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Blur bug victims get promised compensation
The popular NFT platform Blur has fixed a bug due to which users suffered losses, but received the promised compensation from the trading platform.
The founder of Blur, known on Twitter* as Pacman, has informed the community of the NFT marketplace about a bug found in the platform's messaging system. It is reported that it affected individual bets made by users over the past 5 days, as a result of which some of them were canceled.
Speaking about the additional measures taken by the NFT marketplace to prevent similar problems in the future, Pacman remarked:
In addition to fixing the bug that caused this issue, we've implemented two additional redundant security checks.
In terms of refunds, the compensation structure is such that the payout must be equal to two times the difference between the offer price and the top offer at that time.
The Governor of the US Federal Reserve spoke about the cryptocurrency
In a recent speech, Fed Board member Christopher Waller acknowledged the programmable nature and functionality of smart contracts in the cryptocurrency space.
The official stressed that many firms were transacting with foreign assets using blockchain technology and smart contracts to improve efficiency.
Meanwhile, US regulators have faced massive criticism for their overly aggressive and repressive policies towards the cryptocurrency industry.
It is noteworthy that indignation is openly expressed not only by ordinary users, but also by some legislators. For example, the House Financial Services Committee is actively studying the activities of the SEC regulator and its head, Gary Gensler.
Waller also highlighted the risks associated with potential tokenization and the use of smart contracts.
However, he noted that this segment is actively developing and there are more and more promising tools that require detailed study.
The UK plans to pass a law on the crypto market before the end of 2023
The UK Treasury expects that the law on the regulation of cryptocurrencies will be adopted before the end of 2023.
As Secretary of the Treasury of the United Kingdom Andrew Griffith noted, London is interested in the speedy legalization of the blockchain industry and the digital asset market. The approval of the final version of the bill should be completed by the end of April, the official said in an interview with CNBC.
If all procedures are completed within the time frame approved by the government and parliament, then transactions with digital currencies may become legal as early as 2024.
Griffith said:
Thus, we have the opportunity to act flexibly and proportionately. I am interested in making the most of this opportunity.
London aspires to become one of the centers for the development of the blockchain industry, so the adoption of the bill on crypto regulation plays a crucial role.
A supporter of the formation of a crypto hub in the UK is Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Last year he served as Minister of Finance and called for the development of a regulatory framework for transactions with cryptocurrencies.
Shiba Inu Overtakes Binance USD in Market Cap
Shiba Inu memcoin has overtaken Binance USD from 14th place in the list of cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization. According to data from CoinGecko, this morning the total value of SHIB tokens almost reached the $7 billion mark, while BUSD continues to suffer losses.
Shiba Inu's positive price performance is largely due to recent positive news, such as the launch of a beta version of Shibarium's second tier network called Puppynet. The total number of wallets connected to it over the weekend increased from 4.05 million to 6 million, and the volume of transactions exceeded 3.2 million.
This high level of user activity is good for the token as it leads to an increase in the SHIB burn rate. About 1.9 billion coins have been withdrawn from circulation in the past seven days, according to Shibburn. This process works in a similar way to share repurchases and has the potential to increase the price of an asset.
The number of Shiba Inu long-term holders also hit a new high of 835,780, accounting for 67% of all memcoin holding addresses. This suggests that an increasing number of investors see the prospects in SHIB.
While Shiba Inu is gaining ground, Binance USD continues to lose ground. Demand for the once-popular stablecoin has been plummeting since Paxos announced on Feb. 13 that it would stop minting new tokens, citing an order from the state regulator, the New York City Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). During this time, the supply of BUSD has declined by about $10 billion.
The head of Grayscale spoke about the regulation of bitcoin-ETF
Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenschein said that the Bitcoin ETF “is a minimal fruit in terms of regulators’ efforts to ease conditions in the crypto market.”
Thus, the expert countered the recent opinion of the head of Circle, Jeremy Aller, who noted that the law on stablecoins would be the easiest thing for regulatory agencies.
Sonnenschein emphasized that the BTC-ETF segment does not need new legislation. Already, there are proven provisions that allow investors to have unhindered access to such assets.
Representatives of Grayscale have repeatedly focused on the fact that the SEC unfairly rejected their application for the implementation of bitcoin-ETF, while the regulator ratified the trading of BTC futures contracts.
Mile Sonnenschein recently spoke at an event hosted by investment corporation Ark Invest. The specialist expressed the hope that by the end of this year, Grayscale will still launch its bitcoin ETF on the market.
On March 7, the corporation filed a lawsuit on this issue, where the SEC regulator will be the defendant.
The Federal Court is expected to deliver a final verdict in the case by the end of the third quarter of this year.
El Salvador issues first crypto license
It became known that representatives of the regulatory authorities of El Salvador granted a major cryptocurrency exchange the first license in the country for a provider of services related to digital assets. Representatives of the technology company announced this late in the evening on April 11, 2023.
