Privacy Layer 1 network Swisstronik has announced on social media that it has completed a $5 million seed round of financing. Two investors, Constantin Guggi and Anton Polianski, have joined the team as co-founders and executives.

Matter Labs has launched the zkSync ecosystem portal, managed by DappRadar, with the aim of increasing decentralization, increasing DApp exposure, and providing a gateway for DApps to join.

Chris Rhine, the Managing Director of Galaxy, stated at the "Institutionalization of Digital Assets" roundtable at Token2049 in Singapore: The original cryptocurrency investors are very concerned about decentralization, but when you really want to expand a technology, you need to provide protection for users. My view is that to truly make cryptocurrencies mainstream, more centralization needs to be introduced.

Several Ethereum liquid staking providers, including Rocket Pool, StakeWise, Stader Labs, Diva Staking, and Puffer Finance, have committed to or are in the process of committing to a self-limit rule that promises not to own more than 22% of the Ethereum staking market. This move is aimed at ensuring the decentralization of the Ethereum network. The proposal was put forward by Ethereum core developer Superphiz in May 2022, and the self-limit was set at 22% because at least four major entities would have to collude for the chain to reach finalization.

NFT trading market Rarible announced that it will permanently support royalties, so after September 30th, Rarible will no longer aggregate orders from OpenSea, LooksRare, and X2Y2. Rarible stated that the royalty principle is the core of decentralization, constantly confirming the value of creators in each transaction.

StarkWare tweeted that it is implementing options using StarkWare's Papyrus extension full node to improve decentralization and reduce system redundancy, in line with open source principles and network component diversity.

August 19th, The Yearn community recently proposed a new proposal to launch the complete Yearn V3 system. The proposal will confirm the design specifications of V3 and support its deployment, clarify parameters and initial configurations, provide detailed explanations of the launch and implementation process, and approve governance roles. The V3 system will allow anyone to deploy vaults and strategies without permission.

Lucas Matheson, the director of Coinbase Canada, stated that Canadians are beginning to view digital assets as legitimate assets for everyday transactions, rather than speculative investments. Matheson stated that everyone in the industry is excited about this development, and that in Canada, they are ready to move beyond viewing digital assets as speculative retail investments. This is a movement and a belief in financial democratization.

PayPal's launch of the Ethereum-based stablecoin PYUSD has generated mixed reactions within the crypto community. While it presents an opportunity for Ethereum to gain mainstream adoption, concerns have been raised about potential threats to decentralization and personal asset control. The stablecoin, issued by Paxos Trust Co., aims to facilitate digital payments and Web3 applications. Some view this development as a positive step towards Ethereum becoming the monetary layer of the internet.

Paypal has introduced a new stablecoin named PYUSD, which is based on Ethereum. The crypto community has mixed reactions to this announcement, with some viewing it as a positive step towards Ethereum's mainstream adoption, while others are concerned about its potential impact on decentralization and personal control of assets. PYUSD is designed for digital payments and Web3, and will soon be available to US customers. However, some smart contract auditors have raised concerns about the centralization attack vector in the smart contract, and others have compared it to a censorship-enabled central bank digital currency.