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In this blog, Variant discusses the potential of real-world assets on-chain, emphasizing benefits like broadening access, enhancing off-chain asset utility, and improving traditional capital market efficiency.
Around 2,500 ether from last year's FTX exchange exploit moved after nearly a year - it was split and transferred through various protocols.
Ripple has decided not to proceed with its previously announced acquisition of custodian Fortress Trust following a security breach at a third-party service used by six of Fortress's customers that resulted in a reported loss of $12-$15 million in cryptocurrency. Despite the terminated deal, Ripple will remain an investor in Fortress's parent company, Fortress Financial Technologies.
The SEC has announced additional proceedings to assess whether to approve or deny proposed Bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock, Valkyrie, Invesco, and Bitwise. The process includes public comment and rebuttal periods, indicating that a final decision may not be reached for several months. The delay does not necessarily signify any conclusion has been made on any issues raised by the proposals.
Coinbase has received approval from the Bermuda Monetary Authority to provide non-US retail customers with perpetual futures trading services. The announcement comes after the cryptocurrency exchange ramped up its institutional trading services and handled over $5.5 billion in futures trading volume in Q2 this year. The move is part of Coinbase's international strategy called “Go Broad, Go Deep”, which targets regulators in 24 countries where it plans to create a global regulatory framework.
IYK has been driving greater fan engagement over the last two years by bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds with its fan experience platform. It embeds NFC chips in physical merch to “supercharge” these collector items. IYK has successfully partnered with the likes of Adidas and 9dcc to prove the concept. The company has now raised $16.8 million in funding from heavy hitters like a16z Crypto, Collab Currency, 1kx, and Lattice Capital to expand its platform.
This article dives into the concept of "intents," which have been gaining traction in the crypto space with protocols like Anoma and Essential. Intents help users specify transaction conditions without exact message calls, simplifying the transaction flow. They focus on outcomes rather than processes, meaning that users specify goals and "solvers" determine how best to achieve them.
This blog shows several different heatmaps of DAI token transfers and explains how other developers can replicate the method for any ERC20 token transfers. The approach utilizes Python tools like jupyter, cryo, polars, matplotlib, datashader, and altair to render billions of data points and properly display massive datasets. The process makes it much easier and quicker to generate understandable visualizations of crypto transactions.
The Winklevoss twins, co-founders of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, reportedly withdrew $280 million from Genesis just months before the company's collapse. It's unclear whether the withdrawn funds were Gemini's corporate assets or the personal cryptocurrencies of the twins. The timing of the withdrawal, months before Genesis froze customer withdrawals, raises questions about the Winklevoss twins' knowledge of Genesis' financial situation.
Valkyrie's Bitcoin Strategy ETF has successfully added ether futures contracts. Effective on October 3, the fund will formally alter its investment strategy, resulting in a name change to Valkyrie Bitcoin and Ether Strategy ETF. Other ETF issuers are expected to follow and launch their own ether futures offerings. Valkyrie's amended approach could allow them to launch earlier compared to proposed issues from other platforms.
Casey Rodarmor provided an update on the new Runes protocol he suggested. This repo provides a way to mint runes. Rodarmor warns that runes below certain block heights will be ignored as the standard hasn’t been formalized yet.
This blog explains how Fred Wilson, a renowned investor and crypto veteran, fell victim to an NFT scam that resulted in the loss of 46 of his NFTs.
Ethereum developers have made a successful second attempt at launching the Holesky test network for the Ethereum blockchain, which is aimed at testing ambitious scaling plans and addressing testnet ETH supply issues.
This dashboard depicts interesting info about censorship on Ethereum, a critical piece of how Ethereum works. At its different layers, Ethereum users can experience censorship from builders, relays, and validators. This dashboard helps visualize where that is happening.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler faced criticism from lawmakers regarding his crypto regulation approach during a House hearing. He was questioned about the classification of bitcoin, how that compared to other assets like Pokemon cards, and the approval of bitcoin ETFs. Lawmakers also expressed concerns over Gensler's transparency with Congress, especially regarding interactions with crypto exchange FTX.
Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is reportedly planning to offer trading of US-listed stocks and ETFs, a first in the company's history. Launching via a new division, Kraken Securities, the service aims to go live in 2024. The move positions Kraken to compete with players like Robinhood and Public.com in the zero-commission market. While the "crypto winter" likely pushed Kraken to pursue this new product line, the company has still managed to grow its market share on the crypto side despite the brutal market conditions.
