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- 🟣 Markets seeing red after Japanese exchange hack
🟣 Markets seeing red after Japanese exchange hack
Trademarking “ZK”? How about “USD”?
Macauley Peterson
May 31, 2024
Welcome back to 0xResearch – quick hitting alpha for the crypto degens. Here's what we got for you today:
A new $300 million hack
Trademarking token names
Near far from done
CT: Memes as “onboarding”
Bitcoin has been under substantial sell pressure, following equity markets lower, to start US trading hours. This comes alongside the disclosure of a Japanese crypto exchange hack of 4,500 BTC, worth north of $300 million.
In the past four hours, bitcoin is off -2.9%, while the S&P and Nasdaq have shed -0.6% and -1.6%, respectively.
Some $4.7 billion of BTC options open interest expires today out of a total of $19 billion, according to Luuk Strijers, CEO of options exchange Deribit. Max pain for options traders is at $66,000, while some 3,500 $70,000 strike calls are at risk of expiring worthless.
Based on the negative Put-Call skew, traders are positioned for a bearish start to June, Strijers said.
What’s in a name?
Proponents of zero-knowledge proof tech are in a tizzy over a trademark attempt.
Matter Labs, developers of zkSync, have pending applications to trademark “ZK” in Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Israel, Mexico, Philippines, Singapore, Switzerland and the USA, data from the World Intellectual Property Organization shows.
The company has also filed for trademark protection of “ZK Sync,” “ZK Credo,” and “ZK Quest,” so it’s perhaps unsurprising they’re trying to cover all the bases when it comes to their brand name.
But representatives from StarkWare, Polygon and Polyhedra allege the move is a bid to “further cement [Matter Labs’] claim over an entire technology that they played no role in creating.”
That sounds like hyperbole, but there is a point to arguing that “ZK” is too generic to warrant trademark protection.
Matter Labs CEO Alex Gluchowski counters that trademarks “exist to protect users, not companies” and that the application is purely “defensive” in nature.
In other words, Matter Labs has no intention to go after companies with “ZK” in their names, so long as they are not confusing consumers.
The application is fairly broad, covering three categories (known in Trademark Law as Nice Classes). There is one for information technology, another covering financial services, and a third encompassing professionals in design and the development of computer software.
Meanwhile, Matter Labs’ competitors are milking the prima facie case for malign intent to make marketing mascarpone ahead of zkSync’s rumored token launch.
The test will be what happens if the trademark is granted.
If, as the critics say, the aim is “to convince exchanges to allow [Matter Labs] to register a token under the ticker name ZK,” then it seems entirely sensible to reduce the risk of others launching a “ZK” token, which would legitimately be confusing.
Speaking of which, an essay by a partner at venture firm NFX suggests the US Treasury should go after the trademark for “USD.” That would give them leverage to define what a digital dollar should be, the argument goes.
I wonder what the “zealous proponents of the libertarian, cypherpunk ethos” think about that one?
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New Near wallets:
For a chain with disparate narratives from AI to ZK research, Near has posted some impressive, yet largely unheralded, growth numbers.
With the caveat that individual metrics like transaction counts and TVL are frequently gamed, Near proponents point to several apps built on the chain that have gained real traction, like KaiKai in Singapore, Sweat Economy, and more recently the Hot MPC wallet.
As crypto markets have ranged lower, Near’s apparent usership has been steadily up and to the right for six months.
On May 1, Aave Labs introduced two Temp Checks on the Aave Governance forum: Aave V4 and Aave 2030. These proposals outline a vision for several substantial innovations and iterations to the Aave Protocol, and seek to engage the community for discussion and feedback on the roadmap. These changes aim to improve capital efficiency, enhance chain abstraction, and support the adoption of Aave’s GHO stablecoin. At large, the proposed changes seek to both defend Aave’s incumbent position as the premier onchain money market, but also position the protocol to remain competitive for the years to come.
Optimism's OP Stack has shown strong signs of adoption throughout 2024, thanks to breakout consumer apps like Farcaster and Zora. Upon completion of the Superchain roadmap, Optimism should continue to attract more developers and users.
DMM Bitcoin said customer bitcoin deposits “will be fully guaranteed” in the wake of the hack.
The Bitdeer share issuance generated $100 million in gross proceeds and could provide $50 million more.
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The insights, views and outlooks presented in the report are not to be taken as financial advice. Blockworks Research analysts are not registered broker/dealers or financial advisors. Blockworks Research analysts may hold assets mentioned in this report, further outlined in the Firm’s Financial Disclosures.