According to the assurances of the management of the trading crypto platform, this will make it possible to issue and trade tokenized assets, such as stocks and bonds. Thus, this platform will become an innovator in the country. No other company has yet received similar permits under El Salvador's law on the issuance of digital assets ("Ley de Emisión de Activos Digitales").
The license was issued following a decision by the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador. This organization regulates digital securities and creates the rules and framework for launching bonds backed by the Bitcoin (BTC) cryptocurrency. They are also known as Volcano Bonds.
“We are pleased to be the first company to obtain a license in El Salvador. This will simplify and facilitate the issuance and secondary trading of assets with clearly defined rights and obligations, as outlined in the new regulatory regime,” said Paolo Ardoino, CTO of a major crypto platform.
“This means: a range of institutions, from small companies to government organizations, will be able to raise capital in El Salvador's regulated environment.
In addition, this state of affairs will allow them to connect to a class of investors who are comfortable working with crypto assets and tokenized securities. This market has volumes of more than $1 trillion, tending to peak at around $3 trillion.”
Meta is phasing out NFT support
Meta* will retire the 'Digital Collectibles' feature on April 11th. This means that Instagram and Facebook users will no longer be able to share their non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the platforms.
Launched in May 2022, the feature was conceived as a way to integrate social media into the Web3 ecosystem.
Users could connect a crypto wallet to the platforms and share compatible NFTs based on images or videos as a special post type. Existing Digital Collectible posts will now be converted to regular posts.
Nevertheless, it's too early to talk about the complete rejection of Meta's plans for expansion into Web3. A few months ago, it rolled out an integration for Solana wallets, which shows that the company continues to develop in this direction, despite the fading of the initial enthusiasm.
Meta is not the only company planning to phase out NFT support. After a wave of excitement regarding non-fungible tokens, interest in them began to decline. Microsoft-owned Mojang Studios has announced that it will no longer use NFTs in Minecraft.
This can be equated with the closure of projects such as NFT Worlds, which created its own metaverse by tokenizing virtual plots of land on custom Minecraft servers.
CNN also reported on the phasing out of the Vault NFT marketplace. Launched in June 2021, the platform allowed the buying and selling of tokens based on some of the historically significant CNN material. Vault still functions as a peer-to-peer marketplace, but the company has stopped minting new NFTs.
Although some skeptics continue to point to a string of failed projects in recent years, and large companies are refusing to use NFTs, the market for fiat tokens seems to have thawed.
Marketplace trading volume in the first quarter of 2023 increased 137.04% to $4.7 billion, the highest since the end of 2022, according to the latest report from DappRadar. Thus, we can assume that the consequences of the November crash of FTX have finally come to naught.
Avalanche Successfully Activates Cortina Update on Fuji Testnet
According to Patrick O'Grady, CTO of Ava Labs, Avalanche successfully activated the Cortina update on the Fuji testnet on Thursday, April 6, 2023.
Cortina makes it easy for exchanges that support X-Chain Avalanche, the protocol used to send and receive funds. According to Avalanche, among other benefits, the update will also speed up development.
The Cortina update includes protocol optimizations that are not compatible with AvalancheGo v1.10.0 versions. If you are running a node on Fuji, you must update your software to AvalancheGo v1.10.0 before activating on Fuji.
If you are a mainnet host operator, you will only need to act after the release of the official AvalancheGo@v1.10.0 code.
Evergreen Subnet has implemented a new institution introduced by Ava Labs, a Tier 1 blockchain technology developer, to strengthen the blockchain ecosystem. The AVAX token has recorded an increase of 1.65% over the past 24 hours, at the time of writing, the token is trading at $18.09.
The ban on the use of Tornado Cash wants to be canceled through the court
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase upheld a lawsuit filed against the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to lift sanctions against the Tornado Cash mixer.
On April 5, six people went to court in the US state of Texas to appeal OFAC's decision to ban the use of Tornado Cash. According to the plaintiffs, the department exceeded its powers and violated the right to freedom of speech, enshrined in the Constitution.
The legislation allows OFAC to apply restrictive measures to property owned by foreigners. The open source software, which is Tornado Cash smart contracts, is not private property, and therefore the management illegally condemned the use of the platform software.
In addition, the plaintiffs believe that imposing sanctions against the mixer essentially constitutes censorship and restricts people's freedom. Money laundering transactions accounted for only 0.05% of transactions performed by Tornado Cash customers. Accordingly, the total ban of the site was devoid of common sense.
Given the above facts, the plaintiffs ask the court to remove all restrictions on the use of Tornado Cash and permanently prohibit OFAC from interfering with the operation of the platform.
