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Nearly $1 Billion Liquidated as Bitcoin Hits ATH and Dips 📉
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The specialist outlined the terms of approval
If the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will not approve the spare Ethereum-ETF in May 2024, it will do this by mid-2025. This opinion was expressed by lawyer Scott Johnsson.
“On September 29, 2023, the SEC simultaneously published the initial letters with comments on the applications for spot-bitcoin-ETF.
Fixed forms of S-1 appeared about two weeks later. Those. About 90 days passed until the deadline on January 10, 2024. Now we have 90 days left until the deadline on May 23 for spotes Ethereum-ETF, ”he wrote.
At the same time, according to the lawyer, there is enough reason to believe that the SEC will deviate from the previous schedule and tighten the process of comments on S-1 before the approval of 19B-4.
Bloomberg exchange analyst James Seyffart said that SEC does not need so much time to process applications on Ethereum-ETF, as with the first cryptocurrency, since the weighty part of the documents can be based on bitcoin-setf.
"I agree. This time the process should be faster, which explains the lack of involvement right now, ”Johnsson answered.
CEO KEYROCK Kevin de Patul in an interview with Cointelegraph estimated the chances of approval of a spotes Ethereum-ETF in the United States above 50%.
In his opinion, one of the main problems on the way to this is the SEC head Gary Gensler, who can classify the second in capitalization of cryptocurrency as security.
The expert note that the transition of Ethereum to the Proof-OF-Stake consensus algorithm in September 2022 makes the asset more similar to the security in terms of the regulator.
In February, Seyffart relied on 4 ETH (about $ 1l2 000 at the rate at the time of writing) that the SEC will not approve the spotes Eth-ETF in March. However, he refused to put against this event until the end of 2024.
Earlier, Fox Business predicted the registration of Ethereum-ETF by May. Seyffart estimated such a probability of 60%, his colleague Eric Balchunas was slightly higher - 70%. CEO Morgan Creek Capital Mark Yusco turned out to be more pessimistic, assuming 50/50 chances.
Analysts at JPMorgan and TD Cowen also doubted the grown approval of the products.
Venture capital investments in blockchain startups amounted to $1.9 billion in the fourth quarter
In 2023, venture capital investments in the blockchain industry fell by 68%, reports Block Research. If in 2022 capital investments amounted to $33.3 billion, then last year they fell to $10.7 billion.
Pitchbook found that the investment attractiveness of blockchain startups began to improve in the third quarter of 2023. Investors have directed $1.9 billion into this sector.
The largest amount of capital was attracted by the Swan Bitcoin and Blockchain com platforms. At the same time, in October-December, the number of transactions involving venture capital in the cryptosphere decreased by almost 2.5%.
The most attractive areas for investors remain fintech, blockchain infrastructure and tokenization of real assets, such as real estate or shares.
Pitchbook analyst Robert Le reported on CNBC that the attractiveness of blockchain startups began to increase amid the readiness of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve applications to launch exchange-traded crypto ETFs.
According to the expert, the influx of venture capital into the industry will increase in the coming months, as institutions have received a channel in the form of ETFs and will enter the cryptosphere more intensively.
EigenLayer reaches nearly $6 billion TVL
EigenLayer's TVL volume has grown to nearly $6 billion in the past few days since deposit restrictions were temporarily lifted.
According to data from DeFiLlama, assets deposited in EigenLayer have grown by approximately 170% from $2.15 billion when the window began on February 5th to $5.9 billion at the time of writing - about 2.3 million ETH.
For comparison, TVL is equivalent to approximately 2% of the total amount of ether in circulation. This also places EigenLayer in the top five DeFi protocols according to TVL, ahead of leading decentralized exchange Uniswap and behind only Lido, Maker, Aave and JustLend.
EigenLayer went through a series of deposit limit increases before temporarily removing the final limit of 200,000 Ether ($500 million) for each liquid stake token.
EigenLayer's TVL lift ends today at 3:00 pm ET. However, the project said it eventually plans to lift the restrictions permanently, creating a "non-tolerant, neutral environment while promoting decentralization."
EigenLayer previously said the temporary lifting of restrictions was intended to boost organic demand. However, many users were incentivized to contribute funds and participate in the network to earn reward points - with stakers suggesting they could potentially be rewarded for airdropping Eigen tokens in the future.
The EigenLayer protocol allows users to stake and re-stake Ether using liquid tokens, distributing these funds to secure third-party networks and potentially earning additional rewards.
Liquid staking solutions allow users to participate in Ethereum (ETH) by staking while revealing the value of the underlying assets as a liquid token to be used as collateral in DeFi.
