Our weekly updates are put together by folks deep in the crypto scene, giving you a clear picture of what's happening without overwhelming you.
To Watch This Week
AIRDROPS + ALPHADec 11, 2024
Gaming
Treasure Launches New Ethereum Gaming Chain With ZKsync, Leaving Arbitrum
Crypto gaming ecosystem Treasure has launched its new Ethereum layer-2 scaling network, marking its departure from Arbitrum. This move will see the project build on a network tailor-fit to its gaming-specific needs, opening what it says are new possibilities for gamers. Treasure’s newly launched Ethereum layer-2 network is part of ZKsync’s Elastic Chain—a network of interoperable zero-knowledge rollup chains—and will natively use the project’s MAGIC token. As a result, over 15 games, hundreds of...
Dec 11, 2024
Gaming
Ubisoft Sets Launch for ‘Captain Laserhawk’ Game as Free NFT Mint Begins
Gaming giant Ubisoft, the publisher behind franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Just Dance, has pinned down the launch date for its upcoming game Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E. on Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitrum. And a free NFT mint for the game is getting underway today. Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E. will launch on December 18. Set in a dystopian world inspired by the Netflix animated series "Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix"—which is based in part on a game in the Far Cry game fran...
Nov 26, 2024
NFTs
How NFTs are Evolving to Add ‘Meaning and Story’: RARI Chain
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are evolving to create more “value and utility” for their creators and users, according to a recent panel discussion on "Navigating the Evolving NFT Landscape" at the TEN by RARI x Refraction event in Bangkok. While the creator economy is the “flagship use case” of NFTs for consumers and retail, “There's going to be a lot of other applications of NFTs which are just in the backend,” Jana Bertram, Head of Strategy at RARI Foundation, told Rug Radio creator Pukerainbow....
Nov 4, 2024
DeFi
Bitcoin DeFi Project EverValue Raises Over $4.7 Million in Token Presale
Bitcoin-backed DeFi project EverValue’s token presale was an “exceptional success,” raising over 75 BTC ($4.7 million) and surpassing its initial target of 35 BTC within the first week of launch, the project said. In a statement shared with Decrypt, EverValue CEO Flor Ayala said that the raise, “underscores the strong backing from the community and reinforces EverValue’s unique value proposition in the cryptocurrency space,” as it raised 120,000 USDT in just one hour on crypto exchange XT’s Laun...
Nov 3, 2024
Technology Guides
What Are Layer-2 Networks and Sidechains? Ethereum Scaling Explained
Blockchain infrastructure has evolved to encompass an ecosystem of layer-1 and layer-2 networks. In this article we’ll explore the difference between the two, and how layer-2 networks and other scaling methods like sidechains attempt to address the scalability challenges of layer-1 blockchains. What are layer-2 networks? Simply put, layer-2 networks are blockchain networks that live atop a layer-1 network such as Ethereum, with the layer-1 network providing the base layer of infrastructure and s...
Oct 21, 2024
Gaming
ApeCoin Doubles in Price as ApeChain Launches With Pump.fun Clone, 'Top Trader' Game
ApeChain, a new Ethereum layer-2 network, was launched by the ApeCoin DAO on Sunday at ApeFest Lisbon, leading to APE doubling in price. The anticipated mainnet launch of the Bored Ape Yacht Club-aligned network came with numerous apps and games, including a meme coin launchpad, a leverage trading simulator, and other games. Earlier this year, more than half of the ApeCoin DAO’s voting power went towards selecting Arbitrum technology to power the new scaling network—beating out other Ethereum sc...
Oct 18, 2024
DeFi
Radiant Capital’s $50M Breach Among ‘Most Sophisticated Hacks’ in DeFi History
Decentralized finance (DeFi) project Radiant Capital has claimed that groups analyzing its breach earlier this week “believe this was one of the most sophisticated hacks ever recorded in DeFi” and that “many protocols are at risk”. Radiant and Web3 auditor Hacken estimated the approximate scale of the theft at $50 million, and it’s thought that USDT, USDC, and ARB tokens were stolen. Multiple pools have been fully drained, including:- USDC- USDT- wbETH- bBTC- wBNB- WETH- WBTC- ARB- wstETH — Hac...
Oct 7, 2024
Business
Arbitrum Foundation to ‘Go Big’ in Asia With Road to Devcon
The Arbitrum Foundation has announced its Road to Devcon initiative as it “doubles down” on Asia’s potential for rapid growth. Pointing to factors including the region’s burgeoning developer community and increasing rates of retail crypto adoption, the Foundation announced a three-pronged campaign ahead of Devcon 2024 in Bangkok. A pair of face-to-face ArbiLink events in Vietnam and Indonesia will provide opportunities to connect with two of the fastest-growing local developer communities, where...
Oct 4, 2024
Gaming
Ubisoft Reveals Plans for 'Captain Laserhawk' Ethereum Game NFT Mint
Gaming giant Ubisoft is set to launch a 10,000 piece NFT collection on Ethereum scaling network Arbitrum in the coming weeks via the Magic Eden marketplace. These NFTs will allow holders to play the upcoming top-down shooter Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E. early. Set in a fascist dystopian world inspired by the Netflix series "Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix"—which itself is inspired by Ubisoft’s Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon game—the competitive multiplayer game promises to include iconic ch...
Sep 16, 2024
Markets
DeFi Protocol DeltaPrime Suffers $5.9 Million Loss in Private Key Exploit
Crypto cybersecurity firm Cyvers has reported a security incident affecting DeltaPrime, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol on the Arbitrum network. According to a tweet from Cyvers, the ongoing incident resulted in an initial estimated loss of $4.5 million—subsequently updated to $5.93 million as a “suspicious address” continued to drain funds from DeltaPrime’s liquidity pools. 🚨ALERT🚨@DeltaPrimeDefi has faced a security incident on their admin keys. Attacker had control on the private k...
