COSMOS CRYPTO NEWS: ATOM, NAM, TIA, SCRT & MORE!!

Greetings, Cosmonauts!
Welcome to the second July edition of Cosmos Crypto Ecosystem bi-weekly News! In this episode, we’re thrilled to spotlight:

COSMOS HUB AND CONSUMER CHAINS: CosmWasm 2.1, Ondo Finance’s USDY Goes Live, Starknet and Informal Systems Collaborate, Gaia v19 Upgrade, Stride Reward Share Program

NAMADA: Post-Shielded Expedition Awards

DYDX v4: dYdX Chain Protocol v5.1.0 Upgrade Proposal

OSMOSIS: 1-Click Trading

KUJIRA: Kujira v2

CELESTIA: Omni Omega Testnet for Developers, XION Integrates Hyperlane, Fluent Integrates FuelVM, Foundation Delegation Program Cohort 2

SEI: Sei Creator Fund, $50 Million Japan Ecosystem Fund to Boost Gaming, Social, and Entertainment Sectors

PERSISTENCE: Cross-Chain Intents

SECRET NETWORK: Secret Network Integrates with Polygon PoS, Secret Network Q3'24 Grants Program

AKASH: Llama 3.1 405B Goes Live

OTHER ECOSYSTEM NEWS: Vesuvius Claim Checker, Penumbra Governance Proposal Mainnet Ratification

All this and much more. Let’s dive in and unpack the biggest news within Cosmos:

Cosmos Hub and Consumer Chains (Neutron & Stride)

CosmWasm 2.1 Release is here
The highly anticipated CosmWasm 2.1 dev release is here. This release introduces IBC Callbacks, Async Acknowledgements, on-chain secp256r1, and BLS12–381 verification, a Wasmer upgrade, new migration versioning, and better metrics for pinned contracts.

Ondo Finance’s USDY Goes Live in Cosmos Ecosystem via Noble Integration
Ondo Finance’s USDY is now live in the Cosmos ecosystem through Noble, enabling users across the Interchain to access stable, high-quality yields backed by US Treasuries. This integration marks the introduction of the first tokenized treasuries product to the Cosmos ecosystem. USDY, currently yielding 5.3% APY with over $340 million in Total Value Locked (TVL), has quickly become a market leader for on-chain US Treasury products.

Starknet and Informal Systems Collaborate to Integrate IBC and Decentralize Starknet L2
Starknet, in collaboration with Informal Systems, is set to join the Interchain ecosystem by integrating the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol. Integrating IBC into Starknet will enable application composability across various L2s and L1s, fostering interoperability and reducing ecosystem fragmentation. As an open protocol, IBC is rapidly becoming the interoperability standard, being used in 115 chains in production and facilitating over $30 billion in annual value transfer.

Cosmos Hub Validator Fault Definitions and Slashing Process.
Validator misbehavior poses significant risks to consumer chains and the broader community. To tackle these challenges, Informal Systems is developing “fault definitions” to set clear criteria for slashing decisions. The goal is to make the slashing process straightforward, fair, and based on agreed fault definitions. Community members are encouraged to contribute to the ongoing fault definitions discussion to ensure a robust and secure framework for validator behaviour.

Draft Governance Proposal to Seed Hydro Gains Momentum
Hydro, an interchain auction platform for liquidity exports, is set to be launched on the Cosmos Hub. Hydro, a set of smart contracts already deployed on the Neutron testnet allows projects to bid for deployments of protocol-owned liquidity to benefit all ATOM holders. The Hydro committee, consisting of seven members, will oversee the performance of all liquidity exports and provide guidance on asset whitelisting and deployment scenarios. This initiative is currently open for community feedback.

