The Cross-Chain Roundup #8

Week Roundup (09 - 15 January 2023)

Jan 16, 2023

Welcome to the latest edition of the Swing Newsletter, your guide to everything that’s happening in the burgeoning cross-chain ecosystem.

When the market spends months in sideways mode, all there is to do is build. But now, with the first half of January returning to up-only mode, the renewed sense of optimism is palpable – and a cause of great relief for those who thought we’d never get there.

Pleasing as the distraction of market action may be, it’s a sign to double down on the building that will carry the industry to new heights, not just in terms of capitalization, but in spurring new use cases and onboarding users in their droves. This week’s stories cover the sort of developments that will realize these goals, but before we go cross-chain, we’ll start with some of the best Twitter threads from the past seven days.

ICYMI: Twitter Picks

📰Cross-Chain Updates

1. DefiLlama Launches Delta-Neutral Farming Portal

Not sure which way the market’s gonna move but still eager to slurp some APYs in return for providing liquidity? DefiLlama has got you covered. Its new service simulates the APY you can make with no price exposure by shorting the token on perps, buying spot and farming with that same token. Now you can get yield farming exposure without getting over-exposed.

DefiLlama.com @DefiLlama

We just launched our new delta-neutral farming page based on perp hedges! It simulates the APY you can make with no price exposure by shorting the token on perps, buying spot and farming with that token. Thread on how this works and how you can reap these APYs

2. Multichain Releases Whitepaper for Its zk Router for Zero-Knowledge Bridging

Zero knowledge proofs are extremely useful and are going to be ubiquitous this year: everyone from Polygon to Consensys is working on L2s that utilize zks. But how can assets move between this panoply of emerging zk chains? Enter Multichain, who believe zero-knowledge proofs will mark the evolution of bridging. Their newly published whitepaper explains all.

3. AWS Partners with Avalanche to Scale Blockchain for Enterprises

This week’s biggest story is undoubtedly the AWS-Avalanche partnership which sent AVAX soaring and the cryptosphere rejoicing. If you’ve yet to catch the details on why this is such a big deal, TechCrunch explains all. AWS will support Avalanche’s infrastructure and decentralized application ecosystem, alongside one-click node deployment, through its marketplace.

4. OpenOcean’s Cross-Chain Aggregator Integrates With Optimism

OpenOcean’s cross-chain DEX and aggregator has expanded to the Optimism ecosystem. It enables users to access the best prices from any whitelisted tokens on supported chains. Two bridges and 13 liquidity sources are incorporated so far, making it easier to move assets to Optimism and execute price-efficient trades.

5. Moonbeam Celebrates 1st Birthday in Style

Moonbeam, the EVM-compatible Polkadot chain, has been toasting its one-year anniversary by reeling off a host of highlights. Moonbeam now has over 1.6 million addresses, around 80% of which have been created in the past three months, and 15,000 active accounts per day. In the past year, there have been 24.2M total transactions, 15M of which were on the Moonbeam EVM.

6. DeltaPrime Brings Under-Collateralized Lending to Avalanche

DeltaPrime, designed to unlock trapped liquidity, has entered the Avalanche ecosystem. Its protocol allows anyone to borrow with no accreditation requirements. Traders can access under-collateralized borrowing through their Prime Account, opening new DeFi strategies and increasing the efficiency of assets across the Avalanche ecosystem.

7. Allbridge Launches Cross-Chain Explorer

Allbridge has launched Core Explorer, which offers a convenient tool to track various transaction details including chains and messaging. Core Explorer allows for sorting transfers by chain, making it easier to explore cross-chain activity and monitor your assets as they flow through the crypto ecosystem.

8. Magic Square Integrates with deBridge

Magic Square has integrated its web3 discovery and engagement platform with deBridge. The move will allow Magic Square users to seamlessly go cross-chain. Crypto assets including NFTs can be transferred cross-chain using deBridge, which is fast becoming a pillar of the drive to make crypto fully interoperable.

9. XDEFI Integrates NEAR and Aurora to Its Multi-Chain Wallet

Popular web wallet XDEFI has added support for NEAR and Aurora. As a result, all 160,000 XDEFI users have access to crypto assets on the twin networks. XDEFI now supports the swapping and bridging of over 10,000 assets across 17 chains in a non-custodial manner.