More airdrops are announced as we go into the third week of 2024 — find out more in our weekly DeFi roundup of the latest news and alpha!
EigenLayer announces the upcoming resumption of deposits and the introduction of three new supported liquid staking tokens. StarkNet takes another step closer to its token launch, with the passing of a proposal to pay gas fees in STRK, while Cosmos-based chain, Berachain, finally arrives on testnet, in a highly anticipated launch.
Overview
Total Value Locked (TVL) across all chains surged after the crypto markets took another leg up following the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF on US exchanges. Notable outperformers include Move-based chain, Sui, Cosmos chain, Injective, and BitDAO-backed L2, Mantle, which saw 20-40% increases in TVL.
Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/chain-ranking/
Welcome to Alpha Central
Ted covers eight big themes for the coming year including:
- Spot altcoin ETFs, specifically starting with ETH
- The end of quantitative tightening from the Fed
- Return of liquidity to crypto
- Bitcoin Halving
- Inflation stabilizes
- Big improvements in AI
- Recession predictors are wrong again
- China continues to print more money
Ethereum: EigenLayer Unpausing Deposits
ETH restaking protocol, EigenLayer, will be reopening the protocol for deposits on January 29th, with the existing caps. Three new liquid staking tokens will also be introduced: Frax Finance’s sfrxETH, Mantle’s mETH and Liquid Collective’s lsETH.
Other Product Launches and Updates
- Real-world asset (RWA) protocol, Ondo Finance, releases Ondo Points, which reward users who have contributed to the ecosystem, users in their communities and those who have held USDT or USDC between 26 January 2023 to 31 December 2023. Users must claim their points by 31st March.
- Morpho Labs’ newest product, Morpho Blue, goes live on mainnet, with the first isolated vaults, wstETH-WETH and wstETH-USDC being launched. Morpho Blue isolates lending markets in vaults to manage protocol risk.
- Self-custodial decentralized exchange (DEX), C3, launches on mainnet. C3 aims to mimic the centralized exchange (CEX) trading experience in a permissionless manner. Users can now earn points for staking, trading and lending on the platform.
- ETH native restaking platform, EtherFi, announces its plans for the new year, highlighting its token generation event (TGE) in April, which many suspect will come with an airdrop.
- Ethereum liquidity management protocol, Revert Finance, introduces Revert Lend, a new product enabling Uniswap liquidity providers to collateralize their liquidity positions to secure loans while maintaining management over their liquidity.
L2s: StarkNet Takes a Step Closer to the STRK Token
Zero-knowledge rollup, StarkNet, goes live with v0.13, enabling gas fees to be paid with either ETH or the upcoming governance token, STRK.
Polygon introduces Libre, an institution-focused L2 built using Polygon’s Chain Development Kit. Libre is designed to focus on tokenization of assets with Brevan Howard and Hamilton Lane lined up as their first institutional partners.
Other Product Launches and Updates
- Perennial Labs reintroduces Power Perpetuals to Perennial V2. Power Perpetuals are a blend between options and perpetuals, a concept first introduced by Paradigm in 2021. The rollout is starting with BTC^2, a contract that tracks the squared price of BTC.
- Telegram trading bot, Unibot, launches on Arbitrum, now expanding its reach to the popular L2. Users can also bridge funds directly with the bot, leveraging Stargate Finance’s technology,
- The latest release of Synthetix, Andromeda, has been deployed on Coinbase’s L2 Base. With the new release, 40% of fees from perpetuals traded on Base will be utilized to buy back and burn SNX tokens, while the remaining will be distributed to liquidity providers and partners.
- Lending market, Clearpool, introduces Credit Vaults, a new product that seeks to give borrowers greater control and flexibility over their loan terms while attracting lenders with higher rates.
- Yield trading platform, Pendle, launches limit orders on Arbitrum, enabling traders to set orders for Principal Tokens or Yield Tokens for GLP, rETH, gDAI, aUSDC, with more chains and tokens to be supported in the near future.
- Exotic derivatives protocol, Y2K Finance, introduces Turbo Option Vaults, which are designed to accept deposits in the same asset that the derivatives are betting on. This allows the trader to earn outsized returns on calls and enables cheaper hedging on puts.
Cosmos: Berachain Testnet Live
Cryptic Cosmos-based chain, Berachain, finally launches its highly anticipated testnet, allowing users to test out a handful of existing applications on the chain.
The Cosmos Hub has put forth a governance proposal to reduce the inflation from 7% to 0%. If passed, this means that once the goal of 67% bonded ATOM is reached, ATOM inflation will be reduced to 0% over time.
EigenLayer announces an official collaboration with the Cosmos ecosystem to enable Cosmos chains to tap into Ethereum’s collective security. Teams such as Lay3er and Ethos are working to develop solutions to enable these functions.
Osmosis announces the upcoming launch of Staking V1, which enables OSMO holders to stake, claim rewards and redelegate directly via the Osmosis application without passing through their users’ wallet dashboards. Staking V2 will enable multi-chain staking.
Another Week, Another Airdrop
The Merchant Moe airdrop goes live on Mantle, allowing users who have staked JOE on Merchant Moe to collect their MOE tokens. Users can continue staking JOE on Merchant Moe to earn MOE emissions for the next 12 months.
Cross-chain bridge, Orbiter Finance, announces its upcoming token launch, simultaneously hinting that its existing point system, O-Points, will be crucial in determining the airdrop distribution.
Multi-chain stableswap DEX, Wombat Exchange, teases an upcoming snapshot on 10th February for stakers of the WOM token and liquidity providers on the platform.
Tweet of the Week
Blackrock CEO, Larry Fink, shills crypto and shuts down Elizabeth Warren in the same session on live television.
Stay updated on your favorite projects and stay tuned for next week’s edition, and keep supporting your favorite projects, degens!
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