The United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has recently issued a warning through its report, “Banking in video games and virtual worlds,” about potential risks associated with the integration of cryptocurrencies in gaming.
The report, unveiled on April 4, scrutinizes the burgeoning trend of digital assets within online gaming ecosystems and virtual environments, underscoring the agency’s concern over scams and the limited consumer protections available.
The CFPB’s investigation into the gaming sector reveals an increasing fascination among developers to transform virtual items into tangible assets, bridging the gap between the digital and real worlds.
Although these practices are yet to become prevalent on leading gaming platforms like Roblox or Fortnite, there’s a notable uptick in the use of crypto assets within virtual domains.
The report particularly points out, “Notably, some of the largest virtual gaming world publishers have expressed growing interest in positioning their virtual items as crypto-assets that have the ability to be traded outside of the game’s economy.”
It acknowledges the capacity for crypto assets in virtual settings such as Decentraland and The Sandbox to be traded for real money across various cryptocurrency exchanges.
Alexander Grieve from Paradigm sees the CFPB’s report as a precursor to possible regulatory measures, indicating a broader federal interest in defining its stance within the cryptocurrency space.
The CFPB’s document brings to light the similarity between online gaming financial transactions and traditional banking, albeit without the safeguarding regulations typically provided by federal authorities.
The bureau has cataloged numerous complaints from consumers facing security breaches, including hacking and asset theft, criticizing the inadequate response from game developers to these incidents.
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra emphasized the significant shift towards virtual banking and payments within gaming, pointing out the conversion of substantial sums into digital currencies.
The bureau’s focus extends to introducing regulatory oversight for cryptocurrencies, as seen in its proposed rule aimed at defining the scope of its authority over digital payment applications and wallets.
This rule, which targets nonbank financial companies processing over five million transactions annually, seeks to impose banking-level regulations on these entities.
Despite its primary focus not being explicitly on cryptocurrencies, the rule has sparked debate over its potential implications for the digital currency sector, with some critics arguing it oversteps in its jurisdiction over cryptocurrencies.
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The Ethereum layer-2 protocol Starknet faced a block reorganization issue, causing a transaction backlog and a four-hour outage in block production, as revealed by Starkscan, its block monitoring tool.
On April 4, a gap appeared between the creation of blocks 630028 and 630029, while Starknet’s status page showed no reported outages.
In response, Starknet issued a statement attributing the incident to a rounding error bug, clarifying that although block production continued normally, the reorganization led to a transaction backlog, hindering the network’s full capacity.
The statement explained that for a brief period, new transactions couldn’t be processed and were rejected, and some transactions were reverted due to parameter changes.
Despite attempts to verify details with Starknet, Cointelegraph received no additional information on whether block production ceased during the incident.
The last major outage recorded on Starknet’s status page was on March 13, during Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade, causing slow block creation.
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Starknet’s disruption adds to a string of challenges faced by prominent blockchain networks.
Solana, for instance, encountered a significant outage in early February 2024, halting block progression on its mainnet for over five hours.
This was not an isolated incident, as Solana experienced multiple outages since January 2022, including a notable one on February 9, detailed in a postmortem report by Anza, a Solana-focused software development firm.
According to Austin Federa, head of strategy at the Solana Foundation, the recent outage was attributed to a bug in Solana’s Just-in-Time (JIT) compilation cache, which unexpectedly triggered an infinite loop due to an old instruction set.
Solana faced further issues in early April, with approximately 75% of transactions failing amid heightened activity related to memecoin speculation.
Analysts attribute these failures mainly to bot activities seeking arbitrage opportunities on the Solana network.
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In a recent development reported by Bloomberg on April 5, the FTX estate has notably sold a significant portion of its Solana (SOL) tokens, specifically over half, at a substantial 63% discount from their current market value.
This sale is pivotal as SOL tokens are considered the main assets of the now-defunct exchange.
