TLDR: Institutions rush on filing Bitcoin Spot ETFs, Binance announces its Working on Implementing Lightning, Ethscriptions to Create/Transfer Digital Artifacts, SAP Demo USDT Payments, Osmosis 2.0 Launching and Duality to Become the DEX of the Cosmos Hub.

Bitcoin Highlights of the Week

1. Binance officially announce they are working on integrating Bitcoin’s Lightning Network for deposits and withdrawals.

“Some eagle-eyed users spotted our new lightning nodes recently. Yes- That’s us!” – Binance

2. Additionally another 5 Bitcoin Channel was opened from Binance towards Kraken.

3. Deutsche Bank, $1.4 trillion banking giant, and biggest german bank, applied to offer digital asset custody.

4.Financial giants Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Citadel launch EDX Markets, a Bitcoin and crypto exchange.

5. WisdomTree, with $87 billion in assets under management, officially files for spot Bitcoin ETF.

6. Invesco, with $1.49 trillion in assets under management, officially files for spot Bitcoin ETF.

7. Valkyrie Investment joins on the rush and files for a spot Bitcoin ETF, and get the ticker BRRR.

8. The SEC approves the first leveraged Bitcoin Futures ETF. allowing investors to get 2x exposure starting Tuesday 27th.

9. Santander, one of the largest banks in the world, features an article on Bitcoin 's Lightning Network on their website.

10. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust discount began to close. People hit it could be a takeover. Fidelity?

11. Spiral's Bitcoin Lightning Development Kit announces the LDK Node, new Lightning library aims to simplify running a node.

12. Brink renews Sebastian Falbesoner's Grant for his work on BIP-324.

13. Venmo now allows its users to withdraw their Bitcoin.(Funnily enough, many of us thought these companies would never enable such things. It might be game theory in play, or the team has some real bitcoiners.)

14. The lightning network is closely approaching All Time High levels at 5,608 BTC on the network. This capacity is used for near-instant settlement, which is a different use case than "locked" assets on other blockchains.

Ethereum Highlights of the Week

Dencun (Cancun + Deneb) upgrade

• Latest all core devs – execution (ACDE) call video. Summary by Tim Beiko.  Notes from Tim Beiko and Christine Kim:

  • Overview of execution spec tests, Python suite of state & blockchain tests

  • Dencun upgrade discussions: EIP4844 precompile address moved to 0xA, EIP4788 storage size bounded, EIP5656 (MCOPY) tests added and Engine API spec changes

  • EIP4844 devnet 6 had issues, restart as devnet 7 once stable client releases & pass hive tests

  • EIP repo to split out app layer ERCs

• Consensus specs v1.4.0-beta.0: Deneb feature complete, stable unless issues found

• EIP4844:

  • Kelvin: Mr. Moloch’s ephemeral album party contribution to KZG ceremony

Layer 1

• Reth v0.1.0-alpha: execution layer client in Rust, syncs archive node in 50 hours with 2TB database using NVMe SSD, also SDK for building EVM infrastructure, Apache/MIT license

• EthereumJS v6 (final release before v7): updates ethereum-cryptography, adds allowUnlimitedInitcodeSize option and removes non-finalized state code (EIP4844)

• Verkle tries info website

Client releases

• Consensus layer:

  • Lodestar v1.9.0: fix reduced slashing DB size by 97%, slashing protection export format compatible with other clients and flag to disable peer scoring for testing

  • Nimbus v23.6.0: history prune enabled by default, processes untimely attestations without expensive state replays and use Keymanager API for voluntary exits

• Execution layer:

  • Erigon v2.47.0: fix for v2.45.0, no resync required

For Stakers

• Execution Layer client diversity improved, Geth around 50%

Research

• Fast amortized KZG proofs

• Speculative execution DoS attacks using conditional transactions to exhaust resources and/or transaction pool spamming

Layer 2

• Zora Network for NFTs, optimistic rollup built on OP stack, live

• Arbitrum Orbit chains (layer 3): guide to launch a devnet

• L2Beat Stages: rollup maturity framework from stage 0 (run by the operators) to stage 2 (fully managed by contracts)

• Shared validity sequencing proposal to enable cross-rollup interoperability

• Vitalik: L2 to L1 & cross-L2 reading to implement cross-chain social recovery wallets with a keystore in one location & wallets in many locations

EIPs/Standards

• EIPs:

  • Meta EIP7199: Linter scope 

  • EIP7212: Precompile for secp256r1 curve support

• ERCs (app layer):

  • ERC838: ABI specification for REVERT reason string

  • ERC7196: Simple token

  • ERC7201: Namespaced storage layout 

  • ERC7202: Offchain checks (for low cost ERC1155 distribution)

  • ERC7204: Contract wallet management asset

  • ERC7208: MetaNFT keystore contracts 

Stuff for developers

• Hardhat:

  • v2.16.0: adds extendable providers, wrap network provider with custom logic

  • Hardhat-ledger plugin: send transactions & sign messages

• Alloy: rewrite of ethers-rs, includes Solidity’s type system in Rust

• Guide to Solidity data locations (memory, calldata & storage)