The outflow of funds from USDC stablecoin exceeded $10 billion
A few weeks after the bankruptcy of a number of American banks, as well as the crisis in Credit Suisse, the cryptocurrency market has significantly improved its performance, which cannot be said about the well-known stablecoin USDC.
Trust in Circle's stablecoin is still at a fairly low level, and investors, trying to sit out the crisis, continue to choose Tether (USDT), despite its controversial reputation.
USDC's market capitalization is down to $33.2 billion, down more than 42% from its all-time high of $57 billion last June.
The decline was driven by stablecoin issuer Circle holding $3.3 billion of assets in Silicon Valley Bank (SVb). This fact temporarily reduced the price of the token to 88 cents instead of its usual price of one dollar.
To facilitate USDC payments, Circle has expanded its ties with BNY Mellon, which already provides the company's reserve custody services.
A few days later, the firm announced that it had transferred almost all of its cash to the new bank, with the exception of a limited amount of funds held by operational partners. Even though these measures helped the token regain its peg to the US dollar, the massive outflow continued.
Since the SVB crash on March 10, USDC net outflows have exceeded $10 billion. As for its rival USDT, its market capitalization is hovering around a record high of almost $80 billion, holding the largest market share since May 2021. USDT currently represents 60% of all stablecoins in circulation.
A similar fate befell another stablecoin, BUSD, which fell from a high of almost $30 billion to $7.69 billion. The figures reflect a decline of more than 67% in less than four months.
However, Circle is looking to integrate USDC across multiple blockchains, with the stablecoin issuer announcing the launch of the token on Cosmos via the Noble network.
The Noble team said that USDC will be the first stablecoin in their network with high liquidity and full collateral. Note that this network interacts with the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBS) protocol from Cosmos.
The court did not arrest the co-founder of Terra
A Korean court did not arrest Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin. This is written by the local edition of Yonhap News, citing a court order.
Seoul prosecutors called for Shin to be arrested. According to investigators, the co-founder of Terraform Labs made illegal profits of about $105 million through the sale of luna tokens (LUNA) before the collapse of the ecosystem. However, the court denied the arrest warrant for the second time.
According to the court, the prosecutor's office did not provide evidence that Shin plans to hide from the investigation as part of the Terra case. The tire is accused of fraud, as well as market fraud. He himself denies the accusations and emphasizes that he left the project two years before Terra's problems.
Earlier, South Korean law enforcement agencies raided the offices of Chai Corporation. According to the media, the company was founded by Shin and focused on payment technology. However, local authorities believe that Shin used the company solely to promote LUNA. The scale of the scheme remains unclear.
Recall that earlier the co-founder and main ideologist of the Terra ecosystem, Do Kwon, was arrested at the airport in Montenegro while trying to get to Dubai. According to the local Interior Ministry, he was detained with forged documents.
New York prosecutors are charging Kwon with eight counts, including conspiracy to defraud, financial fraud and market manipulation. The US authorities will seek the confiscation of Kwon's property obtained as a result of fraud, the ruling noted.
The investigation into Terraform Labs and Kwon began last May after the collapse of the ecosystem. The plaintiffs were investors who lost millions of dollars from investments in Terra.
At the end of October, 359 investors filed a class action lawsuit against Kwon for $57 million. According to them, Kwon and top managers of Terraform Labs deliberately misled investors about the technical condition of the terraUSD (UST) stablecloine.
The head of CryptoQuant spoke about the habits of South Korean traders
CryptoQuant CEO Ki Yong Joo added to a Twitter post he left back in 2021. There, he described the habits of South Korean traders and noted that they were actively pumping cryptocurrency assets.
According to the expert, this is due to the fact that South Korea has rather strict capital controls, within which arbitrage opportunities between exchanges are blocked. Ki Yong Joo stressed that the local government could make things worse.
Today, the expert added that South Korean traders now prefer to pump and dump altcoins. In support of his words, he added several video clips.
Over the past day, the capitalization of the cryptocurrency market has increased by 0.42% and is located near the $1.19 trillion mark. Bitcoin dominance is estimated at 46.6%, up 0.51% from the previous day.
It is noteworthy that of all the digital assets included in the top 10 by capitalization, only Bitcoin is traded in the black. Over the past 24 hours, the coin has risen by more than 1%.
Earlier, analysts from CryptoQuant reported that open interest in BTC futures contracts continues to grow steadily. This suggests that traders have begun to open new short positions more actively. It is possible that this dynamics may cause increased volatility in the price of bitcoin in the near future.
Experts called the difficulties of implementing blockchain identification
Blockchain technology is actively used in the cryptocurrency segment, but its application is not limited to the financial industry. Digital identity management is one area where blockchain technology is gaining more interest. Financemagnates specialists spoke about the potential difficulties of implementing this tool.