Gevulot is a fully permissionless and programmable layer 1 blockchain for deploying proof systems as on-chain programs. It features high liveness guarantees, predictable fees, and performance to match centralized provers. Gevulot allows users to deploy proof systems and interact with them as easily as they would with a smart contract.
Chainlink has expanded its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol to Base, enabling increased cross-chain communication between this up-and-coming chain and others supported by CCIP. With the inclusion of CCIP, developers can create applications that can communicate and execute transactions across multiple blockchains. The move is another step in Chainlink’s plan to boost blockchain interoperability and utilization.
Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE), a cutting-edge cryptography method that enables computations on encrypted data, could revolutionize blockchain development. The technology allows transactions to leave a user's wallet encrypted, providing end-to-end encryption for the first time in web3. A team at Fhenix announced it is developing the first FHE-based blockchain, supported by a seed funding round led by ColliderVC and Multicoin Capital.
TON's recent sudden surge in price took many by surprise. TON is building a decentralized internet infrastructure that comprises four key components: the TON Blockchain, TON DNS, TON Storage, and TON Sites. Its ecosystem has over 800 million users worldwide. This thread looks at TON, the history behind the token, and why its potential shouldn't be underestimated.
Critics argue the adoption of crypto is delayed by issues with UX. However, Li Jin, co-founder of Variant, argues that the real issue is the lack of products people genuinely want, indicating a missing product-market fit. Jin calls for crypto creators to build products that satisfy a wider variety of human needs, not solely financial ones. They believe this will facilitate wider adoption of crypto and create a richer online experience.
The SEC is evaluating filings for spot crypto ETFs from Franklin Templeton and Hashdex. It has delayed decisions on VanEck's and ARK’s ether ETF applications. The regulator has until late May 2024 to rule on these applications. It has also postponed deadlines for spot bitcoin ETF submissions from Ark 21Shares and Global X.
This repo provides a simple tool for minting Runes, a new fungible token standard for bitcoin proposed by Ordinals creator Casey Rodarmor.
Binance is exiting Russia, selling its operations to newly-launched CommEX and ceasing all services in the coming months due to compliance issues, with no ongoing revenue shares or buyback options post-sale.
A US Bankruptcy Court approved BlockFi's liquidation plan, moving closer to repaying customers. However, the final payout still depends on BlockFi's legal outcomes with FTX and other firms.
Idris Elba, cautious about the crypto frenzy during the bull run, recently partnered with Stellar Development Foundation to explore crypto's potential for financial inclusion.
According to JPMorgan, the rise of stablecoin issuers in short-term funding markets may disrupt the sector, following the Federal Reserve's decision to limit access to the reverse repo facility. This could lead to stablecoins competing with the multitrillion-dollar money-market fund industry for assets, like Treasury bills, potentially driving rates down. The bank cautioned this could expose the traditional financial system to the instability found in the crypto space.
This WSJ article details the woes that Binance has been facing over the past year. Amidst US enforcement threats from the DOJ and the SEC, global crypto exchange Binance has been plagued by departures of senior executives and has been forced to make massive layoffs - 1,500 employees in total. Its market share has dropped from 70% at the start of the year to 50% now.
Crypto venture firm Paradigm has launched a Policy Lab aimed at keeping legislators updated on the crypto industry's policy issues. The lab, a first in the sector, will publish research, commentary, and advocacy reports. The main aim of the lab is to act as an advocate in the space, something that is severely lacking and could help shape positive policy shifts.
MoneyGram, the worldwide payments platform, is launching a non-custodial wallet to enable users to transfer funds between fiat currency and the popular stablecoin USDC. MoneyGram worked with the Stellar blockchain to develop and power its wallet. This move forms part of MoneyGram's digital transformation strategy, aiming to redefine the protocols of fiat currency transfers.
1kx, a company traditionally focused on infrastructure investing, has reportedly directed its attention towards consumer investing over the past 2 years, completing over 30 investments in areas like virtual worlds, games, and social payments. This post details the areas in which they’ve focused and invested and provides an interesting look into the visions these crypto-native VCs have for the space.
Fair Trade is a new Uniswap V4 pool designed to launch tokens with security assurances for traders and future token holders. Projects can safely raise ETH, distribute tokens, and pool liquidity using Uniswap V4 hooks. The system provides an alternative to traditional fundraising methods, allowing project funds to be fully trackable on-chain.
In this paper, the Fed outlines the rapidly growing financial innovation of tokenization in crypto asset markets, discussing potential benefits and financial stability implications. The report highlights how tokenization, the process of linking reference assets to crypto tokens, can potentially provide greater access to markets that are otherwise difficult to enter, facilitate lending via token collateral, and improve market liquidity and price discovery.
