Search the archive

US ARRESTS ‘BITCOIN RODNEY’

Rodney Burton, also known as "Bitcoin Rodney," was arrested and charged by U.S. authorities for allegedly defrauding investors of over $7 million through the HyperVerse crypto investment scheme.

CELSIUS CREDITORS WHO WITHDREW 90 DAYS BEFORE BANKRUPTCY ARE ASKED TO SEND MONEY BACK

Celsius bankruptcy managers notified creditors that those who withdrew more than $100,000 in the 90 days prior to July 13, 2022 are liable to clawbacks.

DEVELOPER RETENTION IN SOLANA ECOSYSTEM INCREASED IN 2023

Three-month developer retention in the Solana ecosystem increased from 31% to more than 50% over the course of 2023.

DYMENSION AND CELESTIA ARE MUTUALLY BULLISH FOR EACH OTHER

Dymension’s RollApps will require a data availability layer like Celestia to function properly, which is positive for Celestia.

YOUR REFERRAL LINK - https://tldr.tech/crypto?ref=2613930

BITCOIN BLASTS PAST $47K FROM ETF EXCITEMENT

Anticipation over a possible spot Bitcoin ETF approval this week has led Bitcoin to go over $47,000 for the first time since April 2022. Investors are awaiting a regulatory decision for the first spot-based bitcoin ETF in the US. Most market observers expect an approval, which would dramatically expand the investor base for the asset and attract large inflows. Multiple issuers have revealed the fees they plan to charge investors.

SPOT BITCOIN ETF APPLICANTS RACE TO THE BOTTOM FOR FEES

Spot bitcoin ETF applicants, including BlackRock, Fidelity, and VanEck, are competing on fees to gain market share if approved. Bitwise leads with zero fees initially, then 0.24%, followed by Ark/21Shares with similar terms and a 0.25% fee. BlackRock offers fees as low as 0.2%, increasing later, while other firms like VanEck, Fidelity, and Invesco/Galaxy have varying fee structures.

INTRODUCING SAMO AND SAGA TOOLS

Solana project Samoyedcoin is launching two new products. The first is an airdrop of SAMO tokens for the first 3000 Saga phone holders who submit a claim. The second is a tool that makes it easy for any project to launch an airdrop for Saga holders.

MANTA ANNOUNCES AIRDROP FOR CELESTIA USERS (1 MINUTE VIDEO)

Following up on its initial airdrop announcement, Manta Network has confirmed that an additional airdrop will include the Celestia community, although the eligibility criteria have not been released yet. This is the third major airdrop that’s been confirmed for Celestia stakers in the past week, following Dymension and Saga.

MASTER THREAD FOR AIRDROP FARMING AND POINTS PROGRAM

A collection of 45 confirmed and potential airdrops for projects in verticals ranging from Restaking to Starknet. The list includes cross-chain airdrops, Solana airdrops, Cosmos airdrops, and more.

SEVEN CONCLUSIONS FROM DELPHI’S YEAR AHEAD FOR INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT

Crypto research firm Delphi Digital has released its Year Ahead for Infrastructure Report. The report includes updates on L2s, alternative data availability layers like Celestia, and Solana infrastructure projects. L2s are still mostly on Stage 0. Solana is reaching all-time highs on DEX volumes, NFT volumes, and DAUs relative to ETH. Solana Payments is predicted to break out in 2024.

FISCAL AND MONETARY DIVERGENCE

This post discusses the divergence between U.S. fiscal and monetary policies and their impact on different parts of the economy. In recent years, the U.S. experienced a shift from monetary to fiscal dominance, impacting inflation, bond markets, and liquidity. The Fed's aggressive rate hikes to combat inflation contrasted with the Treasury's liquidity-boosting measures, leading to a complex macroeconomic environment. These actions affected financial markets and the broader economy, highlighting the significant impact of centralized fiscal and monetary policies. This divergence is expected to continue, with fiscal policy likely remaining dominant in the 2020s and 2030s, influencing U.S. GDP growth and the performance of various asset classes, including crypto.

