🟣 Airdrop April

The last day of Airdrop April went out with a bang.

Welcome back to 0xResearch – quick hitting alpha for the crypto degens. Here's what we got for you today:

  • Another BTC dip

  • EIGEN claims are open

  • Avalanche integrates with Stripe

  • KMNO launched

Bitcoin has once again dipped, returning to $61,000, while Ethereum holds at $3,000. The burning question remains: will this hold, or are we in for a more substantial downturn in the midst of this bullish market? Notably, Bitcoin is on track for its first monthly loss since August, contrasting from April's promising start when prices hovered around $70,000. Several factors contribute to this shift, including a decrease in demand for spot exchange-traded funds, speculation about sustained higher interest rates, and a general risk-off sentiment in equity markets.

Yesterday marked the much-anticipated opening of EIGEN claims, facilitated by the newly established Eigen Foundation. With a total token supply of 1.67 billion at inception, EigenLayer is set to allocate 15% of its tokens across various seasons to the "stakedrop". Notably, 45% of tokens are reserved for the community, divided into stakedrops, community initiatives, and ecosystem development. Investors and early contributors will receive 29.5% and 25.5% of the tokens, respectively, subject to a three-year lockup period, during which their holdings will gradually unlock at a rate of 4% per month after an initial year-long freeze. Furthermore, EigenLayer disclosed its whitepaper elucidating the token's structure and its integration within the EigenLayer ecosystem. The first season will start with the distribution of 5% of the token supply to users based on staking activity snapshots taken on March 15, 2024, with 90% of tokens being claimable by eligible restakers on May 10, followed by a second phase a month later for the remaining 10%. This recent news, much like all recent airdrop unveils, generated a wave of criticism on CT. The primary points of contention revolve around the non-transferability of the token at present and the geographical restrictions imposed on the claiming website.

Core, Avalanche’s native ecosystem wallet, has announced the integration of Stripe's onramp, offering users a broader array of options to purchase assets on the Avalanche blockchain. With this integration, Core users gain the convenience of selecting the Stripe onramp to replenish their wallets using ACH, debit, and credit cards. Notably, retail users now have the direct ability to purchase AVAX through Stripe, bypassing the need for exchanges, a feature currently available exclusively to U.S. users. This fiat-to-crypto onramp by Stripe comes in the form of a customizable widget, seamlessly embedded into various Avalanche dApps such as DEXes, NFT platforms, and digital wallets, marking a significant stride in enhancing accessibility and usability within the Avalanche ecosystem.

— Carolina (X: @GoldDefi)

Stacks is the leading Bitcoin L2 that enables smart contracts and decentralized applications to use Bitcoin as a secure base layer.

The Nakamoto release, happening in May 2024, will bring faster block times, as well as transactions that are as irreversible as Bitcoin’s once confirmed, setting the stage for a programmable Bitcoin asset called sBTC later in the year. ‍Stacks is poised to help unlock Bitcoin and its $1T in passive capital as a fully programmable, productive asset. The Stacks (STX) token, used as gas on the L2, was the first to undergo an SEC-qualified sale in the United States.

KMNO launch:

KMNO launched today and this is how the chart looks like. Kamino Lend is one of Solana’s most popular lending protocols, having amassed over $1b in deposits, flippening the deposits of incumbents MarginFi and Solend. By introducing KMNO staking to boost points for a season 2 of airdrop farming, the plan was to incentivize sticky deposits. Currently at a $40m market cap it seems like a low valuation, but there is a large supply overhang, as more tokens will be airdropped and unlocked. The reality is that the token’s value dropped around 80% in the first 15 minutes after trading started. It seems like despite efforts to make staking compelling and detailing the points program for season 2 of the airdrop, this was not enough to convince users who received the airdrop not to sell their tokens. Additionally, it's worth noting the significant disparity between KMNO's pre-launch market valuation on Drift, at $0.1-0.2, and its actual trading debut.

Perpetual futures stand out as one of the most dynamic segments within DeFi, characterized by constant innovation, whether that be through pre-market futures or access to community trading vaults. Despite this, perp DEXs currently constitute less than 2% of the total crypto perp volume.

Data publishing costs have historically been a bottleneck for rollups, and as more rollups launch, interoperability will continue to be a major challenge. Avail presents a potential solution to rollup fragmentation through its three products: Avail DA, Nexus, and Fusion, which together aim to unify the web3 experience.

There’s some truth to the EIGEN concerns popping up on Crypto Twitter.

Despite ordinal volume dipping following the Bitcoin halving due to high network fees, the latest Motoko Sentinel collection saw an increase in its trading volume

The insights, views and outlooks presented in the report are not to be taken as financial advice. Blockworks Research analysts are not registered broker/dealers or financial advisors. Blockworks Research analysts may hold assets mentioned in this report, further outlined in the Firm’s Financial Disclosures.

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