too much news for the summer days tbh, can't keep up: - new zk crypto card just (@payy_link), zk L2 & UTXO, kyc but zk to unlink your onchain activity (although centralized sequencer, so they can likely see everything) - new perp exchange for pre-IPO companies (@ventuals_) - ethena TVL at ATH, Aave raising caps for PTs - fluid to start the $FLUID buybacks - one of the @HyperliquidX HLP depositors/wrappers (@HLP0_to) withdrawing and farming yield elsewhere - executive order to allow cyrpto in 401(k) plans, doubt how quickly will this impact 401 but still - credit lines are coming to defi (@3janexyz) - @chainlink launching strategic onchain LINK reserve - @ethereumfndn hiring a DeFi specialist what am I missing?

It’s fundamentals season, and Spark is in an uncommon position where it is cash flow positive at launch. I’ve written a blog post to cover how Spark makes money and how things relate to the Sky ecosystem. Below is a summary. Let’s dive in. 🧵👇

Insane shipping speed from @DeFiSaver Aavethena Liquid Leverage automation now live 💥

it's been an honor to be part of the @ethena_labs risk committee for the first two terms we @BlockAnalitica are currently standing for re-election for the 3rd term, and would appreciate any support from $ENA voters 🙏

still waiting for someone to build this

Missed the one that started it all - @SkyEcosystem. Total SKY buyback: $88m (~1b of $SKY) Total USDS spent on buyback: $66.8m (~3% of total supply) Net ~$21m profit. Anyway, I remember early Maker discussions about buyback (+burn at the time) mechanism efficiency, and the proposed alternatives. Looking from today's perspective, it's interesting to see this number of DeFi projects adopting this.

think the amount of privately managed "funds" in DeFi is greatly underdiscussed BD people of useful DeFi trading and yield apps, role your sleeves, those guys are quietly making some good profits

It's not hard to see the loans (smart debt) becoming the deepest AMM pools in the long run. A lot more demand for borrowing than for pure DEX LP-ing. Total *stablecoin* borrow amount on major DeFi lending protocols on Mainnet is hitting ATH each day and is now over $11b. Currently below 2% of this stablecoin debt is utilized as trading liquidity. This is actually why I believe combining lending with DEXs is going to win, not just because of trading fees effecntively lowering borrow rates, but even more due to enabling significantly lower price impacts for onchain swaps. Note: Same assumption goes for non-stable debt.

what period of the cycle is this?

The number of new yield-bearing "stablecoins" promoting marginally higher APYs with significantly higher risk is kind of getting out of hand