RETHINKING LIGHTNING

The Bitcoin community's enthusiasm for the Lightning Network has waned due to its complexity and reliance on custodial wallets. The Lightning Network faces key issues like channel liquidity and the inability to receive challenges offline. Mutiny Wallet aims to improve this by integrating fedimint technology, offering a more user-friendly, self-custodial solution that can dynamically share ownership of UTXOs and interoperate with Lightning. It represents the current best approach to scaling Bitcoin.

JAPAN’S ECOMMERCE GIANT PLANS TO ACCEPT BTC PAYMENTS

Mercari, Japan’s digital flea market platform with over 22 million monthly active users, is planning to allow users to purchase products in Bitcoin by June this year.

HOW TO NOT FUMBLE THE BAG

Some thoughts on how to maximize your earning potential this cycle.

VANECK TO DONATE 5% OF BTC ETF PROFITS TO BITCOIN CORE DEVELOPERS

Asset management firm and potential Bitcoin ETF provider VanEck will donate 5% of the profits from its fund (if approved) to Bitcoin developers Brink.

CRYPTO EXCHANGE UPBIT GETS FULL LICENSING IN SINGAPORE

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit has officially obtained a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

YOUR REFERRAL LINK - https://tldr.tech/crypto?ref=2613930

BLACKROCK EXPECTS SPOT BITCOIN ETF APPROVAL ON WEDNESDAY

BlackRock, one of the many firms vying for a spot Bitcoin ETF, believes the SEC will approve its application on Wednesday. The highly anticipated approval could bring in billions in fresh funding into the cryptocurrency sector. Crypto skeptics claim that the approval would be a regulatory mistake of historic proportions as they say Bitcoin is too volatile and unregulated to support a healthy market.

CELSIUS TO UNSTAKE THOUSANDS OF ETHER, POSSIBLY EASING ETH SELLING PRESSURE

Crypto lender Celsius, amidst bankruptcy restructuring, plans to unstake its significant ETH holdings. This move could influence ETH's market performance due to the frequent selling of staking rewards. Crypto wallets linked to Celsius have staked over $151 million worth of ether. Outflow data shows Celsius sent over 30,000 ETH to a custodian in the past week.

MANTA ANNOUNCES AN AIRDROP

Manta Network, an L2, is airdropping 50M MANTA tokens to people who have contributed to the ecosystem over the last 3 years. 30M tokens will be released in the initial airdrop, while 20M will be released as a “play-to-airdrop” bonus. A link to a page to check eligibility is available.

UNISWAP NOW SUPPORTS EIP-6963

EIP-6963 introduces a communication channel between wallets and apps, making the experience of changing wallets smoother. It is now live on the Uniswap interface, making it easier than ever to switch between wallets. Users can smoothly swap wallets no matter how many they have.

SIGNPOSTS

This post details why Bitcoin may be due for a 20-30% correction in March. It highlights the drawdown of the Fed’s reverse repo program and the expiration of the Bank Term Funding Program on March 12th. Bitcoin will likely rebound before the Fed meeting on March 20th.

BEST PRACTICE SETUP FOR NORMAL PEOPLE

A breakdown of how a relatively average investor can best set themselves up for success this cycle, but with lessons that everyone can benefit from. It is written for people who will transact over $10,000 on Ethereum but less than $1 million. The guide shows normal people how to set up on the Ethereum mainnet. The setup requires a laptop, a browser, a hot wallet, and a Trezor Model T.

STATE OF DEPIN 2023

Decentralized Physical Infrastructure (DePIN) is one of the hottest narratives going into 2024. This report provides an in-depth analysis of the DePIN space throughout 2023 along with a look into what’s likely in store for DePIN for 2024. It puts particular emphasis on DePIN’s potential integrations with ZK technology, memecoins, onchain AI, and onchain gaming.

CORRECTLY PRICING BLOCKSPACE IN A CASUALLY PARALLEL WORLD

This piece explores the complexities of pricing blockspace in a parallelized EVM, emphasizing the challenges of aligning computational efficiency with economic incentives. It discusses the role of causality in both computation and economic layers, highlighting how it enables parallelization and affects transaction ordering and pricing, especially in relation to MEV.

COINBASE PLANS ACQUISITION TO EXPAND DERIVATIVES OFFERING IN EU

Coinbase is in the process of acquiring a MiFID-licensed entity based in Cyprus to expand its cryptocurrency derivatives offerings in the EU, subject to regulatory approval.

