Crypto
traders
and
industry
executives
have
expressed
favor
toward
Republican
U.S.
presidential
candidate
Donald
Trump’s
policies
on
Bitcoin
and
digital
assets.
That
predisposition
has
not
translated
to
a
fondness
for
the
decentralized-finance
project
he
is
actively
promoting,
World
Liberty
Financial,
or
its
WLFI
tokens
–
as
he
found
out
this
week.
(Spoiler
alert:
The
tokens
are
not
exactly
flying
off
the
shelf.)
-
02:04
Tesla
Is
Moving
Bitcoin;
Trump-Supported
Token
Falls
Flat -
11:08
MoneyGram
Announces
Its
Latest:
MoneyGram
Wallet -
01:31
Bitcoin
ETFs
Are
“Trojan
Horse
for
Adoption”:
Bernstein -
02:28
Trump
Pumps
DeFi
Token
Sale;
Bitcoin
Price
Jumps
Above
$65K
-
Kamala
Harris’s
“opportunity
agenda”
falls
short
on
crypto-policy
details. -
Bitcoin’s
ecosystem
is
creeping
not
leaping,
argues
Coinbase’s
research
chief. -
Answering
questions
you
didn’t
know
you
needed
to
ask
about
decentralized
exchange
Uniswap’s
new
layer-2
chain. -
A
new
way
of
ranking
blockchain
oracle
projects
–
with
a
different
result. -
Tesla’s
bitcoin
transfers. -
$76
million
of
blockchain
project
fundraisings. -
Top
picks
from
the
past
week’s
Protocol
Village
column:
Karate
Combat,
Hedera,
Nexus,
RootstockLabs,
BitVMX,
The
Depository
Trust
&
Clearing
Corporation
(DTCC),
Ben
Rubin,
Towns.
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/NWLHJNZH5FDCRNWNS6TWQLTEME.jpg)
Screenshot
from
title
page
of
World
Liberty
Financial’s
“Gold
Paper,”
published
this
week
(World
Liberty
Financial)
SMALL
HANDS?
A
crypto
project
endorsed
by
U.S.
Republican
presidential
nominee
Donald
Trump
pushed
forward
with
a
plan
to
raise
hundreds
of
millions
of
dollars
by
selling
tokens.
But
demand
for
World
Liberty
Financial’s
WLFI
tokens
proved
underwhelming,
with
an
Ethereum
wallet
connected
to
the
effort
holding
crypto
proceeds
of
just
$11
million
as
of
press
time,
or
roughly
3.6%
of
the
amount
allocated
to
the
public
sale
–
not
even
enough
to
cover
a
reserve
for
basic
expenses.
Loyal
readers
of
The
Protocol
will
recall
that
CoinDesk
was
first
to
report,
in
early
September,
on
the
secret
planning
for
World
Liberty
Financial
–
mostly
confirmed
a
couple
weeks
later.
We
also
chronicled
the
dismay
over
the
project
from
hardcore
Bitcoiners,
who
typically
hate
the
idea
of
selling
easily
minted
tokens,
prompting
some
of
them
to
reconsider
their
political
support
for
Trump.
Finally,
last
week,
official
details
of
what
the
project
actually
is,
or
aims
to
be,
began
to
emerge:
Still
to
be
developed
and
launched,
it’s
a
“best-in-class
consumer
application,”
distinguished
by
“simple
onboarding
and
familiar
UI/UX
via
one-click
social
login
and
wallet
creation,”
according
to
a
blog
post.
(UI/UX
is
shorthand
for
user
interface
and
user
experience.)
Under
the
hood,
the
project
plans
to
operate
an
instance
of
the
decentralized-finance
(DeFi)
project
Aave
atop
the
Ethereum
blockchain,
with
plans
to
eventually
deploy
on
the
layer-2
network
Scroll,
according
to
the
blog.
World
Liberty
Financial
even
posted
a
“temperature
check”
proposal
to
the
Aave
governance
discussion
forum
to
gather
community
feedback.
One
commenter
inquired
aloud
whether
the
deal
made
sense
for
Aave,
given
that
the
Trump-affiliated
project
would
promise
20%
of
revenue
to
Aave,
“compared
to
100%
from
the
main
Aave
instance,”
and
added
that
“it’s
worth
evaluating
whether
this
might
lead
to
internal
competition
between
Aave’s
current
market
and
WLF’s,
or
if
the
growth
from
new
users
and
increased
liquidity
will
far
exceed
any
potential
downside.”
