

Polychain Capital led Lombard's funding round, joined by BabylonChain, Inc., dao5, Franklin Templeton, Foresight Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Mantle EcoFund and Nomad Capital.

Restaking was introduced on Ethereum with EigenLayer, one of the biggest DeFi success stories in recent memory. EigenLayer rocketed to $18 billion in deposits in under a year by promising users extra interest on assets they'd already "staked" to help secure Ethereum.

EigenLayer's "restaked" assets get pooled together to secure a web of other crypto protocols that use proof-of-stake security. In essence, EigenLayer and other restaking protocols let upstart blockchain apps bootstrap their security, and they offer investors a new way to leverage their crypto holdings.

Read more: Restaking 101: What Are Restaking, Liquid Restaking and EigenLayer?

Bitcoin restaking

Lombard's dive into restaking will be built on top of Babylon, which lets people use bitcoin to secure other proof-of-stake networks. Paradigm previously led a $70 million funding round into the Bitcoin staking company.

Lombard extends on Babylon's cross-network security tech with the advent of "liquid bitcoin" tokens, or LBTC – a kind of tradeable receipt on Babylon deposits that will, according to Lombard, allow users to retain liquidity over the BTC that they've staked to secure other networks.

"By uniting major ecosystems and DeFi protocols to onboard LBTC, over $1.3 trillion in Bitcoin can be used to lend, borrow and trade, providing new capital opportunities for bitcoin holders, and new capital and users for the ecosystems and their protocols," Lombard said in a statement shared with CoinDesk.

Ethereum's ETH token started out as the staked asset du jour on EigenLayer. ETH (and ETH derivatives) were considered less likely than most other digital assets to drop suddenly in price – which can harm the security of proof-of-stake networks.

Many of the same attributes that make Ethereum an obvious candidate for restaking also extend to Bitcoin, the oldest blockchain. Bitcoin boasts the largest market value in blockchain—1 BTC was worth $63,000 at press time—and it tends to be less volatile than other crypto assets.

"Our commitment to Lombard represents a deeper belief in the leverage Bitcoin can have in catalyzing growth across the whole blockchain space,” Olaf Carlson-Wee, the founder of Polychain Capital, said in a statement.

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 2161.29, down 0.2% (-3.87) since yesterday's close.

Ten of 20 assets in the index are trading higher.

Leaders: ADA (+2.9%) and XRP (+2.1%).

Laggards: AVAX (-4.4%) and UNI (-3.7%).

The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in multiple regions globally.

Deribit's BTC DVOL index, a measure of volatility expectations, has slipped to its lowest since early February.

Continued volatility meltdown alongside price drop suggests an absence of demand for options.

A renewed upswing in BTC's price to $70,000 may lift DVOL.

Seasoned stock traders are likely attuned to the observation that market corrections are typically accompanied by an uptick in metrics like the VIX index, which gauges volatility expectations.

That's not the case in the bitcoin market, however, even though cryptocurrency prices tend to be positively correlated to technology stocks.

For instance, as bitcoin's price has pulled back 10% from over $70,000 in the past four weeks. Deribit's bitcoin volatility index DVOL – an options-derived measure of expected price turbulence over the next 30 days – has declined from an annualized 53% to 42%, reaching the lowest since early February, per charting platform TradingView.

Implied volatility is positively impacted by the demand for options or derivative contracts that give the purchaser the right to buy or sell the underlying asset at a predetermined price at a later date. A call option gives the right to buy and a put option confers the right to sell.

The slide in the DVOL amid the price correction suggests a calm market environment in which investors are less inclined to panic or seek out protective puts or hedging bets. Moreover, bitcoin's pullback has been slow and orderly rather than a fast slide, often leading investors to buy options to profit from the volatility boom.

"It is because since BTC fading off the highs, we’ve been stuck in a range-bound market with low realized volatility," David Brickell, head of international distribution at Toronto-based crypto platform FRNT Financial, told CoinDesk. "There is a lack of appetite to buy volatility into the summer months, and the structural tends to be overwriters selling vol, so in the absence of real demand, we drop lower."

Volatility selling is a popular crypto strategy where investors sell or write options in a dull market, lowering implied volatility. The seller receives a premium for promising to compensate the buyer in case of wild price swings. Typically, such strategies involve writing calls on top of spot market holdings.

