Week in DeFi: All Eyes on Solana

Jito opens their airdrop for claims, creating a surge of users on Solana seeking similar airdrop opportunities. EigenLayer announces the upcoming raises in capacity for restaking on their platform and finally, Mantle unveils their own liquid staking products for the chain, unlocking lucrative yield opportunities for users.

Insane week in the world of DeFi! Let’s dive deeper into what went down in DeFi this past week.

Overview

Total value locked (TVL) across all chains surge higher as anticipation builds towards the Bitcoin ETF approval and markets across the board continue to perform. Notable outperformers include Solana, Ronin and Linea which all saw increases of 25-30% in TVL in the past week due to individual catalysts.

Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/chain-ranking/

Welcome to Alpha Central

Ash shares an in-depth resource list on all things in the Bitcoin and BRC-20 ecosystem, including the thesis on the Bitcoin ecosystem, deep dives into Ordinals and BRC-20s, rollups on Bitcoin, Lightning Network, Taproot and more.

Ethereum: EigenLayer Cap Raises Incoming

ETH restaking platform, EigenLayer, announces plans to raise the caps for ETH restaking to 200K tokens from the current 100K. Additionally, they will also be introducing new accepted tokens including osETH, swETH, oETH, ETHx, wbETH and ankrETH.

Weighted automated market maker (AMM), Balancer, unveils plans for an architecture overhaul for Balancer V3, which is slated for a Q2 2024 launch. The revamp intends to improve pool design as well as introduce better tooling for protocols building on Balancer.

Other Product Launches and Updates

• Decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator, Matcha, deploys cross-chain swaps, enabling swaps across their seven supported chains and 100+ integrated DEXs. The currently supported chains include Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon and Avalanche.

• Lending platform, Ethereum Reserve Dollar, unveils USDE, a stablecoin backed by ETH liquid staking derivative tokens. The current supported assets include ETH, Lido’s stETH and Rocket Pool’s rETH.

• Trading terminal, Thunder, releases Thunder V2, giving the platform a revamped UI to mimic a centralized exchange (CEX) as well as bundling transactions, transaction simulations and their point system.

• Cross-chain DEX, Hashflow, releases Hashflow V2, bringing to the DEX native Solana integration and smart order routing, to ensure the best trade fills for traders on Hashflow.

Story continues

L2s: Mantle Unveils Liquid Staking

L2 chain Mantle unveils its two products, Mantle Liquid Staking Protocol (LSP) and their liquid staking token, mETH. More than 63,000 ETH has already been staked with the protocol since its launch.

DeFi suite and FRAX stablecoin issuer, Frax Finance quietly launches the Fraxchain L2 testnet on Holesky, enabling interested participants to mint frxETH and bridge their tokens into the Fraxchain testnet.

Other Product Launches and Updates

• Perpetuals DEX, Aevo, launches aeUSD, a yield-bearing collateral token for the platform, designed to allow users to earn a yield while trading on Aevo. AeUSD is composed of 95% sDAI and 5% USDC. The current advertised APY is 4.75%.

• Options protocol, Premia, kicks off Blue SZN, a series of quests for the project, powered by Galxe. A trading competition has also been launched together, which will last until January 31st.

• Synthetix founder, Kain Warwick, submits a proposal to end the inflation of the protocol’s token, SNX. The proposal has since been passed and inflation will end on the week of 17th December 2023.

• Polymer Labs introduces Polymer, a hybrid chain to standardize and consolidate liquidity across Ethereum and its L2s. Polymer is built on the OP Stack but also utilizes the Cosmos SDK and Interchain Blockchain Communication (IBC) to bring interoperability to the chain.

Solana: Wormhole x Jupiter Exchange

Bridging infrastructure protocol, Wormhole, partners with DEX aggregator, Jupiter Exchange, to release Wormhole Connect, enabling transfers of ETH, WETH and WBTC from Ethereum to Solana with zero slippage.

Money market platform, Kamino Finance, announces that a points system for the platform will be introduced shortly, implying a potential upcoming airdrop. They have also confirmed that actions prior to the implementation have also been tracked and will be accounted for.

Lending protocol, Margin Finance, releases plans for an upcoming stablecoin, YBX, seeking to provide the highest earning stablecoin in all of Solana, capturing staking yield, maximal extractable value (MEV) yield and lending yield on Margin.

Cosmos: Consolidations and Mergers Underway

Osmosis and UX Chain (formerly Umee) are proposing a merger between the two chains. If passed, Osmosis will begin integration of UX Chain’s lending markets and the TVL of both chains will be combined moving forward.

Cosmos-based money market protocol, Mars Protocol, proposes to migrate their headquarters from their own chain, Mars Hub, to Neutron, a fellow Cosmos chain. The move would reduce effort spent on maintaining the Mars Hub as well as bring the Mars application to Neutron.

Another Week, Another Airdrop

Solana liquid staking protocol, Jito, opens their airdrop for claims, releasing more than $200 million worth of JTO tokens into the Solana ecosystem. The claims will remain open for 18 months from initial launch.

Zero-knowledge rollup, Starknet, quells rumors that the airdrop for their token is live, but implies that the snapshot has been taken for the upcoming airdrop of the STRK token.

Privacy-focused Cosmos chain, Namada, releases their airdrop, with criteria for eligible Ethereum, Cosmos, Osmosis and Stargaze wallets as well as specific GitHub contributors.

Tweet of the Week

Blockgraze reminds everyone to lower their IQs and to stop wondering why random coins are pumping. In a bull market, all coins are meme coins.

Stay updated on your favorite projects and stay tuned for next week’s edition, and keep supporting your favorite projects, degens!