💡 Fake bitcoin ETF report triggers price jump to $30k. The rise of Bitcoin dominance. Hashrate on the Bitcoin network rose to an all-time high. Ethereum validator queues drop to record lows. BIGTIME is up 250% in its first week. Uniswap Labs has introduced a 0.15% commission on swaps of certain tokens.
Bitcoin (BTC) has exceeded the $35,000 threshold, marking its highest valuation since May 2022. This development transpired within the backdrop of a continued surge in cryptocurrency markets during the month of October, driven by a growing sense of optimism surrounding the potential approval of a Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) in the United States.
Over the last 24 hours, Bitcoin has demonstrated a noteworthy uptick of over 11%, reaching a price point of $33,316. While this price has slightly retreated from its peak during this surge, it remains indicative of substantial gains. The cryptocurrency's exchange rate has exhibited an impressive upswing of nearly 28% over the course of the past month.
Recent judicial decisions, particularly one favoring Grayscale, have bolstered the optimism surrounding the prospect of Bitcoin ETFs gaining approval in the United States. This has increased the likelihood of the largest Bitcoin trust, Grayscale's GBTC product, undergoing conversion into an ETF. Moreover, the progress made by BlackRock's ETF application has taken a significant step forward, as its proposed ETF product has been allocated a unique identification number on the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. website. While this does not signify ETF approval, some interpret this development as an indicator of the company's confidence in securing approval.
The volume of liquidations on futures contracts in the cryptoasset market over the last 24 hours, from 23 to 24 October, reached $395 million.Most of it is accounted for by short positions.The Fear and Greed Index has moved even deeper into the green zone. The index is 66, it rose by an unprecedented 13 points in the last 24 hours. On the background of the bitcoin rate hike, volatility has increased significantly in the cryptoasset market. The spread on some positions reached 0.4-0.5 per cent.
The annualized revenue of the Maker Protocol, a stablecoin issuer, has reached a historic high at $214 million, surpassing its previous peak of $172.3 million recorded in May 2021. Maker is a platform for issuing stablecoins on the Ethereum blockchain, and its operations are overseen by the MakerDAO community, consisting of MKR token holders. The total supply of the protocol's stablecoin, DAI, has also achieved a new annual high, reaching $5.6 billion.
Maker generates revenue through user fees for borrowing DAI and through fees collected in the event of a liquidation of a borrowing position. This surge in revenue has been driven by an influx of deposits in tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) for minting DAI, coupled with higher yields for DAI holders. The attractive yields have, in turn, attracted more collateral to the platform.
Notably, MakerDAO's RWA deposits have experienced a substantial increase, surpassing the $3 billion mark, constituting 42.7% of the protocol's total deposits, which now stand at $7.54 billion. Furthermore, Treasury bills are currently yielding 5% for their holders, a result of the Federal Reserve's efforts to raise interest rates as part of its strategy to combat inflation in the United States.
In the past week, the SOL (Solana) rate experienced a notable 31% increase, alleviating initial concerns among investors regarding the liquidation of FTX exchange's portfolio. Currently, as of the time of writing, the asset is striving to establish stability above the $30.1 threshold.
Solana's Total Value Locked (TVL) has reached a new high, surpassing levels not seen since mid-November 2022, with a total of $360.5 million.
The impact of the phased liquidation of SOL on the FTX exchange has proven to be less severe than initially anticipated. As a result, there has been a continued inflow of capital into investment funds centered around this token. Over the past week, these inflows totaled $15.5 million. Although this figure is lower than the $55 million inflow into Bitcoin, it significantly outpaces the inflow for other alternative cryptocurrencies. Consequently, SOL has emerged as a favored asset within this category.
INJ exhibited substantial strength over the weekend, driven by market reactions to a significant development on the decentralized exchange, Helix.
The Injective ecosystem experienced a surge in user adoption, with hundreds of new users flocking to the Helix platform. Helix, a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on the Injective blockchain, has introduced token futures in a pre-launch state to its product offerings. These innovative instruments provide traders with the ability to speculate on tokens that have not yet been officially launched or listed on any exchange.
In conjunction with the growing user base within the network, there has been an uptick in demand for the native token, as well as various products and services on the blockchain. This upward momentum is being interpreted as a bullish signal for the project. Currently, the token is trading at $11.6, marking its highest value in the past 20 months.
