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Nigeria Leads the World in Cryptocurrency Awareness
Nigeria is the leader in the world in terms of awareness of cryptocurrencies. This is indicated in a study conducted by ConsenSys. The survey was conducted among residents of 15 states.
The study was aimed at assessing the global perception of cryptocurrencies, NFTs, Web3, blockchain and the Metaverse. It found that 92% of respondents around the world had heard of cryptocurrencies, with Nigeria, South Africa and Brazil being the most crypto-savvy countries.
As a reminder, Nigeria is also developing its own AI development strategy.
The study highlights that 99% of respondents in Nigeria said they knew about cryptocurrencies. 90% of respondents indicated that they are ready to invest in cryptocurrencies. 70% of the country's residents also showed a decent understanding of blockchain technology.
More broadly, the study found that people in surveyed countries were not well aware of the concept of Web3. Only 8% of the respondents are familiar with this concept.
This points to a major gap in understanding of its ability to address issues such as privacy, identity, and digital property on the Internet.
50% of respondents believe Web3 adds value to the web, and 67% feel they should own the content they create online. Moreover, data privacy concerns were prominent, with 83% prioritizing data privacy and 70% believing they should share the profits made from their data.
Thanks to the study, it was possible to identify regional differences in relation to cryptocurrencies. In particular, European states, Japan and South Korea are showing considerable skepticism, associating cryptocurrencies with concepts such as fraud and money laundering.
And countries in Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa have shown a more positive attitude, viewing cryptocurrencies as a financial opportunity and protection against unstable local fiat currencies.
In these countries, inflation is high, and the population believes that cryptocurrencies will help to cope with it and the depreciation of national currencies.
Nansen experts report on problems in the NFT sector
Analysts at the Nansen research company have published a report on the situation in the market of non-fungible tokens (NFT), as of August 29, 2023.
They noted that between January 1, 2022 and today, Art NFTs have become the most efficient sector based on the Ethereum (ETH) network. They have been more successful than any other type, including the Blue Chips and the Metaverse.
Nansen specialists told how “weakened” each specific NFT sector is. They proposed a scenario in which an unnamed collector invested $1,000 in each NFT index on the morning of January 1, 2022.
The worst performer was Game-50, which represents various types of gaming NFTs, including GameFi and Play-to-Earn. That figure fell by 91%. Today, the investment would turn into $90.
As for Metaverse-20, today the investment would be reduced to $202. This means that the owners of digital lands are at a serious loss. The benchmark NFT 500 index would leave an investor with only $329 on their balance sheet. As for Social-100 or NFTs focused on social connections, today a collector would have only $362.
Speaking of Blue Chip-10 or the best and most famous digital collections, a $1,000 investment would turn into $405. Art-20 took the first place in the ranking of NFT indices. It includes the top 20 art collections by market capitalization.
With an investment of $1,000, there would now be $596 in the virtual account. According to Nansen researchers, this suggests that people really like digital paintings.
However, analysts noted that in January 2022, the value of ETH in US dollars (USD) was much higher than it is now. The $1000 invested then would have turned into $432 today. As of August 29, 2023, the Ethereum rate is fixed at around $1645.
1inch Deployed Protocols on Base L2 Network by Coinbase
On August 24, the developers of 1inch Network announced the deployment of the main networks of their project in Base, a second-layer solution supported by the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange.
Through the integration, 1inch users will have access to cheaper and faster transactions, as well as additional liquidity.
In addition, projects deployed in Base will be able to serve customers in the Coinbase ecosystem through internal products and fiat channels.
Recall that at the end of July, 1inch Labs released a SaaS test Web3 platform with access to the API for creating new products.
Former OpenSea executive sentenced to three months in prison
A Manhattan federal court has delivered a final verdict in the case of Nathaniel Chastain, former NFT OpenSea product manager.
Nathaniel Chastain was found guilty of what prosecutors called "the first-ever digital asset insider trading scheme."
“Nathaniel Chastain is on trial for breaching a trust placed in him by his employer and using confidential OpenSea information for his own benefit.
The court's decision should serve as a warning to other corporate insiders that insider trading in any form is unacceptable,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
As a result of the trial, Chastain was sentenced to three months in prison, a fine of $50,000, and three years of probation under the supervision of law enforcement.
Chastain's scam was exposed by a Twitter user named Zuwu in 2021. The expert expressed suspicion against OpenSea that its employee is buying up potentially profitable NFTs before their public presentation on the platform.
Daily trading volume on Coinbase International jumps to $287 million
On August 18, trading turnover on the Coinbase International crypto derivatives exchange reached a record $287 million, according to The Block.
The main share of activity falls on perpetual contracts based on Ethereum and Bitcoin. Instruments based on Litecoin and XRP form a small trading volume.
Coinbase launched the platform in May 2023. The firm has been licensed by the Bermuda Monetary Authority.
The decision was made amid an SEC investigation into the listing procedure on the exchange and its products - Coinbase Prime, Coinbase Wallet and staking service Coinbase Earn.
“We are working to bring new features and additional products to market in the second half of the year,” the letter to platform shareholders reads.
According to the company's vice president for institutional products Greg Tusar, from the beginning of the year to mid-August, the volume of trading in perpetual contracts based on digital gold on Coinbase International reached $4.7 billion, and similar instruments based on Ethereum - $2 billion.
