This is not news.

Most of us know that every time we consume web content, we’re getting ripped off. The economic model of Web2 is based on the value of our attention. The deal with the devil we do with social media platforms is we give them that—plus all the personal data about what we like and who we are—and in exchange, we get user-created entertainment, information, and a place to hang out with our friends and family.

Help is on the way.

Since we announced our pending merger, Decrypt and Rug Radio have outlined our plan to create a media ecosystem that benefits consumers, publishers, and advertisers—not just the platform. Last week, Decrypt Media Inc. announced the first leg of that journey: Content+, a groundbreaking application designed to transform how our more than 5 million users interact with digital content across our ecosystem, which includes Rug Radio, Decrypt news, GG, Scene, Emerge, Decrypt U, and Degen Alley.

Open to beta users in May, and available as a browser extension and a Progressive Web App (PWA), Content+ aims to disrupt the Web2 content consumption landscape by rewarding user engagement and enhancing content discoverability.

Content+ is crafted to increase user interactions with our diverse content offerings, from in-depth articles to immersive courses. By integrating a universal tracking system, the application monitors and rewards users for their engagement across various platforms, including Decrypt’s own domain and third-party social networks including YouTube, TikTok, X, Threads, and, well, you name it.

The innovative features of Content+ include:

• Quests and Streaks: Users can complete specific actions to earn points and receive additional rewards for continuous engagement, fostering a habit of regular content interaction.

• Points Shop: A rewards catalog offers users the chance to redeem their points for exclusive content, partner products, and event tickets, enhancing the value of every interaction.

• Points Swap: This feature allows users to convert their engagement points into tokens, adding a layer of flexibility and investment in the DASTAN ecosystem.

• Content Recommendation: Leveraging user data, Content+ provides personalized content recommendations, ensuring users are constantly engaged with relevant and captivating material.

• Leaderboard and Competitions: A competitive edge is added with user rankings and seasonal competitions, promoting a community-driven approach to content engagement.

How does this work? Let’s say you watch the Rug Radio X Space FOMO Hour, or you fire up watch a GG video on YouTube or read an article on Decrypt or mint a Frame on Farcaster. If you’ve loaded our Content+ browser extension or are using our PWA, you’ll amass credits that will be redeemable for money. 

Designed with the user experience in mind, Content+ operates seamlessly in the background, whether on mobile devices or desktops, without interrupting the user's content consumption journey. A unified dashboard, accessible via desktop and optimized for mobile through a PWA, provides users with a comprehensive view of their engagement, points, and available quests and rewards.

Decrypt Media Inc. has set clear objectives for Content+, aiming to boost user engagement, drive traffic growth, and enhance conversion rates across the Rug+Decrypt ecosystem (aka DASTAN). The success of this innovative application will be measured by significant metrics, including increases in time spent on content, interaction with recommended and featured articles, and the volume of tokens earned by users.

"This application is more than just a tool; it's a commitment to our users, offering them a more rewarding and personalized content experience while enhancing the value of our ecosystem," said Loxley Fernandes, CEO of DASTAN.

Want to join us? You can sign up for the beta, which will be rolling out in May, here.

The Natively Digital collection was designed as a deep dive into the world of the NFT-like Ordinals on Bitcoin, and contained notable early inscriptions. In addition to the inscription, the buyer of “Cord” will also receive a signed print of the poem.

Michael Bouhanna, VP and Head of Digital Art at Sotheby’s, tweeted this week that “Cord” is the first-ever individual poem sold by the 280-year-old auction house, not including manuscripts and books.

The significance of the Sotheby's auction for "Cord" was not lost on Caballero, who called it an opportunity to affirm written poetry's inherent worth.

“It's an incredible opportunity to make a statement that words and language and poetry have value on [their] own,” Caballero told Decrypt after the sale. “Not with anything else attached, not with visuals, not with sound, not with any other kind of experience. Just the language of the poem, just the text of it, is what was sold.”

"Cord" will feature in Caballero’s upcoming book Mammal. Other artists in the Natively Digital auction included FAR, XCPinata, Nullish, Rudxane, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Popoki, Shroomtoshi, Des Lucréce, and Claudia Hart. One inscription tied to the “Quantum Cats” collection sold for over $250,000.

“I was in touch with Michael Bouhanna from Sotheby's because he wanted to put together a sale for Ordinals. I thought the curatorial theme should be about archeology in the blockchain,” FAR told Decrypt on Twitter. “So I thought having a poem would be interesting, and I invited Ana.”