Sep 6, 2024
Gaming
Arbitrum Goes Big With Web3 Gaming Showcase at WebX Asia
Arbitrum Foundation brought Web3 gaming to this year’s WebX in Tokyo, Asia’s leading Web3 conference, with a programme including panel discussions, playable demos and evening soirées. On the show floor, hundreds of attendees stopped by the Arbitrum Foundation and ApeChain booth for the opportunity to get hands-on with playable key titles including onchain RPG Tarochi, memecoin racing title Kitty Kart Racing, and GameFi battler Gensokishi. Image: Arbitrum Also showcased were titles such as Aavego...
Sep 1, 2024
Gaming
Ethereum Gaming Network Geist Is Members-Only to Prevent 'Industrial Farming'
Pixelcraft Studios, the company behind crypto game Aavegotchi, is creating a “members-only” Ethereum layer-3 gaming network called Geist, built with the scaling tech of both Arbitrum and Base. The move comes as the company fears that “industrial farming” is an issue preventing real players from enjoying crypto gaming. “A lot of crypto games are farms,” the pseudonymous CEO and founder of Pixelcraft Studios, Coder Dan, told Decrypt, “[and] there’s nothing wrong with a farmer.” “But the problem is...
Aug 28, 2024
Gaming
Crypto's Hamster Obsession Gets a New Fix: Betting on Rodent Car Races
Every day in crypto seems to bring a new race to capture the attention and coins of the world’s degen traders—many of whom have an apparently insatiable desire for the next sufficiently amusing, ridiculous, or grotesque premise on which to spend their collective billions. Now, a newly organized betting platform is hoping to entice those gamblers with something they (hopefully) haven’t seen before: wagers on real hamsters, racing in real (plastic) cars, streamed in high definition with live comme...
Aug 18, 2024
Gaming
This Week in Crypto Games: 'The Lost Glitches' Beta Hits Epic Store, Members-Only Ethereum Chain
The crypto and NFT gaming space is busier than ever lately, what with prominent games starting to release, token airdrops piling up, and a seemingly constant array of other things happening at all times. It’s a lot to take in! Luckily, Decrypt’s GG is all over it. And if you need a quick way to get caught up on the latest moves around crypto video games, we’re happy to present This Week in Crypto Games. Our weekend roundup serves up the biggest news from the past week, along with a few other tid...
Aug 8, 2024
Coins
Franklin Templeton’s Blockchain Fund Launches on Ethereum Layer-2 Arbitrum
Global asset manager Franklin Templeton’s blockchain-based money market fund has launched within the Arbitrum ecosystem, as real-world asset (RWA) tokenized funds gain traction among investors. Arbitrum is a popular scaling solution for Ethereum. Franklin Templeton’s Nasdaq-listed OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund, FOBXX, became accessible in digital wallets on the Arbitrum network on Thursday, the firm said in a statement. FOBXX’s launch on Arbitrum is part of its issuer’s efforts to widen acc...
Aug 6, 2024
Gaming
Ubisoft Reveals ‘Captain Laserhawk’ Game on Ethereum Layer-2 Arbitrum
Assassin’s Creed and Just Dance publisher Ubisoft will make its next big step into the crypto gaming world on Ethereum layer-2 scaling network Arbitrum, as the company announced Tuesday that it is working on Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E. Based in the same universe as the Netflix animated series “Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix”—itself loosely inspired by the 2013 game Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon—Ubisoft says the game will feature characters from other franchises, including Assassin’s Creed...
Jul 25, 2024
Gaming
Ethereum Shooter ‘Planet-X’ Launching on Xai With Real Prizes—Like a Tesla Cybertruck
Planet-X, a free-to-play extraction shooter game, is set to join the Xai ecosystem on Ethereum, offering players the chance to win real-world prizes through in-game treasure hunts—including a Tesla Cybertruck. The mobile shooter game, which ties in tangible rewards with the sci-fi shooter gameplay, will be available for download in open beta on iOS and Android devices via the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Planet-X had previously launched NFTs via the Ethereum mainnet, but announced Thur...
Jul 8, 2024
Coins
Xai, Immutable, and Pixels Among July's Biggest Ethereum Gaming Token Unlocks
July is poised to be a big month for crypto gaming token unlocks. Throughout the month of July, over $148 million worth of crypto gaming tokens will be unlocked and can enter the market, according to data from TokenUnlocks. And all of the projects in question have launched tokens on Ethereum. Many crypto projects make their total supply of tokens available across days, weeks, months or years. Often, when a project launches its token, it locks up a significant amount of the supply that’s intended...
Jul 6, 2024
Gaming
Pirate Nation CEO Predicts Thousands of Dedicated Crypto Game Blockchains
Amitt Mahajan—founder and CEO of Proof of Play, the developer of crypto game Pirate Nation—predicts that eventually there will be thousands of dedicated blockchains that each support individual applications. This comes after his experience building the viral Facebook game Farmville. During his time developing the casual farming simulator, Zynga operated approximately 64 databases simply to prevent the game from crashing. To Mahajan, the blockchain is just an advanced database. “At peak, [Farmvi...
Jun 26, 2024
Gaming
What to Expect From Xai as It Aims to Become Ethereum Gaming's Valve
Key contributors to Xai, the Ethereum-based layer-3 gaming network, say they aim to build the next Valve, developing their ecosystem in a similar way to the video game titan behind the Steam marketplace and some of the best-loved games of all time. Tobias Batton, co-founder and CEO of Ex Populus—a game studio that works closely with the Xai Foundation as a “labs company” of sorts, he previously told Decrypt’s GG—explained that the Valve model is how they envision the future of the gaming network...