In general, in the bitcoin futures segment, trading volume decreased from $1.3 trillion in March to $608 billion in July.
On August 16, 2023, Coinbase received an FCM license from the CFTC. This will offer select US clients access to cryptocurrency futures trading.
In 2022, the exchange acquired FairX, a CFTC-regulated crypto derivatives platform, which was renamed Coinbase Derivatives Exchange.
The platform is open to third-party brokers, FCMs and market makers.
Coinbase applied for a license in September 2021.
The launch of the service for selected users is expected in the coming weeks.
Ledger launches PayPal integration for buying BTC and ETH
Cryptocurrency security firm Ledger has announced a new integration that allows U.S. customers to buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ether and Litecoin using their PayPal account, the company said in a statement.
The Paris-based blockchain company said that U.S. customers using its Ledger Live app — although subject to “applicable state law” — will be able to purchase crypto without verification if they have already purchased the digital currency with PayPal.
“Both PayPal and Ledger are focused on creating secure, convenient and fast transactions wherever you are,” said Pascal Gauthier, Chairman and CEO of Ledger. “Ledger is committed to simplifying the world of cryptocurrencies, while PayPal is committed to making the movement of money as simple, secure and affordable as possible.”
Both Ledger and PayPal have been expanding their interests in crypto lately. PayPal recently launched a stablecoin in the US, and Ledger rolled out a new institutional trading network called Tradelink.
Founded in 2014 and best known for hardware wallets, Ledger is one of the largest crypto companies in Europe.
Head of Immutable on the development of Web3 games in Asia
According to Robbie Ferguson, president and co-founder of Immutable, Asians are making a big leap forward in the Web3 sector.
He noted that game studios from the region are "at the forefront of development" of projects due to the "very strong genre match" between products in the sector and what the continent has historically developed.
In an interview with TechCrunch, the entrepreneur emphasized that the citizens of Japan, South Korea, China and other countries have been very passionate about collecting for many decades.
According to Ferguson, it was the Asian game developers who "laid the foundation for mobile games." He recalled that they stood at the origins of the free-to-play concept.
The entrepreneur added that the popularity of collectibles in existing games in the region would be great with the integration of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) into the Web3 sector.
According to him, the evolution of the gaming industry in the crypto industry is shifting towards Asia. Ferguson believes that "consumer response is likely to vary from region to region."
The head of Immutable made big bets on the development of the cryptocurrency games market. His organization released a platform for creating and scaling Web3 projects based on the Ethereum blockchain.
In addition, the organization itself is a design studio that develops and launches games through the Immutable Games division.
This site has also signed cooperation agreements with several partners. These included web studios and intellectual property owners such as GameStop, TikTok, Illuvium and the NFT marketplace OpenSea.
In March 2022, Immutable raised $200 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. In June of that year, management announced the launch of a developer fund and received $500 million in venture capital funding.
Tokens worth $425 million will enter the crypto market in August
In August of this year, an additional number of tokens will be released to the crypto market. According to TokenUnlocks, SAND, APT, IMX, INJ, LDO and AVAX will soon be added to circulation.
The DYDX, YGG and ID crypto project teams will also release a huge amount of crypto assets into public circulation. According to Wu Blockchain, the total value of these tokens is estimated at more than $425 million.
Notably, the popular online gaming platform The Sandbox is set to unlock 332.55 million native SAND tokens worth $134 million on August 14. Another 949 million tokens will remain locked.
Avalanche, the 18th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, will unlock 9.54 million tokens on August 26, worth about $120 million.
Similarly, the Tier 1 blockchain platform Aptos plans to issue 4 million APT worth $30 million on August 12. There are currently 170 million APT tokens unlocked and 829 million locked, which is 83% of the maximum supply of tokens.
IMX, Immutable X’s native Level 2 Blockchain Token, will hit the market on August 12 with 18 million tokens worth $13.77 million. Currently, 1.12 billion unlocked IMX tokens represent 55% of the maximum supply. In addition, there are 884 million locked IMX tokens, which is 44% of the maximum supply.
On August 17, the Apecoin team plans to unlock 15 million tokens worth $28 million. This new release means that APE will have more unlocked tokens (513.71 million) than locked ones (486.29 million).
Finally, INJ is set to release 2.8 million tokens worth $22.59 million on August 21, LDO will unlock 8.50 tokens worth $15.56 million. In addition, 12.22 million YGG tokens and 15 .15 million ID tokens worth 5.72 and $3.75 million, respectively.
Worldcoin will mass-produce identification devices
The production and operation of Worldcoin's iris-scanning Orb devices could become decentralized. This was stated by the co-founder of the company Alex Blania in the podcast The Scoop.
According to him, production incentives will be woven into the tokenomics of the project. Nevertheless, the open production of Orbs carries the risks of unauthorized data collection by third parties, the developer noted.
Worldcoin has previously released design details for the verification devices, so other organizations could theoretically create their own versions.
“It will be similar to Bitcoin mining, which is mined to protect the network, where producers will also earn WLD with every Orb they create and put into production,” Blania explained.
Worldcoin will devote the entire next year to decentralization and mass production of retinal scanning machines. The project leader added that a range of manufacturers could be involved in the creation of devices: from small companies to technology giants.
The startup of the head of OpenAI Sam Altman announced the official launch on July 24th. Its flagship product, the World ID protocol, is based on zero-knowledge proofs. It is a mobile tool that allows people to be identified through a retinal scan or phone number.
