GM, this is your Daily Bolt briefing
In this edition, we’ll be giving you an inside look at the LST scene over on BNB Chain and the developments you should be aware of. There is a lot of attention on Base Chain and Optimism in general, with Optimism’s daily transaction count recently surpassing that of Arbitrum. With the upcoming launch of opBNB, a Binance L2 leveraging the OP Stack, it may pay dividends to keep an eye on the BNB staking ecosystem.
.Tune in today at 11AM EST for our 2nd live episode of The Macro Show. Learn from Nick Drakon's experience and intuition as he gives his answers to the most pressing questions around the macro economy's impact on the crypto market today.
Over and out ⬇
1/ pSTAKE Finance – stkBNB on Isolated Markets ft Venus Protocol
Preview: Roberto, Deborah, and Mayank join to discuss Venus Protocol, pStake, Web3 Innovations, Upgrades, Security measures, and more! Click here to listen to the full episode (61 mins).
Read our Note (5 mins) and save 56 mins.
Here are some key takeaways:
Mayank, the product manager for stkBNB at pStake, explains that stkBNB is part of the pStake portfolio of staking products across different chains. He expresses his excitement to share the progress and upcoming developments of stkBNB.
Deborah explains that Venus Protocol is a decentralized lending system built on the Binance Smart Chain. He highlights the unique features of Venus Protocol, including its ability to borrow other crypto assets and mint synthetic stablecoins with over-collateralized positions.
Deborah explains how users can earn XVS, Venus Protocol's governance token, as rewards for lending or borrowing. XVS token holders can stake their tokens to participate in the governance mechanism and vote on Venus Improvement Proposals (VIPs).
Mayank explains that pStake is a multi-chain staking protocol that allows users to stake BNB through pStake and receive stkBNB, which can be used in DeFi through their integrations. stkBNB is now listed on Venus in the isolated lending pool, allowing users to deposit stkBNB as a collateral asset and borrow BNB.
Mayank talks about the progress of stkBNB, mentioning that at its peak, it had over 28,000 BNB staked with a total value of more than $8 million. He says that pStake is working on a new version of stkBNB with features such as instant redemption, reduction of the unstaking period, and airdrop of unstaked assets directly to the wallet. They are also integrating with various protocols in the BNB ecosystem.
Roberto discusses Venus Protocol's upgrade to V4. He highlights that this upgrade is a significant milestone for them, aimed at attracting more liquidity and rejuvenating their protocol. He mentions features such as multi-chain participation designed to reward loyal users.
Venus's native token, XVS, becomes more useful with this upgrade. He highlights that Venus Protocol is taking steps gradually with security being the topmost priority.
Roberto details several key elements of the V4 upgrade:
The first is a stable rate for improved borrowing and lending, providing users confidence in their borrowing decisions and reducing vulnerability to interest rate volatility.
The second key feature is the integration with PancakeSwap for token swapping, enhancing user experience and providing seamless trading within the Venus interface.
For pStake specifically, the partnership is beneficial because it opens up new use cases for the $stkBNB token. This allows users holding $stkBNB to earn additional rewards in DeFi. Venus facilitates this by introducing the money market into the equation for $stkBNB. As a result, users can now use their $stkBNB to borrow $BNB in the Venus isolated pool, presenting a novel and exciting use case for DeFi for pStake.
Mayank explains pStake's focus on the Ethereum ecosystem and their product, stkETH V2. The new feature will allow users on different Ethereum Layer-2 networks like Optimism or Arbitrum to directly stake their ETH, which enhances the user experience and minimizes friction. He says that the product has already undergone one audit and will soon have another, with the testnet for the product expected to launch in the next week.
2/ Unchained Podcast - The State of Crypto Market and Future Outlook
Preview: Laura, Chris, and Joel discuss the state of crypto markets, the macro environment, layer-2 solutions, and more. Click here to listen to the full episode (105 mins).
Read our Note (6 mins) and save 99 mins.
Here are some key takeaways:
The Future of Ethereum Staking and DeFi Integration
Joel says that there is cyclical nature of the crypto markets. He says that the crypto market typically breathes in bear and bull markets, and these cycles have historically lasted about four years. He notes that each cycle has been unique in its own way.
Chris agrees with Joel's observation about the four-year pattern of the crypto market as he says that this pattern has been playing out and it looks like it will potentially play out again.
He attributes the earliest explanation of this pattern to the BTC halving cycle, where BTC halves its annual rate of supply inflation every four years.
Chris believes in the influence of global macro markets and the flows of liquidity and interest rates on the pricing of risk assets.
Chris says that there will be "mothership" layer-2 solutions. These are larger, more comprehensive layer-2 solutions that will host many applications and contracts that allow for more efficient use of resources and better scalability.
He talks about the potential for atomic composability across roll-ups. Atomic composability refers to the ability for different applications or contracts to interact with each other seamlessly and instantly.
Chris emphasizes the need for state interoperability between roll-ups as it is important for maintaining the decentralized and open nature of the Ethereum network.
Chris believes that the approval of a Bitcoin ETF is inevitable, given the growing acceptance and institutionalization of BTC.
He says that Bitcoin ETFs are being held to a higher standard than gold ETFs were when they were approved as the SEC is being particularly cautious about approving a Bitcoin ETF due to the unique risks and challenges associated with BTC and other cryptocurrencies.
He believes that the potential impact of a Bitcoin ETF approval could lead to larger capital flows into BTC, which could increase BTC’s price and liquidity.
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