ZkSync Era launches on mainnet, airdrop guides abound and all is well with the Llamas — check out these and more in our weekly DeFi roundup you don't want to miss.
In a highly anticipated launch, the zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) chain, zkSync Era deployed on mainnet last Friday, as users rushed to bridge to the zkEVM chain in anticipation of a zkSync airdrop. Arbitrum’s airdrop also opened up for claims, resulting in a slew of ARB-based products. Finally, with the successful deployment of replicated security, Cosmos could see their first consumer chain, Neutron, launching soon.
Let’s see what went down this past week in DeFi.
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Overview: Fed Rates Priced in, Markets Push on
Total Value Locked (TVL) across all chains remained largely flat across the week sitting in the $49 billion range. The markets largely continued to push upwards for the majority of the week as the Fed raised rates in line with expectations, before taking a small dip going into the weekend. Aside from Arbitrum, which saw a healthy increase this week resulting from the hype around their airdrop. StarkNet also saw a significant spike in TVL of 68%, likely resulting from airdrop speculators.
Source: DeFiLlama
Welcome to Alpha Central
Poopman shares it all on how to decide which airdrops are worth your time and effort to maximize your resources.
Crypto Koryo shares a list of great whitepapers to read, including the legendary Bitcoin whitepaper, Uniswap’s whitepaper which revolutionized DeFi trading, as well as LayerZero’s whitepaper on their omni chain vision.
Louround shares a comprehensive research article on Polygon’s zkEVM solution, which is set to launch on March 27, just days after zkSync Era launched their mainnet last Friday.
Ethereum: Euler Exploiter Returns Funds
Last week’s fallout within the DeFiLlama team appears to be resolved, with both the official DeFiLlama Twitter account and co-founder 0xngmi confirming the statement. All DeFiLlama websites and applications are confirmed to be safe and functional.
Yield-boosting protocol, Convex Finance, expands their partnership with Frax Finance, to support the Frax Price Index Share (FPIS) token in the Convex locking/staking mechanism, boosting yields on staked FPIS.
Modular execution layer, Fuel Network, launches their Beta-3 Testnet, enabling a range of new features as well as better scalability across the network.
Decentralized liquidity infrastructure, Solv Protocol, introduces Solv V3, which brings both frontend and backend financial services to DeFi. On the frontend, Solv V3 is all about the creation of on-chain funds, clearing and settlement. On the backend, Solv V3 supports integrations with a range of custody service providers such as Gnosis Safe, Cobo and more.
MetaMask Institutional deploys an institutional staking marketplace, providing one-click, compliant staking solutions to institutions. The product aims to simplify staking for institutions and boost ETH staking rates.
Euler exploiter seems to have a change of heart as they return more than $108 million in assets to Euler Finance, which was exploited for $198 million a week ago. The funds were returned in DAI and ETH, with a separate $82 million being distributed across 3 different addresses, which are presumed to be exploiter-owned addresses.
Self-repaying loan platform, Alchemix, proposes a partnership with options protocol, Premia, to launch options vaults on Alchemix assets, allowing higher loan-to-value (LTV) loans to be taken against said Alchemix assets.
L2s: ARB Products Are So Hot Right Now
ZkEVM chain, zkSync Era, announces full launch to mainnet, opening their doors to all developers, users and projects.
Inflows to zkSync and StarkNet surge after the Arbitrum airdrop as users hunt for the next big airdrop. ZkSync saw five times the number of addresses bridging onto the chain from the week before. Starknet also saw a spike, with more than $3.4 million being deposited in just four days.
StarkNet announced the upcoming launch of Alpha v0.11.0 testnet as well, which will be executed after a successful governance vote for the upgrade.
Yield tokenization platform, Pendle, announces a partnership with Bond Protocol, to issue ETH bonds on Arbitrum that will serve to deepen Pendle’s protocol owned liquidity. PENDLE tokens will also be available at a vested discount on Bond Protocol until April 4.
Binance Smart Chain stableswap decentralized exchange (DEX), Wombat Exchange, announces their upcoming deployment to Arbitrum as the Arbitrum ecosystem continues heating up after their airdrop.
Arbitrum’s top protocol, GMX, makes a proposal to deploy on Coinbase’s Layer 2 Base, in a bid to establish its dominance on the new chain in a repeat of its Arbitrum playbook, which led to their success on the chain.
