DeFi on Base Is on 🔥

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Union is the first sovereign interoperability layer pioneering trustless bridging between appchains, L1s, and L2s without depending on trusted third parties, oracles, multi-signatures, or MPC. Looking to future-proof blockchain bridging, it is the only protocol that fully addresses the sovereign bridging trilemma, unlocking a horizontally-scaled future.

Last week, Ethena was in the spotlight after the airdrop of ENA, its new governance token. Ethena’s flagship product, the “synthetic dollar” USDe has amassed a $2 billion market cap in less than two months. Meanwhile, ENA’s market capitalization sits around $1.4 billion, with a fully diluted valuation of $15.5 billion.

In this episode, Guy Young, founder of Ethena Labs, discusses the risks associated with Ethena, including custodial risks and counterparty risks to exchanges. Young also talks about the use cases of Ethena’s governance token, and discusses the potential for Ethena to be integrated with DeFi and CeFi.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.

What’s Poppin’?

by Nelson Wang, Sam Sriram and Sage Young

Aerodrome’s Rapid Rise: Only in Crypto Can a Project Become a $580 Million Exchange in Just 7 Months

Decentralized exchange (DEX) Aerodrome is already the sixth largest exchange across all blockchain networks by Total Value Locked (TVL).

Base TVL Hits $4 Billion as Transactions Per Second Surpass Ethereum

Base is now the third-largest layer 2 network, after Arbitrum One and OP Mainnet, with $4.17 billion in TVL.

Aave Chan Initiative Founder Proposes ‘Fee Switch’ as DAO Profits Top $60 Million Annually

Aave’s Marc Zeller suggested turning on a so-called “fee switch,” which could distribute protocol fees to stakers and token holders.

Half of Solana Presale Tokens Rolled Out Between November and February Were Malicious: Blockaid Study

Cybersecurity firm Blockaid’s findings highlight the need for increased security measures in the Solana ecosystem, according to the firm’s co-founder Ido Ben-Natan.

Jupiter to Upgrade Backend Systems Next Week to Address Network Congestion

A backend systems upgrade on Jupiter is designed to accommodate the increasing number of new tokens on Jupiter and Solana in response to users of the decentralized exchange aggregator experiencing transaction difficulties.

FTX Estate Raises Up to $1.9 Billion in Sale of Solana at Deep Discount: Report

The sale price of $64 per Solana token represents an almost two-thirds discount to the current price of Solana.

Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️

• 🔒 Terraform Labs and Do Kwon were held liable for civil fraud by a jury over the collapse of TerraUSD following the SEC’s charges. Meanwhile, Montenegro's Supreme Court reversed Do Kwon's extradition decision, sending the case back to the High Court for re-evaluation.

• 🍣 SushiSwap's new governance proposal suggests shifting treasury assets to Sushi Labs, centralizing future airdrops and product development responsibilities.

• 🏦 BlackRock increased iShares Bitcoin Trust's liquidity by adding Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, UBS, and others as authorized participants, which are parties that are responsible for the creation and redemption process of the ETF.

• 🛡️ Three crypto advocacy groups filed amicus briefs in support of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, contesting the legal basis of his charges.

• 🛑 dYdX's blockchain halted during a version 4.0.0 upgrade, with engineers currently investigating the outage starting at 6:50 a.m. UTC. Also, the community voted to stake $60 million in DYDX tokens with Stride to enhance network security and incentivize stake diversity.

The $$$ Corner…

• 📊 Pantera Capital's crypto fund gained 66% in the first quarter, due to its exposure to solana and smaller-cap tokens, even though they cut back exposure to bitcoin and Ethereum-linked tokens.

• 💼 Crypto figures McKenna and Ilya Paveliev launched Arete Capital, a $20 million fund focusing on institutional DeFi and blockchain gaming.

What Do You Meme?

Recommended Reads

1. Unchained: Bitcoin Halving: What Is It & How Is It Determined?

2. The Defiant: MakerDAO Founder Says Having “Rando’s” Participate in Governance Makes DAOs Unpredictable 

3. BeInCrypto: Why Aave's Fee Distribution Plan Is a Win for Holders

4. DL News: NFT sales decline fourth consecutive week amid surging crypto trading volumes

📈 Your Market Update 📉

• BTC is up 3.8%, trading at $72,078

• ETH is up 6.8%, trading at $3,625

• BTC dominance: 50.28%

• Crypto market cap: $2.82T

*All data as of today, 06:32 am ET. Source: CoinGecko

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