DeFI News by Thebittimes.Com

The recent JPEX and Hounax exchange scandals have resulted in losses exceeding $100 million. A one-year grace period for cryptocurrency exchange s operating in Hong Kong will remain in place despite recent scandals . According to local news reports on Nov. 27, Julia Leung, Hong Kong's Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, stated, "Even if the grace period ends tomorrow, fraud will still occur, so there is no intention to modify the grace period and other measures for the time being."  As per new regulations introduced in June, crypto exchanges operating in Hong Kong must apply for a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license with the city's Securities & Futures Commission by June 2024 or face deregistration. However, unregistered exchanges can operate in the city during the interim transition period.  Several crypto scandals have rocked the special administrative region recently. In September, Hong Kong crypto exchange JPEX, which was un...

The BSN Foundation’s “non-cryptocurrency” approach aims to create a stable network that would not be as volatile as traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The Singapore-based BSN Foundation, a global blockchain infrastructure organization, officially announced its launch with five international founding members on Nov. 16. BSN’s founding members include the institutional digital asset wallet Blockdaemon, the blockchain infrastructure automation platform Zeeve, the digital asset creation platform Toko and tech firms GFT Technologies and Red Date Technology. The newly formed BSN Foundation will serve as the governing body of the BSN Spartan Network, a public infrastructure network based on the open-source BSN Spartan data center software. The foundation’s launch marks one of the most significant milestones on its path to global expansion and its ambitions to establish a new international standard for decentralized IT infrastructure. “The BSN Foundation launch is a vital step in our...

The teams for crypto exchange Bitget and Web3 protocol Floki blamed each other for allegedly misleading investors. The teams behind the Floki protocol and Bitget crypto exchange have accused each other of market manipulation after the protocol’s token, TokenFi (TOKEN), was listed and delisted by Bitget. This is according to an October 31 social media post from the Floki team and a blog post from Bitget.  The Floki team claimed that Bitget listed the token before it was launched, referring to the Bitget listing as a “fake token,” while Bitget claimed that the Floki team was “suspected of market manipulation by maliciously controlling the initial liquidity.” Bitget statement on TokenFi delisting. Source: Bitget. The Floki team said it submitted a proposal on October 18 to the Floki decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to launch a staking program with a reward token that would “target a trillion-dollar industry with strong potential.” Meanwhile, the team was talking with centrali...

Bit Digital is extending its crypto mining operations into the AI sector, signing a pivotal GPU rental contract and investing $35 million in high-performance computing hardware. New York-based digital asset and cloud computing firm Bit Digital is diversifying its portfolio by launching a new business vertical called Bit Digital AI. This move marks a concerted effort by the company to diversify its traditional crypto mining operations. To kickstart its AI venture, Bit Digital inked a binding term sheet with a well-capitalized customer in the AI sector. As per the agreement, the company will provide rental services of between 1,024 and 4,096 GPUs to support the customer’s GPU-accelerated workloads.  BREAKING NEWS:$BTBT is thrilled to announce the launch of our new business line, Bit Digital AI! Bit Digital AI will provide specialized infrastructure services to support generative AI workstreams. "We believe this new venture is a good complement to our core #Bitcoin… p...

Blockchain companies are building AI chatbots to help developers, yet challenges may hamper adoption. The artificial intelligence (AI) market is becoming one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. According to market research firm Next Move Strategy Consulting, the current AI market is valued at nearly $100 billion and is projected to grow exponentially.  Given this, it comes as no surprise that chatbots using AI are also on the rise. Recent findings from Precedence Research show that the global chatbot market size reached $840 million in 2022. AI chatbots for Web3 developers in the works As opportunities around AI and chatbots flourish within various industries, the Web3 sector has also started to capitalize on this trend, with blockchain companies creating AI chatbots to help developers build applications faster and more efficiently.  Aanchal Malhotra, head of RippleX Research — an organization within Ripple focused on the development and growth of the XRP Ledger — told Coi...

