Quick take:

Trump says his decision to release another NFT collection is driven by public demand.

Trump believes cryptocurrency is good for the country and wants the US to take the lead before China.

Earlier this week, news emerged that Mainland China may “unban Bitcoin” but the crypto community remains sceptical about the reports.

Donald Trump has urged the US to take the lead in the global cryptocurrency race before China does. The former President of the United States believes the crypto industry, while still in its infancy is good for the country having established a “good foundation”.

The Republican presidential nominee believes crypto is not going anywhere, also hinting that he will release another NFT collection because people want him “to do another one.”

“I did it three times [and] I’m going to do another one because the people want me to do another one.”

This will be Trump’s fourth set of NFTs following the success of three previous collections including last year’s “Mugshot digital trading cards.”

Trump’s call for the US to take the lead on crypto does not come as a surprise. The 2024 US presidential election candidate has been one of the biggest political advocates of crypto in the country.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that Trump, Robert F. Kenndy Junior and several crypto industry leaders will be speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference later this month.

In May, news emerged that Mainland China may “unban Bitcoin” but the crypto community remains sceptical about the reports, but Trump feels otherwise.

“If I throw [crypto] aside, it’s going to be picked up in another country, most likely China — they’re pretty advanced in that sphere,” Trump said in the Bloomberg interview. “So you have to look at it — what I want, again, is what is good for the country.”

Trump’s presidential campaign has received support from multiple crypto industry leaders including the likes of Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss – the co-founders of Gemini, Ark Invest CEO Cathie Woods and Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell, who recently donated $1 million.

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Symbiotic, a newly launched decentralized restaking protocol, saw its total value locked (TVL) figure surging to $1 billion within a matter of days. DefiLlama data shows that it currently has a TVL of $1.24 billion.

On July 4, over $730 million worth of crypto was locked with the protocol, which remains the highest daily inflow figure.

Symbiotic is a restaking platform that works similarly to EigenLayer, i.e., it repurposes staked Ether and liquid staking tokens (LSTs) to maximize potential rewards while sharing Ethereum’s mainnet security with so-called active validated services (AVS), which can be oracles, data availability services, databases, and payment services, among others.

EigenLayer is currently the second-largest decentralized finance (DeFi) application and the largest restaking protocol, with over $15.5 in TVL. It revolutionized Ethereum staking by introducing the restaking concept.

Symbiotic was launched in June as an alternative to EigenLayer and is backed by Lido, the leading liquid staking protocol with the largest TVL in DeFi.

One of the main differences from EigenLayer is that Symbiotic enables the use of multiple ERC-20 tokens.

Today focuses on Lido’s staked ETH (stETH), but it will soon be compatible with many other protocols.

As of this writing, wrapped stETH (WSTETH) accounts for almost 70% of the total value deposited on Symbiotic.

Similar to EigenLayer, which hosts several liquid restaking protocols like Ether.fi, Symbiotic is expected to host a growing ecosystem of liquid restaking platforms.

Today, Mellow is the go-to liquid restaking protocol for Symbiotic. It already has almost $600 million in TVL, with WSTETH accounting for almost 90% of the three supported tokens. Thanks to its rapid increase, Mellow has become the sixth-largest liquid restaking platform, with Ether.fi leading the sector.

According to Symbiotic, several projects are exploring the use of its restaking solution, including Ethena, Hyperlane, Ojo, Fairblock, and Kalypso.

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The post Symbiotic Challenges EigenLayer, Its TVL Reaches $1.2 Billion appeared first on NFTgators .

LayerBank, a decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol, saw its total value locked (TVL) surpass the $800 million mark on July 16, according to data from DefiLlama. It reached a new record at $824 million, ranking 8th among lending protocols.

LayerBank’s TVL has surged almost 500% from its mid-April low of $140 million.

The lending project, formerly known as Linea Bank, represents a fork of Compound V2 and aims to become a liquidity hub for all major EVM-compatible layers. It was reportedly developed by the team behind Manta, a layer 2 chain, and launched at the end of 2023.

As of this writing, the protocol supports eight scaling networks, including zkLink Nova, Mode, Scroll, Linea, BSquared, BOB, Manta, and Bitlayer.

zkLink Nova Replaces Manta as Leading Chain

Interestingly, while Manta was dominating the LayerBank ecosystem earlier this year, with its TVL peaking at over $500 million, today it only has $10 million in TVL, accounting for less than 2%. zkLink Nova has become the leading chain, accounting for over 50% of LayerBank’s TVL. The layer 3 network is followed by Mode, with $200 million, and Scroll, with over $71 million.

Therefore, LayerBank’s resurgence has been mainly driven by the increasing adoption of zkLink Nova and Mode.