It’s worth starting with the fact that there is currently no single standard for digital identification. And this can provoke systemic problems with interoperability between different ecosystems. As for the regulatory framework, uncertainty reigned here as well.
According to experts, users who are unfamiliar with blockchain technology may encounter adaptation problems. The fact is that it is quite difficult to deal with all the nuances of this topic.
Specialists emphasize that in order to accommodate a large number of users and transactions, digital blockchain identification requires a stable and scalable infrastructure. There are certain difficulties with this too, since public blockchains have limited scalability.
However, one of the most significant dangers of digital identity remains the possibility of a single point of failure. Essentially, all user data is stored in one place, and potential data leakage compromises the privacy of all consumers. In theory, hackers can gain access to private data, including financial information and medical records.
The experts concluded that as this segment develops, it is necessary to focus on solving the above problems in order to achieve wide distribution, as well as to fully put into practice all the strengths of digital blockchain identification.
BTC course expands consolidation and may soon start a new takeoff
The bitcoin rate began a downward correction after it failed to overcome the $28,800 resistance zone. BTC dropped below the $28,000 level and even broke through the $27,500 support zone
However, the bulls were active near the $27,000 support zone. The low was formed around $27,007 and it started a new uptrend. There was a clear move above the $27,500 resistance zone. BTC broke the 50% Fibonacci retracement level on a down move from a swing high of $28,798 to a low of $27,007.
BTC is currently trading above $27,500 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. On the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair, a key bullish trend line is also forming with support near $27,500.
On the other hand, immediate resistance lies near the $28,120 level. It lies near the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level of the down move from the $28,798 swing high to the $27,007 low. The next major resistance lies near the $28,150 zone.
A close above the $28,150 resistance could lead to another significant upside. In this case, BTC may rise to the level of $28,800. Further growth may direct the course towards the $29,500 resistance zone.
If Bitcoin fails to overcome the resistance at $28,150, it may start a new decline. Immediate support on the downside is near the $27,800 zone and the 100-hour SMA.
The next major support is near the $27,600 zone or trend line. Any new losses could send the course towards the $27,150 support zone. The next major support is near the $27,000 level.
The European Parliament may ease restrictions on crypto payments
Politicians in the European Parliament have agreed on the text of an anti-money laundering bill due to be voted on March 28, and the crypto industry appears to have received partial relief.
Due to concerns expressed by participants in the digital asset industry, politicians have decided to revert to the original wording of the commercial payment proposal.
The article that the MEPs introduced into the bill limited transactions with an incompletely identified crypto wallet.
Changes previously made to the draft regulation meant that only transfers made from an EU-licensed cryptographic service provider could exceed the equivalent of €1,000 euros ($1,090). This wording caused serious resistance from the European crypto industry.
In the latest version of the bill, cash transactions will be capped at €7,000 for commercial payments, as opposed to the €1,000 maximum for cryptocurrency transactions.
The text of the bill allows for the elimination of the €7,000 cash threshold for interpersonal payments, unless they relate to real estate, luxury goods or a deposit with a financial institution.
The text must now be approved by a vote in the Parliamentary Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. It will then need to pass a plenary vote before entering into interagency negotiations.
Crypto exchange founders 3AC named the main investors
Cryptocurrency exchange OPNX, founded by the co-founders of bankrupt 3AC hedge fund Su Zhu and Kyle Davis, has revealed its top investors.
These include AppWorks, Susquehanna (SIG), DRW, MIAX Group, China Merchant Bank International, Token Bay Capital, Nascent, Tuwaiq Limited and others.
According to journalist Colin Wu, many of the platform's supporters are from the Greater China region.
For the first time, Davis and Zhu's plans to raise $25 million to launch a cryptocurrency exchange with the active participation of representatives of the bankrupt CoinFLEX became known in January.
A month later, BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes pointed to a possible implementation of a similar initiative.
Later, Zhu announced the opening of a waiting list for admission to the platform. According to him, OPNX is a way "to atone for your past mistakes." Many community members met the project with skepticism and indignation.
OPNX CEO is Lesley Lamb, wife of former CoinFLEX CEO Mark Lamb.
Square Enix and Elixir: We Will Achieve Universal Adoption of Web3-Based Video Games
The Elixir platform offers users access to both traditional PC games and Web3-based video games. The company recently integrated a library of projects from the Epic Games Store onto its platform.
With the help of Square Enix, the company plans to further “blur the line” between Web2-era gaming projects and the emerging Web3 industry.
"The partnership with Elixir marks the next step for Square Enix in tapping into the promising decentralized Web3 gaming space," explains Hidaki Uehera, director of business development at Square Enix.
The details of the partnership are almost non-existent, but according to Elixir CEO Carlos Roldarn, it will really increase the adoption and sales of games with elements of NFT and Web3.
