Demex Daily #124: Ethena's ENA Launch Hits $1.2B Cap Amid Controversy and Strategy

What’s Interesting Today:

Ethena's ENA token launched with a $1.2 billion market cap despite its controversial background and investor miscommunication. The protocol, aiming for decentralization and security, rewards ENA holders with governance rights and has introduced a complex stablecoin system using crypto as collateral, employing delta hedging for stability. Despite concerns over its stability mechanism reminiscent of the Terra collapse, ENA quickly became the 80th most valuable cryptocurrency. Ethena's blend of centralized efficiency and decentralized governance poses both opportunities and challenges, particularly in liquidity management. Available on major exchanges, ENA targets expansion and broader ecosystem integration.

OpenSea has integrated the ERC-721C standard, enabling creators to enforce programmable royalties for their NFTs directly on the platform. This new standard, developed by Limit Break, addresses issues like wash trading and the bypassing of royalty payments in secondary markets by standardizing token transfer conditions, including royalties. The upgrade, made possible by the Ethereum network's Dencun upgrade on March 13, ensures that sales honoring creator-set royalties are only supported on OpenSea and other marketplaces using Limit Break's Payment Processor. This development is also compatible with OpenSea's Seaport 1.6 feature, allowing sales under specific conditions. NFT royalties, which vary but often fall between 2.5% to 10%, have generated over $345 million for the top 10 NFT collections to date.