Demex Daily #120: AltLayer Launches Staking and Speed-Optimized MACH Alpha

What’s Interesting Today:

AltLayer has introduced a staking feature for its ALT token holders, enhancing the economic security of its ecosystem. This feature is part of AltLayer's development of MACH Alpha, a fast finality layer built on EigenLayer, aimed at addressing Ethereum's slow transaction finality by offering quicker confirmation, security, and decentralized validation. The ALT token, launched in January with an initial airdrop, reached a peak price of $0.68 and is currently valued at $0.58 with a market cap of $730 million. MACH Alpha, supporting Optimism Mainnet and Arbitrum One, will gradually introduce more features, including external operator access and restaked asset support, leading up to its final launch post-EigenLayer's mainnet debut.

Laser Digital, a crypto subsidiary of Nomura, has launched a liquid staking fund on Polygon for institutional clients, named the Laser Digital Polygon Adoption Fund. This fund aims to give institutional investors, such as sovereign wealth funds and private asset managers, access to Polygon's MATIC token and its staking rewards. Developed in collaboration with TruFin, the fund utilizes TruStake liquid staking to offer yields higher than Lido's average while allowing investors to sell their tokens anytime. It leverages Polygon's AggLayer for enhanced liquidity and transaction speed, and will initially be available in the UK, pending regulatory approvals. This initiative is part of Laser Digital's effort to adapt DeFi opportunities for traditional finance and is seen as a move that will increase the security and adoption of the Polygon network, particularly beneficial following Ethereum's updates aimed at reducing transaction costs.