Vesta Finance, also proposed to use Arbitrum’s token, ARB, as collateral this week, to back its stablecoin, VST. The move could help to diversify Vesta’s collateral pool as well as increase adoption of VST.
Siren Protocol announces Siren Flow, which brings options to the platform. Siren Flow utilizes a unique on-chain/off-chain system to deliver competitive quotes to its users and delta-hedges automatically to protect liquidity providers on the platform.
Arbitrum governance “blackhole” project, PlutusDAO, launches their plsARB product, enabling users to stake the ARB token to earn both PLS and ARB yields. PlutusDAO seeks to amass governance power through its products, which cover various projects such as Dopex, Spearax, and JonesDAO.
Money market platform, Timeswap, launches on Arbitrum, immediately opening borrowing and lending markets for the ARB token.
Multichain options protocol, Premia, launches ARB-based options on their platform, allowing option traders to bet on ARB price movements via call and put options.
Optimism-based Perpetual Protocol opens access to their Hot Tub Vaults, which allow depositors to earn on arbitrage opportunities between spot and perpetuals prices, in a delta-neutral fashion.
Dymension releases escrow Inter-Blockchain Communication (eIBC), a novel method to enable fast and trust-minimized bridging for optimistic rollups. Through implementing this, optimistic rollups could remove their fraud dispute window, which has always been a major drawback of optimistic rollup technology.
Aave continues their expansion across chains to launch on the Ethereum L2, Metis Andromeda, bringing Aave V3 markets to the chain. Aave is also concurrently conducting a temperature check for deployment to Binance Smart Chain.
ZkEVM scaling solution Taiko also released their alpha-2 testnet, Askja, this past week, pushing them another step closer to mainnet. The testnet is currently open to all users and developers to interact with. This upgrade also makes it fully permissionless to generate proofs on the chain.
Ontology Network incubates a new Ethereum L2, Goshen Network. The chain uses a unique fraud-proof system to ensure its security. Moreover, Ontology’s chain, which is EVM compatible, will support Goshen Network with infrastructure developed for Ontology EVM.
Web3 gaming chain, Immutable, announces a partnership with Ethereum scaling company, Polygon, to build the Immutable zkEVM on Polygon zkEVM technology. Immutable’s token, IMX, will serve as the gas token on the new chain.
Polygon: Major DEXs Make Moves
Polygon’s data availability project, Avail, spins out as a separate product from Polygon Labs, with Polygon co-founder, Anurag Arjun, taking the helm.
On-chain limit order DEX, Dfyn Network, launches Dfyn V2, which brings fully on-chain limit orders as well as concentrated liquidity via unified pools to the platform. This prevents order manipulation and further removes centralized elements from Dfyn, while providing better liquidity to users.
Perpetual futures DEX, IDEX, launches IDEX V4, bringing a world-class trading experience to their users with advanced order types, instant execution and ultra-low fees.
On-chain bonds platform, Obligate, launches the first bond on their platform issued by Swiss commodities trading firm, Muff Trading AG.
Cosmos: The First Cosmos Consumer Chain
Permissionless Cosmos-based chain, Neutron, proposes their launch via Cosmos’ newly released Replicated Security, being the first chain to do so. If approved, Neutron will rely on the Cosmos Hub for security, while Neutron provides interoperable smart contracts to the Cosmos Hub.
Cosmos’ largest appchain, Osmosis, partners up with Avalanche-based DEX, Pangolin, to facilitate the bridging of assets across both chains. This enables pooling and farming of Avalanche assets on Osmosis and vice versa.
Miner Extractable Value (MEV) infrastructure protocol, Skip Protocol, is now live on Osmosis after Osmosis completed their Sodium V15 Upgrade the week prior, which enabled this integration.
Another Week, Another Airdrop
Decentralized identity platform, Space ID Protocol, announces their retrospective airdrop to early supporters of the platform, including users who hold .bnb or .arb domains, specific NFTs and more. More than 271,000 addresses are qualified to receive the airdrop.
Arbitrum airdrop finally opened up for claims after the announcement last week. Despite initial congestion on the network, more than 85% of the airdrop has since been claimed.
Stay tuned for next week’s edition and keep supporting your favorite projects, degens!
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