It’s been a while since the bull season started, and already several massive trading and staking events have opened up new opportunities in the crypto space. First up, 2.5 billion Ethena shards worth approximately $3.5 million were up for grabs at the Mantle Rewards Station. Mantle holders simply needed to stake MNT to participate. Traders also looked forward to the highly anticipated Mega KTX Trading Event, a cross-chain trading competition boasting a $100,000 prize pool. Lastly, Ethereum's EIP-4844, also known as the Dencun upgrade, shifted attention back to Layer 2 solutions such as Mantle and Arbitrum with its promise of massive benefits for the entire Ethereum ecosystem. 

Let's delve into each of these and their implications for the crypto community.

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MNT Holders Unlock 2.5 Billion Ethena Shards at the Mantle Rewards Station

Mantle just launched a massive presale giveaway that allowed Mantle holders to earn up to $3.5 million worth of Ethena shards by staking Mantle (MNT) at the Mantle Rewards Station. Thanks to advanced staking mechanisms, the rewards station distributes in real-time, ensuring that participants receive their earnings without delay.

To get started, users needed to visit the Mantle Rewards Station, a new feature in the Mantle ecosystem that lets users lock up MNT in a beginner-friendly and easy-to-navigate platform. Participants could stake any amount of Mantle they owned. Upon staking, they began accumulating mShards daily — special receipt tokens that participants could collect and later use to claim Ethena's native token, ENA. The mShards earned could be redeemed for ENA at a conversion rate of 1 ENA to 52 mShards.

The giveaway was open to all $MNT holders. There was no minimum staking requirement, so both whales and holders of smaller amounts were eligible to participate. The more MNT you staked, the higher the rewards you received, with no cap on potential earnings. 

The warm-up phase ran from March 25 to March 27, followed by the official lock-in period which began on March 27 and will end on April 26. Participants could lock any amount of $MNT they preferred and were able to unlock their $MNT and claim their rewards at any time. All rewards were updated instantly, allowing users to track their earnings in real-time. Since the rewards were sourced from Mantle’s $5.3 billion treasury, participants could be confident in the stability and sustainability of the rewards pool.

Designed to be user-friendly and accessible to the community, this was just the first of many initiatives by Mantle to help users earn passive income and contribute to the growth and stability of the developing crypto ecosystem.

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Traders Gear Up for the $100,000 Mega KTX Cross-Chain Trading Event

KTX also launched the Mega KTX Trading Event—a two-week competition hosted across three major blockchain platforms: Arbitrum, Mantle, and BNB Chain. With a prize pool of $100,000, it aimed to boost competitive trading across the ecosystem.

The omnichain KTX Trading Event consisted of two main epochs, each presenting unique challenges and opportunities for participants to maximize their returns:

• Epoch 1: From March 21, 2024, to March 27, 2024, this phase focused on total trading volume and active engagement.
• Epoch 2: Starting on March 28, 2024, and ending on April 4, 2024, this epoch shifted the focus to profitability. Traders not only maintained a high volume of trades but also aimed to maximize their profits and minimize losses by optimizing their strategies under dynamic market conditions.

The total prize money was allocated between two distinct prize pools:

• Scalping Prize Pool: This pool rewarded traders based on their total trading volume across Arbitrum, Mantle, or BNB Chain.
• Top Profit and Loss Pool: Focusing on the notional value of participants' profits and losses, this pool evaluated the financial outcomes of trading strategies and emphasized effective risk management and market timing.

Participants could trade on any of the three supported chains. For fairness, the trading activity on the chain where a participant was most active was used for prize calculations. $KTC stakers benefited from increased $esKTC emissions, with an additional 25,000 $esKTC released per epoch. Staking $KTC also came with trading discounts.

With huge financial incentives and the excitement of cross-chain competition, it was a rewarding event for all participants, regardless of level of experience.

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Ethereum's Game-Changing EIP-4844 Empowers L2s

Ethereum's EIP-4844, also known as the Dencun upgrade, has proven to be a milestone for Layer 2 solutions like Mantle and Arbitrum—both of which you can start trading on KTX.finance. The proto-danksharding upgrade has dramatically reduced transaction fees across all Ethereum L2s, with some chains experiencing reductions of up to 99%. This significant decrease in gas costs is not just a win for current users but a major incentive for new adopters to explore the Ethereum ecosystem without the high gas fees.

The implications of EIP-4844 extend beyond just cost savings. Making Layer 2 solutions more accessible has the potential to drive on-chain traffic, incentivize more developers to innovate with L2s, and boost the Ethereum ecosystem. Ultimately, we anticipate this to be a major boon to the whole crypto space.

Events like these remind us that combining the power of community engagement with the latest innovations are what help boost innovation and move us one step forward on the path to widespread crypto adoption. The continued success of such initiatives is a key driver of growth toward greater efficiency, inclusivity, and market stability.