A new Ethereum layer-2 rollup, announced Monday, has already attracted $27 million in total value locked (TVL), but there’s a twist: It doesn’t yet exist.

The promised network, Blast, would launch as an optimistic rollup in February 2024, but its backers immediately began soliciting deposits into a smart contract “bridge.”

In the span of half a day, the contract has amassed enough ether (ETH) and dai (DAI) to put it at number 16 in L2Beat’s TVL rankings, ahead of established names such as derivatives DEX Aevo and Arbitrum Nova.

The announcement touts Blast as “the only Ethereum L2 with native yield for ETH and stablecoins,” meaning it taps into Ethereum staking yield by…

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Today at 3 PM ET, the Department of Justice is set to make a significant announcement, revealing a series of enforcement actions targeting the cryptocurrency sector. This highly anticipated declaration marks a pivotal moment in the regulation and oversight of digital currencies, reflecting the DOJ’s increased focus on this evolving financial landscape. The details of the enforcement actions are eagerly awaited by both the cryptocurrency community and regulatory observers.

Bitcoin (BTC) bought on exchanges every year since 2017 is now on average in profit, the latest data confirms.

Compiled by on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, exchange withdrawal figures confirm that at $37,000, a user’s purchase is on aggregate “in the black.”

Bitcoin exchange users claw back bear market losses

Bitcoin returned multiple investor cohorts to profit when it retook $30,000 last month, but current prices are having an impact on BTC buyers who entered much earlier.

According to Glassnode, which monitors the aggregate price at which coins left exchange wallets each year since 2017, $34,700 is the magic number for turning a profit on investment.

Put another way, anyone who…

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A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is taking legal action against its founding team after a decision to dissolve its governing body and distribute most of its assets to the holders of their tokens. 

On Nov. 2, the team behind Aragon announced that it would be dissolving the Aragon Association. The group said it’s deploying the organization’s treasury so that holders of the ANT token can redeem Ether (ETH) in exchange for their tokens. The update will give back around $155 million in digital assets to its stakeholders.

Citing various reasons, the team behind Aragon shut down the ANT Token and dissolved its governing body without consulting the DAO. This has angered a…

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Tether’s bank partner Britannia Financial is reportedly facing a lawsuit over claims it failed to pay the full price of revenue-generating assets allegedly related to a large deposit from Tether.

Arbitral International, a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, has sued Britannia over a $1 billion deposit from Tether, the Financial Times reported on Nov. 21, citing court documents filed in the High Court of Justice in London in 2023.

The lawsuit relates to Britannia’s acquisition of Arbitral’s Bahamas-based brokerage business known as Arbitral Securities. Britannia announced the acquisition in October 2021, integrating the brokerage into its own brokerage, Britannia…

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In the rapidly evolving realm of DeFi, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) stand as a cornerstone, enabling seamless transactions in a trustless environment. 

At the heart of these exchanges lies the mechanism of order matching, a crucial process that pairs buyers with sellers, facilitating the exchange of assets. Traditionally (on order book-based exchanges), order matching has been centralized, with a single entity overseeing the process to ensure efficiency and accuracy. 

However, the advent of blockchain technology has paved the way for decentralized order-matching systems, promising to align DEXs with the ethos of decentralization further. 

Centralized and decentralized order batchers…

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Crypto community members on X (formerly Twitter) have turned their focus onto a $3.9 billion Tether (USDT) transaction between Binance wallets that surfaced on social media, following reports claiming that the United States Justice Department is negotiating a $4 billion settlement with the company. 

On Nov. 20, a Bloomberg report citing anonymous sources said that the Justice Department is negotiating an agreement with crypto exchange Binance requiring the company to pay $4 billion in fines. Once paid, the firm will be allowed to operate in the U.S. while complying with its laws. The report said this could be announced as soon as the end of November.

On Nov. 9, Binance transferred 3.9…

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