Tech
‘Private Jet Branding’ Is One Way Polkadot Burned Cash
June has been an incredibly ugly month in cryptocurrency markets (see our blood-red chart below), but it hasn’t been completely devoid of decent blockchain stories. One obsession of crypto Twitterati over the past week has been poring over the budget items in Polkadot’s Treasury Transparency Report. The $6.8 million sponsorship of a “prestigious soccer club” was just one of many expenditures subjected to public scrutiny.
Polkadot spending has more than doubled compared to the previous six months. (Polkadot)
BURNING RATE: At the very least, you have to give Polkadot credit for its transparency. On Tuesday, the blockchain project released a long relationshipIncluded spreadsheets and copies of invoices, detailing the last six months’ worth of expenses. However, no good deed goes unpunished, and right on cue, Twitter users have been tearing up the project’s multi-million dollar spending on activities such as marketing, advertising, sponsorships, events, and influencers. At the highest level, the project has spent $87 million of its DOT tokens on various activities during the first half of 2024, a pace that would deplete the $245 million currently in the treasury within about two years, as Posted by Shaurya Malwa of CoinDesk. But it was the details in green that left readers of the report stunned: $4.9 million for influencers, $1.9 million for sponsoring racing driver Conor Daly, $1 million for digital ads on CoinMarketCap, $490,000 for press release website Chainwire, $180,000 for “private jet branding“$6.8 million for a “deal with a prestigious soccer club,” as the report called it. (Lionel Messi’s team, Inter Miami?) Sarcastic posters on X observed that despite all the spending, influencers seemed strangely inactive – while others joked that the report was finally making Polkadot a success advertising he wantedPolkadot officials noted that spending has exceeded expectations, thanks to this year’s surging cryptocurrency markets: “We can see a huge jump in spending as proposals have become more ambitious in scope and size recently,” the report reads. “The good news is that the average DOT price has increased this half-year, resulting in greater success for DOT, evidenced by the fact that DOT spending has increased 2.4 times, but the equivalent USD value has increased 3.2 times over the same period.”
NOT JUST FAST! Hey, Bitcoin got ETFs earlier this year, and now Ethereum looks to be heading in that direction, perhaps leading billions of dollars in a few monthsbased on research from Galaxy Digital. So what about an ETF for Solana, considered one of the most promising blockchains? Probably not anytime soon, experts say. Speculation began last week when investment manager VanEck filed for a Solana ETF, sending the project’s native token, SOL, up 8%. Another firm, 21Shares, make a request one day later. But how Reported by Helene Braun of CoinDesk“Solana has failed a prerequisite for the Biden administration’s Securities and Exchange Commission: a regulated and established derivatives market. Both bitcoin and ether have had one, in the form of CME Group’s cryptocurrency futures contracts.” Another potential hurdle is that the SEC has, in some of its legal cases, said SOL is an unregistered security, and that cloud may have to clear before an ETF sees the light of day. “It is unlikely that there will be a decision on this in the near future,” institutional analysts at Coinbase said in a weekly research report.
Last week’s top picks from Our Protocol Village column highlighting the main innovations and technological updates of blockchain.
Edited from the website of singer-songwriter Ainsley Costello, whose music can be heard on the Bitcoin Lightning Network-compatible music platform Wavlake.ainsleycostello.com)
1. The developer teams behind the Tezos blockchain unveiled “Tezos X,” a series of technology updates that they say could bring a “huge increase in performance, composability and interoperability.” roadmapwhich outlines a development plan for the next two years, calls for splitting transaction execution into a separate “canonical rollup” that would support “atomic transactions through smart contracts written in multiple programming languages.” Tezos’ main blockchain would serve as the underlying layer for consensus and resolution.
2. Igloo Inc.the parent company of Pudgy Penguins, announced Monday that it has acquired the Frame team. “Frame co-founders and renowned blockchain developers Cygaar and Beans will help create a new Ethereum L2, Abstract, designed to capture the consumer cryptocurrency opportunity,” according to the team.
3. World currency announced that it is partnering with Alchemy to provide a trusted infrastructure for World Chain, a new blockchain designed for humans, according to the team.
4. Blockchain Startup Obol Labs has formed a new industry group that aims to advance the growing field of distributed validation technology – at the heart of developers’ latest push to eradicate single points of failure within decentralized networks like Ethereum. Obol Collective includes a consortium of Ethereum ecosystem players “dedicated to the security, resilience, and decentralization of the Ethereum consensus,” according to a Wednesday blog post from Obol Labs. Early participants in the collective include EigenLayer, Lido, Figment, Bitcoin Suisse, Nethermind, Blockdaemon, Chorus One, DappNode, and ETH Stakers.
5. Lake of Wavesa music and podcast distribution platform, has partnered with ZBD to revolutionize creator payments. According to the team: “Unlike Spotify and Apple Music, which pay meager royalties, Wavlake empowers independent musicians and podcasters. Through Wavlake, creators can upload content that is distributed across platforms like Fontana.fm. Listeners can tip artists using the Bitcoin Lightning Network, allowing for instant microtransactions. Ainsley Costello earned over $700 in Bitcoin for a single track, beating Spotify.”
CEO of Pi Squared Grigore Rosu (Pi Squared)
Regulatory, political and legal
Both leaders and laggards were crushed by cryptocurrency markets in June, with bitcoin as the leading indicator (BTC) down 8.5% – and this week falling below $60,000well below the all-time high of over $73,000.
All members of the CoinDesk Index 20 were losers during the month. Uniswap’s UNI recorded the least negative performance, with a decline of 8.1%. Exchange rate risk slipped 8.8% and Ethereum ETH lost 9.4%.
The dog themed meme coin SHIBISCOPE produced the largest drop in the index, to 32.9%, narrowly edged out by Internet Computer’s 32.7% loss (PIC).
(Pallavi Chintam Indices/CoinDesk)
July 8-11: EthCCBrussels.