The initial phase of the Eigeneyer Protocol was deployed on the Ethereum network in June 2023, allowing users to stake LST from three staking projects: Lido, Rocket Pool, and Coinbase. Since then, the protocol has expanded to additional LSTs, including sETH from Stakewise, mETH from Mantle, sfrxETH from Frax, ankrETH from Ankr, and wBETH from Binance.
Credit platform Celsius began returning $3 billion worth of debts
On January 1, the crypto-currency lending platform Celsius Network emerged from bankruptcy proceedings and began returning debts amounting to $3 billion.
Last year, the company's clients supported the business reorganization plan, and in November the court gave the go-ahead for its implementation.
Based on this, the company began to distribute fiat currency, digital assets and shares of the Ionic Digital organization among creditors for a total amount of over $3 billion. Ionic Digital will be engaged in mining cryptocurrencies, and its work will be managed by Hut 8, a Bitcoin mining company in Canada.
Exit from the bankruptcy procedure was possible thanks to the incredible efforts of the company's employees and intensive cooperation with Hut 8, our strategic partners and creditors.
When we were appointed [to the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Celsius] in June 2022, everyone thought that Celsius would disappear without a trace, like the rest of the failed cryptocurrencies at that time. prestigious startups.
But we are proud that we were able to preserve digital assets and compensate losses to clients and applicants, said members of the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Celsius David Barps and Alan Kapp.
Let's remember that Celsius declared itself bankrupt on July 13, 2022 after missing assets worth $1.2 billion. Last year, the company's founder, Alex Mashinsky, was accused of fraud, and the case brought against him will begin to be considered in court in September.
The Bank of England promises to issue its own token by 2025
In February 2023, Deputy Governor of the UK Central Bank John Cunliffe announced that the regulator was not abandoning plans to create a digital pound (CBDC), and it should appear on the market by 2025.
However, a year ago, the Central Bank did not have sufficient technical tools to deploy the token.
Last week, the Bank of England said that a decision on issuing a digital currency has not yet been made. However, the kingdom's authorities plan to make a choice in the medium term.
The UK government is ready to begin creating a digital pound. The Central Bank guarantees user privacy, and banks will not be able to reject transactions from CBDC senders.
Many Britons fear that the regulator will break its promise and establish total control over all transactions with the digital pound.
Lobbying organization CryptoUK is therefore calling on the Bank of England to provide detailed information about its program to launch a digital currency.
Terraform Labs filed for bankruptcy
Terraform Labs has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware court. The company's liabilities are estimated at $500 million.
In a comment to The Block, the company's CEO Chris Amani said that this was a forced step:
“It will allow us to continue working with the community on infrastructure, innovative tools and products, and support the ecosystem.”
According to Amani, the bankruptcy procedure will allow the company to concentrate its efforts on solving legal problems. Let us remind you that the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Terraform Labs.
The regulator previously agreed to postpone the hearing pending the extradition of Do Kwon, the former head of the organization. He is serving time in Montenegro on charges of forgery.
According to the papers, Terraform Labs estimates its assets and liabilities in the amount of $100 million to $500 million. The list of creditors has not been disclosed.
Amid the bankruptcy news, the LUNC token sank by more than 11%, according to TradingView.
Hackers tried to hack Bitfinex
On January 14, 2024, Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino announced a hacker attack on the exchange. The attacker tried to gain access to funds using the “partial payments” vulnerability.
“The attack failed because Bitfinex correctly processed the ‘delivered_amount’ data field,” he said.
Ardoino explained that the supposed transaction worth about $15 billion in XRP tokens turned out to be fake. An unknown person attempted to falsify the deposit and actually sent a much smaller amount, marking it as a partial payment.
Information about the large XRP transfer first appeared on the Whale Alert page on X (formerly Twitter). Analysts reported a large transfer of 25.6 billion XRP, representing almost half of the coins in circulation.
The message was later deleted. Whale Alert reported "an issue with Ripple data being misread, resulting in incorrect information being published."
According to Bithomp, the attacker tried to attack another cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, using a fake transfer of 58.9 billion XRP, but the exploit attempt also failed.
The Orbit Chain bridge was reportedly hacked for $81.5 million
Orbit Bridge, a gateway bridge protocol, experienced an unusual outflow of $81.5 million across multiple cryptocurrencies in a major hack.
In five separate transactions, each to a new wallet, Orbit Bridge sent $50 million in stablecoins (30 million Tether (USDT), 10 million DAI and $10 million, 231 wBTC (about $10 million) and 9,500 eth (about 21.5 million US dollars) The hack was first noticed by user X Kgjr.
The bridge appears to have a close connection with the Klaytn KLAY ecosystem; Klaytn research shows that 9 of the 10 largest tokens on the network by trading market capitalization are assets wrapped in Orbit Bridge.
