GM Readers!📪 It's BitDegree Insider, and here comes the Web3 train.
⭐️Today's selection:
- 🏃ETH Stakers In Action
- 💰Venture Mondays
- 👌Selected Meme of The Day
- 📰Bite-Sized News
ETH STAKERS IN ACTION
So, the Ethereum community is where's the buzz at. The long-awaited Shanghai Update unlocked the ability for ETH stakers to unstake their assets.
And it seems that many were impatient to do so.
During April 15th alone, stakers got really busy, and ended up by withdrawing almost 400,000 ETH.
Nevertheless, this is not a bad sign.
At the time of writing, ETH sells for over $2074. Despite minor fluctuations, the cryptocurrency's value has increased since the update.
And, as mentioned in our previous newsletters, the Shanghai Hard Fork worked as a trampoline for ETH to return to the $2000 price mark. For the first time in 11 months.
And as of today, according to the latest, since the upgrade, stakers withdrew 1.03 million ETH.
That's quite a... sum.
Right now the Ethereum blockchain has 540,000 active validators. Thanks to the update, 87% (469,000) of them have become able to withdraw their staked funds.
But, this staked ETH is not embarking on a fare-well journey. Many stakers return and re-stake their assets.
And, since now it's an option to withdraw their funds, it has become more attractive to become a validator for those, who can't afford taking the risk of locking their money away.
So, the bottom line here is simple.
No one's surprised, and the Ethereum blockchain continues implementing their plan of becoming a harder, better, faster, stronger blockchain.
TL;DR: Four Days After Shanghai Hard Fork, stakers withdrew 1.03 Million ETH. You can do the math. That's over $2 Billion.
VENTURE MONDAYS
Layer-1 blockchain focused on trading Sei, raised $30M in a funding round.
Jump Capital, Distributed Global, Multicoin Capital, Asymmetric Capital Partners, Flow Traders, Hypersphere Ventures and Bixin Ventures are among investors.
For example, Multicoin Capital previously played an important role in the growth of Solana & Aptos ecosystems.
Sei envisions itself as a DeFi-specific Layer-1 (L1) instead of an app-specific chain.
This distinction allows Sei to optimize its chain for a class or subset of protocols instead of attempting to create a one-size-fits-all solution.
You may wonder, what is 'App-specific' in such context?
App-specific Layer-1 solutions (L1s) are blockchains that have been developed exclusively for one or a few decentralized applications.
Cosmos Zones: a perfect example of app-specific L1s.
But, wait... what are these 'Cosmos Zones'???
These "Zones" are Cosmos-speak for "application-specific blockchains". Each Zone is a spoke connected to a hub. Hubs can be connected with other hubs. Together, this ecosystem of connected Hubs and Zones makes up the Cosmos Network, or what is commonly referred to as the 'Internet of the Blockchains'.
As you can tell... DeFi can really feel cyberpunkish. Like, literally.
So these are blockchains that are not optimized for any specific application, instead, they allow a variety of decentralized applications to be built on top of them. Like Ethereum or Solana.
To summarize, the Sei Network is the fastest Tier 1 blockchain being developed on the Cosmos SDK, specifically optimized for DeFi applications.
Now you know! Just remember that SEI and SUI are two different blockchains.
Naturally, we couldn't overlook the allure of activities! Given their substantial financial appeal, there's certainly a slice of the pie awaiting enthusiastic crypto-enthusiasts too!
Recently, Sei announced a collaboration with Blocked Protocol, which already features three quests that introduce us to projects on Sei, and for which rewards can be anticipated!
To begin, follow these steps:
1. Download Leap Wallet. 2. Claim SEI test tokens on their website and USDC here. Also, request SEI tokens within the Leap Wallet. 3. Next, visit Eclipse Pad and purchase at least 50 USDC worth of MANJI (using test tokens!). 4. Buy a few RUM tokens on SparrowSwap. 5. Now, head to the Blocked Protocol site and approve the completion of the steps above to earn points.
Please note that the platform may experience occasional delays, so exercise patience during this process.
Be sure to actively seek out more SEI activities independently and dive into your own research to gain a well-rounded perspective.
Wishing you the best of luck on this exciting journey!
And, as always. Not financial advice. Just recommendations, directions and ideas. Because we would have appreciated it when our own DeFi journey began.
SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY
BITE-SIZED NEWS
- Silk Road Marketplace Hacker Locked Behind Bars for One Year and One Day. During the investigations, US officials confiscated over $3.4 billion.
- Investors Reject Arbitrum's Proposal to Return 700M ARB Tokens to DAO Treasury. Around 84% of votes were cast against the proposal.
- Crypto Exchange Bittrex Allegedly Received SEC's Notice of Potential Action. It appears that SEC has chosen a new target.
With close to a decade of experience in the FinTech industry, Aaron understands all of the biggest issues and struggles that crypto enthusiasts face. He’s a passionate analyst who is concerned with data-driven and fact-based content, as well as that which speaks to both Web3 natives and industry newcomers.
Aaron is the go-to person for everything and anything related to digital currencies. With a huge passion for blockchain & Web3 education, Aaron strives to transform the space as we know it, and make it more approachable to complete beginners.
Aaron has been quoted by multiple established outlets, and is a published author himself. Even during his free time, he enjoys researching the market trends, and looking for the next supernova.