Messari: BNB Chain's Q2 Daily Active Addresses Grow 25.6% MoM to 1.4 Million

Messari has released the BNB Chain Q2 2023 report, which reveals the following key findings:  The daily average of active addresses on the BNB Chain reached approximately 1.4 million, with a growth of 25.6% in daily active addresses and a 24.4% increase in transaction volume. This growth was primarily driven by increased activity on LayerZero.  After the SECs regulatory action against Coinbase and Binance, where BNB was accused of being a security, the market cap of BNB Chain dropped by 25.2%.  BSC validators voted to reduce Gas fees from 5 Gwei to 3 Gwei, resulting in a 25.5% decrease in average transaction fees, leading to a 6.1% decrease in BNB chain revenue (measured in BNB) on a month-to-month basis.  Staking on the network remained stable in Q2. BNB Chain plans to increase the number of validators from 29 to 100 through a new validator reward model (Balanced Mining) and a validator reputation system.  BNB Chain continues to invest in ecosystem growth through the introduction of the Gas Grant program and the Zero2Hero incubator.  Several technical developments were launched in Q2, including the Plank hard fork, the Luban hard fork, and opBNB.  Additionally, according to data from www.developerreport.com, the number of developers on the BNB Chain has been

2023-07-27Deep Dive

Binance Withdraws Cryptocurrency License Application in Germany

According to CoinDesk, Binance has voluntarily withdrawn its license application submitted to the German financial regulatory authority, BaFin. A spokesperson for Binance stated, “There have been significant changes in the global market and regulatory landscape. Binance still intends to apply for the appropriate license in Germany, but the content of our application must accurately reflect these changes, which is crucial.”  In June of this year, Finance Forward reported that Binances license application was likely to be rejected by BaFin, but a spokesperson for Binance at the time said that the company was still in discussions with officials. Binance also abandoned its registration with the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, withdrew from the Netherlands after a failed registration, and has been ordered to cease operations in Belgium.  A BaFin spokesperson stated that the authority does not comment on individual companies. The Binance spokesperson said, “While we cannot share the details of our discussions with regulatory authorities, we continue to work towards meeting BaFins requirements. Its an ongoing process. We believe we have the right team and measures in place to continue engaging with the German regulatory authorities.”  According to Binances website (https://www.binance.com/en/legal/licenses), Binance holds licenses and registrations in multiple countries and regions, including France,

2023-07-27Deep Dive

Bankman-Fried Claims Innocence In Unlawful Campaign Contribution Case: Report

US prosecutors have dropped the charge against Samuel Bankman-Fried (SBF) for unlawful campaign contributions, as it was not included in the extradition agreement between the US and the Bahamas.  Bankman-Fried is still set to face trial in October for 12 other charges, including US government claims that he ran a years-long fraud at FTX.  According to Bloomberg, US prosecutors will drop the charge against Samuel Bankman-Fried for unlawful campaign contributions. In October, he faced 12 other charges for fraud at FTX.  US prosecutors have dropped a charge against Samuel Bankman-Fried for unlawful campaign contributions. Bankman-Fried had argued that the charge was not part of the extradition documents signed by the Bahamas. US Attorney Damian Williams stated that the government had decided not to proceed with the campaign contributions count in keeping with its treaty obligations with the Bahamas.  The decision comes as Bankman-Fried faces trial in October for 12 other charges, including US government claims that he ran a years-long fraud at FTX. The 31-year-old had previously contested the validity of five charges, arguing that they were not part of the extradition agreement that led to his return to the US in December. The government severed those charges from the October trial, splitting the

