Was it all about the friends we made along the way?

When the market pumps, we all rejoice in the glory and boast about our gains. But it’s when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. So, that’s where the title of this week’s newsletter comes from. Because the gains don’t last forever, only the friends we made along the way last.

TL;DR last week in Web3 Wednesdays:

1. Massive market crash & complete chaos
2. Terra UST de-pegged, Luna lost over 50%
3. El Salvador buys the dip
4. Last week in Ethereum
5. Bankless Youtube channel suspended
6. Google dips feet in web3 pool
7. Learn Web3 DAO
8. Web3 Developer Updates

          Terra Tragedy

First and foremost, the last couple of nights were full of terror. The whole crypto market capitulated in this last week. From BTC hitting as low as $30k and ETH crossing the lower bar of $2300 to the series of liquidations. But that’s not even the biggest news this week. This week was all about Terra Luna. It all started on May 8th when

Terraform Labs removed $150m of UST liquidity from Curve

1. minute later, a freshly funded address bridged $84m of UST to Ethereum (Initiated bridging before TFL removed liquidity)
2. min later, it dumped the UST, triggering the sell-off

Terraform Labs removed another $100m of UST liquidity from Curve soon after. As UST started to depeg, an unknown actor started dumping ETH and buying UST ($100m+)

To defend the peg, Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) puts BTC reserve on work

That’s not all; before UST could gain the peg, there came another night full of terror, panic, and chaos

Luna price loses over 50% in a day and fell as low as $24 before showing the signs of recovering

Bank run on $UST: 52% of Anchor deposits withdrawn within 3 days

UST peg on Binance was $0.62 at some point, it is restoring now

LFG emptied its BTC reserve worth $1.4 Billion

Read the full story here: Navigating the UST crash

If you’ve lost your money in this market, don’t lose heart. Tough times don’t last; tough people do. Keep learning; money can be lost, not the skills.

    Bankless Youtube channel suspended

­Last week, one of the most popular Ethereum-focused newsletters and podcasts said its Youtube account was terminated without warning or justification. This is not the first time Youtube suspended web3 education channels.

Earlier, Youtube has banned a range of web3 channels, even Bitcoin Magazine channel in the middle of Bitcoin Miami conference earlier this year. As Stani Kulechow, founder of Aave rightly pointed out, “We all need to switch to web3 social to keep our freedom of speech.”

Update: on Tuesday morning, YouTube's CEO Susan Wojcicki apologized via a tweet for banning Bankless and assured to support the web3 ecosystem moving forward.

        El Salvador buys the dip

While the crypto market crashed, El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele announced on Twitter, adding 500 BTC to the country’s balance sheet.

It is El Salvador’s largest coin purchase since it first began adding the digital currency to its balance sheet in Sept. 2021 — the same month it became the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, alongside the U.S. dollar.

With this purchase, the country’s total reserve is up to 2,301 bitcoin or about $71.7 million at current prices.

        Last week in Ethereum

• In this week, over 1M ENS domains were registered
• The 3rd Ethereum Mainnet Merge test was successful
• Gucci announces it will accept Ethereum at stores
• Alabama Senator introduces bill to add Ethereum in 401k plans
• The world's largest private family bank, LGT, opens Ethereum trading services
• Ethereum hits a new daily burn record of 71.5K ETH
• Argentinian bank Banco Galicia now allows users to buy and sell Ethereum

       Google dips feet in web3 pool

Google's cloud unit has recently announced to form a new Google group that will build services to help developers construct Web3 applications.

These efforts could include better management of blockchain nodes and software for exploring blockchain data in third-party applications.

Amit Zavery, a vice president at Google Cloud, told employees in an email Friday that the idea is to make the Google Cloud Platform the first choice for web3 developers in the field.

     Last week’s web3 developer updates

The EthereumJS Client v0.4 now fully supports the Kiln v2 Merge testnet. Here’s a twitter thread by Ethereum Foundation JavaScript Team explaining how to connect and sync to the Kiln v2 Merge testnet.

Anvil - a blazing-fast local testnet node implementation in Rust is announced. Anvil is a drop-in replacement for `ganache-cli` or `hardhat node`, for deploying & testing your contracts from frontends or interacting over RPC.

Outlier Ventures and Terraform Labs launch the Terra Base Camp to supercharge start-ups. Applications are open now. At the onset of the program, participating teams will receive an investment of USD$125k, which can then be followed with up to USD$250k of additional funding.

          Learn Web3 DAO

If you’re looking to learn web3 and maybe give a shot to become a web3 developer, here’s a good place to start your journey.

Learn Web3 DAO is a one-stop place to start your web3 journey regardless of your knowledge background. The DAO also offers skill NFTs to showcase your web3 skills once you finish the course. And most importantly, it’s free forever.

Start your web3 journey here

FREE WEBINAR ALERT 🤩

📅 Date and time: 11th of May, 7:00 pm IST onwards!

What would this session cover?

• How is blockchain development different from app/web development
• What are the technical skills one needs to learn?
• How to prepare yourself to be a globally competitive blockchain developer?
• What are the career prospects of blockchain / web3?

Also, Proof of attendance NFTs (POAP) will be provided to attendees.

Last day to register! Register here