Weekly DeFi Index
The market capitalisation index was positive at +12.12%, while the volume and volatility indices were negative at -29.96% and -56.28% respectively.
- MakerDAO, the protocol behind the US$5 billion DAI stablecoin, announced an open competition called ‘Spark Tokenization Grand Prix’ to invest $1 billion of its reserves into tokenised US Treasury products. Top players in the tokenised real-world asset (RWA) space are lining up to apply for this investment plan, including:
- BlackRock’s BUIDL with over $500 in assets under management (AUM);
- Superstate, whose USTB product had $97 million in AUM;
- Ondo Finance, an RWA platform with $550 million total value locked (TVL).
Chart of the Week
Ethereum Layer-2 (L2) rollups, which include optimistic and zero-knowledge (ZK) rollups, have seen a significant drop in unique depositors. In the past week, there were only 34,920 unique depositors in these rollups, a 33% decrease compared to the previous week, marking a nearly two-year low since October 2022. The decline may be attributed to several factors, like shifting user preferences away from L2s, lack of growth in the ecosystem, and a fall in incentives after recent airdrops from platforms like Arbitrum, Optimism, ZKSync, and Starknet.
The drop in unique depositors has led to a corresponding decline in TVL in L2 rollups. The combined TVL of L2 rollups has fallen by over 15%, from an all-time high of $45.1 billion in early June to around $37.9 billion on 15 July. However, L2 rollups have seen a 82% increase in TVL year-to-date.
News Highlights
- Bitcoin transaction fees hit a four-year low on 7 July 2024, falling to $38.69 per transaction. This is the lowest level since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
- L2 network Starknet will introduce staking to its ecosystem by the end of 2024, as announced by the company’s CEO Eli Ben-Sasson at the Ethereum Community Conference in Brussels, Belgium. Ben-Sasson submitted a proposal that suggests users can choose to become stakers, with rewards being proportional to the amount of STRK tokens staked by locking their tokens for 21 days before being able to withdraw the funds.
- SingularityNET, an artificial intelligence platform, and the Filecoin Foundation, the governance body behind the Filecoin network, announced a collaborative partnership. The partnership aims to integrate the AI and decentralised physical infrastructure network (DePIN) industries while maintaining decentralisation, AI ethics, and data provenance.
- Multiple DeFi apps were targeted in a domain registry attack on 11 July, according to blockchain security platform Blockaid. The attack appears to have exploited a vulnerability in Squarespace’s domain registry system. The victims include Compound Finance, which redirects the compound.finance interface to a malicious website equipped with a token drainer. The attacker also attempted, but failed, to take control of Celer Network’s registry. Blockaid concluded that the attacker had been targeting domain names provided by Squarespace, potentially putting any DeFi app with a Squarespace domain at risk.
- DeFi protocol Dough Finance lost $1.8 million in digital assets after a flash loan attack on 12 July 2024, detected by Web3 security firm Cyvers.
Recent Research Reports
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Research Roundup Newsletter [June 2024] | New Developments in GameFi: Play-to-Airdrop and Prediction Markets | Spot Ethereum ETFs |
| Research Roundup Newsletter [June 2024] |
|---|---|
| New Developments in GameFi: Play-to-Airdrop and Prediction Markets |
| Spot Ethereum ETFs |
- Research Roundup Newsletter [June 2024]: We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our deep dives into ETH ETFs, GameFi, and New Layer-2s.
- New Developments in GameFi: Play-to-Airdrop and Prediction Markets: Both play-to-airdrop and prediction markets have blurred the boundaries between Web2 and Web3. Our latest report looks into new developments in GameFi by delving deeper into these two trends.
- Spot Ethereum ETFs: In May, the SEC approved eight spot Ether ETFs, potentially launching in July. These ETFs, unlike Bitcoin’s, offer staking rewards. Projections estimate ETH ETFs could see $1.4 to $4.5 billion in inflows and $700 million to $2.4 billion in trading volume within six months. Ethereum’s scalability upgrades enhance its investment appeal.
Recent University Articles
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| What Are Crypto Airdrop Scams and How to Avoid Them | What Is ORDI and How to Buy the ORDI Token | Trading Cryptocurrency With Moving Averages |
| What Are Crypto Airdrop Scams and How to Avoid Them |
|---|---|
| What Is ORDI and How to Buy the ORDI Token |
| Trading Cryptocurrency With Moving Averages |
- What Are Crypto Airdrop Scams and How to Avoid Them: Crypto airdrop scams are making the rounds. Here’s how to spot phishing airdrops and protect your assets from scammers.
- What Is ORDI and How to Buy the ORDI Token: ORDI was the first BRC-20 token on the Bitcoin blockchain. Here’s an introduction to the Ordinals meme coin and how it works.
- Trading Cryptocurrency With Moving Averages: Moving averages smooth out price data to help identify trends and reversal points. Here’s how to use them in crypto trading.
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