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tl;dr: risk returns, UNI implementing fees/NFTs, Art Blocks/gen art recovers, CRV/AAVE stablecoins, Otherside demo, SYN chain, Potatoz consume volume, zkEVM race heats up, and all eyes on ETH merge

Token & Protocol Developments:

Core Protocol Announcements:

• UNI — confirmed to launch NFT marketplace with full sudoswap (XMON) integration; UNI proposal to take a massive step towards enabling protocol fee generation for USDC/ETH and USDC/USDT pools; good thread here

• Curve (CRV) hinting at its own new over-collateralized stablecoin is on its way

• AAVE officially passes vote for creation of over collateralized stablecoin GHO

• Polygon (MATIC) — launches their Polygon zkEVM L2 on testnet; MATIC also to bring NFTs to new Android-based Nothing smartphone

• LDO — launching liquid staking stETH on L2s

• SOL implements long awaited fee-based execution priority; data & thread here

• XMON — long awaited sudoswap is now live

• MKR — MakerDAO passes two substantial votes in July, one diversifying it’s treasury into US treasuries/IG corporate bonds and the second creating a DAI vault for Huntingdon Valley Bank consisting of RWAs (real world assets)

Cosmos Ecosystem:

• RUNE’s THORChain, cross-chain DEX, begins phasing out RUNE pegged ETH.RUNE & BNB.RUNE tokens from ETH & BNB

• ATOM ecosystem getting first price oracle for IBC through Umee

• TFM, DEX and NFT aggregator on Cosmos’ JUNO, is now live

• Cosmos (ATOM) ecosystem now able to access THORChain (RUNE) liquidity

• DOT’s Moonbeam partners with Cosmos based OSMO to enable direct swaps and interoperability between Cosmos and Polkadot ecosystems

L2s & Scaling:

• Scroll, zkEVM based ZKRs, releases pre-alpha version of Scroll for testing

• zkSYNC (token at some point) announces zkEVM rollup will be live on mainnet in 100 days (Friday, October 28th)

• StarkWare confirms StarkNet token that will eventually be used for transaction fees on the ZKR but airdrops not until next year, and abysmal tokenomics

• ZigZag (ZZ), L2 ZKR DEX, announces InvisibL3 — an L3 ZKR powered by StarkWare that enables private transactions

• Aztec Connect, ZKR enabled private DeFi transactions, now live on mainnet

• Optimism (OP) proposal using Celestia for data availability, ETH for settlement

• Arbitrum, token soon, launching Nitro upgrade on testnet, mainnet “few weeks”

General Protocol Updates:

• Final ETH testnet merge, Goerli, to take place between August 6th-12th

• APE — rallies following ETH and impressive, successful Otherside demo and shares an update on ongoing developments, staking soon

• Synthetix (SYN) partners with Jump Crypto

• SUSHI launches crosschain swap AMM built on LayerZero’s Stargate(STG) tech

• Cosmostation Wallet supporting 40+ ATOM networks & EVM compatible L1/L2s

• Binance burns $405M of BNB, part of efforts to reduce supply to 100M tokens; BNB chain launches dapp aggregator hub DappBay with anti-scam alerts

Thoughts & Notes:

After a brutal few months of asset prices, strong recoveries occurred across the investing landscape. Correlations between BTC/ETH and the S&P/QQQ remain near all time highs, and the crypto markets were led by strong months from ETH (+57%) and the Nasdaq (+12.5%). BTC also rallied (+21%) and combined with ETH’s strength to reignite risk across the broad crypto landscape.

Risk-on was further evidenced throughout July as sector wide rallies were spurred by both narrative and fundamental developments which is a good sign for market participants tolerance for risk. DeFi was the best performing sector this month as AAVE (+76%) and CRV (+80%) stablecoin announcements, LDO’s (+394%) proximity to the merge through stETH, and protocol developments from YFI (+115%) and MKR (+21%) propelled the sector upwards. Other top performing monthly tokens showcasing rotations and risk returning included XMON rallying (+477%) on the release of sudoswap, Optimism’s (OP, +209%) resurgence, Synapse (SYN, +157%) v2 and Synapse Chain announced, and Polygon’s MATIC (+100%) as a result of their zkEVM and other narrative related announcements.

