Blast Goes Bust ($)
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1️⃣ Blast Token Launch Goes Bust
Blast went bust this week after its Phase One airdrop failed to reach anywhere close to expectations.
Early depositors saw minimal gains as the token debuted at a fully diluted value of around $2.2B instead of the projected $6-10B range. Just as concerning, and perhaps expected, the total value locked (TVL) on Blast's network dropped from $2.3B before the airdrop to $1.48B post-release.
The network is now gearing up for its Phase Two campaign, which they will be sharing more details on next week.
2️⃣ Gov and Mt. Gox Hits Bitcoin Price
Bitcoin's price took a hit this week as multiple forces converged to push the market down.
On Monday, Mt. Gox, the defunct Bitcoin exchange, announced it would begin repaying $9B in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to creditors starting this July. Anticipating the selling pressure this will bring online, Bitcoin dropped as low as $58.8K. Adding to the pressure was the U.S. Government’s sending 3,940 previously seized BTC ($240M) to Coinbase. On top of this, Germany continued its selling this week, moving ~$60M onto exchanges on Tuesday and Wednesday. Despite this, Bitcoin had a strong bounce, settling at ~$61K on Friday.
3️⃣ Coinbase and Stripe Team Up
Coinbase announced a partnership with Stripe that add support for Base to Stripe’s stablecoin payments. Additionally, Coinbase Wallet users can buy crypto with credit cards or Apple Pay inside the wallet via Stripe. In April, Stripe announced their return to crypto after a 6-year hiatus, showcasing upcoming support for USDC payments that should roll out this summer.
4️⃣ Solana Launches Embeddable Blinks
Solana has introduced a new feature called blinks, or blockchain links, which transform onchain actions like minting, swapping, and even trading, into shareable links that can be performed on any website or app where a link can be shared. Developed in partnership with Dialect, a developer-centric startup, blinks are already compatible with Phantom, Backpack, and Solflare wallets, and can be enabled through each wallet’s settings.
5️⃣ ETH ETFs on the Horizon
The SEC looks close to approving the spot ETH ETFs going live, but they're still not quite ready. Last night the SEC returned S-1 forms to issuers for another round of comments. All this said, even Gensler said this week that the “process was going smoothly."
In other news, the race for Solana spot ETFs officially began with VanEck’s filing on Thursday. In their filing, the fund argued that Solana should be treated as a commodity, countering the SEC's calling Solana an unregistered security. Then, on Friday, 21Shares announced the filing of their SOL spot ETF. Despite the sudden moment, it will likely be a while before we see a SOL ETF.
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We’re on the edge of our seats with the potential Ethereum ETF on the way, but is Solana poised to get approval next?
Ryan and David also discuss Solana Blinks, Blast's airdrop launch, and Ethereum’s new hyped execution client.
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