Blania also talked about the launch of the WLD token. He noted that the project could not give away more than 10% of the coins, as this would be "unfair."
Worldcoin co-founder responded to criticism of the protocol's tokenomics. According to him, market makers are not interested in maintaining the price of WLD at a certain level.
According to CoinGecko, the asset is trading at $2.27 at the time of writing, down 1% overnight. Its capitalization is $266 million.
NFT Sales Reach Critically Low
According to Dune Analytics, monthly sales of Ethereum and Polygon-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the OpenSea marketplace have fallen to their lowest level. This indicator has been steadily declining since February 2023 and reached critical values by the end of July.
Information from the network data provider showed that monthly sales of NFTs minted on Ethereum in the market peaked at $659.02 million in the 2nd month of this year.
However, by the last day of July, this figure for the destination in 30 days is only $120.79 million. This is more than 5 times inferior to the best result. Thus, the drop in the monthly value of sales on the marketplace on OpenSea was 82%.
After Polygon's peak volume of NFT transactions of $109.12 million in February, that figure declined at a catastrophic rate in the following months.
OpenSea users were minimally interested in the deals. As a result, trading volumes by 92%. Over the past 30 days, they amounted to only $8.35 million.
In addition, the number of tokens that were purchased by collectors also fell. Only 258,798 Ethereum-minted NFTs were traded on OpenSea this month, according to Dune Analytics.
This is 43% less than 450,325 NFTs sold in June. However, similar statistics for Polygon showed the opposite result. Over the past 30 days, 296,343 NFTs have changed hands, up 29% from 228,859 a month ago.
Blur continues to dominate monthly NFT trading volume, according to DappRadar. According to official data, NFT trading volume amounted to $378.41 million.
OpenSea is significantly behind at $126M, posting a 25% drop in a month. At the same time, the number of traders there was greater - 305,295 people, then there were only 35,304 of them on Blur in 30 days.
Avalanche creates $50M stimulus program
The Avalanche Foundation will spend up to $50 million to purchase assets tokenized on the Avalanche blockchain to demonstrate the utility of creating digital representations of "real world" things on the web.
The program, called Avalanche Vista, will look at assets across the entire spectrum of liquidity, including stocks, loans, real estate and commodities.
“Asset tokenization is not only the future of capital markets, it is a major driver of the present,” Ava Labs President John Woo said in a statement. "The growth in momentum in institutions building networks has been amazing and the Avalanche Foundations is taking a big step forward with this initiative."
The initiative follows recent milestones in the area, including Securitize's tokenization of a stake in flagship fund KKR, the Avalanche Foundation said in a statement, also pointing to the launch of an asset-based securities market called IntainMARKETS.
"The $50 million allocation reflects the Avalanche Foundation's commitment to advancing a financial system that is more accessible, efficient, and cost effective through the use of Avalanche's new consensus mechanism, unique subnet architecture, and technical innovation," the foundation said in a statement.
“He intends to accelerate the growth of tokenization and its role in finance on the network by demonstrating the benefits of using blockchain rails in historically more manual and intensive use cases, including asset issuance, settlement, transfer and administration,” he added.
Avalanche Vista is not the first fund created to advance the blockchain ecosystem. In 2021, a $180 million DeFi investment program was launched with Aave and Curve to bring more assets and decentralized applications to the Avalanche blockchain.
Nigerian Central Bank Adds NFC Update to eNaira
The central bank is reported to have stressed that the addition of NFC technology will play a critical role in boosting the adoption rate of CBDC.
Despite the ex-governor's ouster nearly two months ago, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) remains committed to its goal of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) project showing no signs of abandoning it.
According to local news outlet The Sun, the central bank recently enhanced the CBDC mobile app to include Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.
This update allows mobile devices and payment terminals to communicate when they are in close proximity, facilitating eNaira's convenient and contactless payments.
While previous versions included QR codes, CBN reportedly stresses that the latest addition of NFC technology will play a critical role in boosting CBDC adoption. Joseph Angaye, deputy director of risk management at CBN, reportedly said the banking regulator is committed to using innovative technology to improve user experience.
Embracing the idea of using advanced technology, Angaye reportedly revealed that the CBDC will be equipped with programming features. He explained that these programming features could limit CBDC payments to only certain government programs, reducing the risk of fraud.
In a further explanation, Angaye reportedly stressed that the programmability of the CBDC allows targeted distribution of funds among farmers, allowing for specific tasks such as the acquisition of tools.
With this approach, funds transferred to their eNaira wallet become unusable for any unrelated purpose, ensuring strict adherence to the intended use.
According to reports, Angaye highlighted the numerous benefits of CBDC for retail users in the country, such as reducing settlement risk and ensuring fast transaction processing.
He emphasized that eNaira aims to address the issue of financial inclusion, and Nigeria's pioneering role in implementing CBDC provides valuable information for various economic players and organizations that can learn from the country's experience.
Nigeria launched its eNaira in 2021 to be part of an exclusive group of countries with a CBDC offering. However, adoption rates have been slower than expected, prompting the central bank to explore several options to encourage use.
The central bank has rolled out use cases in the transport sectors by including USSD functionality in the proposal. Due to poor adoption rates, former CBN governor Godwin Emefiele accused commercial banks of holding back eNaira's growth in favor of their profitability.
