Back in Action! - Newsletter Edition 96

In this week’s edition:

1. Editorial: Breaking vibes, DOT catch-up, and this week's roundup with some DeFi listings.
2. Top Story Catchin’ Up!: Back from our break, and it’s time to catch up on the Polkadot ecosystem.
3. Featured Roundup: News from our Finders Program between April 24th and April 28th, plus a few DeFi listings.
4. Extras: Credits and anything else.

Editorial

What is up, my friends!

We’re back from a week’s break, and it seems that BTC has also broken out too. While crypto ETF inflows are accelerating, uncertainty is still in the air due to the tariff situation. For some, it might be time to take a RISC or two on coining content or copying strategy. And if you’re into a certain memecoin, you could be in for a dinner date.

Picking up from our last newsletter, where things started to get Gigaover in the Polkadot ecosystem, we might have been early to DeFi and Hydrate matters. There’s plenty to catch up on, and we’ll try to cover the core items to mark our top story.

That said, we did manage to squeeze out a Wag roundup last week. And while we wait for more giganess, we're enhancing this week’s roundup by featuring some DeFi yields that could help quench your thirst.

If you want to yield on your content and earn while you share, consider joining us.

Dodow, Chief Editor

Top Story of the Week - Catchin’ Up!

Written by yay.oi

What’s catchin’, fishies? And Happy Birthday Mr Chief Architect! After an egg-cellent Easter break, we’ve got a lot to catch up on. So let's get cracking on reeling in the latest developments that we've missed.

Catching up on the state of the Polkadot ecosystem from a macro perspective just got a bit easier. A new dashboard on Chainspect aggregates real-time data from three system chains and fifteen parachains to provide metrics such as TPS and total transactions.

While Dotlake, Dune, and Token Terminal, provide some great insights, this aggregated data provides an immediate snapshot of the state of the protocol. It’ll be the perfect place to keep an eye on the progress of major changes in real-time, such as the upcoming launch of DOT Hub.

After two short weeks, there’s so much to catch up on in the hydrated world of GIGADOT. Shortly after the publication of Giga Launch, the GIGADOT cap filled in less than 36 hours.

Since then, the Hydration TVL has soared past 130M, the highest in the Polkadot ecosystem. The imminent passing of Hydration Referendum 76 may see that number creep even higher.

Dubbed the Black hole-ening, it will increase the GIGADOT cap by four times to 8.88M and increase its borrowing power by adding it to the DOT e-mode category in the money market. If that’s not enough to get your loops iterating, how do 90 days of HDX and BNC incentives sound?

Still not convinced? You’d better take a look at Polkadot Referendum 1542. The GIGAHydration Campaign is requesting 5M DOT for Hydration DeFi incentives over twelve months. That’s five times more than last year’s DOT Incentives campaign.

An allocation of 1M DOT would go directly to GIGADOT incentives. The remaining 4M DOT would be split evenly. One part would incentivize stablecoins USDC, USDT, and HOLLAR (due in three weeks). The other part would focus on attracting liquidity from outside of the ecosystem, particularly by targeting Snowbridge assets such as ETH and tBTC.

Former DV delegate and voice-of-reason Saxemberg has expressed concern at the size of the request, especially since it greatly exceeds the amount suggested in Tommi Enenkel’s Polkadot Growth Strategy (as reported in DOT is DAO). However, Tommi was quick to clarify that his suggestion was actually for 1M DOT in protocol-owned liquidity, and he seems somewhat in favor of more incentives.

While that debate rages on, there are already plenty of incentives to be had if you dare to step into the dark realm of Estra. Season 2 of the Evrloot Marks campaign has launched, bringing with it numerous advances to the game.

As previously advised in Uncovering the Evrloot Adventure: Part 1, you’re going to want to send your free Warborns on plenty of missions to stockpile Gilt. This time, however, there’s something a little more enticing to buy than just weapons and armor.

Every week, a limited number of Citizen NFTs are released for sale at the price of 12K Gilt. For the uninitiated, it would take about 20 days of grinding passive missions to accumulate.

By participating in the new group battle expeditions, you may achieve that objective a little sooner. Groups of three can enter the Rift to earn rewards such as Gilt, crafting recipes, resources, and the highly coveted Marks, due for TGE in Q3.

