News from the blockchain world | episode 32 ???
What a week! With the new year a lot of exciting new things is happening. ???? We certainly hope that from now on our weekly newsletter will be more inspiring - but we must let the time show, what the 2023 will bring. ??
Buckle up! From this edition you will learn a.o.:
? Is this a new bull market yet?
? Which big fish is using CoinMarketCap?
? How to quickly spot a deepfake crypto scam?
? Who have launched three tokenized bonds?
? Can blockchain technology help combat theft?
Have a fun reading - see you next Friday!???
?? Business?
?? Samsung investment arm considering spot-Bitcoin ETF in Hong Kong.
With the Hong Kong Stock Exchange being the only regulated exchange in Asia offering Bitcoin futures ETFs, some believe spot crypto ETF products will soon be allowed. Samsung Asset Management has indicated its considering the launch of a spot Bitcoin ETF on the city's exchange if policies allow for it.
?? Binance registers in Sweden alongside other expansion and hiring efforts.
Binance has been granted permission to operate in Sweden. Swedish users can fully use common Binance features, including crypto trading and euro deposits and withdrawals. Binance plans to increase its workforce by 15% to 30% in 2023, raising its staff counts from 3,000 to approximately 8,000.
?? Venom and Iceberg launch a $1b fund to invest in blockchain
Venom Foundation, a blockchain company, and Iceberg Capital Ltd. announced that they were spearheading a $20 million funding round for the virtual world Numi Metaverse. They also announced the formation of a US$1 billion crypto venture fund. The launch is coming amidst the severe crypto winter, the implosion of some crypto entities, and increased calls for crypto regulations. Venom Ventures Fund (VVF) promises to invest in early-stage firms focusing on payments, asset management, financial services, and gaming on Web3.
?? Bybit enters into partnership with Copper taking a step toward institutional customers.
Bybit, the world’s third most visited crypto exchange, has announced a partnership with Copper.co, a leading provider of institutional digital asset custody and trading solutions. The collaboration allows Bybit's institutional clients to deploy capital and trade immediately on Bybit, while maintaining their assets off — exchange in independent custody using Copper’s pioneering ClearLoop technology.
?? Binance.US Receives Initial Approval To Buy Voyager’s Assets For $1B.
Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy in July after Three Arrows Capital, the crypto hedge fund that went bust following Terras collapse in May, defaulted on a $650M loan from Voyager. In September, FTX US won an auction for Voyager’s assets with a $1.4B bid, beating out rival exchanges including Binance and CrossTower. However, the spectacular collapse of FTX in November precipitated a second round of bidding, which Binance.US won with a $1.02B bid.
?? Mastercard Taps Polygon to Empower Emerging Artists in Web3 Tech.
Mastercard, the payments giant, has partnered with Polygon, an Ethereum scaling platform, to introduce emerging artists into Web3 technology. Mastercard’s artist accelerator, as the program is called, will teach five different emerging artists, including singers, musicians, DJs, and producers, to use blockchain tools to grow their brand and fan engagement.
??? Products?
?? Reap leverages Fireblocks to enable crypto repayments with Reap Card
Reap, the global fintech company powering expense management through the industry’s first Reap Visa Corporate Card (Reap Card) platform, launches industry-leading innovation by including cryptocurrency repayment functionality for the Web3 industry. The Reap Card simplifies the process of settling global payments in fiat by using USDC, USDT, BTC, ETH to resolve the problem of costly handling fees that include multiple off-ramp parties.
?? Crypto Exchange Platform Yellow Card Expands Payment Feature Across Africa.
Yellow Card Financial now enables customers across Africa to send and receive cryptocurrency. The company’s Yellow Pay, which was previously available only in Nigeria, uses the Yellow Card cryptocurrency exchange platform to complete customers’ transactions in USDT. Yellow Pay enables customers to send and receive money with a few taps on their phone. To send money, users need the recipient’s phone number.
?? Yuga Labs, creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, presents the NFT Dookey Dash game.