LayerBank added zkLink Nova in March, when its mainnet went live. The layer 3 network’s TVL exploded in May and June.

The lending protocol saw the largest USD inflows in May when it secured over $350 million of crypto in less than a week.  

Interestingly, the three largest tokens on LayerBank are all related to Bitcoin, including BTCT, MBTC, and SOLVBTC.M.

The LayerBank ecosystem has been fueled by its native token called LineaBank (LAB), but it is apparently migrating to ULAB, with tokenomics details to be revealed soon.

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Quick take:

The fundraising also attracted participation from Accel, Mechanism Capital, Folius Ventures and SALT Fund.

Mira offers an AI development platform that includes a toolkit with preconfigured instructions that make it easy for developers to launch AI apps.

The workflow instructions are maintained by a community of developers, who are allowed to monetise their contributions.

Crypto AI startup Mira has emerged from stealth with a $9 million seed round co-led by Bitkraft Ventures and Framework Ventures. The fundraising also attracted participation from Accel, Mechanism Capital, Folius Ventures and AJ Scaramucci’s SALT Fund.

The company is building a decentralised machine-learning infrastructure that helps developers quickly build AI apps.

Mira co-founder Karan Sirdesai said the company’s AI infrastructure includes a library of a toolkit with preconfigured instructions for building AI-native apps.

The workflow instructions are maintained by a community of developers, who can benefit by monetising their contributions.

“AI is moving at such a rapid pace that even though we are witnessing innovations flower around us, the average developer is being left behind due to poor infrastructure to be able to consume AI,” Sirdesai told The Block.

Mira encourages community ownership by contributors whilst maintaining a transparent attribution and settlement for value flows in the network, Sirdesai said. “Every stakeholder knows what they are paying for and how they are monetizing.”

The startup has already onboarded more than a dozen projects across both Web2 and Web3 domains, with several set to launch their AI apps in the coming months. 

According to Sirdesai one of the first projects to use Mira, Klock, a crypto chatbot built on 500+ static and real-time datasets has already entered the close beta phase.

With a workforce of about 25 people spread across Singapore and India, Mira plans to use some of the fresh capital to hire at least five more employees to join its engineering team.

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Quick take:

Loka Mining and Hashlabs have launched a new protocol with a decentralised mining pool that provides miners with immediate liquidity.

The protocol allows institutional investors to buy Bitcoin at a discount via forward hash rate contracts from BTC miners.

The contracts are over-collateralised at 110% and tokenised for immediate liquidity in secondary markets.

Loka Mining, a decentralised BTC mining pool that connects investors with Bitcoin miners has announced a partnership with Hashlabs to launch a new protocol that allows miners to sell their future mining rewards to institutional investors at a discount. The permissionless protocol offers investors access to Bitcoin below market prices using forward hash rate contracts from BTC miners.

The contracts are over-collateralised at 110% and tokenised for immediate liquidity in secondary markets, Loka wrote in a press release shared with NFTgators.

“We’ve seen tremendous interest from larger investors seeking better ways to access Bitcoin, and thanks to Hashlabs’ supply of hashrate and access to miners, we’re providing that— with no counterparty risk,” said Andy Fajar Handika, Founder of Loka. “This protocol provides non-custodial, trust-minimized access to Bitcoin that rewards miners for the work they do providing a necessary service for the network.”

Hashlabs, which boasts over 500 petahashes — or ~0.08% of the total Bitcoin mining capacity will support the offering, levering its operation which spans across Ethiopia, Finland and Kazakhstan. 

Hashlabs co-founder Alen Makhmetov lauded the partnership saying it gives investors the “much-needed access to Bitcoin futures.”

“Just as important, we’re able to provide this service by supporting the most sustainable ways of mining Bitcoin worldwide. By ensuring the financial health of miners, we’re simultaneously improving Bitcoin’s environmental well-being.”

Loka uses ckBTC, the 1:1 multi-chain Bitcoin-backed twin powered by the Internet Computer’s Chain Fusion technology to offer “near-instant, low-cost payouts to miners and liquidity for investors.”

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Quick take:

Aethir offers a comprehensive suite of tools and services for developing, testing, and deploying GPU-accelerated applications in AI, cloud computing and edge computing.

The company will now begin the final phase of the development of its compute aggregation software ahead of the mainnet launch of the Aethir Network Protocol.

Aethir’s GPU solution is already being used by publishing platforms like Sequence, MetaGravity, GameSwift, and Magic Eden.

Aethir, the decentralised Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) solutions provider recorded $36 million in its first year of operation, according to a press release shared with NFTgators.