A new Polygon Improvement Proposal (PIP-29) has been introduced, outlining the establishment of a 13-member governance body responsible for implementing upgrades to system smart contracts across existing and forthcoming Polygon protocols.
Polygon, known for its interoperability and scalability solutions that enable Ethereum-compatible blockchains, relies on the MATIC token for governance functions, staking, and covering transaction gas fees.
Operating via a Safe smart contract, this council will hold the responsibility for both routine and emergency upgrades. Initially, its focus will encompass the POL Migration Contract and Emission Manager Contract. The broader concept of Polygon 2.0, introduced in June, envisions the launch of a new token named POL, slated to replace MATIC.
Changes to these contracts can be executed through two distinct routes. The standard change route necessitates a consensus of 7 out of 13 members of the Protocol Council, coupled with a 10-day timelock. Alternatively, the emergency change route calls for a consensus of 10 out of 13 members, without the involvement of a timelock.
This initiative aims to establish a framework for decentralized ownership and decision-making within the Polygon ecosystem, marking the initial step toward realizing the comprehensive vision of Polygon 2.0 governance. This vision entails an on-chain, trust-minimized, and community-driven framework for effective and decentralized decision-making.
Take a look at the recent fundraising rounds of the projects, related to the real world assets.
You can also explore the most notable raises of this week.
Founded in September 2022 by Ido Ben-Natan and Raz Niv, both with backgrounds in Israeli military cyber intelligence, Blockaid offers web3 security tools to combat crypto fraud, phishing, and hacks.
Their ability to thoroughly examine both off-chain signatures, specifically EIP-712s, as well as on-chain transactions sets them apart. Blockaid’s scanning engine simulates and validates blockchain transactions, effectively detecting potential malicious interactions.
To date, they have scanned over 450 million transactions, preventing 1.3 million attacks, saving $7.1 billion in assets, and averting losses of over $500 million. Notable clients include MetaMask, OpenSea, Zerion Wallet, and Rainbow Wallet.
In a recent example, Blockaid thwarted a phishing attack on Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s account, protecting users’ wallets. However, wallets without their protection suffered losses of around $700,000, including valuable NFTs.
The company intends to use the funds to support multi-chain expansion and new product development.
Led by CEO Rachel Lin, SynFutures is a Web3.0 decentralized derivatives infrastructure that creates an open and derivatives market by enabling trading on anything with a price feed anytime and employing an Amazon-like business model, giving users the tools to freely trade any assets and list arbitrary futures contracts within seconds.
The fundraising announcement comes alongside the launch of the decentralized exchange’s (DEX’s) new V3 platform for perpetual futures (“perps”). The upgrade features SynFutures’ proprietary Oyster automated market maker (Oyster AMM). Deployed fully on-chain, it combines the best of orderbook and AMM models in a single approach.
SynFutures is launching its V3, with the mainnet launch set for Q4 2023, in the anticipation that various market forces – including the upcoming Bitcoin halving, accelerating traditional finance (TradFi) participation in Web3, and the coming end of the Fed’s tightening cycle – will thaw the current crypto winter in 2024.
Forge was conceived within GGWP, a gaming startup established in 2020 to combat toxicity in online games using AI. GGWP primarily focused on tracking player behavior and developing reputation scores for players, recommending bans for repeat offenders. With Forge, players can voluntarily share their gaming history, including in-game achievements, and, in turn, receive positive rewards for these accomplishments.Forge's approach centers around creating a community platform that recognizes and rewards gamers for their unique gaming profiles. Users are encouraged to connect various gaming and social accounts, forming a comprehensive Forge profile that reflects their gaming experiences across multiple games. Forge collaborates with game partners to curate experiences tailored to gamers' specific interests, offering rewards for engaging with the gaming community, playing games, and achieving specific milestones.The Forge beta version is now open to the public, their mission to empower gamers and reward them for their contributions to gaming communities is poised to shape the future of gaming platforms and player engagement.
One of the foundational pillars of blockchain technology lies in its consensus mechanism. These mechanisms are pivotal for validating and verifying cryptocurrency transactions and for appending blocks to the blockchain.