The head of Ledger commented on the situation with the exploit
Ledger announced that it had completely removed the exploit and replaced the hacked library. According to the company's CEO Pascal Gauthier, the reason was a phishing attack on a former employee.
Ledger noted that it had successfully replaced the hacked library with a fixed one. The malicious code has allegedly been deactivated, and the Ledger Connect Kit is now safe to use.
At the same time, the company recommended waiting a while and clearing the cache in the browser:
Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier noted that the reason for the hack lies in a targeted attack on one of the former employees:
“He was the victim of a phishing scam that allowed the attacker to upload a malicious file to the NPMJS Ledger (package manager for Javascript code).”
Gauthier said Ledger and the company's partner WalletConnect worked together to update the software and fix the exploit within 40 minutes of its discovery.
The company's CEO called the incident an "unfortunate isolated incident." He promised that the company would strengthen security measures.
The incident described above occurred on December 14, 2023. Many dApps that used the Ledger Connect Kit library were hit.
Decentralized exchange OKX hacked
Decentralized exchange (DEX) OKX was hacked. Information about suspicious activity in wallets associated with the trading platform appeared on the microblogs of members of the crypto community.
A network user under the nickname ENO writes that he received a complaint about the theft of money from DEX OKX wallets. According to him, representatives of the trading platform quickly removed the hacked proxy address.
According to Chinese journalist Colin Wu, hackers managed to withdraw $424 thousand worth of cryptocurrency from the wallets of the crypto exchange. According to him, the scammers could gain access to the assets by stealing the private key.
The hack was confirmed by analysts from the blockchain company SlowMist. According to them, the attack may be the result of a leak of the administrator's private key.
OKX representatives commented on the theft of money. According to them, we are talking about the theft of assets worth $370 thousand from 18 wallets. The scammers allegedly used an abandoned market maker's market contract to gain access to the assets.
The trading platform team promised to reimburse users for all stolen money. OKX representatives also initiated a security check to eliminate the possibility of a recurrence of the incident.
Shopping by miners before halving is $1.2 billion
There have been several miner purchase announcements in the past week as mining companies compete for fleet efficiency and production capacity ahead of the halving, which is now less than 20,000 blocks away, or approximately 138 days away.
The upcoming halving and the market's recovery this year from the 2022 bottom appear to have supported capital spending by mining companies.
A dozen public mining companies have placed orders to buy spot and future shares of Bitcoin miners this year totaling more than 70 EH/s.
Their investment commitments in the mining industry total more than $1.2 billion year-to-date, with about $750 million signed in the last two months.
Some of these purchases have already been paid for, and some will be due in monthly installments over the next year and beyond. In total, public mining companies have already spent $747 million in the first three quarters of this year.
Chinese miner manufacturers are likely to benefit from these procurement deals. Of the $1.1 billion investment, MicroBT and Bitmain account for 56% and 42% respectively, with Canaan accounting for the rest.
It is interesting to note that the public mining contracts for Antminers were more detailed than the contracts for WhatsMiners. Although there are only four known bulk purchases of WhatsMiners from Riot, Northern Data and Bitfarms, the pre-order hashrate is already almost 40 EH/s.
And just on Thursday, UAE-based Phoenix Group said it had signed a $136 million purchase contract for WhatsMiners, without specifying the hashrate or model.
Also notable this year is the participation of mining manufacturers in self-mining activities for digital assets. For example, since May, Canaan has been hosting Avalon miners at the Stronghold facility on a profit-sharing basis.
Several public mining companies bought 12 EH/s S19XP, and Bitmain sent almost 40 EH/s S19XP to its subsidiary in Georgia. The influx of S19XP also coincides with the resurgence of Bitmain-linked Antpool hashrate.
Bitcoin went around Tesla and Berkshire Hathaway on capitalization
Over the past day, the capitalization of bitcoin (BTC) has increased by more than 11%, to the $ 816.2 billion mark, which is more than that of Tesla, Ilon Mask and the BerkShire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, according to the CompaniesmarketCap service, writes RBC Crypto.
On the morning of December 4, Bitcoin overcame the $ 41 thousand mark and reached $ 41,700 in the moment, updating the maximum previously established. The last time above $ 40 thousand. Bitcoin traded in April 2022. According to CoinmarketCap, as of 14:20 Moscow time, the cost of the first cryptocurrency is approximately $ 41,600.
In mid -October, the course of the first cryptocurrency began rapid growth against the background of news about the possible approval of a spot exchange fund (ETF) on Bitcoin from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In less than a month, the cost of bitcoin increased by almost $ 10 thousand.
