Ethereum smart contract developers come together to release DN-404, a new token standard seeking to improve on the implementation of the recently hyped ERC-404 tokens. In the same week, StarkNet announced their airdrop, which has left a bitter taste in many users’ mouths after a minimum wallet balance criteria excludes many users who had their funds deposited in applications on the chain.
Overview
Total Value Locked (TVL) across all chains blast even higher as cryptocurrency majors show no sign of slowing down their ascent, led by BTC’s move through the 50K mark. Notable outperformers include Cosmos-based, Sei, and Bitcoin L2, Stacks, which both saw jumps in TVL of over 75% this week.
Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/chain-ranking/
Welcome to Alpha Central
DeFi Ignas shares on patterns in speculation and how one might speculate on narratives brewing in the space.
TL;DR:
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Speculation on narrative often comes in waves.
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Speculation built around innovative narratives have a much higher chance of a second wave of speculation, compared to memecoins which often die out permanently
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For new narratives, the first wave often comes from excitement around the new, shiny thing. The second wave comes with new catalysts such as a new token standard or investment from a reputable firm.
Ethereum: DN-404, the New ERC-404?
Smart contract engineers in the Ethereum space come together to release DN-404, the “Divisible NFT” standard, their own iteration of the hybrid ERC-20 and ERC-721 token standard that was popularized the week prior by ERC-404 tokens.
White hat hacker, samczsun and various members of the crypto security community come together to reveal the Security Alliance (SEAL). SEAL is designed to help protocols who have just been exploited as well as conduct drills to prepare protocols for potential exploits.
Other Product Launches and Updates
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Stablecoin protocol, Liquity Protocol, unveils their new collateralized debt position (CDP) model, with improvements such as user-set interest rates for a customized borrowing experience, adaptive rates, improved peg dynamics and better redemption protection among other features.
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ETH liquid staking token (LST) stablecoin protocol, Prisma Finance, introduces ULTRA, a new stablecoin backed by liquid restaking tokens, beginning with EtherFi’s wrapped eETH (weETH).
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CoW DAO, the team behind maximal extractable value (MEV) protected decentralized exchange (DEX), CoWSwap, introduces CoW AMM, an automated market maker (AMM) model that optimizes for liquidity providers by capturing MEV profits that are traditionally lost to arbitrageurs for liquidity providers instead.
L2s: ApeChain Settles on the Arbitrum Orbit Stack
ApeCoin DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) driving developments in the Yuga Labs ecosystem, has decided to develop the upcoming ApeChain on the Arbitrum Orbit tech stack, using the APE token for gas and governance for the new chain.
Other Product Launches and Updates
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Ethereum-based vault protocol, Sommelier Finance, expands to Arbitrum, bringing their most popular product, Real-Yield ETH, to the L2 chain leveraging interoperability layer, Axelar Network.
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Perpetuals orderbook DEX, Vertex, unveils Vertex Edge, an expansion to the Vertex sequencer to unify liquidity across multiple chains in an innovative orderbook liquidity layer.
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On-ramp solution, ZKP2P, goes live on Coinbase L2, Base, enabling on-ramp of funds within 90 seconds, without the need for a wallet beforehand or ETH for gas.
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Options protocol, Lyra, proposes to migrate Lyra governance to their recently launched L2, Lyra Chain. The proposal also includes plans for a buyback and burn mechanism to reward active governance participants on the chain.
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Multi-chain DEX, SushiSwap, introduces Susa, a powerful perpetuals DEX to be deployed on novel L2, Layer N. Susa takes the perpetuals DEX experience one step further with fully on-chain order books, superior capital efficiency and more, while remaining fully permissionless.
Solana: Points, Points, and More Points
Real-estate perpetuals platform, Parcl, launches V3, which separates the maturity of deposits on the platform as well as provide an improved UI to depositors. Existing liquidity providers must migrate their existing position to continue earning points.
Perpetuals DEX, Zeta Markets, launched their application on mobile, with traders on mobile earning double the Z-score up till 18th February.
Solana-based wallet and exchange, Backpack, announces that Backpack Exchange trading volume will be a key factor in determining users’ Backpack Rank. This rank is expected to eventually convert to points which will affect a potential future Backpack token airdrop.
Cosmos: Sei V2 Devnet Now Live
Cosmos-based chain, Sei, launches the Sei V2 Devnet. Sei V2 brings to the chain the parallelized Ethereum Virtual Machine, enabling compatibility with Ethereum and significantly increased throughput. Developers can now begin building on the Devnet.
Celestia liquid staking solution, MilkyWay, announces mPoints, a point system to reward users who staked their TIA tokens with them. These points will directly impact the MILK token airdrop, which will occur in H1 2024.
Another Week, Another Airdrop
Zero-knowledge rollup, StarkNet, announces the airdrop for the STRK token. Users can now check for eligible wallets on their site, with claims opening on 20 February 12pm UTC. Eligible users include StarkNet users, users of StarkEx projects, Ethereum stakers leading up the Merge and Ethereum developers.
The second snapshot will be taken of the Solana Mobile Chapter 2 leaderboard on 21 February at 7PM UTC. The top 1500 users on the leaderboard will receive a special non-transferrable NFT to their registered wallet. Buyer who ordered their phone after the first snapshot will also receive their Chapter 2 Preorder Token in their wallets after this snapshot.
Tweet of the Week
As markets heat up, CrytoCred reminds us never to use portfolio all-time-highs as a goal or anchor as most people never sell the top or flip bearish at the right time.
Stay updated on your favorite projects and stay tuned for next week’s edition, and keep supporting your favorite projects, degens!