Arbitrum Approves ARB Staking
The initiative rewards ARB holders who stake and delegate to active voters.
Arbitrum approves a proposal for ARB staking.
MakerDAO disables new WBTC-backed loans.
Eigen Labs employees received ecosystem airdrops.
Ethereum Magicians is looking for forum contributors.
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The ArbitrumDAO approved a temperature check proposal to implement ARB token staking through Tally’s liquid staking token system. The system allows ARB holders to stake and delegate their tokens in exchange for stARB, a liquid receipt token representing their stake. The proposal received 91% approval from over 25,000 voters. The initiative is designed to boost voter participation in the Arbitrum DAO by rewarding ARB holders who stake and delegate to active voters. The rewards will be funded from future surplus sequencer fees. The staking mechanism also aims to protect the Arbitrum DAO from governance attacks by increasing the active voting supply. Arbitrum plans to launch ARB staking by October.
MakerDAO governance approved an executive vote to reduce the WBTC debt ceiling to zero DAI, preventing any new loans backed by WBTC collateral. The Loan-to-Value (LTV) for WBTC was also reduced to 0%. The changes do not affect exiting loans backed by WBTC as the liquidation threshold remains unchanged. The DAI Savings Rate has also been reduced to 6%. The move to disable WBTC borrowing on MakerDAO comes as BitGo, the issuer of WBTC, announced that it is transferring control of the protocol to a joint venture involving BitGo, Justin Sun, and the Tron ecosystem. Aave is also considering limiting WBTC collateral.
EigenLayer confirmed that projects within its ecosystem, such as AltLayer, EtherFi, and Renzo, included Eigen Labs employees in their airdrops. CoinDesk, which first reported the story, unveiled that EigenLayer circulated a list of employee wallet addresses to ecosystem projects. According to CoinDesk's analysis, Eigen Labs employees collectively received $5 million worth of airdrops, with EtherFi providing the largest allocation of 10,490.9 ETHFI per employee. EigenLayer updated its policy back in May to direct any future airdrops to the company rather than to individual employees. Eigen Labs also launched a Protocol Guild-like initiative, allowing airdrops to be streamed to a list of EigenLayer contributors.
Ethereum Magicians, a forum dedicated to EIP and technical discussions within Ethereum, is seeking volunteers to help improve the forum's efficiency and adaptability. The current structure needs enhancements to better organize and highlight AllCoreDevs (ACD) and breakout discussions. Community members are encouraged to contribute to curation, moderation, and submit a new logo design for the forum.
EigenLayer ERC-20 Token Restaking
An upcoming update will allow Actively Validated Services (AVSs) to economically secure their protocol using any ERC-20 token.
EigenLayer permissionless token support.
MetaMask introduces a debit card.
Offchain Labs launches a venture studio.
Coinbase unveils plans for cbBTC.
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EigenLayer announced plans to introduce permissionless support for adding any ERC-20 token as a restakable asset on the protocol. The new feature will enable Actively Validated Services (AVSs) to secure their protocols using a broader range of assets. EigenDA will be the first AVS to utilize the permissionless ERC-20 token feature. A protocol-level upgrade for EigenLayer on the mainnet is scheduled for deployment next week. In Q3, EigenLayer will also release a web app update allowing restakers to deposit and delegate ERC-20 tokens to operators. The update comes as Symbiotic, a competing restaking protocol, introduced support for staking tBTC, a Bitcoin-pegged asset.
MetaMask, in collaboration with MasterCard and Baanx, introduced the MetaMask Card, a debit card that enables users to spend funds directly from their self-custody MetaMask wallet at any location that accepts MasterCard. The payment card will initially be available to a limited group of users in the EU and UK as part of a pilot rollout. MetaMask Card will leverage Linea, an EVM-equivalent ZK-rollup by Consensys, to facilitate cost-effective and secure crypto-to-fiat transactions. The card will support spending USDC, USDT, and WETH and integrations with Apple Pay and Google Pay. Users can check their MetaMask Portfolio dapp to determine eligiblility for the pilot.
Offchain Labs launched Tandem, a new venture studio focused on supporting innovative applications and infrastructure within the Arbitrum ecosystem. Tandem will support pre-product projects with financial investment, product strategy, research, technical integrations, marketing, and ecosystem development. Previously, Offchain Labs has partnered with Espresso Systems to develop Timeboost, a transaction-ordering design being integrated into the Espresso Sequencer to bring shared sequencing to Arbitrum. In addition, Offchain Labs oversees the Prysm Ethereum consensus client. Through Tandem, the studio aims to advance not just Arbitrum but also the broader Ethereum ecosystem.
Obol Introduces Contributions Program
Users who stake on Obol distributed validators (DVs) can access future governance rights within the Obol Collective.
This story was featured in Episode 527.
Obol Network introduced the Obol Contributions Program, a program that offers stakers recognition for their role in decentralizing Ethereum by staking on Obol distributed validators (DVs). Obol is also offering its stakers access to future governance rights within the Obol Collective. Users can stake by depositing into third-party vaults from partners like Stakely, Mellow Protocol, or Chorus One, or by deploying a DV directly via Obol’s DV Launchpad. In May 2024, Obol introduced the 1% for Decentralization (1forDS) retroactive fund, which allocates 1% of staking rewards from Obol’s DV clusters into a funding pool aimed at supporting decentralization. Obol’s distributed validators improve Ethereum’s fault tolerance by distributing a validator's key across multiple nodes.