One
snarky
poster
wrote
that
“the
irony
of
a
man
notorious
for
not
paying
back
creditors
launching
a
decentralized
lending
protocol
is
almost
too
good
to
be
true.”
Several
notable
crypto
figures
joined
a
Spaces
session
on
X
on
Monday
to
promote
the
token
launch,
including
Stani
Kulechov,
founder
of
Aave;
Sandy
Peng,
co-founder
layer-2
network
Scroll;
and
Luke
Pearson,
senior
research
cryptographer,
Polychain
Capital.
“My
DM’s
have
been
blowing
up
since
this
project
happened,”
Scroll’s
Peng
volunteered.
Project
officials
said
on
the
Spaces
that
some
100,000
users
had
already
been
whitelisted
to
claim
the
tokens.
Additional
details
came
on
Tuesday
when
the
project
released
a
“Gold
Paper”
with
lots
of
fine
print,
including
the
revelation
that
the
initial
$30
million
of
“net
protocol
revenues”
–
including
token
sale
proceeds
–
would
be
set
aside
to
cover
“expenses,
indemnities
and
obligations”
–
and
that
most
of
the
rest
of
the
money
would
go
to
a
company
called
“DT
Marks
DEFI
LLC,”
whose
owners
and
principals
include
Donald
Trump.
(That
company
also
was
allocated
22.5
billion
$WLFI
tokens,
worth
about
$337
million
at
the
fixed
price
of
$0.015
each.)
The
public
token
sale
opened
early
in
U.S.
business
hours
on
Tuesday,
though
the
website
for
claiming
the
tokens
quickly
crashed
and
was
down
for
most
of
the
morning;
there
was
virtually
no
communication
from
the
team
about
what
was
happening.
Commenters
on
the
social-media
site
X
widely
noted
that
the
token
was
“non-transferrable,”
seen
as
a
serious
drawback
for
fast-moving
crypto
trading
types.
At
about
7
p.m.
ET,
Trump
took
to
X
to
tout
the
token
sale,
writing
“Today’s
the
day!
@WorldLibteryFi
token
sale
is
live.”
After
apparently
discovering
that
World
Liberty
Financial’s
X
handle
had
been
misspelled,
the
post
was
deleted,
and
then
reposted
with
the
properly
spelled
handle,
@WorldLibertyFi.
The
extra
promotion
didn’t
appear
to
have
much
of
an
impact,
with
sales
continuing
at
a
trickle.
As
of
Wednesday,
some
761.8
million
tokens
have
been
sold,
out
of
20
billion
offered,
according
to
a
dashboard
on
the
crypto-tracking
website
Dune
Analytics.
Dave
Rodman,
founder
and
managing
partner
of
Rodman
Law
Group,
who
counts
digital-assets
and
venture
capital
among
his
practice
areas,
told
CoinDesk
in
an
emailed
comment
that
World
Liberty
Financial
appears
fraught
with
both
securities-regulation
and
campaign-finance
risks
–
“a
joke
project
designed
to
extract
value
from
purchasers
in
a
very
cynical
manner
whose
principals
will
likely
not
face
any
real
consequences
and
in
the
worst
scenario,
only
serve
to
hurt
this
industry’s
reputation
in
the
long
run.”
Here
was
the
Bankless
newsletter’s
take:
“Whether
the
project
can
overcome
skepticism
and
regain
momentum
remains
to
be
seen,
but
the
rocky
start
is
a
reminder
that
high-profile
backers
aren’t
a
guarantee
for
success
in
DeFi.”
It’s
important
to
note
here
that
the
team
behind
World
Liberty
Financial
has
not
responded
to
CoinDesk’s
repeated
requests
for
comment
over
the
past
two
days.
ELSEWHERE:
-
Vice
President
Kamala
Harris
touted
her
“opportunity
agenda”
during
a
campaign
speech
on
Monday
without
elaborating
on
what
it
would
mean
for
digital
assets.
