Long Live Optimism – Bankless

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This month, we rated MPL, AAVE, APE, ENS, UNI, and MKR. 👀

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Dear Bankless nation,

Here’s a recap of the biggest news in crypto for the first week of June:

OP is born 

After its official announcement several weeks ago, the Optimism Token went live this week. Claim it here if you’re eligible.

The largest airdrop of the year didn’t go off without some hiccups. Due to high traffic, Optimism’s mainnet stalled. Its remote procedure calls (RPC) — a communication protocol that allows other protocols to interact with the Optimism chain — went down for several hours, preventing other users from executing transactions on Optimism.

After these issues were resolved, Optimism saw a huge uptick in daily transactions, even coming in 5th on total ETH burned on the Ethereum mainnet.

At the time of writing, 65% of OP airdrops have been successfully claimed.

We’ve written a lot about why L2s are going to be a game-changer for DeFi. By processing transactions off the base chain, rollups like Optimism scale Ethereum without sacrificing on security.

If you’re new to rollups: check out why Layer 2s are the future or our previous videos with the Optimism team.

Velodrome launch and airdrop

Velodrome — an AMM decentralized exchange modeled after Solidly — is launching on Optimism.

Velodrome officially launched May 31st with more than ten partners, including Maker DAO and Frax Finance, and launched its own $VELO airdrop.

#OPSummer is coming!

OpenSea drama

Former Head of Product at OpenSea Nathaniel Chastain is being indicted on wire fraud and money laundering charges.

What happened: Last September, OpenSea users sleuthing on Chastain’s wallets noted purchases of NFTs before they were featured on Opensea’s homepage.

Chastain allegedly pushed for the NFTs to be listed on the frontpage and cashed out in profits of up to $67,000 after widespread publicity.

In response, OpenSea admitted insider trading was going on, and quickly fired Chastain.

This will go down as a landmark case. Although NFTs are not yet officially regulated as securities, this sets a strong precedent for treating digital assets as such.

For that, the DOJ is reportedly considering a sentence of 20 years for Chastain. 🤯

Web3 News Roundup

Kanye West NFTs

Kanye West filed 17 trademark applications on his Yeezus brand for “blockchain-based non-fungible assets” and bought the yeezus.eth ENS domain despite previous claims that he wouldn’t be jumping onboard the NFT craze.

You’re late! Welcome aboard the NFT hype train, Ye.

PoolTogether

We covered in last week’s recap that PoolTogether launched a public crowdfunding campaign in its legal battles. As of this week, PoolTogether has raised 566 ETH out of its 769 ETH funding goal in Pooly NFTs to fight its court case.

Crypto is marked with lots of inner-fighting, but it’s nice to see crypto coming together where it matters.

Join the fight by minting your own Pooly here.

Solana Shutdown

Solana went down… again.

We’ll leave it at that.

Bankless DAO Global Tax Guide

Bankless DAO’s Legal Guild released a mintable Global Tax Guide covering nine countries (and more to come!).

While countries are still figuring out their how to take their cut of crypto, this will provide some respite for crypto tax complexities.

You can jump in on the mint here!

Another wild week in the books, here’s what we have lined up for the next one:

1. William’s dropping the Ultimate Guide to Synthetix

2. Vance Spencer answers the question: Is DeFi dead?

3. Ben breaks down the Layer 2 Endgame 🔥

See you next week.

– Bankless

🙏 Sponsor: Polygon Studios—Fostering culture across Gaming, NFTs, and the Metaverse✨

Recap for the week of May 30th, 2022

🎙️WEEKLY PODCAST EPISODE

Listen to podcast episode | Apple | Spotify | YouTube | RSS Feed

ACTION RECAP 🧠

READ 📚

1. 📘 Marc Andreessen’s Lessons from Web1

2. 📘 How to Earn More Trading Fees on Uniswap

3. 📘 Why CBDCs Are Not Your Friend

4. 📘 Top 5 Airdrops (and How To Get Them)

5. 📘 Bankless Token Ratings | June 2022

6. 💬 Optimism Token – Buy, sell, or hodl?

WATCH 🔊

1. 📺 Guide to the Ethereum Roadmap | Jon Charbonneau

2. 📺 The Alfalfa Podcast | Layer Zero

3. 📺 Reinventing the Internet | Marc Andreessen & Chris Dixion

4. 📺 Optimism Airdrop | OpenSea Arrest | Kanye West NFTs | Solana Halted

METAVERSAL 🧙‍♂️

1. 📘 NFT insider trading

2. 📘 EVM metaverse landscape

BANKLESS DAO 🏴

1. 📘 Optimism Powers Crypto’s Newest Collective | State of the DAOs

2. 📘 Forbes Influencer Launches Native Language NFT | Decentralized Arts

3. 📘 The Stablecoin Edition | DeFi Download

OVERPRICED JPEGS 🖼️

1. 📺 Moment of Zen(eca): Goblintown, Admit One, RektGuy, & More

2. 📺 The Next Big Market Trend w CoinFund Founder & CEO, Jake Brukhman

GREEN PILLED 🌳

1. 📺 Decentralized Society | Glen Weyl, Puja Ohlhaver, Leon Erichsen

Weekly Subscriber Perks 🔥

Bankless Premium Members get access to full perks:

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🗞️ Latest Weekly Rollup. Download the week in crypto to your brain in one show.

Listen to podcast episode | Apple | Spotify | YouTube | RSS Feed

Jobs opportunities 🧑‍💼

✨ See all listings on the Bankless Job Board✨

1. Tech Lead at Swell Network

2. Solidity Developer at Unlockd

3. Senior Product Designer at SmartDeFi

4. Business Development Lead at Goldfinch

5. Marketing Manager at Wanderverse Inc.

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🙏Thanks to our sponsor

Polygon Studios is on a mission to help build digital culture, play-to-earn gaming, NFTs, and the Metaverse ecosystem on Polygon. Some of the key projects supported by Polygon Studios include The Sandbox, Skyweaver, Big Time, Crypto Unicorns, and Decentraland—among others. Polygon Studios also helps fundraising & onboarding. Check it out here.

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Write for Bankless

Not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.

Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here.