The first week of September was marked by significant events in the crypto industry, including the launch of the WLFI token, Gemini's IPO, and various issues in DeFi.
WLFI Launch and Its Aftermath
World Liberty Financial (WLFI) launched its token on major exchanges at a price of $0.20. On its first day, the token generated over $60 million in trading volume. However, the project made headlines by blacklisting an address linked to key investor Justin Sun, resulting in the freezing of 595 million WLFI tokens worth about $107 million.
Gemini IPO on the Horizon
Gemini, the exchange led by the Winklevoss twins, announced plans to go public with a valuation target of $2.2 billion. The plan includes listing 16.7 million Class A shares on the Nasdaq under the ticker 'GEMI.' Leading the process are Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Cantor.
DeFi Troubles and Other Events
September 2 proved challenging for DeFi. Venus Protocol suffered a phishing attack that drained around $27 million, while Bunni disclosed a vulnerability exploited for $8.4 million. Additionally, Polymarket received approval from the CFTC to operate in the U.S., and StarkNet faced an outage a day after a major upgrade.
The first week of September demonstrated that the cryptocurrency market continues to evolve despite challenges, with both WLFI's future and Gemini's IPO drawing significant interest from investors and traders.