Earlier
in
the
day,
the
campaign
unveiled
the
broad
agenda,
which
included
the
first
thing
resembling
a
substantive
policy
position
from
her
on
cryptocurrencies.
But
anyone
hoping
for
more
details
from
her
speech
in
Erie,
Pennsylvania,
was
left
disappointed. -
Tigran
Gambaryan,
the
crypto
exchange
Binance’s
head
of
financial
crime
compliance,
who
has
been
detained
in
Nigeria
since
February,
was
denied
bail
by
a
judge
in
the
country,
a
family
spokesperson
said
Friday.
He
has
been
in
the
notorious
Kuje
prison,
facing
charges
including
money
laundering. -
Coinbase
Head
of
Research
David
Duong
published
a
lengthy
report
on
Bitcoin’s
blooming
ecosystem
of
layer-2
networks,
designed
to
accommodate
faster
and
cheaper
transactions,
as
well
as
greater
programmability.
But
the
report
cautioned
that
“many
of
these
protocols
are
in
their
early
development
stages,
so
we
think
it
will
likely
take
time
for
their
utility
in
the
Bitcoin
ecosystem
to
be
fully
realized.”
He
wrote
that
“many
of
the
network’s
L2s
are
mainly
sourcing
capital
from
among
crypto
natives
within
the
Bitcoin
ecosystem,
while
the
lion’s
share
of
bitcoin
unsurprisingly
still
remains
on
the
L1.
Moreover,
bitcoin
accumulation
is
happening
more
and
more
via
spot
bitcoin
ETFs
and
other
exogenous
sources.” -
Ethereum
suffers
from
“middle-child
syndrome,”
Zaheer
Ebtikiar
of
Split
Capital
wrote
on
X.
“The
asset
is
not
in
vogue
with
institutional
investors,
the
asset
lost
favor
in
crypto
private
capital
circles,
and
retail
is
nowhere
to
be
seen
bidding
anything
at
this
size.”
Uniswap’s
New
Layer-2
‘Unichain’
on
OP
Stack:
Industry
Reactions
:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/PIUMJUDA4FBA7F2JVKZYY5VKMY.jpg)
Uniswap
Labs
CEO
Hayden
Adams
(Uniswap
Labs)
The
developer
behind
Uniswap,
the
biggest
decentralized
exchange,
announced
plans
for
Unichain,
its
own
layer-2
network
atop
Ethereum,
built
with
technology
borrowed
from
the
Optimism
ecosystem.
We
rounded
up
some
of
the
commentary.
-
Per
Messari’s
Kinji
Steimetz:
“Unichain
can’t
incentivize
liquidity
through
traditional
means
since
the
token
has
already
been
released,
eliminating
the
possibility
of
airdrop
farming
for
TVL….
The
most
plausible
path
for
Unichain
to
gain
traction
could
be
something
akin
to
the
Base
launch,
where
people
bridged
over
to
chase
early
memecoin
opportunities.
With
Unichain,
UNI
now
has
a
potential
path
to
monetization
as
an
L2
token.” -
Per
Coinbase
Research:
“The
network
is
designed
to
facilitate
‘seamless
multi-chain
swapping’
among
Superchain
L2s
while
supporting
ERC-7683
to
enable
broader
interoperability
for
non-Superchain
L2s.
But
the
documentation
provided
by
Uniswap
doesn’t
detail
an
explicit
plan
for
how
it
will
migrate
existing
liquidity
from
the
Ethereum
base
layer
to
the
new
L2,
nor
does
it
confirm
whether
this
is
even
necessary
for
Unichain’s
immediate
strategy.” -
Eric
Waisanen,
cofounder
of
Astrovault,
an
automated
market
maker,
wrote
in
an
op-ed
for
CoinDesk
that,
“Despite
the
platform’s
continued
success
and
prominence
within
DeFi,
serious
questions
remain
about
the
sustainability
of
its
business
model
and
those
of
similar
automated
market
makers
(AMMs).” -
DeFi
Report
founder
Michael
Nadeau
noted
that
“instead
of
paying
$368
million
in
settlement
fees
to
Ethereum
validators,
Uniswap
Labs
and
potentially
UNI
holders
would
capture
all
that
value
when
they
launch
on
Unichain,”
according
to
a
story
by
Unchained.
