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Good Morning. Ethena launches on mainnet, Gearbox offers leveraged Eigen points, and the crypto markets are seeing prices not seen since 48 hours ago. OI continues to climb but funding rates still look relatively healthy. When $3T mcap?

In Today's Email:

• What Matters: LRTs’ TVL exceeds $3.5B 📈 

• Case Study: Blur & blast airdrop est. 🪂 

• Governance & Features: Gearbox Eigen points ⭐

You read and share. We listen and improve. Send us feedback at [email protected].

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WHAT MATTERS

LRTs Exceed $3.5B in TVL

State of play: Liquid restaking tokens’ (LRTs) TVL has exceeded $3.5B. Protocols like Etherfi, Renzo, Kelp, and Puffer have grown due to users leveraging these protocols to utilize EigenLayer.

• Etherfi leads LRTs with over $1.3B in TVL, followed by Kelp with $460M and Renzo at $346M.

• Puffer saw a quick increase in deposits, hitting $1B in TVL just shortly after its launch on February 1st.

• Smaller LRTs also show a significant increase in TVLs in February: Bedrock at $89M, Swell with $66M, Prime at $29M, and ClayStack at $6.8M.

LRTs offer a way to deposit on Eigen after reaching caps, Protocols like EtherFi, Renzo, and Kelp still take ether deposits, restake them, and issue derivative tokens plus Eigen points to users.

• Users deposit ether on EigenLayer via LRTs to earn points, increasing their chances for EigenLayer tokens. Aiming for rewards from both EigenLayer and the LRT protocol.

• LRT protocols offer two sets of points—one from Eigen and another from themselves.

• For instance, Kelp offers points from both EigenLayer and KelpDAO, boosting reward chances from both.

Why it matters: The restaking mania combined with the spot Ethereum ETF is the current liquidity meta for ETH. Paying attention to what’s happening here until after Eigen launches their tokens will be key.

For builders and investors: Bootstrapping liquidity & attention by piggy-backing a hot narrative has always been a good short-medium-term play in the bull market.

• Keep up with upcoming narratives & catalysts to understand where the market is going.

CASE STUDY

Blur to Blast Valuation and Airdrop Estimation

Credit to 0xShangdidi & Wu Blockchain for the original research.

State of play: 0xShangdidi from WuBlockchain analyzes BLAST's strategy and $BLUR token, offering airdrop predictions for secondary participants to assess whether active participation is worthwhile.

Here are the key takeaways from the research:

Estimated BLAST Valuation and Airdrop

• Blast's airdrop rate is predicted at 12%, with equal rewards for BLUR scoring and staking, and developers receiving half of these rewards, followed by cross-chain staking.

• 0xShangdidi conservatively values BLAST at $5B, expecting an initial circulation of 15% and a market cap of $600M.

• That will place Blast between 50th and 100th in market cap rankings.

• Pre-market valuations on Aevo suggest Blast's worth between $3B to $10B, supported by its 6th global TVL ranking.

• Risks of Blast highlighted by 0xShangdidi: Security risks due to multi-sig wallets, increased risk of rugs on Blast, and price decline risk if Blast fails to attract new users with innovative applications.

  

  WuBlockchain

Airdrop Value Estimated in BLUR

• Estimating BLUR's staking rewards is complex due to variable multipliers based on staking duration.

• Excluding the multiplier for simplicity, $0.3 is viewed as solid price support for BLUR, with its value linked to Blast's potential.

• The current $0.6 price is deemed reasonable, with $0.6–0.7 as key resistance if NFT activity drops.

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INSIGHTS

USDe Public Launch & Shard Campaign

Ethena Labs announced the launch of USDe on the public mainnet alongside the Shard Campaign which is designed to boost user engagement within its ecosystem.

• The Shard Campaign, aimed at long-term engagement, features short "Epochs" aims to promote USDe stablecoin activities and community integration, ending in three months or at $1B USDe supply.

• It rewards contributions like liquidity provision and minting, with a decay mechanism to encourage early participation.

• The campaign, focusing on ecosystem growth, restricts participation in some regions, including the US.

Steps to participating in Epoch 1 of the Shard Campaign:

• Enter your referral code on the landing page.

• Go to the app and on the Buy tab acquire USDe.

• Go to the Liquidity Tab and select a Curve pool.

• Deposit USDe into one of the eligible Curve pools listed here.

• Return to the liquidity tab of Ethena's app

• Lock your new LP token

• Earn Shards

Stay alert, the only landing page for the Shard Campaign is: http://ethena.fi 

FEATURES & GOVERNANCE UPDATE

Gearbox’s Leveraged EigenLayer Restaking

Gearbox Protocol’s “Leveraged EigenLayer Restaking” went live yesterday. This feature allows Users to earn up to 9.5x Eigen Points and 19x Etherfi points.

• Gearbox offers up to 10x leverage on collateral, allowing users to borrow real assets for use across DeFi protocols, enhancing activities with leverage.

• For restaking, borrowed assets can be exchanged for weETH (EtherFi) to access Leveraged Eigen and EtherFi points.

• Gearbox enables leverage through Credit Accounts (CAs), leveraged smart contract wallets holding borrowed funds and collateral.

• These CAs restrict fund usage to specific assets, protocols, and pools for risk management.

• If losses deplete a user's collateral, the position is liquidated, automatically repaying borrowed funds to lenders, preventing bad debt for Gearbox.

Here is the table of points calculation provided by Gearbox:

Other notable feature updates:

• GenesisLRT goes live.

• Cow DAO launches Cow AMM.

• ZKP2P introduces zero transaction fees.

• Sommelier Finance expands to Arbitrum.

• MEV Protocol launches mevAuction on testnet.

• Stakewithus goes live on the Ethereum mainnet.

• Moonwell enables cross-chain lending of Circle's USDC.

• Zeta Markets launches a mobile version and enables 2x Z-Score.

• Prisma Finance launches ULTRA, a new stablecoin issued by PrismaLRT.

• Trader Joe launches a token based on the DN-404 standard, SHOE.

QUICK BITES

• MetaMask integrates Blockaid security alerts.

• ETH futures OI surges and hits ATH on Deribit.

• Saylor said he’s not interested in selling Bitcoin.

• Yuga Labs acquires Moonbirds NFT startup, Proof.

• Circle ceases USDC support on the TRON blockchain.

• Crypto funds added nearly $2.5B last week on Bitcoin buzz.

• US bans crypto addresses tied to LockBit Ransomware Group.

• Hong Kong lays out provisional guidance for crypto custody.

• Tyr Hedge Fund faces allegations of ignoring FTX risk warnings.

• Optimism distributes over 10M OP worth nearly $41M in 4th airdrop.

• The UK seeks to lock in new stablecoin rules within the next six months.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

• Decentralised’s read on frame this.

• Our Network’s read on the Move ecosystem.

• Binance Research’s read on guide to restaking.

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Disclaimer: All the information presented in this publication and its affiliates is strictly for educational purposes only. It should not be construed or taken as financial, legal, investment, or any other form of advice.