Weekly DeFi Index

This week's market cap, volume, and volatility indices were negative at -2.29%, -21.31%, and -23.97%, respectively.

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Chart of the Week

Cronos Labs launched the Cronos zkEVM testnet, a zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup blockchain on top of the Ethereum Sepolia testnet, meaning it is secured by Ethereum both from a final settlement and a data availability standpoint. 

The project is a hyperchain using ZK Stack, a modular open-source framework optimised for building custom Layer-2 (L2) and Layer-3 (L3) hyperchains. It is launched in partnership between Cronos Labs, Matter Labs, and engineering teams from Crypto.com, VVS Finance, Fulcrom Finance, and Veno Finance. The target date for the Cronos zkEVM mainnet launch is set in Q2 2024.

The Cronos zkEVM testnet is a significant milestone in Cronos's multi-year scalability journey, where the Cronos ecosystem is now multi-chain across several networks to support a broad range of user needs and use cases:

• Cronos (the EVM blockchain) is the leading Ethereum-compatible network built on the Cosmos SDK. It is a permissionless and programmable Layer-1 that’s home to more than 500 decentralised applications powered by smart contracts. 

• Cronos PoS chain (rebranded from Crypto.org Chain) is the ‘layer-zero’ network that guarantees the security of the Cronos ecosystem. A top-five Cosmos chain, it is the native issuer of the CRO utility token, secured by a vast network of more than 100 nodes representing around US$600 million in staked value.

• Cronos zkEVM (now in testnet) is the latest sister chain that aims to extend the rich portfolio of Cronos apps into the promising zkSync hyperchain ecosystem, broadening Cronos’s user base further and making it easier to move liquidity back and forth between Ethereum and the Cronos chains.

News Highlights

• The Ethereum community has approved the ERC-3643 standard, the first-ever compliant tokenisation standard. It enhances ERC-20 by incorporating controlled advanced functions and compliance modules. ERC-3643 introduces a robust framework for tokenising real-world assets (RWAs), securities, payment systems, and loyalty programmes, and verifies users' eligibility for a token through an anonymous yet verifiable self-sovereign identity (SSI) framework.

• Circle has launched its Euro-backed stablecoin, EURC, on the Solana blockchain. The company intends EURC to be a regulated e-money token under EU regulations, and Solana-based DeFi apps and digital wallets have added support for the stablecoin. 

• Galaxy Digital, Flow Traders, and DWS have partnered to form a new venture called AllUnity, which will issue a fully collateralised Euro-denominated stablecoin. AllUnity plans to issue the Euro stablecoin on all major public permissionless L1s and L2s, and it will be regulated by Germany’s financial supervisory authority, BaFin.

• The Arbitrum Foundation has submitted a proposal for Celo to use Arbitrum’s Orbit tech stack for its planned migration to an Ethereum L2 network. Originally planned to build its L2 with Optimism’s OP Stack, Celo Labs is evaluating various proposals (including Polygon, Matter Labs, and Arbitrum) and is expected to decide by mid-January 2024. 

• StarkWare announced the Devonomics programme, which will distribute $3.5 million in fees paid on the network to developers. It aims to support the Starknet ecosystem, with 8% of fees going to decentralised application (dapp) builders and the remaining 2% to Starknet core developers.

• Ethereum L2 network Arbitrum One experienced a major outage for approximately 78 minutes because of a significant surge in network traffic caused by inscriptions, resulting in the protocol's sequencer stalling and unstable gas prices. This comes amid an increase in user demand for EVM inscriptions, which have been causing transactions and fees to spike and full or partial outages to some blockchain networks. 

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• Research Roundup Newsletter [November 2023]: We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring trending market insights in November, charts of the month, and our exploration of new developments within the Bitcoin ecosystem.

• 2023 Year Review & 2024 Year Ahead: 2023 has been an eventful year for the crypto industry. In this report, we curate the top crypto events and trends of 2023, followed by our outlook for 2024.

Recent University Articles

• A Guide to Ethereum’s ERC-4337 Standard and Account Abstraction: Explore Ethereum’s ERC-4337 standard and the concept of account abstraction, plus the potential to revolutionise smart contract wallets.

• Cosmos (ATOM) — What It Is and How It Works: In this article, we discuss Cosmos, a blockchain ecosystem that aims to revolutionise how blockchains interact with one another.

• What Is Aptos (APT)?: In this article, we discover how Aptos is designed to tackle blockchain’s challenges and make it scalable, safe, and cost-efficient.

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