Yuga Labs unveils online game in which players must navigate a sewer to claim rewards in the form of NFTs. Anyone can play the game, even if they don’t own a Bored Ape NFT. Players will be rewarded based on their score in “Dookey Dash”.
?? Consola Finance Debuts Accounting Platform for Web3 Firms.
Austria’s Consola Finance has launched an automated finance and accounting platform for Web3 companies. Platform automates processes such as bookkeeping, accounting, and reporting, saving valuable time and reducing human errors. Product offers accounting and bookkeeping features that include transaction and price fetching, fiat valuation, auto-categorization, cost basis calculation, profit, and loss calculation.
?? Check out the final four startups pitching at CCC Web3 Demo Day.
On January 11 at 18:00 CET, the Web3 Demo Day event took place, during which 12 "most promising" startups will have the opportunity to present their products. Finalists for the event include Candy Shop, Coinfront, Knabu and Wallchain.
?? What is Yama Finance?
Yama Finance is a stablecoin protocol. The over-collateralized $YAMA stablecoin can be moved across all major EVM chains (and more) almost instantly and at zero slippage. Although not live yet, Yama plans to initially launch on Arbitrum, Eclipse, and Fuel. Yama combats many of the scalability, capital efficiency, and even security issues surrounding stablecoins today. It is instantly available on any chain that Hyperlane exists on, accepts various collateral types (including interest-bearing), and does not rely on token bridges to achieve interoperability.
?? Layer 1 EVM oracle platform Flare launches to boost interoperable DApps.
Flare, a new layer-1 Ethereum Virtual Machine platform, has gone live with the launch of two core protocols. The platform serves as an oracle network that allows developers to build applications that are aimed at being interoperable with different blockchains and internet platforms and services.
?? A Deep Dive Into Bonk - The Solana-Based Memecoin.
Bonk (BONK) is a meme coin that calls itself “the first Solana dog coin for the people by the people". Bonk was distributed via an airdrop. According to Bonk’s one-pager, its contributors were “tired of toxic “Alameda” tokenomics. This presumably refers to the collapse of FTX and its sister company Alameda Research. Over the past week, BONK experienced an impressive rally of over 2,000%, although prices have fallen by over 66% since highs reached on Jan. 5.
??? Technology?
?? StarkWare rolls out open-source client Papyrus for StarkNet.
StarkWare has debuted another full node client for its scaling solution StarkNet called Papyrus, which is written in the Rust programming language. StarkNet also has another full-node client called Juno that is being coded in Golang.
?? Polygon proposes hard fork.
Polygon Labs plans to hard fork its network on January 17. Polygon claims the hard fork will help prevent network gas fee spikes and address chain reorganizations, also known as reorgs. The reduction in gas fee spikes will be achieved by doubling the value of the “BaseFeeChangeDenominator”. Unlike soft forks, hard forks are not backwards-compatible and require all node operators on the network to update.
?? AWS partners with Avalanche to scale blockchain solutions for enterprises, governments.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has partnered with Ava Labs, the company building out layer-1 blockchain Avalanche, to help scale blockchain adoption across enterprises, institutions and governments. The partnership intends to make it easier for individuals to launch and manage nodes on Avalanche while also aiming to give the network more strength and flexibility for developers. AWS will support Avalanches infrastructure and decentralized application.
?? The Gitcoin crowdfunding platform will test a decentralized funding protocol.
Gitcoin, a crowdfunding platform for the Ethereum and crypto ecosystems, plans to retire its centralized grants platform and transition to a decentralized protocol. On Jan. 10, Gitcoin launched its "alpha test season" in partnership with Fantom, a Layer 1 blockchain, and UNICEF.
?? BitDAO launches testnet for its modular network, Mantle.
BitDAO has launched the testnet for its modular Ethereum Layer 2 network project called Mantle. The testnet will enable Mantle to test and implement new features for the chain before the mainnet launch scheduled for later in the year. Modular networks have separate layers for handling network functions such as consensus, transaction execution and settlement.
?? Astar Network’s XVM feature launches on public testnet.
