Scenius Sync (Issue #105)

ZKsync Token Goes Live with $925M Market Cap Following Airdrop, SEC’s Head Of Crypto Departs, Gensler Sees Summer Approval For Spot Ether S1s, & Tether Debuts New ‘Synthetic’ Dollar

Scenius: The intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. The communal form of the concept of genius.

Welcome to The Scenius Sync.

Our mission with this concise publication is twofold:

1. Share the essential stories driving the crypto industry and markets.

2. Highlight innovative applications and mainstream adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.

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Essential News 🗞

1. SEC's Head of Crypto Asset and Cyber Unit departs after nearly nine years

   • David Hirsch, the head of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s Crypto Asset and Cyber Unit in the Division of Enforcement, has left the agency after nearly nine years. Hirsch did not provide any details about his future plans but noted that he would share more details after a break.

2. MiCA regulation takes shape under EBA’s newest guidelines

   • The European Banking Authority (EBA) has released a comprehensive package of technical standards and guidelines under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, providing regulatory guidance for asset-referenced tokens (ARTs) and e-money tokens (EMTs) across Europe.  The package covers six topics, from stress testing programs and asset reserves to recovery plans. Under MiCA, ARTs are tokens backed by assets like commodities, real estate or a basket of different assets, while EMTs maintain a stable value by being pegged to fiat currencies and used for payments, like a stablecoin. Specifically, the authority provides guidelines for token issuers, including the need for enough financial resources (own funds) to cover potential risks. It also creates parameters to determine if an issuer is facing a higher degree of risk, which should lead to an increase in own fund reserves.

3. Paradigm raises $850 million for a third investment fund

   • Leading web3 venture capital firm Paradigm has raised $850 million for a third fund focused on investing in crypto. In April, Paradigm was in talks with investors about raising the same amount for a new fund.

4. SEC shoots down Ripple’s argument for a lower penalty

   • The SEC has criticized Ripple Labs’ latest argument for a lower penalty, saying it wouldn’t be enough. On June 13, Ripple cited the SEC’s settlement with Terraform Labs when it again asked Judge Analisa Torres of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York for a penalty of “no more than $10 million” — far lower than the regulator’s proposed $876.3 million civil penalty.

5. Biden Officials Will Attend Bitcoin Roundtable in DC: Leaked Report

   • The roundtable is being spearheaded by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a pro-crypto politician who supported the FIT21 bill.

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Innovation & Adoption 💡📈

1. Gensler says Ethereum ETF S-1 approvals likely 'over the course of this summer'

   • SEC Chair Gary Gensler estimated that the S-1 approvals for spot ether ETFs could occur sometime by the end of this summer. A Tennessee Senator also chastised Gensler’s rule-making for the cryptocurrency industry, stating that the agency’s “roadblocks” have spurred U.S. companies to move abroad.

2. ZKsync token goes live with $925 million market cap following airdrop

   • The ZKsync token, currently priced at around $0.25, went live on Monday and has been listed with various trading pairs on multiple crypto exchanges. The token's market capitalization is currently sitting at over $935 million, with a fully diluted value of around $5.3 billion. The maximum supply of the ZKsync token is 21 billion, with a current circulating supply of over 3.6 billion.

3. One year since Base's genesis block, here's how the chain became Ethereum's #2 L2, by the numbers

   • Base, the Coinbase-incubated Ethereum Layer 2 network, mined its genesis block on June 15, 2023, with a reference to an age-old internet meme embedded within: "all your base are belong to you." One year after that genesis block, and even less time since Base's public launch in August 2023, Base has become a significant challenger in the Ethereum rollup space, garnering a significant userbase through SocialFi apps on its platform such as Friend.tech, popular decentralized exchange Aerodrome, and lending protocol Moonwell. Base even has its own networks built on top, such as meme-coin focused Degen Chain, which primarily powers the token adopted by Web3 social network Farcaster as its de facto community currency. 

4. Tether Debuts New 'Synthetic' Dollar Backed by Tokenized Gold in Tokenization Push

   • Tether, the company behind the $110 billion stablecoin (USDT), debuted Monday a new token minting platform called Alloy on the Ethereum network that lets users create tokens collateralized by Tether's tokenized gold (XAUT).

     "Alloy by Tether is an open platform that allows to create collateralized synthetic digital assets and will soon be part of the new Tether digital assets tokenization platform, launching later this year, Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether," said in an X post. The platform may potentially offer yield-bearing products in the future, said Tether in a press release.

5. The Graph removes 'training wheels,' completing transition to a decentralized data layer

   • The Graph, an indexing and query protocol for organizing blockchain data, has transitioned to a fully decentralized data layer following the completion of The Graph Foundation’s Sunrise initiative. Sunrise concludes a three-phase decentralization plan, with subgraphs upgraded from centralized hosting services to The Graph’s globally distributed network of token-incentivized individuals and independent companies that operate as data indexers. Unlike web2 applications, no one company exclusively serves data on the network. Instead, each indexer chooses which application they want to sync and serve queries for on The Graph and is paid by users in native GRT tokens for their contribution to the network.