5104
По рекламе: @Proekt77
Crypto analogue of Bloomberg Terminal raised $5.3 million from Dragonfly
AI-powered Cryptocurrency News Search Engine Raises Over $5M Investment
An analogue of Bloomberg Terminal with an emphasis on cryptocurrency news, Kaito attracted $5.3 million in investments. About it writes TechCrunch with reference to the CEO of the company. The investment round was led by venture capital firm Dragonfly Capital. The pool of investors also included Sequoia Capital, Jane Street and others.
It is reported that the raised funds will be used to expand the team, as well as to accelerate product development. At the same time, Kaito is already negotiating with Binance, OpenAI and Dragonfly about a new investment round.
Kaito wants to provide users with a search platform independent of Google, with a focus on cryptocurrency. According to the head of the project, Yu Hu, Google is hindering the development of the crypto market due to constant changes in relation to the industry.
The Kaito search engine lists Twitter, Discord, decentralized finance protocol forums, podcasts, and blogs as sources. The current alpha version of Kaito is able to distinguish between facts and opinions in the output.
The startup is also working on ChatGPT/GPT-3 integration, but the details of the innovation remain undisclosed. In the future, Kaito wants to display on-chain data through providers like Glassnode and Dune Analytics.
Also, Kaito wants to eventually create a community based on the token. The project will be similar to Wikipedia, where users can contribute to the platform through a tiered token ranking system, Hu said.
According to the founder of Kaito, in the long term there will be a separate layer of people who will connect their Internet activity with the blockchain. According to Hu, people will become more active in posting their work on the blockchain, and Kaito can become an analogue of the Bing search engine for searching data within blockchain networks.
However, so far the service is still at the very beginning of development and is available only for institutional investors. It is expected that access to retail investors will be opened in the second quarter of 2023, but the approximate launch date has not been disclosed.
The Litecoin cryptocurrency network has an option to create NFT
On the Litecoin cryptocurrency (LTC) blockchain, it became possible to produce NFT using the ORDINALS protocol originally designed for the Bitcoin network.
Now LTC users can create NFT thanks to Anthony Herrere engineer engineer. He developed fork Ordinals for the Litecoin network, compatible with the update of Mimblewimble, which was not implemented on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Herrera claims that it is cheaper to produce NFT in the LTC network than on the BTC blockchain. In addition, Mimblewimble allows you to anonymously send coins before creating the so -called “digital artifacts” or “inscriptions”. Thanks to this, people can keep their identity secret.
The first NFT Inscription 0, which is a white book by Mimblewimble, appeared on the Litecoin blockchain February 19.
Anthony received as a reward for the 22 LTC (about $ 2100) from a group of philanthropists for the work done, among whom was a person under the pseudonym Indigo Nakamoto, who promised to pay 5 LTC for porting ORDINALS to the LITECOIN network.
Deceased MakerDAO co-founder's DeFi principles published
Three months after the mysterious death of 29-year-old Nikolai Musheghyan, his colleague published a set of principles written by the co-founder of MakerDAO. These rules were being prepared for the latest development, the Rico stablecoin platform.
The manifesto addressed various aspects of the development of decentralized finance (DeFi) technologies, building an ecosystem and working with potential users.
Ethereum (ETH) developer Brian McMichael said that shortly before Musheghyan's death, he compiled a set of current rules for cryptocurrencies.
He noted that he had decided to partially publish them to the public. First, according to the programmer, each project should prioritize the creation of a system of incentives.
According to Musheghyan, this is the natural law of the DeFi segment. The team should then focus on "reliable neutrality". A secure and trustworthy neutral system will leave all competitors behind.
New DeFi startups will benefit from the integration of "power users", i.e. customers interested in improving the project.
The developer noted that "synthetic assets" will catalyze the growth of Web3 protocols. Creators and marketers of cryptocurrencies must be honest about their products. Teams must not advertise platforms in a misleading manner.