Square Enix has repeatedly expressed interest in using blockchain, NFT and Web3 technologies in their projects.
Cryptoquant: Bitcoin below $ 30,000 led to the market.
The open interest indicator measures the total number of futures contracts for VTS, which are currently open on the exchanges of derivatives. When the value of the indicator grows, this means that investors are opening new contracts right now.
However, in most cases, along with an increase in open positions, the credit shoulder also increases, and this trend can lead to the fact that the price of a crypto acting will become more volatile.
Another relevant indicator is the “financing rate”. This is the name of the payments that traders in the futures market exchange each other.
When the indicator has a positive value, this suggests that at the moment, long positions are paid short, and “bull sentiments” prevail on the market. Negative values show that the majority shares the "bearish standing".
Cryptoquant provides graphic data that demonstrates that the number of open long positions exceeds the number of short ones, and therefore is accompanied by significant open interest and high probability of elimination of positions.
Indirectly, the conclusion of Cryptoquant experts was confirmed by the analysts of the Coinglass site. According to Coinglass, over the last day, a sale was observed on the bitcoin market, and most of the liquidated contracts were long.
About 40,000 VTS traders were liquidated per day, and the total amount of such transactions reached $ 122.39 million. The largest one -time warrant for liquidation worth $ 3.03 million was recorded on Binance. In the evening of Monday, April 17, Bitcoin is trading at $ 29360, showing a daily decline by 2.8%.
Earlier, Bitcoin analyst Willy Wooo shared on Twitter with macro recinders, confirming, in his opinion, the rising trend of the first in capitalization of cryptocurrency.
The National Bank of Canada increased its MicroStrategy stake by 8.8%
For the first quarter of the year, the National Bank of Canada increased its MicroStrategy stake by 8.8%, this follows from the documents of Form 13F-HR, which institutional investors submit to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
As of March 31, the commercial bank's stake in MicroStrategy has risen to 1,768 shares worth $516,822, placing the financial institution firmly in a position among many other traditional finance firms experimenting with bitcoin through MicroStrategy shares.
Currently, several firms and hedge funds are gaining access to BTC through MicroStrategy shares: Fidelity, BlackRock and Bank of America. In the first quarter of 2023, these firms acquired more than $75 million worth of MicroStrategy stock.
During this period, Bank of America bought 226,506 MicroStrategy shares, while Fidelity and BlackRock bought 96,800 and 10,800 MSTR shares, respectively.
Meanwhile, MicroStrategy's bitcoin assets began to turn a profit for the first time in months, as the value of the flagship digital asset passed the $30,000 mark.
The company allegedly spent about $4.17 billion to acquire approximately 140,000 BTC. On April 12, thanks to a surge in BTC prices, the value of these assets exceeded $4.21 billion.
MSTR shares are also growing in price, trading at $ 344 with a daily rise in price of more than 6%. Their profitability since the beginning of the year amounted to 142%.
Shapella hard fork activated on Ethereum blockchain
On the night of April 13, at 01:30 (Kyiv / Moscow time), Ethereum developers activated the Shapella update on the main network of the project. Users were able to withdraw cryptocurrencies from staking.
The hard fork took place at epoch #194 048, which was finalized. The developers noted that there are “a couple of missed blocks” in the network, but in general the update was successful, and the blockchain looks stable.
According to parsec, the withdrawal of ETH from staking has begun. At the time of writing, over 3,100 ETH have been unlocked by validators. At the same time, the deposit contract continues to receive cryptocurrency.
According to the service beaconcha.in, in about 50 minutes since the implementation of the hard fork, the blockchain has processed withdrawals (full and partial) for 8835 ETH (~ $ 16.96 million at the current exchange rate) - the amount continues to grow.
More than 4,000 validators are waiting for withdrawals, and there are over 3,000 validators in the queue.
The developer of the Geth client, Marius van der Weyden, noted that on average, validators withdraw about 45 ETH from staking each block – 16 withdrawals of 3 ETH each.
According to Nansen, full withdrawals are available to 7,948 validators with a combined balance of 284,622 ETH (over $546 million). The total amount of assets in staking exceeds 18 million ETH.
At the same time, the addresses of 56% of validators do not have the 0x01 prefix - this type of data is required to unlock assets.
In September 2022, The Merge update was activated in Ethereum, with which the blockchain switched to the Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm. Members of the main network were given access to staking - directly (validators) or through specialized protocols like Lido.
Shapella includes changes to execution levels (Shanghai) and consensus levels (Capella). The most important of them is the ability to withdraw ETH from the Beacon Chain deposit contract.
The developers have also reduced gas costs when performing certain types of transactions, optimized data storage in the blockchain, introduced a number of EVM-related improvements, and introduced new cryptographic primitives.
