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We post daily the best Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency & Blockchain News. Admin: @LevoBNTG
🪙 Bitcoin payments app Strike integrates Tether's USDT stablecoin
Strike, a payments platform built on Bitcoin's Lightning Network, has added support for Tether's USDT, the world's largest stablecoin. The development means USDT on-ramps, off-ramps and settlements are now possible within the Strike app, Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino told The Block. While it hasn't been finalized which blockchains will be used to support USDT on the platform, he said "it will be a mix of most used chains."
The announcement comes two days after Strike launched its app in 65 new countries from a previous base of the U.S., Argentina and El Salvador. The app allows users to instantly send and receive bitcoin, utilizing the Lightning Network. Users can also send payments within the platform and buy bitcoin. "With Tether's stablecoin as an intermediary, users gain the ability to convert their digital assets into fiat currency swiftly, overcoming liquidity challenges that have previously hindered adoption," Tether said in a statement Monday. "This user-friendly approach aligns with Tether and Strike's commitment to democratizing finance and promoting inclusivity on a global scale.". USDT is the largest stablecoin in the world, with a total supply of over 83 billion coins.
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💰 Bitcoin Payments App Strike Expands to More Than 65 Countries From Three
The Bitcoin-focused payments firm Strike is expanding its app to more than 65 countries from the current base of the U.S. and El Salvador. The Strike app uses Bitcoin and Lightning – a secondary network for cheaper and faster bitcoin transactions – to offer global payment and cross-border money transfer services. The app now sports a brand new user interface and also gives users the ability to hold funds in bitcoin (BTC) and tether (USDT).
Strike says the expansion will increase its total addressable market to almost 3 billion people. “Our end goal is to address the 7 to 8 billion people in every single country,” said Manuela Rios, Strike’s vice president of product, in an interview with CoinDesk. Rios says the app’s new user interface will feature a seamless onboarding experience, something she said the company has been working on for years. Strike, led by Jack Mallers, currently operates in the U.S. and El Salvador. “If you are in the United States the apps are gorgeous; there's a really high bar for design,” Rios explained. “Unfortunately that's not the case when you download apps abroad.”
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💰 US Bitcoin Corp Secures Hosting Contracts With 150,000 Bitcoin Mining Machines
US Data Mining Group or US Bitcoin Corp (USBTC), a major industrial-scale operator of Bitcoin mining websites for both self-mining and hosted machines, announced that it has finalized web hosting contracts for a total of approximately 150,000 machines with major mining companies such as Marathon Digital, Foundry USA, Sphere 3D, Decimal Group, and TeslaWatt. USBTC will host these machines in its Charlie, Delta, and Echo facilities, which are managed by the company’s subsidiary US Mining Infrastructure Operations (USMIO).
USMIO offers site owners a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive site management system that covers all areas of site operations, including as accounting, curtailment, and customer interactions. The transactions highlight the apparent recovery in the mining sector, which is attempting to recover after a difficult 2022. During last year’s cryptocurrency slump, several significant miners went bankrupt, including Compute North, which was previously hosting the three USBTC sites. The three Bitcoin mines are located in Kearney, Nebraska, Granbury, Texas, and Upton County, Texas. Generate Capital purchased Compute North’s share in two of the locations, one in Nebraska and one in Texas, while the Upton County plant is owned and run in a 50-50 partnership with NextEra Energy (NEE).
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🇰🇷 South Korea Probes Crypto Exchanges Upbit, Bithumb on Ex-Lawmaker's Transfers
South Korean prosecutors searched accounts at major exchanges Upbit and Bithumb, relating to the transfers made by former lawmaker Kim Nam-kuk on Monday. Since last week, Rep. Kim Nam-kuk of the Democratic Party of Korea has been embroiled in accusations of conflict of interest over cryptocurrency withdrawals he made in 2022. Kim also faces accusations that he was trading coins during meetings of the National Assembly's judiciary committee.
Lawmaker Kim Nam-kuk resigned from the main opposition party after his crypto transfers incited controversy. The ruling People Power Party said that it would launch an internal task force to investigate Kim's cryptocurrency transfers on Monday. Rep. Yun Chang-hyeon, who heads the special committee on digital assets will head the task force, along with Rep. Kim Sung-won. Kim resigned from the main opposition Democratic Party on Sunday. Kim resigned from the main opposition Democratic Party on Sunday. a CoinDesk Korea report said. The lawmaker presented himself as a frugal politician while owning 800,000 WEMIX tokens, worth 6 billion won ($4.5 million) between January and February 2022.
