BlockBeats will organize the key industry news content of the week (6.10-6.6) in this article, and recommend in-depth articles to help readers better understand the market and learn about industry trends.
Important News Review
ZKsync will start airdrop next week, addresses with over 1 million addresses are eligible, and the rules have sparked community discussion
On June 11, ZKsync will airdrop 3.675 billion ZK tokens to early users and adopters next week, accounting for 17.5% of the total supply of 21 billion ZK tokens. Airdrop claims will start on June 17, and 1,650,351 addresses will be eligible to receive the ZKsync airdrop. ZKsync said that this will be a one-time airdrop, and users will be able to claim tokens until January 3, 2025. Contributors will be able to claim from June 24. Another 49.1% of the token supply will be distributed through the ecosystem program, of which 17.2% will be allocated to investors and 16.1% will be allocated to the Matter Labs team. On June 11, the pre-market price of ZK (ZKsync) was $0.6619, and on June 12, the over-the-counter price of ZK was temporarily reported at around $0.35.
Due to the large scale and complex rules of ZKsync's airdrop, the community has been discussing its airdrop requirements. On June 14, a Twitter user named "ZKsync Chinese Community" posted that Matter Labs' uncompromising principles will destroy ZKsync and condemned Matter Labs for its unreasonable allocation of airdrops. The account revealed that Matter Labs gave him the highest standard airdrop, but he refused to receive it. Later, a Twitter user @qyxx12 revealed that the person in charge of "ZKsync Chinese Community" suspected that he knew the inside story of the airdrop rules in advance and had a rat warehouse. Another community user revealed that ZKsync officials discovered its rat warehouse behavior and cancelled the airdrop qualifications of multiple addresses, so the account published a tweet accusing Matter Labs.
ZKsync responded to the airdrop this week, saying that the official stressed that meeting one or more airdrop criteria does not mean a legal right or requirement to receive an airdrop , and all decisions related to airdrop allocations are made by the ZKSync Association at its sole discretion. Related reading: "ZKsync finally issued a coin, an overview of the airdrop rules and allocation details" , "ZKsync airdrop controversy: eccentric rules raise questions, and insider trading disputes arise"
LayerZero CEO: A total of 594,641 participants will receive airdrops, and early traders will receive 3 times the reward
On June 10, LayerZero CEO Bryan Pellegrino said that the final list of witch addresses will be released before the end of the first half of 2024. On June 11, LayerZero CEO Bryan Pellegrino said: "Airdrop qualifications are obviously real users and the most fair, widely distributed, highly consistent, and long-term users. The initial wallets are 6 million, and 3 million wallets have less than 5 transactions, so we say that 3 million wallets are to be seriously considered. All transactions below $1.00 are downgraded by 80%, but are still calculated at 1/5 of normal transactions. All "valueless NFT" transactions are downgraded by 80%. Transactions are then normalized based on protocol fees. The minimum value of this item is the qualification standard, as is the maximum/cap, based on a multiplier for early use. Eliminate Sybil, eliminate junk transactions, semi-linear caps, reward early users, reward long-term users, and reward all non-standard protocol interactions through RFPs, such as LPs, etc., focusing on the fairest and optimal distribution of the protocol. "
On June 16, Bryan Pellegrino, CEO of LayerZero Labs, tweeted the final airdrop rules. Early transactions will be rewarded 3 times, and if 3 transactions are made in the later stage, an additional 50 tokens will be rewarded (84,000 people are eligible, about 4.2 million tokens in this part). He said that a total of 594,641 participants will receive airdrops. Related reading: "Ten Questions for LayerZero Co-founders: How to deal with wash trading and how to calculate token incentives?"