In her writing career, Caballero has won several awards, including the Beverly International and José Manuel Arango National Poetry Prizes. Along with Kalen Iwamoto and Sasha Stiles, Caballero launched the digital poetry and NFT gallery theVerseverse in 2021.

In August, theVerseverse collaborated with the Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles to create an exhibition that combined Ginsberg’s photograph with AI-generated poetry. While “Muses & Self: Photographs by Allen Ginsberg” mimicked the Beat Generation icon's style, the display drew mixed reactions from the poetry community.

“Ana explores the influence of biology on societal and cultural rituals,” Sotheby’s wrote on Twitter. “Her work unveils the reality behind romanticized motherhood, challenging the narrative of sacrifice as a virtue.”

As Caballero explained, “Cord” is written in a style of poetry called a villanelle. A villanelle is a poem with 19 lines and five stanzas, similar to a paragraph with three lines each and one stanza with four lines. A villanelle uses two repeated rhymes and two lines used multiple times.

“I love that value statement for poetry, and for verse, especially because this is a poem about motherhood; it's about pregnancy, about the body, about embodiment,” Caballero said. “So it's even more meaningful in what tends to be a very male-dominated space,” she said, adding that the auction for “Cord” received over 40 bids.

Caballero said she chose to participate in the project using a centuries-old poetic form to "pay homage to the technically complex chain that is Bitcoin, you know, that launched it all.”

The company now estimates that 94% of investors are in the money, meaning they've got an unrealized gain on their Bitcoin holdings. Another 6% have seen BTC return to the price it was at when they bought into the market.

ITB estimates the average cost at which BTC was purchased by investors. But it is just an estimate. There's likely a handful of investors who bought in at or near the very top—Bitcoin's all-time high of $64,899 in November 2021—and are waiting for the world's oldest and largest cryptocurrency to reclaim it.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin price is sitting at $50,107.15, a 4% increase from this time yesterday and a hefty 17% gain from this time last week, according to CoinGecko data. All the bullish price action has brought the BTC market capitalization to $982 billion as of Tuesday morning.

That means the BTC market cap is roughly three times the size of Ethereum's $318 billion market cap. It's a distinction that Bitcoin only recently re-established in October last year, when momentum started to build for a spot Bitcoin ETF approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

There's at least some evidence that the 11 Bitcoin ETFs that were approved last month have helped propel BTC past the $50,000 mark, according to a report yesterday from European digital asset manager CoinShares.

Just over $1 billion worth of assets flowed into crypto funds last week, according to the firm. The overwhelming majority of the deposits, 98%, went into Bitcoin-focused funds. The rest was mostly accounted for by Ethereum (ETH) and Cardano (ADA) funds.

Meanwhile, the global crypto market capitalization has gotten very close to reclaiming the $2 trillion mark. It hasn't been that high since April 2022, according to CoinGecko data.

Overnight, activity on the network increased exponentially, dramatically broadening its reach. That growth caught many in the industry by surprise—including Farcaster’s leadership. 

“We thought it was going to be popular,” Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero told Decrypt of the protocol’s new, wildly popular Frames feature. “I don't think we thought it would be this popular.”

Frames, launched with little fanfare by Romero and his team on January 26, allow users of apps on the Farcaster network to perform numerous functions within social media feeds—like playing games, making online purchases, and minting NFTs—without having to exit the app for a third party.

Farcaster, which was founded by Romero and his fellow Coinbase alum Varun Srinivasan in 2020, has long catered primarily to hardcore tech nerds and crypto-savvy developers. While some perceived that niche appeal as a liability, Romero now believes it was key to the company’s current success. 

“That was actually a critique of Farcaster up until two weeks ago: it's too nerdy, [there are] too many developers,” Romero said. “Well, it turns out when you launch a simple primitive, give [users] permissionless access to distribution, and people can actually code, you get some pretty amazing results.” 

The unexpected resonance of Frames not just with developers, but also with general audiences, has single-handedly upended Farcaster’s business development strategy. Romero used to think large user bases attract developers. Now he’s starting to see things the other way around.

“Maybe two months ago, we were under the impression that we needed to grow daily active users in order to attract developers,” Romero said. “I think what's changed with Frames is we found something that is allowing developers to get distribution to find their initial 1,000 or 10,000 users, and that is also driving growth for the protocol.”

What’s next for Frames? Romero wants to double down on bringing the feature even more on-chain. Currently, some Frames permit minting NFTs and other blockchain-backed activity, while others involve off-chain actions like ordering cookies or subscribing to newsletters. Romero says eventually, he wants to turn all Frames tasks completely crypto-native.