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📣 Quadriga CX Bankruptcy Claimants to Get 13% on the Dollar
Former users of the bankrupt Canadian crypto exchange Quadriga CX will soon get a check for 13% of their claim, according to a notice to creditors published late Friday by accounting giant EY. Documents from EY shows Quadriga’s estate owes CAD $303.1 million ($222.3 million) across 17,648 claims from creditors, including Canada Post and the country’s tax authority, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
Filings show that there are 15 claims with a value greater than CAD $1 million, and 28 claims with a value between CAD $500,000 and $999,999. There are also 15,236 claims valued under CAD $10,000. According to EY, CRA determined that Quadriga had not reported income during its 2016 – 2018 fiscal periods and subsequently owes $11.7 million in back taxes. The value of the crypto will be paid out, according to values pegged at April 15, 2019 market prices. EY says that users with bitcoin claims will get CAD $6,739.08 ($7,122.9) per BTC. For Ethereum, users will get CAD $223.45 ($299.45) per ether. bitcoin is trading at $26,737, while ether is currently $1,800.
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📣 IRS, Chainalysis and Ukraine Targeting Russian Crypto Sanctions Evaders Jointly
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and crypto investigations company Chainalysis are working with the Ukraine to target Russian oligarchs who may be using crypto to evade sanctions, according to an announcement Thursday. The IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) division is supporting Ukrainian investigators by providing blockchain analysis tools. The IRS donated licenses from crypto investigations.
Approximately 50 Ukrainian law enforcement officers participated in virtual training, with in-person training still to come. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the countries have used cryptocurrencies to fuel war efforts, evade sanctions and support humanitarian efforts. Evidence indicates that crypto isn't playing a big role in Russia's war effort. Still, U.S. lawmakers remain concerned that Russian oligarchs could be using crypto to circumvent U.S. and European economic sanctions. IRS-CI is responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud. Recently, the IRS filed claims worth nearly $44 billion against the estate of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and its affiliated entities.
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🇪🇺 New Rules on Sharing Crypto Tax Data ‘Unanimously Supported’ by EU Members
New European Union rules allowing tax authorities to share data on people's crypto holdings have been unanimously supported by the bloc’s member states, meaning formal agreement on the law is likely next week, a senior official has said. Last year the European Commission proposed to curb tax evasion using crypto via an eighth amendment to the Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC8).
“EU ambassadors have unanimously supported DAC8, paving the way for an adoption by the ECOFIN next week,” commission official Benjamin Angel tweeted Wednesday, referring to the regular meeting of economic and finance ministers that is due to take place in Brussels on May 16. Another EU official, who asked not to be named, told CoinDesk that, though there had been a “positive spirit” from ambassadors on the measures, they had not been formally agreed, as some governments have not yet received procedural approval from national parliaments. Angel is director at the commission’s tax department, responsible for shepherding the bill through to becoming a law.
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💰 Block Demand Leads to Fee Spike as Bitcoin-Based Meme Coins Flourish
Fees on the Bitcoin blockchain have surged to two-year highs as the ‘Bitcoin Request for Comment’ (BRC-20) tokens and the rising popularity of the Ordinals protocol drives demand for block space. The number of non-fungible tokens (NFT) tied to the Bitcoin blockchain surged above 3 million last week after a one-day spike in activity that mainly consisted of text-based assets, data from Dune Analytics showed.
Average transaction fees on the Bitcoin network were hovering at just under $20 during European hours on Monday, a bump from last week’s average $1.20 level. Such levels were previously seen in May 2021, when bitcoin prices set a then-record peak of $60,000. The tokens, called inscriptions, function on the Ordinals Protocol. Ordinals allows users to embed data into the Bitcoin blockchain by inscribing references to digital art into small bitcoin (BTC)-based transactions. The BRC-20 token standard allows users to issue transferable tokens directly through the network – which has spurred a collection of digital artwork and meme tokens built on Bitcoin.
