Uniswap’s version 3 (v3) protocol is set to shift from the Ethereum network to BNB Chain following a majority vote from governor forums.
The “temperature check” proposal passed after 80 percent of voters approved the measure to deploy v3 on the BNB Chain.
Ilia Maksimenka, chief executive of decentralised finance protocol Plasma Finance, explained his reasoning for the network swap in a 17 January post.
He said: “We believe this is the right moment for Uniswap to deploy on BNB [proof of stake] Chain, for many reasons (one of them is License expiration).”
Adding, he said the BNB chain had “a large and growing user base, providing a potential new market” and offered “high transaction speeds and low fees.”
BSC to Provide ‘Secure’ DeFi Exchange
Cameron O’Donnell, a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) governance strategist at ConsenSys, explained why his firm backed the measures.
He said in a statement: “Regardless of personal views, Uniswap entering the BSC market will provide current and future users with a secure and established medium for decentralized exchange.”
The company also supported a “chain agnostic” platform to help people in the Web3 space. The process may require five to seven weeks to deploy smart contracts.
The Digital Currency Group (DCG) is set to face fresh legal woes after Genesis Capital received a securities class action lawsuit. The case will take place in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.
Silver Golub & Teitell (SGT) hit DCG founder and chief executive Barry Silbert with the lawsuit, citing federal securities laws violations.
Individuals involved in digital asset lending agreements with Genesis filed the litigation. SGT famously handled a Coinbase class action lawsuit in March last year.
According to the complaint, Genesis offered unregistered securities. Lending agreements also involved securities not exempt from registration under federal securities laws.
It added that Genesis defrauded investors with a scheme involving existing and potential digital asset lenders with misleading statements.
Plaintiffs accused Genesis of misrepresenting its financial standing, which breached section 10(b) of the US Securities Exchange Act. Concluding, the complaint said that the scheme aimed to “induce prospective digital asset lenders to loan digital assets to Genesis Global Capital,”
This prevented current lenders from “redeeming their digital assets,” the lawyers alleged.
FTX – DCG Links
The news comes after Genesis filed for bankruptcy, sending ripples across the crypto industry. This comes just months after the shock collapse of crypto exchange platform FTX. Several executives face massive fraud charges in New York courts, including disgraced ex-CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Genesis declared bankruptcy after halting withdrawals in mid-November, shortly after FTX. The former halted withdrawals and could not honour redemption requests for its Earn rewards programme.
Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss slammed the firm on Twitter and threatened further litigation against DCG and others involved in the scandal.
Britain’s HM Treasury has called for applicants to join an initiative involving a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to launch a national cryptocurrency.
The Treasury posted a job on Linkedin for a team of candidates to operate its Payments and Fintech Team. The position would lead a team of 20 people to explore a “potential digital pound,” the advert said.
The job posting added the head of the team would guide the strategic direction of the Government’s plans for a digital pound. This comes as Whitehall aims to position the UK as a major global fintech hub.
HM Treasury explained further,
“Digital innovation is changing the landscape for payments and money. The use of physical money is declining while new forms of private sector digital money are emerging. These changes offer exciting opportunities for UK businesses and consumers, but also present new challenges and risks. This has motivated countries around the world to explore digital versions of central bank money.”
It added that the Bank of England, the UK’s central banking institution, “issues only physical bank notes.” Both business and individual households could use the BoE cryptocurrency.
Both the Treasury and the BoE were working jointly via a CBDC Taskforce to “explore the case for a digital pound.” Successful candidates for the position would work directly with the BoE for consultations.
National Crypto Adoptions Increase
According to the BoE, it is considering a national CBDC to allow entities to expand their payment method choices. The organisation needed to “keep up with the changing times” by assessing the benefits of such a monetary system.
It noted: “More and more, people are choosing to pay electronically rather than use notes and coins.”
The news comes as multiple countries adopt or mull using national cryptocurrencies, including China, El Salvador, Venezuela, the European Union, Fiji, Tonga, and many others.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak launched the campaign for a CBDC last year while serving as the former Chancellor of the Exchequers.
Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong has hinted Brazil and Argentina should adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as a sovereign currency, according to a recent report.
The two South American nations announced on Saturday they had launched plans to use the digital coins along with their respective national currencies.
The report noted that both nations would soon invite other Latin American nations to join the world’s second-largest currency bloc. It added that it planned to outline its efforts at a summit in Buenos Aires and later, invite additional nations on the continent to join.
Brazil aims to create potentially the “Sur,” or South, to reduce dependence on the US dollar. Countries such as Venezuela have created similar currencies such as the Petro in recent years for similar reasons.
Speaking to the Financial Times (FT), Argentinian economy minister Sergio Massa said,
“There will be . . . a decision to start studying the parameters needed for a common currency, which includes everything from fiscal issues to the size of the economy and the role of central banks.”
Replying to the news, Armstrong tweeted the following day that it could be a “right long-term bet” and hoped both countries would consider the option.
Crypto as Legal Tender
His comments come after numerous countries have begun adopting BTC as sovereign currencies. El Salvador has long remained a supporter of Bitcoin as its national currency after it adopted it in 2021.
