Roskomnadzor blocked ForkLog in Russia — the publication continues to operate; Elon Musk has offered shareholders to acquire the company for $43 billion; Luna Foundation Guard purchased 6,762 BTC to back the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin, and other developments from the week.
Bitcoin price briefly slipped below $40,000
On Monday, April 11, Bitcoin fell more than 6% — at one point quotes dipped below $39,530 on Binance. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading near $40,400.
The bellwether led a broad retreat across the market. Nearly all top-10 assets by market cap were negative, with XRP the notable exception (+2.2%). The sharpest declines came from LUNA (-15.4%), ADA (-8.6%) and Avalanche (-7.1%).
According to CoinCodex, over the week among mid-cap digital assets the native token of the DigitalBits blockchain rose the most. The XDB price increased by 48%.
The Celsius Network token was the weakest performer, dropping almost 25%. Earlier the company suspended interest payments to US users.
The total crypto market capitalisation stood at $1.99 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index fell to 38.7%.
ForkLog magazine blocked in Russia. We continue to operate
On April 11, Roskomnadzor restricted access to ForkLog’s site from Russia without prior notice.
Ethereum developers conducted a shadow fork of the mainnet
The Ethereum implemented a “shadow fork” of the mainnet to stress-test the merge process as part of the transition to the Proof‑of‑Stake consensus algorithm.
One of the lead Ethereum researchers Tim Beiko described the result as “extremely positive”, after which he outlined tentative timelines for merging PoW and PoS networks. It is expected the process will be completed in Q3 2022. Beiko also urged miners not to invest in new Ethereum mining hardware.
Luna Foundation Guard additionally bought 6,762 BTC
The non-profit Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) on Monday additionally acquired 4,129 BTC worth $176 million. On Wednesday LFG bought up another 2,509 BTC, and on Friday — 124 BTC. The cumulative balance reached 42,530 BTC ($1.72 billion).
This week Terraform Labs transferred to LFG an additional 10 million LUNA valued at ~$880 million. The funds could also be directed toward investments in Bitcoin to underpin the Terra USD (UST) algorithmic stablecoin.
Elon Musk bids over $43 billion for Twitter
After purchasing 9.2% of the company’s shares, the billionaire filed with the SEC documents stating his readiness to acquire 100% of the shares at a fixed price of $54.20 per share. The billionaire called the offer “the best and final,” and hinted that if shareholders refuse, he would dispose of the securities.
He explained the move as an effort to turn Twitter into a platform for free speech, not a money‑making venture.
Meanwhile, Twitter’s board announced unanimous acceptance of a plan to protect shareholders’ rights. The initiative aims to ensure investors’ full value in Twitter and to shield the company from unwanted takeovers.
Russia backs legalisation of mining
In the Ministry of Energy, support was voiced for legalising cryptocurrency mining. The department is also working with the Finance Ministry on mining taxation.
In the Ministry of Energy believe miners should pay electricity rates for “other” consumers rather than the residential tariff.
At the same time, the head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets Anatoly Aksakov proposed legalising mining only for legal entities, and the Ministry of Economic Development proposed introducing electricity limits for miners.
Currency.com will discontinue servicing users in Russia
The Belarus‑based cryptocurrency exchange Currency.com will discontinue servicing Russian users — from 12 April residents will not be able to top up accounts, and from the 26th they will be unable to execute new trades.
According to Viktor Prokopenya, after the announcement of restrictive measures the platform suffered a major DDoS attack. He stressed that Russian hackers were behind the incident.
BlackRock chief Larry Fink says the firm is interested in crypto
The world’s largest asset manager BlackRock (about $10 trillion) is exploring cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, blockchain technologies and tokenisation opportunities in response to rising client demand.
Moreover, BlackRock plans to become the primary reserve manager for Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin. Circle itself said it intends to apply for a crypto bank licence in the US in the near term.
Circle also announced talks to raise $400 million with the participation of BlackRock, Fidelity Management and Research, Marshall Wace and Fin Capital. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022.
Meta starts testing monetisation in Horizon Worlds
Meta has begun testing monetisation in the Horizon Worlds metaverse. Some users will be able to sell virtual items.
Under its long‑term plan, Meta’s virtual reality users will be able to earn a living by selling digital goods and services in the future.
CNBC has found that Meta intends to charge a 47.5% commission on such sales. The revenue split includes a 30% cut for the Meta Quest Store app marketplace and a 17.5% Horizon Worlds fee.
Axie Infinity sets timelines for returning stolen crypto assets. Hackers linked to North Korea’s Lazarus group
OFAC added an Ethereum address allegedly affiliated with the Lazarus group to the sanctions list. It is linked to the Ronin sidechain attack. Almost 30,000 ETH were moved to Tornado Cash by week’s end.
Sky Mavis, the maker of the Axie Infinity blockchain game, hopes to return at least part of the stolen cryptocurrency, but the process is expected to take up to two years.
This week Sky Mavis launched a bounty program to identify vulnerabilities in the ecosystem. Rewards for discovered bugs in the blockchain and smart contracts will range from $1,000 to $1 million depending on severity. For bugs in website and app interfaces the pay-outs will be $50 to $15,000.
Tornado Cash reports frontend-level blocking of sanctioned addresses
Ethereum mixer Tornado Cash said it has blocked cryptocurrency addresses flagged by OFAC sanctions. The service uses the Chainalysis oracle for this.
Co‑founder Roman Semenov noted that the address blocks are implemented at the frontend level of the application. He said the service’s smart contracts are “immutable”.
Some in the community were skeptical, noting that it could be circumvented by using the smart contracts directly.
Binance gains Abu Dhabi licensing clearance
Binance has received in‑principle approval from the Abu Dhabi Global Market’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority to operate as a virtual asset broker‑dealer.
Mastercard files trademarks for metaverse brands
Mastercard filed applications to register 15 trademarks related to the metaverse and cryptocurrencies. The filings describe “NFTs with multimedia support, a marketplace for digital goods, and the processing of payments and software for e‑commerce in the metaverse”.
The crypto‑lending platform Nexo announced the launch of Nexo Card on Mastercard for the European market with a fiat line of credit secured by crypto (without selling them).
MetaMask developers add Bitcoin support
The non‑custodial wallet MetaMask announced support for Bitcoin in Web3 apps. The feature will be implemented via the Snaps developer tool, enabling integration of other networks.
Also on ForkLog:
- Iran tightened penalties for illegal cryptocurrency mining.
- The head of Robinhood called conditions for turning Dogecoin into a “currency of the internet”.
- Brad Garlinghouse praised the court case with the SEC.
- Hydra administrator detained in Russia.
What else to read
Using the Alchemix lending platform as an example, we explored the features of next‑generation DeFi protocols in which debt obligations self‑erase and are not subject to liquidation.
2022 is rapidly becoming a year of censorship. ForkLog found out, whether we can preserve privacy and why Telegram will not help.
In ForkLog’s educational cards, we explain the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, and what scams and token airdrops are.
ForkLog AI has gathered the most important AI news from the past week.
Blockchain technology remains one of the hottest trends among financial, governmental and corporate actors worldwide. ForkLog offers an overview of the most interesting latest initiatives.
Read Bitcoin news on ForkLog in our Telegram — cryptocurrency news, rates and analysis.