According to Aethir, the growing demand for enterprise-ready compute resources in AI and gaming drove a 10% Month-over-Month revenue growth to Aethir’s Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering.

The company offers a comprehensive suite of tools and services that can be used in developing, testing, and deploying GPU-accelerated applications in artificial intelligence, cloud computing and edge computing.

The revenue milestone sets the stage for Aethir to move to the next phase of its product deployment as it prepares for a mainnet launch of the Aethir Network Protocol.

The company is trying to address one of the biggest challenges of traditional GPU solutions, including high costs, limited scalability and vulnerabilities. Its distributed GPU infrastructure enables more AI use cases for enterprises including “Large Language Model (LLM) Training, VFX and Digital Avatar Rendering, and Multi-Trillion Parameter Models,” Aethir wrote in a press release on Tuesday.

“Efficient resource distribution will be critical for driving innovation and scaling AI and cloud-based gaming and entertainment applications,” said Mark Rydon, co-founder and Head of Strategy at Aethir. “This new milestone indicates the market’s need for more accessible computing resources and the ability for a decentralized, collective resource pool to deliver a more robust, flexible, and accessible infrastructure for GPU-intensive tasks.”

Aethir says its solution has already been adopted by some of the largest telecommunications companies, studios and game publishers over the last 12 months, with its coordinated software layer helping some of them cut GPU costs by up to 60% whilst delivering seamless access to high-quality GPU computing that is secure, performant and stable.

Some of the notable early adopters of Aethir’s decentralised GPU solution include Sequence, MetaGravity and GameSwift. In April, Aethir teamed up with Magic Eden to create a unified Web3 gaming ecosystem that leverages Aethir’s enterprise-grade GPU infrastructure and Magic Eden’s NFT platform.

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Quick take:

Ryan Fang of Ankr, Brian Crain of Chorus One, Jeffrey Feng of Sei Labs and Smokey of Berachain also joined as angel investors.

The fundraising was structured as equity with token warrants, founder and CEO Siddarth Sridhar told The Block.

The USBD stablecoin is minted by Bitcoin liquid staking and restaking tokens as collateral.

Bima Labs has emerged from stealth with a $2.5 million funding round led by Portal Ventures. The seed round also attracted participation from Draper Goren Blockchain, Sats Ventures, Luxor Technology, CoreDAO and Halo Capital, with Ankr’s Ryan Fang, Brian Crain of Chorus One, Jeffrey Feng from Sei Labs, and Smokey of Berachain joining as angel investors.

The fundraising was executed as equity with token warrants, Bima Labs founder and CEO Siddarth Sridhar told The Block.

Bima Labs offers the USDD, a stablecoin backed with Bitcoin, which can be minted by Bitcoin liquid staking and restaking tokens as collateral. The project has plans to accept collateral from multiple chains, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin L2s, Ethereum, EVM-compatible networks, and Solana.

“Users can deposit their Bitcoin liquid staking tokens (LSTs) and liquid restaking tokens (LRTs) from a wide variety of providers to mint USBD from Lorenzo, Lombard, pStake, Bedrock, Acre, DLC.link, ALEX Labs BTC, and more,” Sridhar said.

Once users mint USBD, they can use it for lending, borrowing and swapping, among other use cases. “We envision a world of new credit, debt and hybrid use cases powered by USBD, whether you’re in China, the U.S., Brazil or Europe,” Sridhar added.

This announcement comes at a time when Bitcoin is emerging fast as a major dApp ecosystem, driven by the rising demand for crypto staking and restaking protocols and now stablecoins.

“Whatever was accomplished on Ethereum within 4-5 years is being done on Bitcoin within a span of 4-5 months,” Sridhar said. The Bitcoin ecosystem has a higher total addressable market, more asset utilization in places like Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa, and ultimately more potential to unlock higher yield opportunities.”

Currently in testnet, USBD is planned for a mainnet launch in the fourth quarter of 2024. The project also plans to launch its governance token BIMA before the end of the year, according to Sridhar. 

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Quick take: 

Last week, Fileverse unveiled its collaboration document-sharing program dubbed ddocs.

The program brings higher levels of user privacy and several web3 features.

The Web3 startup also boasts backing from crypto VC Factor, angel investor Balaji Srinivasan and blockchain companies Gnosis Chain and Safe.

Fileverse, a Web3 startup developing alternatives to Google products has unveiled ddocs, a blockchain-based collaborative document-sharing program that boasts more privacy and multiple Web3 features.

The company boasts backing from some of the leading Web3 companies and investors including crypto VC firm Factor, angel investor Balaji Srinivasan and blockchain companies Gnosis Chain and Safe.

