Here’s a rundown of the most noteworthy web3 industry events and project developments to look out for in the coming week
- NEARCON 2023 will be held in Lisbon from November 7 to 10.
- Reddit plans to discontinue its blockchain-based community points reward service.
- The Ton Ecosystem Conference, “The Gateway,” will take place in Dubai from November 10 to 11.
- Thailand Blockchain Week is scheduled for November 11 to 12.
- Aptos will unlock 24.8 million APT tokens on November 12, valued at approximately $172.9 million.
Key Events
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS had previously issued proposed cryptocurrency regulations for brokers on August 29. A public hearing is scheduled for November 7, and if necessary, a second public hearing will be held on November 8, 2023. The proposed rules will require digital asset brokers, including trading platforms, payment processors, and certain custodial wallet providers, to report the total proceeds from all digital asset sales or trades starting from January 1, 2025. This requirement will take effect on or after January 1, 2026.
One of the Web3 community hubs, Reddit, plans to terminate its blockchain-based community points reward service, Community Points, on November 8. Reddit cited increased regulatory constraints on scalability as the reason for the shutdown. Reddit, a major social media platform active in the crypto community, initially introduced Community Points in 2020 to reward users for constructive activities in certain Reddit subreddits, aiming to boost user engagement. The points earned by users are stored in the Reddit Vault crypto wallet in ERC-20 format.
Project Progress
This week, the LSD stablecoin protocol Prisma Finance has introduced a retroactive airdrop. The airdrop is planned for Prisma token holders and addresses that voted to support Prisma’s inclusion in the Curve whitelist. The veCRV holder airdrop is scheduled for November 6 at 17:00 (Beijing time) and will receive 1% of the total token supply. The Prisma token holder airdrop is set for November 9 at 17:00 (Beijing time) and will receive 2% of the total token supply. All tokens allocated for the airdrop will be locked as vePRISMA to encourage participation in the Prisma DAO. veCRV holders’ vePRISMA will be locked for 52 weeks, while Prisma token holders’ vePRISMA will be locked for 26 weeks.
Utopia, a DAO payroll payment system that previously secured $23 million in funding led by Paradigm, will cease its existing services on November 6. Ongoing gas-free transactions will be halted. Utopia stated that this action does not signify the closure of the company but rather the abandonment of its existing product and direction.
Furthermore, other important developments this week include Notional Finance, a fixed-rate lending protocol, launching its V3 version on November 6. The custody liquidity staking platform, ether.fi, is also planning to release its mainnet on November 6. The decentralized open-source instant messaging platform, Status, is set to launch a new brand and website on November 7. The Layer1 blockchain Shardium will release its whitepaper on November 8. Bullshark Quests 3 by Mysten Labs will continue until November 9.
Upcoming Events
The “Onboard to the Future Decentralized Society Hacker House,” hosted by Foresight X and OpenBuild, will be held during Devconnect in Istanbul from November 10 to 20. The theme of this Hacker House is “Decentralized Society” and is divided into four major tracks: Social Relations, Live and Play, Co-living with AI, and Public Goods. Foresight X Hacker House will provide selected developers with a ten-day accommodation and networking space and has prepared prizes for winning developers. In addition, there are special activities as part of the Hacker House.
Last week, as the Solana ecosystem summit, Breakpoint 2023, took place, the price of SOL saw a significant increase. According to Lookonchain data, SOL’s price has risen by approximately 80% in the past month. The price increase of SOL seems to be associated with the Solana ecosystem summit Breakpoint2023. In 2021 and 2022, SOL’s price increased to its peak at Breakpoint and then declined. This week, various ecosystem summits continue, and the question is whether SOL’s upward trend will continue. NEARCON 2023 is scheduled to be held in Lisbon from November 7 to 10, and the Ton Ecosystem Conference, “The Gateway,” will be in Dubai on November 10 and 11.
Furthermore, other notable events include OpenAI hosting the first developer conference, OpenAI DevDay, in San Francisco on November 6. Thailand Blockchain Week is set to take place from November 11 to 12 in 2023, with the theme “Build in Bear, Rise in Bull.”
Token Unlock
According to Token Unlocks data, from November 6 to November 12, several tokens are scheduled for a one-time unlock. Notable among these unlocks are the Aptos token (APT) and Hashflow token (HFT).
On November 12, Aptos will unlock 24.8 million APT tokens, which account for 10% of its circulating supply and are valued at approximately $172.9 million. Most of the unlocked funds (around $82.7 million) will go to core contributors, with $58.6 million allocated to investors, $22.3 million for the community, and $9.3 million for the Aptos Foundation.
Hashflow will unlock 160.4 million HFT tokens on November 7, valued at around $41.3 million, which represents 73.9% of its circulating supply. About $16.1 million will be distributed to early investors, $12.7 million for ecosystem development, $12.4 million for the core team, and $10.7 million for community rewards. Additionally, there will be a daily release of tokens valued at approximately $44,000 for ecosystem development and community rewards.
Governance Voting
- Aave DAO is conducting a vote to “Disable Stable Borrowing Rates for All Pools Across All Networks,” which will conclude in 3 days. This proposal was initiated after Aave received a report on November 4th regarding a critical vulnerability that impacted Aave v2. The community subsequently initiated Governance Proposal #358, which aims to disable stable rate mode for all assets in both v2 and v3, unfreezing all assets that were previously frozen by Aave Guardians.
- Arbitrum DAO has a vote ongoing for the creation of “The Arbitrum Coalition,” which will conclude in 5 days. The proposal seeks to establish an alliance composed of Blockworks Research, Gauntlet, and Trail of Bits, with a duration of 12 months. This coalition is intended to facilitate the execution of proposals from ideation to implementation.
- Osmosis DAO’s on-chain vote to “Raise the Minimum Gas Price to 0.025 uOSMO” will conclude in 1 day. This proposal aims to increase the minimum gas price enforced by the protocol by tenfold to 0.025 uOSMO. It’s a temporary measure that can be reverted once the cost market for skip proposals is implemented.
NFT Mint
Adidas and luxury car manufacturer Bugatti will conduct a joint auction from November 8 to 11 for 99 pairs of limited-edition football shoes featuring digital twins. These exclusive shoes come in two colors, black and blue, and draw inspiration from early Bugatti Grand Prix race cars. The auction will be carried out using cryptocurrency, but potential consumers can still place bids using traditional currency through MoonPay.