DeFi's Next Frontier: The Untapped Potential of On-chain Structured Products_choken bako dog coin bank

Coco, a new crypto casino inspired by the Milady NFT project, has made a cracking debut on the Ethereum blockchain. According to etherscan data, the platform's native token (COCO) has surged to 8 cents, giving it a market capitalization of $8.8 million. The casino has already hit $36 million in transaction volume in the first 12 hours after its release. nnThe platform features a slot machine focused on popular memecoins pepe (PEPE) and dogecoin (DOGE), as well as three traditional casino table games in blackjack, baccarat, and casino hold'em. Coco brands itself as 'provably fair,' using the SHA256 algorithm to ensure that each game is tamper-proof. nnThe success of Coco has also had an impact on other crypto casinos, with Rollbit's native token (RLB) rising to 7 cents from 2 cents. The stable market this month has led to increased traction for crypto casinos like Rollbit and Coco. nnHowever, VanEck CEO Gabor Gurbacs does not think that Bitcoin ETFs will be approved by the SEC in May. He believes that the 'dominant narrative' driving Bitcoin's 2024 rally is not the ETFs, but rather the increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies and the growth of decentralized finance. nnMeanwhile, the supply of inactive Bitcoin for a year has dropped to an 18-month low, according to Glassnode. This could be a sign that the current Bitcoin rally may continue after the halving. nnIn other news, Eisenberg's $110 million fraud trial has opened, and the Foundation for the Study of Innovative Technologies (FSI) has called for consistency in stablecoin regulation. nnAs the wider crypto market continues to stagnate with a lack of volatility, crypto traders are frequently turning their attention to on-chain betting platforms like last week's phenomenon; hamster racing. The success of Coco and Rollbit suggests that crypto casinos may be the next big thing in the cryptocurrency space.The last bull market saw the launch of a raft of on-chain structured products, and the next bull-run will see more liquidity going into these projects, says Jordan Tonani from The Index Coop. Globally, asset management is a huge industry, with a large percentage of assets in each nation being held in ETFs, index funds, and other passive vehicles. In Europe, €28.4 trillion of assets are managed by the industry, of which 20% are held in passive strategies, about half in exchange-traded products and half in index funds. All told, passively-held assets under management have doubled since 2015, with around one fifth of European retail investors holding such products. Analysts predict that by 2027 ETFs will account for 24% of total assets in Europe, up from 12% in 2022. In the world of decentralized finance and digital assets, some commentators see the on-chain structured product market as analogous, but this sector has yet to capture much market share. On-chain structured products make up 0.07% of the crypto market overall currently, with a combined TVL of $2.46 billion across protocols. In comparison, the DeFi market is $48.29 billion, and the total crypto market is $1.18 trillion. Nevertheless, over the last several years, on-chain structured products have shown the kind of promise that led to these types of products' dominance in traditional markets. In 2020, the on-chain structured product market saw 20 projects launching, including nine projects that launched during what would come to be known as DeFi Summer. Yearn, Compound, and the Index Coop all started offering such products during this period. At the height of the 2021 bull market, Index Coop's on-chain structured products captured over $550 million in TVL. In total, 47 projects have launched in the on-chain structured product space since 2016, with the majority of projects offering index or yield-earning products. Of those, 37 are still operational. At the Index Coop, we're bullish on the long-term promise of on-chain structured products because of their advantages in transparency, security, accessibility, automation, and liquidity. Regrettably, the sector has been hampered by regulatory ambiguity, as well as nascent technology and market infrastructure. That said, some encouraging signs have emerged recently. If, as seems likely, BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF and Grayscale's spot Ethereum ETFs are approved in the U.S., that would represent a major step forward for the on-chain structured product sector. As digital asset markets mature, we expect to see more growth in the on-chain structured product market, especially as correlations reduce across digital assets. Currently, high correlation across digital assets means that different assets move together, reducing the value of a diversification strategy. As digital assets become less correlated, diversification will become a more attractive proposition. Additionally, improvements in UX and cross-chain infrastructure could contribute to growth in our space. Long-term, we expect on-chain products to prevail because of their unique advantages, enabling underlying tokens to reach wider audiences. You can learn more about the on-chain structured product space in our annual report on the state of the industry.The floor price of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection has slumped to a five-month low of 55.59 ether (ETH), according to Cryptowatch data. The slide in non-fungible token (NFT) prices occurred after pseudonymous holder 'franklinisbored' said on Twitter that he sold the majority of his collection. On-chain data shows that the user sold at least 27 BAYC NFTs over a 12-hour period, securing 1439.5828 ETH ($2.8 million) in the process. Franklinisbored explained his decision was due to 'unfortunate' real-life issues that prompted him to liquidate his NFTs. He fell victim to a rug pull on a nearly 2,000 ETH investment, which appeared 'credible' due to who else had invested in it. ApeCoin (APE), the native governance token for the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem, remains flat over the past 24 hours in terms of its dollar valuation despite falling against ether trading pairs.