Sui joins the growing ranks of Web3 firms looking to onboard users who are all too often “irretrievably lost" at the doorstep of Web3. Layer-one blockchain Sui Network has taken a step towards simplifying Web3 onboarding, allowing users to sign up for Sui-powered apps without having to manage an external crypto wallet or seed phrase.  In a Sept. 13 press release the Sui Foundation shared that users would be able to login into decentralized applications (DApps) by using Google, Facebook, and Twitch login details via a new zkLogin (Zero Knowledge login ) feature. Instead of dealing with pesky Web3 wallets, users can log in the same way they’re used to on other areas of the internet. “By enabling users to access dApps with the social logins they have grown comfortable using, zkLogin removes a major hurdle for bringing the benefits of blockchain-based applications to billions of mainstream users,” said Sui Foundation managing director, Greg Siourounis. Onboarding has long been a p...

All the soon-to-be suspended tokens are alleged by the SEC to be securities in its lawsuit against Coinbase and Binance. Cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp will suspend trading of Axie Infinity (AXS), Chiliz (CHZ), Decentraland (MANA), Polygon (MATIC), Near (NEAR), Sandbox (SAND), and Solana (SOL) for customers residing in the U.S. beginning August 29. According to the Aug. 8 announcement, trading of the seven aforementioned cryptocurrencies will soon become unavailable for trading for U.S. customers due to "recent developments." While the firm did not specify the reason for their suspension, all seven tokens are alleged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to be unregistered securities in its complaints against cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Coinbase. Bitstamp wrote:  "We kindly request our users to promptly execute any desired buy or sell orders involving the affected assets before August 29, 2023. After this deadline, trading activities related to ...

Approximately $215 million of stolen assets have since been recovered. According to a June 30 report by Web3 security firm Beosin, the total value of crypto currencies lost in scams , hacks and rug pulls amounted to $656 million during the first half of 2023. This includes the loss of $471.43 million in 108 protocol attacks, $108 million in various phishing scams and $75.87 million over 110 rug pulls . For hacks , the amount represented a significant decrease over H1 2022 and H2 2022, where $1.91 billion and $1.69 billion were lost, respectively. In addition, Beosin analysts wrote: “Approximately $215 million of stolen assets were recovered, accounting for 45.5% of all stolen assets. In contrast, in 2022, only 8% were recovered. $113 million of stolen assets were transferred to mixers: $45.38M into Tornado Cash and $68.14M into other mixers." In a dashboard compiled by Beosin and Footprint Analytics, only one project was hacked for more than $100 million, that being Euler Fin...

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz was among those over the moon with the news, others warn it could be the start of a major institutional takeover. BlackRock’s latest filing for a spot Bitcoin (BTC) trust will drive investors’ confidence in Bitcoin and may even be “the best thing that could happen ” to BTC, according to some crypto industry observers — but others warn of a hidden cost. During an interview on June 16, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz said the approval of BlackRock’s ETF application would be “the best thing that could happen to $BTC.” “I say a Hail Mary every night that Larry Fink and @blackrock pull off a @bitcoin ETF," Novogratz said on the Fox News segment, according to a tweet by host Liz Claman. Fun being on @LizClaman show!! And yes, @BlackRock getting a $BTC ETF through would be the best thing that could happen to $BTC. https://t.co/2fFBeB9eyo — Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) June 16, 2023 Meanwhile, cryptocurrency analyst James Edwards of Finder.com —...

The billionaire is the latest to argue that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission hasn’t provided crypto firms with a registration process to follow. Billionaire investor Mark Cuban has become one of the latest industry figures to call out the United States securities regulator for purportedly failing to provide cryptocurrency firms with a clear registration process. The Shark Tank investor claimed in a June 11 tweet that no registration exists in the SEC’s “Framework for ‘Investment Contract’ Analysis of Digital Assets” document, making it “near impossible to know” what constitutes a security in the “crypto universe.” “Unfortunately none of the elements presented in this page are part of the registration process. Which makes it near impossible to know, with or without an army of securities lawyers, what is or is not a security in the crypto universe.” This is an SEC WEB PAGE about the howey test and tokens that often conflicts with what @SEC_Enforcement has said pu...

