EigenLayer’s failed airdrop

Hola, degens!

BTC has dipped down once again to $56,700, while Ethereum holds at $2,874. The burning question remains: will the prices hold, or are we in for further downward trends?

Let’s get into this week’s headlines!

EigenLayer’s failed airdrop

EigenLayer's much-anticipated "stakedrop" of their new EIGEN token has fumed many users on C.T. 

What was supposed to be a generous reward for early supporters has turned into a major controversy.

First off, this wasn't your typical "airdrop". EigenLayer has taken the novel approach of a "stakedrop" where EIGEN tokens are allocated based on how much ETH users had staked on the protocol before the March 15th snapshot date. 

The catch? Those EIGEN tokens can't be transferred or traded until some future unspecified date.

EigenLayer claims this is to avoid the day-one airdrop dump, but critics say it's just too restrictive.

The complaints don't stop there:

1) The linear distribution model means the biggest whales with the most ETH staked will get the lion's share of EIGEN tokens, while smaller stakers get the scraps. Doesn't seem very fair or inclusive.

2) Users in the US and over 30 other countries are completely blocked from claiming any EIGEN due to geographic restrictions, despite EigenLayer happily taking their ETH stakes before.

3) There are concerns that insiders and VCs may have their tokens start vesting before regular users can even transfer theirs, giving them an unfair liquidity advantage.

The numbers don't lie - by EigenLayer's own estimates, the top 2% of stakers will receive around 90% of the initial EIGEN drop, while the bottom 36% collectively get just 0.2%. 

Yikes.

So while EigenLayer positioned this as a generous "airdrop" for the community, the combination of untransferrable tokens, skewed distributions, and country blocks made them face a lot of backlash. 

Moreover, they face a storm of over 12,000 withdrawal requests after the initial $EIGEN airdrop.

The message is that their active participation was undervalued in the end.

Changpeng Zhao goes to prison for a lighter sentence

After some delay, CZ’s big day has finally arrived. 

The Binance founder was scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in Washington state at 12 pm ET (9 am PT) yesterday morning. 

Zhao pulled every string for a lighter sentence:

1. In a heartfelt letter to the judge ahead of sentencing, CZ expressed profound regret for his "poor decisions", accepted full responsibility, and vowed it would be his only run-in with the law.

2. Over 160 people close to Zhao wrote to the judge pleading for leniency, portraying him as a devoted family man and humble tech enthusiast.

3.“From education programs in Africa to improving the living standards of disadvantaged youth in Southeast Asia, to university projects in Europe, I intend to devote the majority of my time and resources to this area, developing projects in as many places as possible, without Limited to the above example.” Zhao said.

What happened next?

Prosecutors had originally sought a harsh 36-month prison sentence. However, the judge stated there was no evidence he was directly informed of the illicit activities happening on the exchange. 

In the end, Zhao received a much lighter 4-month sentence.

Some see the relatively light sentence as an opportunity to move past the legal cloud that has hung over the latest crypto bull run. 

As one observer stated: "Can we price this in and get the Bullrun on the way already?"

However, high-profile crypto cases show no signs of slowing, with early Bitcoin adopter Roger Ver also arrested just yesterday on charges of tax evasion and mail fraud. The saga continues…

BlackRock's BUIDL is now the largest tokenized treasury fund

BlackRock's new blockchain fund BUIDL launched just six weeks ago and it's already the biggest tokenized treasury fund out there. 

Crazy, right? 

BUIDL's market cap hit $375 million by April 30th. Blew past the previous leader BENJI fund from Franklin, which had $368 million.

Last week was insane for BUIDL too. Raked in $70 mil. Out of that, $50 mil came from just one token, Ondo Finance's OUSG! Meanwhile, poor BENJI shrank almost 4%. 

The momentum with BlackRock's new fund ust shows how institutions are obsessed with bringing their products on-chain now.  

It's pretty mind-blowing that over $1.2 billion worth of actual U.S. Treasury bonds and bills are now tokenized and living on chains like Ethereum, Polygon, and Solana.

BUIDL may just be getting started in its quest to dominate this space.

News from the decentralized world 🗺️

• Core, Avalanche’s native ecosystem wallet, has announced the integration of Stripe's onramp. Core users can now replenish their wallets using ACH, debit, and credit cards.

• KMNO launched yesterday, one of Solana’s most popular lending protocols and the token’s value dropped around 80% in the first 15 minutes after trading started.

• The spot bitcoin and ether ETFs officially debuted in Hong Kong overnight but the reception was “lukewarm,” Reuters reports.

• ICYMI: The SEC has been investigating ETH for over a year, according to an unredacted filing from Consensys.

• Coinbase plugs into the Bitcoin lightning network.

• SEC and Gensler believed Ether was security for at least a year

• MicroStrategy Q1 net loss hits $53.1M, but Bitcoin buying spree continues.

Tweet of the week 🐤

Meme of the week 🤡

That’s a wrap! We’ll see you next week for more.

Enjoy the newsletter? Please forward to a pal. It only takes 18 seconds!