Weekly newsletter of DAO highlights | Issue #35
On this week's DAO and DeFi highlights, the CFTC has gone after some U.S. residents for allegedly running a fraudulent crypto scheme. Catch up on this and other latest happenings in the Web3 space.
DAO Stats
More entrants have continued to join the DAO space, suggesting growing interest in decentralized structures. According to data available on the Web3 analytics platform DeepDAO, the aggregated number of DAOs grew from around 24,000 on July 7 to 25,617 on July 14. This represents a weekly growth of about 6%.
But like the previous week, DAO treasuries have been unable to hold the line, registering losses. The USD value of the total assets under management (AUM) in DAO treasuries fell by nearly $600 million, closing the week at $22.1 billion. This drop in value may be attributed to the general downturn in the wider crypto market.
Meanwhile, Arbitrum One has reclaimed its spot as the largest decentralized autonomous organization by treasury size, surpassing the likes of Optimism Collective and BitDAO.
Major DAO Highlights
Aave DAO Executes third phase of BUSD Offboarding Plan, mulls over ARB airdrop conversion
On Monday, Aave DAO executed an already approved proposal outlining the third part of the offboarding plan for BUSD on the Aave V2 Ethereum market. Consequently, the protocol will be decreasing uOptimal from 2% to 1%, increasing the base rate from 3% to 100%, and increasing slope 1 from 7% to 70%. aBUSD will also be removed from the collector contract to increase the utilization ratio of BUSD and increase the cost of open positions.
Meanwhile, a discussion is currently ongoing in the Aave DAO forum about converting around 65% of the DAO's 2.7 million ARB tokens (valued at about $3.1 million) into stablecoins. As of press time, most of the commenters recommended increasing the DAO’s ETH exposure instead.
DeFi News
Visa Makes Ethereum Gas Fees Easy to Pay with Your Credit Card
Visa has announced that it is working on a new feature that could make it easier for people to pay for Ethereum gas fees using their credit cards. The feature is currently in beta testing and is expected to be rolled out more widely in the coming months.
The payments giant revealed in an official blog post that its solution “utilizes Ethereum's ERC-4337 standard and a paymaster contract, allowing Visa cardholders to directly cover their gas fees.”
Base, Coinbase's Layer-2 Solution, Gains Traction as Users and Funds Pile In
Less than a week after launch, Coinbase’s layer-2 network, Base, has seen strong growth in both users and funds. The blockchain network has seen nearly $170 million in funds bridged to it and now has over 200,000 unique users.
The growth of Base is a sign of the growing interest in layer-2 networks. Layer-2 networks are seen as a way to address the scalability and cost issues of Ethereum Layer 1.
You Can Scam, but You Can’t Hide: CFTC Takes Action Against Supposed Crypto Fraudsters
The crypto space may have been touted as a Wild West but this has not stopped regulators from occasionally clamping down on supposed malicious actors. In one such case, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has charged some residents of Florida, Louisiana, and Arkansas with fraud in connection with a cryptocurrency investment scheme.
The defendants, Rene Larralde, Juan Pablo Valcarce, Alisha Ann Kingrey, and Brian Early, are alleged to have solicited investments in a purported cryptocurrency trading bot called Fundsz. They claimed that Fundsz could generate 3% weekly profits through cryptocurrency and precious metal trading, and they used false and misleading statements to induce investors to invest.
DAO Governance Updates
Completed
- Illuvium DAO has approved a proposal to create a peer and self-evaluation mechanism for the group. The move is expected to enhance transparency and accountability among council members.
- Silo DAO has decided to swap 1 million USDC from its treasury with an equivalent amount of fully decentralized LUSD. The DAO argues that the decision will help minimize centralization risks associated with USDC and support decentralized stablecoin alternatives.
Active Voting Rounds
- Decentraland DAO is currently voting on a number of proposals, including introducing a new Community Building category to the DAO grants program, budgetary redistribution for its grants program, and introducing a 3-year term limit for DAO committee members.
- Gitcoin DAO is on track to implement new on-chain governance contracts following an ongoing voting round set to send in two days.
- A proposal to transition from the current Cobb-Douglas-inspired query fee rebate distribution mechanism to an exponential rebate function is being voted upon by The Graph Council.
