Day: January 24, 2023

ARK Invest CEO: Crypto Assets Will See Huge Turn

by Blockchain News

The chief executive officer of the cryptocurrency and technology investment business ARK Invest predicts that this year will see a significant shift in the value of crypto assets due to a decline in inflation and a shift in monetary policy by the Fed. Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest and Chief Investment Officer, provided an assessment of the macroeconomic forecast in a video blog post for the firm that was published on January 23.

She said that there were several signs pointing to reduced inflation, which “suggests that the Fed should pivot shortly.” She was referring to the recent pivot that the Fed made.

As the macroeconomic outlook improves and financial constraints are eased, this would be positive for risky assets such as cryptocurrency.

She also said that the company anticipates inflation would decrease to the 2% goal level set by the Fed.

Nevertheless, Wood anticipated that inflation may go below this level and perhaps into negative territory since the money supply has been declining. This is due to the fact that the money supply has been falling.

She said that the market is now awaiting a signal from the Federal Reserve, and she went on to say that “we expect it will happen in the first half of 2023.”

She said that the portfolios that ARK Invest manages ought to perform rather admirably in the event that interest rates are set to fall below forecasts.

ARK operates not just a cryptocurrency asset fund but also a blockchain venture investment fund, a disruptive innovation fund, and six active exchange-traded funds that are centred on technology and fintech (ETFs).

While this was going on, ARK Chief Futurist Brett Winton was discussing artificial intelligence (AI), and he said that advancements in this field will speed up in 2023.

Additionally, he predicted that crypto assets will see a significant change for the better this year. ” Public blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and crypto assets, all of which are going through a turbulent moment right now, are likely to become even more distinguished due to their scarcity in an era of plenty.”

He went on to say that whenever there is a shift in the macro environment and the Federal Reserve “changes its spots,” there is a greater possibility for “growth and value realisation inside the venture and public market area.”

Wood came to the conclusion that the recent technical advances will lead to deflation, which in turn would “create a boom in the goods and services linked with this innovation.”

The most recent action taken by ARK Invest was to realise a profit on a portion of its holdings in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and then load up on 320,000 shares of Coinbase (COIN), which are now valued at around $17.6 million.

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The Wormhole hack: hacker shifts $155 million

by Blockchain News

According to transaction data, the hacker who was responsible for the $321 million Wormhole bridge breach has moved a substantial portion of the stolen cash. On January 23, the hacker transferred $155 million worth of Ether (ETH) to a decentralised exchange (DEX).

The Wormhole hack was the third greatest cryptocurrency theft in 2022. This occurred after an issue was discovered on February 2 in the protocol’s token bridge. This attack led to the theft of 120,000 Wrapped ETH (wETH), which had a total value of around $321 million.

According to the transaction history of the alleged wallet address used by the hacker, the most recent activity shows that 95,630 ETH was sent to the OpenOcean DEX and then subsequently converted into ETH-pegged assets such as Lido Finance’s staked ETH (stETH) and wrapped staked ETH. This information was gleaned from the blockchain transaction history of the alleged wallet address used by the hacker.

After doing more research into the transaction history, members of the cryptocurrency community such as Spreekaway discovered that the hacker went on to carry out a number of transactions that seemed to be strange.

For instance, the hacker utilised their holdings of stETH as collateral to borrow 13 million worth of the DAI stablecoin, which they then exchanged for more stETH, wrapped in more stETH, and then used to borrow some more DAI.

Notably, the Wormhole team has taken use of the chance to once again give the hacker a reward of $10 million if they return all of the cash. An encoded message in a transaction communicates this information to the hacker.

According to statistics provided by Dune Analytics, the substantial amount of ETH that was transacted by the hacker seems to have had a direct effect on the price of stETH.

The price of the asset began the day slightly below its peg of 0.9962 ETH on January 23, and it reached a high of 1.0002 ETH the next day before falling back to its previous level of 0.9981 ETH at the time of this writing.