Gaia v19 Upgrade on Cosmos Hub
The Cosmos Hub forum has introduced the draft governance proposal for the Gaia v19 upgrade, inviting community feedback before moving to an on-chain vote. The primary focus is the upgrade of the Cosmos SDK to v0.50, using the v0.50.8-lsm branch, which supports the Liquid Staking Module (LSM). The Gaia v19 release has undergone rigorous testing, including end-to-end tests and integration tests. Additionally, the v19 release has been independently tested by the team at Hypha Co-op. Validators and node operators have joined a public testnet to participate in a test upgrade to a release candidate before the final release.

Stride Launches Reward Share Program to Expand Liquid Staking
Stride, the leading liquid staking provider in the Cosmos and Celestia ecosystems, has announced the launch of a new reward share program. Three prominent frontends, StakingRewards.com, Keplr, and Leap, have joined the program. These partners will integrate an in-app interface for Stride’s liquid staking, opening multiple channels for onboarding new users. Approved frontend operators will also receive a portion of Stride’s liquid staking fee for referring new users.

Namada

Post-Shielded Expedition Awards
The Shielded Expedition, a monumental event by Knowable, has recently concluded with outstanding participation from the blockchain community. The Post-Shielded Expedition Awards recognize 117 players for their high-quality submissions, contributions, and participation. A total reward pool of 0.5% has been allocated outside the Shielded Expedition to recognize high-quality participation and submissions. The total pool amounts to 5,005,500 NAM, distributed among the deserving participants.
For pilots ranked 101 to 125 it was decided to award 20k NAM to each. Uptime was also rewarded with 10k NAM for those with over 95% uptime and 35k NAM for those with over 99% uptime. The S class tasks about vulnerabilities and protocol improvements previously approved and then moved to bounty after the auditing also received a bounty however quite small compared to other categories with just 2.5k NAM per bounty which surprised many community members. Shielded apps received a great bounty of 200k NAM, with just 3 awarded like Mandragora for example. For interfaces only 5 were selected and we are happy to be amongst the selected participants for our staking dashboard. Several explorers were also awarded with bounties ranging from 100k NAM to 175k NAM. Additional awards were given to support tools including for example Mandragora’s Undexer or Rigorous similarity tool to identify sybils. Finally, awards were given as well for social and ibc support during the Shielded Expedition, for the social awards an important amount of 50k NAM was given to some participants like Mandragora. Overall, Mandragora received the highest amount of bounty awards, which is impressive since Mandragora also finished 1st in both the Shielded Expedition and the Community Builders first round.

dYdX v4

Chris Grundy Joins dYdX Foundation as New Marketing Leader
Chris Grundy has been appointed as the new marketing leader at the dYdX Foundation. Mr. Grundy brings to the Foundation an extensive background in cryptocurrency marketing, with a career spanning nearly a decade in the industry. His impressive tenure includes leadership roles at prominent organizations such as Glassnode, Coinbase, and Bitbond, where he demonstrated exceptional prowess in developing and executing international marketing strategies.

dYdX Chain Protocol v5.1.0 Upgrade Proposal
The dYdX Foundation is considering a new software upgrade for the dYdX Chain to version 5.1.0. This proposed upgrade aims to introduce several performance optimizations, an update to the Slinky component, and enhancements to the vault user experience. Additionally, this release includes a hotfix for invalid short-term orders with non-zero.

Osmosis

Osmosis Introduces 1-Click Trading Powered by Smart Accounts
Osmosis has unveiled a new feature: 1-Click Trading powered by Smart Accounts. This functionality aims to streamline the trading experience by allowing users to approve transactions for a set period, enabling smoother and more efficient trading sessions.

Kujira

Kujira Unveils Exciting Updates and Opportunities in v2
Kujira has announced the launch of Kujira v2, introducing several new features to enhance the overall DeFi experience for users and builders alike. Kujira v2 offers users token launches, including $WINK,$AQLA,$NAMI,$YUM,$KART, and $AUTO. These launches are facilitated by the Fuzion App, ensuring a smooth and secure process.

