Sky Joins Bidding War to Launch Hyperliquid’s USDH

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 🚀 Sky makes aggressive play to issue USDH on Hyperliquid

• 🛑 $41M SwissBorg Solana Earn hack rocks platform

• 🖼️ OpenSea unveils flagship NFT reserve + SEA token rewards

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Sky Joins Bidding War to Launch Hyperliquid’s USDH

Major DeFi protocol Sky has put itself in the running to issue and manage Hyperliquid’s planned stablecoin USDH.

Sky, formerly known as MakerDAO, is the fifth major entity to submit a bid alongside Paxos, Frax Finance, Agora, and Native Markets.

Sky said it would offer 4.85% rewards on all USDH on Hyperliquid, facilitate $2.2 billion USDC in instant offchain redemption liquidity and have its $8 billion balance sheet ready to deploy.

Rune Christensen, Sky’s co-founder, even floated the idea of Sky moving its buyback system on to Hyperliquid, and using over $250 million in profits to build SKY liquidity on Hyperliquid.

“The similarity of Sky and Hyperliquid in focusing on real profits, building useful decentralized infrastructure, means there is a natural alignment between Sky and Hyperliquid,” said Christensen.

Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE has rallied hard since stablecoin issuers began competing to launch USDH. In the last 24 hours, HYPE soared 12% to an all-time high of $53.36, with trading volume soaring 141% to $397 million.

Hyperliquid’s validators will decide the USDH stablecoin issuer in a governance vote on Sept. 14.

Hackers Drain $41 Million From SwissBorg’s Solana Earn

Swiss-based crypto platform SwissBorg suffered a major loss of around $41 million in solana (SOL) after a third-party API used in its SOL Earn program was compromised.

Attackers exploited an API vulnerability in SwissBorg’s staking partner Kiln, and managed to drain about 193,000 SOL. 

However, the SwissBorg team said the breach impacted just 1% of platform users, and the stolen funds made up 2% of the platform’s total assets under management (AUM).

“We are already working with leading blockchain security specialists and law enforcement to recover the funds. Most importantly, SwissBorg users will not take a loss. Any gap will be covered,” said CEO Cyrus Fazel in a statement. 

OpenSea Pledges $1 Million to NFT Reserve Ahead of SEA Token Launch

Non-fungible token marketplace OpenSea has unveiled its first NFT reserve, pledging $1 million to digital art through a curated Flagship Collection.

OpenSea said the initiative aims to showcase NFTs with lasting cultural relevance, not as a financial investment but as a “living museum” of digital art and innovation.

CryptoPunk #5273, purchased for about $282,000, will be the collection’s first acquisition to symbolize the early ethos of the NFT movement.

The NFT platform also shared an update about its upcoming SEA Token Generation Event expected as early as next month.

Starting September 15, OpenSea will allocate 50% of platform fees to a prize vault loaded with $1 million worth of Optimism (OP) and Arbitrum (ARB) tokens to reward users via a gamified system linked to completing tasks and platform engagement.

“SEA being engineered with thoughtful mechanics, clear reasons to hold, and long-term sustainability baked in from the start,” said OpenSea CMO Adam Hollander on X.

• 🛡️ A phishing-driven NPM supply-chain attack on crypto projects stole only $503 before being shut down, with Ledger’s CTO crediting developer pipeline crashes for limiting damage and warning future attempts could be more dangerous.

• 📊 CoinShares struck a $1.2 billion SPAC merger with Vine Hill Capital to shift its listing from Stockholm to the U.S., with 85% shareholder approval and plans to rebrand as Odysseus Holdings by year-end.

• ⚡ MegaETH launched USDm, a stablecoin built with Ethena that redirects reserve yield to cover sequencer costs, aiming to keep layer 2 transaction fees stable instead of charging users markup.

• 🔄 Lion Group said it will swap all its SOL and SUI for HYPE tokens to deepen exposure to Hyperliquid, after BitGo introduced U.S. custody services for the network.

• ⚙️ Upbit parent Dunamu unveiled Giwa, an Ethereum layer 2 on Optimism’s OP Stack with 1-second block times, local stablecoin support, and a testnet already live ahead of mainnet launch.

• 🌞 Ant Digital plans to tokenize $8.4 billion of energy assets, having already raised $42 million for clean energy projects via AntChain, while exploring offshore token listings if regulators permit.

• 🪙 Strategy bought 1,955 BTC for $217 million at $111,196 each after being excluded from the S&P 500, lifting its holdings to 638,460 BTC worth $71.5 billion, while Japan’s Metaplanet added 136 BTC for $15.2 million.

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