The transaction attracted attention from several prominent players in the financial world, including asset managers and venture capitalists like Galaxy Trading and Pantera Capital, as shared by sources familiar with the situation.
FTX, which previously backed Solana as an early investor, disposed of 25 to 30 million SOL tokens that were locked and could not be traded until a set deadline, due to a four-year vesting schedule.
These tokens were sold at $64 each, culminating in approximately $1.9 billion for the creditors of FTX.
This sale occurred despite SOL’s trading price soaring to $176, as per CoinMarketCap, marking a notable 743% increase over a year, propelled by the broader crypto market’s recovery and a spike in memecoin popularity.
Galaxy Trading, under Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital umbrella, successfully gathered about $620 million to acquire SOL tokens from FTX’s estate.
This investment entailed a 1% management fee and aimed at earning returns through staking, according to insider accounts. Galaxy Asset Management facilitated the asset exchange and sale process.
Additionally, Pantera Capital managed to raise $250 million for purchasing SOL tokens, and Neptune Digital Assets, a Canadian blockchain firm, bought 26,964 SOL tokens at $64 each on March 27.
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The decision to sell FTX assets at such a marked-down rate has led to criticism from the exchange’s creditors.
In a related event on March 28, Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud charges linked to the exchange’s collapse in November 2022.
Creditors during the sentencing voiced concerns over the liquidation practices of the exchange’s assets by its liquidators, accusing them of infringing upon the “property rights.”
Among the vocal critics was FTX creditor Sunil Kavuri, who highlighted the discrepancy in the sale price of assets, including a significant reduction in the value of Solana tokens.
Furthermore, a class action has been initiated against Sullivan & Cromwell, accusing the law firm of complicity in the fraud before it represented FTX in bankruptcy proceedings.
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Getting a coin or token listed on an exchange is a crucial step for any crypto project or startup. However, this process often requires paying a fee known as the listing fee. The costs can vary from one exchange to another and depend on various factors. This article explains what the listing fee is and what it depends on.
Token Listing Costs on Different Platforms
Generally, crypto exchanges may be divided into the following groups:
- High-end exchanges. Prestigious platforms like Binance have been rumored to charge anywhere from $1 million to $2.5 million for listing. However, these figures can fluctuate based on the project’s negotiation and the exchange’s current policies.
- Mid-range exchanges. KuCoin and WhiteBIT cryptocurrency listing propositions imply more moderate fees, sometimes ranging from $20,000 to $150,000, depending on various project factors and market conditions.
- No-fee platforms. Some exchanges, particularly newer or niche platforms, do not charge listing fees. Instead, they select coins based on quality, innovation, and community support to build their offerings.
Factors Affecting Listing Fees
A cryptocurrency exchange charges fees for adding a new token or coin to their trading platform. This fee covers the costs of integrating the token into the exchange’s ecosystem, including technical support, security checks, and marketing efforts to introduce the token to traders and investors.
Fees for listing tokens depend on:
- Exchange prestige. High-profile exchanges often charge more due to their extensive user base and credibility.
- Project evaluation. Exchanges assess the potential and quality of the coin or token, including its technology, team, and market demand.
- Regulatory compliance. Costs associated with ensuring the coin meets legal and regulatory standards can affect the fee.
- Integration costs. Technical expenses involved in integrating the coin into the exchange’s platform are also considered.
Beyond the Fee
It’s crucial for projects to understand that listing is not merely a financial transaction but the beginning of a partnership with an exchange. The real value lies in the subsequent support, such as marketing and user engagement, provided by the exchange to ensure the coin’s success. Moreover, projects must continuously develop and maintain their coins to keep investor interest alive.
While listing fees are a significant consideration for any crypto project aiming for exchange listing, they are just one part of a larger strategic decision. Projects must weigh the cost against the potential benefits of being listed on a particular exchange. They should consider the long-term commitment required to sustain and grow their presence in the cryptocurrency market.
In a recent revelation by CoinGecko, the memecoin sector has distinguished itself as the most lucrative narrative within the crypto market this year.