COINBASE APP RANK (X ACCOUNT)

A twice-a-day update on Coinbase’s app ranking in the Apple App Store that can be used as a bull/bear indicator.

CRYPTO HACK LOSSES DECLINED 51% IN 2023

Over $1.8 billion in digital assets was lost across 751 security incidents in 2023, 51% lower than 2022’s $3.7 billion.

IN-PERSON BUSINESSES ACCEPTING BITCOIN NEARLY TRIPLED IN 2023

The number of in-person merchants who accept bitcoin is now over 6,300, nearly three times more than in 2022.

YOUR REFERRAL LINK - https://tldr.tech/crypto?ref=2613930

GRAYSCALE, VANECK, AND ARK BITCOIN ETFS REGISTER TO TRADE ON EXCHANGES

Grayscale, VanEck, and ARK have obtained listings for their potential spot bitcoin ETFs on various exchanges, pending final clearance from the SEC. This is encouraging news as attempts to set up a Bitcoin ETF in the US over the past decade have been continually rebuffed by the SEC citing excessive risk for investors. However, many are expecting positive news of approvals to come any day now.

CITI ALUMNI-FOUNDED STARTUP TO OFFER BITCOIN SECURITIES THAT DON'T NEED GREEN LIGHT FROM SEC

A former group of Citi executives is planning to offer Bitcoin-backed securities, bypassing the need for SEC approval. The venture, Receipts Depositary Corp., will offer depositary receipts that will give institutional investors direct ownership of the digital assets. This approach aims to meet the needs of investors seeking Bitcoin investments not fully addressed by a possible spot ETF.

W3BSTREAM: A LAYER-2 ROLLUP FOR DEPIN

IoTeX's W3bstream is addressing Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network scalability issues by using an L2 'rollup' network that aggregates data through Ethereum's Rollup-centric roadmap. The network processes large amounts of data from various IoT devices using a combination of TEE-based and ZKP-based data collection methods. While W3bstream itself relies on the IoTeX blockchain, it can support any DePIN project on any chain.

NUBIT: THE FIRST BITCOIN-NATIVE DATA AVAILABILITY LAYER

Riema Labs is launching Nubit, a breakthrough product designed to cut the cost of Bitcoin transactions. Nubit introduces the first Bitcoin-native data availability layer, minimizing trust requirements and boosting data throughput. It's estimated that it could reduce storage costs on the Bitcoin network by up to 99%.

A GUIDE TO NODEMONKES: 10K PIXELATED ORDINALS EXPLAINED

NodeMonkes, a project of digital artworks known as Bitcoin Ordinals, has been the talk of the NFT space since launching last month. These digital assets are not actually NFTs but Ordinals inscribed on Bitcoin. NodeMonkes claims to be the first original 10k Ordinals collection. The team actually inscribed the collection as Ordinals early last year, giving a large portion of the collection the ‘sub-100k’ inscription status, but waited for more favorable market conditions to officially launch the project.

HOW TO LOSE 99.9% AND STILL SCORE A 500X

This post explores the idea of constant leverage, an automated investment strategy that can yield high returns while also exposing the investor to potentially significant losses. Constant leverage is a commonly used approach in traditional finance markets, with many structured products built for this purpose. However, these products typically come with hefty fees. Leveraging DeFi to create similar products in the crypto space could enhance the returns of this type of strategy and improve visibility of what is actually going into the products.

THE STATE OF PRIVATE VOTING IN ETHEREUM

Privacy-focused digital voting systems are emerging as a key tool for combating centralized control, surveillance, and the erosion of civil liberties. This report presents a comparative analysis of various private voting protocols in the Ethereum ecosystem, ranging from MACI and Semaphore to Plume and RLN. These systems utilize features like zero-knowledge proofs and privacy components to ensure secure, resilient, and confidential voting. The report aims to help developers choose the right protocols for their specific needs, assisting in the development of applications that value digital privacy.

EXPLORING ECLIPSE'S CANONICAL ETHEREUM BRIDGE AND PROVING SYSTEM

Ethereum's ‘fastest L2’, Eclipse, powered by the Solana Virtual Machine, has revealed detailed plans to enhance scalability and security features for DeFi applications. The architecture has three layers: execution, settlement, and data availability. Eclipse fosters user-friendly bridges for depositing and withdrawing funds and regularly publishes data blobs in batches for data availability. Furthermore, it implements a challenge period for fraud-proof submission in case of invalid state transitions, ensuring the security of transactions.