The peer-to-peer file-sharing startup founder Andreas Tsamados told The Block that the product has been in development since 2022, having completed closed funding rounds via the Web3 crowdfunding platform Gitcoin.

Built on the Gnosis chain, the Fileverse team describe ddocs as a competitor to Google docs and has built it with the easier transition for users in mind.

“Just as people can create new Google docs by writing docs.new into their browser URL search, people will now be able to access the decentralised alternative by typing ddocs.new,” Fileverse wrote in a press release.

Ddocs does not require users to be crypto-native, but it does support multi-sig wallet accounts powered by the Gnosis chain, which enables users to store hashed versions of the documents on-chain.

“It acts as a registry for the content that you’re saving. When you publish a document on IPFS (InterPlanetary File System), you get a hash that represents the information in the document,” Tsamados said, adding, “Whatever happens, you always have a view of your list of documents that exist off-chain in a peer-to-peer network.”

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Quick take:

The fundraising was completed at a valuation of $100 million according to ZAP’s pseudonymous CEO Francis.

The fundraising also attracted participation from Presto Labs and Auros Global with Tradermayne, Bagsy, Luca Netz and Chelsea Jiang joining as angel investors.

The fundraising includes a $900k seed, $2.1M private round and $12.1M in an ongoing vault sale, The Block reported.

ZAP has announced a $15 million funding round co-led by Rarestone Ventures, Cypher Capital and Sharding Capital. The fundraising values ZAP at $100 million and includes a $900k seed, $2.1M private round and $12.1M in an ongoing vault sale, ZAP’s pseudonymous CEO Francis told The Block.

The fundraising also attracted participation from Presto Labs and Auros Global with Tradermayne, Bagsy, Luca Netz and Chelsea Jiang among those joining as angel investors, ZAP shared on their X account.

Source: ZAPonblast on X

According to the announcement, ZAP plans to use the fresh capital to continue to develop innovations that solve key issues in the airdrop and launchpad space. The company also plans to use some of the capital to expand into new geo-locations as it broadens its reach into new blockchain ecosystems, starting with Base.

“These new developments, and our ongoing ones, all serve to further our vision of democratising access to early-stage investments, creating a fairer crypto space, and ensuring that all participants can engage on a level playing field,” ZAP shared.

Founded in November 2023, ZAP offers a reputation-powered token distribution protocol, featuring a questing and airdrops protocol, a no-code token launcher, and curated launches via ZAP Labs.

The no-code token launcher and token launchpad give users access to venture-backed projects, giving them more options to make the most out of their on-chain activity.

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Quick take:

JPMorgan, Standard Chartered and Tamasek also joined the round.

Partior is developing unified blockchain-based interbank payment rails for instant clearing and settlement.

The project is a joint venture between JPMorgan, DBS and Standard Chartered.

Partior, a blockchain-based payment network being built by DBS, JPMorgan and Standard Chartered has raised $60 million in a Series B round led by Peak XV Partners. The fundraising also attracted participation from Valor Capital Group, Jump Trading Group, JPMorgan, Standard Chartered and Tamasek, according to an announcement on Friday.

Partior wants to address the challenges that traditional cross-border payment systems face by establishing unified blockchain payment rails for instant clearing and settlement.

The company plans to use the fresh capital to improve intraday foreign-exchange swaps and cross-currency repurchase agreements, a programmable enterprise liquidity manager, and “just-in-time” multibank payments, the company said.

This is not the first product that JPMorgan has been part of, which seeks to speed up cross-border settlement processes. Onyx, its blockchain subsidiary has handled hundreds of billions of dollars since going live a few years ago, with banking institutions being its main clients.

The Singapore government-incubated startup was founded in 2021 as part of the Monetary Authority of Singapore-led Project Ubin. In May 2024, Standard Chartered completed Euro-denominated cross-border transactions between Hong Kong and Singapore via the Partior network.

Commenting on the successful completion of the transactions, Humphrey Valenbreder, Chief Executive Officer, Partior said in a statement: “The onboarding of Standard Chartered expands Partior’s network coverage to include the Euro, in addition to US Dollars and Singapore Dollars, and enhances connectivity for end clients serviced across major financial centres including Singapore, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, London and New York.”

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Activity on Celo, a layer 1 blockchain supporting decentralized applications (dapps), has been intensifying lately. At the beginning of July, the number of daily transactions crossed the 1 million mark for the first time in 2024. At the end of 2023, Celo experienced a short-term spike in transaction count, surpassing 13 million – the highest level on record.

Meanwhile, the number of daily active users peaked earlier in July at over 716,000, according to data from Token Terminal.

Data from Celo’s official explorer shows that June has been the best month in terms of active users so far, but July might be on track to update the record.

