⚠️Infura Threatens $300B Ecosystem - TWJ #132
We need decentralized blockchain infrastructure.
In today’s issue:
The crypto market is down with the total market cap sitting at $1.7-1.8 trillion. ApeCoin (APE) led the top 100 performance in the past 7-d. Equities drop following a very weak session for Chinese equities amidst the shaky global economy.
In other news, Infura’s outage caused a Web 3.0 blackout, COIN slides to an all-time low, and Celsius Network raises regulatory concern over its CEL token.
Meme credits: @wizardofsoho
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- Curated by Marco Manoppo (@manoppomarco)
📰Market News
⎆Infura’s Outage Caused Web 3.0 Blackout
Infura, an Ethereum infrastructure provider had an outage and caused multiple crypto apps such as MetaMask to stop working. Frankly speaking, this was embarrassing and further amplified the noise of crypto critics who said that crypto is not truly decentralized. Infura and MetaMask are both under the ConsenSys family of businesses, but this shows that having a truly decentralized blockchain infrastructure is a need that’s overlooked by a lot of builders.
People are focusing on the application layer (a new DEX for Blockchain no. 38) rather than building Infora’s alternative.
⎆Coin Slides to an All-Time Low
Coinbase’s stock fell to an all-time low on Friday as the firm is preparing to launch its NFT marketplace. Other than the global macroeconomic scene causing high-growth tech stocks to slide, Coinbase’s business model is rent-seeking at its core which is a race to the bottom as both centralized and decentralized alternatives emerge.
There’s hidden value in its Coinbase Ventures arm, but perhaps investors think that they might as well become an LP at a crypto fund if that’s the main value prop.
⎆Celsius Network Raises Regulatory Concern Over Its CEL Token
Crypto lender Celsius Network has been under multiple regulatory scrutinies in the past year amidst government crackdowns on crypto lending and yield products. To add fuel to the fire, Celsius has stated that its CEL token is “susceptible to regulatory risks” for the first time this month. It has already been difficult for US residence to purchase CEL tokens, but this scrutiny might make it harder for Celsius to argue that there’s value in its CEL token.
Token design and how value accrues back to the token is paramount for any web 3.0 project, and CEL didn’t do it right, but that’s a topic for another time.
👨🏻💻Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
Stripe Offers USDC Payout on Polygon
Abracadabra Introduces Cauldrons V3
Polygon Launches Polygon Supernets
Binance Recovers $5.8M in Funds Connected to Ronin Bridge Exploit
OlympusDAO Strives to Revive with ‘Inverse Bonds’ Offering
Beanstalk: The Path Forward
Volt Protocol is now Live on Ethereum Mainnet
Daniele Esta yvDAI Launch
Futureswap v4.1 on Avalanche
Kinesis Labs Testnet
🏛Governance - Active Proposals
Compound - OpenZeppelin Security Partnership - 2022 Q2 Adjustment V4
Fei - FIP-98: Purchase 10m VOLT
ENS - Execute EP9
Uniswap - Deploy Uniswap v3 on Celo
🦮NFT & Metaverse
Aku Ethereum NFT Launch Ends With $34M Locked in Flawed Smart Contract
Animoca Brands ‘Not Done Acquiring’ Studios to Make NFT Games
'Project Iceman' NFT-Backed Film Tracks Antarctica Triathlon Attempt
Coinbase Stock Hits All-Time Low After Ethereum NFT Marketplace Rollout
US Treasury Links More Ethereum Wallets to $622M Ronin Network Hack
Nike and RTFKT Reveal CryptoKicks—Their First Ethereum NFT Sneakers
OpenSea Suspends Trading of Sand Vegas Casino Club NFTs
Top Sales (Last 24-h); Source: https://dappradar.com/nft
📈Deal Flow & Capital Raise
Flowty - $4.5M Unknown Round
Bike Rush - $6.5M Unknown Round
Cyan - $100K Pre-seed Round
Polygon - $100M Support Fund
⚖️Regulatory Update
Panamanian Legislative Committee Approves Bill Regulating Crypto
Celsius Says Its CEL Token Faces ‘Regulatory Risks’
Ross Ulbricht's $183M Debt to Be Cleared by Seized Silk Road Bitcoin
Ukraine's Central Bank Bans Crypto Purchases in Local Currency
Kraken Awarded Crypto Trading License in the UAE
📚Noteworthy Reads
Zach Zukowski’s Read on Introduction to Tokenomics
Coinbase’s Read on Coinbase Ventures Q1 Recap and Market Outlook
Pothu’s Thread on Guide to Identifying Whales
Feel free to reach out to manoppomarco@gmail.com — feedbacks and constructive criticisms are much appreciated.