Last Week in DeFi - Soul Wallet, MakerDAO Offboarding WBTC, RPL Tokenomics Rework, and more...
Recap: Week of Aug 5th
Launches π
Soul Wallet, a smart wallet for Ethereum L2s, soft launches v1 on Optimism. Soul Wallet offers social recovery, passkey signing, and compatibility with the most popular L2s.
CoW AMM is live on Balancer, allowing users to deploy liquidity on the first MEV-capturing AMM with just a few clicks.
Polynomial Superchain L2 is live with a 14-day initial liquidity event (ILE) available for LPs. Users with an invite code can supply USDC, sDAI, and sUSDe to earn points with increasing boosts.
Zircuit L2, an EVM-compatible ZK rollup with "AI-enabled sequencer-level security, launches Mainnet Phase 1. Zircuit enables users to bridge funds to the ZK rollup and test out dApps in its ecosystem.
Synthetix launches USDx, its native stablecoin on Arbitrum. This release allows Depositors (LPs) to take a 0% interest loan against their collateral and will function as margin for traders on Synthetix Perps.
Ore, a Solana-based mining protocol, launches mining with the ORE PoW token capped at 21 million.
Updates π°
Near launches Chain Signatures on its mainnet. The feature allows users with a NEAR account to sign transactions on blockchains it supports without cross-chain bridges.
Kujira announced a recovery plan and a Thorchain partnership. Kujiraβs next step is to raise money through the PILOT sale to clear out all debts, with Thorchain founder backstopping the raise with $3m.
Usual, an RWA stablecoin protocol, is live on Pendle. During the Pills campaign, holding USD0++ gives you access to Pills and a share of the airdrop.
Gyroscope sGYD, a yield-bearing stablecoin, is live on Ethereum and Arbitrum. sGYD yields are expected to be 12-15% at launch. SPIN points also enter its final phase, focused on amplifying Gyroβs yields.
Greyscale launches two new single-asset crypto investment funds, Grayscale Bittensor Trust TAO, and Grayscale Sui Trust SUI.
Ethena is live on Solana with USDe and sUSDe integrated into partner protocols, including Kamino, Orca, Drift, and Jito.
Arbitrum now supports bridged USDC as a custom gas token on Arbitrum Orbit chains, providing users with increased convenience, price stability, and accessibility.
Nekodex launches USDC spot trading using intents and chain abstraction on Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, and Base.
Ether.fi earned $2.58M of revenue in July and has used 5% of these earnings to purchase $ETHFI.
Aori, a high-frequency off-chain order book protocol, expands to Base beyond Arbitrum and Blast.
Spectra (fka. APWine) is live on Optimism, allowing users to create pools on top of Optimism yield strategies to unlock fixed rates and yield trading.
Lido introduced Lido Institutional, enabling its liquid staking service for institutional clients who want to stake large amounts of ETH.
Jupiter approved the Supply Reduction Proposal to cut 3 billion JUP tokens from circulation as part of a strategic effort to refine its tokenomics.
Issues π¨
MakerDAO plans to Offboard WBTC after Bitgo announces plans to change custody.
Lookonchain and Coindesk reported , ~$2B (2,800 ETH) worth of ETH was being moved on-chain, raising concerns about potential market pressure.
The movement was tracked from wallets tied to the PlusToken China Ponzi back in 2020. Funds have been controlled by Chinese authorities since then.
Lookonchain later deleted their analysis post.
According to EmberCNβs analysis, most of the seized ETH should have been sold in 2021 with only a ~$63.1M worth of the remaining ETH being moved.
Renzo dapp is down due to its front-end cloud provider Vercel being down. Funds are safe and the dapp should resume shortly.
Starknet Foundation announced that its first CEO Diego Oliva has stepped down after holding the position since March 2023.
Ronin Bridge has reportedly suffered a major MEV exploit linked to the suspicious withdrawal of ~4K ETH and 2M USDC, valued at ~$12M. The team is negotiating with the actors, who appear to act as white-hats and the lost funds could soon be safely returned.
Kujira Foundation, the builder of the Cosmos-based Kujira chain, experienced significant losses as leveraged liquidity positions backfired last Thursday. These liquidations occurred because loans from publicly allocated KUJI tokens became undercollateralized, triggering a cascade of sell-offs that further drove down KUJI prices. Later on Friday, the team announced plans to create a DAO to take ownership of the Kujira Treasury and core protocols.
Upcoming β³
Compound DAO proposes to implement the community multi-sig to be used as a guardian for Compound Governance. The Proposal Guardian "is to act as a last defense against any malicious governance votes in the future."
Rocketpool DAO proposes a tokenomics rework (RPIP-49).
The tokenomics rework includes a set of flexible items. If RPIP-49 gets approved, the below items will have one or more snapshot votes to ratify their final form:Saturn 2 Surplus Share Strategy
Vote Eligible RPL Targets
Deposit Strategy
Penalty System
When the security council should change the node operator commission.