Money
Center
Fundraisings
:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/LZQCR6O5CJBY3J5WBJQIRL4A24.png)
-
Predicate,
a
project
to
build
a
“network
for
simplifying
transaction
prerequisites,”
has
raised
$7
million
led
by
1kx
and
Tribe
Capital.
According
to
a
thread
on
X:
“As
was
the
case
for
apps
like
Venmo
and
Uber,
pre-transaction
rules
become
a
critical
building
block
as
Web3
apps
scale
into
the
broader
global
economy.
Predicate
brings
this
concept
on-chain,
offering
a
library
of
prerequisites
enforceable
in
a
trust-minimized
way.
At
the
core
of
our
system
is
the
Predicate
function,
which
evaluates
conditions
and
returns
true
or
false,
deciding
whether
an
onchain
action
can
proceed.
Predicates
are
the
foundation
for
rules,
which
are
stacked
to
form
policies.
Any
entity
–
individuals,
DAOs,
organizations
–
can
create
and
manage
policies,
which
use
both
onchain
and
offchain
data
like
flow-of-funds,
allowlists,
and
verifiable
credentials.” -
Others
(Details
in
Protocol
Village
column):
Ithaca
($20M),
Solv
($11M),
PiP
World
($10M)
Mento
($10M),
Yala
($8M),
Apex
Fusion
($6M),
Blockcast
($2.85M),
Moonveil
($2M)
Deals
and
grants
:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/NIPXUBUDRFCVLBWVW2X5726V6E.jpg)
Kadena’s
Alana
Ackerson
(Kadena)
-
Kadena,
a
proof-of-work
blockchain
that
says
it
can
scale
to
power
global
financial
systems
by
braiding
together
multiple
Bitcoin-like
chains,
has
appointed
Alana
Ackerson,
a
executive
of
Thiel
Foundation,
SoFi
and
Digital
Currency
Group,
as
strategic
advisor,
“marking
a
strategic
push
into
asset
management
and
institutional
tokenization.”
Ackerson
previously
served
as
CEO
of
HQ
Digital,
a
wealth
management
subsidiary
of
DCG
that
catered
to
crypto
millionaires,
and
she
co-founded
Figure,
a
crypto
unicorn
best
known
for
its
blockchain-powered
home-equity
lines
of
credit,
according
to
the
team.
She
also
led
the
Thiel
Foundation
as
CEO.
Data
and
Tokens
Regulatory
and
Policy
Who’s
the
Biggest
Blockchain
Oracle?
It
Depends
:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/D5BSMACQ65AE5O4MYMWIMD4V7U.png)
Comparison
of
market-share
rankings
for
oracle
projects
based
on
total
value
secured
(left)
and
total
transaction
value
(Blockworks
Research)
A
recent
Blockworks
Research
report
on
blockchain
oracle
projects
was
brought
to
our
attention,
showing
different
ways
of
ranking
them
–
and
how
starkly
different
the
results
can
be.
Oracles
are
crucial
for
DeFi
systems
because
they
deliver
off-chain
information
–
such
as
cryptocurrency
prices
–
onto
blockchains,
where
it
can
be
read
and
processed
by
decentralized
applications
and
smart
contracts.
One
thing
to
note
here
is
the
huge
disclaimer
that
the
Blockworks
research
was
funded
by
Pyth
Data
Association,
an
organization
supporting
the
blockchain
oracle
project
Pyth,
which
clearly
benefits
from
the
report’s
conclusions.
The
report
notes
that
“total
value
secured,”
or
TVS,
has
historically
been
the
most
popular
way
of
ranking
these
projects.
The
metric
is
described
as
“how
much
value
is
secured
by
each
oracle,
which
is
the
equivalent
to
the
total
pool
of
value
that
would
be
lost
if
an
oracle
malfunctioned
or
reported
incorrect
prices
in
a
worst
case
scenario.”
“TVS,
at
best,
measures
a
pool
of
financial
assets
associated
with
an
oracle’s
services,
but
completely
eschews
the
application’s
activity
associated
with
an
oracle,”
according
to
the
author,
Ryan
Connor.
An
alternative
metric
is
total
transaction
value,
or
TTV,
which
is
“more
strongly
correlated
to
frequency
of
oracle
price
updates
and
therefore
oracle
revenue,”
according
to
Connor.
