Here
at
The
Protocol
newsletter,
we’re
focused
on
blockchain
tech
and
usually
don’t
go
too
deeply
into
crypto
markets.
But
after
a
week
like
this,
how
can
we
not?
Founders
and
developers
have
learned
the
hard
way
how
the
vagaries
of
price-go-down
can
affect
the
industry’s
fortunes.
Read
on.
-
Ronin’s
latest
$12M
exploit
puts
two-year-old
“rigorous”
security
focus
under
microscope. -
Nearly
$50
million
of
blockchain
project
fundraisings:
Curio,
Andrena,
Daylight,
Cartridge,
Zoth,
Khalani,
Pichi. -
Arthur
Hayes
unveils
Bitcoin
Ordinals
release
“Airheads,”
invests
in
Oyl
wallet.
This
article
is
featured
in
the
latest
issue
of
The
Protocol,
our
weekly
newsletter
exploring
the
tech
behind
crypto,
one
block
at
a
time.
Sign
up
here
to
get
it
in
your
inbox
every
Wednesday.
Network
News
:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/DMMCLEDHFNBILK76EQLFVHR5DY.png)
Bitcoin
price
(seen
here
as
the
chain
of
red
and
green
candles)
plotted
against
its
50-day
and
200-day
simple
moving
price
averages
–
now
converging
toward
a
“death
cross.”
(Omkar
Godbole/CoinDesk/TradingView)
DEATH
CROSS!
Crypto
markets
suffered
one
of
their
worst
sell-offs
in
years,
a
week-long
tumble
that
took
the
bitcoin
(BTC)
price
down
to
$50,000,
from
$70,000
just
last
week
–
darkening
the
mood
across
a
blockchain
industry
that
until
very
recently
seemed
to
be
approaching
ebullient.
Despite
a
slight
price
rebound
on
Tuesday
and
Wednesday,
all
members
of
the
benchmark
CoinDesk
20
index
remain
deeply
in
the
red
over
the
past
week,
with
ether
(ETH)
suffering
its
biggest
single-day
price
drop
since
May
2021.
Alternative.me‘s
frequently
cited
“Fear
and
Greed
Index”
of
crypto-market
sentiment
swung
to
“extreme
fear”
from
“greed,”
and
a
dreaded
pattern
known
as
the
“death
cross”
is
now
forming
in
bitcoin’s
price
chart,
as
spotted
by
CoinDesk’s
Omkar
Godbole.
For
now,
the
default
view
is
that
this
is
a
market
blip
and
will
quickly
pass.
(Memecoins
appear
to
already
be
back.)
The
question
is
whether
questions
might
again
start
to
percolate
in
the
blockchain
industry
–
if
developers,
project
employees
and
fundraising
founders
will
soon
endure
another
round
of
the
bruising
existential
nerviness
that
permeated
the
industry
as
recently
as
late
last
year.
Macroeconomic
and
crypto-native
factors
were
cited
as
catalysts
for
the
past
week’s
selling:
the
prospect
of
rising
Japanese
interest
rates
(since
walked
back),
a
weaker-than-expected
U.S.
jobs
report,
tensions
in
the
Middle
East,
poor
earnings
at
tech
firms,
deflating
of
the
AI
hype,
bitcoin
miner
selling
and
rumors
that
market
maker
Jump
Trading
might
be
selling
ETH
due
to
speculation
it
would
be
forced
to
exit
the
crypto
business
due
to
regulatory
investigations.
The
end
result
was
some
$1
billion
in
crypto-futures
liquidations,
along
with
$350
million
of
decentralized-finance
(DeFi)
liquidations.
As
is
often
the
case,
there
were
some
winners,
along
with
opportunists
who
tried
to
buy
the
dip
or
disseminate
words
of
encouragement.
As
a
group,
bitcoin
whales,
as
large
holders
are
known,
accumulated
more
of
the
cryptocurrency
during
the
market
squall,
though
small
investors
were
apparently
so
unnerved
that
they
reduced
their
stakes,
CoinDesk’s
Krisztian
Sandor
reported,
citing
data
from
blockchain
analytics
firm
IntoTheBlock.