FINANCIAL ADVISORS ARE STILL SKEPTICAL SEC APPROVES BITCOIN ETF, BITWISE SAYS

A recent survey revealed that less than 40% of financial advisors are confident in a 2024 spot bitcoin ETF approval in the US. However, nearly 90% say an approval would make them more interested in buying BTC on behalf of their clients.

VISA PILOTS WEB3 CUSTOMER LOYALTY PLATFORM

Visa is introducing a web3 loyalty service with gamified elements and digital wallets for rewards, aiming to innovate traditional loyalty programs with a focus on customer engagement.

HACKERS HIJACK GOVT AND BUSINESS ACCOUNTS ON X FOR CRYPTO SCAMS

Hackers are increasingly targeting verified 'gold' and 'grey' checkmarked X accounts, selling them on the black market and using them for crypto scams.

TINY SPL: A NEW TOKEN STANDARD ON SOLANA

Tiny SPL, a new token standard on Solana, allows token ownership without incurring rent fees through state compression technology.

YOUR REFERRAL LINK - https://tldr.tech/crypto?ref=2613930

MATRIXPORT FOUNDER SAYS DISSEMINATION OF BITCOIN ETF REPORT WAS ‘BEYOND OUR CONTROL’

A report published by research firm Matrixport opining that the spot bitcoin ETF applications in queue would be rejected was widely disseminated by news outlets and caused widespread panic and massive liquidations across the entire space. These were the largest liquidation levels since the infamous “Cointelegraph Intern” post several months ago that caught short sellers offside. The founder of Matrixport claimed that the dissemination of their analysis was outside of the firm’s control and was simply an opinion by one of the firm’s analysts.

GOLDMAN SACHS EYEING BITCOIN ETF ROLE VIA BLACKROCK AND GRAYSCALE

Goldman Sachs is reportedly in discussions about becoming an authorized participant for the proposed spot bitcoin ETFs that BlackRock and Grayscale plan to launch in the US pending regulatory approval. This role, typically held by financial giants, is key in the multi-trillion-dollar ETF industry as it involves ensuring ETF shares align with underlying assets.

SOUTH KOREAN BLOCKCHAIN KLAYTN ONBOARDS GOLD RWA DEFI PLATFORM

The Klaytn Foundation has introduced a gold-pegged cryptocurrency, $GPC, and a supporting DeFi platform called Goldstation on its blockchain. Created by South Korea's digital transformation firm CREDER, $GPC is presented as the first gold token offered on DeFi outside Ethereum without percentage-based fees. The developers highlight that the low gas fees enable individuals to more practically make smaller investments in gold. Goldstation aims to start operations, including $GPC staking, on January 24, initially targeting South Korean clients.

STARPORT: LENDING KERNEL

Astaria has launched Starport, a kernel framework for shaping lending protocols on the EVM. Starport doesn't function as a lending protocol itself but manages data availability and agreement compliance for any protocol. It is modular, with current and potential lending systems formed through three primary modules: Pricing, Status, and Settlement. It provides support for collateralized loans and options for ERC-20, ERC-721, and ERC-1155 as either collateral or debt.

A GUIDE TO SIMPLE COSMOS STAKING FOR AIRDROPS

Airdrop farmers are expecting Dymension’s recently announced airdrop to kickoff a full airdrop season for Cosmos. This post provides a simple guide to potentially qualifying for these airdrops. To maximize chances of qualifying, tokens should be staked with active validators who participate in governance proposals, excluding centralized exchange validators. Regular on-chain activity and voting in governance proposals can also boost your chances. For larger bankrolls, owning a Bad Kids NFT could potentially increase eligibility for future drops as it did with the Dymension drop.

THE OFFICIAL MAX $MOBILE FARMING GUIDE FOR HELIUM MOBILE USERS

This post provides a guide to optimize farming with your Helium Mobile devices. Instructions include having a physical hotspot, a phone with the Helium service, and setting it all up so data is fed back to the hotspot from multiple devices. This setup should boost users’ chances of hitting the maximum daily farming threshold of $20, but the efficacy has still yet to be determined.