Celestia

Omni Releases Omega Testnet for Developers
Omni has launched the Omega testnet for developers. This launch is the first phase of a multi-stage process, leading up to the public Omega testnet rollout and the eventual release of Omni’s mainnet. The Omega testnet facilitates seamless communication between the Omni EVM, Ethereum L1, and Ethereum’s three largest rollup networks: Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base. This enables developers to create applications that leverage the combined liquidity and user base of these networks.

XION Integrates Hyperlane to Expand Chain Abstraction
XION is integrating Hyperlane, enhancing its connection to over 40 additional chains across five different virtual machines (VMs). Hyperlane’s interchain account functionality, combined with XION’s Meta Accounts, empowers users to interact effortlessly across ecosystems. This brings XION’s user experience enhancements, such as streamlined onboarding, gasless transactions, and Web2-like interfaces, to other ecosystems.

Fluent Integrates FuelVM for Blended Execution
Fluent has announced its integration with FuelVM, a next-generation virtual machine powered by Fuel. The FuelVM is designed specifically for high-performance applications, featuring a new programming language Sway, which blends the best elements of Solidity and Rust. Blended execution in Fluent allows for the integration of various execution environments, including FuelVM, EVM, and others, into a single cohesive framework. This approach ensures that different applications can interact seamlessly, utilizing the best features of each environment without compromising performance or compatibility.

Sei

Sei Creator Fund: Kickoff Round Results
The Sei Creator Fund’s inaugural round, powered by Gitcoin Grants Stack, has successfully concluded. This round featured a $250,000 matching pool (862,500 SEI) to support projects in the Sei ecosystem. The round implemented an upgraded version of Quadratic Funding (QF) known as Connection-Oriented Cluster-Matching (COCM) for fair and Sybil-resistant funding distribution.

Sei Foundation Launches $50 Million Japan Ecosystem Fund to Boost Gaming, Social, and Entertainment Sectors
The Sei Foundation has announced the launch of a $50 million Japan Ecosystem Fund to accelerate growth in the gaming, social, and entertainment sectors. This initiative targets early-stage projects and established teams in Japan, fostering innovative developments within these industries. Interested startups, teams, and individuals involved in gaming, social, or entertainment use cases in the Japanese market can apply for funding. This is a great opportunity to elevate projects with the support of the Sei Foundation.

Persistence

Understanding Cross-Chain Intents: A New Frontier in Crypto Transactions
Cross-Chain Intents are set to play a significant role in the infrastructure of the cryptocurrency world. They simplify cross-chain swaps, making transactions quicker and more cost-effective. By transferring the complexity of these transactions to skilled solvers, intents offer a user-friendly solution that can drive mainstream adoption of decentralized finance. For instance, a user wanting to swap ETH for USDT would traditionally use an AMM like Uniswap. With intents, the user simply broadcasts their intent to swap ETH for a minimum amount of USDT. Third-party actors, known as solvers, then handle the execution, finding the best route to complete the transaction.

Secret Network

Secret Network Releases 2024 Mid-Year Development Roadmap Update
The Secret Network team has published a mid-year update on their 2024 development roadmap, highlighting significant progress and upcoming milestones. This comprehensive roadmap is divided into three main sections: Confidential Computing Hub, Network Infrastructure, and Community. The Secret Network team is confident in their progress. It looks forward to the second half of 2024, which will feature new Confidential Computing Layer integrations, native EVM support, multiple network upgrades, new dApp launches, and additional grant-funded projects.

Secret Network Integrates Confidential Computing Layer with Polygon PoS
Secret Network announces the integration of its Confidential Computing Layer with Polygon PoS, an EVM-compatible, proof-of-stake scaling solution for Ethereum. This integration brings decentralized confidential computing (DeCC) tooling, documentation, and support to the Polygon PoS community, unlocking powerful new capabilities for applications within the Polygon ecosystem. It also allows Web3 developers to leverage Secret Network’s confidential computing technology to build more secure and private applications on Polygon PoS.

