Last Week in DeFi - Vertex Live on Base, Ether.fi Expanding Beyond Restaking, Kamino Taking Snapshot, and more....

Recap: Week of Mar 11th

Launches 🚀

• FRAX stablecoin is live on Near Protocol via Ref Finance and Burrow through FraxFerry and the Rainbow Bridge. More Frax assets including sFRAX, sfrxETH, FXS, etc. will be available on Near.

• Ethet.fi weETH is live on Mode L2. EtherFi users can now bridge weETH to Mode and earn Mode Points on top of their Staking Yield + Eigenlayer Points + EtherFi Points.

• Renzo is live on Linea L2. Renzo users can restake ETH directly on Linea

  with $ezETH as a native asset.

• Nostra launched Staked STRK. Users can now stake STRK for nstSTRK and use nstSTRK in Nostra for a 10X boost in Nostra Points Program.

• Vega Protocol launched the first futures market for Points, with the first derivatives markets for EigenLayer points available.

• Sturdy launched Sturdy Subnet on Bittensor's testnet. Sturdy Subnet is a Bittensor subnetwork that enables miners to propose where assets should be allocated to maximize yields. The best allocations are then used by third-party applications to move real assets on the Ethereum network.

• Curve launched the front end for Curve Lend (aka Llama Lend), Curve’s isolated lending product. Curve is redeploying to solve a borrow rate update issue, and will update UI soon.

• Blitz, an orderbook DEX for spot and futures trading, is live on Blast L2. Blitz is the first cross-chain Vertex Edge instance (deployment of Vertex DEX) on Blast.

• Suilend, a sister project to the Solana-based lending project Solend, is live on Sui and accessible for Beta Pass holders. Sui incentives are also live.

• CyberConnect launched Cyber L2, a social layer 2 with restaking, powered by EigenLayer and Optimism. Cyber Staking is also live, users can stake CYBER to earn Season 2 Rewards.

• Zunami, an issuer of aggregated stablecoins, launches V2 and introduces zunUSD. zunUSD is an aggregated USD backed by crvUSD, USDT, and USDC.

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Updates 📰

• EigenLayer announced a gradual mainnet rollout comprised of six phases to bring operators and EigenDA to mainnet.

• Synthetix founder will launch a memecoin on OP for all the SNX stakers today to test 4844 costs.

• Dencun upgrade went live and brought L2 fees down.
  Arbitrum rollup chains can start to see lower fees on March 14th, and on the 18th there will be additional fee reductions for Arbitrum One, as per ArbOS Atlas.

• Synthetix Perps gas costs are down from $3 to 0.14 cents as EIP-4844 is now live on Optimism.

• Starknet launched the Gaming Committee, comprised of six experts. The Committee's mandate is to promote the growth of gaming on Starknet.

• Renzo restaking is live on Blast L2. Users can bridge, swap, and supply ezETH liquidity and receive boosted rewards on Blast DeFi protocols.

• QuickSwap is live on Astar zkEVM Mainnet. Quickswap will be an ecosystem project participant in Astar Network’s Yoki Origins campaign.

• KyberSwap aggregator is live on Blast L2. Blast users can access KyberSwap or DEX Screener trading via KyberSwap Aggregator integration.

• MakerDAO approved and implemented a proposal that raised the DSR from 5% to 15% for sDAI holders, and the DAI Borrow APY from 6.7% to 16% for SparkLend users.

• Lyra Chain now supports wstETH as a new collateral type, allowing users to leverage stETH while trading options.

• Gearbox added support for leveraged restaking for Renzo and omnichain leveraged restaking on Arbitrum on March 12th.

• Quickswap is live on Immutable zkEVM. Users can now swap, LP, and farm on Immutable zkEVM directly through QuickSwap.

• TrueFi approved increasing stkTRU staking rewards from 0 TRU/day to 5,000 TRU/day.

• Poolshark FIN token launch is live on Mode L2 on March 15th.

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Upcoming ⏳

• Swell Network is building its own L2 rollup chain. Swell L2 will be built using Polygon CDK to function as a zkEVM and supported by EigenLayer & AltLayer. The mainnet is planned for the second half of this year.

• Arbitrum community proposed the Gaming Catalyst Program (GCP) to accelerate Arbitrum’s support for game builders.

• Astroport is set to deploy an outpost on Osmosis and introduce Passive Concentrated Liquidity (PCL) pools to the platform.

• Ether.fi will release three integrated products: Stake, Liquid, and Cash in the next 12-24 months. On March 18th, Liquid will go live as a managed DeFi strategy vault that deploys users’ ETH, eETH, or weETH into DeFi to earn rewards with managed risks.

• Aave delegates proposed increasing the GHO Borrow Rate and amending GHO Steward’s capabilities to protect the GHO peg by reducing arbitrage opportunities following MakerDAO’s DSR raise.

• MakerDAO founder plans Endgame Phase 1 (Launch Season) for summer 2024 and provides the latest updates on the Endgame features that will be launched in the short- and long-term.

• Zeta Markets unveiled its long-term roadmap with the upcoming Zeta V3 launches, introducing Zeta-Lend, multi-collateral support, and more.

• Gnosis Chain Dencun hard fork will go live on 11 March 2024 at 18:30:20 UTC. The upgrade enables blobs (EIP - 4844 Proto-Danksharding), enabling L2 chains to scale and providing a cheaper data layer.

• Westwood from Frax Finance proposed reactivating the fee switch and redistributing 75/25 of protocol fees to veFXS and Treasury, as the 100% Collateral Ratio target is almost reached (98.8% at the time of writing).

• South Korean game publisher Nexon will launch its 2D mass multiplayer online role-playing game MapleStory on the Avalanche network.

• Y2K introduced V3: TSUNAMI. V3 will introduce 24/7 market coverage, deep liquidity from aggregated LP pools, fully tradeable positions, and more.

• GnosisDAO released the roadmap for the upcoming V3. V3 focuses on payments and open financial infra: Gnosis Pay, Circles, Gnosis Wallet, and Hashi.

• Kujira Name System (KNS) is launching on the recently launched Gojira NFT Marketplace. Domains will be auctioned using a Gojira open mint market.

• SuperchainOne is launching soon as a cross-chain launchpad for Optimism, Base, Mode, and Zora token launches.

• Stacks Nakamoto upgrade will roll out between April 15-29. The upgrade will introduce sBTC, faster block times, and other improvements.

• DELV (formerly Element) introduced Hyperdrive Protocol, a new automated market maker (AMM) protocol for fixed and variable rates.

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Airdrops 🪂

• Aevo airdrop is now claimable at app.aevo.xyz/aevo and tradable on Binance Launchpad.

• Starknet-based zkLend launched the ZEND airdrop checker and will allow claiming on March 14, 2024, at a time to be updated.

• Wormhole updated the airdrop details, including the airdrop algorithm, on-chain user rewards, the multichain community thesis, and how anyone can get involved.

• Kamino Season 1 snapshot will be taken on March 31st and culminate in the Genesis Distribution of $KMNO in April.

Farms 🧑🏻‍🌾

• Avantis launched a trade-to-earn campaign that allows traders to earn 120,000 USDC in prizes over 8 weeks, plus exclusive Avantis merch.

• GMX launched a special Trading Competition to celebrate the launch of GMX’s new Leaderboard and Ethereum’s EIP4844 upgrade. Traders can trade and earn a share of the 280,000 ARB prize pot.

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