Bitmain Launches Filecoin Mining Rig
Cryptocurrency mining rig manufacturer Bitmain is entering the Filecoin mining market for the first time with a new model priced at $38,888 per unit.
According to the announcement, the machines have a hash rate of 4300T and users can list them on the Bitmain-affiliated Antpool mining pool platform to start earning rewards immediately after purchase.
Filecoin offers a unique combination of mining and staking to support its decentralized storage network. Storage providers provide their computing resources for storing and retrieving data, earning mining rewards based on storage capacity.
Meanwhile, token holders can stake FIL tokens to maintain consensus and manage the network, earning staking rewards.
In addition to mining machines, Bitmain introduces a delegated staking service for Filecoin with a monthly fee of 0.5%, which allows users to delegate their tokens to a third party such as Antpool.
Bitmain's Filecoin mining machines will go on sale on July 21st.
SEC chief disappointed with Ripple court ruling
The head of the SEC, Gary Gensler, said he was very disappointed with the court's decision that the security. According to him, now the situation is being studied. Despite the court ruling, the regulator will continue to try to bring cryptocurrency companies into compliance.
Gary Gensler also promised that the Commission will try to provide adequate protection to all investors. The SEC will continue to take enforcement action against companies that violate securities laws.
In the meantime, after Ripple's partial victory in the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) XRP court, the native token forms 21% of the total cryptocurrency trading volume.
Yesterday, Judge Analisa Torres of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York referred the case to a magistrate. Now there is a general pre-trial. This stage is usually necessary in order to raise objections on the merits of the case.
Generally, general pre-litigation is part of the dispute resolution proceedings. Lawyers suggest that the regulator is unlikely to appeal the decision of Judge Torres in the Ripple case.
The judge emphasized that XRP was being sold as a security when Ripple sold it directly to investors through a marketing scheme that highlighted several aspects of XRP that, according to the SEC, could cause investors to view it as a security.
At the same time, Judge Torres also stated that XRP sales to institutional investors could still be classified as securities transactions. This means that the company is waiting for the next legal obstacles.
The Torres decision marked the first time that a court favored a cryptocurrency company, ruling that some XRP sales were not compliant with U.S. securities laws. The ruling differentiated transactions on cryptocurrency exchanges, in which Ripple did not know the identity of the buyer, and direct sales to institutional investors.
Most likely, lengthy litigation will begin in the near future. They can go on for months or even years. So far, none of the parties in this case has not received a complete victory. It may not be, and the regulator and Ripple will somehow be able to resolve the dispute with each other.
Ethereum TPS to Spike Following Starknet Major Upgrade Quantum Leap
With a radical upgrade of its codebase, Starknet can now process transactions faster and cheaper than ever before. More phases of the current upgrade are set to be activated in the coming weeks.
Hotly anticipated network upgrade Quantum Leap is live on Starknet's main network. Its v0.12.0 upgrade is set to bring a complete rewrite of how Starknet processes transactions.
Starknet Sequencer, an element of its ecosystem responsible for broadcasting compressed transaction data to Ethereum (ETH) mainnet, is now written in Rust.
Also, the upgrade features two essential components: new virtual machine Cairo VM developed by LambdaClass, which executes Cairo code and the Blockifier mechanism by StarkWare, which assembles new blocks.
It replaces "Pending" transaction status with "Included in L2," which is equal to a transaction finalization message. With this feature, the transaction throughput of Ethereum (ETH) will spike to triple-digit values, the team says.
The next phases of the upgrade — starting from v0.13.0 — are set to introduce reduced gas fees, launch a fee market and lower block intervals further.
Also, the network will have better spam-resistance, as failed transactions will be subject to charges: no failed transaction will pay gas fees any longer.
In its current phase, the network has already achieved a stable 37 TPS benchmark. Cryptocurrency educator The DeFi Saint shared his own results of post-Quantum Leap Starknet testing.
According to The DeFi Saint, he managed to have his Ethereum (ETH) transactions finalized in just 15 seconds. In less than a minute, the balances of accounts participating changed, The DeFi Saint added.
As covered by U.Today previously, Starknet is a new-gen L2 scaling protocol for Ethereum (ETH) launched by blockchain veteran Eli Ben-Sasson. Starknet leverages its own programming language, dubbed Cairo.
JPMorgan is going to provide cryptocurrency exchange services
Banking giant JPMorgan is going to provide cryptocurrency exchange services. JPMorgan Chase filed for the Chase Travel trademark.
The banking giant lists various services in the application, including virtual currency financial exchange and travel agency services.
In fact, the move is fitting in JPMorgan's quest to integrate cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies into its service offerings.
The application states that the trademark covers a range of services of various International Classes (IC). Specifically, IC 035 applies to credit card promotions with travel-related benefits, 24/7 travel and emergency customer support, and special promotions.
IC 036 covers financial services ranging from travel insurance to currency exchange services, both traditional and virtual. IC039 involves booking and ordering transport through a travel agency.
At the end of October 2020, the bank announced the launch of its stablecoin JPM Coin, the first cryptocurrency backed by a US bank and used to send cross-border payments, demonstrating its stance in favor of crypto innovation.
Also launched was Onyx, the world's first bank-led blockchain platform to develop innovative products, platforms and marketplaces.