Ethereum quotes reacted to the activation of Shapella with volatility, however, there were no significant price movements. At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency is trading near $1920.
Nansen experts talk about the popularity of liquid staking
Analysts at research firm Nansen said that liquid staking continued to gain popularity. This happened as the Shanghai upgrade procedure for the Ethereum network approached. They noted that this topic was rapidly gaining momentum.
Thus, in the first week of April 2023, the Ethereum (ETH) derivatives sector saw a significant influx of “smart money” (Smart Money). In just 7 days, investors purchased stETH, rETH, cbETH and pETH tokens for a total amount of more than $34 million.
Researchers have recorded numerous large-scale transactions in LSD tokens (liquidity tokens) on decentralized exchanges (DEX) over the past 24 hours, as of the morning of April 11, 2023. For example, an unknown owner of wallet 0xc50e bought more than $300,000 worth of Rocket Pool (RPL) tokens using the Uniswap exchange.
Another cryptocurrency holder with the address 0x6ad3, created just 2 days ago, purchased over $250,000 worth of Lido DAO (LDO) tokens using the 1inch decentralized service. In addition, the researchers noted a strong investor interest in several more virtual actives that offer liquid staking opportunities for their users.
This topic has been hotly debated in recent months. Not so long ago, experts said that the amount of blocked funds (TVL) in this industry has surpassed the lending sector. Consequently, liquid staking has become the 2nd most popular in decentralized finance (DeFi).
Market participants were looking forward to April 12-13 this year. It was on these dates that the upcoming Shapella (Shanghai + Capella) update on the Ethereum network was scheduled. It will allow stakers and validators to withdraw their own coins and their rewards from the Beacon Chain staking smart contract.
Director of Cyber Capital called bitcoin centralized
Cyber Capital CIO Justin Bones said Bitcoin (BTC) has become too centralized. He called this state of affairs dangerous. The expert noted: the digital currency has never had a CEO or an official management company that would control its development. At the same time, the project became vulnerable over the years.
Bones stressed that the conflict of interest grew over time. This resulted in BTC becoming centralized with no formal governance. According to him, members of Bitcoin Core had too much influence on decision-making in the development of cryptocurrency.
Justin Bones stressed that the representatives of the organization have reached this "unhealthy" level of influence, effectively holding back the rule changes they oppose. In particular, they have succeeded in "crushing a number of use cases associated with fungible and non-fungible tokens (NFTs)". According to the expert, Blockstream and Chaincode Labs are the 2 companies that benefited the most from the current status quo.
According to Bons, they controlled most of the developers contributing to Bitcoin Core. These people could use their influence to suppress third-party development, as well as accelerate the adoption and promotion of their own developments.
Bones previously said that the current BTC security model will only work for the next 5-9 years, and then it is doomed to collapse. Then he also noted that some firms “sponsor” one or another bitcoin (BTC) developer with the help of grants in order to achieve their own goals.
Representatives of the Wall Street Journal stated that in total more than 300 developers are active in the Bitcoin GitHub repositories. However, in recent years, "veterans" of the industry have increasingly left their positions.
Thus, it became increasingly easier for companies to control those who remained responsible for the codebase of the flagship cryptocurrency.
СoinMarketСap: USDT market capitalization exceeded $80 billion
According to cryptocurrency watcher CoinMarketCap, USDT's market capitalization increased by more than 20% in the first quarter, reaching $80 billion. The current market capitalization of the stablecoin Tether is only $3 billion less than the all-time high of $83 billion, dated May last year.
The growth of USDT capitalization was facilitated by the growing concern of crypto traders about the fate of alternative stablecoins USD Coin (USDC) and Binance USD (BNB) in the US legal field.
USDC's market capitalization has fallen due to losses of more than $3 billion placed in troubled banks Silicon Valley and Silvergate. BUSD suffered after New York state regulators ordered Paxos to stop issuing the stablecoin.
On the other hand, Tether has repeatedly assured users that it is not a US firm and is not affected by the insolvency of any US bank.
Markus Thielen, head of research and strategy at crypto services provider Matrixport, believes that in addition to the impact of the economic environment, the capitalization of the stablecoin Tether could increase due to “aggressive minting and issuance of an asset” in the Tron network, which is very much in demand in mainland China.
Tether issued on the Tron network accounts for more than half of the stablecoin’s current market value, according to Matrixport.
The growth in USDT capitalization coincided with a general drop in the supply of stablecoins on exchanges. According to Glassnode analysts, the total balance of stablecoins on trading floors has fallen by 41% since the beginning of the year, to $22.31 billion.
Since the decline in stablecoin exchange reserves coincides with the rally in the cryptocurrency market, Glassnode experts suggested that traders converted their cryptocurrencies into fiat currencies or used them to buy bitcoins.
