Sustainability Registry for Bitcoin Miners
Non profit Energy Web has launched a free sustainability registry for Bitcoin miners. It will take into account their energy inputs and impact on electric grids. The registry will score miners on their use of renewable energy and their impact on electric grids. The project Green Proofs of Bitcoin (GP4BTC) will act as a “certification layer.”
Binance Mingled Funds?
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has been accused of commingling customer funds with company revenue. The allegations are based on bank records and interviews with former insiders. Binance has denied the allegations, saying it did not commingle customer funds. It has claimed that the accounts in question were used to facilitate user purchases of crypto.
IOSCO Crypto Framework
IOSCO, an international organization of securities regulators, has opened up its policy recommendations for crypto and digital asset markets for public comment. The 18 recommendations address issues such as market abuse, conflict of interest, client asset protection, disclosures, and risks associated with crypto. They are in response to widespread concerns regarding investor protection and market integrity within crypto markets. IOSCO is seeking public comment on the recommendations until July 31. The crypto industry has welcomed these policies.
Solana Embeds ChatGPT
The Solana Foundation has created an open source reference implementation that lets users interact with the Solana network directly from ChatGPT. The plugin is downloadable from Github. It can be used to buy NFTs, transfer tokens, inspect transactions, interpret public account data, and find NFT collections by floor price.
Multichain Problem
Multichain, a cross-chain protocol, has pledged to compensate users affected by a “force majeure” event causing some cross chain routes to become unavailable. The team acknowledged the problem stating the upgrade to a backend node was taking time. They assured users that pending transactions would be credited once service was restored. Furthermore, they have promised to announce details of the compensation plan in the future.
Crypto Firms Take Action
In response to the concerns and delays surrounding Multichain, several crypto entities have taken action. The Fantom Foundation withdrew $2.4 million in liquidity of the protocol’s native MULTI tokens on SushiSwap. HashKey Group moved $250,000 to Gate.io. Meanwhile, Tron founder Justin Sun withdrew 470,000 USDD from the protocol. Furthermore,
Binance temporarily halted deposits for ten crypto tokens that operate on the BNB Chain and Fantom chains.
Sorare’s Plan for France
Sorare, a Web3 fantasy sports company, has introduced an alternate entry method for players based in France to abide by the country’s existing regulations. This solution, which is agreed upon with the French National Gaming Authority (ANJ), comes after the French government announced plans for a bill that will more robustly regulate the trading of in game assets. The new entry method will allow France based players who don’t own NFTs to access Sorare tournaments but comes with a set of restrictions.
Ledger Drama
Earlier this week, former Ledger CEO Éric Larchevêque agreed that governments could subpoena for accessing user funds if those are held on Ledger devices subscribed to the contentious Recover service. But Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier has argued that it is unlikely to happen, as governments issue such subpoenas for only serious crimes. Yet, many users are still skeptical.
Pizza Turns Sour
Bitcoin Pizza Day took a negative turn as meme coin issuers exploited the occasion. The day saw a massive surge in rug pulls and suspected honey pot schemes, with over $200,000 in profits. Several pizza themed meme coins were launched, but many investors incurred losses. Developers manipulated sales taxes or made tokens unsellable, taking advantage of the hype surrounding meme coins.
Huobi Asked to Wind Down
The Securities Commission of Malaysia ordered Huobi Global Limited and its CEO Leon Li to stop operating in the country. The regulator claims that the crypto exchange is not registered in Malaysia. Huobi advisor Justin Sun clarified that the action is related to the previous entity and not associated with the current Huobi platform.
DCG Woes
As per crypto exchange Gemini, Digital Currency Group (DCG) missed a $630 million payment to its subsidiary Genesis Global Capital. Gemini says it is working with other creditors to support DCG to avoid the firm’s default.
Web3 Shorts
BlockFi has publicly stated that any statements regarding a bankruptcy reorganization plan should be ignored. It clarified they were posted prematurely and should not be considered valid.
Bitcoin payments app Strike has successfully integrated support for Tether’s USDT stablecoin. It enables users to utilize USDT for on ramps, off ramps, and settlements directly within the Strike app.
The move to earn app STEPN is integrating Apple Pay as a fiat onramp for in app purchases. It will allow users to purchase NFT sneakers with fiat currency, making it easier for new players to join the game.
The US Treasury has imposed sanctions on North Korean owned Binance wallets. It has accused the entities of receiving over $2 million worth of crypto that were used to support weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs in North Korea, according to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
Aave V2 users are temporarily unable to access their funds on Polygon due to a faulty bug that went live last week.
A crypto project, DF Fintoch, appears to have taken off with $32 million of user funds in a likely exit scam. The firm claimed to be affiliated with Morgan Stanley.
Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev got the permission to cross question blockchain analytics company Chainalysis in his attempt to clear his name of money laundering charges.
Binance has launched an NFT loan feature on its NFT marketplace, allowing users to borrow ETH against blue chip NFTs such as BAYC, MAYC, and Azuki.
Web3 Investments
New crypto focused VC firm Dispersion Capital launched a $40 million fund to invest in early stage web3 projects’ pre-seed and seed rounds. LPs of the fund include the VC arm of Circle and Ripple.
A DAO, LabDAO, raised $3.6 million in a funding round co-led by Inflection.xyz and Village Global to focus on open source drug discovery.
Web3 platform Sort secured $3.5 million in a seed round co-led by Lemniscap and The General Partnership.
Crypto infra startup Openfort closed a $3 million seed funding round co-led by Gumi Cryptos Capital and Maven 11 and will deploy the funds to build a Wallet as a Service for game developers and publishers.
DeFi protocol Num Finance raised $1.5 million in a pre-seed round to expand its stablecoin offerings in Latin America and the Middle East. The investors include Reserve and H2O Scouter Fund.
FastLane Labs, an MEV protocol for Polygon, raised $2.3 million in a seed funding round led by Multicoin Capital.Tools for Humanity, developer of the Worldcoin project, raised $115 million, in a Series C funding round led by Blockchain Capital.
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