Earlier in 2022, JPMorgan formally registered and patented the "JP Morgan Wallet" with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
JPMorgan will provide services related to cryptocurrency transfers on the blockchain; cryptocurrency exchange services; crypto payment processing services, which include the processing of crypto payments through credit and bank cards, and services that include the creation and management of virtual checking accounts.
An interesting fact is that in 2017, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, declared Bitcoin a “scam” and stated that any employee caught trading it would be fired for “stupidity.” He also called crypto platforms “decentralized Ponzi schemes.”
Now the market situation has changed and JPMorgan is trying to become one of the leading players in the digital economy market.
Ethereum fees hit 8-month low
The world's largest smart contract platform, Ethereum (ETH), has become the "cheapest" to use in the last 8 months. The total daily fee paid by users for executing transactions on the network has dropped to 1,719 ETH ($2.8 million) as of August 27, 2023. This was the lowest since December 26, 2022, according to data tracked by analytics firm CryptoQuant.
This value has fallen by 89% compared to the annual maximum of 16.72 thousand ETH, registered on May 5 of this year. Platform analysts recalled that Ethereum uses a “proof of stake” consensus mechanism, in which validators, not miners, are used to create and verify blocks of transactions. Organizations that help secure the network by locking at least 32 ETH receive transaction fees.
They are rewarded with a priority fee or a tip that users add to the base cost to encourage them to prioritize. At the same time, that same base part is burned, removing a certain share of ETH from circulation and making the tokenomics deflationary.
A decrease in the total fees paid may indicate low network usage. This parameter is determined by user activity and is reflected in the number of pending transactions.
However, some market researchers have speculated that the multi-month low could be due, conversely, to the growing popularity of Ethereum's Layer 2 scaling solutions. This is a positive factor for the network.
“Ethereum L1 fees since the launch of the friends tech platform on August 10 are 25% lower than the average for the year up to this point. This is in sharp contrast to the days when non-fungible tokens (NFT) CryptoKitties appeared on the market, ”said David Lovant, head of research at FalconX.
“This comes amid the launch of L2 scalability solutions for Ethereum: Friends tech is built on Base using OP Stack,” the expert added.
The specialist spoke about the integration of Solana and Shopify
Decentralized payment protocol Solana Pay has received a new partner. Developers from Solana Labs announced the integration of the plugin with Shopify. This allows millions of companies around the world to get paid in cryptocurrencies on this e-commerce platform.
The second largest stablecoin USDC, with a market capitalization of $25.9 billion, will be the initial payment option. Josh Fried, a business development and partnership specialist at the Solana Foundation, told TechCrunch about this in an interview a few hours after the news of the signing of the agreement.
According to him, the choice was not random. Most merchants will be more willing to accept payment in a cryptocurrency pegged to the United States dollar (USD) than other digital currencies.
In addition, this virtual asset is regulated, unlike many altcoins, and has real collateral. He also stressed that the protocol will consider adding SOL and BONK cryptocurrencies in the future.
Shopify accounts for 10% of total U.S. e-commerce and $444 billion in global economic activity, according to official figures.
The Solana ecosystem has over 11.5 million active accounts. Solana Pay is already partnering with Circle and Phantom, as well as Checkout and Citcon.
Fried said credit card processing fees typically cost businesses between 1.5% and 3.5% per transaction. However, using the Solana Pay option is practically "free", the specialist noted.
The average cost on the Solana blockchain is $0.00025. He also talked about 100% network uptime in Q2 2023.
Several cryptocurrency teams and brands such as Helius, Mad Lads and MonkeDAO have already agreed to integrate Solana Pay into their Shopify stores, Fried shared.
The integration is designed to help merchants create loyalty programs, Freed said. Reward systems can be simple. If the consumer uses Solana Pay, the store will give him a discount.
Bitmain will pay compensation in case of a significant fall in bitcoin
Mining equipment manufacturer Bitmain has launched a protection mechanism against market volatility for its customers. This is reported by local media.
Within three months after the purchase of the S19j XP installation, the company undertakes to pay compensation in the amount of $1.89 for each Th of capacity if bitcoin quotes fall by more than 20%.
The funds will be credited to the client's balance and can be used to purchase any Bitmain products.
The program also applies to previously purchased units of the same model.
Earlier, Bitmain announced the new flagship Antminer S21, which will keep energy efficiency below 20 J/TH.
OpenSea will disable the tool for forced collection of royalties
Starting August 31, the OpenSea NFT marketplace will stop operating the Operator Filter on-chain tool, which collects royalties.
The platform introduced the solution in November 2022. Operator Filter allows collection creators to blacklist marketplaces that do not charge royalties when reselling assets.
According to the founder and CEO of OpenSea Devin Finzer, the tool did not receive the support in the ecosystem that the team was counting on. According to him, a number of marketplaces like Blur, Dew and LooksRare bypassed the Operator Filter by integrating the Seaport protocol.
The decision also faced opposition from some collection authors, who considered it an infringement on property rights, limiting NFT trading options.
“Unfortunately, the ecosystem did not accept the Operator Filter,” Finzer stated.
He noted that most trading volumes continue to shift into zero fees for creators.
“Royalties are just one of the many revenue streams available to Web3 creators, and our role in this ecosystem is to support innovation beyond a single use case or business model,” said the OpenSea founder.
After August 31, collections using the Operator Filter will be forced to collect fees until February 29, 2024. After this date, creator royalties will become optional. For new NFTs, this rule will take effect immediately.
