This Week in Blockfolio Signal — Bitcoin, Chainlink, Ren, Tezos, NEM, IOTA, Solana, Dash
Every week we comb through hundreds of Blockfolio Signals to bring you the most significant team updates with brief analyses to help you understand the latest developments in blockchain.
But first, in macro crypto news this week:
Square Purchases $50M Worth of Bitcoin or 4,709 BTC 👀
Christie’s Auctions First-Ever NFT-Linked Artwork for Record $131k 🖼️
KuCoin Resumes Deposit and Withdrawal Services After Hack 💰
UK Regulator Bans Sale of Crypto Derivatives to Retail Users 🚫
Ripple Threatens to Leave U.S. Over Crypto Regulation 👀
MetaMask Hits 1M Monthly Users and Unveils Token Swaps 🔄
Top Blockfolio Signals of the past week:
Wrapped Bitcoin Minted a Record $616 Million WBTC in September
Chainlink Selected by BitGo to Audit WBTC Reserves
Ren Collaborating with Chainlink on Proof of Reserve Oracle
Tezos Blockchain Used by City in France to Vote on Local Project
NEM Partners with StakeHound to Create Wrapped/Staked XEM
IOTA Smart Contracts Pre-Alpha Released
Solana Announces Wormhole — Secure, Trustless ETH-SOL Bridge
Dash Enters Historic Partnership With ReadyRaider
Wrapped Bitcoin Minted a Record $616M Worth of Tokenized Bitcoin in September
“Wrapped Bitcoin minted a record $616 million worth of tokenized bitcoins in September, according to transaction data analyzed by CoinDesk, a more than 160% increase over the $232 million minted in August.
This pushed the total value locked (TVL) of popular Bitcoin (BTC) tokenization protocol Wrapped BTC (WBTC) up by 900% to surpass $1 billion.”
— Jason Hamlin, Blockfolio Ecosystem Insights
Summary
Record minting comes as strong over-the-counter demand for wrapped bitcoin continues.
Interest in converting BTC to WBTC reflects market participants capitalizing on the growing number of opportunities for using pseudo-BTC in the growing decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
Alameda Research has been the leading wrapped bitcoin merchant for the past two months due to OTC demand at its sister company, FTX. In August, Alameda minted $160M worth of WBTC followed by $306M in September.
This pushed the total value locked (TVL) of Wrapped BTC (WBTC) up by 900% to surpass $1 billion.
Significance
Bitcoin is finding its way into the rapidly-growing decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem as a collateral asset that earns yield in a variety of ways. This moves BTC beyond a store of value and increases overall demand.
Price at the time of Blockfolio Signal: $10,731. View BTC on Blockfolio.
Chainlink Selected by BitGo to Audit WBTC Reserves
“Chainlink was selected by BitGo to streamline the auditability of WBTC reserves. DeFi applications can now receive definitive on-chain proof about the fully backed collateralization of WBTC. BitGo has adopted Chainlink’s Proof of Reserve mechanism, which is now live on testnet and will soon be pushed to mainnet.”
— Jason Hamlin, Blockfolio Ecosystem Insights
Summary
DeFi applications can now receive definitive onchain proof about the fully backed collateralization of WBTC via connecting to a Proof of Reserve Reference Contract that’s continually updated by Chainlink.
Smart contract apps on Ethereum can then query the Proof of Reserve Contract to instantly verify that each WBTC coin is fully backed by a reserve balance of BTC in BitGo’s custodian address.
Whenever a deviation is spotted beyond a certain defined threshold (e.g. 1%), Chainlink oracles will push an on-chain update to the reference contracts with the new balance. Chainlink Nodes will constantly monitor the contract off-chain, but only push on-chain transactions when events happen like the minting and burning of WBTC tokens, changing reserves.
Significance
This new feature can fully automate the burden of auditing the BTC value custodied by BitGo. It does so in a trustless and censorship-resistant manner, removing the need to rely on manual off-chain processes like reading audit reports. In turn, user trust increases across the market and DeFi applications have additional options for protection against unexpected events.
Price at the time of Blockfolio Signal: $9.24. View LINK on Blockfolio.