The specialist assured that when creating services, teams should avoid playing “decentralization theaters”. According to him, any centralization point, including interfaces or GitHub repositories, can be hacked. True decentralization will allow the mechanics of the protocol to defend itself on its own.
Finally, he added that proper DeFi design should be auditable. In this case, not only cybersecurity providers will be able to check the system, but also "power users" with few resources.
Bank DBS drew attention to the surge in activity of bitcoin traders
Singapore bank DBS launched its own crypto platform in 2020. It was created exclusively for institutional investors, but the financial giant promised to make it available to other categories of traders in the future.
Despite the dominance of bearish sentiment in the cryptosphere in 2022, the volume of bitcoin trading on the bank-owned DDEx exchange increased by 80%, according to Bloomberg. The amount of transactions with ether increased by approximately 65%.
The biggest surge in activity of traders was observed in August after the collapse of the market in May and June.
In parallel, DDEx recorded an increase in the number of users. Last year alone, more than 1,200 new investors registered on the platform.
According to DBS Digital Exchange CEO Lionel Lima, investors' attention is increasingly shifting to regulated exchanges. Such sites are able to provide protection for investors.
The top manager also noted:
As a regulated digital exchange backed by the DBS Group, we offer many unique tools that investors value as they seek trusted gateways to access digital assets.
The second largest Swiss bank has invested in a startup Taurus
In addition to Swiss bankers, Taurus' investors included German Deutsche Bank, Swiss Pictet Group, Arab Bank Switzerland, British company Investis and Lebanese Cedar Mundi Ventures.
“The strategic partnership with Taurus is the cornerstone of our bank's digital asset strategy. We aim to be the leading Swiss bank in this area,” Credit Suisse said.
Startup co-founder Sebastian Dessimoz believes that the traditional financial system will have more and more connections with the digital asset sphere over time. Now Taurus plans to open offices in Paris and Dubai, enter the markets of Southeast Asia and America.
This is not Credit Suisse's only crypto project. The bank is already cooperating with Fnality, AlgoTrader and FundsDLT. Taurus has been working with a Swiss bank for several years.
In 2021, as part of a partnership, Credit Suisse tokenized on Ethereum the shares of Alaïa SA, which owns a chalet and hotel in the Swiss ski resort of Crans Montana.
Since February 2021, Swiss law requires that tokenized securities receive the same legal status as traditional securities.
Media: American regulator considers Busd a security and can go to court
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused the issuer stablecoin - Paxos Trust Co. - In violation of the US law on the protection of investors. This was reported by The Wall Street Journal.
SEC sent a special notification (WELLS notification), which the regulator uses to inform companies about planned forced actions. Sources say that the Binance USD Steblcoin document is called unregistered security.
After receiving Wells of Wells, the company is provided for 30 days to respond to it using a legal note (the performance of Wells), which includes arguments proving why the charges should not be made.
The representative of Binance, in response to a request from the publication Cointelegraph, said that BUSD is a “product produced and belonging to PAXOS”, and BINANCE just issued a Busd promotion license.
He also added that the PaxOS is regulated by the Department of Financial Services of New York (NYDFS) and that BUSD is a “stabblecoin, provided 1 to 1”: “Steabelcoins are critical insurance for investors seeking salvation from unstable markets, and their access restriction will be drawn by a straight line The harm to millions of people around the world.
We will continue to monitor the situation. Our global users have a wide selection of affordable stablecoins. ”
Last week ended that the popular Kraken cryptocurrency exchange settled its problems with the SEC, agreeing to pay a fine and ban on her platform streaming cryptocurrencies.
Such Crusades should push other cryptocurrency exchanges on their own, on their own initiative to turn to the SEC for a blessing, as always advised the agency. In response to the active actions of the SEC in relation to Kraken and Stayking, Bitcoin fell to $ 21,500.
Phantom wallet integrates anti-phishing standard
The Phantom Crypto Wallet app has added support for Sign In With (SIW) standards to improve user security and protect against phishing attacks.