In February, the OpenSea team switched the marketplace to an “optional collection” of royalties and temporarily canceled fees amid a confrontation with Blur.
Tether CTO talks about BTC mining
Paolo Ardoino, CTO of stablecoin issuer Tether (USDT), posted a lengthy post on Twitter (now X).
He said that his company is actively investing in the production of renewable energy with excess reserves and profits, and also supports the idea of mining bitcoin (BTC) in this way.
According to the specialist, despite the fact that there are many cloud services for mining the flagship cryptocurrency, he has never seen worthy ones among them.
Ardoino assured that almost none of these tools can be carefully customized, as well as get deep data analysis in real time, "tick by tick, to optimize processes."
Ardoino proposed to introduce a BTC cloud mining site that receives tens of thousands of visitors daily, and dozens of containers and thousands of other devices are connected to it.
According to the expert, this is actually a huge Internet of Things (IoT) project, where millions of data points are created every minute.
The specialist spoke about the Holepunch technology in the Moria project. According to him, this product is based on a scalable modular architecture.
It allows you to collect data from various types of devices, combine them and analyze them, including artificial intelligence (AI) predictive models. This makes it possible to collect the necessary information to optimize BTC mining.
Once everything is implemented, this software will be improved to manage part of the energy production. This includes solar panels, windmills, and more.
P2P data structures and streaming methods will allow Moria to scale to tens of millions of devices, "enabling dynamic grouping and orchestration," according to Ardoino.
Matrixport: US may give green light to Bitcoin ETF
Matrixport believes that the US may give a green light to an exchange-traded fund (ETF) for bitcoin, and, according to analysts, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may approve several applications for the launch of such a financial instrument at once.
Recall that among such applications there is a statement from the world's largest investment fund BlackRock.
According to Matrixport, such an expected decision by the SEC will be the trigger for a rally in the price of bitcoin. Institutional investors are also expected to invest “significant amounts of money in marketing when Bitcoin ETFs enter the market in order to attract funds from both retail investors and large investment capital from legal entities to these financial instruments.”
Recall that there is a Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) fund similar to a possible bitcoin ETF on the market, which attracted $43.5 billion at its peak, and also gave about $870 million annually in commissions collected by the management team of this fund.
There are currently nine bitcoin ETF applications pending before the SEC. For two of them, from GBTC and ARK 21Shares, an SEC response could be received next week. For the rest - during the first week of September.
According to market estimates, bitcoin-ETF will have a management fee in the range of 0.7% -1%, which can bring a total of $ 200 million to companies that launch such an ETF in the first year of operation of such financial instruments.
Matrixport noted that if by mid-September the SEC does not approve any application for Bitcoin-ETF in the US, then we can expect a downward correction in the price of the #1 cryptocurrency, which, according to analysts, will be short-term and interesting in terms of investors exiting with purchases. bitcoins at a bargain price.
NFT trading volume on Polygon is growing again
Amazon Prime subscribers can now get free NFT at Polygon. With over 200 million people worldwide using Prime, their growing interest in non-fungible tokens could have a significant impact on MATIC's price dynamics.
According to historical data, NFT trading volumes are closely correlated with Polygon price dynamics: when minting non-fungible tokens, users burn a small amount of MATIC. This takes the coins out of circulation, reducing the supply. Therefore, partnership with Amazon may have a positive impact on asset quotes.
As shown in the chart below, between July 26 and August 2, the volume of NFTs under $1,000 decreased by 75% from 10,523 to 2,668. After the Amazon deal was announced, it started to rise again and reached 4,400 in the last 2 days. and 4,800 respectively.
While the partnership with Amazon could benefit MATIC's price, major holders of the asset remain skeptical.
According to the Santiment platform, between July 15 and August 4, addresses with a balance of 10 to 100 million Polygon got rid of 46 million coins worth about $28.4 million. Such a significant outflow of funds in a short period could negatively affect the price of the asset.
Given the mixed performance of on-chain indicators, MATIC price action is likely to remain neutral in the coming days.
Voyager lawyers allowed the platform to be hacked after opening the withdrawal of funds
The platform of the bankrupt crypto broker Voyager Digital may have been hacked after the resumption of the withdrawal function on June 23, lawyers for the company said.
It was available for 30 days to recover client assets as part of a court-supervised liquidation process. Representatives of Voyager reported a possible violation to law enforcement officers for investigation.
After the platform was opened, users withdrew assets from it with a total value of about $490 million, which is approximately 80% of the amount available for payments.
Lawyer Darren Azman also told the court that a small number of users were affected by phishing attacks. The attackers created fake websites, ostensibly for a refund, where victims were asked to link their non-Voyager crypto wallets, after which all assets were withdrawn from them.
Judge Michael Wiles called the news of a possible hack a "shame" as the victims waited more than a year for their funds to be unfrozen.
Voyager stopped working and withdrawing funds on July 1, 2022 amid the bankruptcy of the borrower, the cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC).
A few days later, the broker itself filed for bankruptcy with liabilities ranging from $1 billion to $10 billion. US regulators accused the company of making false claims about deposit insurance by a federal agency.
In September, the FTX crypto exchange won the auction to buy Voyager for $1.42 billion, but two months later it went bankrupt itself, after which the broker’s assets were going to be bought from the US division of the Binance exchange for $1.022 billion.
This deal was repeatedly opposed by regulators and the US Department of Justice, but all claims were rejected by the court. However, in the end, Binance US itself terminated the deal due to regulatory ambiguities.