Ren Collaborating with Chainlink on Proof of Reserve Oracle for All Ren VM Assets
“We are thrilled to be collaborating with Chainlink on the new Proof of Reserve oracle for all RenVM based assets. This is a big step forward in transparency for the Ren Ecosystem, along with a great tool for DeFi to use when verifying RenVM’s proof of reserves.”
— Michael Burgess, Operations
Summary
Ren has collaborated with Chainlink on a new Proof of Reserve mechanism (live on testnet and soon mainnet) to improve the transparency and auditability of its cross-chain assets bridged into the DeFi ecosystem, starting with renBTC, renBCH, and renZEC.
By leveraging Chainlink’s highly secure and reliable decentralized oracle network, smart contract applications on the Ethereum blockchain now have the ability to autonomously verify on-demand the current collateralization of each cross-chain asset minted within the Ren.
Ren will also be supporting Chainlink’s Price Reference Feeds as a means for DeFi applications to fetch the true market-wide price of RenVM assets.
REN was also listed on Coinbase Pro this week.
Significance
This collaboration increases user trust in the Ren ecosystem and the DeFi economy as a whole. It allows Ren the ability to scale the security of these features as the total value locked in Ren continues to rise. It also provides developers with the tools needed to build innovative DeFi products that are highly secure thanks to accurate oracle reports.
Price at the time of Blockfolio Signal: $0.25. View REN on Blockfolio.
Tezos Blockchain Used by City in France to Vote on Local Project
“Residents of Verneuil-sur-Seine, in Yvelines, France, are voting on a 60-year-long road project through the Avosvotes application based on the Tezos blockchain. The voting period lasts between October 1 and October 8, 2020.
Voters will be making their decisions via Avosvotes, a Tezos blockchain-based application. When voting on the proposal, individuals’ identities are verified manually, and the proof of any particular vote comes in the form of a certificate stored on the Tezos blockchain.”
— Amer Justice, Community Director
Summary
Inhabitants of Verneuil-sur-Seine, in Yvelines, France, are voting on a 60-year-long road project through using Tezos blockchain technology.
The voting period was from October 1 to 8 and voters will be making their decisions via Avosvotes, a Tezos blockchain-based application.
When voting on the proposal, individuals’ identities are verified manually, and the proof of any particular vote comes in the form of a certificate stored on the Tezos blockchain. Those interested can also follow along and track voting participation in real-time.
Significance
The vote represents an exciting example of blockchain solutions being applied to voting and democracy. It addresses voter fraud and poor voter turnout issues that have long been obstacles to participation in democracy.
Price at the time of Blockfolio Signal: $2.20. View XTZ on Blockfolio.
NEM Partners with StakeHound to Create Wrapped/Staked XEM and Enter DeFi Ecosystem
“NEM is excited to announce a partnership with StakedHound, the new platform that brings together staking and DeFi to unlock greater accessibility to the XEM token.”
— Amanda Au, Marketing
Summary
The partnership will create a bridge between NEM and Ethereum to create the free circulation of ERC-20 wrapped and staked XEM tokens.
Holders can choose to stake XEM through StakeHound and the resulting staked XEM tokens will be tradable or usable in DeFi scenarios such as collateralizing a loan, earning staking rewards, accessing credit lines, etc.
The staked XEM is expected to launch mid-November.
Significance
The partnership represents an opportunity for the NEM community to participate in staking and other DeFi projects. The enhanced interoperability available within Symbol will allow NEM to further extend its reach into DeFi.
Price at the time of Blockfolio Signal: $0.12. View XEM on Blockfolio.
IOTA Smart Contracts Pre-Alpha Released
“Another milestone! We’re proud to release IOTA Smart Contracts Pre-Alpha, our platform for scalable, feeless & flexible #smartcontracts for enterprise applications & real-world use cases. Start exploring the early capabilities of the platform today!”
— Thabata Dias, Social Media Manager
Summary
The IOTA Smart Contract Protocol (ISCP) is the first scalable, feeless, and flexible implementation of smart contracts on the IOTA network.
Developers can begin to explore the capabilities of the IOTA Smart Contracts Protocol as they continue to build out the functionality for a full release in the months ahead.
