Planet Daily | 5 issuers have submitted Ethereum spot ETF 19 b-4 revised documents; zkSync plans to launch TGE this week and airdrop in mid-June (May 22)
Headlines
5 issuers have submitted Ethereum spot ETF 19 b-4 amended documents to the SEC through Cboe BZX
James Seyffart, ETF analyst at Bloomberg, wrote on the X platform: "Five potential Ethereum spot ETF issuers have submitted 19 b-4 revised documents to the US SEC through Cboe BZX, including: Fidelity, VanEck, Invesco/Galaxy, Ark/21 Shares and Franklin."
Insider: zkSync plans to launch TGE this week and airdrop in mid-June
Two people familiar with the matter said zkSync plans to launch the TGE this week and airdrop in mid-June. The sources said that the token issuance, including the airdrop, will take place within 30 days after the TGE, adding that the total supply of the token is 21 billion. According to a screenshot of an internal message, ZkSync is currently aiming to conduct the airdrop around June 13, and the company noted that it is expected to be carried out before the Blast token airdrop on June 26. (TheBlock)
DTCC's official website has listed the VanEck Ethereum spot ETF code ETHV
The DTCC official website has listed the VanEck spot Ethereum ETF "VANECK ETHEREUM TR SHS" (code ETHV), and the Create/Redeem column is displayed as N.
Industry News
Fidelity submits updated S-1 filing for Ethereum spot ETF, its ETF will not pledge ETH tokens
Fidelity submitted an updated version of its S-1 filing for its Ethereum spot ETF, claiming that its ETF's Ethereum tokens "will not be staked." Its revised filing deleted all references to staking, including staking rewards. (Tree News)
The US SEC has asked Nasdaq and CBOE to adjust the filing of spot Ethereum ETFs
According to sources, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has asked Nasdaq and the Chicago Board Options Exchange to adjust their spot Ethereum ETF filings on Monday. The SEC's request is said to indicate that the regulator may be ready to approve a spot Ethereum ETF.
Grayscale Ethereum Spot ETF Application Has Removed Staking-Related Content
Grayscale removed collateralization references from its proposed Ethereum spot ETF application, according to an amended preliminary proxy statement.
In a previous filing, Grayscale had proposed to investors that Ethereum could be pledged through the trust fund, but this wording was not included in the revised preliminary proxy statement filed by Grayscale on Tuesday. Other issuers, including Fidelity, have also taken similar measures. (The Block)
Earlier news, regulatory application documents showed that Grayscale has confirmed that its Ethereum Mini Trust will not directly or indirectly participate in ETH staking.
The European Union on Tuesday launched a new organization aimed at introducing blockchain infrastructure and improving record keeping and data transfers between the bloc’s 27 member states. This took place during a meeting of European Council telecommunications ministers in Brussels, where lawmakers also approved a landmark EU law on artificial intelligence.
Mathieu Michel, Belgium’s state secretary for digitalization, said blockchain infrastructure will affect individuals and companies. Michel has promoted a blockchain project managed by EU countries and called it Europeum. “Europeum will be a tangible presence in the daily lives of European citizens,” he said at a press conference.
He said this would allow citizens to trace the origin of their products and enable businesses to protect their intellectual property by maintaining data on an immutable blockchain network.
Ten European member states, including Italy, Poland and Greece, have agreed to help operate and launch the EU blockchain. Other European countries will still be able to use this blockchain infrastructure. Michel added that more countries are expected to join. Germany and France have not yet committed to the arrangement, but the latter has been supportive of the project.
According to the company, the project has been under construction since 2017, and developers and companies have created a prototype that is now operational. (DL News)
Project News
Starknet ecosystem lending protocol zkLend posted on the X platform that it had received reports of suspicious tokens appearing in user wallets.
Please note that zkLend only offers rewards in the form of STRK (DeFi Spring) and ZEND (ZEND deposits). Rewards are not sent directly to users’ wallets and can only be claimed at app.zklend.com/rewards.
Users stay safe and vigilant and report immediately if you notice any suspicious behavior.
