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🎅 'Tis the season. Santa visited crypto market participants this month, with anticipation of easing interest rates fueling strength across all risk markets and sending the total crypto market cap (TOTAL) up 17% since the start of December. What other catalysts have positively impacted prices this month?
| Prices as of 10am ET | 24hr | 7d |
|
Crypto $1.67t | ↘ -0.3% | ↗ 3.7% |
|
BTC $43,840.13 | ↘ -0.3% | ↗ 3.3% |
|
ETH $2,305.72 | ↘ -1.0% | ↗ 3.0% |
1️⃣ Dencun testnet nears
Ethereum's next big upgrade, Dencun, is now set to undergo its first testnet deployment on January 17, 2024.
The aim of the rollout is to trial adding data storage capacity via "blobspace" to Ethereum through a process known as "proto-danksharding." When fully live, the upgrade will significantly reduce fees for Layer 2 (L2) rollups. We shouldn't have to wait long for that at this point, as Ethereum devs are currently eyeing February 2024 for the mainnet launch of Dencun.
2️⃣ Solana Saga cancellations
Some Solana Saga phone orders have been canceled due to an "inventory management issue."
Anticipation of future airdrops recently caused the first run of Sagas to experience a buying frenzy, though the buys outstripped the 20,000 device supply through a mistake from a third-party distributor. Accordingly, the Solana Mobile team just apologized and announced that customers affected by the cancellations will receive refunds.
3️⃣ EigenLayer hits $1B TVL
EigenLayer, Ethereum's leading restaking protocol, saw its total deposits surge over the $1 billion USD mark this week. The rapid climb started after the project raised its deposit caps for liquid staking tokens (LSTs) to a new limit of 500,000 ETH, or roughly $1.1 billion.
The expansion included support for six additional LSTs, namely Wrapped Beacon Ether (wBETH), Ankr’s ankrETH, Origin’s oETH, Stader’s xETH, Stakewise’s sETH, and Swell’s swETH.
4️⃣ SEC blasts BarnBridge
The SEC just settled with BarnBridge DAO for $1.7 million over unregistered securities allegations regarding BarnBridge's SMART Yield product.
It's one of the first times the SEC has gone after a DAO in this way, and for their part the Commission called BarnBridge a "purported" DAO, i.e. not a real one. The action raises more questions about the agency's recent aggressive approach to DeFi and DAO structures.
5️⃣ Infinex launches on Base
Infinex, a new front-end project for Synthetix that's aimed at blending the best parts of DeFi and CeFi, just launched its alpha on the Base L2.
The arrival comes after Synthetix founder Kain Warwick first introduced plans for Infinex back in July 2023. Governed by the SNX token, the platform will provide a new revenue stream for the Synthetix ecosystem and represents a strategic shift towards enhancing UX in DeFi.
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For our latest episode, Cathie Wood of Ark Invest and Ophelia Snyder of 21Shares came on the pod to discuss the major prospects around crypto ETFs in 2024. Is TradFi excited? Are we underestimating the scale of this? Get the full scoop in the new show!
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Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
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