Bitcoin
exchange-traded
funds
(ETFs)
held
up
surprisingly
well,
with
just
$168
million
of
net
outflows
on
Monday
–
versus
the
“couple
billion”
that
Bloomberg
Intelligence
senior
ETF
analyst
Eric
Balchunas
said
he
was
expecting.
Ethereum
ETFs
actually
scored
net
inflows.
An
address
linked
to
the
infamous
$200
million
Nomad
cross-chain
bridge
exploit
in
2022
was
apparently
tempted
off
the
sidelines,
spending
about
$40
million
in
stablecoins
to
buy
up
ETH
at
the
heavily
discounted
price,
The
Defiant
reported.
Tron
founder
Justin
Sun
chimed
in
on
X
to
say
“we’re
creating
a
$1
billion
fund
to
combat
FUD,”
which
is
short
for
“fear,
uncertainty
and
doubt.”
Notably,
DeFi
platforms
maintained
operations
throughout
the
drama,
successfully
processing
liquidations
of
crypto
collateral,
and
the
lending
protocol
Aave
even
reportedly
generated
a
tidy
windfall
of
$6
million
in
fee
revenue.
Sean
Farrell,
a
crypto
analyst
at
FundStrat,
wrote
Tuesday
that
while
he
was
“encouraged”
by
the
“impressively
strong”
market
bounce,
“We
think
it’s
right
to
keep
some
dry
powder
on
hand
over
the
next
couple
of
weeks.”
:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/HCWFPSZZ4FE6RJ5SYEFPSS47EA.jpg)
This
is
a
T-shirt
I
bought
at
Goodwill
a
couple
years
ago
for
$3.99.
I
have
no
idea
what
it
was
originally
supposed
to
stand
for,
but
in
my
mind
it
stands
for
a
less
G-rated
version
of,
“Buy
the
Freaking
Dip.”
(Bradley
Keoun)
RONIN
RUN-IN:
It’s
only
been
two
years
since
the
Ronin
Network
made
headlines
from
suffering
a
$625
million
exploit,
one
of
the
largest
attacks
of
all
time
in
the
history
of
decentralized
finance
(DeFi),
which
is
rife
with
reports
of
massive
hacks.
The
episode
was
so
jarring
for
Ronin
–
an
Ethereum-compatible
blockchain
forged
for
gaming,
launched
by
Axie
Infinity
creator
Sky
Mavis
–
that
the
project’s
documentation
refers
specifically
to
the
lessons
learned:
“This
incident
led
Sky
Mavis
to
become
a
fully
antifragile,
zero-trust
organization.
Sky
Mavis
has
implemented
rigorous
internal
security
measures
to
prevent
future
attacks.
All
code
has
been
fully
reviewed
and
optimized,
with
security
experts
auditing
the
entire
architecture.”
Well,
on
Monday,
Ronin
posted
on
X
that
an
upgrade
of
its
bridge
had
“introduced
an
issue”
that
ultimately
allowed
hackers
to
make
off
with
about
$12
million
worth
of
ETH
and
the
stablecoin
USDC.
Ronin
Network
co-founder
Aleksander
Larsen
tweeted
that
some
$850
million
of
funds
were
safe
on
the
project’s
bridge,
and
it
was
later
disclosed
that
the
hackers
were
apparently
of
the
“white
hat”
variety
–
willing
to
return
the
stolen
funds,
typically
in
exchange
for
a
bounty.
The
project’s
official
account
on
X
went
out
of
its
way
to
point
out
that
the
ETH
and
USDC
tokens
taken
out
in
a
single
transaction
withdrawal
represented
the
“maximum
amount”
that
was
possible
to
extract:
“The
bridge
limit
serves
as
a
critical
safeguard
to
increase
the
security
of
large
fund
withdrawals,
and
it
effectively
prevented
further
damage
in
this
exploit.”