Curve founder’s $140 million CRV loan position has been liquidated
This week, some Altcoin in the crypto market fell across the board, among which CRV's price fell sharply, triggering a liquidation crisis. In the past, Michael would cover his positions to save his reception positions, but this time, he seemed to have "given up". On June 13, Curve founder Michael Egorov's CRV loan positions on multiple addresses fell below the liquidation line, and all of his 9-digit loan positions (about $140 million) in 5 protocols were liquidated. CRV bottomed out in a short period of time due to this, with the price falling to as low as $0.219, a drop of more than 30% in 1 hour. When CRV bottomed out, the 1-hour trading volume reached 463 million (trading volume was $111.5 million), setting a record high.
crvUSD had a positive premium due to liquidation, and Wintermute took the opportunity to sell it for a profit of $630,000. Ethereum core developer eric.eth said that Curve founder Michael Egorov did not suffer any "loss" due to the liquidation of CRV. He earned $100 million from a CRV position worth $140 million. Michael Egorov also said that he was already solving the liquidation risk problem and had repaid 93% of the bad debts. Related reading: "The founder was finally liquidated, and the Curve flywheel was completely bankrupt?"
Terraform Labs agrees to pay $4.47 billion in case with SEC
On June 13, Reuters reported that Terraform Labs agreed to pay $4.47 billion in a case with the SEC, the last time such a large-scale fine was seen was Binance's $4 billion. "Making this judgment will ensure the maximum return of funds to harmed investors and put Terraform out of business," the SEC said in court documents. "Therefore, this proposed judgment is fair, reasonable, and in the public interest." Terraform and Kwon agreed to the judgment. Their lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Aethir announced that its decentralized cloud computing network was officially launched on the Ethereum mainnet and will be open for airdrops on June 12.
On June 12, Aethir announced that its decentralized cloud computing network was officially launched on the Ethereum mainnet. The number of Aethir testnet users has exceeded 500,000. It also announced that the Aethir Cloud Drop (Season 1) airdrop will be open for claiming. This season, a total of 630 million ATHs (1.5%) will be rewarded to the Aethir community, including Checker Node holders and Aethir OG, as well as all other Web3 communities participating in the Aethir Cloud Drop. The Aethir airdrop event will last for three seasons, and a total of 6% of the ATH supply will be reserved for airdrop rewards. Please go to the website to claim the airdrop. In addition, Aethir has launched an innovative ATH staking. Users can choose whether to set a lock-up period. They can withdraw ATH at any time, or lock the staked ATH for a specific period of time to increase ATH rewards. Click for details
io.net token IO claim starts on June 11 and lasts for a week
io.net stated that users who participate in the Ignition reward program can claim rewards on the claim website. The claim will start at 19:00 on June 11, 2024, and end at 19:00 on June 18, 2024. On-chain data showed that IO opened at $4.79 and reached a high of $5.88 on the Binance platform.
The market expects the Fed to cut interest rates by 25 basis points in November with a 100% chance
On June 12, swap contracts showed that the market expected the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by 25 basis points in November with a 100% probability.
US core CPI falls to three-year low
On June 12, the annual rate of the US core CPI in May was 3.4%, lower than the expected level of 3.5%, the lowest level since April 2021. In addition, the annual rate of the US CPI in May was 3.3%, lower than the market expectation of 3.4%, and fell to a 3-month low. It meets the conditions for "Bitcoin to hit a new high" previously published by 10x Research.
Trump continues to speak out for cryptocurrencies: I hope all remaining Bitcoins will be "made in the United States"
On June 12, former U.S. President Donald Trump posted on his social media company Truth Social that "Bitcoin mining may be our last line of defense against central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). We hope that all remaining Bitcoins will be made in the United States (MADE IN THE USA). This will help us achieve energy dominance." On the same day, Matthew Schultz, executive chairman of crypto mining company CleanSpark Inc., said that several Bitcoin mining company representatives met with former U.S. President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night. Trump told attendees that he loves and understands cryptocurrencies, adding that Bitcoin miners help stabilize the energy supply of the power grid. Trump also said that he would speak for miners in the White House.
Biden campaign in talks to accept crypto donations through Coinbase Commerce
On June 13, US President Biden's campaign team is discussing with cryptocurrency industry insiders about accepting cryptocurrency donations through Coinbase Commerce. Coinbase Commerce allows merchants to accept dozens of cryptocurrency payments. A person familiar with the matter said that people in Biden's core circle specifically told the Biden team that if they remained silent on the issue of cryptocurrency, they might lose the election. He emphasized that negotiations about the Biden camp accepting cryptocurrency donations are still "exploratory."