Funds will be used to support the decentralized World ID and the recently released crypto wallet World App. VC firms A16z Crypto, Bain Capital Crypto, and Distributed Global are investors in the round. Crypto project Worldcoin has reportedly raised $115 million in a Series C round led by Blockchain Capital. Funds will be used to support its decentralized World ID and recently released crypto wallet, World App.  Co-founded by OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman and built by developers of Tools for Humanity, Worldcoin aims to tackle problems stemming from the growing complexity of artificial intelligence, such as proof of personhood, in the digital age. Venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Crypto, and Distributed Global are also investors in the round. “During the age of AI, we need decentralized , privacy-preserving solutions that can prove humanness online and empower people across the world to take control of their identity and finances. The additional resources will help...

Crypto investment firm CoinShares posted its most profitable quarter in a year, according to its latest quarterly earnings report. Cryptocurrency investment group CoinShares recently published its Q1 earnings report for 2023 amid what it’s calling a “return to profitability.”  Highlights of the report include revenue in the amount of $11.73 million (down from $22.46 million in Q1 2022), total comprehensive income of $3.62 million (down from $25.83 million in Q1 2022) and an adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBIDTA) of $10.61 million (down from $25.83 million in Q1 2022). Overall, for 2022, CoinShares posted an operating loss of $25.21 million, in stark contrast to the company’s operating profit of $126.54 million reported for 2021. Despite the market conditions, CoinShares has achieved a significant milestone by returning to profitability in the Q1 2023. Amidst a complex landscape, we generated £15.3 million in revenue and gains, showcasing ou...

TikTok videos sporting popular crypto-related hashtags — such as crypto, cryptok, cryptoadvice, cryptocurrency, cryptotrading and cryptoinvesting — have cumulatively churned over 6 billion views. More than 1 out of 3 influencers on TikTok, the go-to social media platform for the young generation, have been found to post misleading videos about Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency investments in a recent study.  TikTok has been widely adopted as a video-based alternative to Google searches. However, some influencers have been found to share unvetted misinformation on the social media platform about crypto investments, often trying to convince unwary viewers to put their (or their parents) hard-earned money into loss-making cryptocurrencies. TikTok influencers use the hashtag ‘#cryptok’ while posting crypto-related content. An analysis of over 1,161 such TikTok videos — conducted by dappGambl — revealed that over one in three videos on crypto TikToks were misleading. The research also found...

Analysts are speculating that the Bitcoin hash rate has seen a big spike recently as miners come back online to reap the rewards of the BTC price hike. Bitcoin's (BTC) hash rate spiked to all-time highs of 398 exahash on March 23, and analysts have been speculating miners are starting to turn their rigs back on as the Bitcoin price rises. According to data aggregator YCharts the Bitcoin network hash rate has dropped to 344.63 as of March 27, an increase from 335.32 on March 26 but it is still up from 178.77 one year ago. In a March 26 post, Sam Wouters, a research analyst at Bitcoin (BTC) financial service provider River Financial, speculated the spike in hash rate is connected to unused mining inventory coming online, new facilities going live, and entrepreneurs finding cheap sources of mining. Bitcoin's hashrate touched 400 Exahash. At the current growth rate in 2023, we'd reach a Zettahash by the end of 2025. I'm getting questions and concerns from people. Where i...

Paris Blockchain Week founder Michael Amar believes large Web2 companies entering the Web3 space bring resources capable of increasing mass adoption. Paris Blockchain Week (PBW), an annual gathering of professionals within the blockchain industry, has kicked off its fourth edition, with industry leaders and entrepreneurs from across the world gathering to discuss the latest trends and developments impacting the digital asset space. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Michael Amar, the founder and chairman of Paris Blockchain Week, shared that the original vision for the Conference was to put Europe on the map, as it was previously “nowhere on the map for blockchain.” Cointelegraph's Joe Hall with Michael Amar. Founded in 2019, PBW was created with the vision of bringing together professionals within the industry to advance blockchain awareness and adoption. According to Amar, the aim of the conference was to progress the industry as a whole, addressing topics like regu...

