GeckoPulse: Stargate Returns to the Fold?

A Merger Beyond Chains

The LayerZero Foundation has submitted a proposal to acquire the Stargate platform, and its native STG tokens, for approximately $110M.

The acquisition is intended to foster further growth of LayerZero and Stargate while providing Stargate with the necessary tools to expand beyond bridging services.

As per the proposal, the Foundation will offer to purchase STG tokens for $0.1675, beyond its underlying backing of $0.1444 as of July.

The Stargate DAO and the STG token will become defunct, and holders will be able to swap their STG for LayerZero's native ZRO token at a rate of 1 STG to 0.086 ZRO.

Additionally, future revenue generated by Stargate will be utilized for ZRO buybacks.

The proposal is now open to discussion for the week and will be open for a 3-day voting period on the Snapshot platform.

Since the proposal was announced, both STG and ZRO have risen by 20.2% and 27.9%, respectively.

Trump Reraises

Trump-backed DeFi project World Liberty Financial plans to raise an additional $1.5B to set up a WLFI treasury company.

According to a Bloomberg report, the proposed firm will be publicly traded and hold World Liberty's WLFI tokens in its corporate treasury.

According to several sources, the fundraising terms are still being finalized.

Interestingly, World Liberty already holds various popular crypto assets and Defi tokens in its treasury, including ETH, ONDO, and MNT.

Although WLFI is not transferable, the token has been sold for as high as $0.29 on pre-markets, reflecting an FDV of $29B. 

In Other News…

The 2010s Memes Resurgence.  Chris Torres, the creator of the 2011 Nyan Cat meme has claimed over $700K in SOL as creator fees from the Bags token launchpad. Torres says that his acceptance of the fee is not an endorsement of the NYAN Solana memecoin.

Ivy League Universities Buy Bitcoin. Top universities Harvard and Brown are the latest institutions to buy Bitcoin. Harvard in particular, has a $116M Bitcoin position through BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust.

A Vanishing Act. CrediX’s team "has disappeared" following a $4.5 million exploit. The team’s last message addressed their community members about the exploit calling them “fam”. Blockchain security firm CertiK notes that the CrediX’s X account and website has been inactive for four days.

LINK Buybacks. Chainlink announced the creation of a LINK reserve last Thursday. The reserve will be funded by protocol generated revenue off-chain and on-chain. The fund has thus far accumulated $1M worth of LINK.

$34M Illicit Crypto Funds Traced. The $34M in crypto funds have been linked to ransomware group Embargo, who has been targeting US-based firms in healthcare, business services and more. $18.8M more in funds remain idle, yet to have been cashed out by the perpetrators.

ICO OG Cashes Out $9.9M in ETH. An Ethereum initial coin offering participant has transferred $9.9M to Kraken crypto exchange, likely cashing out his long-gained gains. Ethereum ICOed in 2014, and launched the ETH token in 2015.

Solana Launchpad Competition Intensifies. New market entrant Bags, has surpassed LetsBonk in weekly revenues. The two now are now close rivals while Pump.fun re-secured the lead.