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Following a settlement with the SEC, eToro US will cease nearly all crypto trading except for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ether. It will allow customers to sell other crypto assets within 180 days. The platform agreed to pay a $1.5 million fine after being charged with operating as an unregistered brokerage and clearing agency in the U.S.
Grayscale is launching the first US-based XRP Trust, providing select investors with exposure to the Ripple token through a "closed-end" fund. Speculation is growing that an XRP ETF could be next in line following the success of its Bitcoin and Ethereum trusts, which were converted into ETFs earlier this year.
Coinbase has officially released cbBTC, an ERC20 token backed 1:1 by Bitcoin. This will allow millions of BTC holders to access DeFi apps across the @base and Ethereum ecosystems, with more chains to follow.
zkVM company Succinct Labs has introduced OP Succinct, a new way for any OP Stack chain to become a ZK rollup in an hour. Its benefits include fast finality instead of the 7-day fraud-proof window of optimistic rollups, cost-effective proving, and a customizable developer experience.
Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) offer secure, isolated computation that complements blockchain capabilities. They have applications in MEV, DePIN, Passkey wallets, and scaling, as they provide privacy and computational power while maintaining onchain verifiability via remote attestations. As the technology matures, long-term value will likely accrue to apps utilizing TEEs, aligning with a shift towards the “fat-app” thesis.
Stablecoins have evolved beyond crypto trading and have become critical financial instruments in emerging markets, with over $160 billion in circulation and settling an estimated $2.6 trillion in H1 2024. This study, which combines onchain data analysis with survey results from developing countries, reveals that stablecoins are used for non-trading purposes like savings, currency conversion, and yield generation. Nigerians showed the highest stablecoin affinity.
EigenLayer has introduced a new security model for decentralized services centered around Operator Sets, Total Stake, and Unique Stake. It allows more efficient AVS operation by providing greater control over slashing risk and guaranteeing slashable stake for each AVS. Key advantages include localized slashing, permissionless AVS onboarding, and eliminating the need for a standard veto committee.
This post critiques the SEC's settlement with eToro, highlighting the platform's structure, which involved contracts for difference (CFD) rather than direct crypto purchases. It argues that the SEC's press release misrepresented the situation by focusing on token removals instead of the actual issue — securities based on token prices — and calls for greater transparency in regulatory communications.
Vitalik Buterin believes rollups should be at stage 1 decentralization or higher by the end of 2024 and refuses to mention rollups that aren't secured by cryptographic trust.
Ether.Fi's season 3 airdrop starts on September 17th - participants have until the 15th to decide to claim their tokens on mainnet, Base, or Arbitrum.
Base daily transactions are approaching 5 million while the average transaction fee trends towards zero, indicating high adoption.
Bunni, a DEX built on Uniswap v4, introduces features like customizable liquidity curves, automated yield maximization, and dynamic fee structures.