In late November last year, the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies approved measures to legalise cryptocurrencies for payments across the nation. Former president Jair Bolsonaro signed off on the bill last month, which will enter force in June this year.
The Argentinian province of San Luis also passed a bill for a future US dollar-linked stablecoin for adults 18 and over and backed by government assets.
Nations such as Fiji and Tonga have also pushed for similar legislation. In late December, the former nation’s new prime minister, Lord Fusitu’a, announced support for Bitcoin adoption in Fiji.
He stated at the time that Fiji could “do bitcoin legal tender like Tonga,” allowing two Pacific islander nations to have two legal tenders for 2023.
Mango Markets scammer Avraham Eisenberg faces a court ruling from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the regulatory body reported on Friday last week.
The SEC charged him with market manipulation after he manipulated pricing for Mango Market’s native token MNGO using bots. Investors lost roughly $116 million from the platform following the incident.
According to the SEC, the token was “a security,” adding that the suspect sold a massive number of perpetual futures for the tokens.
He later repurchased them under another account and inflated their price, offering him $116 million in cryptocurrency tokens. The move purged the entire Mango Market platform of its tokens, the SEC filing said.
David Hirsch, Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit chief, said in a statement,
“Eisenberg engaged in a manipulative and deceptive scheme to artificially inflate the price of the MNGO token, which was purchased and sold as a crypto asset security, in order to borrow and then withdraw nearly all available assets from Mango Markets, which left the platform at a deficit when the security price returned to its pre-manipulation level.”
Rug Pull, Pull Over
The news comes after Eisenberg launched the massive rug pull to defraud investors, triggering a major backlash on social media.
He later boasted to people on Twitter about his tactic, stating it was a “highly profitable trading strategy.” Many people responded to his comments by demanding authorities arrest him, despite his replies that his actions were “legal”.
The SEC concluded that Eisenberg faces charges in Manhattan district courts for “violating anti-fraud and market manipulation provisions of the securities laws and seeks permanent injunctive relief, a conduct-based injunction, disgorgement with prejudgment interest, and civil penalties.”
Cybersecurity firm CertiK reported in January on the rise in cryptocurrency fraud, manipulation, and cybercrime last year, with similar numbers expected for 2023.
One of the largest financial scandals to date, the ongoing FTX crisis has prompted governments and organisations to crack down on crypto regulations following the collapse.
Stake pool operators (SPO) and several users have reported that roughly half of Cardano network nodes had temporarily switched off at the weekend.
An Input Output Global Telegram SPO post on Sunday stated that issues with roughly 50 percent of Cardano nodes forced a start and restart of the network.
It explained that the incident took place at 00:09 UCT, disrupting relay and block-producing nodes. This caused peer connections to disconnect and triggered exceptions.
Reassuring users, the post continued,
“Block production was only briefly impacted with a portion of the network falling out of sync for approximately https://cardanoscan.io/block/8300569 before nodes restarted. Therefore impact was low – akin to the delays that occur during normal operations and often seen at epoch boundaries. Most nodes automatically recovered – depending on the SPO deployment choice.”
It concluded that teams were investigating the root causes for the technical snafu and would implement additional logging measures along with normal procedures.
Node Shark Observations
Node Shark co-founder Tom Stokes wrote in a post at the same time that the incident had hit roughly 50 percent of the nodes on the network. Citing a chart, he revealed that network synching plummeted from 100 percent to 40 percent for more than 300 nodes.
An additional SPO added at the time that “some SPOs saw no impact,” adding “Others had relays and BPs restart. SPOs, Devs, and IOG are in Discord debugging atm. No root cause yet.”
The news comes after Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko reported his cryptocurrency platform faced similar problems in early November. The efforts come after Solana updated its operations following outage concerns over its network.
Speaking at the Breakpoint 2022 event in Lisbon last year, Yakovenko explained how the Solana network faced many concerns linked to its network stability and running time.
Bitcoin (BTC) prices have seen a massive rally at the weekend after surging past $23,000 USD and settling later on Sunday. BTC’s market capitalisation reached up to $23,051.72, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Despite this, the crypto comeback also comes amid a major price adjustment following a bearish 2022, which saw the collapse of Three Arrows Capital (3AC), Voyager, and disgraced crypto platform FTX.
The news has restored optimism for many crypto traders and investors, namely as many laud its return to over $20,000 following a massive slump from July to December.
Crypto intelligence platform Santiment tweeted on Friday: “Bitcoin has now surpassed $22.7k for the first time since August 18, 2022. The price rise has come as the large whale tier group of addresses holding 1,000 to 10,000 $BTC has collectively accumulated 64,638 ($1.46 billion) $BTC in the past 15 days.”
Other major cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Dogecoin, Cardano, Solana, and many others jumped amid the huge rally.
Potential Contributors to BTC Rally
The news comes amid an email Binance sent to its users that SWIFT would not allow transfers less than $100,000 USD. The new rule will take effect on 1 February, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.
Signature Bank, Binance’s banking partner, initiated the measures, prompting Binance to seek a new banking partner. The news also comes amid allegations from US authorities that Binance helped contribute to transactions linked to crypto exchange Bitzlato and Russian darkweb space Hydra.
