The third part of our Glassnode Spotlights series, presenting the most interesting and actionable insights from the Coinbase x Glassnode Q2 Guide to Crypto Markets, explores Ethereum's Evolving Ecosystem - Staking, DeFi, and Derivative Markets.

This year, the factors influencing Bitcoin’s price shifted away from the interest rate narrative when spot Bitcoin ETFs were approved in the US in January. Since then, Bitcoin’s prices have re-aligned with market expectations on interest rates, now that ETF flows have diminished. The Federal Reserve is confronted with a challenging dilemma: it needs to control persistent inflation while also supporting a weakening U.S. economy. Over the long term, this predicament could turn out to be advantageous for Bitcoin.

According to a report on stablecoins released on May 7, Deutsche Bank analyzed 334 currencies linked to stablecoins and found that 49% of stablecoins had failed during their median lifespan of about eight to ten years. The analysts concluded that most anchored assets in the cryptocurrency field will experience significant "turbulence" caused by speculative sentiment and ultimately suffer some form of decoupling event. Deutsche Bank analysts also pointed out that Tether's reserve transparency was lacking and described the company's solvency as "doubtful".

MakerDAO stated on X platform that the supply of DAI increased from $4.4 billion to $5.4 billion within 60 days. In addition to the growth in supply, DAI set a new record in April with on-chain transaction volume reaching $636.72 billion. The Dai Savings Rate (DSR) also showed positive momentum, steadily increasing over the past few months with total deposits exceeding $2 billion last week.

Ripple Labs and the US SEC have made new progress in their legal battle, with the SEC submitting its final reply in the remedies phase of the lawsuit. In response to the recent brief on remedies, the SEC questioned Ripple's claim that the blockchain startup's behavior was not reckless, despite the court previously rejecting this "fair notice" defense, but Ripple's legal status should not have "broad uncertainty". The SEC also questioned whether Ripple might maintain its original position in the future, although Ripple has not violated any rules since the XRP lawsuit was launched in 2020. According to the remedy brief, Ripple attempted to downplay its responsibility while emphasizing its cooperation with the SEC since the XRP ICO in 2013. However, the SEC emphasized that under the law, even if Ripple has not engaged in any violations since 2020, the next violation is still expected to be possible. (Cointelegraph)

Jack Dorsey's financial technology company, Block (formerly known as Square), announced on May 6th that it plans to issue $1.5 billion in preferred notes to qualified institutional investors through private placement.

LayerZero Labs announced that it has been working with Chaos Labs and Nansen to compile a witch detection report. They will consider the total weighted transactions of each user in all LayerZero applications to ensure consistency between TGE, developers, and long-term users. The report will be released after the deadline for self-reporting witches.

Germany's state-owned development bank Kredittanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW) plans to issue a blockchain digital bond with a minimum size of 100 million euros. Insiders revealed that the bond is expected to mature on December 31, 2025. KfW is reportedly in discussions with European institutional investors during the preparation phase over the next few weeks to allow investors time to become familiar with the transaction. The transaction is expected to be completed in the summer.

Bryan Pellegrino, co-founder and CEO of LayerZero, stated on social media that the "Self-Report Sybil Activity" is not targeting individual users, but rather large industrial witch farms (studios).Earlier, LayerZero Labs launched the "Self-Report Sybil Activity" plan, which allows witch addresses to self-report related addresses on a designated page and receive an expected allocation of 15%, without answering any questions. The deadline is May 17th, 19:59:59.

According to Spot On Chain monitoring, MakerDAO has been depositing MKR into CEX. Two hours ago, the multi-signature wallet 0xbba (possibly MakerDAO) deposited 750 MKR (approximately $2.19 million) at an average price of $2920 to Binance.