Bitcoin Price: US$ 30,444.93 (+1.91%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 2,090.72 (+3.31%)
DeFi Trading Volume Declines & 1inch Meta-Governance Initiative
- DeFi TVL on Ethereum has been trending down since its peak in November last year. More recently, it took a significant hit due to the events involving Terra, where the total value of UST locked in various liquidity pools (Curve Finance in particular) tanked in line with UST’s devaluation.
- Trading volume across the 3 largest Ethereum decentralized exchanges by TVL has followed suit, and Uniswap’s April volume totaled less than half its November highs.
- Data from Dune Analytics (@jefftshaw) also shows a declining number of monthly active users on all 3 exchanges with fewer “New” users interacting with the protocols on aggregate month-on-month.
- 1inch has voted to add Balancer Boosted pools to their aggregator. If 1inch successfully integrates Balancer pools within three weeks of this proposal, Balancer will reward 1inch with 20k BAL tokens. This proposal specifically selects two stablecoin boosted pools with 350m TVL that 1inch will initially add to their aggregator.
- Lido DAO is voting on adopting their ‘Merge-Ready Protocol Service Pack’ in preparation for the Ethereum merge. The service pack contains a group of Lido protocol improvements that ensure their liquid staking protocol can handle the changes brought on by ETH 2. The service pack includes changes like an on-chain mechanism for reward distribution post-merge, protocol coverage, and a log for stETH burn events.
Airdrops, Foreign Stablecoin Pools, Impermanent Loss Protection and Virtual Land Harvesting
- DegenScore has Episode 2 and is giving out 10 Lobster NFTs to the top 10 DegenScore users. Share your profile scorecard within the next week on Twitter to be eligible.
- Users can now move assets from Ethereum to Starknet via. Metamask, ArgentHQ or Braavos. Once the 100 ETH cap has been lifted, users will be able to bridge over once again. If Optimism’s airdrop eligibility is any indicator, early bridgers could also be eligible.
- Hop Protocol is airdropping 8% of its total supply to bridge users, liquidity providers, community members and authereum wallet users. You can check eligibility here.
- zk-Sync has confirmed a token in their documents. Early users, bridgers and dapp users will likely be eligible for an airdrop.
- Zerion has hinted at an airdrop for users who swap on their platform.
- Mirror is being adopted by protocols and may airdrop early article publishers on their platform.
- ZORA has picked up marketplace volume in recent months with some users speculating an airdrop for early supporters.
- Dope Wars has airdropped 100k tokens and gear to users. The eligibility list can be found here.
Ethereum’s popularity ‘a double-edged sword’ — a16z’s State of Crypto Report
- Crypto venture fund giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has highlighted that development and demand on Ethereum is “unmatched” despite the network’s high transaction fees.
- The firm does warn, however, that its “popularity is also a double-edged sword” given Ethereum prioritizes decentralization over scaling, resulting in competing blockchains stealing market share with “promises of better performance and lower fees.”
- The comments came via a blog post introducing a16z’s 2022 “State of Crypto” report, with the firm’s data scientist Daren Matsuoka, head of protocol design and engineering Eddy Lazzarin, General Partner Chris Dixon, and head of content Robert Hackett all working together to provide five key takeaways from the study.
Madeira ‘embraces’ Bitcoin, and how its president met Michael Saylor
- The tiny Portuguese archipelago of Madeira has “adopted” Bitcoin (BTC) — but what does that mean? The announcement, made during the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, has spurned confusion and misinformation.
- Miguel Albuquerque, the president of the Regional Government of Madeira, hopped on the stage in April to announce: “I believe in the future, and I believe in Bitcoin.” He also said he would work to “create in Madeira a fantastic environment for Bitcoin.” However, the details remained unclear.
- Cointelegraph spoke to André Loja, a Madeiran entrepreneur who spearheaded the plan to bring BTC to the archipelago in the Atlantic ocean, to find out how Bitcoin is shaping the islands’ development.
The Oasis Ecosystem Fund Reaches $235 Million
- The Fund now has $235 million available to invest in projects building on the Oasis Network.
- The Oasis Ecosystem Fund continues to expand rapidly with an additional $35 million contribution from various new investors including Newman Capital, Seven X Ventures and others. The injection of new capital takes the Oasis Ecosystem Fund to a massive $235 million — among the largest and strongest in the industry.
Spotify reportedly tests NFT galleries on musician profiles
- Major music streaming platform Spotify is reportedly testing the option to include nonfungible token (NFT) galleries on musicians’ profiles. Should the trial succeed, the embedding of NFTs would serve to improve artist and fan experiences.