The Phantom Crypto Wallet will provide users with the necessary information when interacting with decentralized applications (dApps) that comply with certain security standards for Solana and Ethereum crypto users, including Sign In With X (CAIP-122) and Sign In With Ethereum (EIP-4361).
These standards help cryptographic accounts authenticate securely with offline services by signing a message. The new feature is an addition to the Phantom security suite and is left to the discretion of the dApps team.
If a dApp implements the SIW format but has invalid fields, Phantom will issue a warning to users. To prevent signature replay attacks, the wallet will display pop-up fields that reflect information such as the site's domain name and nonce.
Such attacks occur when an attacker intercepts a digital signature and then uses it to gain unauthorized access.
Digital signatures are used to authenticate transactions and messages, but if an attacker succeeds in intercepting them, he can bypass the authentication process and gain access to sensitive data and steal assets.
Head of EminiFX may plead guilty to crypto fraud
EminiFX CEO Eddie Alexander is expected to plead guilty to alleged crypto fraud. Representatives of the federal prosecutor's office believe that the businessman defrauded his consumers of about $59 million.
Oleksandr was arrested back in May 2022 and charged with wire fraud.
The businessman initially pleaded not guilty, but court records indicate that he may change his statement in a new hearing later in the week. Representatives of the Inner City Press were the first to report this.
Eddie Alexander, as CEO of EminiFX, implemented a standard Ponzi scheme, according to prosecutors. He promised investors to double the funds within a few months.
At the same time, a weekly guaranteed yield of 5% was announced. Representatives of the federal authorities found that Alexander spent most of the proceeds on a luxurious life.
At the same time, prosecutors noted that the entrepreneur provided fictitious account statements to investors, which showed that their investments were steadily growing by 5-10% weekly.
Despite the alleged fraud, many of the clients continued to support Eddie Alexander. Journalists from Bloomberg reported that last year, supporters of the disgraced businessman from all over the world supported him en masse.
Some of them even claimed that the case against him could be considered racist because he was black. According to experts, if Eddie Alexander does not admit his guilt, but it is proven in court, then he faces up to 30 years in prison.
PeckShield reveals fake tokens for Damus social network app
Security firm PeckShield has reported fake tokens for social media app Damus, which it has identified as a scam.
The firm uncovered 15 fake tokens posing as the official tokens of Damus, a new social networking decentralized application that recently made it to the top 10 free apps on the US iOS store.
Fake tokens are issued on Ethereum and BNB Chain and contain malicious features, such as one of 15 fraudulent tokens preventing holders from selling their tokens. PeckShield noted that most of these tokens have a 100% sales tax, which is a way to steal all funds when buyers try to transfer.
PeckShield has advised users to remain vigilant and cautious.
Fraudsters are always taking advantage of newly emerging apps to scam users for profit. And we need to keep an eye on these fake tokens and be on the lookout,” said Xiuxian Jiang, founder and CEO of PeckShield.
The Damus team also released an important statement:
Damus does not have a token and never will. If you bought a DAMUS token, you were deceived, - it is written in a Twitter banned in Russia.
WisdomTree reports losses due to falling crypto assets
The company posted a net loss of $28.3 million for this period compared to a profit of $11.2 million for the same period last year. Operating revenue decreased to $73.3 million from $79.2 million in the previous fourth quarter.
The company's shares are down 2% as of 10:47 am ET.
WisdomTree's digital asset strategy focuses on both the spread of cryptocurrencies and traditional assets in the digital ecosystem through tokens and funds, the results presentation says.
He talked about his new WisdomTree Prime digital wallet, which will allow users to spend, transfer and invest digital assets. There is currently a waiting list to try the product.
WisdomTree's net inflow was $5.3 billion, "primarily from fixed income capital inflows, U.S. equities and commodities." Net flows specifically from cryptocurrencies amounted to $4 million.
