Weekly Project Updates: Solana Records Annual High in On-chain Activity, etc

1. Solana Network Achieves Yearly High in New Addresses and Active Addresses in December link

Solana Network sets a new record for monthly new addresses and active addresses. As of December 25th, the number of active addresses on the Solana Network for December surpassed 15.6 million, showing an increase of around 50% compared to November and exceeding the 15.2 million in January. The number of new addresses added in December is 6.8 million, surpassing the 6.6 million recorded in May earlier this year.

2. zkSync Era Mainnet Temporarily Halts Block Production for 2 Hours link

On December 25th, the zkSync Era mainnet experienced a 2-hour block production pause. After an urgent investigation and fix by the team, the issue has been completely resolved. According to @zkSyncDevs, the problem on the zkSync Era network originated from an edge case error in the operator’s computation of state updates. While the sequencer was fully operational, overly defensive measures were taken based on unnecessary security procedures. There was no risk to funds, but operations during the holidays proved challenging. The team plans to discuss holiday emergency plans to improve the network in the new year and extends apologies to affected developers and users.

3. Metis Andromeda Emerges as the Third-Largest Layer 2 Network by TVL link

As of the data from L2Beat on the 28th, over the past 7 days, the Total Value Locked (TVL) on Metis Andromeda has grown by 215% to reach $723 million. This makes it the third-largest Layer 2 (L2) network by TVL, following Arbitrum and Optimism. However, it’s important to note that this growth is primarily driven by the increase in the price of the native chain token METIS. Currently, 93.8% of the assets on the Metis Andromeda chain are in METIS tokens, which have experienced a price increase of 240% in the past week.

4. Avalanche Foundation to Support Meme Sector Through Culture Catalyst Funding Program link

Avalanche announced on Twitter that the Avalanche Foundation will support the Meme sector through its Culture Catalyst funding program. The initiative involves acquiring curated Meme tokens based on Avalanche to create a collection, recognizing and encouraging the culture and fun represented by the Meme ecosystem. This effort complements the Avalanche Foundation’s existing portfolio of investments in the ecosystem. Criteria for selecting Meme projects include factors such as the number of holders, liquidity thresholds, project maturity, fair launch principles, and overall social sentiment. The Culture Catalyst program, launched last year, has previously focused on various categories of crypto assets, including Gas tokens, DeFi tokens, RWA, NFTs, stablecoins, and governance tokens.

5. Privacy-focused Blockchain Aleo’s CEO, Alex Pruden, Officially Resigns link

Privacy-focused blockchain Aleo’s CEO, Alex Pruden, announced via Twitter that he has officially resigned and will take on the role of Executive Director at the Aleo Foundation. Alex Pruden mentioned that during his tenure, the team was rebuilt, and they introduced a new consensus algorithm, a new proof system, a new brand, as well as a completely new SDK, an identity protocol based on zkCreds, and three testnets. In the future, the Aleo Foundation will focus on managing the Aleo network, aiming to achieve this by encouraging developers to adopt, develop applications, and manage in a responsible manner. In February 2022, Aleo secured $200 million in funding led by SoftBank and Koracap.

6. UniSat Wallet Announces Support for ARC20 Assets link

UniSat Wallet announces the support for ARC20 assets. UniSat utilizes the official indexer’s backup solution for security and plans to transition to UniSat Atomicals Indexer for enhanced service performance in the future. Currently, the wallet supports ARC20, and users need to manually enable it. Previously, UniSat announced the support for ARC20 assets scheduled for December 26th, with trading opening on December 28th.

7. Worldcoin Expands World ID Verification to Singapore link

Worldcoin has announced that World ID verification can now be conducted in Singapore through its hardware device, Orb. However, it recently declared that it will no longer provide Orb verification services in India, Brazil, and France. In addition, the World App, which is compatible with World ID, has achieved 5 million downloads, with a monthly active user count of 1.7 million.

8. Wormhole Launches $50 Million Cross-Chain Ecosystem Fund link

Cross-chain infrastructure Wormhole has announced the launch of a $50 million Cross-Chain Ecosystem Fund. Teams building applications or infrastructure that integrates with the Wormhole cross-chain messaging protocol are eligible to apply for the fund. The fund is managed and operated by Borderless Capital and has received support from institutions including Jump Crypto, Polygon Ventures, Aptos Labs, Solana Foundation, Algorand Foundation, GSR, and Arrington Capital.

9. Proposal to Reduce the Supply of 300 Million CAKE Tokens by PancakeSwap Secures Approval link

On December 28th, the PancakeSwap community proposed a vote to reduce the total supply limit of CAKE from 750 million to 450 million. As of the time of writing, the proposal has been approved, and it will take effect on January 4, 2024. The voting interface shows a support rate of 97.88% in favor of the proposal.

10. Kyber Co-Founder and CEO: KyberSwap to Introduce Zap API, Company Implements 50% Workforce Reduction link

Kyber Network Co-founder and CEO, Victor Tran, tweeted that KyberSwap will soon launch the Zap API, aiming to make it the most convenient entry point for users to access DeFi liquidity protocols through dApps, wallets, and other projects. To compensate users affected by the Elastic vulnerability, the platform has implemented the KyberSwap Elastic Exploit Treasury Grant program, providing 100% compensation for user losses. Additionally, KyberSwap has reduced its workforce by 50%. Furthermore, Kyber has temporarily suspended the liquidity protocol plans and the KyberAI project.