As we enter August, ideally the relative risk-on environment continues but all focus, and that outcome, shifts to ETH’s strength ahead of the merge. The final testnet, Goerli, merge is scheduled to take place between August 6th-12th and if everything proceeds smoothly, the merge is tentatively scheduled for September 19th. Along with the market recovering led by ETH in anticipation of the merge, the other primary developments I wrote expanded thoughts on across July in Round Tripping include:

• Selling Pressure Abated, MakerDAO/RWAs, Sudoswap & NFT liquidity

• DeFi’s Revival, Token Standard ERC-4079, and ETH Marge Update

• Markets, 3AC, & Tesla, and ZK Szn Approaching

• Synapse & Appchains and Metaverse Money & Singularity

Funding & News:

the below funding and news developments are not a comprehensively list of every announcement, but are a selection of the most impactful announcements in July

• Variant raises $450M; $150M seed fund & $300M opportunity fund

• Multicoin Capital announces third fund with $430M to deploy

• Ex-Facebook devs behind Aptos Labs raise $150M series A for new L1 chain

• Konvoy Ventures launches $150M web3 gaming focused fund

• Animoca Brands, gaming & venture company, raises $75M @ $5.9B valuation

• Unstoppable Domains, digital identity as NFTs, raises $65M @ $1B valuation to amplify and reward user on-chain reputations & reduce payment friction

• Famed art/luxury business Christie’s launches venture arm; invests in LayerZero

• Halborn, Miami based blockchain security company, raises $90M series A

• Kaiko, blockchain analytics firm, raises $53M

• PolySign, crypto infrastructure & custody firm, raises $53M

• Hidden Road, crypto credit and prime brokerage platform, raises $50M

• Hashflow, cross-chain interoperable DEX, raises $25M @ $400M valuation

• Gnosis Safe raises $100M in token sale and rebrands to Safe leaving Gnosis

• Snapchat testing the display of NFTs as AR filters

• Reddit launches NFT avatar marketplace and new “blockchain-based avatars”

• FTX launches stock trading for US users across all 50 states

• Investment bank Moelis & Co. launches group for crypto based investments

• BNP Paribas, France’s largest custodial bank ($13.4T), enters crypto custody

NFT Review:

This is by no means a comprehensive list of the ongoings in NFT land. These projects are covered in more depth throughout past Page One posts, so find more info on all of these there.

Familiar Faces:

• Art Blocks collections including Squiggles, Anticyclone see increased volume

• Clone X releases full 3D files with commercial rights

• Doodles auction 24,000 Genesis Boxes filled with rare apparel and accessories

• Goblintown holders use burgers to bait grumpls

• Jenkins the Valet releases first novel, Bored & Dangerous

• Moonbirds Oddities reveal and Birds earn silver nests

• NFT Worlds plummet after Minecraft bans NFTs

• Pudgy Penguins airdrop soulbound token, announce upcoming toys

• The Otherside’s First Trip tech demo sees over 4,500 participants

New Entrants:

• Etherjump lets holders create their own platformer levels

• Kingship sees four Bored Apes form a major-label band

• Ledger Market Pass mints ahead of Ledger Marketplace launch

• Nickelodeon debuts Hey Arnold! and Rugrats NFTs on their own marketplace

• The Potatoz give holders a chance at getting on the Memelist

• The Saudis briefly meme #MAXBIDDING into reality

• Tableland, decentralized data protocol, releases first NFT collection

• WZRDs create mayhem by burning listed NFTs

Market News and Announcements:

• Facebook begins testing Ethereum NFTs on Profiles

• Gem introduces Live Mints, allowing collections to mint on their website

• OpenSea rolls out Solana Launchpad

• Reddit announces Polygon-based Avatars and marketplace

• SudoSwap releases sudoAMM marketplace to the public

• Uniswap’s NFT platform will utilize SudoSwap support