“With a net inflow of over $12 billion in 2022, WisdomTree ended the year with record assets under management,” said COO and President Jarett Lilien.
Burling Bank and crypto startup LevelField agree to merge
According to media reports, upon completion of the transaction, LevelField will position itself as a traditional bank that issues loans and deposits in digital currencies.
The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal, but it became known that LevelField could acquire Burling for a price of 2.6 times the bank's book value, which as of December 31, 2022 was $200 million.
By acquiring Burling, LevelField intends to expand its presence at the national level and enter the financial services market not only as a traditional bank offering typical retail banking services, but also providing services to professional traders and servicing cryptocurrency deposits.
LevelField founder and CEO Gene Grant said that providing banking services to traders will remain a core business, with crypto transactions accounting for no more than half of the bank's services.
His team does not intend to “take on potential crypto risks” and will require borrowers to back their loans not only with the value of crypto assets, but also with other traditional assets.
Crypto Rover Analyst Expects Bitcoin Bearish Scenario
As the price of bitcoin fell below $23,000 on January 31, well-known crypto analyst Crypto Rover said that the region is a key support.
In a recent YouTube video, he shared an analysis of the possible scenarios that could play out in the long term, depending on bitcoin price action.
After highlighting several levels of support from the stats, the analyst determined that a break below would send the price lower towards the next significant support at $21,200.
In addition, the analyst does not exclude a dip below the current support, as he identified the hidden bullish divergence of the Relative Strength Index (RSI) in the early stages of the chart.
This divergence is reflected in the 4-hour, 12-hour and daily time frames, which led the expert to suggest that the current pullback may be the expected market consolidation.
However, Bitcoin is still in a bullish trend and Rover confirms this. He noted that a break below current support would provide an opportunity to increase trading margins at a lower level. He said that he will wait for the current level to see what happens in the near future.
Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) forms a clear bearish signal, which further supports the view that it is necessary to wait out the current volatility.
As a result, Rover concluded that a confirmed break below the current support would chart the next support at $21,200, while a rebound from the current support could see Bitcoin break the next resistance at $25,500.
The Senate received a bill to legalize crypto payments in Congress
Senator Ted Cruz, representing the Republican Party, introduced a bill to legalize crypto payments in Congress.
The document allows the use of digital currencies when paying for goods and services on Capitol Hill.
Cruz is known as an advocate for the expansion of blockchain infrastructure. The bill, introduced in the US Senate, states that officials serving in Congress will be able to visit restaurants and stores that support crypto payments.
The bill does not need the president's signature to enter into force. Enough his approval in the Senate and the House of Representatives.
However, the document does not specify which cryptocurrencies can be used.
Most likely, Ted Cruz is in favor of the legalization of bitcoin, as this politician represents the camp of supporters of the leading digital currency.
In addition, the senator calls for the creation of conditions in the United States for a more accelerated development of the mining industry.
In November 2022, at a summit in Texas, Ted Cruz said that many US states could become the largest miners, thanks to a developed energy infrastructure.
Blockchain-based platform StoryCo raises $6M
The seed round was led by Collab+Currency and Patron. According to the company, other investors include Blockchange Ventures, Sfermion, Flamingo DAO, Packy McCormick and GMoney.
The StoryCo platform is designed to enable creators to work together with fans to co-develop media content. Its first story universe is The Disco Ball, which will be led by story architect Kyle Killen and artists Shelby and Sandy.
Disco Ball is a space-themed story in which Captain Alma Cook and a team of astronauts try to save the multiverse with the help of the StoryCo community. The community will participate by discovering artifacts and completing quests as the story unfolds on the platform.
This is the latest attempt to use blockchain technology for interactive media content. Others include a community-created novel written in collaboration with best-selling author Neil Strauss called Boring and Dangerous.
“StoryCo has paved the way for an entirely new form of storytelling that allows for a freedom of creative expression that hasn’t existed before,” said Killen, formerly a showrunner on Paramount Plus’ Halo series.
