Stories by Nivesh Rustgi
LayerZero Hit With Hefty Backlash After ‘Frontrunning’ Lido Governance
A bridge too far it seems for LayerZero. After announcing it would integrate a wrapped version of Lido’s ever-popular staked Ethereum token, the team behind the cross-chain protocol was hit with hefty backlash from the Lido community. The wrapped version of stETH is an ERC-20 version of the original blend stETH, making it easier to be reused in other applications. Lido Finance is a popular staking protocol. This is what LayerZero had integrated on Wednesday across BNB Chain, the buzzy layer-2 ne...
dYdX Releases Cosmos-Based Chain Source Code Ahead of Mainnet Launch
dYdX Trading, the U.S.-based firm developing the decentralized derivatives exchange dYdX, has released the open-source code for its independent blockchain to the public. Today’s launch marks the initiation of dYdX Chain, a new upgraded version (dYdX V4) of the popular derivatives exchange. dYdX Trading Founder and CEO Antonio Juliano said in a statement that, “With the dYdX Chain, dYdX brings transparency and security to derivatives trading with an exchange that is run solely by code, and contro...
Almost All Mining Stocks Have Outpaced Bitcoin This Year
The year-to-date returns of all mining stocks, except for two, have far outpaced Bitcoin's rise of 84.61%, per CoinGecko data. The two underperforming mining firms? Argo Blockchain and TeraWulf. Still, the average return of the top eleven public mining companies this year is more than double that of Bitcoin, standing at 148.59%. Marathon Digital Holdings and Cipher Mining lead the gains with 120.67% and 356.00% year-to-date gains, respectively. The mining stocks have exhibited a higher beta ove...
Bitcoin Sees Lion’s Share of Investment Amid Spot ETF Hype: CoinShares
Investments into institutional crypto products were positive for the fourth consecutive week, according to a new report by CoinShares. Products analyzed in these reports aren’t direct crypto holdings, but rather exchange-traded products that track cryptocurrencies offered by Grayscale, 21shares, and Proshares, among others. Last week, the total investment amounted to $66 million, with the lion’s share of 83.7%, or $55.3 million, directed toward Bitcoin. Swiss-based firm 21SharesAG saw the large...
Vitalik's Biggest Worries? Crypto Stagnating and AI Risks, Says Ethereum Co-Founder
Ever wondered what Vitalik Buterin’s most worried about for the future of Ethereum? During a recent AMA on Farcaster, one user asked just that, to which the Ethereum co-founder responded: “The risk that crypto stagnates, things like privacy and open internet infrastructure become lost causes.” Another user asked something similar, wondering what the 29-year-old Canadian-Russian developer thinks “about most of the time.” For Vitalik, it’s “AI-related issues,” namely existential risks stemming fr...
Maker Annualized Revenue Soars Past $200M to New All-Time High
Stablecoin issuer Maker Protocol’s annualized revenue surged to a new all-time high of $203 million yesterday, according to Makerburn.com data. The previous peak was $172.3 million in May 2021. Maker is a stablecoin issuing platform on Ethereum, governed by the MakerDAO community formed of MKR token holders. The supply of the protocol’s stablecoin, DAI, reached a new yearly high of $5.6 billion, per Makerburn.com data. Maker makes money through fees paid by users for borrowing DAI, and fees earn...
BlackRock Amends Bitcoin ETF Prospectus, Acknowledges Fierce Competition
BlackRock submitted an amended prospectus for its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday. Notable changes in BlackRock’s new filing include acknowledgment of the competition in the race for Bitcoin ETF approval, as well as detailed explanations on the product’s pricing and reporting mechanisms. The world’s largest asset manager filed its first spot Bitcoin application under the title iShares Bitcoin Trust on June 15, 2...
Aptos Hit With 5-Hour Outage on Blockchain's First Birthday
Aptos suffered an outage last night from around 7 pm ET and lasted more than five hours yesterday while hosting a mass drawing application to celebrate its one-year anniversary. Data from Aptos block explorer Aptos showed that on-chain transactions stopped for about five hours on October 18. The blockchain explorer AptoScan shows a difference of 5 hours and 6 minutes between two consecutive blocks. Normally, blocks on the network confirm in less than a second. The blockchain explorer also shows...
Kraken’s Powell: Reddit Should Offer ‘Redemption Path’ for Community Points
Jesse Powell, the co-founder and Chairman of the Board at crypto exchange Kraken, has argued that Reddit should have “offered a redemption path” for owners of its discontinued crypto-powered Community Points. In a post on Reddit, Powell wrote that, “I personally don’t see the regulatory problems” cited by Reddit in its explanation for the “sunsetting,” adding that, “I get that it’s complicated and evolving and maybe Reddit doesn’t want the hassle.” The social media platform stated that “The regu...
Ethereum Staking Is Losing Its Appeal–Here's Why
The queue for adding new staking validators on Ethereum briefly hit zero yesterday. It's now risen again to 996 validators, but it's still a far cry from its peak on June 10, when over 96,500 validators faced a waiting period of over 45 days, per Beaconcha.in data. In broad strokes, the slowdown suggests a dwindling appetite for staking Ethereum. Validators are responsible for proposing and validating new blocks on a proof-of-stake blockchain like Ethereum. In return, they receive a reward for t...
