Memecoin Protocol Raises $5.5M – This VC Calls It Ethereum Ordinals Moment – ​​DL News

general manager, Tim here.

Here’s what caught my eye about DeFi recently:

• What are Heroglyphs and How Do They Help Ethereum?
• Why the DoJ just shut down crypto mixer Samourai Wallet.
• Lessons learned from Renzo’s $56 million ezETH depeg.

$5.5 million hype for heroglyphs

DeFi users are spending big on Heroglyphs, a hot new project that aims to align crypto memecoin trading and Ethereum decentralization.

The Heroglyph Protocol will give Ethereum users who manage their own validators – or solo stakers – the ability to exclusively create a special new type of token.

The idea is that these exclusive tokens will become the new, popular way for speculators to create memecoins.

If successful, the demand for Heroglyphs should encourage more solo staking, making the Ethereum network more decentralized. The centralization of Ethereum validators is a an omnipresent worry among its users and developers.

According to Andrew Kang, co-founder of Mechanism Capital, Heroglyphs could be Ethereum’s “Ordinals moment”. Ordinal tokens exploded on the Bitcoin network last year and are collectively valued at over $2.1 billion.

So far, the Heroglyph protocol has released a white paper describing how the protocol works. He also launched a website which allows users to create multiple NFTs of varying cost.

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It is not yet clear what these NFTs will do. But that didn’t stop speculators from spending almost $5.5 million on them since they began striking on April 26.

Samourai Wallet founders arrested

The news sent shockwaves throughout DeFi: Authorities arrested two co-founders of Samourai Wallet amid charges from the U.S. Department of Justice, including conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Samourai Wallet, a Bitcoin wallet and cryptocurrency mixer, has a long history of not only facilitating private transactions but also actively welcoming those flouting US sanctions.

“Welcome new users of the Russian oligarch Samourai Wallet,” the project’s X account posted last June.

The United States has previously harshly criticized those accused of aiding countries it has sanctioned. You just have to ask Virgil Griffithan Ethereum developer sentenced to more than five years in prison for advising North Korea on how to use cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, which the nation-state uses to evade sanctions.

However, going after crypto mixers like Samourai Wallet is not a good way to prevent illegal transactions, said Mikko Ohtamaa, security researcher and CEO of trading protocol DeFi Trading Strategy. DL News.

“The most effective place to stop money laundering is centralized on- and off-ramps,” he said, referring to centralized crypto exchanges.

Renzo’s ezETH depegs

These loop deposits of Renzo’s ezETH recovery token just lost $56 million after the protocol’s REZ token announcement triggered a liquidation cascade.

Investors were disappointed after Renzo revealed that ezETH holders are set to receive 5% of the total REZ supply, compared to 2.5% for Binance launch pool participants.

This discrepancy has caused frustration among ezETH users, who feel that their four-month commitment to holding ezETH deserves a larger reward than that offered to those who participate in Binance’s seven-day introductory pool.

The incident also highlights issues with launching liquid staking or restaking tokens without giving users the option to redeem them for backing Ether.

This is not the first time that ezETH loopers have been affected in recent weeks. On April 11, an unexpected code change on the Blast-based Pac Finance protocol was triggered $26 million value of liquidations.

Data of the week — Distribution of heroglyphs

Looking for the latest hero updates? Check out the breakdown of NFTs created with Daedalus’ Dune Dashboard.

There are almost 20,000 unique wallets containing heroglyphs. (@daedalus_angels)

This week in DeFi governance

VOTE: Arbitrum DAO decides on the beneficiaries of its long-term incentive pilot program

VOTE: HAI to distribute its first round of community rewards

VOTE: Aave will host a Cantina security competition ahead of its v3.1 upgrade

Article of the week

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin explains Binius: A way to make cryptography proof systems binary.

What we’re looking at…

Restoration protocol EigenLayer has just announced its EIGEN token, along with an airdrop for early depositors.

Do you have a tip on DeFi? Contact us at tim@dlnews.com.

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