Coinbase Launches New Smart Wallet!
Will DeFi Soon Reach Pre-Luna TVL?
Weekly Stats
Bitcoin: $69,359.53 (+0.39%)
Bitcoin Market Dominance: 54%
Global Crypto Market Cap: $2.54T
Ethereum: $3,666.79 (-1.89%)
Ethereum Market Dominance: 17.4%
Total Value Locked: $108.532B
NFT Sales Volume: $152,734,060 (+24.7%)
Crypto Fear and Greed Index: 72
Coins of the Week
Top Gainers — Stacks
The top gainer of this week is Stacks, which has rallied more than 18% in the last seven days. According to data from DefiLlama, the TVL (denominated in STX) on Bitcoin layer-2 network Stacks has hit a new all-time high. Data from Signal21 also shows that the number of active wallets and transaction volume on Stacks just hit a new all-time high.
Top Loser — Fetch.ai
The top loser of this week is Fetch.ai, with a drop of more than 21% in the last seven days. The price dropped as the community expects the merger between the three largest AI crypto projects in the world: Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol, and SingularityNET. The newly formed company will have a different token, which might put some downward pressure on the existing tokens.
Top 3 News
Coinbase Launches Smart Wallet — Link
Coinbase has designed the new smart wallet with the idea of making the onboarding experience easier. The company said new users can now create a wallet with “Face ID, Google Chrome profile, fingerprint, or Yubikey without recovery phrases.”
Kraken Explores pre-IPO Funding Round — Link
Kraken is considering doing another funding round as it potentially eyes an initial public offering. The crypto exchange could raise north of $100 million in a pre-IPO round, as investors turn toward the crypto market amid a rally in token price.
DeFi TVL Reaches $192B for First Time in 15 Months — Link
The total value locked in decentralized finance applications reached $192 billion in May, the largest amount since February 2022. Despite the rise in TVL, the number of unique active wallets using DeFi declined by 21%.
Top Bitcoin News
TeraWulf’s Stock Surges 22% — Link
TeraWulf’s stock surged in Tuesday’s session after the mining firm released its monthly production update for May, the first full month since the latest Bitcoin halving. The company mined 186 Bitcoin in May, with an average production rate of approximately 6.0 Bitcoin per day.
Ark Labs to Develop New Bitcoin Layer 2 — Link
Ark Labs argues that while the Lightning Network has helped deliver faster, low-cost payments, the need to manage channels and liquidity has driven many users toward custodial Lightning wallets, trading control over their funds for convenience.
Bitfarms Mining Revenue Drops 45% to $7M — Link
Bitfarms said it earned 156 BTC in May, a 42% drop from the previous month and down 66% year over year. Of that earned, it sold 136 BTC for total proceeds of $8.9M as part of the company’s regular treasury management process.
Core Scientific Signs 12-Year Deal with AI Firm — Link
North American Bitcoin mining and hosting services provider Core Scientific announced today that it signed a series of 12-year contracts with AI Hyperscaler CoreWeave.
Bitdeer Introduces Energy-Efficient Bitcoin Mining Chip — Link
Bitcoin mining company Bitdeer has showcased the “SEAL04” chip in its technology roadmap for the newly launched Sealminer rig. Set for release in the second quarter of 2025, the SEAL04 chip is projected to achieve energy efficiency as low as 5 joules per terahash (J/TH).
Top Layer 1 News
StarkWare Plans to Bring ZK Scaling to Bitcoin — Link
Blockchain developer StarkWare has announced plans to build a Bitcoin scaling solution in a significant expansion pivot. StarkWare, which was valued at $8 billion in its last investment round, is the core contributor to Ethereum Layer 2 Starknet.
Solana Saw Half a Million Tokens Launched Last Month — Link
In May, 455,000 tokens were created on Solana. This compares to 177,000 tokens on Ethereum Layer 2 Base and 39,000 tokens on BNB Chain. The Ethereum mainnet and Layer 2 networks Arbitrum and Optimism each saw fewer than 20,000 tokens created.
Solana emerges as an Institutional Favorite — Link
Solana, the fourth-largest blockchain in terms of total value locked (TVL), is becoming a leading network in institutional adoption. Increasingly more financial institutions will be integrating with the Solana blockchain to “future-proof” their offerings.
Tezos Paris Upgrade Live — Link
Following the Paris upgrade, Tezos-based layer-2 scaling solutions could reach a throughput of millions of TPS. Paris, the 16th upgrade of the Tezos protocol, went live on mainnet on June 5. It aims to make the network faster and more scalable.
Zilliqa 2.0 Upgrade Enhances Speed and Cross-Chain Compatibility — Link
Zilliqa has officially released the white paper and roadmap for its highly anticipated version 2.0 upgrade, which will deploy on the mainnet in 2024. The new version promises to improve the platform, making it faster, more efficient, and capable of working with other blockchain networks.
