L2’s For Everyone

Alpha Team
August 23, 2024

🚀 Sony Launches Blockchain Network

New Blockchain Initiative: Sony and Startale Labs have announced Soneium, a layer-2 network on Ethereum. Soneium will utilize the OP Stack toolkit for network creation and Superchain connectivity.

Focus on Web3 Users First: Startale Labs' CEO, Sota Watanabe, stated that the first year will focus on onboarding Web3 users, with a plan to integrate Sony products like Sony Bank and Sony Music into the network within two years.

Long-Term Vision: By the third year, the aim is to onboard enterprises and general dapps. Watanabe emphasized that while the timeline is general, efforts to bring enterprises on board will begin in the first year. Read More.

️ On today's Top Picks:

📉 Ethereum Foundation deposits ~$94M of Ethereum to Kraken.
🌽 Corn launches Retroactive Airdrop.
📈 US Federal Reserve indicates interest-rate cuts are coming.
💰 WazirX to begin limited rupee withdrawals on August 26th.

Read time: ⏰ 6 minutes

Crypto News

• ⭐️ Sony to launch Ethereum Layer 2 called Soneium; built using Optimism OP Stack.

• Justin Sun's $USDD stablecoin is no longer backed by Bitcoin after ~$750M of Bitcoin backing is removed.

• ⭐️ Ethereum Foundation deposits ~$94M of Ethereum $ETH to Kraken.

• Kraken's motion to dismiss US SEC case denied by US District Judge.

• Binance Founder Zhao Changpeng (CZ) is expected to be released on September 29th.

• China extradites $14B pyramid scheme suspect from Thailand.

• Optimism introduces The SUNNYs, an awards ceremony with 540K $OP in prizes.

• Grayscale unveils Grayscale Avalanche $AVAX Trust.

• NEAR Protocol $NEAR deploys Nightshade 2.0 upgrade; adds stateless validation.

Alpha

• Zyfi launches Zyfi Paymater campaign on Galxe; 35K ZKsync $ZK prize pool.

• Babylon Bitcoin Staking Mainnet launches & quickly reaches staking cap.

• Zora posts ominous "the time is now" on X.

• RedStone Oracles partners with Venus Protocol to launch RedStone Expedition onchain quest.

• Weekly Crypto Update by mystri.

Airdrops

• Magic Eden to launch $ME token in next several months.

• ⭐️ Corn launches Retroactive Airdrop for Ethereum DeFi users & Bitcoin wallets.

• ICYMI Scroll Complete Mega Thread by Earndrop.

• ICYMI Weekly News by Earndrop.

• Corn Early Access by Alpha Drops.

Finance News

• ⭐️ US Federal Reserve Jerome Powell's statements indicate interest-rate cuts are coming.

• JPMorgan lowers Bitcoin mining stock targets amid rising hashrate & lower Bitcoin price.

• Russia to launch crypto exchanges and stablecoins linked to the Yuan & BRICS currency.

Security and Exploits

• ⭐️ WazirX to begin limited rupee withdrawals on August 26th; previously exploited for $230M.

• DMM Bitcoin hacker moves stolen Bitcoin to new addresses.

• Zellic acquires Code4arena, a smart contract audit platform.

• Crypto ISAC joins the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) program.

• Google patches high-severity security vulnerability in Chrome; flaw being actively exploited.

Token Unlocks

• Avalanche / 9.54M $AVAX / ~$203M / AUG 20
• Space ID / 18.49M $ID / ~$7M / AUG 22
• Galxe / 586.67K $GAL / ~$1M / AUG 23

Funding

• Satlayer raises $8M in Pre-Seed funding led by Hack VC & Castle Island Ventures.

• Credbull raises $5.2M in funding led by Gnosis.

• Arch Lending raises $5M in Seed funding led by Morgan Creek Digital & Castle Island Ventures.

• Stork raises $4M in Seed funding led by Faction & Lattice.

• Ark Labs raises $2.5M in Pre-Seed funding led by Tim Draper & Draper Associates.

• Ducat raises $1.25M in Pre-Seed funding led by UTXO.

• g8keep raises $1.25M in Pre-Seed funding.

• Binance Labs invests in Aggregata, Opinion Labs, Sidekick, & vooi.

The Degen Farmer

Top stablecoin yield farms of the day, more than $3,000,000 in TVL. DYOR and step up your farming game!

PROTOCOL	ASSETS	APY
Storm Trade (Ton)	USDT	58.40%
Merkl (Arbitrum)	USDEUSDT	51.58%
BFX (Blast Futures) (Blast)	USDB	30.13%
Extra Finance (Base)	USDZUSDC	30.07%
Aerodrome V1 (Base)	USDZUSDC	26.30%
Velodrome V2 (Optimism)	USDCDOLA	26.11%
Anzen V2 (Ethereum)	SUSDZ	24.30%
Turbos (Sui)	USDTUSDC	20.28%

. . .

⬆️ Zyfi: Pay With Any Token As Gas or Get It Sponsored

Zyfi: Gas Abstraction Layer: Zyfi is a Paymaster-as-a-Service that focuses on flexibility and ease of integration, originally created as a way to accelerate the adoption of paymasters in the zkSync ecosystem.

Partners & Funding: Zyfi has partnered with SyncSwap, Koi Finance, PancakeSwap, Increment Finance, several NFT projects, & more. Additionally, Zyfi has raised a total of $2M in Seed funding from a total of 15 investors.

🎁 Paymaster Campaign: Zyfi just launched a Paymaster campaign with a 35K ZKsync $ZK prize pool AND free transactions with its partners.

👉 Join the Zyfi Paymaster Campaign on Galxe

. . .

That’s it for today’s edition! See you soon.

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