The Daily: WalletConnect to airdrop 185 million WCT, Trump-backed World Liberty Financial unveils WLFI token plans and more

Happy Tuesday! In today's Daily, WalletConnect is set to airdrop 185 million WCT tokens, the Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial DeFi project unveils its own token plans, BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF clocks its first daily net inflows in three weeks and more.

Let's get started.

WalletConnect set to airdrop 185 million WCT with native token launch

WalletConnect, a web3 communications protocol that connects crypto wallets to decentralized applications, is launching its native Connect Token (WCT) on Optimism's OP Mainnet, with plans to airdrop 185 million tokens.

• Users can register for the airdrop from Sept. 24, with allocations based on interactions with WalletConnect or contributions to open-source projects.
• The total supply of WCT will be capped at 1 billion tokens, with 18.5% reserved for airdrop Season 1, which concludes on Oct. 11 when distributions will occur, WalletConnect, Inc. CEO Jess Houlgrave told The Block.
• Those not qualified for Season 1's airdrop may have opportunities to qualify in subsequent seasons, Houlgrave added.
• However, the WCT tokens are non-transferable initially and will be primarily used for governance and staking until full functionality is activated in 2025.
• The newly formed WalletConnect Foundation will oversee the protocol and support its growth and decentralization as the WalletConnect Network begins transitioning to a permissionless structure governed by the community.
• Meanwhile, WalletConnect, Inc. has rebranded to Reown, focusing on user experience, and will continue to be led by Houlgrave.

Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial unveils WLFI token plans

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump helped officially unveil World Liberty Financial on Monday night, a DeFi project with plans to sell a non-transferable governance token called WLFI.

• Trump said crypto is "big and yet it's a fledgling compared to what it will be... I think my children opened my eyes."
• However, somewhat outside of crypto's fully decentralized ethos, WLFI token participation will be limited to accredited investors in light of regulatory uncertainty.
• Some 63% of WLFI tokens will be sold to the public, with 17% reserved for user rewards and 20% for team compensation.
• Trump began his pivot to a pro-crypto stance earlier this year and aims to position the United States as the "crypto capital" of the world.

BlackRock's IBIT clocks first daily net inflows in three weeks

BlackRock's IBIT saw its first positive flows since Aug. 26 on Monday, totaling $15.8 million.

• In its longest daily run without positive flows since the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs began trading in January, the three-week streak had produced 11 trading days of zero flows and two days of net outflows.
• Despite the recent inflow drought, BlackRock's product still dominates its rivals, generating $20.9 billion in total net inflows.
• Overall, the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted a combined $12.8 million in net inflows on Monday amid outflows from Grayscale's GBTC.
• Meanwhile, U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs returned to negative daily flows of $9.4 million and have now registered total net outflows of $590.8 million since their launch in July.

Dragonfly reportedly wants to raise $500 million for a fourth fund

Dragonfly aims to raise $500 million for its fourth venture fund, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

• The crypto venture capital firm has reportedly already raised $250 million and is targeting a close by the end of Q1 2025.
• The fourth fund could end up oversubscribed, similar to Dragonfly's third fund, which closed $150 million above target at $650 million in May 2022 with backing from KKR, Tiger Global and Sequoia China, among others.
• The firm also raised $225 million for its second fund in 2021, focusing on supporting DeFi, NFTs and Ethereum Layer 2 projects.

Coinbase reports 'degraded performance' for Polygon transactions shortly after network upgrade

Crypto exchange Coinbase reported delays in Polygon transfers following a recent network upgrade, though buys, sells and fiat transactions remain unaffected.

• The platform later issued an update stating the problem had been identified and a fix was being implemented, assuring users that their funds were safe.
• Polygon recently upgraded its network, introducing the new POL token to replace MATIC as part of the project's development into a ZK chain and its integration with AggLayer's cross-chain liquidity protocol.

In the next 24 hours

• UK and Eurozone CPI figures are released at 2 a.m. ET and 5 a.m. ET, respectively, on Wednesday, followed by the U.S. Federal Reserve's eagerly-anticipated interest rate decision at 2 p.m. ET.
• An FOMC press conference is then scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
• TOKEN2049 kicks off in Singapore.

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