The EOS Foundation will grant funds to EOS-based applications, among other steps, as the platform gears for a “new life.”nA blockchain that raised $4 billion in its initial coin offering (ICO) with little to show in its early years is aiming for crypto glory once again – years after almost being written off by skeptics.nEOS, whose native eos (EOS) tokens once reached a market capitalization of $14 billion at a lifetime peak, is gearing up for a complete resurgence in network activity and growth with extensive support planned for application developers.nThat is thanks to the efforts of EOS Network Foundation, whose CEO, Yves La Rose, is leading plans for a consensus mechanism upgrade, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) system and an overall renewed growth strategy, per crypto research firm Messari.nThe EVM mainnet is slated for April 14 release, with updates and improvements planned in the weeks and months to follow.n“Combining the performance of EOS with the familiarity of Ethereum, Solidity developers are in for a treat,” Rose tweeted last week. “At 800+ swaps per second, $EOS EVM will be BY FAR the fastest EVM, benchmarked 3x faster than Solana + BNB and 25x faster than Avax.”nEVMs refer to the environment in which all Ethereum accounts and smart contracts live, serving as a virtual computer utilized by developers for creating decentralized applications (dapps). When deployed on other blockchains, EVMs can allow developers to build dapps and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications similar to how they would on Ethereum.nEVMs are a large part of EOS’ future plans.n“Many of the developers who have left EOS have done so not because they want to, but because Ethereum, for all its deficiencies, is where the action is,” the foundation said in a January post.n“EVM compatibility is essential to the potential of EOS, not just technically but also from a business perspective. Ultimately, it is essential that we welcome more Solidity developers and users to EOS, and an EVM on EOS is an excellent bridge to do just that,” it added at the time.nA grants program will fund developers working on such applications, starting from $10,000 to over $50,000 based on criterias such as the size and scope of the initiative.nGrants can be provided to builders of wholly new products, or to fund maintenance and upgrades of existing tools.nEOS tokens and ecosystem to benefitnNetwork upgrades, grant programs and interoperability with other blockchains could ultimately bolster eos token prices and the $125 million in total locked value (TVL) on EOS-based DeFi applications.nThe tokens trade just over $1.20 in Asian morning hours on Monday, down 10 cents from Friday. Price-chart analysis suggests resistance at $1.80 if the tokens jump in the coming weeks, with another major resistance at $2.90.nAs such, TVL has already increased $50 million since the start of this year in the leadup to April’s EVM launch. Applications such as EOS REX and Vigor, both lending protocols, have added more than 8% in lock value in the past week alone.nPer Messari, the network is averaging 1.3 million daily transactions and 38,000 daily active addresses on a year-to-date basis and averaging 1,785 new addresses per day.Crypto exchange aggregator 1inch is considering a governance shakeup that would reduce the voting power of insiders, including core contributors, investors, and other token holders. The proposed changes would treat v1inch tokens, a derivative token redeemable for 1inch, exactly like the protocol's staked tokens (st1inch) for voting purposes, granting greater sway to the broader community of token holders. The move aims to weaken the voting power of insiders who have received their full allotment of v1inch tokens, while v1inch tokens that remain locked up for two years or longer would retain 100% of their voting weight. The proposal has not yet gone to a vote. 1inch's governance token was trading at 56 cents at press time Friday, having slid just under 2% in the past 24 hours.In hindsight, the selling pressure of ether (ETH), Ethereum’s native token, turned out to be a “non-event” following the Shanghai upgrade, which enabled staking redemptions for the first time, according to a report from blockchain analytics firm Nansen. Over a month has passed since the Shanghai upgrade that marked Ethereum’s full transition to a proof-of-stake blockchain, and ETH staking deposits have surpassed withdrawals, making the number of staked ETH climb to 19.55 million at presstime, a new all-time high. As a result, the