April 30, 2024
A16z Makes $90 Million Private Purchase of Optimism’s OP Token
Blockchains including Celo have recently chosen Optimism’s OP Tech Stack to deploy Layer 2s on Ethereum.
While Bitcoin’s new non-fungible feature, Runes, has attracted attention and initially buffered the bottom lines of miners, its usage quickly plummeted.
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Not long after bitcoin miner revenues surged thanks to transaction fees from the Runes fungible token’s launch on the halving, the profitability levels of miners has fallen to an all-time low. At least as defined by “hashprice,” which measures projected mining earnings from a defined amount of hashrate, or computational …
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. In this episode of Unchained, host Laura interviews Alexei Zamyatin, co-founder of Build on Bitcoin, Willem Schroé, founder of Botanix Labs, and Orkun Kılıç, …
Bitcoin developers are increasingly frustrated with a griefing attack on testnet that has disrupted its operations, interrupted node syncing and created thousands of new blocks per hour. Jameson Lopp, cofounder and chief technology officer of Bitcoin security provider Casa, claimed responsibility for the attack. “My griefing attack on Bitcoin testnet …
As US regulators turn their attention to self-custodial services, some service providers have opted to exit the market. zkSNACKs, the company behind the open-source privacy-focused Wasabi Wallet, said it would be immediately barring US citizens and residents from accessing its products and services, and visiting its website. The zkSNACKs coordinator …
The market is witnessing significant declines on Tuesday, driven by a number of factors, including a confluence of regulatory uncertainties and economic indicators that suggest a challenging path ahead. Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) have all posted notable losses, with broader implications as investors brace for potential shifts …
Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have started trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange, after much anticipation that another timezone will now be trading crypto ETFs albeit with lower optimism about the pace of inflows these funds will see. Hong Kong-based asset managers China Asset Management, Harvest Global Investments, …
A fresh entrant to the exchange traded spot bitcoin market has launched with an extended-hours trading twist. ETC Group, a crypto exchange traded product (ETP) issuer with about $1.5 billion of assets under management, on Thursday launched its ETC Group Core Bitcoin ETP. It trades on the German stock exchange …
In this weekly recap, we cover: DOJ Cracks Down on Crypto Privacy Tools: Founders of Samourai Wallet, a privacy-focused crypto wallet, were arrested under charges of money laundering, as the DOJ intensifies its scrutiny of crypto mixing services. SEC Attorneys Resign After Court Reprimand: Following a court’s decision that chastised …
Two decentralized finance platforms — liquid restaking protocol Renzo and lending venue Kamino — released tokens Tuesday, both marked by steep price drops as volatility mounted in very short order following their market debuts. REZ, the governance token for Renzo, dropped 54% a scant six hours after its premiere at …
In this weekly recap, we cover: DOJ Cracks Down on Crypto Privacy Tools: Founders of Samourai Wallet, a privacy-focused crypto wallet, were arrested under charges of money laundering, as the DOJ intensifies its scrutiny of crypto mixing services. SEC Attorneys Resign After Court Reprimand: Following a court’s decision that chastised …
Welcome to The Chopping Block, where Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner dissect the crypto world’s topics of the day. In this episode, we delve into the SEC’s recent scrutiny of Uniswap, exploring the potential legal and regulatory impacts on the DeFi landscape. We also discuss the …
Following its airdrop announcement, Renzo Protocol’s liquid restaking token, ezETH, deviated from its one-to-one peg to ether (ETH), sparking community criticism regarding poor execution of the planned event. The price of the liquid restaking token (LRT) plummeted as it de-pegged, reaching a low of $688 on decentralized exchange Uniswap. ezETH …
Prominent venture capital firm a16z has snapped up about $90 million of Optimism’s native OP token, according to two sources familiar with the matter, marking the latest institutional bet on the Ethereum Layer 2. The investment, said to be executed under a two-year vesting period, follows a flurry of activity …