- Reports surfaced on Friday that Spotify is running a test for select users of the platform’s Android app in the United States. These users can see the NFT previews on the artists’ profiles. Currently, there are only two such artists, DJ and producer Steve Aoki and indie rock band The Wombats — both of which are known for their adoption of NFTs.
Do Kwon summoned to parliamentary hearing following UST and LUNA crash
- The dramatic fall of Terra (LUNA) along with the algorithmic stablecoin UST has been a major talking point among the crypto industry. And now the South Korean Conservative Party has requested a parliamentary hearing on the matter.
- According to a local news report, Korean exchanges responded differently to the collapse, with the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee on Tuesday summoning Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon for a parliamentary hearing regarding the issue. The committee’s representative, People’s Power’s Yoon Chang-Hyeon, said:
- “There is a part that raises questions about the behavior of exchanges during the crash.” “Coinone, Korbit and Gopax stopped trading on May 10, Bithumb on May 11 stopped trading daily, but Upbit did not stop trading until May 13.”
- He noted that “as the legislation is delayed, investors’ losses are increasing,” and “that the authorities continue to see the huge loss of investors and are helpless to protect investors.” Rep. Yoon suggested that:
- “We should bring related exchange officials, including Terra CEO Kwon Do to the National Assembly to hold a hearing on the cause of the situation and measures to protect investors.”
BitMEX launches spot crypto exchange following $30M penalty
- Global crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX is expanding its platform beyond just derivatives by finally launching a spot crypto trading platform.
- BitMEX officially announced on May 17 that its spot crypto exchange, the BitMEX Spot Exchange, is now live, allowing retail and institutional investors to buy, sell and trade cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
- At launch, the exchange supports seven pairs of cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, Chainlink (LINK), Uniswap (UNI), Polygon (MATIC), Axie Infinity (AXS) and ApeCoin (APE), all trading against the Tether stablecoin (USDT).
- The launch of the BitMEX Spot Exchange comes as the company plans to become one of the top ten largest spot exchanges in the world. The company decided to build its own spot exchange last year in response to the increasing crypto trading demand from its current user base, according to the announcement.
- “Today, BitMEX is one step closer to providing our users with a full crypto ecosystem to buy, sell and trade their favorite digital assets. We will not rest as we aim to deliver more features, more trading pairs, and more ways for our clients to take part in the crypto revolution,” BitMEX CEO Alexander Höpner said.
US congress research agency weighs in on UST crash, notes gaps in regulation
- The Congressional Research Service (CRS), a legislative agency that supports the United States Congress, has published a document that contains a rundown on algorithmic stablecoins and points out key factors to look at in the TerraUSD (UST) crash.
- In the report, the CRS described the UST crash as a “run-like” scenario and posited that there are policy issues connected to the risk of such events. According to the CRS, a “run” situation starts when holders are doubtful of the reserves that back the dollar peg of the asset.
- Following this, a significant number of investors withdraw investments at the same time, resulting in a negative domino effect that threatens the financial stability of the crypto ecosystem and the traditional finance system.
- The research agency further explained that run-like scenarios in traditional finance are guarded by regulation and other measures such as bank deposit insurance and liquidity facilities. These reduce the incentives of those who are considering pulling out their assets.
Twitch co-founder raises $24M for Web3 gaming firm Metatheory
- Web3 gaming and entertainment company Metatheory founded by Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin has raised $24 million in a Series A funding round on Monday.
- The round was led by crypto capital venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from Pantera Capital, the venture arm of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, FTX Ventures, and other venture firms, according to the announcement.
- Metatheory was launched in November 2021 around one year after Lin left Twitch, where he wrote in a Medium article at the time that he was creating the gaming company and also a blockchain game called DuskBreakers. Lin was quoted in this week’s announcement as saying:
- “Building immersive digital experiences has always been a passion of mine, and after stepping away from Twitch to explore what’s next in the industry, I truly believe blockchain will open the door to even more possibilities and have a major impact in the gaming, storytelling and community building space.”
Japan’s largest investment bank Nomura readies new crypto subsidiary
- The largest investment bank in Japan, Nomura, is set to establish a new subsidiary company to help institutional clients invest in cryptocurrency and nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
- The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that people with knowledge of Nomura’s plans said the firm will bring together several crypto services under one single company with a staff of about 100 people by 2023.
- Nomura is one of Japan’s ten largest banks, with $569 billion in assets under management as of Q1 2022.
- Nikkei Asia, a Japanese news outlet, reported that the subsidiary company will be established abroad, but the board will start off seated by Nomura transplants while the company acquires talent in the Web3 and blockchain space. It will initially be led by Jez Mohideen, head of wholesale digital operations of Nomura.
