Bitcoin Price: US$ 31,801.04 (+0.21%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 1,941.90 (-2.85%)
Layer 2 Airdrops, Liquid Staking & Stablecoin Pools
- Optimism OP Drop #1 eligible users can now claim their airdrop. However, due to RPC issues, there may be a slight delay.
- Aura Finance has confirmed an airdrop in early June. Exact dates to be announced via. social media channels.
- Airdrop community recipients include Balancer, Convex and Lobster DAO.
- StarkNet has increased its deposit cap limit. There is a 50 DAI deposit limit. Early bridgers and users may be eligible for a retroactive airdrop.
- Mars Protocol has taken a snapshot on May 7th and 28th, pre-depeg and post-depeg, respectively. Mars is looking to launch on its own Cosmos chain.
- Velodrome Finance has allocated 18% of its total supply to Optimism network users. Qualified addresses include repeat Optimism users.
- DeFiSaver has launched on Optimism and Arbitrum. With plans to release a token in the future, it may retroactively drop tokens to users.
- Blocklords have leaked in a recent podcast that whitelisted users will be eligible for ‘Farmer NFTs’.
- Dequest has released their Soulbound NFTs which you can mint here.
- Vesta Finance is a Layer 2-first lending protocol that allows users to obtain maximum liquidity against their collateral without paying interest. Vesta’s V1 is based on Liquity, a collateralized debt platform. Users can lock up collateral and issue Vesta’s stablecoin VST to their own Ethereum address, and subsequently transfer those tokens to any other Ethereum address.
- Vector Finance is a protocol that symbiotically works with Platypus Finance. Vector enables users to generate boosted yields on their stablecoins, even if they don’t own any PTP. Vector is able to do this by aggregating PTP from users who choose to convert their PTP to xPTP. In doing so, Vector also unlocks utility for the PTP token: users who convert their PTP into xPTP receive a large percentage of all yield generated by the protocol. This allows for better capital efficiency and a more diverse user base for Platypus.
- Stader is a non-custodial smart contract-based staking platform that helps you conveniently discover and access staking solutions. We are building key staking middleware infra for multiple PoS networks for retail crypto users, exchanges and custodians.
Russian central bank signals agreement with crypto law revisions: Report
- First deputy governor of the Russian central bank Ksenia Yudayeva stated Tuesday that the bank is open to using cryptocurrency for international payments, Reuters reported, along with Russian media, which added that the bank was reconsidering its position on crypto mining as well. Yudaeva was quoted as saying:
- “We have changed our position on mining, and also permit the use of cryptocurrency in foreign trade and outside the country,”
- The bank official’s statement, sandwiched into announcements about domestic bank regulation, seems to be a concession to the legislators preparing a new version of the law “On Digital Currency.” Business newspaper Vedomosti reports that the Finance Ministry unveiled the draft of the law at a discussion hosted by the United Russia Party on Frida.
- At that discussion, Anton Gorelkin, a member of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, mentioned the need for the central bank to weigh in. The input of numerous state agencies and ministries has already been considered in the draft.
- The provision to allow international trade in cryptocurrency is an innovation in the law. Adding it into the existing law was a matter of expediency, Economic Development Ministry official Anatoly Dyubanov said at the United Russia event, Vedomosti reports.
Wealthy Coinbase clients are still ‘hodling’ Bitcoin since December 2020, data suggests
- Bitcoin’s (BTC) price dropped by more than 50% after peaking out at $69,000 six months ago but the plunge did little in forcing some of its wealthiest investors into selling.
- Notably, the number of Bitcoin under Coinbase Custody for institutional clients rose by 296% since Q4 2020, showcasing the most investors decided to “hodl” onto their investments despite BTC price being down well over 50% from its all-time highs.
- For instance, institutions that deposited 10,939 BTC (~$335 million at May 31’s price) with Coinbase Custody in December 2020, when BTC/USD was around $23,000, have not moved since, on-chain data from CryptoQuant shows.
- Ki Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuant, noted:
- “For most cases, the same amount of BTC is still in the (custodian) wallets, which flowed out from Coinbase for highly likely institutional purchases in December 2020.”
