The approval of Ethereum spot ETFs in the U.S. is still up in the air, and the ETH/BTC trading pair keeps hitting new lows each week. But don’t lose hope, as the future of DeFi scalability is looking great thanks to the Layer-2 (L2) ecosystem. And let us tell you, we’ve got some exciting updates this week from the now all-grown-up networks like Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum.
Top Story
Ark Invest and 21Shares Remove Staking From Ethereum ETF Applications
Ark Invest and 21Shares, two big names in the crypto world, have made a bit of a U-turn. They’ve decided to pull back on their plans for staking in their Ethereum ETF proposal. Originally, they had the idea to stake a chunk of the fund’s assets through third-party providers. This was all laid out in their filing back on February 7. But now, they’ve done a 180 and removed that section from their updated proposal, which they put forward on May 10.
The plan was for 21Shares to earn additional ETH as a reward for staking and consider those earnings as income for the fund. They were upfront about the risks, like potential losses from slashing penalties and the chance of funds being tied up during bonding and unbonding. But it seems they’ve decided to play it safe and step back from staking for now.

More ETF news:
- The SEC is to decide on several spot ETH ETF proposals, including those from VanEck, Ark, and 21Shares, with all similar applications expected to be reviewed over the next 2 weeks.
- JPMorgan, the largest bank in the U.S. with $2.6 trillion in assets, reported to the SEC that it had purchased roughly $760,000 worth of shares of Bitcoin ETFs.
Market Updates
Polygon Dominates Metrics As The Most EVM Efficiency L2
Data from Dune Analytics shows that Polygon is currently the most efficient EVM-compatible chain in terms of daily gas usage. Polygon utilizes an average of 572.77 billion gas units daily, with associated costs amounting to just $63.38k. This equals an average cost of $0.73 in USD per second, even though it handles a high volume of 4.27 million transactions daily.
Further analysis using Artemis shows that Polygon also dominates by daily active addresses with a count of 1.1 million, indicating that OG fans are still using the network. The network's underlying asset, $MATIC, is currently trading at $0.674, which represents a 77% decrease from its all-time high.
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More Ethereum ecosystem news:
- Vitalik Buterin and co-authors proposed EIP-7702 as an alternative to EIP-3074 to refine account abstraction on Ethereum.
Optimism Opens "Superchain" To Layer 3 dApps Buiding
On May 8, the Ethereum Layer-2 (L2) Optimism team encouraged Layer-3 (L3) blockchains to join its Superchain by using the OP Stack and sharing sequencer revenue with the Optimism Collective. Superchain is a decentralized platform with multiple interconnected chains that share security and use a common technology stack called OP Stack.
Superchain already includes various successful L2 networks, like OP Mainnet and Base. By joining the Superchain, L3 networks would gain access to retroactive funding, airdrops, participation in growth campaigns, and a large community of developers. Lattice recently released Redstone, the first OP Stack Chain with Plasma Mode, an alternative (offchain) data availability protocol (altDA) and a key feature of the OP Stack. Additionally, the Optimism team is working on adding gas tokens to fuel L3s.

More launches:
- Claims for EigenLayer's native tokens are now open after the project announced its distribution and “stakedrop” plan last month.
- After FriendTech, two new SocialFi protocols are looking to take over DeFi: Fantasy.top and Pump.fun are now ranked in the top 10 crypto protocols by fees and revenue generated.
Arbitrum First Layer-2 To Cross $250B In Total DEX Volume
Recently, Uniswap congratulated Arbitrum for becoming the first Layer-2 to surpass $150 billion in swap volume on its decentralized exchange (DEX). What is more interesting is that Arbitrum currently accounts for 9-10% of the weekly volume in DeFi. Yet the network has a cumulative volume (swaps, perps) of $231 billion and is close to overtaking the number one spot from Binance Smart Chain (BSC).

More exchange news:
- Spot trading volume on centralized exchanges such as Coinbase Global, Binance, and Kraken tumbled 32.6% to $2 trillion last month, according to data from researcher CCData.
Special: In Memory Of The Greatest Trader Ever
Last week, one of the titans of quantitative trading, Jim Simons, passed away at the age of 86. He was known for founding Renaissance Technologies, which included his legendary Medallion Fund that returned over 60% gross ROI for over 30 years. Numbers that could make any crypto trader's jaw drop. You can read our tribute article on his life's work and how he transformed his math passion into a multi-billion dollar winning strategy on X or LinkedIn.

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Degen And Decentralized Finance
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- US, UK, Philippines Lead Interest in Small Cap (Degen) Crypto
- Bored Ape Holder Loses Three Rare Nfts To Phishing Scam
Macro And Centralized Finance
- Donald Trump Says He’ll Accept Crypto for Campaign Donations
- BlockFi To Shut Down Platform, Turn To Coinbase As Distribution Partner
- Coinbase’s Stand With Crypto Launches Political Action Committee
- Kraken Attempts To Dismiss SEC Lawsuit Ahead Of June Hearing
- Binance Denies Allegation Of Market Manipulation From DWF Labs
Tweets For Thought

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DISCLAIMER: This content is for informational purposes only. It is not intended as financial advice or any form of recommendation for investment strategies. The information provided should not be relied upon in making any financial decisions. Always conduct your own research and exercise caution when dealing with financial matters.