The Rift is a new dungeon featuring a map that regenerates randomly. Entering immediately after regeneration offers a massive 29x Marks multiplier. You have to be quick, because the multiplier drops rapidly.

There’s plenty more to discover, so if you haven’t already, step into the shadows and give it a shot. With the recent Dot Play partnership, expect a big marketing push, as Angie Dalton positions the Evrloot team as the Polkadot poster boys of indie gaming.

In other gaming news, a now seemingly deleted tweet from Mythical Games revealed a potential timeline for the launch of FIFA Rivals. Pre-release in selected regions could be as early as May, with the global launch aiming to coincide with the FIFA Club World Cup in June.

Meanwhile on the Coretime pitch, Mythos and Xcavate are calling foul. They both were due to renew their leases in Sales Period #8, but did not manage to play through the renewal period to do so.

This isn’t usually a problem, with Coretime currently cheap and plenty of slots available during the Sales Period. However, this time, all available Polkadot and Kusama cores were snapped up immediately for 9.22 DOT and 0.000934 KSM each.

The purchaser, now unaffectionately known as the Coretime Baron, had some grievances to air on the Polkadot Forum. They are not happy with documentation gaps, resource efficiency, and the pricing mechanisms of Coretime sales.

With no Polkadot cores available for purchase, time was running out before Mythos and Xcavate would stop producing blocks. Basti (Parity) reached out to the Baron with an offer of 200 DOT per core, only to receive a staggering counter-offer of $150K USD.

Either the Baron really wanted to get their message heard, or they were just looking for a quick buck. Nonetheless, rather than solely relying on negotiations with a hostile entity, Basti took the governance route. He successfully initiated Whitelisted Caller Referendum 1536 to open and assign cores to Mythos and Xcavate.

That said, conversations on the Polkadot Forum acknowledged some of the issues raised by the Baron. Basti has since initiated RFC-142 to begin addressing some of the current challenges with Coretime, and the Web3 Foundation has already published a new guide for core renewal.

Having received gratitude from Mythos and Xcavate, the Polkadot DAO now cautiously awaits the Baron’s next move. On-chain activity suggests that Altair (Centrifuge) has paid the Baron 50 KSM for a core. Time will tell whether this evolves into a clandestine core-selling empire.

Now that the Coretime drama is behind us, at least for the moment, all eyes are turning toward Token2049 in Dubai. Thankfully, it’s not a complete washout like last year, just a little too hot for some.

It also marks the anniversary of Gavin Wood’s Gray Paper launch, presented at last year’s event, as reported in JAMazing Gray. Alas, there’s no sign of Gav in Dubai this year.

Chances are he’s nearer to the JAM Toaster, considering the testnet launch party is next week. Expect some epic interviews from special guest Kevin Follonier, perhaps from the toaster-fired Polkadot Palace jacuzzi?

To follow that up, JAM is a Gold sponsor of ETH Lisbon, which kicks off on May 9th. From the Jamixir implementation team, Daniel Cukier will be presenting a workshop on JAM.

Ensuring that the darkness continues to linger over the Iberian Peninsula, Kusama will be well represented too. Denis Pisarev’s workshop will highlight Kusama’s high performance and low gas fees for smart contracts, hopefully inspiring hackers to tap into its potential for $15K in bounty rewards.

So, with Dubai sizzling and Lisbon getting toasty, the Polkadot ecosystem has a lot on the stove, and it’s all beginning to bubble. Kusama Hub is in its final sprint, JAM testing is about to go full throttle, and our liquidity legends are standing by to ensure that we remain fully hydrated.

With summer just around the corner, things are really heating up. Watch this space, there’s plenty more to come.

Featured Roundup - Wag Roundup (April 24th to April 30th)

Written by Dodow

DOT DeFi Listings

The Summer Raise Liquidity kicked off last June with Polkadot treasury-funded incentives. It was Time for Hydration, and things were also looking Stellaon one of Moonbeam’s top destinations, which got funded too.

Although things didn’t exactly push on last time, the outlook this time round is looking promising. We’ve now got trustless bridging choices, LSDs making waves, Giga vibes, Hydrated TVL, expected growth through DOT Hub, and more.

With GDOT capped out, moar immediate relief is on the way to hit the spot. That said, the proposed plan is to OpenGovfor larger stakes. In the meantime, here’s a selection of steady yield opportunities that might keep you occupied.