May 8 report stated “that the elimination of unstaking risks has thus far offset selling pressure from withdrawals.” In the weeks building up to Shanghai, crypto bulls and bears debated extensively about the market’s potential response following the upgrade. The price of ETH has decreased about 8% to $1,851, since April 13 when Shanghai went live, per CoinDesk data. The CoinDesk Market Index, designed to measure the broad performance of the digital asset market, has dropped nearly 10% in the same time period. “Ultimately, withdrawals have been minimal and have thus far been matched with inflows, signaling strong overall confidence from investors in the network and the asset itself,” according to the Nansen report. Crypto exchange Kraken, which complied with regulation from the Securities and Exchanges Commission to end its crypto staking-as-a-service platform for U.S customers in February, had the most withdrawals at over 646,000 ETH, with Coinbase, a rival crypto exchange, trailing behind with more than 376,000 ETH. (Nansen Research) While roughly 73% of the ETH withdrawn from staking has been sent to centralized exchanges (CEXs) like Kraken and Coinbase, the majority of withdrawn ETH is CEXs withdrawing ETH to themselves. “This means that the majority ETH being sent to CEXs is not primarily for selling, but for the exchange’s internal operations,” according to Nansen. Edited by Bradley Keoun.

New zkSync-based decentralized exchange Merlin was exploited for over $1.8 million during a public sale of its mage (MAGE) tokens. The attack occurred despite Merlin touting an audit conducted by blockchain security firm CertiK. On-chain data reveals that $1.82 million in total had been stolen, with the funds being bridged back to the Ethereum network before being converted to ether. The project garnered hype among Crypto Twitter users for its attractive yield offered on deposits. Merlin developers did not issue any statement regarding the funds drain on Wednesday at press time. CertiK's Twitter response to the loss of funds included plans for compensation, but the company has since deleted the tweet. The exploit was not a complex or sophisticated one, as blockchain data suggested that an entity with control of the liquidity pool was able to drain the funds easily. The total amount raised during the public sale will determine the final price of tokens for all users, developers said Tuesday. Arkham Intelligence provided on-chain data that revealed the funds were bridged back to the Ethereum network before being converted to ether.A proposal to split Rook's nearly $50 million crypto treasury between Rook Labs and a new community-run entity called Incubator DAO is gaining traction, with the token price surging ahead of the vote. The proposal aims to divorce the project's tech from its governance token, and would see Incubator DAO inherit the old DAO's unique representative democracy structure. The move has been praised as a win-win for both Rook Labs and token holders, with the former gaining sufficient capital to develop products while the latter receives a return of value. The token itself has nearly tripled in value since late March, and the debate over the project's future has attracted investors of many stripes. Some have voted with newly-acquired bags, and the single-largest 'yea' position in the poll to create Incubator DAO was voted by a wallet controlled by insiders at crypto yield project TempleDAO. However, the TempleDAO wallet has already started selling some of its ROOK tokens on decentralized finance (DeFi) exchanges.A new report by on-chain analytics firm Santiment suggests that pepecoin (PEPE) may face challenges in its rise to the top of meme coins due to the absence of retail investors. Despite its stellar rise to a $1.5 billion market cap in a few weeks, pepecoin's trading volume of $2 billion is significantly lower than that of shiba inu (SHIB) and dogecoin (DOGE) during their peak. The report notes that retail participation in the market for PEPE is far less than what DOGE and SHIB experienced in previous years, which could result in dwindling volumes for meme coin projects among retail traders. However, PEPE's social volume within the crypto media is on par with DOGE and SHIB during their peak periods. Some pepecoin holders remain bullish on the token's potential, citing its popularity among influential Crypto Twitter users and the general populace. Despite the challenges, the report suggests that PEPE has untapped potential for growth when overall market conditions are better.