A staggering average return of 1,312.6% was seen across leading memecoins by market cap.
New entrants like Book of Meme (BOME), Brett, and Cat in a Dogs World (MEW) broke into the top 10 by market value following their March launches.
Brett achieved an astonishing 7,727.6% return by Q3 2024’s end, outshining Dogwifhat (WIF) with its 2,721.2% growth, spurred by a Solana-based memecoin craze.
CoinGecko analyst Lim Yu Qian highlighted the exceptional performance of memecoins, stating, “Notably, the memecoin narrative was 4.6 times more profitable than the next best-performing crypto narrative of tokenized real-world assets (RWA), and 33.3 times more profitable than the layer 2 narratives with the lowest returns in Q1 this year.”
As it stands, memecoins boast a market cap of $60.93 billion, a notable 176.9% rise from the previous quarter and making up 2.32% of the total crypto market.
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This surge outpaces the capitalization of sectors like decentralized physical infrastructure networks ($29.98 billion), layer 2 solutions ($32.39 billion), and others, underscoring the memecoin market’s growth and investor appeal.
Google Trends data reflects a peak in “memecoins” searches, hitting a near five-year high in March, indicative of soaring global interest.
This uptick in popularity and increased transaction volumes points to a broadening investor base and vibrant community engagement around memecoins.
The sector’s success coincides with Bitcoin’s record-breaking rally, with its price surpassing $73,800 for the first time, ahead of a supply halving event.
This achievement has arguably fueled broader interest in cryptocurrencies, including memecoins, as investors look to capitalize on the burgeoning market.
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In a strategic move to address its financial obligations, the insolvent cryptocurrency lending entity Genesis reportedly disposed of roughly 36 million shares in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), aiming to bolster its Bitcoin holdings to facilitate debt settlements with its creditors.
A Bloomberg article recently highlighted this significant transaction, noting the liquidation of these shares on April 2, which at the time were valued at around $58.50 each.
This disposal came after a notable increase in share value, approximately 50% since Genesis sought approval from a bankruptcy court in the United States to sell the GBTC shares on February 2, when their price stood at $38.50.
The aggregate sales proceeds amounted to $2.1 billion, enabling Genesis to acquire 32,041 Bitcoin at a price point of $65,685 each on the same day.
The firm intends to utilize this Bitcoin cache in its ongoing efforts to repay its creditors.
At the time this information was disclosed, the acquired Bitcoin stash was valued at $2.18 billion.
In light of these developments, Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, reassured the market that this substantial sell-off was unlikely to destabilize the broader crypto market.
“Our view is that much of these funds will likely remain within the crypto ecosystem, contributing to a neutral overall effect in the market,” Coinbase remarked.
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They elaborated that the bankruptcy plan’s provisions permitted Genesis to either directly convert the GBTC shares into Bitcoin for creditors or sell the shares and distribute the proceeds in cash.
This move follows assertions from the Digital Currency Group (DCG), which contended that its subsidiary, Genesis, had proposed compensating its customers beyond what they were actually entitled to.
Cointelegraph, on February 6, reported DCG’s statement that Genesis’s proposed plan would result in lenders receiving “hundreds of millions of dollars more than the full amount of their petition date claims.”
Genesis’s strategic financial maneuvering comes after its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in January 2023, marking a critical phase in its efforts to stabilize its operations and fulfill its financial commitments to creditors.
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The new earning feature allows users to gain enhanced yields by combining natively yield-earning assets and market-making yields.
Decentralized finance protocol Swaap Labs announces the launch of its yield-generating platform, Swaap Earn, introducing earning opportunities to users on the platform. According to the team statement, the new feature aims to enhance DeFi yields and enable liquidity providers to “enjoy improved yields”. This allows LPs to maximize their earnings while mitigating risk on the platform.
Built on the success of Swaap Maker, the platform’s market-making feature, Swaap Earn utilizes a novel supercharged liquidity system that allows users to top up returns even from natively yield-bearing tokens with market-making yield.