US SEC Chairman: Ethereum Spot ETF S-1 is expected to be approved sometime in the summer
On June 13, according to market news, U.S. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler expects the Ethereum spot ETF S-1 to be approved sometime in the summer.
Binance Labs announces investment in Zircuit
On June 11, Binance Labs announced an investment in Zircuit. The specific amount has not been disclosed. Zircuit is a zkRollup network with "AI-powered sorter-level security". The new investment will help Zircuit further grow and develop its network. Zircuit has also been supported by Pantera Capital and Dragonfly.
Milady founder's pre-sale of Meme coin CULT has been sold out, raising a total of 5861.8 ETH
The pre-sale Meme project CULT released by Milady founder @CharlotteFang77 was announced to be sold out, raising a total of 5,861.8 ETH, about 20.45 million US dollars.
Bitcoin and Ethereum CEX balances have fallen to nearly four-year lows
On June 11, retail investors in the cryptocurrency space are showing signs of turning into long-term believers, with recent outflows of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) from CEXs. Data shows that CEX balances of the two major cryptocurrencies have fallen to a near four-year low, with analysts interpreting the move as a bullish signal for the future. The total amount of Bitcoin in CEXs fell to less than 2.3 million, or about $158 billion, while the total amount of Ethereum fell to less than 16 million, or about $58 billion.
Tabi Announces TABI Token Economics: 8% of Token Supply Allocated to Airdrops
On June 13, GameFi gaming service platform Tabi published an article on social media announcing the TABI token economics. Specific information includes: a total of 10 billion tokens, mining accounts for 40%, airdrops account for 8%, the team accounts for 14%, investors account for 14%, the ecosystem accounts for 15%, public sales account for 4%, and marketing and consulting account for 5%.
Zapper announces the launch of Zapper Protocol, which will launch the token ZAP in Q4
On June 14, the DeFi asset management platform Zapper announced the launch of Zapper Protocol on the social platform. Its vision is to achieve Onchain Literacy and it will launch the token ZAP in Q4. More details will be disclosed later.
Rune COOK THE MEMPOOL has been forged
On June 16, the rune COOK•THE•MEMPOOL has been minted. The total number of mintings of this rune is 4,309,311, making it the rune with the largest minting volume at present, and the current number of holding addresses is 28,435.
Arweave AO has launched AO token minting, and AR holders have begun to receive AO
On June 14, Arweave AO stated on social platforms that AO token minting has been launched and AR holders have begun to receive AO. Users can obtain AO by holding AR. Before the launch of Pre-bridge on June 18, all AO tokens are 100% minted by AR token holders. After the launch of Pre-bridge, 33% of AO tokens will be distributed to AR holders in proportion. After the launch of Pre-bridge, users can deposit stETH to receive token rewards, and more assets will be supported in the future. Related reading: "Arweav's new testnet token AO economics: 100% fair distribution, holding AR in the future can earn AO"
This week's hot articles
《ZKsync finally issued the token, an overview of the airdrop rules and distribution details》
The much-anticipated ZKsync airdrop distribution plan has been finalized. The ZKsync Association will conduct a one-time airdrop of 3.6 billion ZK tokens next week, with 695,232 eligible wallets. The snapshot time is March 24th, and community members can check the airdrop eligibility on the claim.zknation.io website and claim the airdrop from June 24th to January 3rd, 2025. This airdrop accounts for 17.5% of the total supply of ZK tokens. Two categories of ZKsync users are eligible for the airdrop: 1. Users (89%): zkSync users who have transacted on zkSync and reached the activity threshold; 2. Contributors (11%): individuals, developers, researchers, communities, and companies that have contributed to the zkSync ecosystem and protocol through development, advocacy, or education.
《ZKsync airdrop controversy: eccentric rules raise questions, insider trading controversy arises》
This week, ZKsync announced that it will conduct an airdrop next week and open airdrop inquiries. The 4-year interactive race has finally reached the end. However, compared with the previous Layer 2 such as Optimism, Arbitrum, etc., the proportion of addresses that received airdrops in ZKsync is significantly lower. There are 6,826,968 addresses on the ZKsync chain, and the number of qualified addresses is 695,232, accounting for about 10%. According to community statistics, 9203 addresses received 23.9% of the total airdrop. Judging from the official airdrop details, although the airdrop rules are not "strict", they are "side-door" compared to the conventional standards, and the community's voices questioning ZKsync's rat warehouse are gradually rising. Looking back at the "hair-pulling" interaction process from the final result, the possibility of simply winning large airdrops through the number and duration of interactions is getting lower and lower, and the capital threshold is getting higher and higher. The golden age of interaction may end in ZKsync.