Tron (TRX) founder and Huobi stakeholder Justin Sun has accused Li Wei, the brother of Huobi founder Li Lin, of acquiring Huobi's native token (HT) at zero cost and selling it for 'huge amounts of cash.' The token has lost 43% of its value over the past seven days but has recovered by 3.16% following Sun's tweets. Sun told CoinDesk that Li Wei 'received millions of HT tokens for free' when the token was initially distributed and that he believes in rewarding those who 'genuinely contribute to the growth and development of HT DAO.' HT is currently trading at $2.80 with a market cap of $450 million. CoinDesk did not immediately receive a response from New Huo Tech, the company that Li Lin is now chairman of. Over the past few months, Justin Sun has taken on a leadership role at Huobi, with plans to attain a license in Hong Kong and roll out a new exchange called Huobi Hong Kong.The EOS Foundation will grant funds to EOS-based applications, among other steps, as the platform gears for a “new life.”nA blockchain that raised $4 billion in its initial coin offering (ICO) with little to show in its early years is aiming for crypto glory once again – years after almost being written off by skeptics.nEOS, whose native eos (EOS) tokens once reached a market capitalization of $14 billion at a lifetime peak, is gearing up for a complete resurgence in network activity and growth with extensive support planned for application developers.nThat is thanks to the efforts of EOS Network Foundation, whose CEO, Yves La Rose, is leading plans for a consensus mechanism upgrade, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) system and an overall renewed growth strategy, per crypto research firm Messari.nThe EVM mainnet is slated for April 14 release, with updates and improvements planned in the weeks and months to follow.n“Combining the performance of EOS with the familiarity of Ethereum, Solidity developers are in for a treat,” Rose tweeted last week. “At 800+ swaps per second, $EOS EVM will be BY FAR the fastest EVM, benchmarked 3x faster than Solana + BNB and 25x faster than Avax.”nEVMs refer to the environment in which all Ethereum accounts and smart contracts live, serving as a virtual computer utilized by developers for creating decentralized applications (dapps). When deployed on other blockchains, EVMs can allow developers to build dapps and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications similar to how they would on Ethereum.nEVMs are a large part of EOS’ future plans.n“Many of the developers who have left EOS have done so not because they want to, but because Ethereum, for all its deficiencies, is where the action is,” the foundation said in a January post.n“EVM compatibility is essential to the potential of EOS, not just technically but also from a business perspective. Ultimately, it is essential that we welcome more Solidity developers and users to EOS, and an EVM on EOS is an excellent bridge to do just that,” it added at the time.nA grants program will fund developers working on such applications, starting from $10,000 to over $50,000 based on criterias such as the size and scope of the initiative.nGrants can be provided to builders of wholly new products, or to fund maintenance and upgrades of existing tools.nEOS tokens and ecosystem to benefitnNetwork upgrades, grant programs and interoperability with other blockchains could ultimately bolster eos token prices and the $125 million in total locked value (TVL) on EOS-based DeFi applications.nThe tokens trade just over $1.20 in Asian morning hours on Monday, down 10 cents from Friday. Price-chart analysis suggests resistance at $1.80 if the tokens jump in the coming weeks, with another major resistance at $2.90.nAs such, TVL has already increased $50 million since the start of this year in the leadup to April’s EVM launch. Applications such as EOS REX and Vigor, both lending protocols, have added more than 8% in lock value in the past week alone.nPer Messari, the network is averaging 1.3 million daily transactions and 38,000 daily active addresses on a year-to-date basis and averaging 1,785 new addresses per day.The attacker behind a takeover of Tornado Cash DAO has apparently started to move their illicitly gained tokens, blockchain data shows. Addresses tied to the attacker moved 100 ether (ETH) and 38,000 torn (TORN) tokens in two transactions using