Blockchain security companies such as Ancilia Inc. issued a warning on January 19 that searching the keywords “Wormhole Bridge” in Google currently shows promoted ad websites that are actually phishing operations. This is likely to attract more attention to the Wormhole hack in light of the most recent incident.

The community has been cautioned to use extreme caution on the content of the links they click on in relation to this phrase.

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BlockFi to Sell $160 Million in Bitcoin Mining Machine

by Blockchain News

It would appear that the now-defunct cryptocurrency loan business BlockFi intends to dispose of debts worth approximately $160 million that are guaranteed by approximately 68,000 Bitcoin mining machines as part of the processes for the company to file for bankruptcy protection. These debts are backed by the Bitcoin mining machines themselves.

According to a report that was made public on January 24 by Bloomberg, two people who were characterised as being “familiar with the matter” indicated that BlockFi began the process of getting rid of the debts the previous year. This information was cited in the article.

The cryptocurrency lender submitted their petition for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the United States Code in the month of November. The failure of the lending company was attributed, at least in part, to the large exposure it had to the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which has since closed its doors.

However, the sources claim that some of these loans have already been defaulted on since then, and due to the decline in the price of Bitcoin mining equipment, it is possible that they are undercollateralized. The reports indicate that the day of the 24th of January is the last day that potential loan bidders have until the end of the day to bring in their applications for the financing that is now available.

According to Dell, the fact that debt collection agencies were purchasing the loans for “cents on the dollar” showed that it was likely these agencies that were engaging in the bidding process for the loans. The bidding procedure for the loans is described as “cents on the dollar.”

In addition, he said that the administrators of BlockFi are probably capable of collecting “nothing more” from these assets apart from the cash that was given to them. This was in reference to the debt that was owing to them.

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The UK’s Regulatory Policy Committee is Against the FCA

by Blockchain News

There is a lack of consensus among those who make decisions on public policy in the United Kingdom over whether or not retail investors should be barred from purchasing, promoting, or distributing derivatives and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) that are linked to cryptocurrencies.

The Regulatory Policy Committee is of the opinion that the measure, which was implemented in 2021, cannot be justified given the present state of affairs. In January of 2021, the restriction was enforced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is the primary regulatory body in the United Kingdom.

Since that time, businesses are not permitted to sell bitcoin derivatives products to retail clients. These products include futures, options, and exchange-traded notes (also known as ETNs).

In spite of the fact that 97% of people who responded to the FCA’s consultation opposed the “disproportionate” prohibition, the FCA went ahead and enacted the blanket ban anyway. Many of the respondents argued that retail investors are capable of evaluating the risks and the value of crypto derivatives.

The Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC), which is an advisory public body that is sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of the United Kingdom government, presented its arguments against the FCA’s restriction on January 23.

The RPC conducted a cost-benefit analysis and determined that the yearly losses caused by the policy were about 333 million dollars (or 268.5 million British pounds).

According to the RPC, the FCA did not offer a detailed description of the particular events that may take place in the event that the restriction was not in place.

In addition, it failed to provide an explanation of the methodology and calculations used to assess the costs and benefits at the time.

In light of this, the RPC assigns the ban the “red” rating, which indicates that it does not fulfil its intended function.

The unfavourable evaluation provided by the RPC does not automatically result in the immediate repeal of the Act.

In spite of this, given that the committee has connections to the Department of Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy, it is possible that this will signal a difference in understanding of what constitutes fair regulation between the FCA and the government.

The British financial authorities made a number of substantial measures to encourage the growth of the digital economy last year. These efforts were documented in a report.

For instance, “designated crypto assets” were included in a list of investment transactions that are eligible for the Investment Manager Exemption. This exemption is for investment managers.

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DCG’s subsidiary Genesis Capital slapped with new class

by Blockchain News

A new class action lawsuit has been filed against the cryptocurrency corporation Digital Currency Group (DCG), making the company’s legal woes even more numerous. The claim was filed against DCG’s subsidiary Genesis Capital.

