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Base commemorates one year.
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Universal goes live on Arbitrum.
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Puffer Finance adopts xERC20.
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IRS releases revised Form 1099-DA.
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Base, a layer 2 network by Coinbase built on the OP Stack, has been live for one year. Since opening for all users, Base has surpassed $6 billion in TVL, overtaking OP Mainnet to become the second-largest rollup by locked value. Base has processed over 500 million transactions and generated over 16,000 ETH in sequencer revenue. Throughout the past year, Base has implemented upgrades like EIP-4844, RIP-7212, and enhanced data compression, which have significantly reduced transaction fees. The improvements have brought transaction costs down to as low as $0.01 for most token transfers on the network. To celebrate its first anniversary, Base released a limited-time One Year On Base NFT on Zora.
Universal, a wrapped asset protocol, is now live on Arbitrum. The protocol enables the trading of wrapped versions of non-EVM assets such as SOL, DOGE, and BTC on various chains. Universal uses a mint-and-burn mechanism to address the issues of locked liquidity, without relying on traditional bridging mechanisms. The protocol is operated by Custodians, who custody the the underlying assets, and Merchants, who serve as liquidity providers and facilitate the minting and burning. Universal aims to replicate CEX-level performance and pricing. The protocol is currently in a mainnet beta phase with initial support for 19 assets.
Puffer Finance has adopted the xERC-20 bridge token standard for its liquid restaking token, pufETH. The standard allows for seamless token bridging without requiring multiple representations of the same asset, enabling users to transfer pufETH across chains with minimal slippage. It allows Puffer to support restaking deposits from any chain. xERC-20, also known as ERC-7281, is an extension of the ERC-20 standard. It was developed by the interoperability protocol Everclear (formerly Connext Network). It enables token issuers to manage bridges, set minting limits, and authorize approved bridges to mint the same token representation, allowing protocols to maintain control over their token contracts.
The IRS has issued a revised version of Form 1099-DA, a proposed tax-reporting form that mandates digital asset brokers to report information to the IRS and provide users with a summary of taxes owed. The revision removes the need for detailed information, such as wallet addresses and transaction IDs, to be reported, which were initially required in the first draft. The IRS is open for public comment on the revised draft before it is implemented in 2025.