Moreover, they ensure the meticulous recording of every transaction on the blockchain, making certain that every node within the network possesses a verified record of these transactions.
The initial consensus algorithm, devised by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 and underpinning Bitcoin, is known as Proof-of-Work (PoW). PoW relies on a randomized selection of nodes to act as transaction validators. In response to the time and energy consumption constraints of PoW, Proof-of-Stake (PoS) emerged as an alternative. PoS employs a network of validators, and the likelihood of being chosen increases with one's stake in the system.
This article delves into Leased Proof-of-Stake, a modified iteration of Proof-of-Stake, where users are given the option to lease their stake to blockchain validators. In return, mining nodes reward the lessor with a share of their earnings.
To gain a comprehensive understanding of Leased Proof of Stake (LPoS), it's crucial to first grasp the concept of Proof of Stake (PoS), a fundamental element in all consensus mechanisms. PoS, which originated in 2012, utilizes validators to generate and validate transaction blocks.
Validators are required to stake a certain amount to participate in the process of block validation. For instance, in Ethereum 2.0, individuals must deposit and lock up a minimum of 32 ETH to become validators. Consequently, those who stake more cryptocurrency enhance their chances of validating a block and earning rewards.
Leased Proof of Stake (LPoS) aims to improve upon the traditional Proof of Stake (PoS) model by allowing users to lease their stakes to other users known as validators. In return for this arrangement, the lender receives a portion of the transaction fees that the validator earns. Essentially, LPoS offers a novel avenue to benefit from the mining process without actively engaging in mining activities.
Staking involves the act of locking up a specific quantity of cryptocurrency for a predetermined period.
The token holder must establish a lease transaction, and provide the destination address (node address), and the token amount they wish to lease. The LPoS employs two different types of transactions:
The WAVES blockchain platform adopts LPoS, requiring a stake of 1,000 WAVES for participation in block creation. If a sufficient number of token holders opt to lease their coins, the node balance can be depleted, necessitating 1,000 WAVES to generate a block. Once the node is selected, the lessor receives a portion of the node's block production rewards.
NIX employs LPoS through a permissionless leased staking mechanism, allowing NIX users to stake their coins using an external wallet (third party) while mitigating the trust concerns typically associated with merchant or third-party involvement. This enables third-party staking service providers to consistently receive stake fee incentives through a leasing smart contract signed by the coin owner.
Within the realm of blockchain technology, the presence of a consensus algorithm remains indispensable. Achieving consensus within a network proves invaluable, as it underpins the security and upkeep of network operations. While Proof of Work (PoW) has gained significant attention, it has struggled to garner developer adoption due to its resource-intensive nature and sluggish processing speeds.
In response to these challenges, Proof of Stake emerged as an attractive alternative, drawing the attention of prominent networks like Ethereum. It brings a range of benefits to users, including balance leasing, passive income opportunities, enhanced transaction speed, and security. Notably, Leased Proof of Stake (LPoS) further refines and enhances the functionality and efficiency of PoS.
Conferences are a great opportunity to grab the attention of the whales in the crypto industry, spread the word about your project and win some funds! A quick line-up of the upcoming conferences below!
European Blockchain Convention | 2023👥 Conference🌐 Barcelona, Spain📆 Date: 24 Oct 2023
Blockchain Life 2023👥 Conference🌐 Dubai, UAE📆 Date: 24 Oct 2023
Quant Strats UK 2023👥 Hackathon🌐 England, United Kingdom📆 Date: 24 Oct 2023
State of Crypto: Policy and Regulation👥 Conference🌐 Washington, United States📆 Date: 24 Oct 2023
API World 2023👥 Conference🌐 Santa Clara CA, United States📆 Date: 24 Oct 2023
AI DevWorld 2023👥 Conference🌐 Santa Clara CA, United States📆 Date: 24 Oct 2023
3rd Annual Islamic FinTech Leaders Summit👥 Conference🌐 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia📆 Date: 25 Oct 2023
Africa Blockchain Summit👥 Conference🌐 Accra, Ghana📆 Date: 27 Oct 2023
Hong Kong Fintech Week 2023👥 Conference🌐 Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong📆 Date: 30 Oct 2023