Celo is a layer 1 blockchain network and ecosystem focusing on mobile-first dapps and smart contracts. Besides its mainnet, it also provides various SDKs and tools for integrating its blockchain network, aiming at financial applications.

The network was very active in decentralized finance (DeFi) during its 2021 boom, but it has lost significant traction since then. Its total value locked (TVL) has dropped from approximately $1 billion in October 2021 to about $100 million as of this writing.

The most active DeFi apps on Celo are multi-chain dapps, suggesting that Celo’s native ecosystem is weak compared to other established chains. The top three largest DeFi apps on Celo are Mento, Uniswap, and Curve DEX.

Celo Transitions to Layer 2 to Integrate with Ethereum

To increase its presence in DeFi, Celo is looking for methods to integrate with Ethereum.

On July 7, Celo launched its native scaling solution for Ethereum called Dango. Currently in testnet mode, the layer 2 network will become Celo’s flagship network.

The Celo community voted to gradually transition from its current layer 1 format to a more efficient Ethereum layer 2 network, competing with the likes of Base, Optimism, Arbitrum, or Blast.

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Quick take:

The US has maintained a strict approach to crypto with the SEC launching investigations against the likes of Binance US, Coinbase, Ripple, and Robinhood Crypto.

Trump has expressed his positive plans for the industry if elected the 47th President of the United States.

He recently received a $1 million donation from Kraken founder Jesse Powell for his campaign.

Donald Trump is expected to further reaffirm his support for crypto adoption in the United States later this month. The 2024 US Presidential Election candidate will speak at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 25 – 27.

The event organisers announced the news via their official X account on Thursday morning.

ANNOUNCING: PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP TO SPEAK AT #BITCOIN2024 pic.twitter.com/F2mwECVMTW

— The Bitcoin Conference (@TheBitcoinConf) July 10, 2024

This announcement comes just months before the upcoming US Presidential Election in November. 

Trump has maintained a positive view towards crypto as he vows to create a more conducive environment for the industry if elected president.

The former POTUS has been active in the industry since he launched his first NFT collection of digital collectible cards in 2022. 

Recently, he announced his campaign will welcome crypto donations; since then, he’s received millions of dollars from the crypto industry. Last month, Kraken founder Jesse Powell donated $1 million to Trump’s campaign. Several other crypto companies including Coinbase also attended the fundraiser with Trump securing $12 million for his campaign.

Several crypto companies are also lobbying to support political action committee groups inclined to crypto as they seek to have more crypto-friendly people in electoral positions.

A statement announcing Trump’s planned speech highlighted the former President of The United State’s support for crypto saying: “Trump announced his support for the American Bitcoin industry in May 2024, advocating for financial freedom and the growth of the U.S. Bitcoin industry on the global stage.”

In June, Trump also declared his support for Bitcoin mining firms saying he wants to see more US firms involved.

“We want all the remaining Bitcoin to be MADE IN THE USA,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

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Quick take:

The two companies will collaborate to advance crypto adoption on and off the pitch.

Kraken announced the partnership via X with a graphic of its logo emerging from Atletico Madrid’s Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano stadium.

The partnership covers both the men’s and women’s football shirts.

Kraken Exchange has announced a partnership with Atletico de Madrid Football Club. The partnership will see Kraken become the official crypto and Web3 partner of the Spanish football club.

Kraken also becomes the Official Sleeve Partner of Atletico Madrid’s men’s and women’s teams with its logo appearing on the teams’ playing kits starting from the 2024/2025 season.

We are excited to announce our partnership with @Atleti!Together, we are advancing crypto adoption both on and off the pitch. Starting from the 2024/25 season, our logo will proudly appear on the sleeves of Atletico Madrid's playing kits. pic.twitter.com/IJKiLhf5dl

— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) July 10, 2024

Kraken said the two companies plan to merge the worlds of sports and web3, as they seek to unlock great opportunities for both Atletico Madrid fans and the crypto exchange company’s clients.

Commenting on the announcement, Kraken Chief Marketing Officer Mayur Gupta said the two companies will use this opportunity to transform lives. 

“We’re proud to partner with such a distinguished football club, which equally recognises that success requires a meticulous focus on its own processes. We’ve put in nearly 13 years to become one of the most trusted crypto platforms and we look forward to collaborating with Atlético de Madrid to educate more people about the true potential and value of crypto.”

Atlético de Madrid Chief Revenue and Operating Officer Óscar Mayo echoed those remarks highlighting the common values that the two organisations share including innovation and technology. “We are sure that this partnership will ensure that our fans enjoy a digital experience which extends beyond matchdays at the stadium.”

