The DeFi Drop v11 | Bittrex Exchange

Each week, we’ll round up the hottest news across the DeFi ecosystem to help you keep up to speed. 

Arbitrum One launches highly anticipated L2 platform 

Ethereum Layer 2s are scaling solutions that help users, and smart contracts, use the Ethereum network and DeFi apps for little-to-no gas fees and with nearly instant transaction speed. OffChain Labs announced the full fair and public launch of its Arbitrum One mainnet. Developers have been building on Arbitrum since May. 

Balancer announces V2 launch on Arbitrum 

One of the popular dapps to co-announce alongside Arbitrum One is Balancer ($BAL), an AMM protocol that acts as a DEX to users. The move is expected to significantly reduce gas costs and scale liquidity. The implementation of Arbitrum makes Balancer Protocol uniquely scalable. 

Revisiting Synthetix V2x 

In a recent update from the team, Synthetix released a scope of their V2x implementations, and some of the technical initiatives that will be rolling out in the coming months. The update includes significant protocol level updates plus a new debt shares contract mechanism for staking that accepts and instantly distributes any liquidated SNX rewards in the block they were liquidated. 

Polygon introduces “Bridges Week” education program 

In a bid to generate more adoption of the popular Ethereum scaling solution (Polygon POS chain), the Polygon team announced a “Bridges Week” education program. The week is teased to include informative articles, Twitter Spaces, and interviews to help users get on Polygon and start using popular Ethereum apps with little-to-no gas fees. 

Understanding how dai ($DAI) stable coin works 

How does the dai stablecoin stay pegged to $1? It’s more complicated and fascinating than you think. Read this thread by Maker DAO (the platform responsible for maintaining dai) team member Kurt Barry who details the numerous ways that the Maker DAO platform –– both users and smart contracts –– help keep the dai peg fairly and constantly maintained.  

Pop artist 3LAU introduces blockchain music platform Royal with $16M raise 

If you’re into NFTs, you probably know that 3LAU is deep in the game, too. He minted BAYC and gave several away the night of. Now, the independent super artist has raised $16M for his upcoming blockchain-based music investment platform that cuts fans into the ownership and distribution. The round was led by crypto-focused investment firm Paradigm and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. 

ENS launches DNS support 

The popular domain service called ENS (Ethereum Name Service) allows users to mint ENS addresses that point to Ethereum wallets. This allows a user to truncate their long wallet addresses down to as little as one or two characters. ENS help make DeFi even more usable, and with this new update allowing DNS (e.g. .com URLs) crossovers. ENS also can be used as a tool for authenticating identities.  

Axie Infinity maintains top spot in global Discord size 

The red-hot play-to-earn gaming project Axie Infinity ($AXS) has had one of the most epic rises in 2021 on the coattails of NFT interest and by pioneering play-to-earn use cases on Ethereum. Despite recently booting hundreds of thousands of users for inactivity, the project still boasts the largest Discord community in the world, having first taken that spot earlier this year.