Starknet announces launch of Horus Labs, its innovation hub
According to Starknet Africa’s announcement on the X platform, Starknet has launched Horus Labs, an innovation center designed to foster creativity and innovation, turn bold ideas into reality, and empower the developer community by providing the tools and support needed to stand out within and outside the ecosystem. Horus Labs is currently focused on the African community.
Ligo Network will launch IDO on Fjord Foundry auction platform on May 22
According to official news, Ligo Network announced that its mainnet has been officially launched and has passed the due diligence and KYC certification of the IDO platform Fjord Foundry. Ligo Network's IDO will start at 00:00 (UTC+ 8) on May 22 and last until 12:00 PM (UTC+ 8) on May 26.
It is reported that Fjord Foundry, as a liquidity launch pool (LBP) platform, has successfully helped multiple projects raise more than US$954 million in funds so far, such as NuLink (5.2 million), XSwap (2.74 million), FJO (15.35 million), APUFF (9.05 million) and Zero 1 (10.78 million).
Cross-chain interoperability protocol deBridge announced its governance token DBR before launching on the Jupiter LFG platform. deBridge said that its Solana-based token DBR has a total supply of 10 billion and aims to decentralize governance to the community and transfer control to the DAO.
deBridge's token distribution plan allocates 20% of the supply to Launch and its community, with a circulating supply of 1.8 billion DBR at the time of issuance. Of the remaining supply, 26% will be allocated to support its ecosystem, 20% will be allocated to core contributors, 17% will be allocated to strategic partners, 15% will be allocated to the deBridge Foundation, and 2% will be allocated to validators.
The team said the goal is to ensure that no single party can dominate or make decisions based on its own interests rather than the interests of the entire DAO. deBridge token holders will be able to stake their DBR tokens and participate in governance votes on the DAO protocol, including the election of active validators, setting minimum consensus thresholds, and the deployment and upgradeability of smart contracts. The DAO will also manage the project's treasury and ecosystem reserves, and its responsibilities will gradually increase over time. (The Block)
Farcaster announces Arbitrum integration and launches Buildathon
According to official news, the Web3 social protocol Farcaster announced that it has now integrated and supported Arbitrum transactions. It is reported that the two parties will cooperate to launch the Buildathon event "Frame It" with a total prize pool of US$500,000.
Solana on-chain wallet Phantom acquires a16z-backed Bitski
Solana on-chain wallet Phantom announced that it has acquired Bitski, a wallet-as-a-service platform supported by a16z. As part of the transaction, Phantom will bring "embedded wallet" functionality to Solana. It is reported that this is Phantom's first acquisition, but the specific amount has not been disclosed. (Theblock)
Lorenzo, the Bitcoin liquidity financial layer project, announced that it has reached an ecological strategic cooperation with the Bitcoin Layer 2 project Bitlayer. Lorenzo will launch a Beta version on Bitlayer to accept BTC staking, and support users to use the liquidity staking token stBTC generated by staking in Bitlayer to obtain additional income.
In the Beta version, Lorenzo supports users to lock BTC assets to the platform to mint stBTC and earn income through integration with DeFi projects. In the future, it will also support users to pledge to the Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon.
Uniswap Labs responds to SEC Wells notice: ready to fight and will continue to build
According to official news, Uniswap Labs responded to the Wells Notice issued by the US SEC in April as follows:
We believe the SEC should embrace open source technology to improve outdated business and financial systems, rather than trying to make them disappear through litigation. The Uniswap protocol is a secure, low-cost, transparent infrastructure that "protects investors and maintains fair, orderly, and efficient markets," which is, ironically, the SEC's mission.
The SEC’s radical theory is to expand its jurisdiction from exchanges to communications technology, and from securities to all markets. Their legal arguments are weak and have been rejected by the courts. We expect the House of Representatives to pass a bill soon that would give the CFTC strong powers covering digital asset trading.