Currently, several large investment companies at once expect the approval of their own ETF on Bitcoin by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The launch of such ETFs is considered in the crypto community a catalyst for a new bull cycle on the market.
At the end of November, Glassnode analysts published a report in which they estimated the volume of investments in the cryptocurrency industry after the ETF approval on Bitcoin of $ 70 billion. According to experts, the current macroeconomic situation promotes investors to invest in safe assets and bitcoin is perfect for this role.
XRP Second Largest Asset In Grayscale System
Grayscale, a prominent investment firm, put XRP in the spotlight earlier this month, highlighting its role as a SWIFT alternative for cross-border payments.
This recognition comes as part of Grayscale's crypto sector structure update, which aims to provide investors with a comprehensive view of the crypto asset landscape.
The report highlights the fundamental difference between cryptocurrencies and traditional currencies, highlighting the lack of government controls that can influence traditional financial mechanisms through actions such as printing money and revising interest rates.
Bitcoin, the first and largest asset in the crypto industry, takes up a disproportionate share of Grayscale's crypto sector.
Because Bitcoin has a transparent and tightly limited supply, it can serve as a safe haven for asset values in cases of monetary instability, Grayscale said.
This makes Bitcoin a particularly attractive alternative for people in countries such as Argentina and Venezuela, where annual currency inflation rates can exceed 100%, they further add.
“Besides Bitcoin, XRP is the second largest asset. Designed as an alternative to SWIFT, XRP aims to offer fast cross-border payments with lower transaction costs than competitors.
Both of these assets are general-purpose currencies or tokens with widespread use as a monetary instrument.”
Grayscale has placed XRP among the largest assets in its crypto sector framework, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, Monero and Bitcoin SV. Notably, Ethereum's absence raised eyebrows, pushing XRP to the second-largest asset in Grayscale's tracked portfolio.
Grayscale's endorsement of XRP's utility as a cost-effective and fast solution for cross-border payments goes beyond its potential for transaction efficiency.
This reignites rumors of Grayscale potentially reconsidering its support for XRP, signaling a potential revival of institutional interest in the digital asset.
Robert Kiyosaki: “Bitcoin is the best defense against hyperinflation”
Robert Kiyosaki has been emphatically warning the global public that financial collapse is imminent, especially in the United States.
This time, the investor writer wrote that Germany is “celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 1923 hyperinflation that brought Adolf Hitler to power.”
“Is the US going to celebrate hyperinflation too? I hope not. However, our government leaders are the most incompetent in the world. Research hyperinflation in Germany and Zimbabawe and prepare yourself. Food will always be valued, along with weapons, gold, silver and bitcoin,” Kiyosaki wrote.
The entrepreneur writer called Bitcoin the best protection against any financial crisis. According to Kiyosaki, Bitcoin is the money of the people because it is the people who control the value of the first cryptocurrency, not the government.
The investor is convinced that hyperinflation occurs not because of rising prices, but because of a decrease in the purchasing power of money.
Recently, Kiyosaki spoke out against the possible introduction of a digital dollar from the US Federal Reserve (Fed), suspecting that CBDC would violate user privacy.
The entrepreneur predicts that if the BRICS countries launch their own currency, it will put strong pressure on the US dollar, as a result of which the Bitcoin rate could jump to $120,000.
StarkWare decides to gradually release the STRK token
Blockchain company StarkWare, which is developing the Starknet Layer 2 scalability protocol, has changed the issuance structure for its STRK token following user feedback.
According to the official announcement, StarkWare will be unlocking STRK more gradually according to the new changes.
The firm is reducing the proportion of tokens unlocked at launch from 13.4% to 0.64%, as some users believe that issuing such a large number to a select few was “predatory.”
“Tokens owned by early StarkWare participants and investors are subject to blocking,” the company explained. “These parties supported StarkWare's efforts as the company researched and carried out the initial development of Starknet.
Approximately a third of the tokens owned by these early participants and investors (~1.3 billion) were scheduled to be unlocked on April 15th.”
Now only 64 million, or 0.64%, of the 10 billion tokens will be unlocked on April 15th. An additional 64 million tokens will be released every month. After March 15, 2025, the monthly token distribution will increase to 1.27% (127 million) of tokens issued monthly and will continue for two more years.
“Under the new unlock plan, 580 million tokens belonging to early participants and investors will be unlocked by the end of 2024, as opposed to 2 billion of these tokens under the previous schedule.
By the end of 2024, 1.4 billion additional tokens will be gradually unlocked. 2025, another 1.5 billion will be unlocked by the end of 2026, and 380 million will be unlocked by March 15, 2027,” StarkWare explained.