Astar Networks Cross-Virtual Machine (XVM) feature is now live on the public testnet Shibuya. XVM allows a smart contract in one virtual machine to communicate with another as if they are in the same environment. The XVM testnet can make bi-directional calls between EVM and WASM smart contracts.
?? Liquid Staking Platforms Surging Ahead of Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade.
Ethereum will go through the Shanghai upgrade in March, which releases ETH staked on the Beacon Chain. Industry analysts believe this will be good news for liquid staking protocols as they offer better incentives and yields. As opposed to direct staking, they provide a more flexible way to stake and earn without having to lock up the collateral. Popular platforms include Lido, Rocket Pool, StakeWise and Frax.
?? Google is using CoinMarketCap.
Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, said in a January 7 tweet that Google is using CoinMarketCap (CMC) data. In 2019, Binance acquired this cryptocurrency tracker for a record $400 million. At the time, there were concerns that leading cryptocurrency exchanges were inflating their volumes through wash trading.
??? Legal?
?? Bulgarian authorities suspect Nexo of money laundering.
Bulgarian police have reportedly raided cryptocurrency lender Nexo in a money laundering and tax probe. Authorities are looking into Nexo on suspicion of money laundering, tax crimes and offenses involving unlicensed banking activities.
?? FTX Lawyers Claim $5 Billion Recovered In "Liquid" Assets.
FTX's attorney says the company has recovered $5 billion in cash and liquid coins. The full extent of the exchanges client deficit is "still unclear" as they continue "working to rebuild transaction histories". FTX’s legal team appeared in court to seek permission to sell LedgerX, Embed, FTX Japan, and Europe. FTX is also seeking US Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey’s consent in Delaware to maintain the anonymity of its customers for six months.
?? Digital Pound Would Not Be Used for Surveillance on Britons.
Digital Pound would not be used for Surveillance on Britons, Minister says. Economic Secretary to the Treasury Andrew Griffith sought to get ahead of privacy concerns. He emphasizized that a retail-focused central bank digital currency (CBDC) is still an "if" not a "when" question in Britain. More than 100 countries are at some stage of investigating, testing or creating CBDCs.
?? Argentina legislation may force citizens to declare their digital asset holdings.
Argentina is set to introduce a new draft bill requiring citizens to declare their cryptocurrency holdings. Otherwise, they could face hefty tax penalties. The proposed document encourages citizens to declare their financial holdings, like stocks and crypto assets. Declarations would be voluntary, but failure to declare assets and tokens could result in an investigation by AFIP (Federal Administration of Public Revenues).
?? Ex-Coinbase manager's brother sentenced to 10 months in insider trading case.
Nikhil Wahi admitted to making trades based on confidential information. Prosecutors said he made nearly $900,000 of profit.?The sentencing came as U.S. prosecutors ramp up scrutiny of cryptocurrency companies.
?? Crypto.com delists USDT for Canadian users.
Crypto.com plans to delist Tether (USDT) for Canadian users, effective Jan 31. In August, Crypto.com announced that the Ontario Securities Commission had accepted the firm's pre-registration undertaking for operations in Canada. As part of regulatory requirements, cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the Canadian province of Ontario are prohibited from listing digital assets banned by the OSC, which includes USDT.
?? FTX sent $10m to North Dimension post bankruptcy.
Just five days after filing for bankruptcy, FTX transferred $10 million from its Dubai subsidiary to an opaque US firm owned by the crypto exchange founder's hedge fund, Alameda Research. The documents show a Commercial Bank of Dubai transfer from FTX's Dubai subsidiary, FTX FZE, to Alameda-owned North Dimension on November 16. The SEC alleges the exchange used North Dimension to mask transactions between FTX and Alameda.
?? Bankrupt BlockFi seeks to explain million-dollar payouts to executives.
In a presentation released on Twitter on Jan. 9, BlockFi provided a month-by-month account of nine executives' personal BlockFi accounts, pointing out that Prince's big withdrawal was made well before the early May collapse of LUNA and UST, which led to the domino effect that eventually forced the company into bankruptcy. BlockFi appears to be seeking to get ahead of questions about why Prince withdrew more than $9 million in April, and why the company appeared to pay him and four other executives $15 million in August.