2023-07-27Deep Dive

Democrats Split Over Controversial Crypto Regulatory Bill

Landmark cryptocurrency regulation bill divides Democrats, opens opportunity for bipartisan support.  House Democrats clash over GOP-led bill; Waters opposes, Himes supports after negotiations.  Bill proposes CFTC expansion in crypto oversight and explicit SEC digital asset authorities.  A significant bill aimed at overhauling cryptocurrency regulation is causing divisions among senior Democrats, presenting an opening for Republicans to garner bipartisan support for their legislation.  The House Democrats split was revealed during a Financial Services Committee meeting on a GOP-led bill that seeks to mandate federal law on how two key market regulators—the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)—oversee digital asset trading.  Rep. Maxine Waters, the committees top Democrat from California, strongly criticized the bill, referring to it as a “wish list of Big Crypto” and calling on fellow lawmakers to oppose it. Despite this, Rep. Jim Himes expressed support for the proposal after weeks of bipartisan negotiations. Other Democrats, including Reps. Wiley Nickel and Ritchie Torres, also signaled their willingness to back the bill.  Rep. Maxine Waters  Himes defended the legislation, acknowledging that it might not be perfect but stated it would improve the current status quo. The clash of opinions reflects the ever-evolving nature of crypto policy in the wake of market

2023-07-27Deep Dive

FED Raises Interest Rate By 0.25%, BTC Fluctuates Around $29,300

The Fed is expected to raise rates by another 25bps at its meeting later today as inflation remains well above the central banks target.  At future meetings, a decision can not be made on whether to stop raising interest rates, continuing to rely on data.  Bitcoins (BTC) price was little changed at $29,300 shortly after the announcement.  On July 27, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to a range of 5.25%-5.50%, reaching its highest level since 2001, in line with market expectations.  The Federal Reserve FOMC said members are unanimous on the interest rate decision and will continue evaluating further information. The full impact of the tightening is yet to be felt. High-interest rates have affected the areas most sensitive to interest rates but have not had a complete impact on the economy.  The labor market is still tight, but the balance of supply and demand is more balanced. Although challenging, the number of jobs available and the number of job seekers gradually became proportional. Inflation has eased but still needs a long way to return to 2%. The Fed has cooled down inflation without significantly weakening the economy/labor market, which is a good thing.  In the face of rising

2023-07-27Deep Dive

Dogecoin Rises 8% After Elon Musk’s Promotion Of DogeDesigner Video

The price of Dogecoin (DOGE) surged more than 8% in the past 24 hours after receiving momentum from avid fan Elon Musk.  Musk retweeted a video tweet related to the new Logo X on Twitter shared by DogeDesigner.  Earlier, the Twitter boss said he wanted to remove the bird icon on Twitter and replace it with an “X”.  Dogecoin (DOGE) received great motivation from Twitter boss Elon Musk to increase sharply by 8% while the whole market was quiet.  DOGE at the time of writing is up 8.12% over the past 24 hours, trading for $0.081. And in the past week, it has gained almost 17%, making it one of the best performing coins.  24h DOGE price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap  The impetus for DOGE to surge while the significant tokens of the market were sleeping came from familiar fan Elon Musk when he tweeted an ad for the social networking sites new logo, originally shared by DogeDesigner.  A few days earlier, Twitter owner Elon Musk said he wanted to get rid of the bird icon on Twitter and replace it with an “X” while emphasizing that this should have been done long ago. Since Musk bought Twitter in October 2022, the company has changed its business name

2023-07-26Deep Dive

CFTC Charges Tennessee Couple For Defrauding Investors In Crypto Scam Scheme

Tennessee couple charged with defrauding over 100 investors in the “Blessings of God Thru Crypto” scheme by the CFTC.  They raised $6 million, promising high returns through crypto futures trading.  CFTC seeks restitution, but recovery difficult as funds were transferred to untraceable digital wallets.  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a complaint on July 25 against Michael and Amanda Griffis, owners of a real estate company in Clarksville, Tennessee, for allegedly defrauding over 100 people in a digital assets commodity pool scheme. The couple raised more than $6 million by persuading colleagues and customers to pool funds for trading digital assets.  Operating under the name “Blessings of God Thru Crypto,” the defendants promised high returns to participants by claiming to trade “crypto futures” on the “Apex Trading Platform” with guidance from an individual named “Coach Wendy.” Their personal and professional connections were leveraged to lend credibility to the scheme.  A commodity pool is an investment vehicle that combines funds from multiple investors for trading in futures contracts or other commodity interests, typically managed by a pool operator.  The CFTC is seeking restitution, civil monetary penalties, permanent trading and registration bans, as well as a permanent injunction against further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA)

