Weekly Hot Project Updates: Opensea is about to launch on Solana, Raydium launches token launch tool LaunchLab, KiloEx suffers an attack, etc. (0412–0419)

1. Ethereum Protocol Fellowship (EPF) Phase 6 Now Open for Applications link

The Ethereum blog announced that the Ethereum Protocol Fellowship (EPF) Phase 6 is now open for applications, with a deadline of April 30. This phase aims to invite more experienced software engineers to participate in projects designated by the client teams, while encouraging participants who do not meet EPF standards to join protocol research groups to enhance their skills, providing mentorship and stipend support. This phase of the EPF will take place from June to November 2025, with two in-person events scheduled during EthCC in France and Devconnect in Argentina.

2. Base Officially Clarifies Its Promoted Meme Coin is Not an Official Brand Token link

Base's official Twitter account released a promotional link for the meme coin "Base is for everyone" at 3:13 AM on Thursday. The market cap of this meme coin surged to a peak of $17 million by 4:17 AM on the same day. Shortly after, at 4:30 AM, the meme coin experienced a drastic drop of over 95%, with the market cap plummeting to $623 thousand at one point. During the token issuance, the top three wallets held a total of 47%, with one wallet alone holding 25.6%. Base clarified that it will not sell these tokens and that they are not the official network tokens of Base, Coinbase, or any other related products. The official statement described this as a public experiment to continue exploring how cultural content can be expressed on-chain.

3. Synthetix Stablecoin sUSD Drops to $0.66, Hitting an All-Time Low link

The Synthetix stablecoin sUSD continued its decoupling trend, dropping to $0.66 at 11:26 AM (UTC+8) on Friday, hitting an all-time low. As of the time of this report, the price has recovered to $0.827. Analysts pointed out that the decoupling of sUSD is not due to bad debt or mechanical failures, but rather a side effect of the SIP-420 upgrade.

4. Farcaster Social Network's Underlying Technology Snapchain Has Officially Launched link

Varun Srinivasan, the head of Snapchain, tweeted that Snapchain is now live and supporting the Farcaster network. Previously, Snapchain was scheduled for a full launch in the first quarter of 2025.

5. Data: Gauntlet Incentives Propel Unichain TVL to $71 Million link

According to the @UniswapFND data dashboard, following Gauntlet's provision of ongoing UNI incentives to 12 pools on Unichain for two weeks, the TVL of Unichain surged to over $71 million, whereas it was previously under $1 million, with the USDC/USDT0 Pool reaching $44 million. Currently, the daily rewards for the 12 Unichain Pools amount to approximately $330 thousand in UNI, with the USDC/USDT0 Pool offering daily rewards of 7.784k UNI (worth about $40.60 thousand).

6. ZKsync Admin Account Private Key Leak Results in $5 Million in $ZK Tokens Stolen link

The ZKsync security team discovered that an admin account had been compromised, involving $ZK tokens worth approximately $5 million, all of which were unclaimed airdrop tokens. The team has taken necessary security measures, and user funds have not been affected. ZKsync officials stated that the protocol and $ZK token contracts remain secure, and this incident was an isolated case caused by a private key leak, limited to the airdrop contracts. Investigations are ongoing, and a detailed update will be released later today.

The ZKsync team posted on X that the admin account addresses for three airdrop distribution contracts were compromised, and the attacker minted about 1.11 billion unclaimed $ZK tokens. This incident is limited to the airdrop contract, and this transaction led to an increase of approximately 0.45% of the total token supply in circulation. The ZKsync protocol and token contract were unaffected, and the attacker still holds most of the funds. The current team is working with the Security Alliance and exchanges to recover the funds and is urging the attacker to contact the Zksync team to negotiate a return to avoid legal consequences.

7. OpenSea announces the launch of NFT trading on the Solana chain link

OpenSea announced that Solana token trading has now been launched for some closed beta users on OS2 and will gradually be rolled out to more users in the coming weeks. Currently, what can be traded are tokens, while NFT trading will be launched later.

8. Raydium announces the launch of token launch tool LaunchLab link

The largest DEX on Solana, Raydium, announced the launch of the token launch tool LaunchLab to respond to the impact of Pump Fun and PumpSwap. The Bonding Curve of LaunchLab requires filling 85 SOL to migrate to Raydium, which is higher than Pump Fun. In addition, 25% of the transaction fees generated by LaunchLab will be used to repurchase RAY. Previously, Pump Fun launched its own DEX, PumpSwap, and tokens graduating from the Pump Fun Bonding Curve will migrate liquidity directly to PumpSwap, bypassing Raydium. On Tuesday, PumpSwap's trading volume reached 478 million USD, setting a new all-time high.

9. KiloEx perpetual contract platform attacked on multiple chains link

The KiloEx perpetual contract platform was attacked on multiple chains, with the attacker initiating trades on contracts on BNB, Base, and Taiko chains through Tornado Cash funding addresses, accumulating profits of approximately 7 million USD. Preliminary analysis suggests that the vulnerability may stem from access control issues with the price oracle. The KiloEx team announced that they confirmed the platform was hacked and are currently conducting an investigation in collaboration with law enforcement, cybersecurity experts, and multiple exchanges, and have tracked the hacker's wallet address. The team has offered a settlement proposal to the hacker: return 90% of the stolen funds within 72 hours, keeping 10% as a "white hat reward"; if cooperation is refused, they will face legal consequences and identity exposure.

10. Binance announces that Binance Launchpool will launch its 68th project Initia (INIT) link

Binance announced that Binance Launchpool will launch its 68th project Initia (INIT), allowing users to obtain INIT through BNB, FDUSD, and USDC starting from 2025-04-18 08:00 UTC+8. Initia is a full-chain Rollup network that connects application chains through interwoven infrastructure and coordinated economic mechanisms.

Initia co-founder Zon stated that at the beginning of 2023, Binance Labs (now Yzi Labs) became the first and largest investor in Initia, which at that time was struggling to start with only a vision and a Minimum Viable Product. Zon expressed pride in the team and all participants in the interlinked economy and thanked the investors who supported them during the bear market trough.