Pudgy Penguins has announced the roll-out of its NFT-based toys in around 2,000 Walmart stores across the US following a successful debut on Amazon. The move signals increasing recognition of NFTs from traditional consumer brands and marketplaces. This strategy is a unique approach attempting to build a globally recognizable set of IPs on the back of an NFT-first brand.
In light of Grayscale’s convincing win in its battle against the SEC over ETF applications, 4 US Congress members are now urging Gary Gensler to approve the listing of spot bitcoin ETFs immediately.
Chase is prohibiting crypto-linked transfers for U.K. clients starting on Oct. 16, citing concerns over increasing crypto scams.
Telegram is evolving towards a super app model similar to WeChat, integrating mini-apps and decentralization. Partnerships with the TON Foundation and Tencent Cloud seem to be geared toward expanding this ecosystem globally.
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In the midst of a suit between the two entities, the SEC is now scrutinizing Coinbase's role in Celsius’ bankruptcy plan. The SEC argues that Coinbase's services in the process go beyond being a distribution agent to offering brokerage and trading services. This raises issues that reflect those outlined in the SEC's lawsuit against Coinbase for allegedly operating as an unregistered broker violating federal securities laws.
The Mixin Network, a crypto project offering a wallet for cross-chain asset transfers and a decentralized exchange, was hacked, exposing up to $200m in potential losses. Deposit and withdrawal services were suspended to stop any bad actors from acting on the exploit. The incident is being investigated with assistance from Google and SlowMist. It has raised questions about the network's centralization, specifically around its reliance on its cloud service provider.
Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks have the potential to revolutionize traditional infrastructure models. Solana Foundation DePIN lead Kuleen Nimkar compares them to the gig economy. The Solana projects Hivemapper, Render, and Helium show potential, offering opportunities for additional income by contributing hardware to DePIN protocols. Nimkar believes Solana will be the "default choice" for such projects due to its low transaction cost and scalability. This has already been proven somewhat as Helium previously transitioned from its own chain to building on top of Solana.
In this post, Rod Armor, the creator of the Ordinals protocol, lays out an idea for a new fungible token protocol for Bitcoin. While he thinks most fungible tokens are either scams or memes and can be harmful to users and speculators, he concedes that there is no stopping them, much like gambling or casinos. In light of this, he proposes a simple fungible token protocol that could potentially bring significant transaction fee revenue, developer mindshare, and users to Bitcoin.
This post explains how tokenization is altering the role of banks and private equity, with private markets shifting to digital platforms. Banks are lending to PE firms, which are gradually assuming bank lending functions. This development is causing a significant change in the operation of credit markets. Companies like Apollo, KKR, and Wellington are adopting tokenization, allowing private equity funds to start to resemble banks. Shadow banking is mimicking traditional banking systems through tokenization, replicating their functions.
The NYSE has filed an amended application to list the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Trust, which includes over 40 pages of new research from Bitwise. This research aims to confront the key concerns the SEC has regarding spot bitcoin ETFs. Bitwise continues to develop innovative research supporting their bitcoin ETF filings, arguing that the CME futures market impacts price discovery in the bitcoin market.
MicroStrategy has increased its bitcoin holdings by purchasing an additional 5,445 BTC at an average price of around $27,053. The latest acquisition, valued at around $147.3m, boosts the company's total bitcoin holdings to a total of 158,245 BTC or 0.7% of the total Bitcoin supply.
Maple Finance, a crypto lending protocol, has mostly switched from under-collateralized to over-collateralized loans due to the extended bear market impacting the creditworthiness of borrowers. As a result, only 10% of outstanding loans on the platform are under-collateralized. Despite a significant loan default in December 2022, the platform's value has slowly risen due to offering underwritten loans and access to US Treasury yields.
7 years since its inception, Ethereum has hit $10 billion in all time revenue. The only software platform that has hit this milestone more quickly is Google. Ethereum narrowly edged out Facebook’s time to hit it.
Huobi may be insolvent as there are discrepancies between its ETH and USDT holdings. Justin Sun is being accused of manipulating stUSDT to prop up JustLend and amassing a $2.4 billion debt across Huobi and Tron.
This article covers Bernstein’s predictions about how the crypto fund management industry could grow from $50 billion to $500-650 billion in 5 years, driven by investment products and bitcoin ETFs.
The Arbitrum Foundation transferred 69 million unclaimed ARB tokens worth $59 million to its treasury after 93% of eligible users claimed them. The treasury now holds $3 billion in ARB.