Pyth Network has introduced the second phase of its token airdrop initiative, targeting 167 dApps that have integrated with its oracle network.

Eligible dApps, relying on Pyth’s price data for various protocol operations, will collectively receive 100 million PYTH governance tokens, valued at approximately $47 million. Notable recipients include Synthetix, Mango Markets, Bonfida, Helium, and PancakeSwap, spanning diverse DeFi use cases.

This move follows Pyth's phase one retrospective airdrop in November, which targeted over 75,000 wallets based on on-chain activity across 27 blockchains and 200 dApps. The phase one snapshot was revised for greater inclusivity, expanding eligibility to over 90,000 wallets and allocating a total of 255 million PYTH tokens.

The purpose of these airdrops is to encourage on-chain governance participation, facilitating Pyth Network's evolution towards a permissionless, decentralized mainnet. PYTH tokens, native to the Solana blockchain, have witnessed over a 45% increase in value since their launch on November 20, 2023, currently trading at $0.47. As the token distribution continues, Pyth Network reinforces its commitment to fostering a robust and engaged decentralized application ecosystem.

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NFT Pass Champions League Tickets⚽️

Mastercard has rolled out an innovative NFT-powered soccer trivia game, enhancing fan engagement during the 2023/2024 UEFA Champions League.

Set to commence 30 minutes prior to Tuesday night matches, starting February 13, the competition enables Mastercard customers to earn match tickets by showcasing their knowledge on the league through the company's new "Pass to Priceless" platform. Branded NFT passes, integral to participation, are minted on Polygon, an Ethereum scaling network.

Developed by crypto payments firm MoonPay, in collaboration with MoonPay's Otherlife creative agency, the trivia game allows players to answer questions related to Champions League history and statistics. Winners of each round ascend a season-long leaderboard, with the ultimate prize being tickets to the Champions League Final at Wembley Stadium in London for the top player after the April 30 semi-finals.

As a 30-year partner of the UEFA Champions League, Mastercard aims to leverage its Web3 platform to tap into the enduring passion football fans have for the game. The trivia contest is accessible to Mastercard cardholders in various countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Brazil, and will run until the June 1 final. This strategic move reinforces Mastercard's commitment to integrating NFTs and Web3 technologies into mainstream experiences, showcasing their dedication to innovative fan interactions.

EigenLayer $6bn TVL Post Lifting Staking Cap🔓

EigenLayer's Total Value Locked (TVL) has skyrocketed to nearly $6 billion as its uncapped deposits window nears completion.

This amounts to approximately 2.3 million ether, equivalent to about 2% of Ethereum's total circulating supply. EigenLayer now ranks among the top five DeFi protocols by TVL, surpassing Uniswap and trailing Lido, Maker, Aave, and JustLend.

The project lifted the latest deposit cap of 200,000 ether ($500 million) temporarily, with plans for a permanent removal to foster a permissionless, decentralized environment.

EigenLayer allows users to restake ether via liquid staking tokens, securing third-party networks and earning rewards. The move aimed to boost organic demand, attracting users for potential Eigen token airdrops.

Solana 5-Hour Network Outage⛔️

The Solana network recently experienced a significant outage lasting approximately five hours, with service resuming after a successful upgrade to version 1.17.20.

The Solana network recently endured a five-hour outage, during which the Layer 1 network went dark before restarting. According to an incident report, block production resumed at 14:57 UTC after a successful upgrade to v1.17.20 and a cluster restart by validator operators. Engineers are closely monitoring performance as network operations are restored, with a root cause report forthcoming.

Matthew Sigel, Head of digital assets research at VanEck, attributed the failure to the "Berkley Packet Filter" mechanism used to deploy upgrades and execute programs on Solana. This mechanism, linked to a previous Solana Improvement Proposal (SMID), underwent alterations, including the addition of a blocker to prevent unnecessary metadata use in the BPF.

The disruption initially prompted investigations at 10:22 UTC, halting block progression and transaction processing. After two hours of attempts to resolve the issue, Solana Status announced that engineers were preparing a new validator software release to address the problem.

This incident marks a notable disruption for Solana, which had previously faced a "Major Outage" in February 2023. On that occasion, the blockchain was offline for a few hours before being successfully restored after two restart attempts.

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