The Uniswap protocol is a major innovation in the market that benefits consumers. It is an autonomous software that enables users to trade directly and securely without paying centralized intermediaries or relying on them to keep their assets safe. The protocol can be integrated by anyone with an internet connection and does not rely on any team or Uniswap Labs for maintenance. It has supported $2 trillion in trading volume without a single hack and has been integrated and emulated by a large number of teams.
Many traditional markets are inefficient and intransparent, operate with limited hours, have delays of several days, and require several intermediaries to collect fees, increasing costs for all participants. In contrast, users of the Uniswap protocol can directly access the market and custody their own assets. Transactions are transparent and verifiable by anyone; settlements are instant and services are available 24/7. These attributes give individuals unprecedented power to control the assets they own and create value on the Internet in new ways.
The SEC’s legal theory is weak and false. It claims that the Uniswap protocol is an unregistered securities trading platform controlled by Uniswap Labs, that the Uniswap interface is an unregistered securities broker-dealer, and that the UNI token is an investment contract.
The token is a file format, like PDF; the protocol is a general-purpose computer program that anyone can use and integrate, like TCP/IP. Hundreds of thousands of users received UNI tokens for early participation in the protocol, and they received the token for free, without a contract, and with no expectation of profit from Uniswap Labs’ work.
Uniswap Labs is ready to fight and will continue to build. The SEC should not be using taxpayer resources to sue us. Our lawyers have a 2-0 record in SEC cases: Andrew Ceresney, former head of SEC enforcement, represented Ripple in a victory against the SEC; Don Verrilli, former deputy attorney general of the United States, argued more than 50 cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and successfully sued the SEC on behalf of Grayscale.
We will defend the right to use and distribute common code that challenges existing technology, adapts, and competes. We will continue to do what we do best: build.
The Gala community initiated a governance proposal regarding “temporary GALA token contract upgrade and token destruction”.
The proposal states that in view of the recent security incident that resulted in the unauthorized minting and sale of approximately 600 million GALA tokens and the permanent lock-up of approximately 4.4 billion tokens, this proposal aims to formally destroy these approximately 4.4 billion GALA tokens, as well as approximately 600 million GALA tokens from the GALA treasury, to ensure the stability and sustainability of the ecosystem.
NOTE: Due to the upgradeable nature of the GALA contract, the proposed changes will not require redemption or relisting on exchanges and can be executed without impacting all GALA token users.
This will be accomplished through upgrades to the GALA contract, including explicit and irreversible destruction of an equal number of unauthorized tokens or tokens determined by law enforcement to be illegally obtained, and enhanced security features of the contract to prevent future unauthorized access or breach.
EigenDA mainnet now supports rollup production traffic and introduces Dual Quorum model
According to official news, EigenDA announced that support for rollup production traffic on the EigenDA mainnet is immediately available, and anyone can now deploy their rollup and be whitelisted on its free tier. Interested rollup customers can fill out the EigenDA contact form to get approval to enter the initial free tier usage phase.
Additionally, the Dual Quorum model on the Holesky testnet is now available on the EigenDA mainnet. Initially, EigenDA Dual Quorum is launched with ETH as the first quorum and EIGEN as the second quorum. This means that EIGEN holders will be able to stake with EigenDA operators, who can choose to join EigenDA's Dual Quorum, adding more security to the network. Following the May 10th staking airdrop claim, EigenDA currently has over 44 million EIGEN staked and delegated.
Character*Voice
Vitalik Buterin responded to netizens on the X platform and said that we need an open decentralized (no operator, no governance) protocol to quickly transfer assets from one L2 to another and integrate it into the default sending interface of the wallet. But we need to do the basic work first.
The biggest user experience issue right now is that L2 projects don’t feel “like a unified Ethereum” enough. It’s much better than it was a year ago, but it’s still a long way from perfect.
A simple algorithm: What is easy to do at L1 but hard to achieve at L2? Across L2 standards/infrastructure.
For example:
* Token transfer;
*ENS;
*Key changes to smart contract wallets (individual and organizational).
The same applies to security/decentralization as above. What is great on L1 but lags far behind on L2?