the Tornado Cash protocol on Wednesday night, Etherscan data shows. The DAO handling the privacy-focused crypto mixer's operations, funds, and future plans was taken over by an unidentified attacker, or attackers, on Saturday. The attacker holds over 20 ether ($35,684) in their wallet and continues to have access to potentially all of Tornado Cash’s treasury funds. The attacker floated a malicious proposal that hid a code function that granted them fake votes that can now be used to handle some aspects of Tornado Cash, such as torn tokens held in the main governance contract or withdrawal of locked torn tokens. DAOs, short for decentralized autonomous organizations, allow token holders to lock up their holdings as votes for proposing changes to a project. These changes can range from deploying treasury funds to purposes that benefit the project to expansion on other networks. The attack does not impact the actual Tornado Cash protocol – which allows users to pass funds through the service to mask or obscure the movements of funds and crypto addresses. As such, there’s still hope for Tornado Cash. The attacker floated a proposal to revert all malicious changes before the takeover earlier this week – sending torn prices up 10% at the time. The proposal looks as though it will pass when voting closes on May 26, though it's unclear when the action will be executed. However, if it does, the malicious code will be removed, and the governance of Tornado Cash's DAO will go back to token holders.

The total crypto market capitalization rose, with dogecoin (DOGE) leading gains among major tokens. Hopes surrounding a potential U.S. Bitcoin ETF filing by investment giant BlackRock fueled a bullish sentiment among some traders early Friday. Bitcoin regained the $25,500 level to erase declines of the past two days, when it fell to as low as $24,860. The move provided some respite to major tokens such as Polygon Network’s MATIC and Cardano’s ADA, which eased some losses from a two-day slide. Dogecoin (DOGE) led gains among major tokens with a 4% move in the past 24 hours; litecoin added (LTC) added 3.3%. On Thursday, CoinDesk reported that BlackRock planned to offer a Bitcoin ETF with crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) serving as custodian. This was confirmed later after a filing showed the company’s iShares fund management unit filed paperwork for the formation of a spot bitcoin (BTC) ETF. 'An estimated 20% of Americans have now owned bitcoin at some point. BlackRock’s proposed ETF potentially offers the other 80% an option that is altogether more familiar and accessible,' said Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmarks, in an email to CoinDesk. 'BlackRock’s increasing engagement shows Bitcoin continues to be an asset of interest for some of the world’s largest financial institutions.' As such, the market strength of bitcoin impacted shorts – or bets against the currency – the asset with BTC-tracked futures seeing over $16 million in short liquidations in the past 24 hours. This figure was smaller than usual due to large declines in the past week, causing some traders to risk less capital than they normally would. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has previously rejected other attempts by fund managers at listing a spot bitcoin ETF, including those from Grayscale, VanEck, and WisdomTree. However, the stature of BlackRock could make it difficult for the SEC to reject this application – which some say could fuel an outsized bitcoin rally if approved.SNX, the native token of decentralized liquidity platform Synthetix, rose by 12.5% on Monday following significant outflows from leading digital assets exchange Binance. Volume over the past 24-hours has risen by more than 250% to $96 million, according to CoinMarketCap, with one newly-created wallet withdrawing $7.7 million worth of SNX tokens from Binance, per Lookonchain. The rise of the two assets comes during a wider lull in the cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin and Ethereum trading at range lows. Liquidity across altcoin trading pairs often retract during these downturns, creating an environment that is prone to volatility. Conversely, savvy traders could also trap this recent buyer into their position with the knowledge that the assets were purchased in low-liquidity conditions with significant slippage, thus