“We
think
the
flaws
in
TVS,
combined
with
the
increasing
demand
for
speed
in
DeFi
ecosystems,
and
the
necessity
of
DeFi
to
compete
with
centralized
exchanges,
makes
TTV
the
most
useful,
publicly
available
key
performance
indicator
for
assessing
oracle
fundamentals
today,”
the
report
concludes.
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/DGPCDQ23ZFDTTOV4MIR3SDE6NA.jpg)
Karate
Combat’s
Tech
Hustler
and
Tactical
Investing
fight
at
CoinDesk
Consensus
in
May
2024
in
Austin,
Texas.
(Shutterstock
for
Consensus)
-
Karate
Combat,
a
Web3-enhanced
professional
contract
sports
league,
is
launching
UP,
a
layer-2
blockchain
and
crypto-native
software
licensing
platform
built
on
Hedera
in
Q1
2025,
according
to
the
team.
“Partners
on
UP
can
clone,
customize
and
launch
KC’s
native
mobile
apps
with
no
licensing
fee.
The
$UP
token
is
expected
to
launch
in
2025.”
According
to
a
press
release:
“The
software
stack
includes
native
iOS
and
android
mobile
apps,
a
web
app
and
an
on-chain
backend.” -
Nexus,
developer
of
a
zero-knowledge
virtual
machine
zkVM
written
in
Rust,
says
it
has
launched
the
first
beta
release
of
the
Nexus
network,
“the
world’s
first
open
prover
network.”
According
to
the
team:
“This
is
the
first
distributed
zero
knowledge
VM-based
prover
network
that
is
accessible
to
anyone.
The
network
aggregates
the
collective
power
of
any
connected
device,
from
massive
GPU
farms
to
your
computer
or
phone.
Our
goal
is
to
unite
the
world’s
computers
into
a
single
supercomputer
that
will
be
able
to
prove
all
the
Internet’s
computations,
unlocking
the
Verifiable
Internet.” -
Sergio
Lerner,
chief
scientist
at
RootstockLabs,
announced
that
development
has
begun
on
Union,
a
new
permissionless
and
trust
minimized
bridge
based
on
BitVMX
and
the
disputable
computing
paradigm.
According
to
the
team:
“In
addition,
it
was
confirmed
that
the
full
codebase
for
BitVMX
will
be
open
sourced
as
a
gift
to
the
Bitcoin
community.
BitVMX
unlocks
a
whole
host
of
new
use
cases
for
Bitcoin,
including
the
creation
of
new
Bitcoin
L2
light
clients,
zero-knowledge
contingent
payments
and
autonomous
bug
bounty
programs.
These
announcements
were
made
on
stage
during
Bitcoin
Amsterdam.” -
The
Depository
Trust
&
Clearing
Corporation
(DTCC),
a
post-trade
market
infrastructure
for
the
traditional
financial
industry,
unveiled
“DTCC
Digital
Launchpad,”
described
as
“an
industry
sandbox
intended
to
bring
together
financial
market
participants
and
clear
the
path
to
scalable
adoption
of
digital
assets.
As
an
open
ecosystem,
DTCC
Digital
Launchpad
will
feature
market
participants,
technology
providers
and
others
working
together
to
identify
and
collaborate
on
meaningful
pilots
that
have
a
clear
path
to
production.
“We’ve
reached
a
critical
inflection
point
in
the
adoption
of
digital
asset
technology,”
said
Nadine
Chakar,
global
head
of
DTCC
Digital
Assets.” -
Ben
Rubin,
the
former
founder
of
HouseParty
and
Meerkat,
has
launched
Towns,
a
decentralized
messaging
platform
built
on
the
River
Protocol.
According
to
the
team:
“Towns
enables
secure,
permissionless
group
chats
designed
for
digital
communities,
allowing
users
to
own
and
manage
their
spaces.
Key
features
include
end-to-end
encryption,
decentralized
ownership,
and
a
reputation
system
that
prioritizes
privacy.
Backed
by
a16z,
Towns
aims
to
blend
the
user-friendly
experience
of
Web2
messaging
with
the
incentives
of
Web3,
offering
a
secure
alternative
to
traditional
platforms
often
criticized
for
privacy
concerns.”