Since we’re listing DeFi, this is not for financial advice. DYOR, as yields can change quickly and may not reflect current rates. As always, please proceed with caution.

• The momentum from gigaDOT attracted attention from The Modern Market as well as the broader CT space to Hydration’s stablecoin pool. If your Micro Strategy is stacking sats, there’s also a solid yield opportunity.

2-Pool (USDC & USDT) on Hydration ~20.7%

tBTC on Hydration ~12.89%

• StellaSwap’s proposal to register Snowbridge assets passed, so ETH and wBTC incentives are coming. If you can’t wait, you might consider earning some DOT on their stablecoin pools.

USDC/USDT on StellaSwap ~14.85%

USDC.axl/USDC on StellaSwap ~13.10%

• Moonwell’s Moonbeam market recently switched oracles. There might be an enticing stablecoin lending yield for ya.

Supply USDC.wh on Moonwell ~14.8%

Not into DeFi? Then catch up with this week’s news roundup, found by the community. Curated by the community. Backed by OpenGov.

DOT Ecosystem News

• Get off the mark quickly with Polkadot’s Fast-Grants Program, where $10k in funding to build on-chain can be approved in just 3 days.
• SEC approval for a NASDAQ listing of a Polkadot ETF, filed by Grayscale, has been delayed.
• Nova Wallet now supports LINK and SKY tokens on Hydration.
• Get your votes in for round three of the Acala Meme and Dapp Contest before the short break next month.
• SkyX, an environmental data DePIN on Peaq, has partnered with V3V Ventures for strategic capital and market insights.
• Your Silencio tokens are now quietly earning raffle ticket rewards through the new liquid staking feature. After updating the app on your smartphone, you just simply need to hold SLC.
• Polkadot performance metrics are now live on Chainspect. There’s a growing number of chains across the entire Web3 space integrating, including fifteen parachains.
• Need a smart locker? Pickspot, a DePIN built on Peaq, launched the Deliver2Locker API. Couriers and platforms in Africa can now join the pilot program and offer customers access to its decentralized and incentivized smart-locker network.
• Meanwhile, another DePIN on Peaq, Quakecore, is offering its first major client, Edira Group, a platform to analyze natural disaster risks in its project areas.
• A prize pool of 4.5K ACA awaits if you can predict the winners of the Acala Meme and Dapp Contest on VoTA, a prediction market built on Acala’s EVM+.
• AirPay, a crypto payment gateway built on Acala EVM+, will soon close entries for its giveaway celebrating its recent partnership with the prediction marketplace VoTA.
• Diode has reached a momentous milestone of 1K points of presence.
• Integritee won first prize for Best Startup in Zurich, along with several strong placements in other categories at the Hackernoon Awards.
• You can now transact PEPE privately using Integritee’s Incognitee app.
• Check out the very first ERC-20 token transfer to Kusama via Snowbridge.
• Easy-A Harvard Polkadot Hackathon winners Mosh (ticketing) and Tippin’ Dots (social media tipping) received $5K. Runners-up Scratch-off (betting) and PolkaFarm (yield farming) took home $3K, while EscroDot (AI agent escrow) and MergeDot (contributor rewarding) each earned $1K.
• Hyperbridge looks set to provide trustless bridging for Substrate cousin chain, Cere Network.
• Acurast to delay its TGE launch.Meanwhile, the rebellion has two more quests for MIST.
• The Web3 Foundation has launched Wave 25 of its EcoDev program. This time, the emphasis is on forming strategic partnerships with selected teams, to facilitate a shared vision and help tackle Polkadot ecosystem challenges. It also aims to improve coordination of business initiatives across parachains and the coming hub, while continuing support for the Decentralized Futures program.
• Built on Brale's regulated stablecoin infrastructure, dUSD launches on Kusama to help usher in cypherpunk innovation. It also introduces a revenue-sharing model that helps fuel chaotic initiatives.
• Peaq launches an updated roadmap, which includes a DePIN launchpad, machine economy DEX, native yield-bearing stablecoin, machine RWAs, and a machine money market.
• Coretime renewal guidance has now been published by the Web3 Foundation.
• More and more DePINs have joined the Peaqosystem. This includes 375ai, focused on edge data networking, and Threefold, offering infrastructure for the next-gen internet.
• Check out the Peaq collaboration, where SkyX partners with IG3 to enable AI agents to leverage weather data.
• XMAQUINA’s DEUS Token Genesis Auction Wave 1.5 caps out another $500K in 500 minutes, following the initial sale’s rapid sell-out in just 15 minutes.
• You can now find-tune the noise with Silencio’s Map Explorer.
• Fixing some bugs Marks the start of Evrloot ’s S2 campaign, with maintenance downtime starting on Monday and ending on Friday morning.
• As planned, Evrloot went back live on Friday after hotfix 1.1v. Big changes include a fairer marks multiplier, saved packs to prevent lost loot, and more.
• Moonbeam is celebrating Earth Day with a giveaway of Carbify’s NFTtrees, each representing a real Amazon tree in an effort to support carbon emissions reduction.
• Gavun Wud’s birthday celebrations include a meme contest in conjunction with Wide Worlds to win 20M WUD.
• Mythos sets a new record with a marketplace net flow of 3.8M MYTH.
• Compete in tournaments on Moonbeam's N3mus platform during weekends for a 15% boost. They recently distributed $2,250 in prizes to the latest winners.
• 32 pieces of ArchiDoodles are up for grabs on April 29th via Koda.
• Boom! Acala’s first LSD, BoomACA, has been announced by Boomerang, an AMM and memepad dApp on its EVM+.
• As part of the Polkadot Treasury’s stablecoin DCA strategy, 8M DOT was swapped for aDOT and boosted Hydration’s TVL to a new all-time high of $130M.
• The token for Diode, a DePIN built on Moonbeam, can now be traded on StellaSwap.
• Cross-chain swaps are now live on Turtle v3, where you can get the tokens you need from Hydration to supported parachains in one click.
• GDOT holders, brace yourselves for new incentives, with 2,222,222 HDX allocated if Hydration Referendum 73 passes.
• It could get even more Giga, as Polkadot OpenGov Referendum 1542 sees Hydration request a colossal 5M DOT for DeFi incentives to support the Polkadot GIGAHydration Campaign. The breakdown includes 2M DOT each for stablecoin and LP incentives, as well as 1M DOT for GDOT incentives.
• Iberlabs, the Polkadot BD team for Spain and Andorra, is requesting 144.52K USDT to fund 12 months of continued operations. Over the next year, it aims to secure at least two government or enterprise integrations, speak at major events, deepen collaborations, and more.
• The Polkadot 2.0 roadmap looks set to complete with the deployment of Elastic Scaling via runtime release 1.5.0. This depends on the approval of Polkadot Referendum 1546 and Kusama Referendum 519.
• If you're looking to grab some gigaDOT and earn more giga rewards, you'll want Hydration Referendum 76 to pass. It would raise GDOT’s cap to 8.88M and unlock an additional 2,222,222 HDX and 214,285 BNC in additional incentives.

