The Coinbase exchange launched the testnet for the Layer-2 Base protocol, built on Optimism’s OP Stack. The head of Blur revealed his identity and announced a new airdrop for NFT marketplace users; Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian disclosed investments in Ethereum and other events of the week.
Bitcoin fails to hold the $24,000 level
Earlier in the week, the price of digital gold hovered around $25,000, but by Friday it had fallen below the $24,000 mark. At the time of writing, the asset was trading near $23,200.
All top-10 market-cap crypto assets closed the week in the red. The worst performer was the native token of the Polygon project, whose price fell by almost 15%.
Total crypto market capitalization stood at $1.11 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index fell to 40.2%.
FTX transferred Bahamian assets worth $7.7 billion to the U.S. ahead of bankruptcy
The temporary administrators of FTX stated that shortly before filing for bankruptcy the company transferred assets worth $7.7 billion from Bahamas-based units to U.S. entities.
$5.6 billion was moved from the Bahamas-based FTX Digital to FTX US. A further $2.1 billion was transferred to Alameda Research.
This week Sam Bankman-Fried was accused of conspiring to commit banking fraud — the total number of charges against the former FTX chief rose from 8 to 12.
Also, it emerged that former FTX tech chief Nishad Singh plans to plead guilty to fraud for his role in the firm’s collapse and to strike a deal with prosecutors.
There are positive developments as well — since February 21, FTX Japan resumed withdrawals of digital assets and fiat via the Liquid Japan platform.
Coinbase launches Base testnet
The American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase launched the testnet for the Layer-2 Base solution, built on Optimism’s OP Stack architecture. The initiative does not involve a token — ETH is used to pay transaction fees.
Despite the announcement, the Base Protocol token (BASE) surged from around $2 to a high of $7.50 (up to 300%).
NFT marketplace Blur tops trading volume. Founder reveals his identity
Over the week, Blur’s NFT trading volume jumped by hundreds of percent, overtaking OpenSea, the sector’s flagship platform. Blur’s surge came amid an governance-token airdrop for NFT traders and the announcement of its second phase.
Blur will distribute more than 300 million BLUR in its second season. The size of the rewards will depend on loyalty metrics. To boost odds, users should list NFTs exclusively on Blur, have no assets listed on other marketplaces, and execute as many trades as possible.
Earlier this week, Blur’s head known to the community as Pacman was revealed to be Tishun Rocker — a former MIT student and participant in the Y Combinator startup accelerator. In 2019 he received a grant to build the Namebase service, which was sold to Namecheap in 2021.
Reddit co-founder reveals purchase of 50,000 ETH in 2014
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian invested $15,000 in Ethereum at a price of $0.30 in the 2014 presale. By current prices these assets could be worth about $82.5 million (+549,589%).
The entrepreneur expressed regret at investing what he calls a relatively small amount. Proceeds from selling ETH helped Ohanian launch the venture firm Seven Seven Six. Profits from his Coinbase investment also funded those efforts.
Founders of Forsage charged with creating a $340 million crypto pyramid
A US court charged four Russians with organizing and promoting the Forsage crypto pyramid, whose victims worldwide lost roughly $340 million.
A federal grand jury in Oregon indicted Vladimir Okhotnikov (Lado), Olena Oblamskaya (Lola Ferrari), Mikhail Sergeev (Mike Mooney, Gleb or Gleb Million) and Sergey Maslakov.
According to court documents, these Russian citizens advertised the DeFi platform Forsage as a “matrix project” based on multi-level marketing and smart contracts.
Spotify begins testing playlists accessible via NFT wallets
The streaming music service Spotify is testing a playlist service that requires NFT ownership. To listen, users must connect a wallet.
The service is available to members of NFT project communities Fluf, Moonbirds, Kingship and Overlord. Custom playlists will be updated over a three-month testing period. Initially, Android users in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and New Zealand will have access.
Hong Kong regulator proposes rules for crypto platforms
The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has launched public consultations on new requirements for operators of digital asset trading platforms.
Under the proposed rules, from June 1, 2023, all centralized platforms operating in Hong Kong or dealing with local investors must hold an SFC licence. In discussions, the regulator wants to know whether to allow them to service retail clients.
Bloomberg reports that the Chinese government quietly backs Hong Kong authorities’ bid to turn the region into a crypto hub, and Beijing officials have been frequent guests at industry events in recent months.
Against this backdrop, Tron founder Justin Sun announced that the Huobi exchange has applied for a licence in Hong Kong. Gate, OKX and Bitget followed suit.
Over the next year, Hong Kong authorities will allocate HKD 50 million (~$6.4 million) to accelerate the development of the Web3 ecosystem, said the territory’s Financial Secretary, Paul Chan.
What to talk about with friends?
- Yuga Labs will change the Bored Ape Kennel Club logo following plagiarism allegations.
- Solana announced the closure of two stores in the United States.
- A Reddit user described a conflict with his wife over Bitcoin trading.
- Liquidators will put up for sale the NFT collection of 3AC.
A fork of the Ordinals NFT project launches on the Litecoin network
In the Litecoin network emerged an Ordinals-like protocol that allows users to place a range of digital objects in the blockchain, such as text, video and images. Developer Anthony Guerrero admitted that this “extremely simple” task took him a week. The incentive was a reward of 22 LTC (~$2,065). He posted the code on GitHub.
Researchers at Matrixport suggested that the sharp rise in Bitcoin-NFT popularity on the Ordinals protocol could push Blockstack’s Stacks Network to ecosystem-level capitalization in the multi-billion range.
American mining firm Luxor Technologies announced the acquisition of OrdinalHub to issue, sell, and track Bitcoin NFTs.
Vinnik’s lawyer acknowledged possibility of a prisoner exchange
Russian national Alexander Vinnik, accused of laundering at least $4 billion through the BTC-e exchange, may be considered a candidate for the next prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States, according to his lawyer David Rizk claimed.
Google Cloud to become a validator in the Tezos network
The cloud platform Google Cloud has joined the Tezos ecosystem as a validator (a baker). The agreement between the parties is aimed at accelerating Web3 application development on the blockchain using the tech giant’s cloud infrastructure.
Paxos reports a “constructive dialogue” with the SEC
The infrastructure company and issuer of stablecoins Paxos expects to continue constructive discussions with the SEC and, if necessary, is prepared to defend its position in court, the CEO Charles Cascarilla said.
Binance Australia closes several accounts on the derivatives platform
The Australian arm of Binance suspended service to several retail user accounts. An internal investigation found that they had been mistakenly classified as “professional investors” eligible to trade crypto derivatives. The exchange has agreed to compensate the affected users.
Bitcoin mining difficulty rises by almost 10%
As a result of another recalculation, the mining difficulty of the premier cryptocurrency rose by 9.95%. The metric reached an all-time high of 43.05 T.
Also on ForkLog:
- Ethereum developers set the date for the Shapella upgrade on the Sepolia testnet.
- Gary Gensler hinted at recognising cryptocurrencies as securities.
- Elliptic calculated the amount of crypto donations since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
- Cameron Winklevoss predicted the formation of a new bull run in the East.
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The ForkLog AI team has joined the testers of the updated Bing search engine with integrated ChatGPT and decided to explain how it works, how it differs from a chatbot, who is Cindy and why Microsoft trimmed the service’s capabilities just a week after its release.
In traditional digests we summarise the week’s main events in cybersecurity and and artificial intelligence and.
The DeFi sector continues to attract heightened attention from crypto investors. ForkLog has assembled the most important events and news of the past weeks in a digest.