领英推荐
?? FTX management is seeking to recover donations that were paid by Sam Bankman-Fried.
FTX's new board is seeking to recoup millions of dollars in donations made by the cryptocurrency exchange and its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. As of late September, FTX's charity, Future Fund, had donated more than $160 million to more than 110 nonprofit organizations, including biotech start-ups and university researchers developing vaccines for COVID-19 and working on pandemic research, as well as nonprofit organizations in India, China and Brazil.
?? DOJ Officially Seizes Over $456M worth of Robinhood shares.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has officially seized shares of popular trading app Robinhood linked to Sam Bankman-Fried despite objections from the disgraced FTX founder’s legal team. In a filing dated January 6th, prosecutors with the Commercial Litigation branch of the DOJ Civil Division inform the bankruptcy court in the district of New Jersey that Robinhood shares worth over $456 million tied to the former crypto titan are now in the custody of the US government.
??? Security?
?? European cops shut down fake crypto call centers.
15 suspected scammers arrested in Europe for scam that bilked hundreds of millions of euros from victims. The crooks first convinced the victims to invest low, three-digit sums. Then, using the lure of fake price hikes and lucrative profits, the criminals enticed their victims to transfer larger amounts.
?? Here’s how to quickly spot a deepfake crypto scam - cybersecurity execs.
Deepfakes use deep learning artificial intelligence to create highly realistic digital content. Scammers often use deepfake technology to creat fake videos of well-known personalities to execute scams. David Schwed, the chief operating officer of blockchain security firm Halborn, suggests one useful way to quickly spot a deepfake is to watch when the subject blinks their eyes.
?? Experts show how not to get scammed on Twitter.
How to know if you're dealing with a scam: Kaspersky experts show all the red flags in a scam using a fake cryptocurrency exchange. The best way to avoid falling for scams is to always think critically, even skeptically. What would you do, say, if someone sent you a DM on Twitter with the login credentials for some cryptocurrency account asking for help to withdraw money from it?
?? Crypto and banking apps targeted by ‘Godfather’ malware.
GodFather is among a class of Android-based trojans that targets crypto and banking mobile apps. It tricks its victims by displaying fake versions of online crypto exchange and banking websites. The GodFather malware can also steal text messages from the victims smartphone.
?? 5 sneaky tricks crypto phishing scammers used last year.
Blockchain security firm SlowMist has highlighted five common phishing techniques crypto scammers used on victims in 2022. These include malicious browser bookmarks, phony sales orders and Trojan malware spread on the messaging app Discord.
?? Fake Pokémon NFT game spreads malware.
Hackers hide malware in fake NFT game. A phishing website purporting to offer a Pokémon-branded nonfungible token (NFT) card game has been spreading malware to unsuspecting gamers. Cyber security firm AhnLab warns that instead of downloading the game, users were actually downloading a remote access tool — allowing hackers to take control of their device.
??? Investments?
?? Alkimiya Raises $7.2 Million for Miners, Stakers.
Alkimiyas protocol will allow miners and staking validators to access hedging solutions. The hedging protocol, set to go live in the first quarter of 2023, allows miners to lock in an upfront, fixed return for their future production. It would hedge against wild cash flow fluctuations that come with the crypto space.
?? CyberX raises $15m in Series A funding round.
Crypto venture capital firm Foresight Ventures has invested $15 million CyberX, a web3 project that claims to offer users cutting-edge services across trading, financing, and more, to support the company in expanding its infrastructure, liquidity network, and operations across North America and Asia. The funding will enable the project to carry out more integrations with centralized and decentralized exchanges and DeFi platforms.
?? Easy Company raises $14.2m for new crypto wallet.
The Easy Company has raised $14.2 million in seed funding to launch its new product: the web3 social wallet. The funding will help it bring to market its vision of a more interactive and user-friendly web3 wallet, making it easier for people to store, share and interact with their digital assets.
