| Brought to you by: | | | L2s are centralized because they control one sequencer, vexing the Ethereum critic eternally. Soneium's mainnet launch yesterday is a stark reminder of why that may be true. Meanwhile, the ETH stake rate is trending down, but you can check out Degen Corner for an 18% APY sUSD market opp. | | | Ether staking rate: | | Since the week of Nov. 4, 2024, Ethereum's staking rate has experienced a notable decline, marking the first multi-month decrease in staked ETH. This trend suggests a shift in investor behavior and market dynamics. | At this stage, we can only speculate as to the reasons: Ethereum's staking rewards have decreased to approximately 3%, down from over 3.5% earlier in the year. This yield is nominally lower than those offered by other major proof-of-stake networks, such as Solana, but still competitive when you factor in issuance dilution. | Still, with TradFi options, like two-year Treasury yields at nearly 4.3%, safer returns that surpass Ethereum's staking yields are available, notwithstanding the fact that Ethereum's yield is paid in ETH. The long-term decline in the ETH/BTC ratio may have made ether accumulation through staking less appealing. Plus, new options for staking bitcoin have recently come online. | A reduction in ether staking could alleviate some sell pressure, posits Blockworks Research analyst Marc Arjoon. And the decline in the stake rate will lead to a slight drop in issuance rates. | There was a brief decline in the stake rate once before — in January 2024, ahead of the Dencun hard fork — so it's possible some participants chose to derisk until after the next hard fork, Pectra, expected this quarter. | — Macauley Peterson | | Brought to you by: | | SKALE, the gas-free invisible blockchain, is "Built Different" for mass adoption: high-throughput, scalable, and fair. As a network of interoperable EVM-compatible L1s, SKALE's user experience focus has accelerated a strong ecosystem across gaming, AI, and more. Due to SKALE's gas-free nature, blockchain can be integrated invisibly, creating accessible Web2-like experiences for users and developers. | SKALE has: | | Dive in to learn more. | | | Sonieum's need for decentralized sequencing | Sony launched its much-acclaimed Soneium L2 blockchain yesterday. It had a somewhat rocky start. | Built atop the OP Stack, Soneium is a joint venture launch by Sony Group and Startale Group. The latter previously launched the Astar Network L1 and the Astar L2 zkEVM. | Soneium's "Minato" testnet began in August 2024 and drew over 1,700 applicants to its Spark incubator, while garnering 47 million transactions over 14 million active wallets. | What's placed Soneium in the Crypto Twitter limelight, however, are calls for the chain's sequencer-level censorship. | Memecoins launched on the chain yesterday, such as AIBO, traded to a $2.7 million market cap high 13 hours after launch before being censored by Soneium's sequencer and blocked on the chain's block explorer (AIBO is a Sony-developed robotic dog from the 90s). | | Surprised? You shouldn't be. According to Soneium's docs, the chain already planned a tiered restriction system to protect intellectual property rights. This system flags potential intellectual property violations and will enforce blocks at the RPC level if they're not resolved in time: | Contract addresses on this list will have their activities restricted on Soneium, for example via RPC-level blocks, limited visibility on Block Explorer and exclusion from wallets. | | It turns out, however, that L2s are more resilient than widely believed. The sequencer block backfired, as users were able to trigger a forced transaction inclusion mechanism on the Ethereum L1. |  | donnoh.eth 💗 @donnoh_eth |  |
| | Replying to@donnoh_eth | then i go to etherscan (on L1!), to their OptimismPortal (contract used to send L1->L2 msgs), and craft a depositTransaction with such calldata. i want to call the exchange contract on L2 (0xE1A...3Ab) with the appropriate value to swap and the calldata above. check the tx… x.com/i/web/status/1… | |  | | | 4:54 PM • Jan 14, 2025 | | | | | | 85 Likes 3 Retweets | 5 Replies |