According to David Bouba, CEO and Co-founder of Swaap Labs, the latest earning feature aims to simplify and enhance the efficiency of earning products in the DeFi space. Speaking on Swaap Earn’s launch, Bouba stated:
“The beauty of Swaap Earn lies in its simplicity and efficiency. By marrying our cutting-edge market-making strategies with passive yield generation, we’re setting a new standard for liquidity utilization in the DeFi space.”
Creating simple strategies for maximum gains
Despite the massive growth of the yield-earning sector in DeFi, users normally struggle with complex strategies and risk management issues that make most of the platforms difficult to use, especially for new DeFi users. Additionally, issues such as poor strategy design and liquidation risks persist across yield-generating DeFi protocols.
The launch of Swaap Earn aims to minimize these challenges as well as increase the overall yield opportunities for liquidity providers on its platform. First, the platform provides a single-asset pool that supports instant token deposits and requires no position management. This strategy is 100% passive, requiring no extra effort from LPs to earn additional rewards. The protocol adjusts capital allocation to whitelisted protocols to increase returns in a trust-minimized way.
Secondly, LPs can also enjoy improved yield opportunities on their yield-bearing assets by taking advantage of the optimal asset allocation. On this protocol, assets are dynamically distributed across a set of pre-defined protocols. This allows users to select their preferred protocols to match the best yields with their risk tolerance. Strategies and allocation rules can be added by governance to ensure vaults are up-to-date with the latest yield-generation opportunities.
Enhancing efficiency in liquidity utilization
Apart from offering LPs high yields, Swaap Earn aims to be the simplest yield-earning protocol across the DeFi Space. The company prioritizes an easy-to-use UX/UI, making it easy for new DeFi users to start earning high yields without the complexity that DeFi platforms are associated with.
In addition, the platform also aims to solve the challenge of efficient liquidity utilization, which has hindered the growth of yield-bearing protocols. From liquidity fragmentation across the space to LPs earning lower fees due to revised fee structures by popular automated market makers (AMMs), finding suitable yields has become harder to find. The challenges affecting liquidity provision have piled up for the past half decade and Swaap Earn is targeting to solve these issues.
On the platform, deposited asset liquidity is directed to DAO-approved protocols and asset pools. The liquidity is then dynamically distributed among pre-approved options. This ensures optimal capital allocation based on market conditions and efficient collateral management on lending platforms. By optimally allocating the liquidity, LPs can maximize their returns while mitigating the liquidity risks.
To kick off the launch of Swaap Earn, several vaults are already in service, including Lido and AAVE. AAVE recently provided grant funding to Swaap Labs to support the development and growth of Swaap Earn.
As the crypto community turns its gaze toward the upcoming Bitcoin halving event, many anticipate it to be a pivotal moment for a potential surge in Bitcoin’s price.
Nevertheless, Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, suggests that the timing of this event might pose challenges.
In its market commentary report dated April 5, Coinbase emphasized the need for the crypto market to identify a new narrative to sustain price increases across various cryptocurrencies.
The exchange pointed out, “The BTC halving, currently due April 20 or 21, could be a catalyst for higher prices, but it will have to contend with what is typically a weak time of year for crypto markets and other risk assets.”
Historically, the period from June to September has yielded an average monthly return of about 2.7% for Bitcoin since 2011.
This is significantly lower compared to the average return of 19.3% observed in the other eight months of the year, as per data from Brave New Coin.
Furthermore, Coinbase has observed a slowdown in overall crypto volumes, indicating a market in search of a compelling story to drive its next growth phase.
Over the past day, total crypto volumes saw a 33.25% decline, totaling $61.78 billion, based on CoinMarketCap data.
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Despite these challenges, Coinbase sees potential for an influx of new investors into the crypto market, particularly due to Bitcoin’s growing reputation as “digital gold.”