After 4 years of waiting, ZKsync finally opened the airdrop qualification inquiry, but the result disappointed many long-awaited users. The point of questioning is the interpretation of the airdrop qualification by the project party and the profit of the insider trading. Many people met the requirements but did not get the airdrop they deserved, while some inexplicable addresses made a lot of money. Even multiple ecological projects have formed an alliance to resist this airdrop allocation. After silence, ZKsync officials finally issued a Q&A to respond to the controversy about this airdrop. The specific effect depends on the feedback from the community.
"The founder was finally liquidated, is Curve's flywheel completely bankrupt?"
On Thursday, Arkham disclosed that Curve founder Michael Egorov had lent $95.7 million in stablecoins, collateralized by $140 million in CRV, in five lending agreements through multiple addresses, of which about $50 million was on the Llamalend platform. The market crash triggered liquidation risks, and the price of CRV once fell below $0.26, and Michael's multiple lending positions were also facing liquidation. Although he had survived several crises by covering his positions and seeking external support, he seemed to have "given up" this time. The liquidation mechanism in the lending agreement, the lag of the price oracle, and liquidity problems caused the price of CRV to continue to fall, the liquidators began to make profits, and investors faced significant losses. All walks of life have questioned the effectiveness of Michael's supporters and his series of operations, and this storm has also made Curve's future prospects increasingly unclear.
《AO Token Economics Announcement: 100% Fair Distribution, Holding AR Can Earn AO in the Future》
On June 14, the AO Foundation officially announced the token economics of the decentralized supercomputer AO. AO is a 100% fair issuance token that follows the Bitcoin economic model, and the token will be used to protect messaging in its network. The minting mechanism will run retroactively from 13:00 EST on February 27, 2024 (block 1372724). 100% of the AO tokens minted during this period have been granted to Arweave token holders based on their respective balances held every 5 minutes. If you hold AR on an exchange or custodian, you should ask the exchange how to receive the tokens. In the future, one-third (33.3%) of AO tokens will be minted every 5 minutes to AR token holders based on their ownership. In the future, two-thirds (66.6%) of AO tokens will be minted to transfer assets into AO to strongly stimulate economic growth.
《Risk aversion heats up, market awaits guidance from the Fed on rate cuts》
The crypto market opened lower this week. On June 12, the U.S. core CPI annual rate for May was 3.4%. On the 13th, the Federal Reserve kept the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 5.25%-5.50% for the seventh consecutive time, in line with market expectations. Fed Chairman Powell said in his speech that so far this year, the Fed has not had greater confidence in inflation to cut interest rates. Moderate progress has been made, but more good data is needed. Bitfinex analysts said that the recent rate cuts by the European Central Bank and the Bank of Canada were intended to "shift to a more relaxed monetary policy to promote economic growth, which suggests that the Federal Reserve may need to reassess its own monetary policy, and the actions of its global peers may affect its decisions in the coming months, especially if inflation trends and economic conditions need to shift."
"Why did the astonishing inflow of US spot ETFs fail to drive a sharp rise in BTC?"
When restrictions on Bitcoin mining were imposed in mid-2021, the number of active addresses on the Bitcoin network fell dramatically, from about 1.1 million per day to only about 800,000 per day. The Bitcoin network is currently experiencing a similar contraction in network activity. Active addresses are decreasing, but the network is processing near all-time highs. The monthly average transaction volume is currently 617k/day, 31% higher than the annual average. Rune-related transactions have now largely replaced BRC-20 tokens as well as Ordinals and Inscriptions, accounting for 57.2% of daily transactions. Another divergence is that despite the amazing inflows into US spot ETFs, prices have stagnated. Looking at the CME Group futures market, open interest has stabilized at over $8 billion, having previously hit an all-time high of $11.5 billion in March 2024. This may indicate that spot carry trade structures are a significant source of demand for ETF inflows, where ETFs are a vehicle to gain long spot exposure. The emergence and scale of spot arbitrage trading between long US cash ETF products and short futures through CME has largely suppressed buy-side inflows into ETFs.