• Cookbook ChefGPT Remix plugin to answer Solidity questions including on current contract

• Intro to Ape (contract development framework for Python devs) using WETH as an example

• Uniswap v4 flash loan template 

• Seaport Validator & Navigator: helper contracts to scan orders for errors and fulfill respectively

• Simon de la Rouviere: Daisychains NFT onchain SVG animation [Andrew had one free mint]

• Smoldata: zero-ETL indexing for contracts

Security

• Astaria (NFT lending) vulnerability disclosed, protocol paused with tokens rescued, beacon proxy could be manipulated to load rogue implementation allowing self destruct

• Foundation NFT contracts vulnerability disclosed, contract owner can self destruct implementation, destroying minted NFTs

• Tincho: questions auditors should ask devs before a secure code review.

Ecosystem

• Etherscan code reader, answers questions about a specific contract address, OpenAI API key required, beta

Enterprise

• Paul Brody: Ethereum for Business book

• SAP demoing cross border payments with USDC: customers can pay a sample invoice on testnet

Notable at app layer

• Maker sDAI (savings DAI): tokenized DSR-enabled DAI, ERC4626

• Utopia transaction templates for Safe multisig on mainnet

• PartyDAO Party: create groups with lightweight voting to take onchain actions

• Mirror collectable embeds: mint or buy on secondary NFTs embedded in posts

• Noun Nyms: persistent pseudonyms for Noun holders with reddit-like interface

• Ethscriptions: create/transfer digital artifacts using data URI in calldata, similar to Bitcoin Ordinals

• BND (German foreign intelligence) released dog NFTs

• Sudo v2 gradual dutch auction bonding curves

• Gitcoin grants stack: create & manage a grants program

Cosmos Highlights of the Week

Duality draft to become the 3rd consumer chain

Duality aims to become the DEX of the Cosmos Hub by fully aligning with ATOM. Duality is unique in its own way as it provides concentrated liquidity, limit orders, MEV recapture, or Dynamic Routing. Duality brings new utility to $ATOM as it will serve as the gas token on the DEX.

Tether is coming to Cosmos

It’s official: USDT is coming natively to Cosmos, and the chain chosen for USDT issuance is Kava!

The launch is planned for July 3rd.

USDT is currently one of the most widely used stablecoins, and with Tether issuing native USDT on Kava, it brings new options and offerings for the Cosmos community in terms of stablecoin selection.

Osmosis 2.0 has arrived

Osmosis is now 2 years old with new changes:

👉 The inflation rate has been reduced by 50%.

👉 After the next “Thirdening”, the release time will be doubled

👉 Emissions from LPs & the CP will be redirected to stakers

Some points are still under discussion:

👉 Revenues from ProtoRev are considered for diversifying the holdings of the CP, incentivizing further staking, and serving as a burn mechanism

👉 Sharing a portion of trading fees with OSMO stakers

Nebular Summit & Nebular Hack Day

If you’re in Paris this July, the Nebular team is organizing a Hack Day on July 23rd, which is completely free!

Dydx foundation, Neutron, OKP4 & Juno will be there. Additionally, you can come to the Nebular Summit that is happening on July 24th and 25th, there are technical talks and workshops designed to help you learn more about Cosmos.

Quasar is launching ATOM PRO

The vault will have an initial cap of 100,000 ATOM and will work similarly to the OSMO PRO vault, but this time using ATOM as liquidity.

Vault will launch on June 26!

How does it work?

The vault operates by deploying ATOM deposits to multiple Osmosis pools, simultaneously auto-compounding returns and generating incentives

To access the vaults, you can visit:

https://app.quasar.fi/

Neutron raised $10M for its funding round!

Binance & Coinfund co-lead the investment round for Neutron, which is a cross-chain smart contract platform focused on interchain security within the Cosmos ecosystem.

Neutron has recently partnered with Delphi labs, Osmosis, and Injective to host the Delphi Labs Cosmos Hackathon.

Other Highlights of the Week

KyberNetwork deploys KyberSwap Aggregator and Classic Liquidity Protocols

KyberNetwork deploy KyberSwap Aggregator and Classic Liquidity Protocols with zkSync Era. This deployment integrate their native DEXs mute_io, syncswap, and velocorexyz, to provide users with the best optimal rates.

TapiocaDAO launches omnichain

TapiocaDAO is building an omnichain money market that works across different blockchains. They use LayerZero to connect all these blockchains and allow seamless transactions between them. TapiocaDAO also created a stablecoin called USDO that can be used on different chains without any extra fees or delays. They support decentralized borrowing and lending of assets on different chains. TapiocaDAO aims to create a safe, sustainable, and connected financial system for everyone.

Institutions Are Falling Back in Love with BTC

Over a dozen asset managers have sought the SEC’s regulatory blessing to launch some form of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) over the years, but thus far, applicants have been met with little more than silence or rejection.

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