Individuals can become part of the community by subscribing to the StoryPass NFT, which allows a collection of digital art to be collected as part of a story.
Blockstream Crypto Company Raises $125M
The company will use the money to expand its institutional bitcoin mining co-location services at a time when others in the industry are struggling to stay afloat due to a prolonged downturn in the mining economy.
"Demand for Blockstream's hosting services remains strong due to the company's extensive experience and significant scale, coupled with the lack of available capacity in the industry," the company said in a statement.
Blockstream is currently developing over 500 megawatts. Its business also extends into Tier 2 hardware and technologies such as Core Lightning.
The abandonment of large-scale centralized parties and protocols last year and “the resulting shift towards security and decentralization provides market participants with an opportunity to move to non-custodial architectures based on bitcoin,” said CEO Adam Back.
The company has already raised $210 million in a Series B round in 2021. Bloomberg reported in December that it was seeking new funds at a significantly lower valuation than before.
Moody's downgrades Silvergate Bank and Silvergate Capital
According to analysts from the Moody's rating agency, the loss arose due to the discount sale of a significant part of the investment portfolio of Silvergate holding, caused by a sharp decrease in balances on deposits of cryptocurrency projects serviced by the bank.
As a result of these transactions, Silvergate's share capital decreased to $600 million in the fourth quarter from $1.3 billion in the third quarter. The rating agency's experts say that in the long term, the outlook for Silvergate remains negative.
"B3" is the last step, which means a "highly speculative" degree of credit risk of the issuer and below which the agency has a rating of "Caa" - "significant risk, the issuer is in a difficult situation."
According to Moody's, management was an important factor in the downgrade to B3. This risk has a significant negative impact on the credit ratings of the entire holding. This is not only a significant realized loss on its investment portfolio, but also operational risks associated with the reduction of 40% of the bank's staff.
Complicating matters, Moody's notes, are growing legal and regulatory risks for the cryptocurrency industry, which highlight the weaknesses in Silvergate's management in terms of risk, ability to properly assess and respond to rapidly changing operating conditions.
In January, the rating agency Moody’s notified the crypto community about the start of work on the creation of a scoring system for analyzing the risks of stablecoins. The future platform is expected to support at least 20 digital assets.
The Illinois state submits a bill on the prohibition of invariability of the blockchain
At the beginning of the month, Senator from Illinois Robert Peters submitted a bill entitled “Law on the Protection of Digital Property and Law Enforcement Actions”, according to which transactions in the blockchain may be subject to change or cancellation by order of the court.
The court may make this decision at the request of the Prosecutor General or the state prosecutor.
The law will apply to any blockchain network in which a transaction is executed on the territory of the state. For each day of non -fulfillment of the court decision, miners and validators of the blockchain can be fined from $ 5,000 to $ 10,000.
A lawyer from the state of Florida Drew Hinkes drew attention to the document. He called him the most ineffective state law related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Hinks wrote on Twitter that Illinois has always been a supporter of innovation, but this initiative will become a turn in the opposite direction.
The lawyer recognized the need to protect consumer rights, but nodes operators will not be able to observe the bill proposed by Senator Peters.
Otherwise, a new criminal and civil liability will arise for them from the fear of applying a fine. Hinks is also amazed that validators who have not taken reasonable actions to execute a court decision will not be able to count on the protection of their rights.
“Get ready” with ”your blockchain! Yes, Illinois will force you to rewrite the blockchain, in particular, include the code in the smart contract, which will ensure the execution of the court order. And if you do not do this, they can be disguised, ”Hinks ironizes.
The crypto community also laughed at Peters’s bill. Users considered it funny that, by decision of the court, transactions should somehow be changed without the need to use a closed key of participants.
Many are perplexed why politicians offer such bills, not understanding how the technology works. Constantly is a key characteristic of blockchain technology and a distributed registry (DLT), they do not have a coercion mechanism that can be involved in the courts.