Crucially, though, the founder believes it's imperative to keep Frames simple. The feature currently consists of one image, four buttons, and—as of a few days ago—a box for text inputs.

Independent developers have seized on those elements to create a plethora of innovations; for example, one new Frame generates AI-powered art based on a written prompt, and mints that image as an NFT—all within a user’s social media feed.

Romero thinks limited flexibility has been key to breeding such innovative experiments. 

“Constraints breed creativity,” he said. “I think creating too much complexity makes it less intuitive for users.”

Farcaster, which was built on the Optimism superchain, currently supports only Ethereum-compatible on-chain activity. Within the next week, however, the protocol will expand support to Solana. 

Per Romero, Farcaster’s ultimate goal is to attract one billion daily users. To achieve that lofty aim, he says, the company will continue to cater to developers, and follow them to any network they believe will improve Farcaster.  

“If we're focused on onboarding that next billion, you're just going to give the freedom to developers—to choose what wallet, on what chain, and how they want to go about it,” he said.

"In German we say Verwüstung, they have left a trail of destruction behind them," a verified CoinFLEX creditor told Decrypt, "From CoinFLEX to 3AC and to things like this. It's a mess!"

The creditor met with Decrypt and provided proof of their claims against CoinFLEX, but asked not to be named because of ongoing legal matters.

The Open Exchange, or OPNX, led by CEO Mark Lamb and co-founded by crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital co-founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, announced it was ceasing operations last week. That set off a wave of vindication among CoinFLEX board members and creditors.

CoinFLEX was the previous venture of Lamb, Zhu, and Davies. When it controversially "rebranded" to OPNX, creditors say they were left with no power in the new company.

Those involved with the previous venture have been watching the OPNX news unfold with a keen eye. Already Zhu and Davies have moved onto OX.Fun, a gamified crypto derivatives platform, as advisors. It uses OX, the same native token as OPNX.

"As an advisor of OX.Fun, I’m very excited to see what the team is building with $OX." Davies told Decrypt, "Mark is not involved in OX.Fun in any capacity."

He did not comment on whether CoinFLEX funds were used to create OPNX, claims that CoinFLEX creditors and board members were left out of the rebranding, or respond to the creditors’ claim that the group have left a "trail of destruction" behind them.

But then, there are ongoing legal claims from the new CoinFLEX board against OPNX.

Meanwhile, OPNX investors are following the 3AC co-founder to turn the OX token into a memecoin—with full support of Zhu and Davies.

"They think it's the greatest fun in the world," the unnamed verified CoinFLEX creditor said. "But, OX.Fun is just the reincarnation of OPNX."

Calling themselves the "Herd," CoinFLEX creditors say the investors faithfully following the 3AC co-founders to their next ventures are ignoring their track record.

"I feel sorry for those guys," the unnamed CoinFLEX creditor said. "I think it's about education too. Because when I ask people on the forums, who are you trading with? They don't know. One guy told me that they don't believe in due diligence. Maybe some of those guys should be punished."

What CoinFLEX left behind

Despite rebranding, the CoinFLEX company still exists—albeit without Lamb, who was ousted just a few months ago.

What remains is a group of disgruntled and confused individuals who believe the law has been broken throughout this process, according to Kirill Gourov, a CoinFLEX board member and partner at Kraken Ventures.

"People who commit crimes should go to jail and my opinion is that these people are committing crimes," Gourov told Decrypt. "Mark moved from Dubai to Hong Kong after the VARA fines came out. He moved out of HK and, to my knowledge, hasn't been back since before we were appointed. He even admitted in an email that he has personal risk in coming back, when he tried requesting personal compensation and additional funding from creditors. This isn't the behavior of honest people."

As a result, the new board has ongoing legal actions which are "not changing at all" due to the recent OPNX news, said Gourov. Instead, the news is a "vindication" of their claims against the group.

"There's nothing wrong with creating new companies," he added. "But perpetuating a grift using corporate games is a much different matter and we hope authorities are taking note."

The current CoinFLEX board's initial plan was to "revive the company," but they have since had to shift their focus on "untangling the mess left behind."

Despite this, the unnamed creditor claims the new board's communication has been worse than the previous.

"The creditor group is also very large, so we can't discuss legal strategy with 1,000 people and still maintain an edge." Gourov told Decrypt, "We want to do better with updates and are working towards it, but Mark has refused to hand over CoinFLEX assets like the website, etc. We'll get it back eventually and use it as a proper information portal hopefully soon."