In a securities class action (SCA) lawsuit against DCG and its founder and CEO Barry Silbert, creditors of Genesis allege that the defendants violated laws governing the sale and purchase of securities in the United States.

On behalf of people and companies who engaged into digital asset loan arrangements with Genesis, the legal firm Silver Golub & Teitell (SGT) of Connecticut filed the action. The plaintiffs in the case are seeking compensation for their losses.

The legal company is well-known in the sector for managing important litigation, such as the class action complaint that was brought against Coinbase in March 2022.

In the new complaint filed against DCG and Silbert, it is alleged that Genesis engaged in an unregistered securities offering in violation of securities laws. Specifically, it is alleged that Genesis violated securities laws by executing lending agreements involving securities without first meeting the requirements for an exemption from registration under federal securities laws.

The complaint also claims that Genesis engaged in securities fraud by devising a plan to deceive new and current digital asset lenders by providing false and misleading representations. This is said to have occurred as part of a strategy to steal money.

Plaintiffs allege that Genesis knowingly misrepresented the company’s current financial situation, which constitutes a violation of section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of the United States. ” The scheme to defraud was carried out, according to the complaint, in order to induce prospective digital asset lenders to loan digital assets to Genesis Global Capital and to prevent existing lenders from redeeming their digital assets,” SGT lawyers noted. ” The goal of the scheme was to induce prospective digital asset lenders to loan digital assets to Genesis Global Capital.”

DCG is a cryptocurrency company based in Connecticut that was established in 2015. It functions as the parent company of several digital asset and blockchain-focused subsidiaries, some of which include Genesis, a digital asset manager called Grayscale Investments, a cryptocurrency mining company called Foundry, and a cryptocurrency media outlet called Coindesk.

Silbert, the current CEO of DCG, has a controlling ownership share in the company equal to forty percent and also serves as the chairman of the board of directors for DCG.

The announcement was made as Genesis was in the midst of its first bankruptcy proceedings on January 23, after the company’s first bankruptcy filing on January 19.

The bankruptcy petition was filed a few months after Genesis temporarily ceased withdrawals on November 16 due to the fact that the company had been unable to execute redemption requests in light of the bear market in cryptocurrencies.

It has been revealed that Genesis owes $900 million to the customers of the cryptocurrency trading platform Gemini, which was established by the Winklevoss brothers. Gemini is one of the most significant debtors of Genesis.

Cameron Winklevoss, one of the co-founders of Gemini, went to Twitter on January 20 to announce that the company was ready to take direct legal action against DCG, Silbert, and “those who share culpability for the scam.”

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Uniswap v3 Protocol to Be Deploy to BNB Chain

by Blockchain News

On the governance forum for Uniswap, a proposal referred to as a “temperature check” that would deploy the Uniswap v3 protocol to BNB Chain garnered overwhelming approval from the community.

Eighty percent of voters who possess Uniswap’s UNI (UNI) governance token voted in support of installing the third version of the decentralised exchange protocol on BNB Chain, which is a competitor of Ethereum’s network. This vote was carried out by voters who own UNI.

Ilia Maksimenka, CEO of the decentralised finance protocol Plasma Finance, argued why the Uniswap v3 protocol should be deployed to BNB Chain in a proposal that was posted on January 17. In the proposal, Ilia Maksimenka wrote: “We believe this is the right moment for Uniswap to deploy on BNB PoS Chain, for many reasons (one of them is License expiration).”

Following the debate on the governance forum, the Uniswap community carried out a poll known as a “temperature check” in order to determine whether or not the community was in favour of the proposed change.

Eighty percent of those who voted thought that the deployment should go place, while twenty percent said that it should not.

The blockchain software company ConsenSys expressed their approval of the action.