Per Brickell, a renewed upswing in BTC to levels above $70,000 will likely revive demand for options and boost the DVOL implied volatility index. BTC's price has been positively correlated with the DVOL index throughout this bull cycle.

"We’ll likely need to see BTC testing back towards the top of the range and threaten a break higher to break out of this vol lethargy," Brickell said.

5% of ASTR's total supply will be burned following a governance vote, an additional 70 million tokens will be transferred to the community treasury.

Token burns are often seen as a bullish event.

ASTR is up by more than 7% over the past 24-hours.

Multi-chain smart contract network Astar Network will burn 350 million ASTR tokens, 5% of its total supply after a governance vote.

The tokens were originally allocated for Polkadot parachain auctions, a product which has since been shelved by Polakdot. The 350 million tokens yielded 70 million ASTR in rewards, which will now be transferred to the community treasury.

A token burn is typically considered a bullish event as it removes potential supply from the market. Popular meme coin Floki conducted several token burns over the past year, one of which spurred a 70% rally to the upside.

ASTR is up by more than 7% over the past 24-hours, outperforming CoinDesk's CD20 Index which is up by 0.27% in the same period. Trading volume has also topped $50 million to mark an 84% increase over Monday, CoinMarketCap shows.

Astar Network struck a deal with Polygon to integrate the layer 1 blockchain's AggLayer in March. The product is designed to connect various blockchains using zero-knowledge proofs and provide unified liquidity.

Polkadot spent $87 million worth of DOT on various activities in the first half of this year, with marketing and outreach activities accounting for the largest portion of spending, totaling over $36 million.

The treasury has just over $245 million worth of DOT tokens left for spending, estimated to last for two years at current prices.

Concerns in the ecosystem about the usage of the Treasury are increasing.

Polkadot, one of the crypto industry’s earliest Ethereum rivals, spent $87 million worth of DOT on various activities for the first half (H1) of this year, community representatives for the blockchain published in a treasury report over the weekend.

The treasury has just over $245 million worth of its DOT tokens left for spending, an amount community members estimate will last for two years at current prices. H1’s spending is a more than 125% jump from the nearly $25 million spent in the second half of 2023.

Marketing and outreach activities accounted for the biggest chunk of spending, with over $36 million spent on advertisements, events, meetups, conference hosting, and other initiatives. These efforts were intended to attract new users, developers, and businesses to the ecosystem.

Software development costs were the second-largest money sink, with over $23 million used to build services, such as wallets and toolkits to support developers. Some $15 million was spent on liquidity provision and incentives on Polkadot-based trading platforms.

A detailed breakdown of each transaction has been published on a publicly-viewable spreadsheet.

As such, community members expressed concerns about the large amount of spending on various activities and the possibility of running out of liquidity.

“The Treasury has about 32m DOT (200m USD) in liquid assets available within the next year. At a current net loss of 17m DOT (108m) USD per year, this leaves about 2 years of runway left if the DOTUSD rate stays the same,” the report said.

“The volatile nature of a mostly DOT-denominated treasury makes it hard to predict the future, but concerns in the ecosystem about how the Treasury is used are increasing,” it added.

Sentient's platform will be built on Polygon, representing an expansion of the Ethereum scaler into AI.

The round was co-led by Pantera Capital and Framework Ventures.

Peter Thiel's venture capital firm Founders Fund has co-led a huge $85 million seed round investment in open-source AI development platform Sentient.

Sentient's platform will be built on Polygon, representing an expansion of the Ethereum scaler into AI. Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal is one of Sentient's core contributors.

The project aims to address concerns about the proliferation of AI whereby the underlying code is concentrated in the hands of a few superpowers like Google or Meta.

Open-source code is that which is shared publicly allowing anyone to use it and is something of a backbone of the blockchain technology that powers cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.

"By building an open platform for AGI development, we aim to ensure that the benefits of AI are distributed equitably and that its development aligns with the interests of humanity as a whole," Nailwal said in an emailed announcement on Tuesday.

Sentient will enter the testnet phase this quarter., using the funds from this seed round to develop its platform and attract talent from AI research and blockchain engineering to its team.

The round was co-led by Pantera Capital and Framework Ventures and included participation from multiple other high-profile investors such as Robot Ventures, Delphi, Republic, and Arrington Capital.

Read More: Hut 8 Receives $150M Investment as Thirst for Energy Brings AI Firms to Bitcoin Miners