This is not Kraken’s first collaboration with a sports team. Last August, the crypto exchange company teamed up with Formula 1 racing team Williams Racing to launch a campaign that allowed fans to vote on the NFTs they wanted displayed on F1 cars in the US Grand Prix that took place in October.

On the other hand, Atletico has been active in the world of fan tokens having collaborated with Socios.com to issue the Atletico de Madrid Fan Token (ATM).

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Quick take:

Eli Ben-Sasson announced the news at the Ethereum Community Conference in Brussels on Wednesday.

The program is optional for community members with rewards for stakers allocated proportionally to the STRK tokens staked.

Staked tokens will be locked up for 21 days before they can be withdrawn.

StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson has submitted a proposal to the Starknet community as he seeks to open staking for the Ethereum layer-2 by the end of the year. Ben-Sasson announced the news at the Ethereum Community Conference in Brussels on Wednesday. 

According to the announcement, the program will be open for willing community members to participate, with stakers rewarded proportionate to their staked STRK tokens. They will also be required to keep their tokens locked for at least 21 days before they are allowed to withdraw them, CoinDesk reported.

StakeWare said the program will be rolled out in several phases with the first and main stage, requiring stakers to “connect to Starknet, interact with the staking contracts, and follow the proposed protocol rules to stake.”

StarkWare and Starknet Foundation plan to implement various improvements to the program upon studying the staking habits of members.

“In subsequent stages, stakers will need, in real-time, to provide attestations to the content of blocks,” StarkWare added. “Then in the final stage, stakers will be performing sequencing and proving activities to fully secure the network.”

Ben-Sasson sees the first phase of the staking program as an important step in building the staking community and technology for the Starknet ecosystem as it seeks to offer new opportunities for users and developers.

This announcement comes at a time when crypto staking and restaking protocols are growing in popularity as Web3 companies look to establish more feasible ways of securing their networks.

EigenLayer, the leading crypto restaking protocol on Ethereum has already surpassed $20 billion in total value locked, according to DeFiLlama data.

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Quick take:

Up Mobile uses biometric sensors and ZK-proofs to provide secure identity verification and enhanced user privacy on the blockchain.

The device features a Web3-centered OS and a DePIN Kit enabling the development of DePIN applications and localised LLMs.

Users earn rewards for engaging with featured applications on Up Mobile.

Up Network, the Web3 abstraction layer connecting mobile devices to blockchain ecosystems has announced a strategic partnership with Movement Labs to launch Up Mobile.

Up Mobile is a Web3-first smartphone that features an ecosystem of proof-of-attention nodes and a comprehensive suite of decentralised applications. 

The device leverages biometric sensors and ZK-proofs to provide secure identity verification and enhanced user privacy on the blockchain. According to the press material shared with NFTgators, Up Mobile is powered by a Web3-specialised operating system and a decentralised physical network (DePIN) Kit enabling the development of DePIN applications and localised long language models (LLMs).

Users can earn rewards from featured applications by engaging in proof-of-attention activities. “Unlike traditional cloud-based solutions, these capabilities are fully localized, ensuring enhanced privacy and dependability for the highest standard user experience,” Up Network wrote in a statement.

Up Network is using Movement Labs’ MoveVM (move virtual machine) and EVM (ethereum virtual machine) to enable the onboarding of users through consumer Web3 applications, including DePIN, Defi, Gamefi, and SocialFi.

According to Up Network, users will be rewarded for engaging with applications, which is not possible with Google and Apple devices.

Commenting on the partnership, Rushi Manche, co-founder of Movement Labs said in a statement: “Up Network’s innovative approach to user engagement and rewards exemplifies the groundbreaking potential of Movement Labs’ infrastructure.”

“Having experienced the Up Mobile device firsthand, I can confidently say it not only surpasses anything in the Web3 space but also rivals, if not exceeds, the quality of well-known mainstream brands. This collaboration with Up Network perfectly demonstrates how our technology can empower truly transformative projects in the mobile blockchain sector,” he added.

Up Network claims to already have dozens of partners onboard including both mainstream IPS and Web3 IPS, as well as, traditional brands, which will power the rewards-driven ecosystem on the device.

Users will also be able to claim airdrops from Movement Labs, Sui, Aptos, and all EVM-based projects, the company added.

“Mobile phones are the first thing most people reach for when they wake up. That’s why bringing Web3 to mobile has always been our goal, and the timing is now perfect,” noted Roy Liu, co-founder of Up Network.

Liu who spearheaded the integration of TRON into Samsung Mobile in 2019 acknowledges that at the time, creating a fully mobile blockchain was premature due to infrastructure limitations. “We’re finally equipped with all the necessary tools and acceptance”, to make bring that vision to fruition.

