Eclipse Foundation announced on Nov. 7 that Eclipse, a Solana Virtual Machine-powered layer-2 on Ethereum, had launched its public mainnet.

The milestone is a key step in Eclipse’s quest to bring the best of both Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) to users, Eclipse Foundation said in a press release.

Vijay Chetty, CEO of Eclipse, noted that bridging these leading networks for decentralized applications and finance could drive a new wave of ecosystem development. Key areas likely to see growth from increased dApp activity include DeFi, consumer applications, and gaming.

“Eclipse is uniquely positioned as the first solution to bridge the gap between Solana and Ethereum, offering a powerful platform that caters to both communities. Our goal is to empower developers from both ecosystems to build and scale their dApps like never before, unlocking new opportunities across the largest networks in the industry.”

Vijay Chetty.

Eclipse’s launch of the layer-2 public mainnet follows its developer-focused mainnet release in October. Since then, the platform has expanded its ecosystem by integrating projects such as Orca, Nucleus, and Save.

Developers on Eclipse can utilize Solana’s parallel execution capabilities and Ethereum’s liquidity and security, alongside access to Ethereum’s vast user community and asset base. Eclipse’s architecture enables developers to leverage the Solana Virtual Machine for scaling and enhanced user experiences.

As a result, Eclipse aims to eliminate the previous fragmentation that required developers to choose between the two ecosystems.

Layer-1 blockchain MANTRA and United Arab Emirates-based tokenization platform Libre Capital aim to drive further adoption of tokenized real-world assets

On Nov. 4, MANTRA (OM) and Libre Capital announced a partnership leveraging their combined strengths to offer on-chain funds to MANTRA’s institutional or accredited users.

MANTRA stated that the collaboration would use its purpose-built RWA blockchain along with Libre’s tokenization and issuance capabilities. Together, they aim to provide on-chain access to investment opportunities in hedge funds, money market funds, and private credit funds.

According to details in the announcement, a new integration is what will help eligible institutional investors access the on-chain funds on MANTRA. This will be via Libre’s decentralized applications deployment dubbed “Libre Gateway DeFi dApps”.

Libre deploys this feature on integrated chains, allowing access to top-tier tokenized money market funds and others in a compliant way.

John Patrick Mullin, co-founder and chief executive officer of MANTRA said:

“With the addition of protocols like the Libre Gateway, MANTRA can better equip users with a best-in-class collection of tools to continue to grow the real-world asset economy.”

MANTRA Chain’s integration of Libre Gateway allows various benefits for the L1 platform’s users, including access to treasury management tools. Libre on the other hand will explore the RWA-specific infrastructure that the layer-1 blockchain network offers, Dr. Avtar Sehra, founder and chief executive officer of Libre, noted.

MANTRA Chain launched its mainnet in October and recently partnered with Google Cloud, which is a validator and infrastructure provider. One of the goals of the partnership is to bolster MANTRA’s real-world assets market via an accelerator program.

The RWA accelerator program will go live in the first quarter of next year.

Paolo Ardoino, the chief executive officer of Tether, said Tether has no plans of building a an official blockchain ‘at this time’ after hearing rumors of Tether Chain.

In an X post on Nov. 4, Tether’s CEO, Paolo Ardoino, denied any rumors that stated Tether (USDT) had an official blockchain in the works. He explained that Tether is currently more focused on partnering with other companies and communities instead of “trying to centralize everything.”

“I hear again few rumors about a Tether Chain. Tether is not planning to build an official blockchain at this time,” said Ardoino.

He went on to state that Tether has backed the integration of various independent layer 2 networks in order to support the gas fees needed for USDT.

Ardoino also hints at a new product launch that was supposed to be scheduled around the U.S Election day, but Tether decided to push it back seven days so that the news would not be drowned out by the “election noise.”

In a separate post, Ardoino cited the reason for Tether’s reluctance to jump into the blockchain pool. He believes establishing a Tether blockchain would enforce centralization, stating that “neutrality is very important.”

“Unstoppable TogETHER, our motto, underlines our interest to partner up with other companies and communities rather than trying to centralize everything,” added Ardoino.

In a past interview with Bloomberg in August 2024, Ardoino said that the blockchain marketplace was already very saturated. He also predicted blockchains will become more of a “commodity” in the future.

“Launching a blockchain ourselves might be not the right move. There are very good blockchains,” said Ardoino.

At the time of writing, Ethereum, TRON and Solana are the three leading blockchains based on total value locked, according to data from DeFi Llama. Ethereum is in first place with a $47.55 billion TVL and 381,444 active addresses. Meanwhile, TRON is in second place with $6.81 billion TVL and 1.71 million active addresses. In third place is Solana with $5.92 billion TVL and 4.28 million active addresses.

On Nov. 1, Tether reported its Q3 2024 earnings which consisted of many record breaking highs, including equity of $14.2 billion and total assets on a consolidated basis of $134.4 billion. Tether’s Q3 report also showed an increasing demand for USDT stablecoins, as circulation grew to nearly 30% in 2024. Tether also issued an additional $27.8 billion worth of tokens this year.