LayerZero's Sybil review is still in full swing. According to LayerZero co-founder Bryan Pellegrino, the final list of Sybil addresses is expected to be announced by the end of June. This week, Bryan answered questions about the review and processing calculation methods for Sybil attacks and low-value transactions on the X platform. This article summarizes some of the key points.
"Understanding the airdrop mechanism: How can we design a satisfactory airdrop?"
In this article, the author shares his insights into the success and failure of airdrops, from team attitude, user expectations, token distribution, country applicability to handling Sybil attacks and other key links, and analyzes in detail the possible problems and coping strategies in each link. In particular, through the analysis of the EigenLayer airdrop case, it reveals important details that are easily overlooked in the airdrop design and execution process.
"The staking war has begun again, is EigenLayer's position in jeopardy?"
Eigenlayer's main competitor, Symbiotic, quickly attracted nearly $200 million in deposits after its launch. As the second largest DeFi protocol, Eigenlayer faces direct competition from Symbiotic, which is backed by Paradigm. Symbiotic provides greater flexibility and diverse asset support through a permissionless and modular design, while Eigenlayer focuses primarily on ETH and its derivatives and adopts a centralized management approach. With the emergence of Symbiotic, protocols such as Lido and Mellow are also taking action in the re-staking space, creating new high-yield opportunities. Understanding the differences and partnerships between these protocols is critical to seizing investment opportunities in this space.
"With investment from Paradigm and Lido, what advantages does EigenLayer have over Symbiotic?"
On June 11, Symbiotic announced its official launch and said it had completed a $5.8 million seed round of financing, led by Paradigm and Cyber Fund. This article introduces the core concepts of Symbiotic's shared security system and its application prospects. As a flexible, permissionless protocol, Symbiotic allows network developers to fully control staking implementation and operator selection while providing a wide range of security services. In the short term, Symbiotic is mainly used to launch new consensus instances, such as the election of new L1 operators and decentralized sorting. In the long run, Symbiotic will also support use cases such as block production and multi-party computing. In addition, Paradigm has developed Reth Execution Extensions (ExEx) to further enhance Symbiotic-based shared security services.
"LUNA is ready to pay a $4 billion fine. Will Do Kwon still have to go to jail?"
On June 13, Reuters reported that Terraform Labs agreed to pay $4.47 billion in a case with the SEC. "Making this judgment will ensure the maximum return of funds to injured investors and completely shut down Terraform," the SEC said in court documents. "Therefore, this proposed judgment is fair, reasonable and in the public interest." Their lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. At present, the relevant information of the criminal judgment against Do Kwon is still unknown. He faces a civil fine of $80 million, is prohibited from conducting crypto transactions, and needs to transfer $204.3 million to Terraform's bankruptcy assets. It should also be emphasized that in addition to the SEC's civil lawsuit, Do Kwon is currently facing criminal charges in South Korea and the United States, and the battle for talent between South Korea and the United States is still unresolved.
This week, the floor price of CryptoPunks fell below 30 ETH. In the past 30 days, the total transaction volume of Ethereum NFTs was less than 160 million US dollars. The total transaction volume of Solana and Polygon, ranked 3rd and 4th, exceeded 148 million US dollars, almost close to Ethereum, which was completely unimaginable in the past. Although Bitcoin NFT, which ranks first in transaction volume, only maintains a slight advantage of more than 10 million US dollars, since March, the monthly real transaction volume of Bitcoin NFT has been greater than that of Ethereum. Perhaps, the golden age of Ethereum as the absolute center of NFT has ended. In addition, this article also introduces several emerging rune and NFT projects.
"List of the top 10 Meme coin PVP masters' addresses and their achievements"
Since March, PEPE, FLOKI, WIF and other old meme coins have "rejuvenated their second spring", coupled with the Solana meme coin craze led by BOME, the Base ecosystem meme coin craze, and the recent political meme craze and celebrity meme coin craze. In this dazzling "Meme coin hot season", many money-making experts have emerged. This article summarizes and introduces some on-chain smart money addresses (mainly those that have achieved good results in the Meme field), and summarizes the general paradigm to increase the winning rate.
