Coinbase NFT Marketplace
Crypto exchange Coinbase launched its “Coinbase NFT” marketplace in beta mode this week. The platform that currently supports Ethereum NFTs is showcasing collections such as Azuki, World of Women, and Doodles.
MetaMask Warns of iCloud Phishing Attacks
Ethereum wallet MetaMask has warned Apple users of the possibility of a phishing attack that could potentially compromise the user’s iCloud account and their passwords to crypto wallets. The warning follows a report from a Twitter user with the alias “Domenic Iacovone,” who shared the details of his funds stored in a MetaMask wallet being stolen by hackers.
Beanstalk Exploited for $182M
According to blockchain security firm PeckShield, Ethereum based stablecoin, Beanstalk, was exploited by means of a flash loan attack. It is assumed that a total of $182 million worth of Ether, BEAN stablecoin, and other digital assets were stolen.
Moonbirds’ Shot to the Moon
Moonbirds, an Ethereum profile pic collection of 10,000 images, launched on Saturday last week. The project by tech investor Kevin Rose’s PROOF Collective managed to amass a whopping $280 million in sales over the weekend.
Smart Contract To Offset Emissions
Blockchain platform Algorand announced a new smart contract this Earth week. This new code would take a sliver of the transaction fees to offset the carbon emissions generated by the transactions. It would use information such as the number of relays and nodes involved, number of transactions, etc., to come up with the number of offsets to be paid for.
Australia’s Imminent Bitcoin and Ether ETFs
Australian asset manager ETF Securities, along with Switzerland’s ETF issuer 21Shares, is launching two ETFs on April 27. These ETFs will track the price of bitcoin and ether in AUD respectively and trade on Chicago based CBOE.
Infura Outage
Yesterday for a few hours, MetaMask and several other DApps running on Ethereum network encountered service disruption due to the underlying infrastructure service Infura suffering an outage. The outage that was reported at 13:43 UTC was fully resolved by 16:27 UTC.
Stripe Pilots Crypto Payments for Twitter Creators
As a part of an expansion to Stripe’s Connect service, Stripe launched a crypto pilot for Twitter creators. As a result, some content creators on Twitter can now receive payments in the form of the USDC stablecoin on the Polygon network.
Fidelity in Metaverse
Brokerage firm Fidelity Investments opened a virtual eight story building called The Fidelity Stack in Decentraland. It aims to offer financial education to the young investors and find innovative ways to serve customer needs with this platform.
WonderFi Buys Coinberry
WonderFi, the DeFi platform backed by Shark Tank fame Kevin O’Leary, will acquire crypto exchange Coinberry in an all stock $38.3 million deal. The deal, which will add $220,000 users and $100 million in assets to WonderFi, will also include Coinberry CEO and another member joining the WonderFi board.
Okcoin to Launch NFT Marketplace
San Francisco based crypto exchange Okcoin announced its plans to create its own NFT marketplace. To that effect, it has started the waitlist for its customers and plans to launch the platform later in 2022.
Emirates to Launch NFT and Metaverse Initiatives
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) airliner, Emirates, announced its plans to launch NFT tokens and metaverse experiences for its workers and customers. The airlines said this plan aligns with UAE’s digital economy and virtual assets initiatives.
US Issues Alert on North Korean Crypto Activity
The US agencies – FBI, Treasury Department, and CISA – have jointly released a cybersecurity advisory on North Korea’s state sponsored malicious crypto activity. The report cites that several crypto related areas, such as exchanges, DeFi platforms, and VC funds, are being targeted.
Ireland to Ban Crypto Donations
The Irish Government is drafting a new legislation that will prohibit political parties from accepting campaign donations in crypto. With this move, Ireland intends to preclude Russian interference in the country’s elections.
Ethereum Foundation’s Crypto Treasury
The Ethereum Foundation published a financial report this week, which shows the foundation currently holds $1.6 billion in its treasury. Of that, $1.3 billion are held in crypto, and the rest of the treasury is composed of non crypto investments and assets.
Binance Limits Crypto Services for Russians
Adhering to the European Union’s sanctions against Russia, crypto exchange Binance is imposing its own restrictive measures. The accounts of Russian users with more than €10,000 will be put into withdrawal only mode, and the users are expected to close them within 90 days.
MakerDAO to Launch on StarkNet
MakerDAO, the creator of DAI stablecoin, revealed its upcoming deployment on StarkNet, a layer 2 scaling solution on Ethereum. The launch, which is slated for April 28, intends to reduce the gas costs by ten times and improve withdrawal times.
Robinhood To Buy Ziglu
Trading platform Robinhood is acquiring Ziglu, a regulated UK based crypto firm. This acquisition is part of Robinhood’s European expansion.
Metaverse as a Service
Limitless, the company behind metaverse platform Next Earth, announced the launch of its new offering – Metaverse as a Service. It plans to create a $60 million venture fund to assist startups joining Next Earth.
$100M Grant Program for Web3
Blockchain platform Kadena has set up a new $100 million Web3 grant program as a part of its KadenaEco initiative. The program will offer financial and strategic support for NFT, DeFi, and metaverse projects building on Kadena’s proof of work blockchain.
NBA’s Dynamic NFTs
American basketball association NBA will commence minting its collection of 18,000 NFTs next week. The series dubbed The Association will have 75 NFTs per player from the 16 NBA teams, and the NFTs will be updated with latest stats for each player over the course of the playoffs.
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