TLDR Crypto 2024-05-22

Donald Trump, aiming for a second term as U.S. President, has announced that his campaign will now accept cryptocurrency donations, marking a significant shift from traditional campaign financing. Supported by Coinbase, his platform now accepts a wide array of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and various meme coins, positioning him as the first major party Presidential nominee to embrace such a diverse range of digital assets for campaign contributions.

Uniswap Labs argues that the protocol fully complies with US law and that the decentralized exchange does not fall under the “securities exchange” or “broker” definition. It notes that over 90% of trading volume is on commodities pairs, stablecoins, or out of the country, expanding beyond the SEC's jurisdiction. Lawyers for the Ripple and Grayscale cases are providing outside counsel, and Uniswap is confident it will win if forced to litigate.

Coinbase is adding retail-sized gold and oil futures to its derivatives platform on June 3. It aims to increase trader retention amidst growing crypto exchange competition. Coinbase Derivatives launched in June 2023 and has grown to host fifteen perpetual futures products.

Rocketpool, the second-biggest Ethereum liquid staking protocol, is reinventing its tokenomics for better value capture and Ethereum alignment. It has introduced technical improvements to increase security and capital efficiency and will distribute surplus fees from ETH staking to RPL holders. The upgrades are planned to occur around the Pectra hard fork, currently slated for late 2024 or early 2025.

Researchers have identified key factors in airdrop design through a comprehensive analysis of over 2 million airdrop events across 40 protocols, such as the quantity of tokens distributed and the target recipients. Their findings suggest that airdrops targeted at core users with smaller token quantities tend to show higher price stability and engagement post-distribution, challenging the effectiveness of widespread, larger airdrops.

The quality of token launches has declined significantly due to new stringent exchange requirements demanding high user metrics prior to listing, which has led projects to focus on generating inflated user activities through point systems rather than organic growth. This shift has resulted in an airdrop farming culture where users engage not out of genuine interest but to earn rewards, leading to rapid sell-offs post-launch and damaging the overall market dynamics and the perceived value of new tokens.

This article discusses the complex financial maneuvers used by major global economies, focusing on how the Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury, and Bank of Japan manipulate the dollar-yen exchange rate to manage their economic and political challenges. It explains that by conducting dollar-yen swaps, these entities can artificially strengthen or weaken currencies to impact their economies, forestall fiscal issues, and influence global trade dynamics, particularly affecting the competitive balance between China and Japan in global markets.

The U.S. DOJ has arrested Rui-Siang Lin, the head of "Incognito Market", an illegal dark web marketplace that facilitated the sale of illegal drugs using mainly crypto (including bitcoin and Monero). The marketplace processed ~$80M in crypto transactions over three years and charged a 5% fee on drug purchases.

Since crypto is now a bipartisan issue, there may be impending stablecoin legislation, of which Coinbase and Circle would be the biggest benefactors.

This initiative aims to address scams through data sharing, public education, and collaboration with law enforcement.

Ethereum L2 ZkSync intends to host its highly-anticipated token generation event this week with an airdrop expected to follow within 30 days.

Yuga Labs announced it would "no longer touch" CryptoPunks after facing backlash for launching the "Super Punk World" collection.