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| For OP Stack chains, any EOA (externally owned account) wallet can create an L2 transaction and call the main OptimismPortal contract, thereby allowing the submission of a transaction to Ethereum L1 without going through the L2's centralized sequencer. | This mechanism is sometimes referred to by Ethereum researchers as an "escape hatch," an interim failsafe solution pending L2 rollups decentralizing their sequencers. | As Justin Drake put it on a previous Bankless podcast, even a Stage 2 rollup with a centralized sequencer cannot freeze or steal assets like a centralized custodian could. Real-time censorship-resistance may be compromised, but the ability to force transaction inclusions still grants some explicit level of ownership over assets on L2 chains. | Sequencer decentralization is being tackled by Ethereum researchers in a myriad of ways, such as sequencer marketplaces like Astria and Espresso, or based rollup designs that simply defer sequencing duties to L1 validators (i.e. based sequencing). | "Based rollups, using Ethereum's sequencers, offer real-time censorship resistance. Unless censorship resistance is baked in, there will always be risks. While there are risks, we will never see true decentralization, permissionless and security," Brecht Devos, co-founder and CTO of Taiko, told Blockworks. | Putting aside the thorny discussion as to whether it was right for Soneium to censor, note that this "censorship" isn't all that different from the kinds of permissioned chains that already exist as Ethereum L2s and on Avalanche subnets. | What's truly questionable is Soneium's decision from a practical perspective. Trying to blacklist every intellectual property violation on a permissionless ledger is a fiendishly complex task with no end in sight. | — Donovan Choy | | | Infinex sUSD rewards start tomorrow | Starting Thursday, Infinex will reward sUSD depositors with weekly allocations of 5,000 OP and 5,000 SNX tokens. The rewards will accrue continuously and can be claimed each week for six weeks. | The sUSD stablecoin is issued by the Synthetix protocol, and can be used for trading, lending and other DeFi applications. It is minted by users who lock up SNX tokens in collateralized debt positions (CDPs) within the Synthetix protocol. | The yield will vary depending on the total amount of sUSD deposited — for example, if Infinex attracts $5 million in total deposits, it projects an 18% APR. | In addition to token rewards, one active Infinex user who has at least $1,000 in sUSD deposits will each week win an unlocked Patron NFT, a limited-edition digital collectible designed to recognize and reward early supporters of the Infinex platform. An announcement blog post states it will be filtering for Sybils. | To participate, users need to create an Infinex account and deposit sUSD. That's it! | — Macauley Peterson | | | This June, Permissionless IV in Brooklyn is bringing together developers, creators, and problem-solvers driving the next wave of onchain development. It's a space to exchange ideas, tackle challenges, and collaborate on the tools and protocols shaping tomorrow. | June 24-26, 2025 | Brooklyn, NY | A transformation is happening now. Be part of it. | | | |  | Neutron 🔀 @Neutron_org | |
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Update: Neutron is back online! ⚡️ The underlying issue was caused by a non-deterministic query in Neutron's built-in oracle and has since been resolved through a coordinated chain upgrade. All funds are safe. We'll share more details about the issue and its resolution soon | Neutron 🔀 @Neutron_org Attention users: Neutron is temporarily halted as the Neutron Core team investigates an unknown issue. We're collaborating with validators to resolve this promptly and will share updates as soon as the situation is resolved. Thank you for your patience! |
| | | 10:46 PM • Jan 14, 2025 | | | | | | 116 Likes 26 Retweets | 4 Replies |
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|  | Mohamed A. El-Erian @elerianm | |
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US CPI inflation is out with the number that matters most in my opinion -- the monthly core measure -- being softer than expected. Specifically,
Core CPI rose 0.2% in December, below the 0.3% consensus forecast and bringing the annual measure to 3.3%; and
Headline rose 0.4%,… x.com/i/web/status/1… | | | 1:44 PM • Jan 15, 2025 | | | | | | 533 Likes 104 Retweets | 54 Replies |
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|  | Jeff Dorman @jdorman81 | |
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If you're wondering why $LEO has been the best performing token in crypto history (from a risk / reward perspective — sharpe ratio). x.com/jdorman81/stat… |  *Walter Bloomberg @DeItaone
US GOVERNMENT SAYS 120,000 BITCOIN STOLEN IN 2016 HACK SHOULD BE RETURNED TO BITFINEX: FILING |
| | | 2:47 PM • Jan 15, 2025 | | | | | | 4 Likes 0 Retweets | 1 Reply |
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|  | Kash Dhanda @kashdhanda | |
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JUPUARY 2025 CHECKER IS LIVE It's the most wonderful time of the year - Jupuary is nearly here! Jupuary is our annual airdrop designed to Grow the Pie. Our goal is to send a gift to qualified users, invite them to contribute their ideas through governance, and continue… x.com/i/web/status/1… | |   | | | 3:41 PM • Jan 15, 2025 | | | | | | 1.28K Likes 292 Retweets | 362 Replies |
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