EigenLayer’s hotly anticipated airdrop, unveiled on Monday, has already come under fire. The plan governing the release of EigenLayer’s token, EIGEN, took heat for a number of its provisions, including preventing token holders from transferring EIGEN after claiming tokens. Others took issue with the percentage allotted for the community airdrop. …
EigenLayer finally announced its long-anticipated airdrop on Monday, and in addition to imposing a number of unconventional standards, it has many wondering what its impact will be on ether when it launches in early May. With billions of ETH restaked in EigenLayer directly and via liquid restaking tokens with their …
OP Labs, the entity behind the Ethereum layer 2 network Optimism, has patched two vulnerabilities with the fraud proof system deployed on the testnet. The fix was disclosed by Offchain Labs, the developers of Arbitrum, another popular layer 2 network that is widely considered to be a competitor to Optimism. …
OpenSea, long the dominant NFT marketplace, has struggled to reverse its fortunes since losing its trading volumes lead. OpenSea’s dropoff comes as the competitive landscape — and the business tactics that derive profits — for non-fungible token marketplaces has shifted. Nearly two years ago, before the launch of rivals Blur …
In this weekly recap, we cover: DOJ Cracks Down on Crypto Privacy Tools: Founders of Samourai Wallet, a privacy-focused crypto wallet, were arrested under charges of money laundering, as the DOJ intensifies its scrutiny of crypto mixing services. SEC Attorneys Resign After Court Reprimand: Following a court’s decision that chastised …
In this weekly recap, we cover: Mango Markets Fraud Conviction: Avi Eisenberg faces up to 40 years after being found guilty of commodities fraud and other charges in a landmark DeFi case, setting a critical precedent for crypto market regulations. Hong Kong Approves Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs: The Hong Kong …
The second season of Crypto: The Game, completed its public mint today within 15 minutes of it going live, with 800 players signing up to play in the next installment of the popular onchain game. NFT’s required to play the game sold for 0.1 ETH each, contributing to a winning …
Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao was sentenced on Tuesday to four months in prison for his role in the crypto giant’s anti-money laundering failures. Known to the crypto world as CZ, Zhao is one of the wealthiest people in the industry, as well as the world at large, with …
A federal judge in Seattle, Washington sentenced Changpeng Zhao, the former CEO of the crypto exchange, to four months in prison at a hearing on Tuesday. “This [case] is unprecedented in terms of volume, scale, and massiveness in dollar impact of noncompliance,” said Judge Richard Jones before issuing his sentence, …
On Tuesday, April 30, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao will face sentencing before a federal court in Seattle, Washington. Zhao founded Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, leading it as CEO until the Department of Justice brought charges against the exchange and Zhao in November for Bank Secrecy Act failures. …
In this weekly recap, we cover: DOJ Cracks Down on Crypto Privacy Tools: Founders of Samourai Wallet, a privacy-focused crypto wallet, were arrested under charges of money laundering, as the DOJ intensifies its scrutiny of crypto mixing services. SEC Attorneys Resign After Court Reprimand: Following a court’s decision that chastised …
EigenLayer’s hotly anticipated airdrop, unveiled on Monday, has already come under fire. The plan governing the release of EigenLayer’s token, EIGEN, took heat for a number of its provisions, including preventing token holders from transferring EIGEN after claiming tokens. Others took issue with the percentage allotted for the community airdrop. …
In August of 2023, Coinbase, the top US cryptocurrency exchange, officially launched Base, its own Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain network. Built on the OP Stack, Base has seen a surge in activity in recent months, including a whopping 3,200% increase in daily new users after the Ethereum Dencum upgrade, and …
In this weekly recap, we cover: DOJ Cracks Down on Crypto Privacy Tools: Founders of Samourai Wallet, a privacy-focused crypto wallet, were arrested under charges of money laundering, as the DOJ intensifies its scrutiny of crypto mixing services. SEC Attorneys Resign After Court Reprimand: Following a court’s decision that chastised …
When a public company falters and is delisted to the penny stock arena, trading grinds to a halt and its valuation plummets as stockholders cut their losses and move on. Equities trade upon a set of near-universal fundamentals that take the rise and fall of their company’s fortunes into account. …