Base's Memecoin Mania Explodes, Surpassing $1 Billion Valuation

Memecoin mania has taken over Base, with the network's memecoin sector surpassing a $1 billion market cap. DEGEN, a top gainer with 340% growth in a week, finds new utility in Base dapps. Meanwhile, the SEC faces a lawsuit challenging the classification of airdropped tokens as securities, governance tokens for real-world asset protocols surge, and Aave's borrowing activity remains strong despite the end of incentives. Plus, Badger Finance launches eBTC, a Bitcoin lending protocol offering 0% interest.

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Memecoin Frenzy Takes Hold on Base, Surpassing $1 Billion Market Cap

Base's memecoin sector has experienced explosive growth in the past week, with the sector's market capitalization surpassing $1 billion. DEGEN, a popular memecoin on Base, has been among the top gainers, posting a remarkable 340% growth over the past seven days. This surge is driven by the project's increasing utility within decentralized applications (dapps) being built on Base.

SEC Faces Lawsuit over Airdrop Regulation

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is facing a lawsuit that aims to clarify the regulatory status of airdropped tokens. The plaintiffs, which include the DeFi Education Fund and an airdrop-issuing apparel company, argue that airdropped tokens should not be classified as securities and that the SEC's enforcement-based approach to regulating cryptocurrencies violates the Administrative Procedure Act.

Real-World Asset Protocol Tokens Surge Amid Institutional Interest

Governance tokens of protocols that tokenize real-world assets have experienced a significant rally in recent days, gaining 81% over the past week. This makes the sector the second-best performing category on CoinGecko. Six of the top 15 real-world asset tokens are posting triple-digit weekly gains, driven by increasing institutional interest in tokenized assets.

Aave Users Unfazed by Diminishing Incentives, Borrowing Activity Remains Strong

Loan activity on Aave, the leading money market protocol, has remained robust despite the platform's plans to phase out token incentives for users. This suggests that DeFi protocols can achieve meaningful adoption without relying on inflationary rewards.

Badger Launches 0% Interest Bitcoin Lending Protocol

Badger Finance has launched eBTC, a Bitcoin lending protocol that offers 0% interest to users by leveraging Ethereum staking. Badger generates revenue from 50% of the ether staking rewards derived from staking collateralized Ether via Lido, with borrowers receiving the remaining yield.

Other Notable Developments:

• BlackRock's tokenized fund has brought added legitimacy to public blockchains like Ethereum, according to Bernstein.
• Tether has announced plans to invest in open-source language learning models (LLMs) to combat the dominance of Big Tech.
• Portuguese authorities have ordered Worldcoin, founded by Sam Altman, to cease data collection in the country.

Trending:

• Vitalik Buterin emphasizes the importance of Ethereum achieving mainstream adoption within five years.
• Solana starter guide provides insights for navigating the platform's ecosystem in 2024.
• Base opens its mainnet to all users, allowing dapps to build on the Layer 2 network.
• Solana memecoin BOME reaches a market capitalization of $600 million within two days of its launch.