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📣 Voyager Digital Plans to Liquidate Assets, Wind Down After Sale Dreams Crushed
Lawyers for Voyager Digital say the bankrupt crypto lender will self-liquidate its assets and wind down operations after failing to clinch a deal on a sale to either FTX US or Binance.US. The announcement, made in a court filing on Friday, comes 10 days after Binance US abruptly pulled out of a $1 billion deal to purchase Voyager Digital’s assets following a U.S. government intervention to block part of it. Before the deal with Binance US, the crypto had a deal to sell itself to FTX.
According to the filing, Voyager’s customers will receive an initial recovery of 36% of their crypto holdings – an abysmally low recovery rate compared to both estimates of their recovery rate of 72-73% if either of the acquisition plans were successful, as well as recovery estimates for creditors of other bankrupt crypto platforms. Celsius’ creditors, for example, will receive an estimated 70% of their holdings. The recovery rate could rise, according to the filing, if defunct crypto trading firm Alameda Research’s attempt to claw back $446 million from Voyager’s estate fails. In addition to reserving $446 million of the estate’s holdings for the Alameda suit, Voyager’s lawyers are also withholding an additional $259.6 million for litigation costs.
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📣 Stronghold Digital to Add 400 PH/s Capacity Via 4K Bitcoin Miners From Canaan Subsidiary
Bitcoin miner Stronghold Digital (SDIG) is to host 4,000 mining machines supplied by Cantaloupe Digital, a subsidiary of rig maker Canaan (CAN). The 2,000 A1246 and 2,000 A1346 miners will provide a total capacity of 400 petahash per second (PH/S), according to an emailed announcement on Thursday. The A1246 miners will be installed by May 15, while the A1346 miners will be installed by a month later.
Stronghold has procured around 22,000 miners since August with capacity of 2.2 exahash per second (EH/s) at a cost of $15 million, CEO Greg Beard said. As part of the two-year hosting agreement with Canaan, Stronghold will receive 50% of the bitcoin mined and retain any upside of selling power back to the grid, should the company elect to curtail the usage of the machines to do so. Stronghold was able to organize restructuring deals to fend off the bankruptcies that befell Compute North and Core Scientific (CORZ). Its latest restructuring deal allowed it to postpone payments on $55 million worth of debt until June 2024.
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📣 DCG's CFO Steps Down as Crypto Conglomerate Repays $350M Loan
Crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG) said Chief Financial Officer Michael Kraines stepped down in April and revealed that it fully repaid a $350 million senior secured term loan during the first quarter. Also in the letter, DCG, which is CoinDesk's parent company, reported first-quarter revenue of $180 million, up 63% from the fourth quarter as crypto prices soared, though still down from a year earlier. It also reported a $6 million loss last quarter.
The company was hit hard hit by the collapse of the crypto market last year, and its Genesis lending division ended up in bankruptcy court. DCG lost $1.1 billion in 2022 amid citing plunging crypto prices and the restructuring of Genesis. DCG said that based on its first-quarter performance, it's headed toward 2023 revenue and Ebitda of about $620 million and about $140 million, respectively – excluding the Genesis business, which remains in Chapter 11. It also reported a $6 million loss last quarter, based on adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda).
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📣 Hamas Announces Will No Longer Use Bitcoin Cryptocurrency for Fundraising
Hamas had endorsed crypto as a fundraising method for years, previously developing sophisticated tactics to solicit bitcoin donations, however, developments in technology that track the movement of crypto on the blockchain ledger have made it easier for authorities to identify those behind transfers. The group, Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, Gaza's most powerful armed faction that has fought several wars with Israel over many years.
Policymakers and regulators across the world have for years voiced concern over the illegal use of crypto, from money laundering to the financing of terrorism. Bitcoin and other crypto tokens offer high levels of anonymity, making them attractive to criminals. The group doesn't disclose where its financial resources come from, yet leaders have frequently mentioned donations by individuals across the Muslim world as one key source. Iran has also always been a major financial and military backer of the group, according to officials from both sides. Hamas had endorsed crypto as a fundraising method for years, previously developing sophisticated tactics to solicit bitcoin donations.