StarkWare initially set the token's launch date to November 29, 2023, but moved the date back five months to April 15, 2024. StarkWare launched the token in November 2022 with a non-trading status on Ethereum.
STRK is currently valued at $1.98 and is up 9.13% in the last 24 hours.
Sushi will launch derivatives exchange Susa on Layer N
Decentralized finance company Sushi intends to launch a decentralized derivatives platform called Susa on Layer N, Layer 2 of Ethereum, attempting to replicate some aspects of centralization for decentralized platforms.
According to the statement, Susa developers will be able to create their own applications on top of the exchange, ranging from smart contract applications to full-fledged savings packages.
It will use Tier N Nord Engine to enable thousands of transactions per millisecond, with the ultimate goal of rivaling centralized exchanges in performance.
“Sushi is excited to partner with Layer N as we fully embrace the spirit of decentralized finance, combining our expertise to develop superior products,” said Sushi spokesperson Jared Gray.
“The Tier N modular approach to pooling provides greater capital efficiency and greater liquidity while leveraging the security of Ethereum,” he added.
“This approach fits perfectly with the modular network strategy gaining traction in the DeFi space, making Layer N one of the best tech stacks to move forward with.”
Prometheum will provide ETH storage services
Prometheum Capital LLC, a subsidiary of digital asset company Prometheum, Inc., continues to provide cryptocurrency custody services after selecting Ether as its first offering.
Institutional clients such as asset management firms, hedge funds, banks and registered investment advisers can sign up for Prometheum Capital's custodial services, which are scheduled to launch in the first fiscal quarter of the year, according to a company release.
In 2024, the firm intends to expand services to both retail and institutional clients.
“Prometheum is pleased to announce the launch of Prometheum Capital custodial services, initially focused on ETH. These services have been specifically designed to meet the stringent regulatory and compliance requirements set forth in federal security laws,” said Prometheum, Inc. Co-CEO. Aaron Kaplan.
“Through this initiative, we aim to provide investors with the ability to interact with digital assets within established regulatory guidelines.”
Prometheum's offering of ether custody services comes after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on December 21 allowed the firm to provide crypto clearing and settlement services through a special broker-dealer license. The Securities and Exchange Commission granted Prometheum this license in May 2023.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler hinted that ether could be a security, and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Rostin Benham said it would be a commodity, causing some confusion in the industry. Prometheum's incursion into the airwaves could force the SEC to make a decision, Fortune reported Wednesday.
Prometheum's steps forward come as the SEC continually warns that cryptocurrency exchanges need to register with the agency. Over the past year, Coinbase, Binance and Kraken have been accused of allegedly operating as an unregistered exchange, broker, dealer and clearing house. Meanwhile, crypto firms claim that registering with the agency is impossible.
After receiving a license from the SEC last year, Prometheum quickly drew the ire of Republican lawmakers and others in the crypto industry.
When asked in December what Kaplan had to say to those who say it's impossible to register with the SEC, he said it helps to work with the law, not against it.
“Keeping your head down and working within the regulation and trying to work within the law rather than changing the law can be successful with proper securities law registration, as evidenced by first being approved by a designated broker-dealer and now cleared by and settlement."
Standard Chartered predicted an increase in the price of Ethereum to $4 thousand.
The bank believes the SEC will follow the same strategy it used when approving spot Bitcoin ETFs.
The British bank Standard Chartered Bank predicts that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will approve spot ETFs on Ethereum in May, reports Bloomberg. Against this background, the price of the second cryptocurrency by capitalization may reach $4 thousand.
The bank believes the SEC will follow the same strategy it used in approving spot Bitcoin ETFs, first rejecting the applications and then, once the final approval deadline approaches, approving them on May 23. This date appears as the final approval date for applications from asset managers VanEck and ARK/21Shares.
According to Jeffrey Kendrick, head of currency and digital assets research at Standard Chartered, the favorable prospects for approval of an Ethereum-based spot ETF are due to the fact that the asset is already traded on the regulated Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in the form of futures contracts.
Additionally, the SEC did not include Ethereum on the list of 67 cryptocurrencies being considered as securities in lawsuits against several cryptocurrency exchanges. The SEC's position that Ethereum is not considered a security increases the chances of the ETF being approved.
According to Jeffrey Kendrick, the price of ETH could rise to $4 thousand in anticipation of the approval of a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Ethereum.
“As we move closer to the expected approval date of May 23, we believe the ETH price will follow or outperform Bitcoin (BTC)'s rise over the comparable period,” Kendrick said.
From early June, when BlackRock applied for the ETF, to January 10, when Bitcoin spot ETFs were approved, the value of the first cryptocurrency increased by 85%, rising from around $25,000 to $47,000.