Top Layer 2 News
Base Overtakes OP Mainnet in TVL — Link
Base — a Layer 2 Ethereum network incubated at Coinbase — saw its total value locked (or user deposits) within dapps surge to enter the top three chains by deposits. The total value locked in the Layer 2 network Base stands at $1.7 billion, a 20% increase since the start of May.
Polygon Labs Acquires Toposware — Link
The acquisition is part of Polygon Labs’ strategy to improve its zero-knowledge arsenal — particularly in developing AggLayer that expands interoperability capabilities across ZK-powered Ethereum Layer 2s.
Blast Passes On Cheap Fees to Users — Link
The Blast mainnet launched in February, but early access started in November 2023, allowing users to deposit but not withdraw. After the initial hype faded, Blast’s fees were not that high, with the median transaction fee on the rollup typically staying below $0.10 in the days leading up to the blob upgrade on May 27.
Linea Reaffirms Decentralization Plan — Link
Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain Linea said it plans to decentralize the network following its deliberate block-production pause. Linea did so in response to a security exploit on Velocore, a decentralized exchange on the network, which led to an unauthorized withdrawal of 700 ETH.
Top DeFi News
EigenLayer’s TVL Surpasses $20B — Link
The total value locked on restaking protocol EigenLayer has reached $20.09 billion, marking it as the second-largest DeFi protocol behind Lido. Since the beginning of the year, the protocol’s TVL has grown from $1.4 billion to $20 billion.
Telegram Launches Digital Payment System — Link
Pavel Durov, CEO of the messaging platform Telegram, announced a new payment system for digital goods and services. The platform introduced Telegram Stars, which allows users to pay for digital services via in-app purchases on iOS and Android.
Top Exchanges News
Robinhood to Acquire Bitstamp — Link
Robinhood is set to acquire Bitstamp in a potential $200 million deal designed to better position the crypto and stock trading platform for expansion outside of the U.S. The cash deal is expected to close in the first half of 2025.
Bybit Opens Registration to Chinese Users — Link
Bybit enabled registration and authentication services for users in China, allowing them to provide their ID, passport, driver’s license, or resident permit to proceed with know-your-customer protocols on the platform.
Bitget Boosts Security with Deepfake Detection — Link
Cryptocurrency faces a rising threat from deepfakes, with sophisticated AI-generated fake identities multiplying at an alarming rate. To combat this, exchanges like Bitget are partnering with Sumsub, a leading KYC verification provider, to enhance security and protect users.
Binance Reinstates Crypto Buys via Mastercard — Link
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, will once again allow its customers to purchase cryptocurrencies using Mastercard. Binance has resumed cryptocurrency purchases via bank transfers using Mastercard debit and credit cards for “smooth transactions.”
Top Crypto Adoption News
Watford FC to Sell 10% of Club as Digital Equity — Link
Watford Football Club sells 10% of the club to investors in an equity sale facilitated by investment platform Republic and Seedrs. Investors will have the option to receive tokens and access exclusive offers, and the club plans to facilitate the future trading of the tokens.
Worldwide Searches for ‘Onchain’ Hit ATH — Link
Over the past five years, worldwide search interest in the term hovered mostly under 25 out of 100, with a brief spike to around 30 in March. However, between May 26 and June 1, search interest in “onchain” reached 100 on the index.
Top NFT, Gaming, and Web3 News
Alchemy Launches Rollup Tool — Link
The blockchain tech firm Alchemy launched a new tool called Alchemy Rollups. This tool lets developers launch and scale their own chain using rollups, which bundle data together into a single transaction. Alchemy Rollups is available on a waitlist.
FriendTech to Move to New Friendchain Blockchain — Link
Web3 social network FriendTech has officially broken off its friendship with Base, the Ethereum Layer 2 network stewarded by Coinbase, as it prepares to migrate to a new blockchain dubbed Friendchain, created in partnership with blockchain infrastructure provider Conduit.
McDonald’s Metaverse Debuts in Singapore — Link
American fast food chain McDonald’s launched the “My Happy Place” metaverse in Singapore, allowing locals to build virtual burgers and participate in other activities. McDonald’s Singapore partnered with Bandwagon Labs, the metaverse arm of entertainment media tech company Bandwagon, to build the in-app virtual world for its customers.
Top Hacks and Scams
DMM Bitcoin Outlines Funding Plan to Cover $300M in Losses — Link
The crypto exchange said it had procured $32M through borrowing as of June 3. A further capital increase of $307.6M is scheduled for June 7, followed by subordinated borrowing of $12.8M on June 10, the firm said, bringing the total funds to $352.4M.
