Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Blockchain news
- In July, Binance Smart Chain (BSC), fueled by play-to-earn games, was the most used blockchain (658,000 unique users), followed by WAX (336,000), and Ethereum (ETH) (105,000), per DappRadar data. The whole dapp industry registered more than 1.4m daily unique users last month, or 24% more than in June, the firm said in its latest report. “Either through DeFi, NFTs, or gaming, the industry is growing exponentially whilst massively increasing its usage. It appears imminent that the whole industry is heading towards mass adoption,” they added. (Learn more: Ethereum Needs to Try Harder To Keep Its Dominance in a Multichain Future)
- Bitpanda, the European digital investment platform, announced the launch of its Blockchain Research & Development Hub. The company said it will invest EUR 10m over the next two years and add 30 developers by the end of 2021. “This innovative hub will focus on building a next-generation investment platform where engineers will aim to leverage the possibilities of state-of-the-art blockchains,” they said.
Mining news
- In his recent blog post, Zooko Wilcox, the founder of privacy coin Zcash (ZEC), said that switching from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake (PoS) would make ZEC “more valuable to more people.”
Among other things, according to Wilcox:
– PoS would “eliminate the downward pressure on the price of ZEC and add additional utility for ZEC.”
– PoS is more environmentally friendly.
– “PoS provides much better security and performance at lower cost.”
– “PoS provides a way for large numbers of Zcash holders to become Zcash users.”
– “PoS increases the demand for ZEC because it supports novel new use cases.”
– “PoS provides a voice for coin holders.”
– “PoS is more decentralized, attack- and capture-resistant, and egalitarian.”
(Learn more: ‘Fiat-Like’ Proof-of-Stake Chains Favor Centralization & Rich Players) - Alternative investments firm SkyBridge has announced it has partnered with climate tech company MOSS Earth to purchase and immediately retire tokens representing approximately 38,436 tons of carbon, a transaction that offsets the estimated historic carbon footprint of the bitcoin (BTC) currently held across its products firm-wide. They also added that they project Bitcoin mining will be fully renewable by the end of the decade.
Advertising news
- Starting today, Google advertisers offering crypto exchanges and wallets targeting the United States may advertise those products and services when they meet several requirements and are certified by Google.
Regulation news
- US Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey has stated that the “Congress should not rush forward with this hastily-designed tax reporting regime for cryptocurrency, especially without a full understanding of the consequences,” explaining that the broad definition of “broker” also includes non-financial intermediaries like miners, validators, and others. He added that he plans to offer an amendment to fix this text.
Exchanges news
- Crypto exchange CoinJar has announced the launch of their CoinJar Card by MasterCard, saying it will let users spend crypto in the same way they’d spend cash, both online and in-store, with the coins they choose automatically converted into Australian dollars. The card is free to activate, has no monthly fees, and has a 1% transaction fee, they added.
- Peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto trading platform Hodl Hodl announced that a recent internal and external audit identified that some user payment passwords might have been compromised, which prompted their forced liquidations to prevent potential loss of funds. They added that they had contacted external auditors and are doing external and internal audits on a daily basis, as well as that they will publish a transparency report on the investigation of these issues and on fixing them.
Investments news
- US-based crypto tax software provider ZenLedger announced a USD 6m Series A funding round led by Bloccelerate VC. Investors include Mark Cuban’s Radical Ventures, G1 VC, Borderless Capital, and others. Among other goals, with this latest round of funding, the company plans to release its crypto portfolio management solution that enables investors and traders to “easily” view their portfolio performance and track their tax savings all in one dashboard.
- Certus One, a blockchain engineering company, said it has been acquired by Jump Trading Group for an undisclosed amount and will join Jump Trading Group’s 900-strong global team.
- Enterprise technology provider NCR has announced a definitive agreement to purchase crypto software provider LibertyX, which currently has a solution that runs on ATMs, kiosks and point-of-sale systems. In the future, NCR aims to offer the LibertyX capabilities as part of its solutions for banks, retailers and restaurants, while NCR’s digital wallet and mobile applications will provide these capabilities across NCR’s physical and digital touchpoints, the team added.
- Asset management firm Arca has announced the launch of the Arca Digital Yield Fund, which they say is the first actively managed income fund in the digital assets space. The Arca Digital Yield Fund seeks to provide digital asset investment opportunities with minimal volatility, said the firm, and it targets low double-digit effective yields. It will be available for external/public interest later this year.
- Crypto index fund manager Bitwise announced the launch of the Bitwise Uniswap (UNI) Fund and the Bitwise Aave (AAVE) Fund. Both funds will invest directly into their respective assets, with the company stating that their goal is to simplify access to the decentralized finance (DeFi) space for professional investors.
Legal news
- US investigators joined an investigation into Mirror Trading International (MTI), seen as 2020’s biggest crypto scam, to help liquidators of the South African scheme recover the assets of out-of-pocket investors, Bloomberg reported. MTI, which in November said it had 260,000 members around the world and BTC 23,000 (USD 882m), was placed in final liquidation in June, it added.
- Russian Sverdlovsk regional court has ordered banking giant Sberbank to unblock account services to a client involved in BTC trading, according to an official announcement. According to the ruling, the bank had no reason to keep blocking the account service and limit the customer’s access to remote banking and bank cards after the client disclosed the economic meaning of the transactions and indicated the source of funds.
- The CEO of blockchain company Ripple (XRP), Brad Garlinghouse, has included crypto exchange Binance in the company’s ongoing lawsuit from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), by requesting documents “unobtainable through other means”, according to Law360. The documents requested of Binance may contain evidence in support of the claim that the XRP tokens were sold to investors outside the US on exchanges that are also outside the US, which means the SEC’s regulations would not apply to them.
- Crypto influencer Alex Saunders is facing questions over millions of dollars of cryptocurrency raised through his popular video blog for a speculative project and through loans, according to Financial Review. He may be on the hook for “millions” for a yet-to-be-built stablecoin project called decentral dank, as investors are looking to get their investments back.
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