Kendrick remains bullish on cryptocurrencies, predicting that BTC could reach $100,000 this year and $200,000 by 2025. Jeffrey Kendrick's forecast coincides with the statement of the head of the SkyBridge hedge fund, Anthony Scaramucci, who predicted that Bitcoin would rise to $170 thousand after the halving.
He also argues that Ethereum is less susceptible to price declines than Bitcoin following the approval of spot ETFs and the outflow of funds from GBTC. This is due to the smaller amount of ETH in the Grayscale Ethereum Trust portfolio.
Lisk will launch L2-network and conduct aIRPROP
The LISK cryptocurrency platform is going to switch to a second -level solution (L2) based on Optimism. In the first quarter of 2024, the team will launch a test L2 network, and the Mainnet exit closer to the end of the year.
In their report, the developers shared the first results of the work done since the announcement in December 2023. In preparation for the transition to the L2-network, the team began to cooperate with the Gelato platform.
In addition, the project entered into an agreement with the Serotonin marketing agency to support the selected strategy and promote Lisk. Another partner of the platform was the venture company Outlier Ventures. It will provide consulting assistance to transfer LSK to the Ethereum network as an ERC-20 token.
In March 2024, the team plans to present the LISK L2 roadmap. In addition, developers will publish detailed information about the migration of tokens and other initiatives.
In the third and fourth quarters, Lisk intends to launch the main network and continue to work on the development of the ecosystem. It is at this stage that an extensive campaign will be carried out, which includes an airrrop or the distribution of non -replaceable tokens (NFT).
It is reported that L2-solution from LISK will be focused on tokenized assets of the real world (RWA) and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (depin).
Against the background of the news about the transition to a second -level network, LSK has increased by more than 17%.
Note that a number of other projects also consider the creation of L2 protocol for Ethereum-including using an existing set of tools. Representatives of ASTAR Network, Canto, Frax Finance, Celo and Kraken crypto accounts reported on the development of the second -level network.
Hashgraph Association And Swirlds Labs Launch Building On Hedera Training Courses
The Hashgraph Association, a non-profit organization accelerating the widespread adoption of the Hedera network around the world, together with Swirlds Labs, the organization providing support and development of the Hedera network, have launched “Building on Hedera” training courses.
Created by Swirlds Labs with its partners and managed by the Hashgraph Association, the course provides engineers with an entry point into the world of Web3 development on Hedera, a public, open-source, leaderless, proof-of-stake network.
With this course, the Hashgraph Association and Swirlds Labs aim to increase the number of developers using the Hedera network. The course will form the basis for training developers in the Hedera ecosystem, providing opportunities for both people aspiring to become Hedera developers and companies looking to upskill their teams.
Kamal Yousefi, President of the Board of the Hashgraph Association, said: “With the Building on Hedera course, users will be able to claim and display NFT certificates after completing the Hedera courses. This will allow companies to demonstrate the skills of their team and ensure the qualifications of their developers.
The newly created educational framework aims to create an efficient and accessible process through which both new and existing developers can become more proficient in using Web3-specific technologies."
This course is open to anyone who would like to learn Hedera development, especially those developers who are new to Web3.
With these opportunities now available to new and existing Hedera stakeholders, the proposal will provide educational opportunities that strengthen the community and expand the ecosystem. This course features hands-on labs, assessments, and flexible learning.
Dr. Leamon Baird, co-founder of Hedera and co-founder and co-CEO of Swirlds Labs, said: “A strong community desperately needs education.
This new Hedera Development course provides the educational pathways and opportunities needed by those already in the community today, while also encouraging others to explore what Hedera has to offer.
The importance and influence of distributed ledger technology is growing around the world, and its true potential can only be realized when developers have all the tools they need to build the future.”
Starting with the "Building on Hedera" course, the Hashgraph Association and Swirlds Labs will develop additional certifications to equip qualified engineers with in-depth knowledge of the Hedera platform.
The goal is to enable businesses and other organizations to interact with highly qualified, trained and certified Hedera development engineers.
SEC approves BlackRock's application to issue a spot Bitcoin ETF
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has legalized 11 exchange-traded crypto ETFs that invest in Bitcoin (BTC).
The regulator has authorized the issue of 11 funds, one of the issuers of which is BlackRock. The financial giant has submitted an application to the SEC to issue the instrument in mid-2023.
Institutional investors now have a legal channel to enter digital currency. Starting January 11, crypto funds can appear on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Nasdaq and CBOE (Chicago Board Options Exchange).
As the RBC agency clarifies, over the past ten years the SEC has rejected applications to launch crypto ETFs investing in Bitcoin.
At the end of 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission legalized crypto funds focused on Bitcoin futures.