For example:
* Light clients (if you have an L1 light client, you can prove L2 state);
* Basic reliability (the chain won’t stall or have weird reversals: Ethereum has only had one serious problem in its 9-year history);
* Proof of Stake (we need more phase 1 rollups).
Vitalik: I personally think that all Rollups will be ZK in 10 years
Vitalik Buterin posted on the X platform that he personally believes that in the next 10 years all Rollups will be ZK, and each slot will submit blocks with final state roots to L1. A lot of infrastructure and prover optimization is needed to achieve this goal, but this is obviously the ultimate goal.
Justin Sun said in a post on X Platform: “Ethereum is a decentralized protocol, and we are also ordinary participants in Ethereum. We have enough capital to provide TVL and node verification services for Ethereum, TRON, and all other types of L2 projects to ensure the security of all blockchains. We will be committed to the construction of this field for a long time. We do not think that we hold more Ethereum than the Ethereum Foundation. In fact, Ethereum is completely decentralized, and no one currently holds more Ethereum than the community.”
Earlier news, according to monitoring by on-chain analyst Ember, Justin Sun currently holds 665,000 ETH (US$2.447 billion), of which 390,000 (US$1.435 billion) were purchased at an average price of US$2,984 between the end of 2023 and the end of April this year.
Su Zhu: If Ethereum spot ETF is approved, Ethereum will rise to $5,400
Su Zhu posted on the X platform that the price of ETH has started to rise. He mentioned before that if the Ethereum spot ETF is really approved, then ETH will rise by 80% from US$3,000 to US$5,400, and BTC will rise to US$80,000 (the ETH/BTC exchange rate will reach 0.0675), which will also be a new high for the ETH price.
Van Buren Capital Partner: US SEC will abandon the argument that ETH is a security
Scott Johnsson, partner of Van Buren Capital and a well-known American financial lawyer, posted on the X platform that the Ethereum spot ETF applied by Fidelity has stated that it will not pledge ETH, and the bigger signal is that the structure and disclosure of the commodity grantor trust have not changed. All signs indicate that the US Securities and Exchange Commission will abandon the argument that ETH is a security.
Investment and Financing
Binance Labs invests in Aevo, amount not disclosed
According to official news, Binance Labs announced an investment in Aevo. The specific amount has not been disclosed. It is reported that Aveo is a high-performance Layer 2 (L2) built on the OP Stack, allowing perpetual trading, pre-release futures and options on the same platform with a single margin account.
Decentralized social protocol Farcaster completes $150 million financing, led by Paradigm
The decentralized social protocol Farcaster announced that it has completed a $150 million financing round, led by Paradigm, with participation from a16z crypto, Haun, USV, Variant, Standard Crypto and others. The relevant announcement stated that Farcaster will focus mainly on daily active user growth and adding developer primitives to the protocol this year, such as channels and direct messaging.
Security incidents
According to the screenshots posted by Web3 security researcher @Plumferno on the X platform, multi-chain fraud service provider Inferno Drainer announced in its community that it is reopening to the public, saying that after more than 6 months of private operation, it now has new employees, new ways of working, new support and new features, and has stolen $125 million for its customers during this period, bringing its total theft amount to more than $250 million.
In November last year, the fraud service provider Inferno Drainer announced its closure, having stolen more than $80 million in total.
SlowMist posted on the X platform that the total losses caused by security incidents in the encryption field last week (May 13 to May 19) exceeded 28 million US dollars, including:
1. pump.fun lost $1.9 million due to a flash loan attack;
2. TCH lost $19,000 due to a contract vulnerability on BNB Chain;
3. Rug Pull caused by fake Notcoin resulted in a loss of $281,000;
4. Sonne Finance lost $20 million due to a flash loan attack;
5. BlockTower Capital hedge fund was attacked, and the specific situation is under investigation;
6. ALEX Lab lost $4.3 million due to private key leakage;
7. Predy Finance lost $464,000 due to a contract vulnerability on Arbitrum;
8. Equalizer Exchange is investigating potential attacks and recommends users avoid using the front end;
9. Patton suffered an exit scam and lost $266,000.