Additional market contributions have fuelled skyrocketing prices, including the collapse of Genesis Holdings. The cryptocurrency lending firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday.
The enterprise remains locked in a massive row with crypto trading firm Gemini over its Earn programme, which ceased withdrawals in mid-November. Over 340,000 clients have lost access to over $900 million USD in online holdings.
Genesis, a major cryptocurrency lending firm and subsidy of the Digital Currency Group (DCG), filed for bankruptcy last week, global media reported.
Recently, US regulators from the Securities and Exchange Commission hit the crypto company with charges of illegal and unregulated cryptocurrency sales.
Cameron Winklevoss, Gemini co-founder, tweeted on Friday that Genesis Global Capital LLC had “filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11.”
He added, hitting out at Genesis: “We have been preparing to take direct legal action against Barry, DCG, and others who share responsibility for the fraud that has caused harm to the 340,000+ Earn users and others duped by Genesis and its accomplices.”
The Tea on Genesis
Issues erupted after now-bankrupt crypto trading platform FTX collapsed in mid-November due to a massive liquidity crunch. Much of FTX’s troubles have surfaced due to fraud charges against disgraced ex-CEO and founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, and several key executives.
The news comes after Genesis announced mass redundancies of roughly 30 percent of its workforce. It later faced a massive row with crypto exchange Gemini due to its Earn programme, leading to a loss of $900 million USD in deposited assets. It initially offered investors up to 7.4 percent interest on holdings.
Genesis has locked out hundreds of thousands of Earn users after halting withdrawals in November, citing market volatility and instability.
Genesis interim chief executive, Derar Islim, said in a statement: “We look forward to advancing our dialogue with DCG and our creditors’ advisers as we seek to implement a path to maximise value and provide the best opportunity for our business to emerge well-positioned for the future.”
Along with FTX, Genesis joins Three Arrows Capital, BlockFi, and Voyager, among others, in the growing list of defunct cryptocurrency enterprises.
Binance’s charity division has planned to invest in roughly 30,665 scholarships for students seeking Web3 careers this year.
Crypto heavyweight Binance announced its Binance Charity Scholar Programme (BCSP), which aims to train and upskill Web3 enthusiasts while supporting funding for each student.
The company said: “At Binance, we believe knowledge is wealth that cannot be stolen, and crypto literacy is the cornerstone of mass adoption. Education is a huge part of what we do and who we are, especially in support of our mission to advance the adoption of digital assets.”
It added that digital education and skills development were “out of reach for many, resulting in a blockchain industry that lacks diversity and talent.”
Binance Cohort and Affiliates
More than 82,000 people had registered interest in the programme for the next cohort with a roughly 37 percent acceptance rate.
Institutions such as the University of Western Australia, the University of Nicosia in Cypress, Nigermain tech hub Utiva, and the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management have joined the initiative.
The Kyiv IT Cluster and the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation have also collaborated with the initiative. Binance Charity also partnered with members of the Ukrainian government to upskill citizens due to the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war.
Binance’s History of Philanthropy
The news comes after Binance Charity raised over $3.5 million USD to back 290,000 hours of training for Web3 students via courses and instruction.
Binance Charity head, Helen Hai, added: “The response to our Web3 education projects has been unprecedented, showing the keen appetite of so many people to learn about blockchain, De-Fi, NFTs, coding and much more,” said Helen Hai, Head of Binance Charity.
She concluded: “We’re seeing interest from a diverse range of people, including a great ratio of women, which is something I feel particularly passionate about. With so many more education initiatives with amazing partners in the pipeline, we’ve never been more excited to build a more inclusive Web3 world.”
US authorities have named crypto exchange giant Binance a counterparty linked to Bitzlato, the US Department of the Treasury announced Wednesday.
According to the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) order, Bitzlato had conducted money laundering totalling $700 million USD. FinCEN accused Binance of providing funds along with the “Russia-connected darknet market Hydra [and] alleged Russia-based Ponzi scheme ‘TheFiniko'” from May 2018 to September last year.
A Binance spokesperson hit back at the allegations, stating: “Binance is pleased to have provided substantial assistance to international law enforcement partners in support of this investigation. This exemplifies Binance’s commitment to working collaboratively with law enforcement partners worldwide.”
The comments echo statements from Binance’s Changpeng Zhao after Poland’s Financial Supervisory Authority warned the exchange over similar allegations. Despite this, Binance secured its licence in the Central European nation.
A Binance spokesperson said at the time: “This shows the level of commitment & hard work [CZ] is putting in for the adoption and compliance. Extremely bullish for [Binance].”
Bitzlato Founder Arrested in Miami
The news comes after US and French authorities arrested Bitzlato founder Anatoly Legkodymov on Wednesday as part of a “major international cryptocurrency enforcement action.”
A statement from the US Department of Justice (US DoJ) alleged the crypto exchange was a “primary money laundering concern.” It also accused the company of ties to Russian money laundering.
Authorities arrested Legkodymov in Miami, where he faces a hearing at the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida.