WhiteboardCrypto Newsletter - Feb 3

Welcome back to this week's edition of our WhiteboardCrypto Newsletter!

CeFi Customers Get Paid

The now-defunct centralized crypto lending platform Celsius began paying back users this week. At the same time, the notoriously defunct centralized exchange FTX’s repayment plan was approved and it looks like users will be getting a full return, based on the value of their assets at the time the exchange went down.

Learn more here.

Crypto Inflow Soars

Solana saw the most new addresses in Jan 2024 than any month before, hitting 12 million. Likewise, active addresses on zkSync Era bumped up almost 20% this week, beating Arbitrum. Lastly, Jupiter, the new decentralized exchange aggregator on Solana, airdropped their new JUP token, which hit a record $1.38 billion in trading volume in the first 24 hours.

Metamask Users Can Sell Crypto Directly to Visa

Centralized exchanges (CEXes) have been a major problem for many crypto users. Not only do they often go bankrupt, they also have been used as scams, and even if they are legit, they charge fees that some people consider exorbitant. But they are a convenient way - and until recently the only way - to on- and off-board between fiat and crypto. Many wallets and decentralized exchanges have started allowing users to purchase crypto directly on them, but there wasn’t a way to “cash out” to fiat without going through a CEX. Now, Visa will allow Metamask users in 145 countries to exchange crypto to fiat directly to a Visa debit card.

Learn more here.

Farcaster Launches New Feature, Gets Big Attention

One of the most popular “SocialFi” platforms that many people have shifted to after X’s recent debacles has launched a new features called Frames. This allows users to embed interactive “experiences” into a post (called “casts”), such as minting NFTs, playing games, and more. While this means we have to be careful what we click on, this is also a big step forward for having a more inclusive, accessible social platform.

Learn more here.

Thanks for reading and I hope you learned something!

- Theodore