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📊 Alts flail. Risk assets got brutalized this week, with a sharp decline on Tuesday morning followed by a leg lower on Wednesday from a seemingly hot inflation print and nothing but downside throughout the Friday session. What’s going on in markets, and is there any cause for concern?
1️⃣ Crypto Markets See Red
Crypto markets ended the week with a sea of red as BTC and ETH fell. It was altcoins that bore the brunt of this drop, with popular tokens like TIA and WIF dropping high double-digit percentages.
But it’s not just crypto that’s down. Trad markets also sunk, with the S&P500 and NASDAQ down ~2%. The market hit has been attributed to escalations in the Middle East, with Lebanon firing missiles at Israel and an attack from Iran seeming imminent. Is the bull market over? Probably not, but the US Dollar Index (DXY) is climbing — typically not a good sign for crypto.
2️⃣ SEC Issues Uniswap a Wells Notice
In disappointing yet expected fashion, the SEC took another aggressive step against crypto this week, sending Uniswap a Wells Notice, claiming they act as an unregistered securities broker and exchange. Uniswap quickly reassured users that services remain active and tokens are merely digital files, vowing to contest the SEC’s claims.
This comes in the wake of the SEC’s case against Coinbase, where a judge ruled that Coinbase’s Wallet was not a broker — a positive sign for Uniswap’s fight against the SEC, stated Uniswap’s Chief Legal Officer, Marvin Ammori. Ammori also criticized the SEC’s overreach, pointing to Gary Gensler’s admission to Congress that the agency lacks the authority to regulate the crypto industry as it does.
3️⃣ EigenLayer's Mainnet Goes Live
Restaking summer kicked off this week with EigenLayer’s official mainnet launch on Tuesday, meaning AVSs (applications on top of EigenLayer leveraging its security) can officially go live. The launch also featured EigenDA, EigenLabs’s AVS data availability service, offering an alternative to Celestia. Despite its success and high TVL, systemic risks from restaking remain a concern. Learn more about the potential risks and how EigenLayer protects against them here.
4️⃣ Monad Announces $225M Raise
First, achieve 10k TPS on Testnet. Next, raise $225M. And, voila, you have Monad — the highly anticipated EVM-compatible blockchain that announced its Paradigm-led $225M funding round this week.
Packed with prominent funds and angel investors, this funding will bring Monad from testnet to a full production mainnet later this year. Leading up to this, Monad has been burnishing quite the reputation as a potential "ETH killer," a title that seems to get thrown around an awful lot. Dive into the technical nuances leading some to give it this title here.
5️⃣ TON Unseats Cardano
Toncoin surpassed Cardano this week to enter the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap. Over the past month, TON’s price increased ~110% as The Open Network (TON) launched several growth and utility initiatives, most notably with its original creator, Telegram, which now allows ad purchases and ad revenue to be in Toncoin. Adding to this, Hashkey Group and other TON projects announced their upcoming Universal Basic Smartphone, a Web3-native phone integrated with the TON blockchain. As has been the case with other cryptophones recently, UBS’s preorder already sold out.
Mass adoption of token-governed technologies. With Mantle Network – an Ethereum rollup, Mantle Treasury, and a token holder governed roadmap for products and initiatives.
The SEC is preparing for a war with DeFi.
Uniswap received a Wells Notice from the SEC, which signals a legal battle is likely on the way. Ryan and David discuss the week's hottest topics, including updates to BlackRock's BUIDL fund and EigenLayer's launch journey.
Hear their thoughts 👇
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Arjun Chand
David C
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