Loopring Suffers $5M Hack — Link
Loopring, the zkEVM protocol built on Ethereum with a website that bills its smart wallet application as “Ethereum’s most secure wallet,” suffered a security breach related to its ‘Guardian’ two-factor authentication service.
Top Legal and Regulation News
South Korea to Treat Certain NFTs as Regular Crypto — Link
The new guidelines reportedly stated that the Financial Services Commission will regulate certain NFTs as regular cryptocurrencies if they are deemed to no longer possess the unique qualities that distinguish them from cryptocurrencies.
FTX Wants to Pay the IRS $200M — Link
FTX Trading Ltd, the legal name for Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto exchange FTX, is seeking to significantly reduce its tax debt to the United States Internal Revenue Service.
Worldcoin’s Spain Ban Extended to End of 2024 — Link
Worldcoin is suspending its activities in Spain through the end of this year, or until the German organization in charge of overseeing the project’s activity under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation completes its audit.
Dapper Labs Settles NBA Top Shot Moments Lawsuit — Link
Dapper Labs, the creator of the once highly-popular NBA Top Shot Moments NFT collection, announced on Monday it had settled a class-action lawsuit alleging the company violated securities laws by improperly selling the digital collectibles.
Top Stablecoin News
Paxos International Launches Yield-Bearing Stablecoin — Link
Paxos International, a UAE-based entity of Paxos, has launched a yield-bearing stablecoin called Lift dollar (USDL), with Argentina as its first market.
European Stablecoin Provider Halting Issuance — Link
Euro-pegged stablecoin issuer Lugh appears to be throwing in the towel ahead of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation coming into effect.
Top FUD News
MoonPay Lays Off 10% of Staff — Link
Crypto payments infrastructure company MoonPay cut 10% of its workforce due to its high-cost structure and below-expected operating margins.
Top Fundings
Fhenix Raises $15M — Link
Fhenix, an Ethereum Layer 2 network developer focused on data confidentiality, has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round. Hack VC led the round, with Dao5, Amber Group, Primitive Ventures, GSR, Collider Ventures, and Stake Capital participating.
M⁰ Raises $35M — Link
M⁰, a decentralized stablecoin minting protocol, has raised $35M in a Series A funding round led by Bain Capital Crypto. The round was structured as equity plus tokens, with M⁰ issuing its two “governance tokens” — POWER and ZERO — to investors, subject to a lock-in period.
XREX Raises $18.75M — Link
Stablecoin issuer Tether announced an $18.75 million investment in XREX Group, a Taiwan-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange. With the new funding, the company plans to further facilitate cross-border business-to-business payments in emerging markets using USDT.
Mountain Protocol Raises $8M — Link
Mountain Protocol, the issuer of the yield-bearing USDM stablecoin, has raised $8 million in a Series A funding round. Mountain plans to grow USDM issuance by expanding support to new blockchains such as Solana, Aptos, Sei, and Monad and integrating it into more DeFi protocols.
The Sandbox Raises $20M — Link
The Sandbox, a developer of web3 gaming and metaverse, raised $20 million in strategic funding via a convertible promissory note, a type of debt that can later turn into equity.
Avail Raises $43M — Link
Avail, a modular blockchain project that spun out of Polygon last year, has raised $43 million in a Series A funding round ahead of its mainnet launch. The Series A round comes ahead of Avail’s mainnet and token launch in the next few weeks.
Next Week’s Events
Binance to Restrict Unauthorized Stablecoins Starting June 30 — Link
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, announced it will soon restrict availability in the European Union to stablecoins that are considered “unregulated” by the EU.
United Kingdom Unemployment Rate — Link
The United Kingdom’s unemployment rate rose to 4.3% from January to March 2024, slightly up from 4.2% in the three months to December 2023, aligning with market expectations.
United States Core Inflation Rate — Link
US core consumer prices, which exclude volatile items such as food and energy, rose by 0.3% from the previous month in April of 2024, slowing from 0.4% increases in March and February, and in line with market expectations.
United States Producer Price Inflation — Link
Factory gate prices in the US increased 0.5% mom in April 2024, following a downwardly revised 0.1% fall in March and much higher than forecasts of 0.3%. Prices for services increased 0.6%, the most since July, following a downwardly revised 0.1% fall in March.
Japan Interest Rate — Link
The Bank of Japan flagged upside risks to inflation and indicated that it stands ready to adjust monetary policy but expects accommodative financial conditions to remain for the time being, according to a summary of its April policy meeting.
Binance to Delist WAVES, OMG and XEM on June 17 — Link
Binance wrote that several factors are generally taken into account when delisting coins and tokens, such as a lack of trading volume, quality or commitment to the project, network stability, and others.