A
full
post-mortem
is
expected
next
week.
Elsewhere:
-
Trump
Sneakers,
a
website
owned
by
former
President
Donald
Trump
that
sells
themed
footwear
and
perfumes,
earlier
this
week
started
listing
a
range
of
limited-edition
sneakers
including
a
Bitcoin-themed,
high-top
version
that
costs
$499
a
pair
on
pre-order.
There
are
just
1,000
pairs
of
the
bright
orange
version,
and
they
already
sold
out. -
The
shares
of
bitcoin
miner
Core
Scientific
(CORZ)
surged
as
much
as
17%
on
Tuesday,
outperforming
other
crypto-linked
stocks,
after
the
company
signed
an
extension
of
its
earlier
high-performance
computing
(HPC)
contract
with
CoreWeave.
(According
to
its
website,
CoreWeave
is
a
“specialized
cloud
provider,
delivering
a
massive
scale
of
GPUs
on
top
of
the
industry’s
fastest
and
most
flexible
infrastructure.”)
Protocol
Village
Top
picks
of
the
past
week
from
our
Protocol
Village
column,
highlighting
key
blockchain
tech
upgrades
and
news.
:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/3WDNDAAMGRE3TIIFRJE3L5HBPY.png)
Chart
illustrating
the
drop
in
latency
from
a
blockchain
switching
to
the
Mysticeti-C
consensus
on
106
independently
run
validators.
(Mysticeti
white
paper
authors)
1.
Mysticeti,
a
consensus
protocol
based
on
directed
acyclic
graphs
(DAG)
that
“cuts
consensus
latency
to
390
milliseconds
and
establishes
Sui
as
the
fastest
consensus
layer
in
the
industry,”
has
been
deployed
on
Sui
mainnet
after
a
successful
run
on
testnet,
according
to
the
team.
2.
Polyhedra
Network,
a
team
building
a
crucial
blockchain
component
known
as
a
cryptographic
“prover,”
released
a
new
platform
called
“Proof
Arena”
that
will
“allow
ZK-proof
system
creators
to
compare
their
systems
against
others
in
a
clear
and
scientific
manner
while
ensuring
that
all
controllable
variables
are
held
constant,”
according
to
a
press
release
Wednesday.
Initially,
the
project
will
be
set
up
to
generate
benchmarks
for
Polyhedra’s
own
“Expander”
ZK-proof
system,
Polygon’s
Plonky3,
StarkWare’s
Stwo
and
Linea’s
Gnark.
“The
team
plans
to
support
all
open-source
proof
systems
and
will
provide
benchmarks
for
frequent
ZK
tasks
like
Keccak
and
Poseidon
hash
verification
run
on
a
variety
of
machine
configurations,”
according
to
the
press
release.
3.
Stakers
on
the
Injective
blockchain
on
Thursday
passed
the
“Altaris
Mainnet
Upgrade
Proposal,”
also
known
as
“IIP-420,”
and
deployment
of
the
upgrade
began
soon
afterward,
according
to
social-media
posts
by
the
project.
In
a
message
to
Protocol
Village,
the
team
described
Altaris
as
“a
major
update
enhancing
the
trader,
staker,
developer
and
end-user
experience.
It
includes
an
advanced
RWA
Oracle
for
expanded
tokenized
offerings,
improved
INJ
Burn
Auction
mechanics
and
market
enhancements
like
perpetual
market
launch
permissions
for
native
DEXs.
Altaris
introduces
SDKs
for
Python,
Go
and
TypeScript
for
developers,
enriched
interoperability
with
IBC
hooks,
streamlined
governance,
enhanced
security
for
the
Injective
Bridge
and
Ledger
wallet
integration.”
4.
Transak,
a
Web3
payments
infrastructure
provider,
has
“officially
launched
wire
transfers
as
a
new
payment
method
for
U.S.
users
to
purchase
cryptocurrencies,”
according
to
the
team.
“Implementing
wire
transfers
for
cryptocurrency
transactions
involves
intricate
processes,
from
handling
bank
transfers
to
ensuring
accurate
fund
reconciliation.