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The post Movement Labs and Up Network Team Up to Launch AI-Enabled Web3 Smartphone appeared first on NFTgators .

Quick take:

The network has already secured 5000 BTC commitments from institutional node operators.

GOAT Network will launch with a decentralised sequencer model, enabling sequencer node operators to secure the network.

It also allows them to earn a yield on their Bitcoin and fees from block production and transactions.

ZKM has unveiled GOAT Network, a decentralised Bitcoin layer-2 solution scheduled for launch in Q3 2024. The company is building what it calls a “Universal Layer-2” with the Bitcoin ecosystem as the first to be integrated. The network uses ZKM’s Entangled Rollup technology to enable the security features of Bitcoin’s Layer-1 blockchain. 

GOAT Network will leverage ZKM’s zero-knowledge-proof system that enables seamless interoperability between blockchains to integrate with more chains as part of its goal of building a “Universal Layer 2”. 

“GOAT Network’s launch of a Bitcoin L2 is a powerful first step in ZKM’s quest to unite the fragmented Web3 universe,” said GOAT Network Core Contributor Kevin Liu. “We believe strongly in decentralization, and we’re excited to enable a shared-ownership model from day one.”

According to an announcement on Monday, the company plans to add Ethereum, TON, Cosmos and many others following the integration of Bitcoin. “The goal is to solve fragmented liquidity issues in the blockchain world by enabling any L1 to seamlessly connect to any L2, without the vulnerabilities of a traditional third-party bridge.”

GOAT Network uses “recursive zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs” to sync the different states of L1s and L2s thus enabling the deployment of entangled rollups. 

According to ZKM, “This enables messaging and asset transfers across many different networks, without the use of a third-party bridge or any other cross-chain mechanism subject to the kinds of vulnerabilities typically found in bridges.”

GOAT Network is trying to address one of the most exploited vulnerabilities of blockchain interoperability networks, the use of bridges. Billions of dollars have been stolen by hackers over the past few years, including the “Ronin bridge exploit” where $625 million in ETH and USDC was reported to have been stolen in March 2022.

Explaining how entangled rollups address this problem, GOAT Network wrote: “Entangled Rollup is designed to roll up the transaction state, messaging and ZKP of a transaction from one source chain and verified in another chain. In this way, liquidity in different chains can be unified and leveraged by cross-chain applications. Since it is the roll-up smart contract that makes the cross-chain transaction happen, no bridge MPC will be needed.”

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The non-fungible token (NFT) market is barely crawling, waiting for some opportunity for revival. The second quarter of 2024 saw positive dynamics, but the increase was mostly driven by Bitcoin NFTs. The metrics for Ethereum NFTs suggest a grim picture.

For example, the number of unique Ethereum NFT traders on the top 15 marketplaces dropped for the sixth month in a row in June, reaching the lowest level since July 2021.

The metric is still dominated by OpenSea, which saw over 76,000 traders in June versus Blur’s approximately 24,000.

The number of Ethereum NFT trades on the top 15 marketplaces tracked by The Block declined last month to the lowest since May 2021. Out of the total 203,970 trades recorded by these exchanges, 106,100 were processed by Blur and 94,500 by OpenSea.

Meanwhile, monthly revenue on the top 20 Ethereum NFT marketplaces dropped to the lowest level since January 2021, according to data from Token Terminal.

June was the first month since early 2021 when monthly revenue on these marketplaces fell below the $1 million mark, declining to $950,000. For comparison, in January 2022, LooksRare, a decentralized NFT marketplace, saw revenue figures exceeding the $200 million level.

Coincidentally or not, some high-profile NFT holders are starting to dump their tokens. Billionaire Mark Cuban sold over a dozen of his NFTs for a total of about $39,000 at the end of June. This was his first NFT sale in two years. On top of that, two of his NFTs, worth a total of $66,000, are still available for sale on OpenSea.

Recently, DappRadar released its State of the Dapp Industry report for Q2, stating that the NFT sector had its best quarter since the first three months of 2023, with trading volume increasing to $4 billion. However, Bitcoin NFTs have been the main driving force.

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The post Ethereum NFT Activity Declines to Lowest Level Since H1 2021 appeared first on NFTgators .

Quick take:

The integration is expected to help MetaMask detect potential wallet exploits better using transaction validation and client-side heuristics.

The entire Wallet Guard team will join ConsenSys as part of the deal.

In February ConsenSys also integrated Blockaid security alerts into MetaMask.

ConsenSys has announced the acquisition of the crypto security app Wallet Guard. The company plans to integrate Wallet Guard’s browser extension to further protect MetaMask users against exploits and scams.