Scroll L2βs Darwin Upgrade is scheduled for August 21st. This upgrade will enable Proof Recursion and lower the gas fees by 34%.
Starknet v0.13.2 upgrade is live on testnet, with mainnet scheduled for Aug 28. This upgrade will enable Parallel Execution and Block Packing on Starknet.
Osmosis DAO proposes adding the support of EVM Smart contracts and a native EVM Wallet experience on the Osmosis protocol by integrating evmOS. In return, a proportion of taker fees generated by trading from EVM wallets on Osmosis will be shared with evmOS.
Thorchain founder JPThor said he will be buying KUJI and working directly with the Kujira team to help with their $3.2M debt position.
Elixir is set to enable protocol revenue for deUSD stakers upon mainnet launch. Users can register for the allowlist for the mainnet early access phase limited to 1000 participants.
Rage Trade $RAGE TGE went live on Hyperliquid dex on August 7.
The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill by Senator Cynthia Lummis has been officially introduced and referred to the Senate Banking Committee. The bill proposes establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve to acquire 1 million BTC over 5 years.
GRVT, a ZK chain for trading, is set to launch its Open Beta testnet on August 5. GRVT will distribute 2.4 million ZK tokens to the first 30,000 early testers who verify their accounts and complete their first transaction.
Compound DAO proposes growing the Compound Treasury's assets by leveraging the 5,038 ETH currently held in Timelock, as well as 167 ETH held in a multi-sig wallet, to generate yield and support the Compound ecosystem.
Airdrops πͺ
Blast L2 Phase 2 Gold Distribution 2 is live, with 10M Gold allocated to existing dapps and 1M to new dapps.
Mantle L2 partners with Pendle for Mantle Season 1. Users holding mETH LP or YT on Pendle can earn 25x Powder per mETH daily.
Hourglass, a rewards booster protocol, brings point leverage to Mantle L2, allowing users to get 35x leverage on their mETH powder. Deposits are initially capped at $250k
Morpho rewards accrued up to 24 July on Base and Ethereum are now claimable on the Morpho interface. Rewards include WELL, USDC, OVN, RSR, and others.
Hana Network, a Bitcoin staking protocol on testnet, launches its Public Quest site. Users can explore the Babylon ecosystem by completing incentivized quests.
Lava Network has distributed all LAVA airdrops to those who claimed between July 20th and 30th (Mainnet) and the Cosmos community pool.
Duper, a strategy game project on Arbitrum, announces Season 1 and an $8.7M total raise. Duper Season 1 comes with official ETH and Sparks rewards from gameplay and what you earn from games.
Kelp DAO, a liquid restaking solution on EigenLayer for Ethereum, is launching the Gain campaign on August 13. Kelp Gain will allow users to earn Boosted rewards from multiple L2s.
PancakeSwap launches PancakeSwap Quest Beta, a unified quest platform where users can participate in various social media and on-chain tasks across multiple chains.
Zircuit L2 rolled out Season 1 Airdrop and non-transferrable Zircuit Token (ZRC), rewarding early adopters who participated in a reported $2.5 billion staking program during its testnet phase, which launched last November.
Ether.fi introduces the Diamond Campaign, adding more ETHFI rewards to Season 3. Users can earn more ETHFI in addition to the 25M ETHFI that will be distributed to all eligible Season 3 participants.
Renzo Season 2 claim checker is live with OG Boosts and an Additional Loyalty Boost applying to eligible users.
Mode L2 Season 1 vested airdrop is available to claim. Users can earn OP tokens with high APYs by staking their MODE in the dashboard and using their Mode across ecosystem applications for up to 5x multipliers
GRVT launches Open Beta Testnet with a total prize pool of 2.4m ZK tokens & 600,000 Mystery Box raffle tickets.
Drop, an interchain liquid staking protocol, introduces the Droplets Program. 100 million $DROP tokens will be airdropped to participants who earn Droplets by liquid staking, using dAssets in DeFi, and referring friends.
Dydx Season 6 of the dYdX Launch Incentives Program is nearing its end. Traders still have time to grab a share of the $5 million incentive pool.
Kamino has concluded Season 2 and will distribute ~$13.5M worth of KMNO to Kamino users in mid-August. Season 2 allocation checker is live, and Season 3 has started with full info to be released next week.
Usual Money kickstarts Pill Campaign Chapter 2, allowing users to do Galxe quests to earn Pills.
Farms π§π»βπΎ
Stake your GHO to earn ~27% APR from AAVE and Merit Program
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Kamino introduces JLP Multiply, a one-click loop product that gives users leveraged exposure to the JLP price, and fee yields.
Kamino August rewards are distributed to Jito LPs, with $485,0000 in rewards across 4 JitoSOL Liquidity Vaults on Kamino.
Infinex extended Ethena integration is live. Usersβ USDe balance will now earn 20x Sats per $USDe each day, in addition to the native Ethena yield.
Maverick v2 Epoch 3 MAV rewards are live for LPs on Arbitrum, Base, Ethereum, and zkSync.
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