Weekly Project Updates: OpenSea Receives Acquisition Offers, etc

1. Ethereum Core Developer Meeting (ACDC) 126th Session: Discussion on Deneb Upgrade, Electra Upgrade, EIPs, and Research on Staking Rewards Curve link

According to Christine Kim’s summary of the 126th Ethereum All Core Developers Meeting (ACDC), the meeting primarily discussed the following: The Deneb upgrade remains unchanged (Sepolia scheduled for January 30th at 22:51:12 UTC, Holesky for February 7th at 11:34:24 UTC), the next Electra upgrade confirming the included EIPs (EIP-6110: Providing validator deposits on-chain; EIP-7002: Execution layer-triggered exits; EIP-7549: Removal of the committee index from attestation), and EIPs awaiting further discussion (EIP-7251: Increasing the maximum effective balance from 32 to 2048; EIP-7594: P2P data availability sampling/PeerDAS; and SSZ-related EIPs), along with research on altering the Ethereum staking reward curve.

2. Nethermind Error in Ethereum Network Causes Validators to Go Offline, Raises Concerns about Centralization Risks in Geth link

This week, a minor error in the Ethereum network’s Nethermind client caused all validators running Nethermind (about 10% of the network) to go offline. This incident has raised concerns about the centralized risk of having a large proportion of validators running Geth. Node hosting and staking service provider Allnodes recently announced that they have migrated 23,895 validators from Geth to Besu. Lido also stated that as of the fourth quarter of 2023, the Geth usage among Lido validators has decreased from a merged 93% to 67%. According to Execution-Diversity.info data, the current proportion of Ethereum validators running Geth stands at 78%.

3. OpenSea CEO: Company Receives Acquisition Offers, Maintains an Open Attitude Towards Acquisition Deals link

Devin Finzer, CEO and co-founder of OpenSea, has disclosed that the company has received acquisition inquiries and remains open to potential acquisition deals, but has not specified when or by whom. Finzer added that if suitable partners emerge, they would consider it. However, OpenSea is currently not actively seeking buyers, and there are no plans for acquisition at the moment.

4. MystenLabs to Introduce a Series of Developer Services in Collaboration with Alibaba Cloud link

Mysten Labs has announced its collaboration with Alibaba Cloud to introduce a series of new services to support current and new Move developers on Sui. These offerings include AI-supported development environments, cross-university educational programming, community events, as well as Mandarin and Korean translations of Move documentation.

5. Magic Eden to Launch Enhanced Reward Program, Cross-Chain Wallet, and $NFT Token link

Magic Eden, the NFT marketplace, has announced the launch of an enhanced reward program and a cross-chain wallet, along with open-sourcing the protocol as its mission. The new reward program covers collectors, creators, and all users, initially launching on Solana and later expanding to Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Polygon. Additionally, Magic Eden pledges contributions to the Non-Fungible DAO and will introduce the $NFT token to drive the adoption and development of NFTs.

6. Lido Community Votes to Develop wstETH Cross-Chain Solution on BNB Chain with Wormhole & Axelar link

The Lido community has announced the results of the vote on the proposal to develop wstETH cross-chain on the BNB Chain. The Wormhole & Axelar Multibridge option, with 45 million LDO and a percentage of 81.13%, has been selected. Among the top voters, your.eth contributed 8.1 million LDO to the Wormhole-Axelar proposal. Wormhole-Axelar proposed a multisig bridge method, aiming to standardize the integration of Wormhole and Axelar networks for inter-chain communication, while providing flexibility and cross-chain governance for Lido DAO.

7. Curve Finance Announces Launch of Lending Market Llamalend using crvUSD link

Curve Finance has announced the upcoming launch of Llamalend, a lending market utilizing crvUSD, within the next few days. Llamalend will feature both unidirectional and bidirectional isolated markets. Currently, the functionalities of this lending market are undergoing testing and auditing processes.

8. Unibot Records Daily Trading Volume Exceeding $10 Million for the First Time link

Following its expansion to Solana, the Telegram trading bot Unibot has experienced a secondary surge in growth. On January 21st, Unibot recorded a daily trading volume exceeding $10 million for the first time, with a new high of 5,000 daily trading users, generating approximately $76,000 in fees, with $7.9 million contributed on Solana alone. Currently, in terms of market share of trading bot volume on Telegram, Bonkbot maintains its lead with over 50% market share, followed by Unibot, Banana Gun, and Maestro.

9. Legal Fund Defending Tornado Cash Developers Receives Over $350,000 and Support from Snowden link

The legal fund defending Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev has received over $350,000 in donations, along with public support from former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Snowden retweeted the donation tweet and stated, “Privacy is not a crime.” Roman Storm and Roman Semenov face charges of money laundering and violating sanctions in the United States, with Storm already arrested and scheduled for trial in 2024, while Semenov remains at large, and Pertsev is awaiting trial after being granted bail in the Netherlands.

10. Mocaverse Announces Launch of MOCA Token Built by MocaFam link

Animoca Brands’ NFT series, Mocaverse, recently announced the launch of the MOCA Token, built by MocaFam, aiming to foster the adoption of MOCA across the Mocaverse, Animoca Brands ecosystem, and other domains. According to NFTGo data, Mocaverse NFTs have seen a 360% increase in floor price over the past three months, making it one of the top ten collectibles by market capitalization.

As shared by Mocaverse Chinese Ambassador @0xWatell, the core assets of the Mocaverse ecosystem include Mocaverse Genesis NFTs, Treasure Box-Lucky Neko, Moca ID, Realm Points, Moca XP, and the upcoming MOCA Token.