TLDR Crypto 2024-06-20

Ethereum ETF issuers are responding to the SEC's feedback on their S-1 forms to address comments by the end of this week. This process typically involves iterative feedback from the SEC before eventual approval for trading.

Blockchain security firm CertiK said it found a vulnerability in Kraken's deposit system and was transferring funds back to the exchange amid a bug bounty dispute. Kraken's Chief Security Officer claims that individuals in Certik were extorting Kraken. Certik claims that Kraken threatened these individuals after making unreasonable requests regarding returning funds.

Fluid's DEX introduces Smart Collateral, allowing users to borrow against collateral and deploy it as AMM liquidity to earn trading and lending fees. Its Smart Debt uses debt as trading liquidity, allowing fees to reduce the borrowing APR. Users can leverage their LP positions and earn up to 39x higher trading fees. It is scheduled to launch by the end of July.

US media company Fox Corp. launched Verify L2 to track online content usage. Verify allows media entities to register content, grant usage rights, and verify content provenance, focusing on content ownership and journalistic integrity. It was deployed using Gelato Rollup-as-a-Service as a Polygon CDK validium. Time, the first third-party publishing partner to be onboarded, plans to use Verify for content licensing and verification.

Pantera's monthly newsletter covered many topics, including comparing Solana to macOS for its use of vertical integration, which enables high performance and better user experience. Political sentiment around digital assets is shifting in real time. Trump is accepting crypto donations and using pro-crypto rhetoric in his speeches, while Biden has been gathering insight from crypto industry leaders. The Bitcoin ETF was ultimately a “buy the news” event, as Ethereum might be after potential ETH ETF outflows.

BAYC was minted in May 2021 for 0.08 ETH each. Later that year, it saw acquisitions from Jimmy Fallon, Justin Bieber, and Steph Curry. The value of a mint plus airdrops peaked at $800,000 in May 2022 before spiraling downward as parent company Yuga acquired dozens of other projects and failed to pivot into a gaming company, which saw apes fall to an 8 ETH floor.

Although the price of Arbitrum has dropped significantly over the last year, its market cap has grown by over 75% to ~$2.23B. This growth has largely been driven by token unlocks, thus although ARB price is almost at an all-time low, the market cap is expected to continue to increase as more tokens are unlocked.

This piece covers what's working today, what's happening, and what new exciting things are happening in crypto. Stablecoins, onchain activity, and Bitcoin as an alternative asset are successful and growing. There has been a recent rise in social-fi and the proliferation of new L2s and L3s. New distribution and parity between the Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana ecosystems are coming.

Arkham announced a $150K bounty for identifying the creator of DJT, leading to a series of events where Martin Shkreli confessed he created DJT along with a group as a pump and dump scheme.

The LayerZero interoperability protocol's airdrop checker is live.

According to Pantera Capital analysts, Biden's veto of the pro-crypto SAB121 is due to his reluctance to oppose the SEC and Gary Gensler, whom he appointed.

Decentralized social platform Lens Protocol was offered 0.5% of the total ZK supply ($22.4 million) to build in the ZKsync ecosystem.