South Korea invests $173 million in the development of the metaverse
The Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology of South Korea has announced that it will invest more than 223 billion won in the development of the local metaverse industry. Investments of more than $173 million will be used to create metaverse laboratories, academies, graduate schools, etc.
The ministry plans to develop the metaverse industry by promoting and supporting customer-focused projects. The agency will support platform development, talent and technology development. The goal is to enter the fast growing market of the metaverse.
Of the 223 billion won, 68 billion will be allocated to the metaverse platform, which will be different from the existing ones. Some of the funds will also be used to build artificial intelligence and a disaster management system in the Chuncheon region of South Korea. This project was presented back in 2021.
In an effort to nurture Metaverse developers, creators, and other talents in the Metaverse industry, the Ministry will invest 3.5 billion won to establish Metaverse graduate schools. 2.8 billion won will be invested in the construction of 12 metaverse laboratories for masters and doctoral students.
In addition, 24.7 billion won will be invested in the creation of specialized metaverse facilities, including an integrated base facility for business support in the Pangyo region, a Korean virtual and augmented reality complex in Sangam, an XR regional production center, a hologram content service center in Iksan, and etc.
Marketplace Algorand NFT Rand Gallery buys data aggregator NFT Explorer
Rand Gallery, the largest NFT marketplace on the Algorand blockchain, has acquired the NFT Explorer data aggregator.
The deal allows Rand Gallery to own "a complete vertical stack of NFTs" as it aims to become "the central hub for all NFTs, including music and games, and a trusted web3 partner for brands looking to offer NFTs to their customers," the post reads.
Last year, Rand Gallery itself was acquired by a startup called Distributed Finance for $2.5 million. Distributed Finance, founded by Ross Murray-Jones and Agash Navarajan, creator of investment DAOs on Algorand.
Rand Gallery declined to disclose the terms of the acquisition of NFT Explorer, while noting that the amount paid was less than last year's deal.
“NFTx and Rand have always had a special, symbiotic relationship as they share a third of each other's traffic,” said Murray-Jones, CEO of Rand Gallery.
It will “strengthen significantly under one umbrella, such as buying/selling on NFTx and adding rarity along with other data analytics in Rand. Both platforms will develop into an NFT experience unmatched by other networks and thus play an outstanding role in Algorand's growth.”
Mining company Iris Energy installed 44,000 new devices
In a press release from Iris Energy, it is noted that now the total hashrate of the company's equipment reaches 5.5 Eh / s, while until recently the figure was only 2 Eh / s.
Bitmain Antminer S19j Pro devices were chosen to expand the business. The maximum hashrate of such a device reaches 100 Tx / s, and the company has purchased approximately 44,000 devices.
As Iris Energy CEO Daniel Roberts emphasized, the purchase of equipment “was a significant milestone for the company,” especially given the crisis in the cryptocurrency market.
Iris Energy data centers are located in the Canadian province of British Columbia and in the US state of Texas. To purchase additional equipment, the company used debt obligations from Bitmain in the amount of $67 million.
Last fall, two subsidiaries of Iris Energy announced a technical default. They failed to fulfill obligations totaling $103 million.
Justin Sun Tries to Lower Binance Withdrawal Fees
Tron founder Justin Sun commented on the recent increase in fees for withdrawing funds issued on his blockchain from the Binance crypto exchange.
This was facilitated by the approval of the proposal by the Tron community, which changed the energy charging mechanism to a dynamic energy model.
We are working closely with Binance and are actively exploring solutions that would reduce the fee for withdrawing stablecoins and tokens to TRON from the crypto exchange.
We continue to strive to make cryptocurrency trading more accessible to everyone.
We at TRON strive to build a cheap, fast and secure network,” San could not limit himself to one message.
According to Binance, the increase in withdrawal fees affected four groups of crypto assets. The first were Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC) and TrueUSD (TUSD), where fees went up from 1 USDT to 2.6 USDT, a massive 160% increase.