The largest digital currency did not react in any way to the decision of the American regulator.
On Thursday, January 11, the BTC rate strengthened to $46,059. In early January, the cryptocurrency jumped above $47,000, but then sellers entered the market, causing the price to fall below $46,000.
Fortune: The market for gaming blockchain applications will reach $614 billion by 2030
According to DappRadar, the gaming application market (DApps) has proven to be more popular than the DeFi and NFT ecosystems.
In the first quarter of 2023, 45% of blockchain applications with the largest number of users were from the gaming industry.
According to Fortune Business Insights, the gaming DApps market will grow to $614 billion by 2030. Currently, its capitalization is approximately $154 billion, that is, in seven years it will increase by almost 300%.
Blockchain-based applications for gamers are most popular among residents of North America, the researchers emphasized.
In 2022, investors from the United States and Canada allocated more than $30 billion to expand gaming infrastructure on the blockchain - this is almost 25% of the total funding for the industry.
At the same time, CoinGecko found that about 75% of gaming DApps launched between 2017 and 2023 were unsuccessful projects. The NFT market showed more impressive growth rates in 2021.
Fortune predicts the growth of the decentralized application ecosystem by connecting gamers from Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, primarily from China, Japan and South Korea.
Yearn Finance lost $1.4 million due to erroneous conversion
Lending protocol Yearn Finance lost about $1.4 million as a result of a “flawed multisig scenario.” According to Github, the error led to the loss of 63% of positions in the treasury.
The developers reported that the incident occurred on December 11, 2023 during the conversion of tokens on behalf of the Yearn Finance treasury. An erroneous script resulted in the exchange of 3,794,894 lp-yCRVv2 tokens for 779,958 yvDAI tokens.
“Including the 779,958 yvDAI tokens received as a result of this transaction, approximately 63% of the value was lost due to slippage using the lp-yCRVv2 spot price at the time of the transaction,” it said.
The protocol team stated that user funds were not affected. Treasury losses amounted to $1.4 million, or about 2% of the entire treasury.
Representatives of the project asked to return Yearn Finance assets to users who made a profit as a result of an erroneous conversion.
To prevent such incidents, the developers plan to introduce stricter price impact thresholds and divide funds into special management contracts.
According to PeckShield, in April 2023, an exploit of an early version of Yearn Finance called iearn resulted in the loss of $11.6 million. A similar incident occurred in February 2021, when the platform was hacked to the tune of approximately $11 million.
Venus platform lost $274,000 amid problems with Binance oracles
The developers of the Venus landing platform on BNB Chain reported a failure of the Binance oracle, which led to the loss of $274,000.
The community will consider a proposal to restore liquidity from the treasury to the affected pool.
The problem was identified in the LST-BNB pool.
The developers followed the recommendations of Chaos Labs and suspended the operation of the snBNB, agEUR and stkBNB markets with similar Binance oracle configurations.
Other markets remain fully functional and unaffected, according to the release.
The exchange team subsequently identified and fixed the glitch.
Previously, the developers urged not to interpret the incident as an exploit, since there were no problems with Venus Core Pool or XVS.
On December 10, user SaulCapital warned subscribers about problems with one of the pools. He posted a link to a suspicious wallet address involved in the incident.
According to DeFi Llama, the TVL project over the past 24 hours has decreased by $49.8 million, to $714.3 million.
The price of the utility token Venus fell by 9.9% per day, to $9.59, according to CoinGecko. At the moment the rate dropped to $9.43.
In August, a wallet associated with the theft of funds from the BSC Token Hub bridge faced the liquidation of three positions on the Venus Protocol platform.
This was caused by a decrease in the price of BNB below $220, the attacker’s losses amounted to 5.64 million vBNB (~$53.2 million at that time).
Binance Suspends AEUR Trading Amid Abnormal Volatility
Anchored Coins EUR (AEUR) appeared on the crypto exchange on December 4, 2023. The very next day, the asset lost its peg to fiat currency and grew by almost 200%. On December 5, AEUR began to rise sharply - its price reached $3.25.
“Because AEUR was well received by the community, including users who may not have realized its status as a stablecoin, there was high demand for AEUR, causing its price to deviate,” Binance support wrote.
Binance has already launched compensation for users affected by this abnormal volatility.
AEUR was issued by the Swiss company Anchored Coins, which is owned by Singaporean investor Calvin Cheng.
It was assumed that the stablecoin would be backed by paper assets in euros, which would be stored in Swiss banks. The coins themselves are issued on the Ethereum and BNB Chain blockchains.
Binance recently announced that it was delisting the native token of the sanctioned cryptomixer Tornado Cash. This immediately affected the coin’s quotes.
