Ethereum Wins! 🎉 + 4 Top Revenue Producing Coins 📈

This week, the SEC dropped its case against Consensys. In doing so, they declared ETH a non-security.

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* Good morning my tasty homies. Mad Mike here with an exceptionally tasty update.  But first, here's where we ended the week:   Bitcoin (BTC): -4.7% Ethereum (ETH): -8.5% Solana (SOL): -4% Cases Gensler brought against crypto firms: 96 The great Roman orator Cicero once said, "Indecision is the thief of opportunity."   If indecision is indeed the thief of opportunity, then the SEC has robbed the American people of unprecedented opportunity.    In blockchain, things move fast—faster than they've moved in any other sector before. And for a while, America was behind the helm.    But then things got held up in miles of red tape and years of indecision, that great thief of opportunity.   Under the guise of 'protecting investors, ' the SEC has done everything in its power (and a few things outside its power) to hamper growth within the crypto community. Amongst a million other mild annoyances, it has aggressively pursued legal action against crypto leaders such as Uniswap, Coinbase, and Consensys.    But…we have a win. I never thought the day would come, but on Tuesday the SEC, very quietly, raised a big white flag in their battle with Consensys.   Ethereum is NOT A SECURITY.    This week, we'll examine what this means and then explore a few top revenue-producing coins in the DeFi space you can invest in today. Consensys WINS I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something incredibly unsettling about Gary Gensler's smug grin whenever someone asks him about the status of Ethereum. Is it a commodity? Is it a security? The livelihood of hundreds of thousands of workers is contingent upon what he says. Control over the next iteration of the internet, Web3, hangs in the balance of this man's words. Yet, he flashes that unsettling grin and responds with gibberish completely unrelated to the question, as though he's back in the classroom.  But this week, the SEC finally gave up.    The conclusion of the SECs seemingly perpetual battle with Ethereum ended not with a bang, but with a whimper.    Here's how we found out:  This decision was announced by Consensys, an Ethereum development studio. The SEC likely dropped the case against the studio due to the difficulty of proving Ethereum is a security, especially after approving spot Ether ETFs, to avoid an embarrassing court defeat. 😳 What Does This Mean? This is fantastic news for every participant in the crypto market. Here are a few reasons why:   For Developers: Innovation Boost: The end of the SEC investigation frees up Ethereum developers to innovate without the looming threat of legal repercussions, fostering growth in Ethereum and related technologies. For Investors: Investment Growth: With reduced regulatory uncertainty, Ethereum becomes a more attractive option for both individual and institutional investors, encouraging further market participation. For the Crypto Industry: Precedent Setting: This decision sets a positive precedent for other cryptocurrencies facing similar regulatory scrutiny, potentially influencing future SEC actions. So now that we know Ethereum is NOT a security, DeFi projects just got a lot tastier. Here are a few I'm keeping an eye on.👇   1. Lido (LDO) Lido is a behemoth in the DeFi world. It is the go-to decentralized application for staking crypto, mainly Ethereum. This protocol consistently ranks #1 for total value locked across all the thousands of DeFi protocols. Total value locked (TVL) simply means the total amount of money people have put into a DeFi (decentralized finance) platform. High TVL = High Trust. Lido is an on-chain staking service, which means everything is open and transparent. Sure, you can stake crypto with centralized exchanges like Coinbase and Binance, but how can you guarantee they hold your crypto 1x1? You can't.   If I've taken anything away from the FTX disaster, it's…. Most importantly, Lido makes money. Real money. 👇 The institutional adoption of Lido's liquid staking derivative, stETH, has steadily pushed up TVL over the past quarter, increasing revenue. Last quarter alone, Lido brought in $28 million in revenue—a 46% increase from the previous quarter.    Personally, I find LDO extremely tasty. 🍒 Buy LDO 2. MakerDAO (MKR) MakerDAO is a decentralized blockchain protocol that enables users to lend and borrow cryptocurrencies without intermediaries. It also operates as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Created in 2014, MakerDAO runs on the Ethereum blockchain.   MKR, the native token behind the protocol, has been on a tear over the past year.  This rally is certainly justified, and the token may just be undervalued. Look at Maker's gross interest revenue in the first few months of 2024 alone 👇 That's a hell of a good start. MakerDAO is doing well due to stakeholder-focused updates, new stablecoins, and profitable crypto-backed loans. Raising the debt ceiling for DAI allocations to $1 billion also enhanced yield opportunities.   What excites me most is the protocol's budding relationship with Ethena. This partnership is expected to further diversify its assets and strengthen its market position in the DeFi space.    A beautiful setup for the 3rd coin on our list. 👇 Buy MKR 3. Ethena (ENA) We've talked a lot about Ethena over the past few months. Check out our video on the subject to get up to speed. 👇 Ethena is a DeFi protocol that offers high yields by tokenizing a hedge fund strategy. It introduces USDe, a synthetic dollar with stability, scalability, and censorship resistance. Instead of over-collateralizing, Ethena uses a delta-neutral strategy, hedging Ethereum collateral with perpetual futures, generating returns from funding rates, and staking Ethereum.   And the protocol prints money. They've brought in over $25m in revenue in the last month alone.   Investors can both directly and indirectly invest in the protocol.    ENA is the native token of Ethena, which has thus far underwhelmed: Another less volatile way to actively participate in the protocol is to buy staked Ethena (sUSDe). This token slowly accumulates in value as the protocol collects fees from its perpetual arbitrage trade, as shown below. 👇 Buy ENA / sUSDe 4. Aerodrome (AERO) Aerodrome is a relative newcomer to the DeFi space. This DEX was built on BASE, the Layer 2 network launched last year by Coinbase. Aerodrome is the most popular exchange that Base users to trade on.    Since its launch last fall, Aerodrome has secure ~600m in TVL. The Ethereum Dencun upgrade, which dramatically reduced fees on all layer 2s, has helped to significantly grow revenues at Aerodrome.  But it's too early to say whether Aerodrome will be the predominant DEX behind Base. It's also too early to tell whether Base will be around forever. But it's here now, and I like both the protocol and the layer two.    Active users of Aerodome appear to be slowing down a touch, but not more so than the overall cooldown in the crypto market at large.  Buy AERO That's it for me. Peas out, tasty world.  - Mad Mike PS - Hit me up on Twitter, and I'll answer any question about any topic on your mind. I'm very prolific.  Contact |  Blog  |   Learn If you no longer want to receive our communications, please click here. tastycrypto is provided solely by tasty Software Solutions, LLC. tasty Software Solutions, LLC is a separate but affiliate company of tastylive, Inc. and tastytrade, Inc. 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