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🇬🇧 UK Government Proposes New Tax Policy To Benefit DeFi Users And Crypto Investors
UK Government seeks feedback on changing DeFi tax to align with economic substance & reduce burden. Proposed change won’t treat crypto use in DeFi as disposal for tax purposes, only in non-DeFi transactions. The UK government is seeking feedback on modifying DeFi lending and staking tax treatment. The goal of the consultation is to establish a tax regime that aligns with the economic substance of cryptoassets used in DeFi transactions and reduces administrative burdens on users.
The consultation will run for eight weeks, from 27 April 2023 to 22 June 2023. HMRC invites feedback from investors, professionals, firms engaged in DeFi activities (including technology and financial service firms, trade associations and representative bodies, academic institutions, think tanks, legal, accountancy, and tax advisory firms). The consultation explores a legislative change to the tax treatment of DeFi lending and staking, as well as the lending and staking of cryptoassets done through an intermediary. The DeFi lending and staking tax policy approach aims to be neutral, fair, and practical and is not designed to replace the broader regulatory framework for cryptoassets. The government intends to establish clear tax and regulatory treatment of cryptoassets.
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🇬🇧 The UK FCA Wants To Promote Crypto Market Supervision
According to the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) official website, Sarah Pritchard, executive director of the FCA, stated at the London City Week meeting that the FCA intends to strengthen supervision of encryption marketing and that the rules will be announced after legislation is proposed. This will fall under our purview once the government passes legislation, and companies will have four months to implement the changes. After the legislation is introduced, the rules will be published.
Furthermore, the FCA has been collaborating closely with the government to develop proposals to regulate stablecoins that can be used for payments, as well as to hold consultations on the regulation of the broader crypto asset regime, on which the public can comment until April 30. The Ministry of Finance may also decide to implement a reciprocal registration system for foreign crypto companies in the future. Pritchard stated that she hopes to solicit industry feedback in order to establish the proper regulatory system for digital assets. She described cryptocurrency as a “one-time symbol of alternative rebellion” but admitted that it has grown in popularity.
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📣 Terra's Do Kwon Wants SEC Charges Dismissed, Court Filings Show
Lawyers for Do Kwon, founder of collapsed crypto issuer Terraform Labs, have requested a U.S. court to dismiss charges brought against him by the Securities and Exchange Commission partly because of the lack of jurisdiction, court filings from Friday show. Kwon, who has been on the run from regulators since the collapse of his multibillion-dollar crypto enterprise in May 2022, was arrested in Montenegro last month for attempting to travel with falsified documents.
In its civil lawsuit against Kwon, the SEC failed to prove "personal jurisdiction" as products referenced by the regulator were "available to the world and not directed at U.S. persons," a 47-page supporting document for a motion to dismiss the charges said. It also says that a digital asset involved in the case, the stablecoin UST, doesn't fall under the purview of the SEC because it is a currency and not a security. The company also didn't conduct any public offerings of securities that warranted an SEC registration, according to Kwon's representatives. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has been facing mounting criticism for regulating crypto through enforcement actions.
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🪙 Tornado Cash DAO Suffers Major Setback As Fraudulent Votes Lead to 40% Token Drop
Over the weekend, an unidentified attacker or group of attackers have taken over The DAO that handles all operations, funds, and future plans of Tornado Cash, a privacy-focused crypto mixer. Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) allow token holders to lock up their holdings as votes to propose changes to a project. These changes can range from deploying treasury funds to purposes that benefit the project to expansion on other networks.
The attacker floated a malicious proposal that hid a code function to grant them fake votes that can now be used to handle some aspects of Tornado Cash, such as torn (TORN) tokens held in the main governance contract or withdrawal of locked torn tokens. This was done by putting forth a proposal that imitated an earlier version, except with some malicious code that allowed for the update of logic, giving the attacker access to all governance votes. As a result, the attacker now has all votes, which means that they have complete control over the DAO. Security researcher @samczsun tweeted on Sunday that “Now that they have all the votes, they can do whatever they want
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💰 Ripple Appoints Market Research Firm Nielsen's CFO Jenson to Board
Blockchain firm Ripple appointed the CFO of market research firm Nielsen, Warren Jenson, to its board, the firm said on Friday. “For cryptocurrency to successfully deliver on its potential to revolutionize traditional financial infrastructure, companies in the space must prioritize transparency,” Jenson said in a release. “I’m excited to bring my experience to the company and share Ripple’s commitment to upholding the highest standards.”