Amid P2E downturn, Sky Mavis turns to user-generated content for Axie Infinity
- On Tuesday, Sky Mavis, creator of the popular fantasy monster-battle nonfungible token (NFT) game Axie Infinity, announced that it had accepted the first user-created projects in its Axie Infinity Builders Program. Out of 2,000 applications submitted, just 12 were selected for the Builders Program.
- Among the many perks, chosen teams will receive a minimum $10,000 grant — denominated in Axie Infinity’s governance token, Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) — to fund project development. They will also receive permission to monetize their game using the Axie Infinity brand with a revenue-share model. Notable projects include Across Lunacia, a platforming adventure for Axie NFTs, and Mech Infinity, a battle royale game involving Axies and their unique abilities. Philip La, game product lead at Axie Infinity, commented:
- “Community co-creation […] will be a fundamental driver of scaled-value generation over time. The Builders Program is the first step in a new world where the community can make significant and meaningful contributions directly toward games and projects they love and is one of many initiatives that will allow players to gain more enjoyment from the Axies they own.”
LUNA 2 price jumps 90% ahead of big Binance airdrop
- The price of LUNA briefly spiked around 90% overnight to an intraday high of $11.33 ahead of Binance’s airdrop but has since dropped back to around $8.26 at the time of writing.
- At current prices, as per CoinGecko data, the increase to $8.26 represents a 35% gain over the past 24 hours. Overall, however, the price has tanked 56% since launching on the weekend at an opening price of $18.87.
- Members of the community posted screenshots of the price jumping as high as $12 on the MEXC Global exchange, with Twitter user Bull_bnb highlighting some surging moments as they noted that the price jumped by around $2.00 in the space of 30 minutes.
- Binance is one of several exchanges aiding the relaunch of the Terra ecosystem and is set to launch a multi-year airdrop campaign to eligible users from Tuesdat at 6:00 am UTC, along with opening the token up for trading.
- While the project aims to re-establish itself under Do Kwon’s revival plan, onlookers in the short term have predicted the price will tumble further once the Binance drop goes live.
Chinese state media signals tighter crypto regulations in Terra aftermath
- The China state-owned media outlet, the Economic Daily, has signaled that the Chinese government may introduce even tighter regulations on cryptocurrencies and stablecoins due to the collapse of the Terra ecosystem.
- In an article published May 31, the outlet detailed the collapse of TerraUSD (UST) and LUNA, explaining the workings of the algorithmic stablecoin. It used the so-called black swan event to praise the Chinese government’s decision to ban cryptocurrency.
- “My country has been cracking down on virtual currency trading speculation and a large number of trading platforms,” reporter Li Hualin wrote before adding, “this has effectively blocked the transmission of this risk in China and avoided investment risks to the greatest extent possible.”
- Hualin explained that “many other countries” are looking to regulate stablecoins following the Terra collapse and quoted Zhou Maohua, a researcher at the China Everbright Bank, to make a case for further restrictions within China:
- “In the future, our country will also speed up the completion of regulatory shortcomings, and introduce targeted regulatory measures for the risk of stablecoins to further reduce the space for virtual currency speculation, illegal financial activities and related illegal and criminal activities, and better protect the safety of the people.”
Shiba Inu founder deletes social media posts, steps down from community
- Pseudonymous Shiba Inu (SHIB) founder Ryoshi has walked away from the community after deleting all of their Tweets and blog posts this week.
- Similar to the Bitcoin (BTC) founder Satoshi Nakamoto, Ryoshi’s identity has remained unknown since the project launched in August 2020. Additionally, they have also held a hands-off approach to the memecoin, much like Dogecoin (DOGE) founders Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer.
- Lead developers such as Shytoshi Kusama have stated that the project will carry on and continue to “actualize Ryoshi’s vision and plan for this grand experiment” of building a decentralized memecoin ecosystem.
- Ryoshi has hinted on several occasions that they would eventually walk away, as they often played down their significance and role in Shiba Inu. In a since-deleted Medium post, the founder reportedly said:
- “I have said from the beginning, I am a nobody, I am not important. The efforts to unmask my ‘identity’ even if successful would be underwhelming. I am just some guy of no consequence tapping at a keyboard and I am replaceable. I am Ryoshi.”
