ETH Weekly Update | MetaMask's latest feature "Sell" supports fiat currency withdrawal; ARK Invest submits the first Ethereum ETF application for spot trading (9.4-9.10)
Organizer | Odaily
Author | Qin Xiaofeng
1. Overview
According to official sources, MetaMask announced the launch of its latest feature "Sell", allowing users to exchange cryptocurrencies for fiat currencies through MetaMask Portfolio and send the funds to their bank accounts. This feature is currently available in the United States, United Kingdom, and some regions in Europe. Initially, it supports ETH on the Ethereum mainnet and plans to expand to native gas tokens on Layer 2 networks soon.
On September 7, ARK Invest and 21 Shares jointly filed an application for the first spot Ethereum ETF - "ARK 21 Shares Ethereum ETF". Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart commented on the X platform: "The Ethereum ETF race has officially begun. I estimate that the final deadline for the SEC to review these applications is around May 23, 2024."
In terms of the secondary market, the price of ETH may continue to consolidate in the short term, with support at $1600 and resistance at $1650.
2. Secondary Market
1. Spot Market
OKX Market data shows that ETH rebounded to $1672 last week, ending the week at $1619, a 3.1% decrease from the previous week. 。
ETH daily chart, from OKX
The daily chart shows that the price is currently consolidating around $1600, with support at $1600. If it falls below, it may further drop to $1500; the resistance above is at $1650.
2. Network Operation
Etherscan data shows that in the past week, there were 50002 Ethereum blocks, which remained basically the same; the number of active addresses per week was 2606521, a decrease of 7.8% compared to the previous week; the block reward income was 3379 ETH, a decrease of 5.6% compared to the previous week; the weekly ETH burn reached 11454, a decrease of 26.1% compared to the previous week.
3. Significant Changes
OKLink Data shows that the number of large on-chain transactions reached 1036 last week, a 14% decrease compared to the previous week (1205), indicating a significant decrease in whale trading enthusiasm.
4. Rich List Addresses
OKLinkData shows that the current total deposit amount of ETH 2.0 has reached 26.58 million ETH, with a staking rate of 22.12%; Looking at the distribution of ETH holding addresses, exchanges account for 8.63%. It remains consistent; DeFi projects account for 30.55%, with a 0.17% increase compared to the previous period; Top holder addresses (excluding exchanges and DeFi projects) account for 29.39%, with a 0.22% decrease compared to the previous period; other addresses account for 31.43%, with a 0.05% increase compared to the previous period.
5. Lock-up Data
DeFiLlama data shows that the value of on-chain locked collateral decreased from 21.73 billion USD to 21.26 billion USD last week, a 2.1% decrease compared to the previous period; Looking at individual projects, the top three in terms of locked value are: Lido, 13.95 billion USD; MakerDAO, 5.01 billion USD; Aave, 3.91 billion USD.
III. Ecosystem and Technology
1. Technical Progress
Ethereum All Core Developers Consensus Call #117: Devnet #9 expected to launch on September 19th
Galaxy Research Vice President Christine Kim summarized the 117th Ethereum core developer consensus meeting (ACDC), discussing Dencun testing, EIP 4844 blob parameterization, SSZ StableContainer proposal, and mitigating validator churn.
Regarding Dencun testing, developers continue to test the Cancun/Deneb (Dencun) upgrade on Devnet #8. Developers have agreed to delay the release of Devnet #9 by one week, to next Tuesday (September 19th). Developers are considering increasing the target maximum blob count from 2/4 to 3/6. Etan Kissling, a developer of the Nimbus (CL) client, is working on upgrading Ethereum's data structure to a new serialization format called SSZ. He named this upgrade approach "StableContainer" and formatted it as a formal Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP).
2. Voice of the Community
(1) Vitalik: Ethereum's top priority is achieving higher scalability
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated that node centralization is one of the main challenges Ethereum faces. He believes this problem should be addressed by reducing and simplifying the costs of running nodes, but a perfect solution may require another 10 or even 20 years. Vitalik suggests key steps to reduce Ethereum centralization involve simplifying documentation, lowering the barrier for distributed staking, ensuring staking is safer and more widespread, and making ETH staking more convenient. He considers achieving higher scalability as the most urgent issue for Ethereum overall. (Cointelegraph)
(2) Vitalik and others jointly publish research paper on "Privacy Pools" privacy protocol
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and others co-authored a research paper on privacy protocols titled "Blockchain Privacy and Regulatory Compliance: Towards a Practical Equilibrium".
The paper explores a new smart contract-based privacy enhancement protocol called Privacy Pools, discussing its advantages and disadvantages, and demonstrating how it can be used to achieve a balance between honest and dishonest users. The protocol aims to use zero-knowledge proofs to verify the legitimacy of user funds without revealing their complete transaction history, while balancing privacy and regulatory requirements by filtering out funds associated with criminal activities.
