Visa Expands USDC Settlement
Visa expanded its USDC settlement to Solana and has partnered with Worldpay and Nuvei for pilot programs. It has moved millions of the stablecoin over Solana and Ethereum to settle fiat payments through VisaNet.
South Korea’s Crypto Bill
South Korea plans to submit a bill to track and freeze crypto and other virtual assets used by North Korea. South Korea’s existing sanctions against North Korea would include this bill. It is also being revised to contain “practical measures to bolster national security.”
LSE and Blockchain
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) Group is stepping up its efforts to develop a trading venue powered by blockchain. LSE aims to improve the traditional asset trading using digital technology. It has also emphasized that crypto is not the focus here.
Casio and Polygon
Casio (remember the digital watches and calculators from childhood!) has teamed up with Polygon Labs to mint a G-SHOCK watch on the blockchain. Watch enthusiasts can get their G-SHOCK creator pass NFTs and design and vote on how the watch should look.
Australia Senate Rejects Crypto Bill
Australia’s Senate Economics Legislation Committee rejected the Digital Assets (Market Regulation) Bill 2023. The committee noted that the bill, proposed by opposition senator Andrew Bragg, lacked detail. It deems that this bill is unaligned with international standards. Instead, it recommends the government to continue to consult with the industry.
Hana and BitGo
South Korea’s Hana Bank has partnered with BitGo to develop the bank’s digital asset custody services. The joint venture will come into effect in the second half of next year. The alliance aims to capitalize on the bank’s financial compliance and crypto firm’s security know how.
Paper on Crypto Policy
Complying with the request from India, the Financial Stability Board and International Monetary Fund will present a joint paper on global crypto policy at the G20 Summit. It calls for global cooperation to mitigate crypto risks in developing economies. It also would address the comprehensive policy response needed for managing crypto risks.
Stake Hack
Crypto casino Stake was exploited with over $15.7 million drained on Ethereum and $25.6 million across Polygon and the BSC. The hackers accessed private keys illegally to carry out the hack. FBI names North Korea based Lazarus Group as the mastermind.
Coinbase Crypto Lending Service
In its SEC filing, Coinbase revealed a new crypto lending service for institutional clients. It seems to have already raised $57 million for this venture. Customers can lend their crypto assets against collateral that values more than the loan. Coinbase can then offer secured loans to institutional clients.
Genesis OTC Closes
Genesis Global Trading is shutting down its OTC trading platform on Sep 18. In an email sent to clients, Genesis has asked all trades to be settled by Sep 21. All remaining open accounts will be closed by the end of the day on Sep 30.
Airdrop Sybil Attack
Connext Network, a protocol for improving blockchain bridge security, is under scrutiny. In an airdrop, ostensibly one claim per wallet, a wallet managed to claim more than 200 times. The attacker who perpetrated this sybil attack made away with $38,000 in profit.
Genesis Sues DCG
Genesis is suing its owner DCG over 18,000 bitcoin the former had loaned to DCG. Genesis and DCG entered into a “master loan agreement” in 2019, which Genesis converted into a fixed term loan with a maturity date of May 11, 2023. DCG, however, failed to repay, hence the lawsuit.
New Privacy Protocol
Vitalik Buterin and other researchers have proposed a new privacy protocol called Privacy Pools. This Tornado Cash alternative aims to enhance privacy on blockchains using ZKPs. Users can keep their transaction history private. Yet, regulators can filter out funds linked to criminal activities. The protocol is still in the early stages of development.
Grab in Web3
Grab, a prominent ride hailing super app in Southeast Asia, has added web3 services. Users can set up a web3 wallet, win web3 rewards, pay with NFTs, and more. Grab has also partnered with the Monetary Authority of Singapore to bring NFT vouchers for popular eats and experiences in the city.
Web3 Shorts
The dYdX community overwhelmingly voted to transition to version 4 and make DYDX the Layer 1 token for its own blockchain.
Tezos Foundation revealed the first batch of artists who have earned its million dollar “Champ Medici Arts Fund,” set up in partnership with Snoop Dogg’s son, Cordell Broadus (a.k.a Champ Medici).
Crypto infra provider Qredo says it is rightsizing to focus on its core protocol and web3 custody business by clipping about 50 jobs, hence saving 35% on annual expenses.
Btrust, the bitcoin non profit backed by Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z, has acquired Qala, an organization that trains African Bitcoin and Lightning engineers.
OKX, one of the top 10 crypto exchanges, is entering India to explore Web3 applications and recruit local talent.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is considering to extend the trials of its wholesale CBDC to include call money markets.
Coinbase’s Layer 2 Base experienced a significant technical issue this week but has since fixed the problem.
The well known hot wallet, MetaMask, now lets users cash out crypto for fiat and have the money sent to their bank account or PayPal balance.
Circle deployed native USDC on OP Mainnet and Base Layer 2 networks.
Digital asset marketplace Zodia Markets received initial approval to operate as an OTC crypto broker and dealer in Abu Dhabi.
Riot Platforms gained a record $31.7 million in energy credits for cutting back its power usage by over 95% during peak demand in Texas, aiding the state’s energy grid. Meanwhile, Iris Energy earned $2.3 million.
As per a filing with the SEC, Ark Invest and 21Shares have applied for a spot ether ETF.
Google will allow advertisers to promote NFT games on its ad services starting Sep 15, as long as they don’t peddle gambling.
Alibaba’s Ant Group launched a new blockchain, ZAN, for serving clients in the Hong Kong and overseas markets.
Coinbase Ventures has put money from its Base Ecosystem Fund into six projects, including Avantis and BSX.
On Sep 26, Binance will stop supporting Polygon NFTs on its NFT platform. It has advised users to take back their Polygon NFTs from the marketplace by the end of the year.
Linus Financial, a Nashville based crypto services firm, has settled with the SEC for failing to register its retail crypto lending product. But it won’t face penalties due to its cooperation.
Ripple acquired Fortress Trust, a web3 infra firm that offers infra services to enterprise crypto clients.
Web3 Investments
GenTwo, a securitization platform for any assets, including the digital ones, raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Steve Cohen’s Point72 Ventures.
Swiss web3 domains and TLDs provider Freename AG secured $2.5 million in its seed funding round led by Sparkle Ventures.
Hivemind Capital Partners and OKX Ventures led the $5 million seed funding round of the web3 digital art startup TRLab.
Story Protocol, a platform that aims to open source IP ownership, was launched this week. Alongside, it raised $54 million in a funding round led by a16z crypto.
DEX Brine Fi closed a $16.5 million investment round led by Pantera Capital that brought its valuation to $100 million.
D3 Global, a startup trying to bridge web3 with web2 infrastructure, raised $5 million in a seed round led by Shima Capital.
Trident Digital Group, a startup from former Coinbase executives, raised $8 million in seed funding to build its “next gen” crypto lending business. White Star Capital and New Form led this round.
A cross blockchain communication protocol, Socket, raised $5 million in a funding round from Coinbase Ventures and Framework Ventures.
Helix, which finds lending opportunities to crypto businesses, raised $2 million in a pre seed round led by Saison Capital and Superscrypt.
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