The market capitalization of stablecoins Tether Gold (XAUt), pegged to the price of gold, has increased to $499 million. Tokens of the closest competitor PAX Gold (PAXG) reached $523 million.
Bitcoin miners' income has grown by 28.7% since the beginning of the year
The income of bitcoin miners in the 1st quarter of 2023 increased by 28.7% compared to the 4th quarter of 2022 and reached $1.98 billion. According to The Block, in March alone, BTC mining brought in $755.4 million to market participants, of which more than $23 million was received as transaction fees.
From January to March, the rate of the first cryptocurrency increased by 72% - from $16,500 to $28,400. As the value of the asset increased, the income of miners gradually increased, amounting to $601 million in January, $627.1 million in February, and $755 in March. 4 million
According to Blockchain.com, among the industry participants, the largest share belongs to the American mining pool Foundry - 29.9%. It is followed by AntPool with 23.71%, and F2Pool closes the top three with 12.21%.
On April 4, 18:20 Moscow time, BTC is trading at $27,992, having decreased by 0.16% per day. At the same time, over the past week, the asset has added 5.12%, according to Binance. Bitcoin mining difficulty is a record 46.84 T, the total hashrate is 337.87 EH / s, according to the aggregator BTC.com. The historical maximum of the latter was recorded on March 23 at around 398.15 EH/s.
The hashrate is the total computing power on the bitcoin network. Mining difficulty determines the amount of computing power required to find a new block in the blockchain. The parameter changes every 2016 blocks, or about once every two weeks. Thanks to this, the block time is about 10 minutes.
On March 10, a single miner mined a whole block of bitcoin, earning 6.25 BTC, as well as a fee of 0.63 BTC (total about $137,270 at the exchange rate at that time).
Earlier, the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation proposed to oblige miners to declare income. According to the bill, in case of violation, they face criminal liability, providing for up to four years in prison.
The Danish Supreme Court ruled that profits from BTC, including those mined, should be taxed, and US President Joe Biden called for a 30% tax on electricity for miners in the 2024 budget plan.
UK banks refuse to work with crypto companies
SavingsBlocks is a crypto company with approximately 200 clients that has approached nine banks to open an account but has only been successful on two occasions.
Moreover, the two organizations that agreed to deal with SavingsBlocks have already contacted the company's CEO, Edouard Daunizeau, several times, requesting additional information about customer transactions. Doniso stated that it had become difficult to find a service provider in the United Kingdom:
“Not many opportunities are available – most traditional banks will not offer banking services to crypto firms. Given recent events, it will be even more difficult. We are looking for a license in France, where we think it will be easier.”
The current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, as Chancellor of the Exchequer under the previous Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has stated his ambition to make the United Kingdom a cryptocurrency hub. The politician insisted that the measures taken "will help to provide companies with guarantees of a free opportunity to invest, develop and expand in the country."
However, starting from February 2023, the situation is not conducive to the implementation of Sunak's ideas. Some banks have introduced limits on the amounts that a client can transfer to a crypto exchange. Earlier in the UK, a crypto investor was convicted of drug trafficking.
The developer of the game Final Fantasy VII has released a deluxe series of NFTs
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Final Fantasy franchise, publisher Square Enix has unveiled the Final Fantasy VII Anniversary Art Museum: Digital Card Plus NFT card collection. You can pre-order through the Square Enix online store.
The collection includes over 200 works of art available digitally and physically. To be precise, the series consists of 207 cards, which can be divided into the following categories:
3 secret cards
3 premium foil Variant cards
3 Common Variant class cards
99 premium foil cards
99 common cards
There are 20 sets in total, and each set contains 6 physical trading cards and one NFT card. Collectors can purchase sets in a special cardboard box. 20 sets will cost the buyer $ 79.80 (or 79.99 euros).
To redeem NFTs, users will need to register with an Enjin wallet.
$100 million crypto fund set up in Hong Kong
In 2023, a new Hong Kong-based fund plans to raise $100 million to invest in digital asset startups. The fact is that the government is striving to become a regional center for financial technologies and an Asian cryptocurrency hub.
The fund was led by venture partner at Asian private equity firm SAIF Partners Benom Ng and investor Kurt Shea. The organization has already received funding commitments of at least $30 million. Those who joined the first round of the ProDigital Future Fund included Sunwah Kingsway Capital Holdings Ltd. and Golin International Group Ltd.
Hong Kong is serious about attracting the best cryptocurrency companies and industry talent. “I understand the concerns, but nothing is perfect given the complexity of the crypto economy and the current geopolitical landscape,” Shi said in an interview with Bloomberg News. “Our strategy is to continue to monitor how things are going.”
ProDigital Future is aimed at growing businesses. First of all, it was about technology companies that were moving to Web3. At the moment, the fund has already invested in the first 6 projects related to digital assets. These include Hong Kong's GigaSpace metaverse and Australia's One Future Football virtual sports club.
