The Eigen Expansion
Eigen Labs, the developers of EigenCloud, have introduced a new mechanism known as ‘multi-chain verification’, allowing Actively Validated Services (AVS) to be deployed beyond the Ethereum mainnet.
This new feature allows Eigenlayer services to be integrated and operated directly on Layer-2s, while retaining protocol security.
With multi-chain verification, protocols can instantly configure a fixed set of parameters to enable functionality on L2s in just a few hours.
As such, this allows developers to leverage faster speeds and cheaper costs on L2s to reach a wider range of users.
The initial deployment for multi-chain verification is live on Base’s Sepolia testnet, with a full launch slated for Q3.
The price of EIGEN has seen little change since the announcement, and is currently down 13.8% in the past week.
From Crypto to NFT Treasuries
As crypto treasury strategies continue to proliferate across TradFi, one particular company has taken it a step further.
GameSquare, an Ethereum holding company, has acquired a CryptoPunk NFT as a ‘strategic treasury asset,’
Punk $5577, one of 24 iconic Ape Punks in the collection, was purchased from Superstate founder Robert Leshner in exchange for $5.15M worth of the company’s preferred stock.
The NFT was originally acquired by Leshner for 2501 ETH, or around $7.7M in February 2022.
LetsBONK Turns Up the Heat
While popular memecoin launchpad Pump.fun had chosen to integrate a revenue-sharing feature to boost its newly launched PUMP token, it seems that their rivals have similar ideas.
The Solana-based LetsBONK platform has announced that it will redirect 1% of its total revenue to buy the tokens within their ecosystem.
According to a recent announcement by the team, earnings will be diverted from their existing marketing fund.
Co-founder Tom also added that the buybacks will occur on a weekly basis and any pair can be included, as long as they become one of the top pairs on the platform.
Based on data from Dune Analytics, LetsBONK has generated over $1M in daily revenue throughout July, translating to approximately $10K in buying pressure for its top tokens such as USELESS and ANI.
The price of BONK has risen by 120% over the past month, increasing its market cap from $1B in late June to $2.5B as of today.
On the other, PUMP has fallen below its ICO price of $0.04, falling by 57.4% from its all-time high of $0.068 to $0.029 as of the time of writing.
Takashi’s Trading Cards
Popular artist Takashi Murakami, best known for his smiling flower motif, has launched a new NFT trading card collection.
Known as 108 Flowers Revised, the collection will be based on his real-life works, and will be available to mint on the Base App.
An unlimited number of digital card packs will be up for grabs, with each pack costing 0.0014 ETH (~$5) , and contains 5 random cards.
The minting period is scheduled to begin on July 31 and will last for a week until August 8.
In Other News…
Ripple Co-founder Taking Profits?! Ripple’s co-founder Chris Larsen moved $140M worth of XRP to exchanges amid XRP’s recent surge to ATHs. The move was uncovered by crypto investigator ZachXBT.
Polychain Sells Remainder $62.5M Stake in Celestia. VC firm Polychain Capital sold its remaining TIA stake back to the Celestia Foundation. Polychain was one of Celestia’s earliest backers. Polychain was also criticised for selling the staking rewards of their still vesting TIA, reportedly selling more than $240M worth of TIA.
Injective Tokenizes SBET. The L1 Injective is reportedly attempting to tokenize shares of SharpLink, one of the largest publicly traded ETH treasury firm. Tokenization will allow SBET shares to be used in DeFi applications across Injective.
Justin Sun Rings the Bell. The founder of the TRON L1 rang the bell at the US NASDAQ stock exchange as his firm, Tron Inc. went public through a reverse merger.
MEI Pharma Establishes Litecoin Treasury. MEI Pharma, a publicly traded pharmaceutical company has raised $100M through a private placement as it pivots into becoming a Litecoin treasury firm.
Tokyo Beast Speedruns Shutdown. The crypto game Tokyo Beast announced its shutdown in August despite only launching in June. Tokyo Beast is based in the zkEVM L2 and cited rising operational costs as reason for the closure.
Horizen Migrates to Base. DCG-backed Horizen migrates its native ZEN token from its own L1 to the ETH L2 Base. This move is part of Horizen’s efforts to pivot into becoming a privacy focused L3 appchain.
Landmark Ruling for NFTs. The US Court of Appeals has found that NFTs are indeed “goods” that can receive trademark protection. This ruling is favorable for NFTs as it means that copycat artists are potentially liable for trademark infringement.