Metamask will also leverage Wallet Guard’s security engine capabilities to improve wallet drain detection via transaction validation and client-side heuristics, The Block reported. ConsenSys said the integration will provide users with real-time protection against scams and malicious dApps.

Commenting on the acquisition, Consensys CEO and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin said in a statement: “Wallet Guard has quickly become a premier security tool with advanced capabilities and constant innovation that strategically aligns with Consensys’ goal of putting user safety at the forefront. Their innovative security solutions will be instrumental in our mission to create a safer and more secure environment to continuously pave the way for the industry’s mass adoption.”

As part of the deal, the Wallet Guard team is expected to join ConsenSys as part of its MetaMask product safety department.

Wallet Guard co-founder and co-CEO Ohm Shah commented: “We’re thrilled at the opportunity to bring our knowledge and commitment to end-user security to millions of MetaMask users worldwide. Advancements in security, fraud and scam prevention are essential for the mass adoption of web3.”

This announcement follows MetaMask’s integration with Blockaid earlier this year, which sought to improve the crypto wallet service provider’s security alerts.

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Quick take:

Polychain Capital and Borderless Capital led the round with several other Web3 VCs also participating.

Sreeram Kannan of EigenLabs, Balaji Srinivasan, Polygon’s Sandeep Nailwal and Sebastien Borget of The Sandbox were among those who joined as angel investors.

The company seeks to address the issue of data in AI model training, which its press release states is the biggest challenge that many AI models face today.

OpenLedger, a blockchain data oracle for AI models has raised $8 million in a Seed round led by Polychain Capital and Borderless Capital. The fundraising also attracted participation from Finality Capital, Hash3, HashKey Capital,  STIX, TRGC, Mask Network, MH Ventures and WAGMI Ventures.

Sreeram Kannan of EigenLayer, Balaji Srinivasan, Polygon’s Sandeep Nailwal and Sebastian Borget of The Sandbox were among several others who joined as angel investors.

OpenLedger believes the advancement of AI will be driven by three elements, computing, algorithms, and data. 

The company said in a press release on Tuesday that, while developers have figured out how to address the issue of computing with powerful computers and created complex algorithms, data remains the biggest challenge that AI model builders are facing today.

“Data is currently the biggest bottleneck in AI development, with the quality of AI models derived from the data the models are trained on,” OpenLedger wrote.

The company believes its fully permissionless and verifiable data-centric infrastructure could spur the growth and development of AI by enabling builders to create smarter and more performant AI models.

OpenLedger is leveraging EigenLayer’s crypto restaking protocol to secure its network and was alert to point out how the protocol has rapidly grown to a TVL of $20 billion, amid the rising demand for restaking services.

Kannan was equally optimistic about the collaboration, saying “Verifiable databases was the first category I wanted to see built on EigenLayer, as this category empowers a new category of developers who can work with verified data.”

OpenLedger plans to launch its testnet at the bigging of the fourth quarter in 2024 and is now expanding its team and operations to realise that goal.

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The post OpenLedger Secures $8M to Build a Verifiable Data Layer for AI Training Models appeared first on NFTgators .

Quick take:

Polychain Capital led the round with participation from ABCDE, Bloccelerate, Generative Ventures, Robot Ventures and Samsung Next.

Ethereum Foundation’s Justin Drake and EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kanaan also joined as angel investors.

Pi Squared is developing a technology suite that enables verifiable computing with zero-knowledge proofs.

Pi Squared a Web3 startup led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign computer science professor, Grigore Rosu has raised $12.5 million in a seed round led by Polychain Capital.

The fundraising also attracted participation from ABCDE, Bloccelerate, Generative Ventures, Robot Ventures and Samsung Next, with Justin Drake of Ethereum Foundation and EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kanaan joining as angel investors.

Pi Squared is using zero-knowledge technology to build products for what it calls “trustless remote computing”. Its first product dubbed a ‘Universal Settlement Layer’ enables the settlement of blockchain transactions “claims” in any programming language, Rosu told CoinDesk.

In a nutshell, Grigore is building what he calls a “Universal ZK Circuit”. The product can also be used to enable ‘trustless remote computing’ in AI and interoperable smart contracts for any decentralised application or blockchain, according to information on the company’s website. Rosu said in a press release on Tuesday that he did the research over many years with his students.

According to Pi Squared, the technology creates a universal and disarmingly small ZK circuit that checks the integrity of mathematical proofs, which 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).”

Designed for builders, Pi Squared is still in its proof-of-concept phase but Rosu’s goal is to have the project in testnet by the end of the year.

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The post Pi Squared Raises $12.5M to Build a ‘Universal Settlement Layer’ for Blockchain Transactions appeared first on NFTgators .