After that, a decision was made to liquidate Voyager, and in May the court approved a plan to recover client funds. According to it, it was assumed that customers would receive 35.72% of the amount of claims, while payments could increase if Voyager reaches an agreement with FTX.
Paradigm Capital suspected of unloading MakerDAO stake
Venture capital fund Paradigm Capital was likely preparing to sell its $3.5 million MakerDAO (MKR) governance token, according to Arkham Intelligence
A total of 3,000 MKR was transferred from the Paradigm crypto wallet to an address marked as an OTC trading wallet. This comes after Andressen Horowitz’s (a16z) fund floated $7 million worth of MKR on the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange. Arkham data shows that the OTC wallet that received the Paradigm tokens has a history of receiving MKR and transferring it to Coinbase.
The two firms' deals come after MKR soared to its highest level since last August. Both funds were early investors in MakerDAO. In total, Paradigm acquired 5.5% of all MKR tokens in a $27.5M investment round from Dragonfly Capital at the end of 2019, while a16z acquired 6% of the MKR supply for $15M in 2018.
In May, Paradigm acquired 810,000 Coinbase shares at an average price of $61. As of mid-May, two divisions of the firm — Paradigm One LP and Paradigm Fund LP — owned a total of 4.5 million Coinbase shares.
This purchase was reported to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by the co-founder of the fund, Fred Ehrsam. In total, he owns 1.1 million securities through the Frederick Ernest Ehrsam III Living Trust.
Last month, a16z decided to open its first cryptocurrency operation outside of the US. The Foundation has chosen London as its new home base. According to a16z partner Chris Dixon, the UK government sees the promise of Web3, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is ready to work with the industry to create policies that "encourage the decentralization of start-ups."
It is expected that the British division of the fund will support cryptocurrency startups not only in the UK, but also in continental Europe. That being said, the company remains willing to work with politicians and regulators in the US to achieve “greater regulatory clarity for crypto startups.”
ChatGPT predicts Polkadot's value will rise to $250 by the end of 2024
ChatGPT has analyzed the possibility of a rise in the price of DOT until the end of 2024 - according to its data, the value of the asset could increase by 50 times. However, experts doubt the reliability of the forecast.
ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence-based system, based on historical data and current events in the crypto asset market, presented a forecast according to which the price of Polkadot (DOT) could reach $150 by the end of 2023 and $250 by the end of 2024.
At the same time, the results of the Polkadot Decoded conference, which took place in Copenhagen on June 28 and 29, were taken into account. At the event, Polkadot Founder Gavin Wood unveiled a new roadmap for the project, according to which among the changes in the Polkadot architecture, a transition from the current leasing model to a time selling model is expected.
“Overall, the Polkadot ecosystem is designed to drive innovation and collaboration across different blockchains. It provides developers with a flexible and scalable platform to build a wide range of decentralized applications,” the ChatGPT rationale states.
In the comments to the forecast, it is noted that, as of the end of the first quarter of 2023, more than 40 parachains have won new auction places on Polkadot. The ecosystem continues to expand as new parachain developments emerge, which should drive demand and increase pressure on the cost of DOT.
However, experts noted that the ChatGPT system is imperfect and can only be used conditionally to predict the prices of cryptoassets. Some of the results obtained turned out to be inaccurate or false, with large deviations from the real price data collected from TradingView.
In particular, the ChatGPT forecast did not take into account that over the past year the asset has been trading along a downward curve, which indicates that Polkadot bulls and investors are gradually leaving the market.
Ripple's New Partnership to Test CBDC Issuance and Stablecoins
A recent announcement published by Ripple reveals that it has partnered with Super How, a blockchain technology research lab, to collaborate on the Axiology project.
The goal of this project is to test and release cryptocurrencies, including CBDCs and stablecoins, and to increase the confidence of regulators that the use of these nascent assets is safe for all parties involved in the process.
Headquartered in Lithuania, Super How offers Ripple its experience in projects closely related to cryptocurrencies.
Axiology is an infrastructure system for trading and settlement of tokenized securities. This allows several layers of the current capital market infrastructure to coexist on the same technological level, improve the efficiency of all processes, launch a new business model, etc.
This partnership will allow Ripple to continue to spread innovative ideas and technologies to drive blockchain adoption in finance.
The Axiology project will provide more new use cases for enterprises to apply tokenization and use cryptocurrencies on this blockchain platform. It also works with tokenized securities.
Ripple’s VP of Central Bank Relations, James Wallis, said Ripple Labs is excited to partner with Super How and the Axiology project to create real use cases for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).
Stablecoins and CBDCs are required for the settlement of tokenized securities. This is part of the recent DLT Pilot Regulation adopted by the European Union. Thus, Axiology will be a good opportunity for European banks to practice issuing and using CBDCs.
Piloting a DLT regime in the EU along with the MiCA (stands for Markets in Crypto Assets) regulation aimed at preventing fraud and AML, the European Commission has introduced a digital finance package. Its goal is to stimulate the adoption of cryptocurrencies and CBDCs.
In addition, it will facilitate the use of digital currencies for transnational payments, including faster settlement times. The blockchain pilot mode is the main component of this initiative, it will be a kind of sandbox for testing payments and settlements based on cryptocurrencies and CBDCs.