2023-07-26Deep Dive

KuCoin Faces Profit Woes Surround, But No Layoffs Confirmed

KuCoin, a cryptocurrency exchange, denies rumors of laying off 30% of its workforce amid declining profits and legal challenges from the New York State Attorney General.  The exchange introduced strict KYC policies in response to the lawsuit, impacting its profits.  Binance has also faced reports of workforce reductions as both exchanges reevaluate talent and adapt to regulatory pressures.  Cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin has been grappling with rumors of potential workforce reductions as it contends with legal challenges and declining profits.  Twitter news account Wu Blockchain cited three anonymous internal sources in a tweet, claiming that KuCoin plans to lay off up to 30% of its employees, amounting to nearly 1,000 staff members. The decline in profits was attributed to the implementation of strict Know Your Customer (KYC) policies, a move made in response to the legal challenges posed by the United States.  However, a spokesperson for KuCoin refuted the claims, stating that the company has not initiated any layoff plans, CoinDesk reported. Instead, the spokesperson asserted that any personnel adjustments would be part of routine business development and semi-annual employee performance reviews—a normal process in organizational development.  The legal troubles faced by the exchange are not unique, as the cryptocurrency industry faces increasing scrutiny from regulators worldwide.

2023-07-26Deep Dive

EraLend, a zkSync DeFi Protocol, Suffers Malicious Attack, Incurs Losses of Millions of Dollars

On July 25th, Twitter user Spreek revealed that the zkSync DeFi protocol, EraLend, suffered an attack resulting in a loss of at least 1.7 million USDC. Spreek pointed out that the attack on EraLend may be related to pricing issues with high-risk tokens, but the scale of the hacker attack has not been confirmed yet.  Subsequently, EraLend team members confirmed the attack. The official announcement was made on Discord stating that a security event was detected on July 25th at 9:27:21 UTC, confirming that their platform was attacked. Only USDC was affected by this incident. All other assets remain safe and unaffected, and users are strongly advised not to deposit USDC at this time.  Furthermore, the attack has been brought under control, and the attacker is no longer able to continue their actions.  Afterward, the blockchain security firm BlockSec issued an announcement stating that they are assisting EraLend in resolving the issue. The attack was identified as a read-only reentrancy attack, with estimated losses of approximately 3.4 million USD. Additionally, the attackers address was disclosed as 0xf1D076c9Be4533086f967e14EE6aFf204D5ECE7a.  On July 26th, EraLend revealed the cause of the attack: the attacker manipulated the oracle price to withdraw approximately 2.76 million USD from the USDC pool. EraLend

2023-07-26Deep Dive

Paradigm's Article on 10 Key Cryptocurrency Focus Areas

Paradigms official website releases an article titled “Collaborate with Paradigm,” stating the desire to collaborate with outstanding talents in the cryptocurrency space. Currently, they have the capacity to pursue 3 to 5 new in-depth collaborations. Paradigm unveils several cryptocurrency focus areas they have been exploring:  Intent-centric protocols and infra  Hooks on top of Uniswap v4 (especially ones that focus on LP profitability and loss-vs-rebalancing)  Infra for a rollup-centric, multi-chain world  Shared sequencers  Onchain games (something we would enjoy playing)  Crypto-native social apps  Prediction markets (creating markets with real liquidity)  Stablecoin payments/fintech (as stablecoins mature and banking becomes more troublesome)  Onchain treasuries (a natural step after stablecoins and before other real world assets)  ZKP apps (there is a ZKP capability overhang: science is ahead of applied research, which is ahead of applications)  According to previous reports, on June 28th, Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang tweeted that Paradigm has never been more focused on cryptocurrencies. The company will continue to invest at various stages, publish original research, actively support the development of invested companies like Uniswap v2, v3, v4, release open-source projects like Foundry and Reth, and advocate for progressive policies.  On July 2nd, Matt Huang tweeted, “We previously removed all content about cryptocurrencies from our website landing page, which was a bit absurd. That

2023-07-26Deep Dive
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