Your Favorite Uniswap Pool May Soon Include a KYC Check
Trading on Uniswap? Sign here, please. With Uniswap’s latest upgrade coming later this year, the decentralized exchange has opened code suggestions to the community. Not everyone is enthused by all of those suggestions, however Community-contributed code for a Know Your Customer (KYC) and whitelisting features, for example, have sparked fierce debate on the future of DeFi. Uniswap Overtakes Coinbase as Second-Largest Exchange Trading Ethereum Today Executing KYC checks and whitelisting addresses...
THORChain Soars 8% as DeFi Exchange Lifts Trading Pause
RUNE, the native token of THORChain, saw a staggering 8% overnight rise as the project resumed trading on its leading exchange THORSwap. THORSwap suspended trading last Friday after illicit funds linked to the FTX exploit in November 2022 were allegedly passed through the exchange. Services such as lending, borrowing, and staking actions remained operational. THORSwap uses the assets deposited on THORChain, a layer-1 blockchain optimized for interoperability between various blockchains, as liqui...
Cathie Wood's Ark Invest Refiles Bitcoin ETF Application—Here's What's New
Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest has filed a second amended application for a spot Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF). The latest version, filed on October 11, introduces additional risk warnings associated with the Bitcoin network that could negatively affect the price of an ETF among other minor adjustments. These new risks include issues related to electricity consumption, a community-driven upgrade to Bitcoin’s source code, and competition within the industry. Furthermore, it stipulates that th...
Lido Finance Faces Slashing Penalty of More Than $30,000 in Ethereum
Lido Finance, the leading liquid staking protocol, faces a minimum penalty of 20 Ethereum before it can withdraw its ETH from validators that were slashed. On Wednesday, 20 validators associated with Launchnodes, one of Lido’s node operators, got slashed from the Ethereum network, recording the largest number of validators slashed within a day this year. According to an update by Lido, the initial loss to the protocol is around 20 ETH with “additional penalties” to be believed for inactivity bef...
Ethereum Gas Fees Hit New Low for 2023 as DeFi, NFT Activity Drops
On October 8, the average Ethereum gas fee dropped to 8.8 Gwei, levels not seen since October 2, 2022, when the average gas on the network fee was 8.4 Gwei, per Etherscan data. Ethereum's gas prices are typically measured in Gigawei (called Gwei), which is equivalent to 10^9 Wei. Wei represents the smallest denomination of ETH, with 1 ETH equal to 10^18 wei. The decline in gas fees can likely be attributed to a drop off in users on DeFi applications, NFTs, layer-2 networks, and various Telegram...
Lido's Arbitrum Proposal Splits Community Over Grant Size, Centralization Concerns
A Lido DAO proposal to secure a 5 million ARB grant worth just over $4 million has been met with hefty opposition from the Arbitrum community. The primary concerns? The grant’s size and ongoing concerns of Lido’s purported centralization. In September, the Arbitrum Foundation introduced its Short-Term Incentive Program (STIP) to distribute 50,000,000 ARB worth $41.2 million and entice projects to launch on the speedy layer-2. Arbitrum is a layer-2 scaling solution built atop the Ethereum network...
Bored Bitcoin Analysts Point to McRib Meme for Bullish Return
With the famed McRib making a comeback next month, fintwit and crypto advocates have been quick to highlight a rather unusual correlation. McDonald’s typically keeps the oblong sandwich off its menu, only to bring it back as a limited-time offering (variously attributed to its marketing strategy and the price of pork, among other factors). Now, with less than a month before it hits menus again, market spectators have tried establishing a link with McRib’s return and global asset prices–including...
Tezos Jumps 7% on South Korean Volume Spike, Futures Liquidations
Tezos (XTZ) soared 7.5% overnight, whizzing past the majority of the crypto market which showed negative gains since yesterday, per CoinGecko data. The positive price action for the layer-1 token can likely be attributed to a surge in trading volume on South Korean exchanges like UpBit, as well as hefty liquidations. The 24-hour trading volume for XTZ reached $122.8 million, significantly higher than its 30 days of $16.8 million, per CoinGecko. Tezos is a blockchain network that uses a variety o...
The Ethereum Foundation Just Sold $2.76 Million in ETH
The Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit organization responsible for developing and promoting Ethereum, has converted 1,700 ETH worth $2.76 million to Circle’s USDC stablecoin. Crypto analytics firm Scopescan reported the transaction this morning as the foundation converted Ethereum for USDC via Uniswap. The Ethereum Foundation has just sold 1.7K $ETH ($2.76M) for $USDC. Address:https://t.co/OaZKMXdfBw pic.twitter.com/z5tqZk3eCF — Scopescan (🪬 . 🪬) (@0xScopescan) October 9, 2023 In a report fr...
Here's How Crypto Firms Are Bracing for New Rules in the UK
Coinbase, Revolut, and Binance have made updates to their mobile and web applications to comply with the new United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) marketing rules, which took effect on October 8. Over the weekend, Coinbase and Revolut notified their customers via email about these changes, including additional “risk disclaimers” for crypto transactions, and asked their users to update the mobile application. Binance launched a new dedicated webpage for UK customers. It resumed operati...
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