Can TON Survive? ($)
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1️⃣ TON Crashes After Durov Arrest
It’s been a tumultuous week for TON after the Telegram founder's arrest triggered a rapid sell-off, and two separate prolonged outages hit the network as a new memecoin overwhelmed the network. Amid the chaos, TON’s price has dropped over 20% this past week.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was released on €5M bail in France after being arrested there last week. His release, tied to a string of charges for “allowing” illegal activity on Telegram, adds to the challenges facing the TON ecosystem.
This week, Telegram also revealed that they held $400M in crypto on their balance sheet and that 40% of their revenue came from crypto features. The news showcases TON's opportunity, but also how much of it banks on Telegram's continued success.
2️⃣ Ethereum Foundation in Hot Water
The Ethereum Foundation caught a lot of flack for "dumping on the community" when traders noticed a $100 million transfer from the group to Kraken – with nary a peep from the organization on the transaction until backlash swelled.
In an effort to contain backlash on Twitter over a lack of budget transparency, the EF shared a look at an upcoming spending report, which is set to be fully released before Devcon SEA. The report will cover both 2022 and 2023 spending, with initial data showcasing that approximately 38% of spending was internal, supporting core EF teams like Geth and Solidity. The remaining 62% went towards external grants, including notable organizations such as the Nomic Foundation and 0xPARC Foundation.
3️⃣ BTC Slides Despite Rosy Outlook
Bitcoin slipped ~8% this week, closing out the week around $59K. The slide comes despite positive economic signals, including revised U.S. GDP growth of 3% and solid Nvidia earnings. A pattern of Bitcoin rising during Asian trading hours only to fall during U.S. hours persisted. As we enter September, the market is stuck between the month’s historically poor performance for Bitcoin and optimism about what rally expected rate cuts could bring.
4️⃣ OpenSea's Regulatory Battle
The NFT sector is under regulatory siege, with OpenSea receiving a Wells Notice from the SEC, alleging it sold securities while signaling possible enforcement action. In response, OpenSea has vowed to fight and pledged $5M to support NFT creators facing similar legal challenges.
5️⃣ Maker Rebrands to Sky
MakerDAO’s long-awaited “Endgame” plan came suddenly this week with the introduction of Sky, the rebranded protocol featuring new governance and staking mechanisms. Alongside MKR, the ecosystem will now include the SKY token, with inflationary incentives to reward stakers of USDS — its new permissioned stablecoin. The rebrand also introduces the Spark lending market, set to airdrop 66.66M SPK tokens once live. The market did not seem to be won over by this overhaul, with MKR down 19% over the past seven days.
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Don't ignore what's happening to the Telegram CEO. This is big.
Welcome back to the Bankless Weekly Rollup. First up, Ryan and David discuss why Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France and what it means for the future of privacy. Then, they dig into drama at the Ethereum Foundation as it sells $100M worth of ETH. And finally, they talk the latest Wells Notice from the SEC.
A lot happened this week, let's dig in! 👇
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