Market researchers noted: investors were wary of investing in new crypto projects. However, "fundraising went relatively smoothly," Shi said. According to him, many Hong Kong organizations that want to develop the cryptocurrency industry and contribute to the evolution of blockchain technology in China, Singapore and other Asian countries have shown interest.
“I believe that Hong Kong will maintain a certain degree of openness and flexibility,” Shi said. "While our portfolio and fund will cover Hong Kong, we will expand our presence in Australia, Singapore, as well as Europe and the US."
Twitter froze the official Arbitrum account
The official Arbitrum Twitter account was suddenly frozen. At the time of publication, the reasons for the blocking remain unclear.
Harry Kalodner, co-founder of the company behind the project, Offchain Labs, confirmed the suspension of the account and said the Arbitrum Foundation was conducting its own investigation.
The blocking came less than a week after the highly publicized airdrop of the Arbitrum governance token.
Perhaps it was caused by the rise in the number of scammers who used fake accounts and sophisticated phishing schemes to steal ARB. Many of these scam accounts are still active and are ignored by Twitter.
The developer of L2-blockchain Scroll Togrkhul Mahararramov was outraged by the fact of blocking, urged Twitter to pay attention to scammers and called the social network “consistently terrible.”
Hacker Euler Finance returned $90 million
The hacker who claimed responsibility for the $200 million Euler Finance decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol exploit has returned some of the stolen funds.
He hacked the product in early March 2023 and spent several weeks negotiating with developers who asked him to transfer back a large amount of stolen funds. He ended up transferring 51,000 Ethereum (ETH) worth $89.59 million.
Such data was provided by the researchers of the analytical company LookonChain, who attached a link to the transaction in the blockchain explorer. They confirmed that almost $90 million was sent back to the smart contract of the Euler Finance protocol.
However, the researchers emphasized that the attacker also made several other transactions. He transferred several tens of millions of US dollars (USD) in Dai (DAI) stablecoin to unknown wallets.
The researchers recalled that last week the developers of Euler Finance offered a reward of $1 million to anyone who provides information about the hacker. They asked him to return the stolen cryptocurrencies in exchange for a promise not to sue the cybercriminal.
The Euler Finance lending protocol was exploited a few weeks ago. As a result, the attacker made 4 transactions in Dai (DAI), Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), Staking Ether (sETH), and USDC stablecoin.
The cybercriminal used a standard scheme. He activated the flash credit to carry out the attack, fooling the protocol and its participants. Native EUL tokens have risen in value by almost 25% over the past 24 hours, with the biggest price movement coming after a hacker put the tokens back into the protocol.
This action likely provoked positive sentiment among traders. Earlier it became known that one of the users asked the hackers to return 75 ETH, and received a transfer of 100 ETH from the attacker.
FTX seeks $460 million from Modulo Capital
Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX is suing venture capital firm Modulo Capital, which received a significant investment from Alameda Research last year.
The lawsuit seeks the return of $460 million in client money that FTX allegedly mishandled into the fund. Thanks to the settlement, both companies can avoid costly litigation; however, this money is only a small percentage of FTX's total asset shortfall.
In the course of bankruptcy proceedings, payments made to organizations prior to the initiation of bankruptcy proceedings may be claimed and redistributed among creditors.
The repayment period for most unsecured creditors is set at ninety days, but for "insiders," meaning companies that are general partners, it is set at one year.
Modulo Capital was formed in March 2022 by three executives formerly of New York-based Jane Street, which previously hired Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison.
Some people believe that SBF had a romantic relationship with one of the company's founders, Xiaoyun "Lily" Zhang, which pushed him to decide to invest in an unknown venture capital firm. This theory is based on the fact that SBF was reported to have been involved in a relationship.
Alameda Research, FTX's sister trading company, is believed to have invested about $400 million in Modulo in 2022. It was one of the most significant investments made by FTX while SBF was running the company.
The March 22 FTX filing states that Alameda Research's investment was made at the behest of Sam Bankman-Friel (SBF), with Alameda investing $475 million in Modulo as part of a series of transfers starting in May 2022.
Alameda entered into a limited partnership agreement with Modulo on June 16, the statement said. As a result of this agreement, Alameda transferred the previously mentioned cash to Modulo in exchange for ownership of 20% of Modulo's Class A shares. This transaction was recorded as completed.
Under the terms of the settlement, Modulo agreed to pay $404 million in cash and waive its claim to $56 million worth of assets that were held on the FTX cryptocurrency exchange. This represents approximately 97% of FTX's initial investment.
As part of the settlement, Alameda will also waive any claim to Modulo shares it previously held.
The agreement has yet to be approved by US Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey, and a hearing on the request to approve the agreement is set for April 12.