This
is
far
from
a
streamlined
task
and
requires
a
robust
and
lengthy
product
development
cycle.
Transak
has
invested
significant
time
in
building
a
comprehensive
system
that
ensures
smooth
fund
flow,
demonstrating
its
commitment
to
providing
a
seamless
user
experience.”
5.
Succinct,
a
platform
for
developers
to
build
decentralized
apps
with
zero-knowledge
proofs
(ZKPs),
announced
SP1
1.0,
the
production-ready
release
of
their
zkVM,
“enabling
builders
to
write
real-world
ZKPs
with
Rust
and
affordably
generate
proofs
in
real
time,”
according
to
the
team:
“The
co-founder
and
CEO
is
Uma
Roy.
The
platform
has
delivered
up
to
a
10x
performance
gain
in
latency/cost,
already
securing
over
$1
billion
in
TVL,
with
thousands
of
proofs.
With
more
than
100
billion
CPU
cycles
proven
on
the
prover
network’s
private
beta,
Succinct
is
trusted
by
Polygon
and
Celestia.”
According
to
a
blog
post:
“We
benchmark
SP1
against
RISC0
on
three
real-world
workloads
(Tendermint,
Reth
Block
17106222,
and
Reth
Block
19409768)
using
a
variety
of
cost-efficient
AWS
and
Lambda
Labs
GPUs
with
on-demand
pricing.”
Also:
“SP1
is
100%
open-source,
allowing
teams
like
Argument
(formerly
known
as
Lurk
Labs)
and
Scroll
to
implement
custom
precompiles
for
their
own
use-cases
that
have
dramatically
decreased
cycle
count
and
accelerated
proof-generation
time.”
Money
Center
Fundraisings
:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/5VNZYKKGEREY3CWZU46JIEV5ZQ.png)
Video
walk-through
of
“Duper,”
a
game
on
the
Arbitrum
One
blockchain
from
the
on-chain
gaming
studio
Curio
(Curio
via
YouTube)
-
Wireless
internet
provider
Andrena
has
raised
$18
million
in
funding
to
develop
a
protocol
for
decentralized
broadband.
The
protocol,
known
as
DAWN,
is
a
decentralized
physical
infrastructure
network
(DePIN),
designed
to
provide
homes
with
internet
without
having
to
rely
on
centralized
providers.
DAWN
is
currently
operating
in
a
testnet
environment
ahead
of
launching
on
Solana,
Andrena
announced
via
email
on
Wednesday. -
Daylight,
building
a
decentralized
protocol
that
will
eventually
allow
users
to
build
“virtual
power
plants”
using
“distributed
energy
resources”
(DERs),
launched
a
testnet
and
announced
a
$9
million
funding
round
led
by
the
venture
capital
firm
a16z.
Framework
Ventures
and
existing
investors
Lerer
Hippeau,
Lattice
Fund
and
Escape
Velocity
also
participated. -
Cartridge,
a
developer
of
provable
games
and
the
tooling
and
infrastructure
that
powers
them,
has
completed
a
$7.5
million
Series
A
funding
round,
led
by
Bitkraft
Ventures
with
additional
participation
from
Fabric,
Dune,
StarkWare,
Primitive
and
Ergodic. -
Zoth,
a
DeFi
yield
infrastructure
company,
raised
$4
million
in
a
strategic
round
to
accelerate
the
launch
of
its
Tokenized
Liquid
Note
($ZTLN).
According
to
the
team,
the
fundraising
attracted
“significant
investment
from
Taisu
Ventures,
G20,
Fat
Cat
Ventures,
GemHead
Capital
and
other
prominent
companies.” -
Blockscout,
an
open-source
block
explorer
for
EVM-based
chains,
completed
a
$3M
seed
round
led
by
1kx
with
participation
from
Primitive
Ventures
and
Gnosis,
according
to
the
team. -
EXCLUSIVE:
Khalani,
pioneer
of
a
decentralized
solver
platform
designed
to
unleash
the
full
potential
of
intents,
raised
$2.5M
in
a
seed
round
led
by
Ethereal
Ventures,
with
participation
from
Nascent
and
Figment
Capital.