Jenson joins a list of notable figures on Ripple’s board, including ex-U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios, JPMorgan Chase's former Chief Regulatory Affairs Officer Sandie O’Connor, and Managing Director of Albright Stonebridge Group Michael Warren. Recently, Ripple announced it had purchased Swiss crypto custody firm Metaco for $250 million. The acquisition was part of Ripple's plan to diversify its services and expand globally, amidst U.S. regulatory challenges. Jenson said in a release. “I’m excited to bring my experience to the company and share Ripple’s commitment to upholding the highest standards.”
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🪙 Tether Uses 15% Of Its Net Realized Operating Profits To Purchase Bitcoin
Tether, the stablecoin issuer, has announced that it would acquire Bitcoin using 15% of its monthly earnings from investing in US government bonds. This is said to be part of an effort to lessen reliance on US government bonds. The stablecoin issuer said in a May 17 corporate statement that it would self-custody the bought BTC, adding that its acquisition would concentrate only on realized profits from its investing strategy, ignoring unrealized capital gains earned by price rises.
The news comes only a week after the stablecoin issuer declared $1.5 billion in net earnings in its quarterly financial report. It has $1.5 billion in Bitcoin on hand at the end of the first quarter of 2023, accounting for around 2% of its total reserves. Cash, cash equivalents, and other short-term deposits accounted for 85% of the assets, with Treasury bills ranking first. If the net profit remains constant, the company will purchase around $74 million, or approximately 2775 BTC, each month in the future. The issuer, on the other hand, anticipates that the existing and future BTC holdings in its reserves will not exceed the Shareholder Capital Cushion, therefore strengthening and diversifying the reserves.
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📣 Jump Trading Allegedly Profited $1.3 Billion From Price Manipulation TerraUSD
A lawsuit has been filed in Illinois district court alleging that Jump Trading engaged in price manipulation of TerraUSD (UST), an algorithmic stablecoin, through a partnership with Terraform Labs. According to court documents, Jump Trading purchased millions of UST tokens in 2021 to manipulate their value to reach $1, violating the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations. The lawsuit also accuses Jump of getting rich illegally.
Specifically, in May 2021, when the UST stablecoin algorithm failed to maintain a fixed $1, Terraform and its CEO Do Kwon allegedly coordinated transactions with Jump to manipulate the market price for UST and aUST. To encourage Jump manipulation, Terra and Kwon agreed to amend their previous agreements and transfer over 61.4 million LUNA tokens to Jump at a high discount. Jump later sold back with a profit of more than 1.28 billion USD. Jump is the leading financial backer of Terraform Labs and has borrowed tens of millions of LUNA tokens in exchange for market-making services for transactions in LUNA, UST, and aUST.
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📣 Cosmos blockchain Neutron goes live on mainnet with replicated security
Neutron became the first Cosmos blockchain to launch using replicated security on Thursday. Replicated security enables blockchains in the Cosmos ecosystem to rely on the validator set of the Cosmos Hub for their security. This is instead of the blockchain maintaining its own security through a network of validators. By leaning on Cosmos Hub, blockchains in the Cosmos ecosystem are able to exist and fulfil their goals.
Neutron serves as a platform for issuing smart contracts using CosmWasm, a computational environment within the Cosmos ecosystem. By aligning closely with the Cosmos Hub and benefiting from its high security, Neutron aims to provide cross-chain smart contract applications for the Cosmos ecosystem. "By closely aligning the chain with the Cosmos Hub, the first and central Cosmos chain and benefiting from its high security, we have been able to focus on resolving the cross-chain limitations that smart contract applications were facing in Cosmos," said Avril Dutheil, general manager at Neutron.
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📣 U.S. Crypto Exchange Bittrex Files for Bankruptcy in Delaware
Crypto exchange Bittrex has filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. state of Delaware on Monday, months after announcing it would wind down operations in the country and weeks after being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The exchange believes it has more than 100,000 creditors, with estimated liabilities and assets both within the $500 million to $1 billion range, according to a court filing shared by Randall Reese of Chapter 11 Dockets, a bankruptcy tracker.