This week, AI concept projects IO and ATH were launched one after another. Ebunker co-founder 0xTodd interpreted and compared the business models behind the IO and ATH projects on X. The author pointed out that IO and Aethir broke the "chicken or egg" problem through token subsidies, encouraging graphics card owners to mount resources on the platform and providing incentives for using tokens to pay for discounts. The two projects are competitors, but they also cooperate with each other and even have intimate "token swaps", which turned the originally vague confrontation into a harmonious state of Peace & Love.
"Uniswap acquires CTG, how to play the on-chain version of "The Hunger Games"? "
On the evening of June 10, Uniswap Labs officially announced that it had completed the acquisition of Crypto:The Game (CTG), an interactive crypto survival game based on the Base blockchain. The specific amount was not disclosed. The three co-founders of CTG, Dylan Abruscato, Tyler Cagle and Bryan Lee, will all join Uniswap to jointly promote the development of CTG Season 3 games. This is Uniswap's first direct layout in the game field. CTG is a "real-life battle royale" type game based on blockchain. You can simply understand it as a "Hunger Games" or "Squid Game" on the chain. In the past few months, CTG has successfully held two seasons of games. Among them, a total of 410 players participated in the first season of the game, with a total prize pool of 41 ETH. In the end, an anonymous player named MFL won; a total of 800 players participated in the second season of the game, with a total prize pool of 80 ETH, and finally the 733rd player won.
"For newcomers to the crypto, should you choose Coinbase or Robinhood?"
This article explores two companies that have a significant influence in the cryptocurrency space - Coinbase and Robinhood. Coinbase has won the favor of a large number of US retail and institutional investors with its crypto-native background and deep roots in the industry over the years. In contrast, although Robinhood is not as good as Coinbase in terms of cryptocurrency trading volume, it still has extremely high popularity among US retail traders and has strong compliance capabilities. Robinhood has actively entered the crypto market, developed a non-custodial wallet, and plans to acquire Bitstamp, a long-established European crypto exchage, to further expand its influence in the crypto space. This article deeply analyzes the unique advantages and potential risks of the two companies in the cryptocurrency market, providing investors with valuable reference information.
"Bankless: Where is the catalyst to reignite the AI x Crypto market?"
AI tokens have dominated the market, and many believe that this is the fusion cycle of AI and cryptocurrency. However, in the last month or two, AI tokens have shown a downward trend, and many tokens have fallen 25%-50% from their local highs. Still, this is not necessarily a cause for concern. In a crypto bull market, pullbacks are normal and help long-term performance. This article explores the future development of the top AI and crypto projects and the catalysts that may reignite the market. Including Render, Bittensor, and NEAR, these three projects are all solving their own unique problems. As they gradually implement their respective roadmaps, the future of AI x Crypto will become more exciting.
"WSJ: We talked to the "corrupted retail investors" behind the new round of meme craze"
The U.S. stock market is full of degens. A high-risk trading style is making a comeback, driven by amateur traders who call themselves degens. These traders are keen on high-risk trades that are known for having nothing to do with traditional investment evaluation methods. Some people are willing to invest a lot of cash in specific stocks or cryptocurrencies just to participate in a trend. Others are in a mentality of watching the fun and playing memes. Degens are one of the factors driving the "meme stock craze", such as the counter-logical trend of GameStop stock in recent weeks. When these internet-powered traders gather together, they can cause large fluctuations in asset prices. Some degens say that the returns from more boring investments such as stocks and funds are far from enough. They are eager to get more lucrative profits and hope that a big win will bring substantial changes to their lives.
"Four months after the Cancun upgrade, how are Layer2s doing?"
After Ethereum's Cancun upgrade, the scalability of Layer 2 was greatly improved by introducing data packets called blobs to optimize data management. This update significantly reduced transaction fees on Layer 2, up to more than 90%, and surged transaction volume, especially in major Layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum and Optimism. These changes have enabled more people to enter the crypto space, driving the prosperity of the entire ecosystem and consolidating Layer 2's key position in blockchain expansion and efficiency.
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