Welcome to another edition of Crypto Explained.
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Time flies and we are about to finish the first bimonth of 2023 already!
Let’s have a look at a selection of relevant news that has happened so far this year.
In a nutshell…
The SEC is on a mission.
The collapsed ones still making news.
Winter is still here.
But we still have plenty of development!
The SEC is on a mission.
Crypto exchange Kraken will end its crypto staking services for U.S. customers and pay $30 million to settle the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges. The SEC has charged against Kraken, alleging it was offering unregistered securities (read more here).
SEC sues Terraform Labs, Do Kwon for misleading investors on TerraUSD Stablecoin, after the collapse last year created a wave of bankruptcies in the crypto industry (read more here).
The crypto industry may have more and more trouble having access to banking services in the United States (read more here).
The SEC intends to sue stablecoin issuer Paxos, which is behind the Pax dollar (USDP) and Binance USD (BUSD) tokens, over the latter stablecoin (read more here).
The collapsed ones still making news.
Founders of failed crypto fund Three Arrows Capital looking to raise $33m for new venture (read more here).
Genesis Global Holdco LLC, the holding company of troubled cryptocurrency lender Genesis Global Capital, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York after being pummeled by two of 2022's biggest industry collapses (read more here).
The parent company of bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Genesis, has agreed on a tentative plan with creditors, including crypto exchange Gemini, as it seeks a way out of a legal quagmire (read more here).
Winter is still here.
Crypto winter is tough. LocalBitcoins, one of the earliest and most popular peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchanges, announced that it is shuttering its business after more than ten years of operation (read more here).
After Coinbase, crypto.com and Kraken, crypto exchange Huobi to lay off 20% of staff (read more here).
China is establishing a blockchain research center in Beijing as it explores integrating the technology more extensively into day-to-day life, despite having banned the use of cryptocurrency (read more here).
But we still have plenty of development and adoption!
Ethereum hits 500,000 validators ahead of scheduled Shanghai Upgrade (read more here).
The highly expected Shanghai upgrade in Ethereum is set to arrive in March 2023 (read more here).
Layer 2 Arbitrum to introduce Stylus, an initiative designed to let developers deploy programs written in popular traditional computer languages, instead of having to learn a new programming language to break into crytpo (read more here).
MetaMask wallet is integrating with Onramp.money to allow Indian users to purchase cryptocurrency directly from the in-browser wallet (read more here)
NFTs are now feasible on the Bitcoin network after developer Casey Rodarmor recently launched a protocol known as Ordinals that allows the digital artifacts to be carried on the original crypto blockchain (read more here).
Amazon is planning to launch a “digital assets enterprise” focused on NFTs and Web3 gaming (read more here).
Blockchain platform Algorand partners up with Italy to support a Digital Guarantees Platform in the country (read more here).
DeFi lending protocol Aave’s V3 is here and has already raked in more than $143 million across the first seven assets listed (read more here).
California DMV to digitize car title management system via Tezos blockchain (read more here).
Twitch co-founder’s Solana gaming platform Fractal is coming to Polygon (read more here).
Mastercard plans to leverage Polygon to help guide musical artists into the Web3 space, including with minting their own NFTs (read more here).
NFT Marketplace Blur releases native token for Community Ownership and overtakes OpenSea in trading volume (read more here).
Here is the pipeline of upcoming articles:
What is the Shanghai Upgrade in Ethereum?
Project deepdive: Algorand
Privacy coins
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