According
to
the
team,
angels
include
Arthur
Hayes
via
Maelstrom,
Jan
Xie
and
Nick
White. -
Pichi
Finance,
a
trustless
points
trading
protocol
offering
price
discovery
to
tokens
pre
and
post-TGE,
completed
a
$2.5
million
seed
funding
round,
led
by
UOB
Venture
Management,
Signum
Capital
and
Mantle
Network.
Deals
and
grants
:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/IIQBEFFZW5CWVAOGJ6BXJ462EU.jpg)
Screen
grab
from
Arthur
Hayes’s
post
on
the
‘Airheads’
Bitcoin
Ordinals
collection
(Arthur
Hayes/Airheads)
-
Arthur
Hayes,
co-founder
of
the
BitMEX
crypto
exchange
who
now
serves
as
chief
investment
officer
of
his
own
private-wealth
office,
Maelstrom,
announced
his
first
NFT
collection,
Airheads,
using
the
Bitcoin
Ordinals
protocol,
and
disclosed
an
investment
in
Oyl
wallet.
According
to
a
blog
post
by
Hayes:
“Each
Airhead
is
an
inflatable,
balloon-like
character
generated
using
recursive
art
to
visually
represent
the
size
and
value
of
your
digital
portfolio
at
the
point
of
mint. -
The
venture
arm
of
cryptocurrency
exchange
OKX
and
the
Aptos
Foundation,
which
supports
the
development
of
the
Aptos
protocol,
set
up
a
$10
million
fund
to
encourage
the
growth
of
the
Aptos
ecosystem
and
broader
adoption
of
Web3.
The
accelerator
fund,
named
Ankaa,
will
be
used
to
develop
projects
built
on
Aptos,
according
to
an
emailed
announcement.
Ankaa
will
be
run
by
Aptos,
OKX
Ventures
and
Alcove,
Aptos’
accelerator
established
last
November.
Data
and
Tokens
Regulatory
and
Policy
Calendar
Aug.
6-8:
Asia
Blockchain
Summit,
Taipei.
Aug.
7-9:
Science
of
Blockchain
Conference,
New
York.
Aug.
19-21:
Web3
Summit,
Berlin.
Sept.
1-7:
Korea
Blockchain
Week,
Seoul.
Sept.
12-13:
Global
Blockchain
Congress,
Southeast
Asia
Edition,
Singapore.
Sept.
18-19:
Token2049
Singapore.
Sept.
19-21:
Solana
Breakpoint,
Singapore.
Sept.
25-26:
European
Blockchain
Convention,
Barcelona
Sept.
30-Oct.
2:
Messari
Mainnet,
New
York.
Oct.
9-11:
Permissionless,
Salt
Lake
City.
Oct.
9-10:
Bitcoin
Amsterdam.
Oct.
10-12:
Bitcoin++
mints
ecash:
Berlin.
Oct.
15-17:
Meridian,
London.
Oct.
18-19:
Pacific
Bitcoin
Festival,
Los
Angeles.
Oct.
21-22:
Cosmoverse,
Dubai.
Oct.
23-24:
Cardano
Summit,
Dubai.
Oct.
25-26:
Plan
B
Forum,
Lugano.
Oct.
30-31:
Chainlink
SmartCon,
Hong
Kong.
Nov.
10:
OP_NEXT
Bitcoin
scaling
conference,
Boston.
Nov
12-14:
Devcon
7,
Bangkok.
Nov.
15-16:
Adopting
Bitcoin,
San
Salvador,
El
Salvador.
Nov.
20-21:
North
American
Blockchain
Summit,
Dallas.
Feb.
19-20,
2025:
ConsensusHK,
Hong
Kong.
May
14-16:
Consensus,
Toronto.
May
27-29:
Bitcoin
2025,
Las
Vegas.