?? Jumbo Raises $3.5M in Funding.
Jumbo, a provider of a decentralized exchange built on the NEAR protocol, has raised $3.5M in funding. The round was led by Pantera and Huobi Incubator, with participation from DWEB3, D21 Ventures, Metaweb Ventures, Fundamental Labs, Proximity and Genblock Capital.
?? Quasar Raises $5.4 Million at a $70 million valuation.
Quasar Finance is a DeFi protocol based on Cosmos. Quasar states that soon anyone will be able to create vaults and activate strategies capable of using automation to deploy assets across multiple blockchains. Quasar has raised $5.4m in a bridge round led by Shima Capital at a $70 million valuation. The money will be used to develop an asset management protocol.
?? Open Forest Protocol Raises USD 4.1M in Pre-Seed Funding.
Open Forest Protocol is a Zug, Switzerland-based provider of an open forest measurement, reporting and verification platform built on a carbon neutral blockchain. Open Forest was founded by Swiss scientist Frederic Fournier and American web3 specialist Michael Kelly.
?? Aptos-based wallet Msafe raises $5 million.
Momentum Safe, a multi-signature wallet protocol, raises $5 million. Multi-sig, or multi-signature, is a digital signature arrangement used in crypto wallets that requires more than one user to authorize and send transactions. MSafe is the first such solution on Aptos.
??? Others?
?? Celo Blockchain Unveils New Brand Identity, Announces a Campaign with Brave Browser.
The Celo Foundation, which nurtures and promotes the mobile-first, carbon-negative layer-1 Celo blockchain and its ecosystem, reveals a reimagined brand identity and vision. The mission-driven blockchain looks towards mainstream adoption of Web3 with a re-imagined logo, branding and website. Celo’s new look is further driven by educational videos made by CoinMarketCap, and a campaign with Brave Browse.
?? Sam Bankman-Fried Tries to Blame Market and CZ for FTX's Failure.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried released a long blog post blaming everyone from his lawyers to his biggest competitor for the exchange's bankruptcy. He also repeated his claims that he could have saved FTX if he'd been allowed to continue raising funds instead of sending the firm into bankruptcy against his wishes.
?? Wyre lifts 90% withdrawal limit after landing financing from partner.
Crypto payments platform Wyre says it has received financing from a strategic partner. Wyre had spooked users by announcing that they would only be able to withdraw 90% of their balances. Earlier this week, a now-deleted post from one of its technical engineers had suggested that "Wyre won't continue as a profitable business".
?? Gala Games Deletes Tweet Announcing Partnership With Hollywood Star The Rock.
Monday's tweet that the company was working with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Mark Wahlberg helped lift GALA over 70% to about 5 U.S. cents, the highest since Sept. 13, CoinDesk data show. Gala Games deleted the tweet without any explanation. The company's silence has drawn the ire of crypto enthusiasts on Twitter, with several handles questioning the genuineness of the initial announcement.
?? Why the Winklevoss brothers are in a $900 million crypto faceoff with Barry Silbert.
Cameron Winklevoss and Barry Silbert were both early believers in bitcoin who made a fortune on their investments and built big businesses along the way. For nearly two years, they enjoyed a mutually beneficial partnership that made their customers a lot of money. Now, the bitcoin heavyweights are in a bruising war of words that illustrates the depths of the crypto crisis and underscores the risks that were ultimately shouldered by ordinary investors who got caught up in a massively unregulated market.
?? Ondo Finance launches three tokenized bonds.
Ondo Finance, a DeFi firm offering decentralized investment opportunities, has launched tokenized versions of U.S. treasuries and bonds. The three offerings upon launch include the U.S. Government Bond Fund, Short-Term Investment Grade Bond Fund and High Yield Corporate Bond Fund.
?? Bitcoin futures ETFs retain allure despite crypto winter.
Investors piled money into bitcoin futures ETFs in 2022, even though the price of the cryptocurrency plunged 65 per cent. Most of that money - $198m - was added after June, which bitcoin payment service provider Bitpay marks as the start of a crypto "deep freeze".
