💸 A "Bank Run" on KuCoin?
In today’s edition: 🛡️ Munchables recovers $62M after exploit, 🚀 Storing USDC on Base, 🔍 Spot bitcoin ETFs in Hong Kong, and more!
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Union is the first sovereign interoperability layer pioneering trustless bridging between appchains, L1s, and L2s without depending on trusted third parties, oracles, multi-signatures, or MPC. Looking to future-proof blockchain bridging, it is the only protocol that fully addresses the sovereign bridging trilemma, unlocking a horizontally-scaled future.
In this episode, Laura interviews Meg Lister, GM of Grants Labs at Gitcoin, and Kevin Owocki, co-founder of Gitcoin.
They discuss the evolution of Gitcoin from a centralized platform to a decentralized suite of protocols, Gitcoin 2.0, which allows any Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) based ecosystem to fund its public goods. They also talk about the various funding mechanisms available, including quadratic funding, retroactive public goods funding, and conviction voting.
The team is also exploring more futuristic concepts such as private voting systems, angel investing 2.0, and impact attestations. The ultimate goal for Gitcoin is to create a capital allocation infrastructure that funds what matters to communities, whether they are towns, states, countries, or online interest groups.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.
What’s Poppin’?
by Sage Young
KuCoin’s Exchange Reserves Drop by $273 Million Amid Charges of Anti-Money Laundering Violations
Users have withdrawn a substantial amount of crypto assets from KuCoin since US federal prosecutors announced their charges against the crypto exchange and its founders on Tuesday.
Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
🛡️ Munchables, a project on layer 2 blockchain Blast, successfully recovered $62 million in ether (ETH), ensuring all user funds are safe, after a breach linked to an internal team member and North Korea.
💼 Coinbase aims to store more corporate and customer USDC balances on its Ethereum layer 2, Base, to capitalize on lower fees and faster settlement times, as Base's Total Value Locked (TVL) surpasses $1 billion.
📊 Hong Kong's regulator is likely to allow in-kind creations and redemptions for spot bitcoin ETFs, which is a key differentiator from the US spot bitcoin ETFs and could potentially attract an influx of investment from Chinese investors.
🏛️ House Republicans urged the SEC to provide clarity on whether ether is a security before crypto exchange Prometheum can custody it, warning of market disruption if classified as such.
💼 The CFTC designated ether (ETH) and litecoin (LTC) as commodities in its complaint against KuCoin, seeking civil penalties for unregistered commodity transactions.
🔗 NEAR Protocol unveiled chain signatures, allowing users to conduct transactions on multiple blockchains from a single NEAR account, enhancing interoperability and simplifying access to Web3 applications.
🔁 Circle introduced its cross-chain transfer protocol to Solana, enabling seamless USDC swaps across multiple blockchains.
🚫 Portugal ordered Worldcoin to stop biometric data collection for 90 days, citing data protection concerns.
🌐 A16z-backed Angle introduced USDA, a US dollar stablecoin yielding returns from real-world assets (RWA) and DeFi lending revenues, aiming to establish a forex hub with seamless USD and EUR stablecoin conversion.
💱 Tidal and Hashdex renamed and converted their Hashdex Bitcoin Futures ETF to a spot bitcoin ETF, aiming to invest at least 95% of its assets in spot bitcoin.
🪙 BadgerDAO launched eBTC, which is a bitcoin-pegged token backed by staked ether, offering rewards for taking out bitcoin loans without upfront fees.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
💻 WAX blockchain partnered with Amazon Web Services to enable developers to deploy nodes on WAX using the AWS console.
🔒 Insurance broker Marsh announced a digital asset custody insurance product with coverage of up to $825 million for cold storage and other custody solutions.
🏦 HSBC launched a tokenized gold product for retail investors in Hong Kong, marking the first bank to offer a blockchain-based real-world asset to the retail market through its digital assets platform, Orion.
The $$$ Corner…
🚀 0G Labs secured $35 million in pre-seed funding for a modular blockchain focused on decentralized AI applications, backed by notable investors such as Hack VC and OKX Ventures.
🎮 PlayStation game developer Gunzilla Games garnered $30 million for its crypto-integrated game "Off the Grid."
💵 Spartan Capital led a $10 million funding round for Bitcoin DeFi developer ALEX, aiming to enhance Bitcoin's DeFi layer.
🤝 Borderless Capital acquired CTF Capital to enhance its AI and quant trading expertise and expand into Latin America.
What Do You Meme?
Recommended Reads
Unchained: A Beginner’s Guide to Ethereum Layers: Data Availability, Consensus, and Execution
The Defiant: Aave Closes In On Zero Token Incentives While Borrowing Surges
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is down 1.4%, trading at $70,054
ETH is down 2.4%, trading at $3,573
BTC dominance: 49.76%
Crypto market cap: $2.76T
*All data as of today, 06:18 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
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