Bittrex's U.S. branch has had a rough 2023 so far, laying off 80 people in February and announcing in March that it would end all operations by the end of April. These changes have not affected Bittrex Global, the non-U.S. crypto exchange. Despite Bittrex's impending exit from the U.S., the SEC sued it in mid-April on allegations it operated a national securities exchange, broker and clearing agency. The SEC also sued former Bittrex CEO Bill Shihara and Bittrex Global. Bittrex Global CEO Oliver Linch said last month that the exchange intended to fight these charges in court, but a bankruptcy proceeding may make this more difficult.
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🪙 The Number Of Ethereum Wallets Holding More Than 1 Coin Hits A New 30-Day High
Following Shanghai’s execution last month, the network has shown that the majority of Ethereum aficionados are still keen to begin staking. The proof is that the number of addresses holding over 1 ETH has hit a new 30-day high. Glassnode data shows that the number of addresses holding more than 1 Ethereum reached 1,750,726, a new one-month high. ETH’s price is currently trading at $1,890. However, a day earlier, the $2000 level was tested again.
Ethereum’s historic Shanghai upgrade, it’s time to examine some of the main staking lessons. With the Shanghai update, Ethereum investors may finally withdraw their assets from the mainnet. Some have been expecting to do so since December 2020, when the staking option was first offered. For over a year, Ethereum pricing has struggled to close above a critical resistance level, and it is now trying to do so again after failing to do so earlier this month. This important psychological threshold is also linked to approximately 24% of the total circulating quantity of ETH, making a breach much more significant. PEPE, a new memecoin, has resulted in an increase in Ethereum active deposits.
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🐸 Ethereum Gas Fee Surges to 12-Month High as PEPE Frenzy Grips Market
Ethereum is becoming costlier to use as the latest meme coin mania has investors churning millions for a frog-themed token called pepecoin (PEPE). The daily median gas price, or transaction cost, hit a 12-month high of 87 gwei – one gwei is a billionth of an ether (ETH) – early this week. The value has increased more than 50% since the launch of the PEPE token on April 18.
The increase represents strong demand for the Ethereum network, mainly from meme-coin traders, according to analytics firm CoinMetrics. As bitcoin (BTC) "births a nascent memecoin scene, the ETH ecosystem continues to crank out multi-million dollar altcoins," CoinMetrics said in a weekly note sent to subscribers on Thursday. "ERC-20 heavyweight PEPE ('the most memeable memecoin in existence') soared +300% over the weekend, snagging a near-$600M fully-diluted valuation." Ethereum-based decentralized exchange Uniswap's pepecoin-wrapped ether (PEPE-WETH) liquidity pools recently became the most active liquidity pool by the number of transactions.
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🟠 Binance: ‘Thousands’ of accounts blocked needlessly
Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency trading platform, has long been the subject of intense public, political and regulatory scrutiny worldwide. While some critics allege the company hasn't done enough on the compliance front, it now appears the exchange might have gone too far in the opposite direction. Among the most controversial allegations: reports the company serviced traders and firms in Iran for years, despite U.S. sanctions that forbid such activity.
To be clear, just because you're Iranian doesn't mean you are prohibited from using Binance services. You just can't live there. In thousands of cases, however, the company failed to make that distinction, with some Iranian customers having their accounts blocked when they should not have been. Binance’s Global Head of Sanctions Chagri Poyraz said that while his company has come a long way in terms of improving compliance protocols, especially since last year, the trading platform’s efforts to rid its database of sanctioned clients often resulted in customers having their accounts blocked.
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📣 Crypto Firm FARE Protocol Raises $6.2M Ahead of Token Launch
FARE Protocol has raised $6.2 million in a seed round led by Goat Capital – the firm managed by Twitch founder Justin Kan – and C Squared Ventures. The fundraise comes ahead of the ecosystem and native token launch on Ethereum layer 2 blockchain Arbitrum later this year. Arbitrum was recently at the center of one of the most-hyped events in recent memory: an airdrop of its long-awaited ARB token to early builders, users and investors.