The smart contract functionality is built on a distributed, DAG-based UTXO ledger. This is done by creating committees that verify smart contracts and guarantee their consistency and immutability on the IOTA ledger.
The next big milestone for the team working with IOTA Smart Contracts is implementing Wasm VM and the corresponding development environment in Rust, which is anticipated by the end of the year.
Significance
IOTA Smart Contracts Protocol is the first step in the creation of a large, vibrant ecosystem of decentralized applications on the IOTA network. It is significant in being the first scalable and feeless implementation of smart contracts in the ecosystem and could help IOTA with enterprise adoption.
Price at the time of Blockfolio Signal: $0.26. View IOTA on Blockfolio.
Solana Announces Wormhole — a Secure, Trustless Bridge Connecting Ethereum to Solana
“Wormhole allows existing projects, platforms, and communities to move tokenized assets seamlessly and trustlessly across blockchains to benefit from Solana’s high speed and low cost.
In celebration, the Solana foundation invites developers from around the world to use Wormhole in our upcoming hackathon commencing on October 28th!”
— Austin Virts, Growth
Summary
Solana, in partnership with Certus One, announced Wormhole, the first of many bidirectional cross-chain bridges on Solana. Wormhole connects ETH/ERC20 tokens to SPL Tokens, the standard of the Solana blockchain.
Wormhole allows existing projects, platforms, and communities to move tokenized assets seamlessly across blockchains to benefit from Solana’s high speeds and low costs.
Bridging an Ethereum smart contract with value locked inside across to Solana negates the friction caused by high gas fees and network congestion, while still allowing it to settle back to the Ethereum network.
Wormhole uses decentralized cross-chain oracles — called guardians — operated by a set of node operators that include top Solana validators whose incentives are strongly aligned with Solana and Serum.
Those guardians certify token lockups and burns on one chain in order to mint new tokens or release tokens on the other, and vice versa.
Significance
This bridge empowers DeFi users by allowing them to take advantage of Solana’s high speeds and low costs. It has the potential to attract new DeFi users and capital while saving significant time and money. This is a win not only for Solana but for the wider DeFi ecosystem.
Price at the time of Blockfolio Signal: $2.29. View SOL on Blockfolio.
Dash Investment Foundation Enters Historic Partnership With ReadyRaider
“The Dash Decentralized Autonomous Organization has agreed to finance a round of funding for ReadyRaider in exchange for 6% ownership in the venture. The Dash Investment Foundation (DIF) will accept ownership of this equity on behalf of the network.”
— Mark Mason, Dash Press Room Manager
Summary
For the first time in history, the Dash network has formed a legally binding partnership with a for-profit business. The Dash Decentralized Autonomous Organization has agreed to finance a round of funding for ReadyRaider in exchange for 6% ownership in the venture.
ReadyRaider, a promising esports and video game companion application, posted a funding request to the Dash Network in early September. The proposal promised to further advance cryptocurrency-based payment integrations throughout their continuously growing platform.
ReadyRaider has exclusively used Dash for event payouts, premium services, and more, due to low payment costs and borderless transactions, allowing gamers across the globe to compete without restrictions associated with traditional payment methods.
Significance
It is the first time Dash has entered a partnership with a for-profit business that should be a win-win for both sides. The deeper integration of Dash as the payment platform within ReadyRaider should help to increase awareness and adoption of Dash as a payments/transactions layer.
Price at the time of Blockfolio Signal: $66.27. View DASH on Blockfolio.
Quote of the Week:
“It must be nice to be an airline CEO. You can recklessly engage in share buybacks to enrich yourself and when your behavior catches up to you, no problem just tap the Fed & taxpayers. Capitalism without consequences is not capitalism. Exit into Bitcoin.”
— Tyler Winklevoss
Thanks for joining us and we look forward to bringing you our top Blockfolio Signals again next week.
Jason Hamlin
Ecosystem Insights & Development @ Blockfolio
Blockfolio Signal is a first-of-its-kind communications platform built exclusively for token teams to connect and engage with their communities. Over 400 token team CEOs and team leaders actively use the platform to provide relevant project updates directly to Blockfolio’s 5 million+ users. Learn more at www.blockfolio.com/signal.
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