?? Binance pushes back against report stablecoin isn’t fully backed.
Based on an analysis from ChainArgo co-founder Jonathan Reiter, Bloomberg reported that the Binance-peg BUSD was often undercollateralized between 2020 and 2021, a gap that sometimes exceeded $1 billion. However, according to the exchange, its Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin was “fully backed by USD cash and cash-equivalent reserves” and the Binance-Peg BUSD was fully backed by BUSD.
?? Is this a new bull market yet? - Analysis of Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, MATIC and more.
Bitcoin has risen by more than $900 over the past few days. This optimism has been evident since the beginning of the year on the listings of the vast majority of cryptocurrency projects. Whether the rally will continue will depend to a large extent on the US CPI inflation report, which will be released this Thursday at 14:30 Polish time. If the final readings coincide with extremely optimistic expectations, the cryptocurrency market could clearly gain.
?? France and Hong Kong Accelerate Towards Crypto Regulation.
France regulators are calling for an accelerated licensing of unregistered crypto service providers. Hong Kong commits to becoming a regional crypto hub with a robust regulatory framework. Other countries are also following the path of global cryptocurrency regulation. The UK has established a special crypto cell under its National Crime Agency to fight crypto crimes.
?? OpenSea adds support for Arbitrum Nova.
OpenSea announced support for Arbitrum Nova. Nova is a Layer 2 blockchain designed to provide data availability at low cost. With OpenSea integrating NFTs on this blockchain, users can access Nova as a cheaper option to Ethereum when buying or selling digital collectibles. OpenSea said that collections on Arbitrum Nova will be grouped with other Arbitrum collections on the OpenSea website.
?? Mark Cuban said what will trigger another crisis in the cryptocurrency market.
Mark Cuban, star of the TV show Shark Tank and owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks, warns that the next crisis in the cryptocurrency market will be related to "the discovery and removal of wash trades." Such practice reportedly occurs on centralized exchanges. Under this term are, according to Wikipedia, "illegal practices in trading securities on the public market. Wash trading involves the simultaneous sale and purchase of an instrument with the aim of artificially fixing the price or volume of the traded stock." Cuban adds that tens of millions of dollars are involved, creating artificial volume for tokens that "have very little use."
?? Can blockchain technology help combat theft?
The retail industry is one of the most important sectors of the United States economy. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has left the trillion-dollar retail sector vulnerable to in-store theft. Many innovative vendors have begun to look to technology to prevent this. For example, Lowe’s, an American home improvement retailer, has recently implemented a proof-of-concept called Project Unlock, which uses radio frequency identification (RFID) chips, Internet of Things sensors and blockchain technology.
?? Crypto exchange Huobi to lay off 20% of staff amid ‘crypto winter’.
Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global today confirmed its intent to lay off 20% of its employees amid the current “bear market,” according to a statement given to Reuters. Huobi currently employs 1,100 staff and has not yet implemented its layoff plans.
?? Mexico’s digital peso delayed.
Mexico’s digital peso delayed, launch date unclear. Mexico’s central bank is working on legal, administrative and technological requirements for the peso’s digital version. More than a year after it was announced, Mexico’s proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC) is still in the initial phase and unlikely to meet its 2024 launch date.
??? Loosely?
?? Win Trump Prizes NFT collection allows users to buy a meeting with Donald Trump.
A new collection from former U.S. President Donald Trump has launched. Users can purchase NFTs, which allow holders to, among other things, meet Trump eye-to-eye on Zoom. Such a pleasure costs 200 ETH ($277,000).
?? Game of Thrones NFT are selling fast, but the characters resemble "Salad Fingers."
The cryptocurrency community is discussing the new “Game of Thrones” NFT assets that were launched on the NFT marketplace niftys.com. The “Build Your Realm” collection sold out on Jan. 10, the day it was released. However, there have been complaints from fans, with some calling the NFTs “poorly drawn” and others comparing the characters to those of the comedy animated series "Salad Fingers."