Layers 1 & 2 (Week 26, 28/06/2022 – 04/07/2022)
Ethereum delays difficulty bomb, and Sepolia testnet prepares for the Merge. Compass Mining denies unpaid bills comments amidst CEO&CFO resignations. Cardano successfully launches Vasil on its testnet.

Key Takeaways
- Ethereum (ETH) developers delayed the difficulty bomb to mid-September, while the Sepolia testnet is ready for the Merge trial.
- Compass Mining denied comments about unpaid electricity bills, while the CEO and CFO resigned, citing ‘setbacks and disappointments’.
- Cardano (ADA) successfully launched the Vasil upgrade on its testnet.
- Cronos (CRO) reached US$1.37 billion total value locked, increasing +18.62% from last week.
Highlights
- Polygon deploys custom blockchain scaling system ‘Avail’
- Bitcoin Lightning Network developer updates node software with Taproot support
- North Korean attackers behind US$100M Harmony hack: Report
- Optimism’s TVL doubles as trading activity surges on Layer 2s
- Battle-hardened Ronin bridge to Axie reopens following $600M hack
- Bitcoin miners unmoved by BTC price crash as mining power remains stable
- Spacechains: How this new Bitcoin sidechain proposal works
- Marathon Digital says Montana storm knocked out most Bitcoin rigs
- DappRadar and LayerZero launch chain-agnostic staking token
- Ethereum gas fees hit 20-month low amid market downturn
- Cardano becomes most actively developed project in crypto industry
Layer 1 Project Metrics

† Sum of P, X and C-chain total transactions
‘–’ denotes missing, unavailable, or incomplete data
Sources: Coingecko, Etherscan,Ethernodes, Cardanoscan, Avascan, Solana Beach, FTMscan, BSCscan,CronoScan, Cronos Explorer, DeFi Llama
Layer 2 Project Metrics
† Ronin is the sidechain developed by Sky Mavis for Axie Infinity
‘–’ denotes missing, unavailable, or incomplete data
Sources: DeFi Llama, Polygonscan, Clark Moody Bitcoin, 1ML, Ronin Explorer, Coingecko, Optimistic Etherscan, Arbiscan, Boba Explorer, Andromeda Metis Explorer
Author
Research and Insights Team