Shortly after the news broke, the price of TORN fell by almost 40%, to $2.2, according to CoinGecko.
After Binance announced that it plans to list ORDI with new trading pairs, the price of the token soared by 48%.
Magic Eden Releases Cross-Chain NFT and Crypto Wallet
Magic Eden has announced the launch of a cross-chain compatible cryptocurrency browser extension that aims to make it easier for users to interact with different blockchains.
Magic Eden, a leading player in the NFT market, is taking a significant step towards a more integrated and user-friendly cryptocurrency experience with its upcoming crypto wallet browser extension.
This development, as announced by CEO and co-founder Jack Lu, is designed to support the multi-chain world of NFTs by addressing the current fragmentation and complexity in managing digital assets across different blockchains.
Currently, users using multiple blockchains face the inconvenience of using multiple wallets, which creates a disjointed experience.
Magic Eden's solution, starting with a Google Chrome extension and plans for Safari and a mobile app that could be available by next year, aims to streamline this process. The wallet will support Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Polygon - four blockchains that are currently integrated with NFT marketplace Magic Eden.
A notable aspect of this wallet is its self-storage feature, which requires users to manage their seed phrases themselves. This choice is in keeping with the spirit of web3, which emphasizes decentralized ownership and control.
While this approach echoes the principles of cryptography and NFTs, it raises questions about usability and accessibility for users, especially those less familiar with such security measures.
Lu's awareness of the challenges of the current cryptocurrency wallet landscape, including conflicts arising from multiple browser extensions, indicates a thoughtful approach to design. The collaboration with Exodus aims to mitigate such problems.
Additionally, significant advancements include the integration of cross-chain swaps, the ability to buy cryptocurrency with fiat currency through MoonPay, and NFT-focused features such as cross-chain portfolio tracking and support for Bitcoin serial numbers.
While the self-hosted nature of the wallet may be seen as a barrier for some, Lu hints at the possibility of integrating more user-friendly features such as email login in the future, offering a balance between security and ease of use.
CoinGecko Buys Zash - NFT Data Startup
Crypto data aggregator CoinGecko made its first acquisition by purchasing NFT data startup Zash.
CoinGecko plans to include Zash NFT data in its platform by the second quarter of next year, the company said on Wednesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. According to CoinGecko, Web3 Studios acted as financial advisor on the deal.
Zash was founded in 2021 at Entrepreneur First, a European startup accelerator backed by veterans including LinkedIn co-founder, Reid Hoffman, and Stripe co-founder, John Collison.
Zash originally created a social investment app "backed by real network and broker data" but moved to NFT data due to the lack of reliable and accurate blockchain data, especially for NFTs.
Today, Zash provides NFT data on 87 marketplaces across multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, and Bitcoin Ordinals.
“After evaluating all existing NFT data providers in this space, Zash stands out as unparalleled,” T.M. said in a statement. Lee, co-founder and CEO of CoinGecko.
“In 3 years, they created a remarkable product with the most comprehensive NFT data coverage on the market and commercialized it to high-end clients with a small team.”
The Zash team will join CoinGecko as part of the acquisition. CoinGecko co-founder and COO Bobby Ong declined to disclose the size of the team, but LinkedIn says Zash employs up to 10 people.
Ong also declined to comment on the size of the deal, but Zash was at pre-seed funding round in February this year when it raised an undisclosed amount from some investors including Cogitent Ventures and WWVentures, according to Crunchbase data.
CoinGecko was founded in 2014 and competes with cryptocurrencies such as CoinMarketCap, which Binance acquired in 2020 for approximately $400 million.
Tether invests $500 million in Bitcoin mining
Tether, the issuer of USDT, is preparing to expand its Bitcoin mining activities. According to the future head of the company, Paolo Ardoino, Tether plans to invest about $500 million in the construction of mining farms and related projects in the next six months.
The company's new facilities, located in Uruguay, Paraguay and El Salvador, will increase the company's share of computing power to 1% of the entire Bitcoin network. The capacity of each of these sites will be from 40 to 70 megawatts.
Tether has already provided part of the money to finance the German mining company Northern Data Group.
This is in line with the company's overall lending strategy this year, including a strategic investment in Northern Data Group in September to support artificial intelligence initiatives.
Tether is considering building a 300 megawatt facility. However, in addition to building new mining farms, it also plans to increase the capacity of existing mining sites to 120 megawatts by the end of this year and to 450 megawatts by the end of 2025.
In addition, the company plans to place its equipment in containers that can be transported depending on changes in electricity prices.
Paolo Ardoino will be appointed CEO of Tether in December and will continue to serve as chief technology officer at parent company Bitfinex.
He emphasized that mining is an area in which the company has a lot to learn and develop with the times.