Despite worries over centralization, the company ConsenSys considers the brand of the protocol as “standalone and not subject to any single chain,” according to Cameron O’Donnell, who serves as the DAO governance strategist for ConsenSys.

O’Donnell provided the following explanation: “Regardless of personal viewpoints, the entry of Uniswap into the BSC market will give present and prospective users with a safe and stable means for decentralised exchange.”

Additionally, the ConsenSys executive said that the company feels that it is essential for Uniswap to be “chain agnostic” in order to better serve all customers within the Web3 environment. This was stated in reference to a previous statement made by the executive. After the governance proposal has been accepted, the Plasma Finance team estimates that it will take between five and seven weeks to deploy the appropriate smart contracts to BNB Chain. This will be place after the governance proposal has been accepted.

On December 22, the number of unique addresses on the BNB Chain network exceeded that of the Ethereum network.

The data from BSC Scan revealed that the blockchain included 233 million addresses, which is much more than Ethereum’s count of 217 million unique addresses.

Despite the fact that this chain claims to be “the biggest tier 1 blockchain,” its statistics are a long cry from the one billion unique addresses that the Bitcoin network has.

Update: A portion of the article has been modified to highlight that the proposal in issue is to assess the community’s interest in adopting BNB Chain for v3 protocol deployment. This particular vote is the first of three votes that are necessary to approve a governance proposal.

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Binance Admits to Storing Customer Funds in the same wallet

by Blockchain News

Recent news articles state that the prominent cryptocurrency exchange Binance has acknowledged that it keeps some customer assets in the same wallet that it uses to store its own collateral for certain of its in-house tokens.

Binance quickly started the process of shifting the assets in question to particular wallets that would serve as collateral when the information was made public and shortly after the information was made public.

Binance allegedly made a mistake when it held the collateral for some of the Binance-minted tokens, also known as B-Tokens, in a wallet that also contains customer assets, as stated in an article that was published by Bloomberg on January 24.

Binance released a proof of collateral for B-Tokens accessible to the public on Monday. This document includes information for each of the 94 tokens that the business has previously issued.

In a statement that was released not too long ago, the business emphasised the fact that B-Tokens are always fully collateralized and backed at a ratio of 1:1.

According to the proof of collateral, Binance reserves for about half of all B-Tokens are now housed in a single wallet known as “Binance 8.”

Given the entire quantity of B-Tokens that Binance has made available, the reserve token supply that is retained by the wallet is far more than what one may have anticipated it to be.

This is supposed to provide validity to the idea that Binance combined clients’ currency and collateral rather than keeping the two different sorts of assets in separate places.

Even if the problem is isolated to B-Tokens alone, it would seem that such a wallet management system would go against the standards that Binance has set for its very own wallet. This is the case despite the fact that the issue only affects B-Tokens.

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New partnership to enable Bitcoin micropayments for content platforms

by Blockchain News

Crypto has made inroads into a variety of markets throughout the course of its history, providing users with the unprecedented opportunity to micro-monetize their activities.

Play-to-earn gaming, along with earning from music streaming, was the antecedent for this sort of cryptocurrency integration. Streaming music also contributed to the development of this form of crypto integration. The value-for-value podcasting platform Fountain announced a new collaboration on January 24 with the financial services business ZEBEDEE to allow Bitcoin (BTC) micropayments for podcast listeners. ZEBEDEE helps monetize games and applications. The capacity to listen to a podcast and receive money for it has been described as a strong combination and the future of content production by Oscar Merry, the creator and chief executive officer of Fountain.

“In a few years, when we look back on paid subscriptions for content platforms that aren’t tied to how much we really use those platforms, we’ll look back and chuckle at how primitive and wasteful it was,”

In addition, as a result of the relationship with ZEBEDEE, customers may take advantage of the benefits without having any prior knowledge of cryptocurrencies thanks to the incorporation of debit and credit card connections. According to Merry, such a development brings together a “fragmented podcasting market,” which at the moment is comprised of a large number of applications and hosting companies that are not synced with one another.

He went on to emphasise the fact that the value of a platform is increased with each minute spent consuming or generating content as well as seeing advertisements. Why shouldn’t you share in the financial rewards that come from the value that you generate on the platform?

The adoption of new technologies is starting to become nearly imperceptible as developers continue to place a priority on usefulness in newly developed protocols.

Recently, a programme called “party-to-earn” targeted the electronic music business with the goal of developing a currency that can be used by festival attendees, clubbers, and fans alike.

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QuickNode Closes $60 Million Funding Round

by Blockchain News

A fundraising round with a total value of sixty million dollars has been successfully completed by the distributed ledger technology (Blockchain) development platform QuickNode. This achievement is a component of a worldwide expansion that is being undertaken with the goal of luring a greater number of users and developers onto the Web3 platform. This accomplishment was made feasible as a direct consequence of the efforts that QuickNode put out in order to entice a higher number of users and developers to participate in the Web3 platform. On the 24th of January, the company made the news that the venture capital firm 10T Fund will be leading the Series B fund raising effort, with participation from Tiger Global, Seven Seven Six, and QED. That fact is common knowledge at this point. As a direct result of the fact that the investment was successfully completed, the value of QuickNode has been increased to an estimated $800 million.

QuickNode’s management has said that the cash will be used to accelerate the company’s expansion into new markets across the globe and will make the transition to Web3 more straightforward “at scale.

” If this is to be achieved, it is vital to provide developers with the deployability that is required in order to sign up more blockchain clients.

The Series B funding round has been the most crucial financing round for the business since October 2021, when the firm was only seven months old and received $35 million in its first investment round. Since that time, the company has been in operation.

QuickNode asserts that the size of its existing user base has more than doubled in size throughout the period of time that has passed between the company’s two previous rounds of venture investment.

At the present, the company provides its infrastructure services to over 16 distinct blockchains, some of which are Ethereum, Matic, Optimism, Arbitrum, and Solana. Other blockchains that currently make use of the company’s offerings include Solana is one of the blockchains that is featured among the others. There are a number of other blockchains in addition to these that utilise a selection of these services in their operations.

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SushiSwap to Redirect Trading Fees to its treasury

by Blockchain News

The decentralised exchange (DEX) SushiSwap will, in the near future, reroute one hundred percent of the trading fees that are collected on the platform to its treasury in order to pay for ongoing operations and maintenance for a period of one year. This decision was made in accordance with a governance proposal that was approved on January 23.

After receiving a warning from the CEO that the market could potentially become unstable, the decision to take action was made “Even after lowering annual operational expenses from $9 million to $5 million in the midst of the protracted crypto winter, barely has enough runway in its treasury to last for another 1.5 years.

In the event that this proposal is accepted, the income that is brought into the treasury will be divided between ETH and USDC in a manner that is equal to each other, and it is anticipated that this revenue will total around $6 million over the course of the next year.”

In a second motion that was put to a vote and passed on the same day, 99.85 percent of voters decided to “clawback” 10,936,284 SUSHI tokens with a total value of $14.8 million. These tokens had been distributed to early liquidity providers at the launch of the DEX in 2020 but no one had claimed them. The motion was approved.

Users of SushiSwap who provided trading liquidity for the exchange throughout the months of August 2020 and February 2021 were eligible to claim the rewards, which had been made available to users for more than two years at that time.

Several of the commentators said that “people have earned their SUSHI fair and square,” and that their title to these assets should not be denied because of this fact. In addition, they stated that “people have earned their SUSHI fair and square.”

Others have voiced their support for the clawback on the basis that it removes “idle SUSHI that may be put to higher use.” 

The money will be transferred over to the common account that SushiSwap uses.

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Bitcoin (BTC) $ 27,584.39 1.70%
Ethereum (ETH) $ 1,666.01 3.46%
Litecoin (LTC) $ 66.16 2.02%
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 242.01 0.35%