Eigen Labs Employees Airdrop Backlash

📢 Sponsor | 💡 Telegram | 📰 Past Editions

Good Morning.

Chop City continues every time we’re about to break $60,000. The more we do this the more bleak it will become price action-wise. The winners are the ones who are selling shovels to all of us degens. Guess who? Yes, it’s dexscreener.

The great folks over at DeFiLlama just analyzed their revenue. It ranges from $4.5M-$7.5M per month. Whoa, Nelly!

-M

In Today's Email:

• What Matters: Eigen Labs’s employee airdrop 🔍️ 

• Founders Highlight: Markus of Nudge 👆️ 

• Deal Flow: Chaos Labs’s $55M Series A 💰️ 

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

TOGETHER WITH

Nuffle: DA? Fast Finality? That’s Nuff!

Discover the Future of Modular Infrastructure with Nuffle Labs.

Born from the innovative minds behind NEAR Protocol and Ethereum, Nuffle Labs is at the forefront of next-gen modular infrastructure.

• NEAR DA: Experience the highest throughput Data Availability layer, reducing calldata costs by 95%. Perfect for rollups and protocols requiring affordable, fast, and high-throughput DA.

• NFFL: Nuffle’s Actively Validated Service (AVS) ensures super-fast finality for L2s/L3s. Imagine cross-chain DeFi, seamless multi-chain DEXs, and lightning-fast bridges—all backed by crypto-economic security.

Nuffle Labs is actively researching a Unified Security Layer to transform the industry, introducing new capital opportunities and expanding the innovation space for builders.

There’s NUFF for everyone.

Disclaimer: Nuffle is a friend of Launchy — this is not a sponsored segment.

WHAT MATTERS

Eigen Labs Employees Received $5M Airdrop

State of play: CoinDesk reported that Eigen Labs distributed a list of employee wallet addresses to ecosystem projects preparing to launch tokens. The employees received ~$5M at peak from projects using its technology.

• A team told CoinDesk it sent each Eigen Labs employee a portion of its new token as a "thank you," with each allocation worth ~$80,000.

• Another team reported receiving a list of wallet addresses from Eigen Labs and felt pressured to pay, fearing it could jeopardize their relationship with the influential company.

• Eigen Labs and the Eigen Foundation quietly banned employee payouts this year, citing concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

• The $5M received by the employees is now only worth under $1M.

• Eigen Labs has responded to the report, saying that if projects wanted to airdrop to Eigen Labs in the future, it could only go to the company.

CoinDesk's analysis revealed that each Eigen Labs employee received 46,512 ALT, 10,490.9 ETHFI, and 66,667 REZ from AltLayer, EtherFi, and Renzo, valued at $30,000, $80,000, and $16,666 at peak prices.

• On-chain records show that employees claimed a total of 487,928 ETHFI ($3.5M), 1,733,342 REZ ($433,300), and 1,539,563 ALT ($1.02M) between January and June 2024.

Why it Matters: There’s concern that the airdrop to Eigen Labs employees might lead the company to selectively promote projects that reward its team members with tokens, not the projects that are the best.

For builders and investors: If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. Advisor-ship and consulting fees are fine, so long as they’re properly disclosed.

BUILDER-INVESTOR HIGHLIGHT

Markus Maier of Nudge.xyz

Intro: Markus Maier is the founder of Nudge.xyz, a new primitive that will redefine where assets, liquidity, and onchain activity are flowing onchain (Re:allocation Primitive).

• Nudge was Violet, the company behind Mauve, a DEX for trading compliant and RWA.

Previous background: Markus founded his first company CulturalMe in 2012. He then worked at Bridgewater Associates and Amazon. He served as Chief of Staff at Axel Springer SE before going full-time on crypto.

• Markus studied and graduated from Brown University and Harvard University.

The big idea: Markus through Nudge aims to shape the (re)allocation of assets, liquidity, and activity onchain and beyond

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

INSIGHTS

Apple to Open Payment Chip to Third Parties

State of play: Starting with iOS 18.1, Apple will allow developers to offer in-app NFC transactions using the Secure Element.

Jeremy Allaire, the founder and CEO of Circle said “Tap to pay using USDC on iPhones incoming soon.”

• Additionally, users can now set a default contactless payment app, accessible via a double-click of the iPhone’s side button, which was previously limited to Apple Pay.

• This change will enable devs to offer in-app contactless transactions for various uses, including in-store payments, car keys, transit passes, and corporate badges.

• The APIs to build these apps will be available to developers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, and the US in the upcoming iOS 18.1 developer beta, with more locations to follow,.

DEAL FLOWS

Chaos Labs’s $55M Series A

Deal flows soared this week, we saw $160M+ in deals 💼 

Chaos Labs announced its $55M Series A fundraising round led by Haun Ventures alongside Lightspeed, F-Prime Capital, Wintermute, Galaxy, PayPal, Slow Ventures, and the Spartan Group.

• Chaos Labs is an onchain risk management platform. Among its clients are popular DeFi protocols, including Aave, GMX, and Jupiter.

• Chaos Labs provides contextualized data for risk management and economic security, helping protocols identify vulnerabilities and prevent exploits through simulation-based assessments.

• Its technology has secured $860B in trading volume, $25B in loans, and $35M in incentives across 20+ crypto protocols.

• Chaos Labs will use the funds to develop new products offering real-time updates to on-chain applications based on market conditions.

• In 2023, Chaos Labs raised $20M in a seed round co-led by PayPal and Galaxy Ventures.

Deal flows in the past week:

• Satflow, $7.6M Pre-Seed Round

• Goldilocks, $1.5M Seed Round

• Crunch Lab, $3.5M Seed Round

• Rhinestone, $5M Seed Round

• Reddio, Undisclosed $ Seed Round

• Essential, $11M Series A

• Sling Money, $15M Series A

• Parfin, $10M Series A

• Chaos Labs, $55M Series A

• Rivalz, $9M Private Round

• Kem, $3M Strategic Round

• Sahara Labs, $38M Strategic Round

• Orderly Network, $5M Strategic Round

• Ion Protocol, $4.8M Unknown Round

QUICK BITES

• OKX brings Solana ‘blinks’ to Ethereum.

• MakerDAO stops new WBTC-backed loans.

• Uniswap announced a $2.35M auditing competition.

• NYSE withdraws proposal to list BTC and ETH options.

• Binance re-enters India after settling a $2.25M penalty.

• SEC approves the first leveraged long MicroStrategy ETF.

• Donald Trump Jr. shares ‘Defiant Ones’ telegram channel.

• Nasdaq withdraws proposals to list BTC and ETH options.

• IMF proposes increasing electricity taxes for crypto miners.

• Arbitrum DAO approves temperature check proposal on ARB staking.

NOTEWORTHY READS

• Coin Metrics’ read on futures falter, funding flips.

• Wu Blockchain’s read on unveiling HashKey’s HSK token.

• Crypto Distilled’s read on top crypto hedge fund strategies.

If you enjoy reading this issue, please consider subscribing. It takes 1 minute of your time but it would mean the world to us 🙇

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.