This could foster demand from a new investor demographic, enhancing Bitcoin’s dominance, which stands at 50.6% of the total crypto market capitalization, according to CoinStats.
Coinbase also suggests that future market dips may be more aggressively bought up by investors than in previous cycles, owing to an increased investor base and continued market volatility.
Historically, Bitcoin halving events have been precursors to significant price increases. Following the last halving in May 2020, Bitcoin’s value saw a dramatic rise from $8,787 to nearly $69,000 by November 2021.
In legal developments, Coinbase scored a victory on April 6 when the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in its favor, stating that the exchange’s secondary sales of cryptocurrencies did not breach the Securities Exchange Act.
The ruling was a significant win for Coinbase, which argued against the applicability of securities regulations to secondary crypto asset sales, despite allegations of selling unregistered securities and violating securities laws.
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In the run-up to South Korea’s parliamentary elections, major political factions are courting the electorate with proposals aimed at the burgeoning cryptocurrency sector.
Bloomberg reported on April 5 that the Democratic Party, the main opposition, has committed to lifting bans on both domestic and international exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that directly invest in cryptocurrencies, such as U.S.-based spot Bitcoin ETFs.
This pledge comes in the wake of South Korea’s securities watchdog cautioning in January against the local distribution of Bitcoin ETFs, citing potential conflicts with national legislation.
“We’re going to allow the ETFs, whether domestic or overseas,” Hwanseok Choi of the Democratic Party conveyed to Bloomberg, highlighting a key point in the party’s agenda.
Similarly, the ruling People Power Party, led by President Yoon Suk Yeol, is looking to attract the crypto-savvy demographic by proposing a postponement of taxation on digital asset gains, which is currently set to commence in 2025.
Cryptocurrency trading is a significant activity in South Korea, with nearly six million South Koreans, or 10% of the population, engaging in the market through registered platforms in the first half of 2023 alone.
Additionally, 7% of those running for election have disclosed cryptocurrency holdings.
Investment data reveals that South Koreans have poured more than $200 million into shares of MicroStrategy, a U.S.-listed enterprise with substantial Bitcoin assets, leading some to describe it as a de facto Bitcoin ETF.
Despite these electoral enticements, tighter regulatory measures on cryptocurrencies loom on the horizon.
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The nation’s financial authorities are finalizing new regulations for token listings on centralized exchanges.
These include barring the listing of tokens involved in hacking incidents until an investigation is complete and restricting foreign digital assets to those that provide a white paper or technical guide for local investors.
Furthermore, the forthcoming Virtual Asset Users Protection Act, set to be enacted on July 19, introduces stringent restrictions against undisclosed information, market manipulation, and illegal trades in the crypto sphere.
An update to this act in February has established severe penalties for infringements, including imprisonment for over a year or fines amounting to three to five times the illicit gains.
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Costa the Crocodile (COSTA) is a new Solana memecoin that was launched today, and it’s currently trading on Jupiter and Raydium.
Costa the Crocodile (COSTA) is set to witness explosive price growth in the next 48 hours, as it began trading on decentralized exchanges today.
COSTA is one of the latest Solana memecoins to be launched, and many investors – including ex-Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogecoin (D0GE) holders – are extremely bullish on this token.
It currently has a market cap of around $90,000, trading at approximately $0.000094, according to DEX Screener data.
COSTA is currently only available to purchase on decentralized exchanges, such as Raydium and Jupiter, but it has been reported that the developers will announce numerous listings on large centralized exchanges next week.
This is likely to cause the value of COSTA to skyrocket, and its market cap is likely to surge from around $90,000 to well over $5 million next week.
Many veteran memecoin investors are set to realize profits on their SHIB and DOGE positions, and invest the profits into Costa the Crocodile in search of 100x-500x gains – something that larger memecoins can’t offer now as they already have large market caps.
This latest memecoin launch comes amid the broader Solana memecoin trend, with billions of dollars of daily trading volume, as investors look to generate astronomical returns in a matter of days.
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