The European Central Bank (ECB) has taken a look at the environmental impact of using banknotes. It discovered 16 environmental impact categories. As with cryptocurrency, energy efficiency was a major issue.

Banknotes continue to be the most common form of payment at points of sale in the eurozone. The use of cash requires an elaborate physical infrastructure for its production, distribution and eventual retirement.

Some of the initial components of banknote production that have environmental impact. Source: ECB 

Energy use by ATMs was the biggest contributor to banknotes’ environmental footprint at 37%, followed by transportation (35%). The remainder was down to processing, paper…

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AVAX, the native token of the Avalanche ecosystem has surprised the market, posting double-digit gains amid a drawback in the wider crypto space. AVAX token smashed through the $40 barrier on Dec.12 to reach an intra-day high of $43. At the time of publication, the layer 1 token trades at $38, up 12% over the last 24 hours and 123% over the last 30 days.

AVAX’s market cap soars 341% in two months

The latest rally has seen Avalanche’s total market value grow more from $3.25 billion when the recovery started in mid-October to the current value of $14.35 billion. This represents an increase of over $341% in just two months.

This is $1.06 billion more than Dogecoin’s $13.29 billion,…

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The US Department of Justice charged two men with operating a crypto Ponzi scheme.

David Saffron, an Australian national, and Vincent Mazzotta of California stole $25 million from victims under multiple false entities, including one dubbed the “Federal Crypto Reserve.”

The men are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice. 

According to a DOJ press release, the two are looking at hefty maximum sentences of roughly 75 years, with each count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering racking up 20 years. Additionally, they face 20 years for wire fraud, five years…

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The criminal investigation unit of the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has listed four crypto-related cases among the top ten of its “most prominent and high-profile investigations” in 2023.

In a Dec. 11 notice, the IRS unit said there were four significant cases in 2023 involving the seizure of cryptocurrency, fraudulent practices, money laundering and other schemes. Coming in at its third most high-profile investigation in the past year was OneCoin co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in September for his role in marketing and selling a fraudulent crypto asset.

Other cases included Ian Freeman, a New Hampshire resident sentenced…

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If you build it, they may still take a while to come.

Crypto has built a smorgasbord of infrastructural rails for app creation, leaving developers with hundreds of software combinations to use in building decentralized apps (dapps), or apps that run on decentralized networks.

But, so far, for all the technology on offer, few teams seem to be making use of it. 

Among the top blockchain-based applications on DappRadar, only four have over 100,000 daily unique active wallets. Some promising consumer crypto apps are seeking adoption by asking for as little behavioral change as possible for those jumping on board. 

The consumer dapp delay has been partly caused by crypto’s use of total…

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S&P Global has launched a stablecoin stability assessment. In its initial ratings of the eight stablecoins, none were given the top mark, but two received the lowest, based on their ability to maintain their fiat pegs.

According to a statement, to establish its ratings, S&P Global first examines asset quality risks, then factors mitigating the risks, and then considers governance, legal and regulatory framework, redeemability and liquidity, technology and third-party dependencies, and track record.

Factors additional to asset quality for S&P Global stablecoin assessment. Source: S&P Global

S&P Global, formerly known as Standard & Poor’s, is best known for the S&P 500 Index of large…

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The LimeWire brand, once synonymous with file-sharing in the early 2000s, has morphed into an AI-powered content publishing platform.

In 2021, brothers Julian and Paul Zehetmayr acquired LimeWire’s intellectual property for an undisclosed sum, rebranding it as a blockchain-focused project. Under their ownership, LimeWire has harnessed blockchain technology to realize its updated vision.

The company’s new AI Music Studio lets users create tunes using generative AI tools and subsequently publish them on the same platform, it revealed Tuesday.

LimeWire makes such content ownable and tradeable via blockchain tech, allowing creators to monetize it via an ad-revenue share…

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The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicted two individuals for allegedly operating a $25-million artificial intelligence (AI) crypto-trading Ponzi scheme.

According to the Dec. 12 announcement, Australian national David Gilbert Saffron and Los Angeles resident Vincent Anthony Mazzotta Jr. are accused of operating trading programs that “falsely promised to employ an artificial intelligence automated trading bot to trade victims’ investments in cryptocurrency markets and earn high-yield profits.”

After receiving users’ deposits, however, the two individuals allegedly spent the money on “private chartered jet flights, luxury hotel accommodations, private mansion…

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