Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly roundup of the most important stories in the development of cryptocurrency technology. I’m Ben Schiller, Opinions and Features Editor at CoinDesk.
In this number:
- Fusion of DAO governance tools
- Ethereum Foundation Drama
- USDh stablecoin comes to Bitcoin
- $25 million grant program for DePIN
Network news
DAO GOVERNANCE PLATFORM ACQUIRES RIVAL: Agora, a blockchain governance startup, will acquire its competitor Boardroom. The company framed the acquisition as a strategic move to improve governance within the broader Ethereum ecosystem, citing expectations of renewed growth in decentralized governance due to President Trump’s promise of regulatory clarity for the blockchain industry. “2025 is the year we make good governance the standard for all protocols on Ethereum,” Agora co-founder Yitong Zhang told CoinDesk. Agora was founded in 2022 by Zhang, Charlie Feng and Kent Fenwick. Initially, the trio began working on governance tools on Nouns DAO, one of the most popular blockchain protocols to emerge from the 2021 DAO and NFT hype cycle. Agora was founded on the premise that token governance is critical to the value of cryptographic protocols. It aims to provide easy-to-use, open source governance tools for DAOs like Uniswap and Optimism, which are currently using Agora to organize token holders and conduct governance voting. Boardroom, which predates Agora and has similar goals, took a more horizontal approach to Blockchain Governance. Boardroom has gradually moved from an Agora-style DAO tool software to a data source, similar to a “Bloomberg” for crypto governance data. Agora declined to disclose how much it paid to acquire Boardroom. Boardroom employees have been offered positions at Agora, and Boardroom founder Kevin Nielsen will remain as an advisor. “There is no plan to disapprove” Boardroom, according to Zhang. Rather, the Agora team will keep both platforms running and work with users to determine how the tools could be gradually integrated. Read more. –Sam Kessler
ETHEREUM Türkiye: Konstantin Lomashuk, the founder of staking protocol Lido, has hinted at his intention to build a “Second Foundation” to advance the Ethereum ecosystem. In recent days, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has outlined plans for a major restructuring of the Ethereum Foundation (EF), the non-profit organization responsible for supporting the development of Ethereum. In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), Buterin shared details of the reorganization, which he said would streamline decision-making processes and address inefficiencies. The announcement has sparked criticism, with some arguing that Buterin’s central role in the restructuring process undermines Ethereum’s spirit of decentralization. The International Monetary Fund has long come under scrutiny for its own centralizing influence. Over the past year, the organization has faced increasing pressure to define a clearer vision for the future of Ethereum as competing networks like Solana move forward. Read more. –Sam Kessler
BITCOIN GETS NEW STABLECOIN: The developers of USDh, a stablecoin built on Bitcoin layer 2 stacks, have completed a deal to bring around $3 million in liquidity to the token. Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Hermetica has secured liquidity, which it says will make it the largest stablecoin on Stacks, through collaboration with Bitcoin lending protocol Zest. The two plan to offer yield in USDh through lending against sBTC, the bitcoin-backed bridge asset that users can use to put their bitcoin wealth into the Stacks ecosystem. The initial liquidity boost could create a near-term window of higher returns, Hermetica said, with projections for an annual percentage yield (APY) of up to 50%. It currently provides an average APY of 18%, Hermetica said in an emailed announcement Wednesday. Stablecoins play an integral role in the crypto economy, providing users with a means to hold their assets in a token that is not prone to such significant ebbs and flows in its value, because they are pegged to a fiat currency (usually the US dollar ). Therefore, the provision of stablecoins would naturally be a major development in Bitcoin’s evolution towards a network that can support DeFi capabilities, a trend that has gained momentum in recent years. However, it is worth noting that the $3 million in liquidity that USDh provides is small compared to the dominant stablecoins in cryptocurrencies. USDT and USDC have market capitalizations of over $138 billion and $51 billion respectively, highlighting the relative infancy of the Bitcoin DeFi sector. Read more. -Jamie Crawley
DEPIN GRANT PROGRAM: World Mobile, a decentralized wireless network, has announced a $25 million grant program aimed at fostering Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) projects. Tenity, an early-stage investor and global leader in startup innovation and acceleration programs, is a partner in the initiative, which will make its six international centers available. “By partnering with Tenity, we ensure that the World Mobile Chain Grant Program not only funds projects but provides the guidance and resources needed to drive scalable and impactful innovation,” said Micky Watkins, CEO of World Mobile Group. The $25 million offers funding starting at $5,000 and focuses on decentralized communications, on-chain governance, and tokenization of real-world assets. World Mobile is an EVM-compatible “Layer 3” developed on Base. Read more.
In other news
L2s are getting faster
Letters of credit for DeFi
Regulation and policy
Calendar
- January 20-24: World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland
- January 21-25: WAGMI conference, Miami.
- January 24-25: Bitcoin Adoption, Cape Town, South Africa.
- January 30-31: PLAN B Forum, San Salvador, El Salvador.
- February 1-6: Satoshi Roundtable, Dubai
- February 19-20, 2025: ConsensusHK, Hong Kong.
- February 23 and 24: NFT Paris
- February 23 to March 2: ETHDenver
- March 18-19: Digital Asset Summit, London
- May 14-16: Consensus, Toronto.
- May 27-29: Bitcoin 2025, Las Vegas.