The Secret Network Grants Program Is Open For Q3'24 Submissions
Submissions for the Q3 grants cohort are now open! This program offers an opportunity for those interested in building projects on Secret Network to secure initial funding and development support. The timing for this cohort will differ slightly from past ones. Submissions are open today and will be accepted until mid-August. The finalized list of grant recipients is expected to be announced at the end of August, with project development kicking off at the beginning of September.

Akash

Llama 3.1 405B Goes Live on Akash Network
Akash Network has announced the launch of Llama 3.1 405B, the most powerful and capable open-source AI model available today. This AI model is now live on the Akash Supercloud. The integration of Llama 3.1 405B with Akash Network aims to bring new possibilities for AI applications in the Web3 ecosystem. This includes enabling private voting for DAOs, encrypted storage, secure random number generation for games, confidential data linked to NFTs, sealed-bid auctions, and encrypted order books for DeFi applications.

Other ecosystem news

Vesuvius Claim Checker is Now Live
The Vesuvius Drop claim checker for the Lava Network is now live, enabling users to verify their eligibility for the LAVA airdrop and submit their Lava wallet addresses for claim.
The code now checks if your submitted wallet is a valid Lava wallet. If an invalid address was submitted, there is now an option to reclaim and overwrite the address.
Pasting an address is no longer allowed; users must connect a Keplr or Leap wallet.

Penumbra Governance Proposal #0 Passes: Mainnet Ratification and IBC Channels Established
Penumbra Governance has successfully passed Proposal #0, which focuses on the mainnet ratification and establishment of IBC channels. The next proposal, Prop1, is set for a vote on Monday, July 29th, at 1500 UTC. If passed, this proposal will enable transfers and full functionality of Penumbra’s DEX.

Crypto regulations & compliance news with MME

U.S. Bitcoin Reserve

Former President Donald Trump and U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis have proposed the idea of the U.S. government establishing a strategic reserve of Bitcoin. This idea has been praised by Bitcoin investors but lacks concrete details and faces uncertain prospects in Congress.
Donald Trump, in his speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference, suggested that the U.S. should keep its current Bitcoin holdings from government seizures as part of a national reserve. U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis is working on a bill to formalize this reserve, aiming to set aside over 200,000 Bitcoins and potentially increase this to one million by converting excess Federal Reserve assets.
The current U.S. government Bitcoin holdings, mostly seized from criminal activities, are managed by the U.S. Marshals Service. The idea of a Bitcoin reserve faces practical challenges, such as determining the size of the reserve and the processes for acquiring, storing and using it.
Despite the enthusiasm, the bill’s progress in the Senate remains uncertain, especially with the upcoming 2024 elections. However, the idea has influential supporters such as Michael Saylor of MicroStrategy and Cathie Wood of ARK Invest, who believe it could strengthen the U.S. financial system if implemented correctly. This proposal, even if does not materialize, has introduced the concept of government-held Bitcoin reserves into global public policy discussions.

First Sovereign Digital Bond in the European Union
Slovenia has become the first member of the European Union to issue a sovereign digital bond, with a €30 million ($32.5 million) bond sale. The bond, with a 3.65% coupon rate, was part of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) money settlement experimentation program and settled on-chain through the Bank of France’s tokenized cash system. The bonds mature on November 25 and were settled using a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC), designed for financial institutions rather than consumers.
The ECB conducted its first wholesale CBDC settlement test in May and plans further trials. The Slovenian government sees these first transactions as crucial for increasing transparency and efficiency in financial markets through distributed ledger technology (DLT). BNP Paribas coordinated the issuance and operated the Neobonds tokenization platform used for this digital bond.

Conclusion

That wraps up our second July edition of Cosmos Crypto Ecosystem bi-weekly News! Don’t forget to give us a cosmic thumbs up, drop a comment with your thoughts, and hit that subscribe button to stay tuned for more out-of-this-world content. Stay tuned for more cosmic updates and happy staking and trading!

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