pressure would be applied even with the slightest move to the downside. nnAside from withdrawing SNX, the wallet in question also withdrew $3.9 million worth of livepeer tokens (LPT), prompting an individual surge of 17.5%. The two assets have seen significant outflows in recent days, with $7.7 million worth of SNX and $3.9 million worth of LPT withdrawn from Binance over the past 24 hours, according to Lookonchain. nnThe rise of the two assets comes during a wider lull in the cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin and Ethereum trading at range lows. Liquidity across altcoin trading pairs often retract during these downturns, creating an environment that is prone to volatility. Conversely, savvy traders could also trap this recent buyer into their position with the knowledge that the assets were purchased in low-liquidity conditions with significant slippage, thus pressure would be applied even with the slightest move to the downside. nnToken outflows typically suggest a pattern of buying, as traders prefer to retain full control of their assets in order to vote in governance or secure a yield. The recent outflows from Binance could be a sign that traders are looking to take advantage of the current market conditions and buy into the two assets at a discount. nnOverall, the recent surge in SNX and LPT could be a sign of a potential trend reversal, with the assets potentially breaking out of their current trading ranges. However, the low liquidity conditions and the wider bearish trend in the cryptocurrency market could also lead to a sharp correction in the assets' prices. As such, traders should exercise caution and conduct thorough research before making any investment decisions.Cardano blockchain activity in the second quarter grew in both value locked and transactional metrics from the first quarter amid technical improvements and a rise in developer interest, a report by analytics firm Messari shows. While decentralized exchange Minswap showed the largest absolute growth, several new decentralized applications, or dapps, also contributed to the increase. The report, which was commissioned by Cardano developer Input Output, compared second-quarter developments against first-quarter figures. It noted that while transaction activity grew, the number of active daily users decreased 4% — the fourth drop in address activity in the past five quarters. 'The ratio of transactions to active addresses has been growing steadily over the past five quarters, suggesting that the average user is more active now than they previously were,' the report said. 'In Q2, the Transaction / Active Address ratio of 1.19 was up 6.1% QoQ and 13.2% YoY.' Blockchain load — a measure of how much data is contained in blocks over a certain period — rose to 50% from under 40% in the previous three months. It peaked at 81% in May. DeFiLlama data shows that $175 million worth of tokens are locked on Cardano as of Monday, the highest level for this year, but still about 50% below a lifetime peak of $340 million hit in May 2022. Such activity comes on the back of key Cardano upgrades since the start of this year. A change to reduce 'epoch' transitions and make the blockchain smoother for network users took effect in June. Epochs refer to the time periods on Cardano, with epoch lasting 432,000 slots and each slot being one second. ADA tokens are staked during these epochs during which new blocks on the Cardano network are produced, potentially increasing demand for the tokens as block rewards become more lucrative, based on activity. In March, a feature on Milkomeda, a network that connects blockchains to the Ethereum Virtual Machine, or EVM, began to allow Cardano blockchain users to gain access to EVM smart contracts with any cardano (ADA) wallet, expanding the ecosystem's usefulness. An Ethereum Virtual Machine is where all Ethereum accounts and smart contracts live, serving as a virtual computer used by developers to create dapps. The new feature will allow Ethereum application developers to build on Cardano’s network using Solidity — the computer language used to code Ethereum — without needing to install new toolkits or learn a new computer language. Such applications can then be used solely with Cardano tokens instead of ether (ETH), the native token of the Ethereum network, increasing the tokens' utility for holders.