An Ape's Prologue Weekly (11 January)
Important DeFi News
Eigenlayer is set to add three new LSTs and reopen deposits for all LSTs on January 29th
Synthetix is set to allocate 40% of protocol fees to buyback and burn $SNX, distribute another 40% to LPs, and the other 20% for perp integrators
Arbitrum Orbit chains, networks built on Arbitrum One and Nova, currently supports the use of ERC-20 tokens for transaction fees
Berachain, an EVM-equivalent L1 powered by Cosmos SDK using Proof of Liquidity, has launched their Artio Testnet
Lenx, a $BTC liquidity and stablecoin protocol, lost 230 $ETH worth $600k in a sandwich attack while deploying LP on Uni V3, and is set to repay loses with 25% revenue earned from their treasury assets
Merchant Moe, a DEX and expansion of Trader Joe on Mantle Network, has gone live, distributing 2.5% of $MOE to $JOE stakers
Swell, an LST protocol, is set to launch $rswETH, a native liquid restaking token
Celer, an interchain bridge and communication platform, is set to expand support for BRC-20 bridging between Bitcoin and EVM ecosystems
Nubit, the first Bitcoin-native DA layer, was announced, featuring increased data throughput and reduced transaction costs
Hypr Network, a ZK gaming network, is set to integrate Celestia’s DA tech featuring 100x cheaper transaction fees
Gamma Strategies, a liquidity management protocol, expects to fully refund $6.2M in exploited funds to users within 8 months
BananaGun, a telegram trading bot, has removed token taxes, and is voting to allocate a portion of revenue for buyback and burn
Osmosis, Cosmos’ leading DEX, has introduced Staking V1, allowing users to stake assets and collect rewards directly on the protocol, with the future V2 supporting multichain staking
Cakepie, a subDAO of Magpie, has launched Bribery Market, allowing $CKP lockers to earn protocol revenue and direct $CAKE rewards to liquidity pools on PancakeSwap
Clearpool, an RWA lending protocol, has announced Credit Vaults, a single-borrower pool with modifiable parameters such as interest rates, repayment schedules, and pool caps
Ondo Finance, an RWA tokenization protocol, has introduced Ondo Points, a reward program to raise awareness of products in its ecosystem
Velo has launched Velo News, featuring summarized important headlines and price data
Governance Proposals
Arbitrum DAO is voting to establish a long-term incentives program to distribute $ARB for protocols. The vote is set to pass as 50% of the votes are in favour of funding the program with 21M $ARB
Cosmos DAO is voting to reduce $ATOM inflation rate from 7% to 0% when 67% of bonded $ATOM is reached. The vote is set to fail, with 56.1% against the proposal
Osmosis DAO is voting to burn $OSMO, reducing 1.86M $OSMO worth $3.6M from circulating supply annually. The vote is set to pass with 71% of the votes in favour of the proposal
ENS DAO is discussing revamping renewal fees pricing for ENS Domains, decreasing prices for short-letter domains and increasing for long-letter domains
Conic Finance, a Curve omnipool protocol, is discussing to launch V2, featuring separated liquidity management modules for risk management and revenue sharing with $CNC lockers
Radiant DAO is voting to launch V3, which will feature isolated risk markets, improved UI, and reduced transaction costs
News
The SEC has approved Bitcoin ETFs, with total trading volume surpassing $1B minutes after market open. While the issuers compete for lowest fees, Grayscale leads with the highest fees at 1.5% while also having the highest AUM $29B $GBTC
Robinhood is set to list spot Bitcoin ETFs as soon as possible, but Vanguard has stated it has no plans to offer any Bitcoin ETFs or crypto produces due to the asset’s inherent volatility
Bitcoin ETF approvals may have bigger impact on Asia as Hong Kong scrambles for swift action. Meanwhile, South Korea reiterates ban on all crypto ETFs
Crypto custodian BitGo has obtained in-principle approval to operate in Singapore
Ripple is set to buyback $285M in shares
Coingecko’s Twitter and GeckoTerminal has been recovered after being hacked
Fox Corporation has partnered with Polygon Labs to launch Verify, a blockchain-based media platform
BitPay is set to support payment for goods and bills with cryptocurrency
Turkey is set to conclude technical studies for crypto legislation soon
Mercari, Japan’s e-commerce giant, is set to accept payment in $BTC
Celsius is set to clawback certain pre-bankruptcy withdrawals, and have unstaked $ETH holdings worth $1.13B to fund their restructuring process
CoinsPaid, a crypto gateway, was exploited for $7.5M
Visa has announced Web3 rewards loyalty program
India has served notices to multiple crypto exchanges as their apps were removed from Apple app store
Vitalik Buterin has proposed raising $ETH gas limit by 33% to enhance network capacity