The long awaited Dencun upgrade sends gas fees on L2s to $0.01 and under as L2s integrate the changes to their chains. EigenLayer announces the road ahead for the mainnet launch of EigenLayer and EigenDA as liquid restaking projects, Renzo, EtherFi and Swell Network release major updates on their roadmap.

Overview

Total Value Locked (TVL) across all chains see a minor dip as cryptocurrency majors lose strength across the board amidst macroeconomic concerns. Notable outperformers to the trend include Frax Finance L2 Fraxtal, Bitcoin L2 Merlin and Blur L2 Blast, which all saw huge inflows over the week.

Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/chain-ranking/

Welcome to Alpha Central

ChiefingZa discusses the upcoming ETH ETF and why it seems like a mispriced opportunity.

TL;DR:

• On prediction markets, the estimated approval rate for the ETH ETF in May sits at 24%.

• Traditional analysts seem to be undervaluing the importance of ETH despite it being the second largest crypto asset.

• There is little ground to reject an ETH ETF after approving the BTC ETF

• The SEC is unlikely to get into another major lawsuit over crypto anytime soon especially after losing to Coinbase recently.

• Even if it is rejected in May 2024, the ETH ETF approval is likely an inevitable outcome and the trade will ultimately play out in the same way as the BTC ETF.

Ethereum: Dencun Hard Fork Completed

The Dencun hard fork for Ethereum mainnet has been successfully completed, bringing blobs to Ethereum L2s. This is expected to significantly lower gas fees on L2s by reducing the cost involved with posting data to the L1.

ETH restaking protocol, EigenLayer, announces their upcoming plans for the EigenLayer and EigenDA launch. The plan will span multiple phases to ensure a smooth rollout with minimal risks and optimize performance of the protocol.

Other Product Launches and Updates

• DAI stablecoin issuer, MakerDAO, successfully passes a governance vote to raise the DAI savings rate (DSR) to 15% for sDAI holders, while increasing the DAI borrow rate from 6.7% to 16%.

• MakerDAO unveils the first phase of Endgame: Launch Season, which will bring a new look and feel to the protocol, token rebrands for MKR and DAI, L2 expansion and the Spark SubDAO launch among other features.

• Multi-chain decentralized exchange (DEX), PancakeSwap introduces PancakeSwap V4, which brings hooks, custom pool types, gas optimizations and codebase open-sourcing among other features to the platform. V4 will go live in Q3 2024.

• Lending protocol, Sturdy Finance, shares about the Sturdy Subnet, a subnet on the Bittensor network, now live on testnet. The subnet aims to utilize information from aggregators to maximize yield for deposits on the platform.

• ETH native liquid restaking platform, EtherFi, reveals upcoming plans for the protocol, including Liquid, a managed DeFi strategy vault to supercharge returns for users, as well as Cash, a spending account to allow users to borrow against their EtherFi balances for spending in the real world.

L2s: Stacks Nakamoto Upgrade Incoming

Bitcoin L2, Stacks, announces the dates for the upcoming Nakamoto upgrade in between April 15th to April 29th. The upgrade brings the chain a trustless BTC peg with sBTC, faster block times as well as other improvements.

ETH liquid restaking protocol, Swell Network, reveals plans to develop a Swell Network zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) chain, powered by Polygon’s chain development kit and in collaboration with EigenLayer and AltLayer.

Other Product Launches and Updates

• ETH native liquid restaking protocol, Renzo, brings its services to Linea, expanding its reach now to six different chains including Arbitrum, Mode Network, Blast, BNB Smart Chain and Ethereum.

• Web3 social network, CyberConnect, launches Cyber, an L2 social chain with in-built restaking. Cyber is powered by EigenLayer, Optimism and in collaboration with AltLayer. Cyber will be secured by both staked ETH and CYBER tokens.

• Exotic derivatives platform, Y2K Finance, introduces Y2K V3: Tsunami. The new upgrade will introduce 24/7 coverage for all markets, deeper liquidity, fully tradable positions, settlement in a variety of financial instruments, cross chain liquidity provision and more.

• Synthetix founder, Kain Warwick, will be launching a memecoin on Optimism for SNX stakers as a small experiment with the lowered gas fees after the successful Dencun upgrade for Ethereum.

Solana: Unibot Team Separates Amidst Conflict

Telegram trading bot, Unibot, announces a split from the team running their Solana counterpart, Unibot on Solana, citing differences in core values. Unibot on Solana developer, cryptowhail, fires back with his side of the story as well.

Money market platform, Kamino Finance, modifies their point system to reflect criticism from the community after the initial KMNO token airdrop announcement. An additional allocation of tokens will be awarded to OG users of the platform and point allocations for specific assets will also be changed.

Solana-based perpetuals DEX, Zeta Markets, unveils their long-term roadmap, most notably including the upcoming Z token airdrop to decentralize the protocol as well as Zeta V3, which introduces Zeta-Lend, multi-collateral support and a vote-escrow model.

Cosmos: Astroport Arrives on Osmosis

Cosmos-centered DEX, Astroport, deploys an outpost to Osmosis, bringing their passive concentrated liquidity pools to the chain. Passive concentrated liquidity pools allow depositors to reap the benefits of concentrated liquidity without the need for active management.

Another Week, Another Airdrop

ETH liquid restaking platform, EtherFi, announces their token airdrop and releases the eligibility checker for users to verify their allocations.

Cross-chain bridge, Polyhedra Network, announces their token, ZK, and their upcoming airdrop, which will be distributed to bridge users, holders of the Pandra King NFT, campaign participants and zkBridge loyalty point holders.

Perpetuals and options DEX, Aevo, opens their airdrop for claims. AEVO tokens can still be earned on Aevo’s farming program, where the tokens earned will be unlocked on April 10th for claims.

Tweet of the Week

Cold Blooded Shiller reminds us all that while a bull market always feels like a rush, there isn’t always a need to rush to buy the dip to catch the pico-bottom.

Stay updated on your favorite projects and stay tuned for next week’s edition, and keep supporting your favorite projects, degens!