Sui accused of imitating on-chain activity
A sharp surge in user activity on the Sui Network has divided the crypto community into two camps.
An increase in the daily number of transactions or active addresses is usually associated with an increase in interest in a particular blockchain. However, some members of the crypto community believe that the project team is deliberately misleading users.
On Monday, the number of transactions on the Sui blockchain reached an all-time high, surpassing Solana.
However, the growth was driven primarily by the SUI 8192 game engine, which records each action as a transaction. According to Artemis, in just 10 minutes, players added 1,000 transaction blocks.
Analyst platform Artemis explained on Twitter that for Sui, it looks at blocks rather than individual transactions.
“The surge in data is not due to a large number of state updates in a small number of transaction blocks, but because the number of transaction blocks that users end up providing has increased significantly,” Artemis explained.
Members of the crypto community reacted to the growth of on-chain indicators of the network ambiguously. Well-known trader Andrew Kang tweeted:
“Sui pumps up the numbers. The chart looks good, but the market doesn't seem to understand the validity of trades."
Some crypto enthusiasts supported Kang and called the activity “inorganic and manipulative.” However, others still came out in defense of the blockchain. Smart contract developer BL0CKRUNNER commented:
“The purpose of this event is to reward early adopters in a fun and original way. Instead of airdropping like everyone else, Mysten released 380,000 Bullshark NFTs, allowing holders to participate in quests and share a pool of 5 million tokens. Obviously, after the event ends, the daily number of transactions will not be so high. So there is no need to worry."
Sui is a first-level blockchain (Layer1) created to serve high-performance decentralized applications. The operation and security of the network is ensured by the Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm.
The developers launched the mainnet in May. Since then, the project has caused a lot of controversy for various reasons, and recent controversial events have only exacerbated the situation.
MultiversX launches on-chain two-factor authentication standard
Two-factor authentication (2FA) is a tried and tested online security measure, and the technology is now being used as an additional transaction signing measure on MultiversX’s blockchain protocol.
MultiversX CEO Beniamin Mincu unpacked the protocol’s new guardian service in conversation with Cointelegraph. The feature makes use of Google Authenticator, Authy, Duo, Microsoft Authenticator or biometrics to provide a second signature for transactions before they are processed on-chain.
Mincu outlines the novelty of the approach, which allows users to make use of guarded transactions and accounts to act as a secondary security mechanism:
“What the chain sees is a guarded account, if it has the feature activated, and for that account, it requires that any outgoing transaction carry two signatures, one from the account owner and the second one from the guardian, through a guarded transaction.”
The guardian service requires users to create a guardian address to provide 2FA-controlled signatures. Part of the sign-up process sees the wallet prompt the user to finalize the registration by issuing a transaction to the MultiversX network, which will set the service-generated address as a guardian for their account.
After an account becomes guarded on-chain, transactions issued by the user require both the user’s and the guardian’s signatures. A valid guardian signature for the user transaction will be provided by the guardian service whenever a user that has a guarded account sends a transaction from their wallet and provides a valid 2FA code.
While the two-factor authentication does not strictly take place on-chain, transactions require 2FA codes to be executed. Mincu added that their approach to 2FA protection embedded in the protocol is yet to be carried out by other protocols.
“As opposed to existing solutions that provide extra protection for wallet accounts, Guardians don't require storing more private keys and don't add additional fragility to the backup scheme, which are important tradeoffs and barriers for users.”
Nevertheless, many cryptocurrency wallets and exchange services tap into 2FA as an added measure to confirm logins as well as transactions from users at an application level. However Mincu believes the fundamental principles behind the MultiversX Guardian approach are possible to be emulated by other blockchain protocols:
“The concept of using a device-based authenticator to enable 2FA protection could certainly cause a paradigm shift within our industry.”
Mincu added that additional security should not come at a cost to user experience and should be aimed at adding minimal friction to transaction signing.
2FA has been part and parcel of the cryptocurrency space for years, with exchanges like Kraken making the added security measure mandatory for its users in 2019 to secure logins attempts.
Grayscale and Fir Tree agree to resolve lawsuit over bitcoin trust
Fir Tree Capital Management and crypto asset management firm Grayscale Investments have reached an agreement to resolve a lawsuit the hedge fund filed against the firm last year, Bloomberg News reported.
Fir Tree Capital Management sued Grayscale for information in December to investigate potential mismanagement and conflicts of interest, according to Delaware court documents. As per the agreement announced Tuesday, Grayscale will provide documentation around the firm's flagship product GBTC.
The product, which is meant to offer exposure to bitcoin in the form of a security, often trades at a premium or discount to net-asset-value. Fir Tree's original complaint alleged that Grayscale investors have been harmed by "shareholder-unfriendly actions." It also called on the firm to allow for redemptions of GBTC.
In a statement shared with Bloomberg on Tuesday, the firm said that Grayscale should conduct a tender offer for shares in GBTC. Grayscale would need approval from shareholders to allow for such an offering.
A Grayscale spokeswoman said the firm is "pleased to resolve Fir Tree Partners’ meritless lawsuit."
"It’s widely understood that the conversion of GBTC to an ETF is the best long-term product structure for all investors. At Grayscale, we are 100% committed to that endeavor, and look forward to the Court’s decision on the matter by the Fall of 2023," the spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.
Grayscale is also suing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to pave the way for the agency to greenlight its proposal to upgrade GBTC to an exchange-traded fund.
