- The sentencing for SBF is scheduled for March 28.
- The WOW Summit Hong Kong will take place on March 26 to 27 in Hong Kong.
- The 2024 Global Digital Mining Summit will be held on March 29 in Muscat, Oman.
- Approximately $84.32 million worth of OP tokens will be unlocked.
- A proposal by Aave DAO aims to increase the GHO borrowing rate.
Key Events
The sentencing for FTX founder SBF by a federal judge in the United States is scheduled for March 28. Last November 2, a jury found SBF guilty of all seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. Manhattan federal prosecutors have described SBF as displaying “unparalleled greed and arrogance” and have requested a sentence of 40 to 50 years, far below the recommended 100 years in U.S. sentencing guidelines but significantly more than the 6.5 years suggested by SBF’s lawyers. Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, Mark Mukasey, condemned federal prosecutors for unfairly portraying SBF as a “fallen super villain” and warned that if the court agrees to their request to sentence him to 40 to 50 years in prison, the justice system would needlessly crush his spirit.
Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev is set to stand trial in the Netherlands on March 26. According to the Dutch prosecutor’s indictment, Alexey Pertsev is accused of aiding in laundering over $1.2 billion. Alexey Pertsev’s lawyer, Keith Cheng, stated that the prosecutors suspect Alexey Pertsev of money laundering but have provided a vague description without specifying his specific criminal involvement. Recently, a proposal to withdraw a million-dollar donation to Tornado Cash developers from the Arbitrum DAO was made due to concerns from token holders about potential legal risks. The funds will be redirected to the fundraising activities of WeWantJusticeDAO.
The civil trial on fraud charges filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Do Kwon is scheduled to begin on March 25. Do Kwon has not been extradited to the United States and may miss the trial. According to local media Vijesti in Montenegro, Do Kwon has been transferred to a “reception center” for foreigners outside Montenegro, awaiting a final extradition decision or possible extradition to South Korea.
Project Updates
This week, progress in projects related to airdrops include:
The COTI Foundation announced the launch of the COTI V2 airdrop campaign, scheduled to distribute 40 million tokens starting on March 25. Currently valued at approximately $8 million, the airdrop will be open to Native and ERC-20 COTI holders.
The Web3 creator community application, PoP Planet, will kick off the “PoPP Interstellar Pass Card” Free Mint event on the Ethereum blockchain on March 27 at 20:00 UTC. PoPP aims to recruit 1000 2.0 co-builders through this NFT Free Mint event to explore business models such as creator community assets, content creation, and digitized IP. Previously, PoPP unveiled its token economic system and plans to conduct a Token Generation Event (TGE) in Q2 2024.
The multi-chain lending protocol, Radiant Capital, extends the eligibility verification period for its Short-Term Incentive Plan (STIP) airdrop from January 31 to March 29. This plan includes airdropping 2 million ARB tokens to dLP long-term locked users. Radiant attributed the time change to a proposal passed by the Arbitrum DAO, stating that the original STIP had a short eligibility verification period due to significant differences in KYC times for recipients.
The Solana ecosystem’s composable automated liquidity management protocol, Kamino Finance, will conduct the first snapshot of Kamino Points on March 31, with distribution calculations for the KMNO token genesis allocation in April. With a total supply of 10 billion KMNO tokens, the expected initial circulation on the first day is 10%. The initial community allocation for KMNO is 7%. The second season of Kamino Points will commence in April and will continue to reward protocol participation.
The Web3 social protocol, beoble, hinted at the release schedule for airdrop publication and snapshot shooting on the X platform, potentially scheduled for snapshot shooting on March 31 and airdrop on April 15.
Other progress include:
- The Circle Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) launched on the Solana mainnet on March 26.
- The TokenFi Launchpad mainnet is set to launch on March 28.
- The Bitcoin Layer2 network, TaprootChain, went live on the mainnet on March 28, enabling cross-chain functionality on March 29, and introducing point activities on March 30.
- The Bitcoin Layer2 project, Ligo, is scheduled to launch on the mainnet on March 31.
Upcoming Events
The WOW Summit Hong Kong will take place from March 26 to 27, 2024, in Hong Kong. The summit aims to connect leading companies in the Web2 and Web3 fields with the global community, providing a platform for exchange and critical discussions. It is expected to have around 7,000 attendees.
Bitmain will host the 2024 Global Digital Mining Summit at the W Hotel in Muscat, Oman, on March 29. The theme of the summit is “Winning the Desert with Hydro Mining.”
The application period for the a16z crypto Cryptocurrency Startup Accelerator (CSX) 2024 Fall remains open until March 29. CSX is designed specifically for Web3 startups, and the ten-week on-site program is scheduled to start in September, concluding with Demo Day in November.
Token Unlock
According to Token Unlocks data, this week will be substantial token unlocks for OP, PRIME, and YGG, totaling over $130 million in value. The details are as follows:
– Optimism token OP will unlock 24.16 million tokens on March 29 at 12:00 UTC, worth approximately $84.32 million, constituting 2.4% of the circulating supply.
– Echelon Prime token PRIME will unlock 1.66 million tokens on March 31 at 8:00 UTC, valued at around $37.53 million, representing 4.65% of the circulating supply.
– Yield Guild Games token YGG will unlock 16.69 million tokens on March 27 at 22:00 UTC, with an estimated value of $16.89 million, comprising 5.39% of the circulating supply.
Governance Voting
The Aave DAO proposal to increase the GHO borrowing rate and modify the GHO Steward will conclude its voting period on March 26. This proposal, in response to the recent rise in stablecoin rates and changes proposed by Maker DAO, suggests adjusting the GHO borrowing rate from 7.49% to 13.00%. Additionally, the borrowing cap implemented by GHO stewards will increase from 50 million to 100 million. The frequency of borrowing rate adjustments will decrease from every 5 days to every 2 days. The overall maximum borrowing rate that stewards can implement is set at 25.00%.