The verified creditors' primary issue is that they have received no official correspondence, just "one post in a small Telegram group." But, Gourov claims this is due to Lamb not handing over creditors emails, being "not very well staffed", and prioritizing the clean up.

What happened last time

Prior to OPNX, Mark Lamb founded CoinFLEX in 2019. By 2022, the project was struggling. So Lamb looked to Zhu and Davies for help. At the time, they had just seen their crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) collapse and file for bankruptcy.

CoinFLEX later froze withdrawals. The company said this due to investor Roger Ver defaulting on a "written manual margin agreement." Ver denies the claim. This resulted in a restructuring of the company, approved by the Seychelles Court.

The unnamed CoinFLEX creditor claims to have lost "low five digits" during this time.

Shortly after, CoinFLEX was rebranded to OPNX. But this "rebrand" kicked the CoinFLEX board and creditors out, leaving them with no power in the new exchange.

"It turned out that there was never a rebrand." Gourov, told Decrypt. "Coinflex assets were shifted to or used by OPNX, an entirely separate company, without any oversight."

Again: Another detail that Davies was asked about, but declined to comment on.

Meanwhile, the CoinFLEX board and creditors believe Lamb and the 3AC co-founders used CoinFLEX funds to cover 3AC legal fees, hire for OPNX, and pay for a photoshoot in Dubai.

https://x.com/CoinFLEXreal/status/1717496736501887177?s=20

OPNX, Mark Lamb, and Su Zhu did not immediately reply to Decrypt's request for comment. This article will be updated if they respond. Kyle Davies refused to comment on anything other than OX.Fun.

Eigenlayer, an Ethereum layer 2 protocol that allows staked ether (ETH) to be "restaked" to provide security for other blockchains, has seen its total value locked (TVL) nearly double after temporarily lifting a cap that was initially put in place to prevent the network from becoming too centralized.

According to data site DeFiLlama, Eigenlayer's TVL jumped from $2.16 billion to $3.84 billion in just 24 hours after the protocol removed caps for certain types of tokens on Monday. The surge was fueled mainly by stETH, a liquid staking token issued by Lido that accounted for $560 million of the new deposits.

Eigenlayer introduced the caps last year as a way to prevent any single token from dominating the network. Rather than issuing its own tokens, the protocol relies on an open marketplace where validators can choose which services to help secure.

"In a totally neutral protocol, it is possible that a single token dominates the protocol and undermines decentralization," Eigenlayer explained in a blog post announcing their original posture. "This could lead to the market for programmable trust being subverted by a single counterparty... which would have the power to pick AVS winners and losers, or engage in other harmful activities."

The protocol resumed token restaking yesterday, along with suspending the 200 Ethereum (ETH)—or about $475,000—cap for a week-long run. However, the team said they hope to eventually remove the caps permanently to "invite organic demand," while introducing new limits to prevent any token or participant, such as an exchange, from controlling more than 33% of governance.

Eigenlayer is part of a growing trend of "shared security" protocols that are putting Ethereum's $34 billion in staked ETH to work securing other chains. Users deposit staked ETH or liquid staking tokens into Eigenlayer's smart contracts, allowing them to earn extra rewards for taking on risk. This also gives newer projects instant economic security without having to bootstrap their own networks of validators and hardware.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has praised the idea, but simultaneously warned that some implementations could overload the base chain.

"We should be wary of application-layer projects taking actions that risk increasing the ‘scope’ of blockchain consensus to anything other than verifying the core Ethereum protocol rules," he wrote last year. "We should... preserve the chain's minimalism, support uses of re-staking that do not look like slippery slopes to extending the role of Ethereum consensus, and help developers find alternate strategies to achieve their security goals."

Proponents say, however, that Eigenlayer strikes a good balance by remaining blockchain-agnostic. The concept earned the protocol $50 million in Series A funding last March.

Ethereum's transition to proof-of-stake has led to an explosion of centralized and decentralized services for earning yield on staked coins. With its mainnet launch slated for later this year, the protocol is positioning itself to capitalize on the booming interest in staking.

Many investors are now using platforms like Eigenlayer to "restake" tokens they've already locked up, compounding their rewards. But as Buterin articulated, it is also raising concerns about unintended consequences.

For now, tens of millions of dollars continue to flow into Eigenlayer daily. The team says they will reimpose a temporary cap on Friday, Feb. 9, as they continue to explore ways to achieve "a reasonable balance between the dual priorities of neutrality and decentralization." What happens next will be up to the protocol community.

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