DAO Treasuries Hit $9.2B
As of March 2022 DAO treasuries across all blockchain networks have at least $9.5 billion in total value locked.
Analytics firm DeepDAO, which has listed 4,832 decentralized organizations on the two largest DAO ecosystems, reports $8.2 billion held by Ethereum-based DAOs and $1.3 billion held in DAOs built on top of Solana.
DeepDAO’s research reveals the smaller and younger Solana DAO ecosystem to be rapidly growing and arguably more diverse than its counterpart on Ethereum. Both networks have smart contract platforms that allow developers to launch self-executing programs capable of taking an array of actions on behalf of an Internet community, including launching automated crowd funding campaigns, NFT collections and decentralized exchanges. In November 2021 the Ethereum-based ConstitutionDAO made headlines for its failed bid to buy a rare copy of the United States Constitution at a Sotheby’s auction, after having raised $45 million from more than 5,500 Ethereum users.
Lightning Network Public Channel Capacity Hits 3359 BTC
As of 18 March 2022, analytics firm Glassnode reports robust growth of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network (LN) with 15,600 public nodes and 73,000 public payment channels, reaching an all time high capacity of 3,539 BTC.
Network capacity had even reached an annualized growth rate of nearly 348% in August 2021, though it has cooled off to an annualized rate of 30% ever since.
The Lightning Network is Bitcoin’s layer 2 scaling solution, a realization of cryptography pioneer Hal Finney’s vision that “Bitcoin cannot be scaled itself for every single financial transaction in the world; there needs to be a secondary payment layer that is lightweight and more efficient.”
Lightning allows for quick and affordable payments between different parties. These transactions are then ultimately settled on Bitcoin’s core network. Although the second layer allows for the opening of private payment channels between private nodes, the total balance available between them is not public and would not be included in Glassnode’s metrics. However, much private information is still vulnerable to analysis, network probes and attacks.
Fantom Observes Impressive Surge
In March 2022 the Fantom ecosystem has shown remarkable growth even after the announcement of the departure of project members Andre Cronje and Anton Nell.
FTM Scan shows that an estimated 364,874 unique addresses joined the network in February 2021 while gaining only 4,637 unique addresses in Q1 of 2021. There has been a 4,200% year-to-year increase in smart contract execution on the platform. The number of smart contracts deployed on the network increased to 4677 in February 2022 up from just 111 in February 2021.
The Fantom blockchain was launched in 2018, aiming to become a faster and cheaper platform for DeFi applications than rivals Ethereum and Solana. Andre Cronje’s departure from Fantom was controversial after reports surfaced of a critical vulnerability in his latest project, Solidly Exchange, which had caused funds to disappear.
Coinbase Sued for Unlicensed Securities
Coinbase is being sued for $5 million by three users for selling Dogecoin, Solana, Cardano, and 75 other assets.
The class-action suit claims the cryptocurrencies to be “unlicensed securities” and states that the exchange should have registered itself with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) since its products are similar to those of a traditional stock exchange. The plaintiffs, residents of California, Florida and New Jersey, demand that the crypto exchange compensate them and other users for any losses they incurred while trading on the platform. They also argue that the company is in violation of state and federal securities laws and should immediately stop selling several cryptocurrencies, including Link, Shiba Inu, and Matic.
If the lawsuit gains traction, it could seriously harm Coinbase’s business in the United States; acquiring the status of a national security exchange would force Coinbase to comply with additional regulatory and reporting requirements. Nevertheless, similar cases against crypto exchanges have previously dried out without serious consequences for the firms. Coinbase will likely request the case’s dismissal. The two East Coast law firms representing the plaintiffs, Silver Golub Teitell and Selendy Gay Elsberg will obviously be aiming for the highest possible settlement. While the SEC has already publicly stated that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not considered securities, it has not yet offered any guidance about thousands of other cryptocurrencies.
