Key Crypto Events This Week: FOMC Minutes, Arbitrum Staking, and EigenLayer Updates

This week is shaping up to be important for the crypto market. Several key events are on the horizon. These include the release of the FOMC minutes, updates on EigenLayer, and Arbitrum’s new staking initiative.

First up, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is set to release its minutes on August 21 at 2:00 PM ET. In their last meeting in July, they decided to keep the Fed Funds interest rate steady at 5.25% to 5.50%. This move matched what many in the market expected and showed the Federal Reserve's cautious approach to inflation.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell hinted that a rate cut could happen if inflation keeps dropping. The market has already factored in a possible rate decrease in September, and more cuts could come by the end of the year. Historical data from 10x Research shows a strong link between Bitcoin’s performance and inflation trends. Typically, when inflation goes down, Bitcoin tends to rally. Right now, Bitcoin is trading at $58,575, showing a 1.45% decrease in the last 24 hours.

Next, on August 16, the Arbitrum Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) approved a proposal for ARB staking on Ethereum’s layer-2. The proposal received overwhelming support, with 91% of voters in favor. This new staking initiative will use about 10% of the current circulating supply of ARB tokens—around 100 million out of 1 billion. The goal is to boost voter participation and ensure the DAO’s decision-making is secure and representative.

The staking mechanism will introduce a liquid staking token called stARB. This token will offer auto-compounding features and work well with various DeFi protocols. Initial staking rewards will come from several DAO-generated sources, such as sequencer fees, MEV fees, validator fees, token inflation, and treasury diversification. The launch of this system is expected in late August, with updates on timelines to follow.

Moving on, EigenLayer continues to expand its support for ERC-20 tokens. This is another significant milestone for the protocol, which is currently the second-largest DeFi protocol, with about $12.4 billion locked, according to DefiLlama.

Additionally, this week, Babylon will kick off phase 1 of its Bitcoin Staking Mainnet Launch. This phase allows Bitcoin holders to start locking their BTC for staking in a secure, self-custodial environment. Stakers can delegate their voting power to a finality provider and can unbond their stake before it expires. The initial staking cap is set at 1,000 BTC, with size limits on transactions to encourage participation. While there won’t be direct staking rewards during this phase, a point system will track stakers’ activities, laying the groundwork for future phases.

Finally, this week will also see significant token unlocks, totaling over $230 million. One of the largest is Avalanche’s release of 9.54 million AVAX tokens, valued at over $197 million. This unlock could affect the asset’s price, especially since no additional tokens will be allocated to the team or strategic partners after this event. Other notable unlocks include Space ID (ID), PIXEL, and Ethena (ENA).