The Binance BUSD stablecoin showed a 175% increase in this indicator, from 0.8 BUSD to 2.2 BUSD.
It is followed by the native TronDAO TRX token, whose withdrawal fee has increased from 1 TRX to 15 TRX, which is a whopping 1400%. The last group included BTTC, JST, NFT, SUN and WIN.
Kraken to pay $30M in settlement with SEC
Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has settled charges filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This is stated on the website of the regulator.
Earlier, a Bloomberg source reported on the ongoing investigation into the platform. According to a Feb. 9 press release, the department's attention was drawn to a staking program, the offer and sale of which Kraken "did not register as a service."
“Today’s action should send a message to the market that staking as a service providers must register and provide full, honest and truthful disclosure and investor protection,” SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said in a statement.
Kraken did not admit or deny the allegations, but agreed to terminate the program and pay $30 million in fines.
A company representative in a comment to The Block clarified that the restrictions are only for US customers.
WazirX Says Binance Statement Will Not Affect Customer Funds
A spokesperson for Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX said Binance's allegations are false and unfounded.
At the same time, users were assured that the organization is taking all necessary steps to protect their legal rights from actions taken by Binance:
WazirX users do not need to worry about Binance's announcement. We have taken steps to ensure that WazirX digital assets are held in accordance with leading industry standards.
Since last year, Binance and WazirX operator Zanmai Labs have been known to have been publicly arguing over who owns the exchange.
Now, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao reiterates that his trading platform does not control the operations of the Indian exchange and the assets of its users, but WazirX co-founder Nishal Shetty claims that the largest platform acquired his exchange and owns it.
The controversy culminated on February 3rd when Binance stopped providing its WazirX wallets. Later, the Indian exchange transferred its assets to multisig wallets.
If approved, the digital pound will be issued by 2030
The Bank of England and the Treasury believe that the UK will need a digital pound due to the reduction in the use of cash.
Cash only reportedly accounted for 15% of all transactions in 2021, compared to over 50% of transactions in 2011.
In this regard, the departments plan to begin four-month consultations with crypto companies, experts and the general public. Their opinions will be taken into account when launching the CBDC.
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt stress that it is too early to commit to building the infrastructure for a CBDC, but more work is "worth it."
Officials added that building a CBDC would take years, with 2025 being the earliest time the Bank of England could start building and testing a prototype. Until then, the final decision on the issuance of the digital pound will not be made.
If the digital pound receives final approval, it could be issued by 2030. Separately, it is noted that the issuance of CBDC will require significant public investment.
User paid a fee of $32,000 for a transfer on the Ethereum network
On February 3, an anonymous user made a transaction on the Ethereum network for 33.52 ETH ($55,408), while paying a fee of 19.47 ETH ($32,180). Another user transaction for a larger amount of 52.99 ETH ($87,545) was made around the same time, but the fee for it was only 0.0006 ETH ($1.02).
Transaction for 33.52 ETH
Transaction for 52.99 ETH
At the moment, the Ethereum network is operating normally, no technical problems are observed. The average fee is $0.87. What caused the user to pay such a high commission remains unknown. Perhaps he deliberately or mistakenly set this size manually.
In October 2022, an anonymous person paid a $157,000 transfer fee on the Ethereum network. And the commission for issuing the first NFT after the blockchain switched to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm was 36 ETH (about $57,852 at the time of the transaction).
Ethereum developers have confirmed plans to roll out the Shanghai upgrade to the testnet in February and the mainnet in March. The hard fork will allow users to withdraw ETH from staking. Currently, about 16.49 million coins are blocked in special wallets (13.69% of the total supply).
MakerDAO Launches Legal Defense Fund
The decentralized organization MakerDAO has ratified the creation of a new fund, which is intended to cover the financial costs associated with legal protection. According to company representatives, $5 million will be allocated for this task.
The MakerDAO Protection Fund will act as a self-insurance tool for its participants. The specialists also said that an external technical committee will manage all claims and related payments.