On-chain detective Cobie and other KOLs warned on the X platform that the Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin's X account was suspected of being hacked, and phishing links related to ConsenSys' Proto Danksharding commemorative NFT were posted (posing as free giveaway links). ZachXBT stated that the hacker had already stolen $691,000. It was observed that the tweets containing the phishing links have been deleted.
3. Project Updates
(1) Starknet community initiates proposal for simplified decentralized protocol
Ethereum Layer 2 scalability solution Starknet has initiated a proposal for a simplified decentralized protocol called Simple Decentralized Protocol Proposal. The proposal, put forward by community member Ilia Volokh, aims to enable the community to launch a simple and complete decentralized Starknet protocol candidate, allowing for a maximum level of protocol simplification under the assumption that more than 2/3 of the stakers are honest participants.
The simplified protocol will consist of four key components: a leader election based on proof of stake to determine block proposers' timetable, the creation of a Tendermint-style consensus protocol for proposer networks to reach agreement on each block, a chain proof mechanism requiring each proposer to prove the previous block to ensure decentralized proof, and periodic updates of the L1 state to migrate the L2 state to L1 while merging chain proofs.
(2) dYdX Foundation CEO: dYdX to migrate to Cosmos network, dYdX on Ethereum closing in a few months
Charles d'Haussy, CEO of dYdX Foundation, stated in an interview that one of the challenges faced by decentralized exchanges (DEXs) is the inadequate performance of on-chain order books. Due to this issue, the order books of DEXs must be moved off-chain to meet the demands of platform users. Even with a block time of just 1 second, it would still mean a 1-second delay for the order book.
Regarding the migration plan, Charles d'Haussy expressed that dYdX will migrate to the Cosmos network. dYdX is not expanding, but rather migrating, and the dYdX trading platform on Ethereum will be closing in a few months. Users only need to connect their MetaMask wallet to the new dYdX chain. (Cointelegraph)
(3) MetaMask Launches New Feature "Sell" to Convert Cryptocurrency to Fiat
According to official sources, MetaMask has announced the launch of its latest feature "Sell", which allows users to convert cryptocurrency to fiat currency through the MetaMask Portfolio and send funds to a bank account. This feature is currently available in the United States, the United Kingdom, and some parts of Europe. It initially supports ETH on the Ethereum mainnet and plans to expand to native gas tokens on Layer 2 networks soon.
(4) Linea Announces "Entertainment Festival" to Explore Gaming Ecosystem on L2
Ethereum Layer 2 network Linea has announced "The Entertainment Festival" following "Voyage", aiming to expand the Linea gaming ecosystem and encourage participation from the gaming community on the network.
The festival consists of three sub-events hosted by DeGame, Particle Network, Project 12 (P 12), and MyShell, in collaboration with over 30 other projects including Meta Apes, Cataclysm, Sidus, Tatarot, MEEET, and Battlemon. The event will take place from September 5, 2023, to October 8, 2023. Players will need to contribute to the ecosystem through various on-chain and off-chain tasks to win Linea Gas Pass and other rewards.
(5) Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol CCTP Goes Live on OP Mainnet
Circle announced on the X platform that the cross-chain transfer protocol CCTP has been launched on the OP Mainnet. CCTP can now transfer USDC through 12 routes between 4 networks, including Ethereum, Avalanche, Arbitrum, and Optimism networks. In addition, Circle plans to introduce its cross-chain transfer protocol CCTP to the Base network. Earlier, Circle announced the launch of native USDC on the Base and OP Mainnet (Optimism).
(6) ARK Invest submits the first spot Ethereum ETF application
On September 7th, ARK Invest and 21 Shares jointly submitted the first spot Ethereum ETF "ARK 21 Shares Ethereum ETF" application. James Seyffart, Bloomberg ETF analyst, commented on the X platform: "The Ethereum ETF competition has officially begun. I estimate that the final deadline for the SEC's review of these applications will be around May 23, 2024. It is worth noting that we have not seen VanEck's Ethereum spot ETF S-1 filing because they submitted this application as early as 2021."
Crypto self-custody platform Casa has introduced a new feature for its Ethereum vault service that allows users to transact through relays for increased privacy protection. Casa added multi-signature Ethereum self-custody vaults to its Bitcoin custody product in June 2023, allowing users to manage their ETH assets with up to five private keys for self-custody operations to safeguard their assets.
Previously, Casa facilitated interaction between ETH vaults and the Ethereum blockchain through its internal Casa Relay. The bridging service allowed users to perform specific actions like deploying contracts and sending transactions. Casa's new solution involves using an ETH Pay Wallet, an alternative signer wallet that can act as a relay for transactions from the vault. (Cointelegraph)
(8) Ethereum staking protocol Swell integrates LayerZero
Ethereum staking protocol Swell Network announced the integration of the cross-chain interoperability protocol LayerZero, supporting the conversion of swETH into fully chain-compatible fungible tokens (OFT). Users can trade swETH and provide liquidity on Arbitrum, with Swell planning to support other L2 solutions in the future.
