The Defiant

Together with

GM Defiers!

The Department of Justice remains steadfast in its campaign against Tornado Cash’s developers, fighting Roman Storm’s motion to dismiss charges against him. The DoJ claimed that Storm profited to the tune of millions while working on Tornado Cash, as the protocol facilitated more than $1 billion in illicit financial flows.

Omnity has integrated support for Runes, enabling cross-chain functionality for the Ordinals-based fungible token standard on Bitcoin. In related news, Stacks, a Bitcoin Layer 2, is readying for its long-await upgrade.

And Offchain Labs, the team behind Arbitrum, outed two bugs on a testnet exploring new upgrades to Optimism — its primary competitor.

✍️ In today’s newsletter:

Tornado Cash developer under fire
Runes enjoy cross-chain support from Omnity
Stacks Bitocin L2 readies for Nakamoto upgrade
Offchain Labs flags Optimism vulnerabilities

🙏Sponsored

Reserve Protocol’s Permissionless Stablecoin Design Hub

📈 Markets in the last 24 hrs:

Ticker	Value	24h
Bitcoin	$64,080	-3.50 %
Ethereum	$3,132	-2.72 %
Gold	1st Future$2,325	-0.14 %
S&P 500	5071.63 0.02	%
Arch Web	32.12	-5.08 %
Learn more about Arch Indices ,[object Object]		%

🎬 WATCH

Check out our podcast with Chris Dixon, a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, to get his take on web3’s evolution from web2 during this year’s South By Southwest event. Plus, check out our explainer looking at the burgeoning Runes ecosystem on Bitcoin.

THANKING OUR NEWSLETTER SPONSORS

| NEWSLETTER CONTINUES BELOW |

NEAR is the chain abstraction stack, empowering builders to create apps that scale to billions of users and across all blockchains.

DexToro is a decentralized derivatives exchange powered entirely by audited Ethereum smart contracts. Trade Crypto and Forex with up to 50x leverage with full custody of your assets. NO KYC.

Don’t miss Solana’s largest community conference - Solana Crossroads. Join 3,000+ attendees May 10-11. Speakers include Anatoly Yakovenko, Raoul Pal, Ansem, and more. Get your tickets before they’re sold out.

⚖️DoJ Opposes Motion to Dismiss Charges Against Tornado Cash Developer

The U.S. Department of Justice is petitioning against Roman Storm, a Tornado Cash developer, who recently filed for the charges laid against him to be dismissed. The DoJ accuses Storm of profiting millions while Tornado Cash facilitated more than $1 billion in illicit financial flows.

🌉Omnity Introduces Cross-Chain Transfer Functionality For Runes

Bitcoin’s booming fungible token protocol, Runes, is set to expand onto new networks following an integration Omnity, an Internet Computer Protocol-based cross-chain interoperability platform. The move follows an explosive cross-chain expansion enjoyed by inscription protocols less than one year ago.

🍴Bitcoin Layer 2 Stacks Prepares for Nakamoto Upgrade, its Largest Hard-Fork Ever

Stacks, a top Bitcoin Layer 2 by assets locked and transaction volume, is readying for it Nakamoto upgrade. The move will reduce block times to just a few seconds from up to 10 minutes.

🥅Two Vulnerabilities Caught in Optimism Testnet

Offchain Labs, the development team behind the Arbitrum One Layer 2, identified two significant vulnerabilities in a testnet proposing a new dispute mechanism for Optimism — its primary competition for L2 dominance. “The attacks make it easy for an evil party to get a fraudulent claim accepted on chain, or defeat the honest party,” Offchain Labs’ Raul Jordan said.

🌍 ELSEWHERE

zkSNACKs Blocks US Users From Wasabi Wallet (Unchained Crypto)
Binance's CZ Will Spend Less Than a Year in Prison, Polymarket Traders Bet (CoinDesk)
Tether invests $200 million to reach ‘ultimate’ goal of putting computers in people’s brains (CryptoSlate)