TLDR Crypto 2022-07-21

FTX and FTX US are looking to raise a new round of capital. They are targeting the same valuation as its January round, when FTX raised $400 million at a $32 billion valuation and FTX US raised $400 million at an $8 billion valuation. CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has been trying to help the crypto market through loans and investments. However, some think his purchases are looking a bit like bargain hunting.

Tesla sold $936 million worth of bitcoin during the second quarter. It now holds around $218 million of bitcoin. Elon Musk said that the reason the automaker sold its holdings was due to uncertainties around COVID lockdowns in China. Tesla is still open to increasing its bitcoin holdings in the future. The company has not sold any of its Dogecoin.

Matter Labs plans to launch zkSync 2.0 to Ethereum's mainnet in 100 days. It has released a full zkSync roadmap and other details about the project's upcoming milestones. zkSync 2.0 will be fully EVM-compatible and will be able to handle any Ethereum smart contract.

Polygon zkEVM is an EVM-equivalent zero-knowledge layer 2. It can run any smart contract or dev tool that can be used on Ethereum, but with the scaling power of ZK tech. Polygon zkEVM rolls up batches of transactions and uses a ZK proof to validate those transactions on Ethereum. The layer 2 provides high throughput, low latency, and low fees.

Revert Finance is the first ever UniV3 liquidity pool autocompounder. Users can simply deposit UniV3 LP tokens into Revert Finance and receive LP fees autocompounded into more LP tokens, resulting in higher yield. Revert Finance takes a 2% fee to cover gas costs. It features a UI that allows anyone to perform comprehensive analytical breakdowns of any UniV3 LP position. Any UniV3 LP on any chain can be autocompounded.

This article teaches readers how to use Bitcoin privately. It covers spending, receiving, and ways to maximize privacy. Several translations of the article are available.

DeFi 2.0 will try to fix the problems seen in the first wave of DeFi. While DeFi was revolutionary and provided decentralized financial services to anyone with a crypto wallet, it had many weaknesses centered around liquidity, scalability, security, and centralization. DeFi 2.0 will feature insurance for impermanent loss, self-repaying loans, insurance-backed smart contracts, and a wider level of flexibility for staked assets. It will simplify the user experience, provide stronger incentives, align with updated regulations, and mitigate against the levels of uncertainty in web3 markets.

Announcements about Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible zero-knowledge rollups came out from Polygon, Matter Labs, and Scroll this week. The technology promises lower fees, shorter delays, and more privacy. This article discusses Ethereum rollups, what zkEVMs are, and what they mean for the future of Ethereum. It also discusses Optimistic rollups and why they were only a band-aid solution.

Scroll is a layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum that is now inviting testers to try out its pre-alpha testnet.

This article looks at soulbound tokens, the promises the technology brings, and the current landscape of the technology.

Mojang has said that blockchain technologies and NFTs are not welcome in or around Minecraft.

This Twitter thread presents the pros and cons of the most popular decentralized perpetual exchanges.

This Twitter thread presents a quick mental model for understanding storage slot packing in the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

Vauld recently suspended withdrawals on its platform.