Zest Protocol Community

__ZM ZEST CHADS__ GM Zest Chads Happy Monday, get your coffee because there's a lot to catch up on this morning. Big week ahead with the Genesis Bond dropping and the DeFi incentive program on the horizon, so let's get into it. Stacks — STX at $0.2433. PoX-5 went live in July, Fireblocks and UTXO Management are onboarded as institutional partners, and the Genesis Bond, the first Bitcoin Protocol Bond on Stacks, is launching September 10th. It lets BTC holders lock coins on L1 via timelock, pair with a bit of STX, and earn roughly 3% APY in BTC from Proof-of-Transfer miner bids, no lending or rehypothecation involved. Zest Protocol, Stacks, and Bitflow also have a 90-day incentive program starting September 19, paying out 1 BTC a month to anyone borrowing USDCx against sBTC and STX or providing liquidity in core USDCx pairs. HashkeyCloud has also joined as one of the inaugural participants in the Genesis bond. Set your reminders for the Stacks Defi Show tomorrow at 10am ET: https://x.com/StackingDao/status/2094406117061431452 Bitcoin — sitting near $77,700, down about 0.7% after Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's hawkish Jackson Hole speech on Friday pushed Treasury yields higher and killed the rate-cut optimism that had been running through crypto. Spot BTC ETFs saw $201.8M in net outflows Friday, snapping a nine-day inflow streak, and total fund assets slipped back under $100B. Saylor's Strategy just signaled a return to buying with a "We're Back" post. BTC is still up from the $81,455 three-month high it touched Thursday, so this is a pullback inside an uptrend, not a reversal. TradFi — S&P 500 closed Friday down 0.3%, Nasdaq off 0.7%, on that same Warsh reading. The 10-year Treasury yield is holding near 4.72%, close to its highest level in years. Futures markets now have the odds of a September hike rising, a full reversal from the rate-cut chatter earlier in August. Oil jumped over 2% in early Asia trading after the US struck Iranian rocket launchers near the Strait of Hormuz. Markets, broadly — risk-off tone this morning. Dollar's holding its biggest one-month gain. Tech had a strong August regardless, Nvidia and Micron both up double digits on the month, so the AI trade hasn't cracked, it's just competing with 4.7% yields for now. Yields up, BTC digesting, Stacks shipping through it. Remember, there is no second Zest. __TOPIC OF THE DAY__ With the Genesis Bond having two institutional grade participants in its inaugural roll out, do you think demand fills that cap fast, or does the ~3% APY need to compete harder against what BTC holders can get elsewhere right now? Hashkeycloud = Institutional grade staking UTXO = Investment arm of Nakamoto Digital asset treasruy Drop your take below