DOT Ecosystem Events

• DAO governance was the focus on April 25, with hosts Polkaworld and representatives from Permanence DAO, Polkadot Hungary, and JAM DAO.
• A Polkadot NYC meetup took place on April 25th.
• Catch up on the latest Polkadot Ambassador Fellowship Sprint Update, livestreamed on April 24th.
• On April 24th Diode hosted an AMA to celebrate its token launch on Moonbeam.
• YOM’s town hall on April 24th featured Peaq’s co-founder Leo, with the machine economy amongst one of the topics of discussion.
• Polkadot’s official TG hosted an AMA with one of the latest DV delegates, Trustless Core, on April 25th.
• Polkadot Africa’s X Space on April 29 with Blockchain University of Nigeria discussed DOT ecosystem opportunities.
• OriginTrail will meet up with Microsoft and umanitek at DKGconin New York on May 6th.
• Parity hosted a Blockchain for Beginners event in Lisbon on April 29th.
• Xcavate founder discusses RWA traction on April 29th with hosts OneBlock+.
• Polkaworld hosted a roundtable on April 30th with representation from Harbour Capital, Mandala Chain, Hyperbridge, Acala, Polimec, and Paper Moon.
• On April 29th, the Polkadot Side Event was held at Token2049 in Dubai. It featured presentations from Scytale and Mythical Games, along with demos from Acurast, Kylix Finance, and Beamable.
• Check out OriginTrail’s town hall on April 30th, which covered updates on DKG v8 and the upcoming DKGcon.

Extras

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