The DAO industry is facing growing concerns about the legal status of many organizations. The crypto community is also interested in what legislative measures will be applied to their financial transactions.
Many experts point out that developers in the industry may, from time to time, be pressured by members of the community to perform unauthorized tasks that most courts find illegal.
John Deaton Thinks Judge Can Easily Award Ripple Victory
Crypto Law founder and Deaton Law Firm managing partner John E. Deaton posted a series of tweets discussing "the Securities and Exchange Commission's schizophrenic argument about what constitutes business as usual in the Ripple case."
The lawyer opined that Judge Torres could dismiss the summary judgment and hold that there was a genuine question of material facts about the existence of the joint venture.
Earlier, Deaton retweeted a message from another member of the crypto industry that Ripple could lose the lawsuit due to the firm’s lack of strong arguments. However, the lawyer responded with the suggestion that the judge could declare a “total victory” for the cryptocurrency company.
Deaton argues that the judge could have approved Ripple's XRP sales because the US Securities and Exchange Commission did not apply the Howey test to every transaction.
According to this logic, the judge can declare Ripple the winner if he simply rejects the sweeping claims of the SEC. Thus, he is confident that the Securities and Exchange Commission will not receive a summary judgment in the form they requested.
Gryphon Digital Mining announces takeover of cannabis producer Akerna
As it became known from the joint statement of the project participants, the public cannabis company Akerna (KERN), as part of the merger procedure, will sell its software business to competing companies MJ Platform and Leaf Data Systems.
The buyer will be POSaBIT, a leading provider of payment infrastructure for the cannabis industry. The deal will be worth approximately $4 million. After the merger is completed, Akerna will change its name to Gryphon Digital Mining.
Mining company shareholders will own about 92.5% of the new joint stock company, while Akerna shareholders will own about 7.5%.
Previously, Mendocino Clone Company, a medical marijuana grower, entered into an agreement with the EMTRI project and Global Compliance Applications to use distributed ledger technology to keep track of cannabis shipments.
Goldman Sachs named Bitcoin the best performing asset in 2023
Despite the fact that the cryptocurrency industry faced obvious difficulties last year, many experts are positive about the prospects for bitcoin this year. In particular, representatives of Goldman Sachs believe that Bitcoin will become the most effective asset this year.
According to the submitted reports, this year, in terms of market dynamics, the flagship of the crypto market has already confidently overtaken the S&P 500 and gold. In the presented list, BTC took first place with a yield ratio of 27%. The ratio of risk to profit is estimated at 1:3.
Meanwhile, bitcoin continues to grow steadily in price. As of January 25, the flagship of the crypto market was holding above $22,500, having risen in price by 1.65% over the past day. At the same time, the increase in the price of the asset on a weekly basis is estimated at 6.57.
The market capitalization of the coin has approached the value of $434 billion. In this regard, Bitcoin overtakes many large companies, for example: JP Morgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.
Australia to Consider Banking Requirements for Altcoins
Australian Financial Services Minister Says There Are Arguments for Tighter Regulation of Some Altcoins
Australian officials are working to tighten regulation of some altcoins as there are good reasons to apply banking requirements to the cryptocurrency market.
This opinion was expressed in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald by Australian Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones.
Jones did not specify the details and timing of the regulation, but said that the authorities intend to create a framework to determine which altcoins are subject to tightening and which are not.
According to him, all crypto assets, which are inherently similar to traditional financial assets, will be regulated accordingly.
“I don’t want to rush to assess the upcoming consultations on this issue, but if something looks, walks and sounds like a duck, then it needs to be treated like a duck,” Jones said, referring to altcoins that may fall under the supervision of regulators.
He added that he does not support the idea of creating a separate regulation for cryptocurrencies, since their main essence lies in financial gain.
Jones noted that bitcoin is hardly a financial product, even though they are trying to position it as a replacement for traditional currencies. However, other altcoins are mainly used as a store of value investment or speculation, the official said.
