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What’s Poppin’?
by Sam Sriram and Sage Young
Traders are gambling on outcomes related to Bitcoin’s price, stablecoin provider Tether’s solvency, the bridge for unfinished layer-2 Blast, and airdrops on Solana.
The SEC has pushed its decision on BlackRock’s spot Ethereum ETF to March, with Chair Gary Gensler saying on Wednesday not to read too much into the agency’s approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF earlier this month.
Built into the core protocol level, the extensions aim to provide more ways for builders and enterprises to customize token behavior, which may encourage Wall Street to move its plumbing over to crypto rails.
The number of DeFi hacks and DeFi losses fell, too — the latter down for the first time ever — indicating stronger DeFi security, according to a new Chainalysis report.
Bitwise becomes the first issuer to share its on-chain address of its Bitcoin ETF holdings in a move to increase public transparency.
This week kicks off with a crucial question: Are the latest trends in crypto ETFs signaling a major shift in the investment landscape? We delve into the market’s nuanced response to these ETFs and what it means for investors. How important is client diversity for Ethereum’s stability and future growth? The squad engages in a lively debate on this topic. With the advent of Proto-Danksharding, how might Ethereum’s scalability be impacted, and what are the implications for the blockchain ecosystem? We further examine the user experience across blockchain platforms, particularly comparing Solana and Ethereum in terms of their user interfaces and transaction dynamics. Looking to the future, what breakthroughs and challenges can we anticipate in blockchain technology?
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.
Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
🔒 Former Ozys chief security officer allegedly weakened the company's firewall before resigning, preceding an $81.5 million hack of Orbit Bridge.
⚖✈️ A U.S. judge denied Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao's request to travel to the UAE, despite offering $4.5 billion in Binance US equity as security.
🔐 Grayscale Bitcoin Trust transferred more than 19,000 bitcoins, cumulatively moving around 113,000 BTC since January 11 for potential sale.
🖼️🔗 Rari Foundation launched Rari Chain mainnet on Arbitrum, a Layer 3 chain designed to protect NFT royalties at the node level.
🧩 Polygon Labs announced the upcoming launch of 'AggLayer,' a new project using zero-knowledge proofs to synthesize modular and monolithic blockchains.
Solana news:
📱 Saga DAO, supporting Solana's mobile phone, lost 70% of its funds (over $60,000 in SOL) due to unactivated multisig wallet security.
🤖 Dialect, a Solana-based company, launched a Telegram bot for simplified token trading via text commands, streamlining crypto transactions.
🎁 Magic Eden expanded its rewards program with diamonds, initially for Solana users, aiming to enhance user engagement through non-tradable points.
💴 GMO-Z.com Trust Company launched the world's first regulated Japanese yen stablecoin, GYEN, and the U.S. dollar stablecoin, ZUSD, on the Solana network.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
📡 Telefónica teamed up with Helium to introduce mobile hotspots in Mexico, utilizing the Helium blockchain for data sharing and enhanced coverage.
🧪 Synthetix deployed its latest perpetual contracts on Base blockchain, simplifying new derivatives development and trading on Synthetix-powered platforms.
The $$$ Corner…
🏦 Crypto bank Sygnum raised over $40 million in funding, reaching a valuation of $900 million, planning to expand into new markets and enhance its products.
🔐 Brink's, a legacy cash management company, invested in crypto custodian BitGo, marking its entry into the digital asset security sector.
🚀 Beacon, a web3 accelerator by Sandeep Nailwal, introduced ten new startups in its third cohort, with 33 startups now collectively raising over $150 million.
What Do You Meme?
Recommended Reads
Yash Bora on why EIP-4844 is Ethereum's broadband moment
Akash Thesis by Vincent Jow
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is down .5%, trading at $39,884
ETH is down 1.4%, trading at $2,209
BTC dominance: 48.12%
Crypto market cap: $1.63T
*All data as of today, 07:49 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
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