Ether leads the way in donations with $28.9 million received so far, while BTC and USDT donors have chipped in $22.8 million and $11.59 million respectively. Ukraine has received over $70 million in the form of cryptocurrencies since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, providing the nation with military equipment and humanitarian assistance. The figures came from a Feb. 24 report by Blockchain data platform Chainalysis, which found the majority of the funds to have come in the form of Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC). ETH donors led the way with $28.9 million given, while donors of BTC and Tether (USDT) chipped in $22.8 million and $11.59 million respectively. Cryptocurrencies donated to Ukraine wallets provided by the Ukrainian government. Source: Chainalysis. Donations have also come in the form of nonfungible tokens (NFTs), such as UkraineDAO’s auction of a Ukrainian flag NFT which sold for $6.1 million. Around 80% of the total $70 million donated came in the first few months...

Blockchain enables healthcare record management, clinical trial transparency, efficient supply chain management and more. The use of blockchain technology in the healthcare industry has the potential to revolutionize the way medical records are managed, medical research is conducted and patient care is delivered. Here are nine promising use cases for blockchain in healthcare. Medical record management Medical records can be safely stored and managed using block chain , improving accessibility for patients and healthcare professionals. Patients’ ability to control access to their medical records enhances security and privacy. One example is MedRec, a block chain -based system for managing medical information created by MIT researchers. MIT Professor Andrew Lippman says the goal of the MedRec project is to be like a Swiss bank for health records, but without the bank. #Bizofblockchain — MIT Technology Review (@techreview) April 23, 2018 Clinical trials By offering a transparent ...

It is understood that BlockFi wants to get bids in quickly as possible to make the most of the current market conditions. Bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi has been granted court approval to sell off its crypto mining equipment as part of ongoing efforts to  repay its creditors. A court document filed on Jan. 30 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey stated that the approval for BlockFi to sell its assets was on the grounds that it was “fair, reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances.” The court acknowledged the sale of the assets is “designed” to maximize the recovery and “realizable value” of the company. With the court giving BlockFi the green light, more bids are now expected to roll in for the crypto lender's crypto mining assets. The document stated “all qualified bids” must be sent to the parties specified in the bidding procedures by the Feb. 20 deadline. The bids must be filed with the court by Mar. 2 and the creditor's representat...

The lawsuit escalates a months-long dispute between the crypto miner and one of its energy suppliers in Canada. Canada-based Bitcoin (BTC) miner Hut 8 Mining Corporation has ramped up its ongoing fight with its power supplier for one of its mining sites, filing a lawsuit in a Canadian court. Hut 8 said on Jan. 26 it filed a Statement of Claim in the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario against Validus Power, an energy supplier for a Hut 8 mining facility in North Bay, Ontario. The firms have been in an ongoing dispute since early November 2022 due to what Hut 8 alleges is a failure by Validus to “meet its contractual obligations” for the power purchase agreement (PPA). In its new lawsuit, Hut 8 is seeking “monetary damages incurred as a result of the dispute” and enforcement of certain provisions as per the agreement signed by the two companies. Hut 8 and Validus started working together in late 2021 with Validus initially providing 35 megawatts (MW) of power to North Bay, but was sl...

Paul Veradittakit of Pantera Capital believes now could be a good time for new entrepreneurs to enter the crypto space. Despite depressed crypto prices and recent company collapses, one of the key investors behind crypto hedge fund Pantera Capital believes there’s never been a better time to start a blockchain company.  As part of a Jan. 23 post about the year ahead from a number of executives at Pantera Capital, Paul Veradittakit, General Partner at Pantera Capital explained that "On average," people working in the crypto space are more educated and passionate about crypto than in previous cycles. Strong start to the year! https://t.co/gFe5fUM0gT — paul.nft (@veradittakit) January 23, 2023 Overall, he said, "we are seeing a higher percentage of start ups coming to market with strong teams — entrepreneurs coming out of established crypto start ups like Coinbase, larger tech companies like Facebook, Uber, and Square, and legacy financial institutions like J.P. Morgan...