DeFi & L1L2 Weekly (08/11/2023)

Celestia launches its mainnet beta following the TIA token airdrop. Optimism introduces the Canyon Hardfork. Arbitrum DAO passes proposal to allow ARB token staking.

Weekly DeFi Index

This week’s market cap and volatility indices were positive at +15.30% and +36.93%, respectively, while the volatility index was negative at -40.54%.

Chart of the Week

Modular blockchain Celestia has successfully deployed its mainnet beta, enabling rollups and other modular chains to use it for data availability and consensus, marking the arrival of the ‘modular era’. This follows the airdrop of its native TIA token, issuing 60 million TIA to 580,000 active users in Cosmos and Ethereum Layer-2 ecosystems. 

The Celestia data availability (DA) layer incorporates a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain known as the celestia-app. This blockchain is the foundation for facilitating transactions within the DA layer and was developed using the Cosmos SDK. 

The launch of Celestia and TIA boosted the Cosmos ecosystem, with the total value locked (TVL) surging 23% month-on-month.

• Decentralised exchange PancakeSwap announced a partnership with DeFi protocol Bril Finance to introduce a portfolio manager function. This new feature allows PancakeSwap users to deposit tokens into single-asset vaults for investing in diverse liquidity pools. During the first four weeks of the feature’s launch, additional rewards in PancakeSwap’s governance token, CAKE, will be offered.

News Highlights

• Optimism announced the Canyon Hardfork, an upgrade to the Superchain that introduces support for Shanghai and Capella EIPs, bug fixes, and OP-Stack-specific changes. Canyon adjusts the EIP-1559 base fee change rate, and the deployment is scheduled for the OP Sepolia, OP Goerli, Base Sepolia, Base Goerli, PGN Sepolia, and Zora Sepolia testnets on 14 November.
• The Arbitrum DAO approved an initial governance proposal allowing holders of its ARB token to stake their holdings in exchange for a yield paid out in tokens. Over 66% of the members voted in favour of the lowest tier allocating 1% (100 million tokens) toward staking, and the annualised percentage yield can be anywhere between 7.84% and 78.43% depending on the percentage of ARB token supply staked. 
• DeFi protocol Aave paused its markets on multiple chains after receiving reports of an issue with the protocol. To mitigate risks, it paused Aave V2 on Ethereum and certain assets on Aave V2 on Avalanche, and froze certain assets on Aave V3 on Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism. 
• Layer-1 blockchain Cardano announced plans to use Polkadot’s Substrate framework to develop its upcoming ‘partner chain’ initiative. According to Cardano, Substrate was chosen for its modular structure and flexible design, and the partnership aims to create a global network of interconnected blockchains with the partner chain model, which will allow independent chains to interact seamlessly with each other.
• Frax Finance has regained control over its primary domains, frax.finance and frax.com, after a potential security breach. The company quickly resolved the misrouting issue, and an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the incident.
• A wallet address turned nearly 1.9 million Fantom (FTM) worth US$280,000 to US$1.9 million within hours of exploiting the Multichain Bridge. This was executed during a momentary opening in the long-frozen bridge, leading to insider job speculations among the crypto community. The wallet address first withdrew 1.9 million FTM and swapped them for BTC on the Fantom Network, then used the BTC for a cross-chain transfer through the Multichain Bridge to Ethereum.

Recent Research Reports

Research Roundup Newsletter [October 2023]	Friend.Tech	Alpha Navigator: Quest for Alpha [October 2023]

• Research Roundup Newsletter [October 2023]: We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring trending market insights in October, charts of the month, and our insights on friend.tech and SocialFi trends.
• Friend.Tech: Explore what friend.tech is, its success factors and criticisms, and some of the competing platforms that have emerged.
• Alpha Navigator: Quest for Alpha [October 2023]: US Federal Reserve holds steady on interest rates. BTC starts 4Q strong, outperforming other asset classes.

Recent University Articles

Boost Crypto Trading With Telegram Trading Bots: Everything to Know	Real-World Assets — Bringing Real-World Value to DeFi	How Do Social Dapps Work?

• Boost Crypto Trading With Telegram Trading Bots: Everything to Know: Telegram trading bots can execute trades on a trader’s behalf based on predefined triggers and market signals. Here’s how they work.
• Real-World Assets — Bringing Real-World Value to DeFi: Real-world assets (RWAs) utilise blockchain technology to track assets, with performance and valuation derived from sources outside the blockchain. Here’s how they work.
• How Do Social Dapps Work?: Social dapps leverage blockchain to create more transparent, secure, and user-centric online social interactions — here’s how they work and which platforms are popular in 2023.

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Research and Insights Team