The FARE ecosystem is built on probability smart contracts, which are triggered by transparent on-chain events based on probability variables. The first use case for the contracts is randomized minting and burning (or “winning” and “losing”) of the FARE token. The system is designed so the probability of losing or burning a token is higher than minting or winning, similar to how a real-world casino operates. Instead of a centralized “house” getting the profits, the collected FARE tokens are distributed to the ecosystem. The event came with some controversy related to the Arbitrum DAO prematurely moving nearly $1 billion of the tokens to the Arbitrum Foundation.
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🟠 While Binance battles regulators, its $9 billion VC arm keeps growing
Now that Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, and its CEO Changpeng Zhao are being sued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over unregistered trading activity in the United States, one might expect the business to steer clear of venture investments in the region. But Binance is nothing if not a risk-taker. “It doesn’t really touch Labs in any way that I can think of,” Yibo Ling, chief business officer at Binance, said of U.S. regulatory pressure.
Binance Labs had amassed $9 billion in assets, up from $7.5 billion in August of last year, according to a spokesperson. Its money is invested in over 200 projects from more than 25 countries in six continents. Of those, 50 have been incubated by Binance Labs. On paper, the venture business has generated significant returns. Binance’s spokesperson said the outfit has delivered a theoretical return of more than 10 times what it has invested. Yet Binance seemingly has no plans to sell. “We’re buying and holding, that’s been the strategy over the past few years. With maybe a handful of exceptions, we haven’t exited,” Ling said.
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💰 Mt. Gox Will Limit Impact On Bitcoin Price: Report
Bitcoin (BTC) fell 8% in the United States on Wednesday afternoon on suspicions that wallets linked to the collapsed crypto exchange Mt. Gox and the United States government are conducting transactions, according to a report Thursday from crypto-services provider Matrixport. According to Matrixport, it has examined the possible market impact of the Mt. Gox haul and concluded that such a scenario would have a minimal influence on the BTC price.
The Mt. Gox attack resulted in the loss of 850,000 BTC, which were worth $500 million at the time and are now worth $17.8 billion, with only 200,000 recovered. According to the letter, creditors will get a basic payment with four alternatives for receiving the balance of their assets. Customers may recover 15%-20% of their lost cash by early lump-sum payback, reimburse by bank remittance, repay for a part of crypto claims rehabilitation in bitcoin, or refund through a fund transfer service provider. The deadline for repayments of $1.7 billion in cash, 141,000 BTC, and another 142,000 BCH as part of a civil rehabilitation plan is September 30.
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📣 Globix Crypto Assets Freeze During Hunt For Lost $43 Million
According to the Financial Times, the liquidator of the insolvent cryptocurrency dealer Globix has got a court order freezing digital assets and forcing Globix to give over customers while looking for $43 million in missing payments. A court injunction issued earlier this month in Gibraltar ordered Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, to stop attempting to transfer funds from multiple Globix-linked crypto wallets.
Globix’s investors are mostly from Gibraltar and the United Kingdom, according to reports. The exchange was decommissioned last year. Miracle World Ventures Ltd, a corporation formed in the British Virgin Islands (“BVI”), filed for liquidation on March 10 this year. Globix was attempting to create a niche in cryptocurrency investment by allowing investors to choose automated trading techniques to select attractively priced coins but was caught off guard by the extraordinary crypto slump last summer. The asset injunction has raised concerns that Gibraltar’s aim to become a world-leading jurisdiction that appropriately controls digital asset enterprises would be jeopardized.
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🪙 Ethereum beacon chain sees 1.37 million ETH moved in wake of Shapella
The Ethereum Shapella upgrade, which enabled the withdrawal of staked ETH, was activated on April 12.On-chain analytics firm IntoTheBlock provides an insight into what transpired on the ETH network in the last 10 days since the Shapella upgrade was activated. According to IntoTheBlock, 1.37 million ETH have already been withdrawn.
Notably, this has not been the only side, as deposits have risen as well after the Shapella upgrade. IntoTheBlock notes that 650,000 ETH have been deposited. Taking this into account, the result is a net withdrawal of 720,000 ETH.As reported, following the Ethereum Shapella upgrade, the share of deposits by staking providers has changed significantly. IntoTheBlock observes an unexpected staking share increase for institutional staking providers and Asian CEXs.Meanwhile, after the successful Shapella upgrade, as reported by Wu Blockchain, Ethereum developers are planning for the next major upgrade per a new ACDC call.
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