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What are we really doing here?
“Uli doesn’t care about anything. He’s a Nihilist. Ah, that must be exhausting.”
— Bunny Lebowski, The Big Lebowski
I’ve been thinking a lot about use cases, adoption in crypto and what we’re really doing here.
Bitcoin is up 30% year to date, and yet the vibes have felt like we’re in a bear market. Every altcoin has sunk under the weight of inflated high-fdv, low-float launch strategies and governance tokens that cannot pass on any value accrual to holders due to the regulatory…
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Toronto-based holding company Cypherpunk Holdings has rebranded to Sol Strategies in a pivot to a Solana-first investment approach, the firm disclosed today.
Following the rebrand, Sol Strategies will begin focusing on staking Solana and investing in the Solana ecosystem’s projects and infrastructure, the company said in a press release. The strategy shift was unanimously approved by the company’s board of directors at its July 30 shareholder meeting, Sol Strategies said in a press release.
Cypherpunk Holdings has been scaling…
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Coinbase is moving forward with the launch of cbBTC, an ERC-20 tokenized bitcoin that will go live on Base and other Ethereum ecosystems.
The new bitcoin token will be backed 1:1 by bitcoin reserves and presumably held in centralized custody by Coinbase.
Coinbase first teased the impending cbBTC on Aug. 14 amid a swirl of controversy surrounding BitGo. Today, it was formally announced.
This marks the first significant competitive threat to BitGo’s wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), which controls a dominant 96.6% market share across the Ethereum ecosystem today, according to Dune.
Read more: BitGo moves to allay fears over WBTC custodial changes
Coinbase’s tweet claims cbBTC will be available…
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Stablecoins are having a moment, that much is clear.
As the rest of crypto trades sideways, the market capitalization of stablecoins has steadily increased. It sits now at $170 million, per rwa.xzy, though there has been a slight dip over the past few days.
Castle Island Ventures, alongside Artemis, Visa and Brevan Howard Digital made a new survey that looks into the prevalence of stablecoins in certain emerging markets. The survey looked into roughly 2,500 crypto users in Nigeria, India, Turkey, Indonesia and Brazil.
“Our survey results contradict the common belief that stablecoins are exclusively used as a tool for the speculative trading of crypto assets. Forty-seven percent of…
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Cross-chain swaps are getting a boost with the latest version of Squid, launched today.
Squid 2.0 introduces a new architecture that abstracts away chains to simplify even complex transaction flows with multiple hops.
The update includes performance and cost improvements, and expands Squid 2.0’s functionality into new areas such as 1:1 stablecoin transfers, real-world asset (RWA) transactions and advanced routing.
This new approach goes far beyond finding the most efficient bridge routes, according to Fig, Squid’s co-founder.
“We are a bridging tool in a certain way, but we think that we can change the way that swaps are also done,” Fig told Blockworks.
Read more: Squid enables…
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The Securities and Exchange Commission has reached a settlement with eToro.
eToro was charged with operating as an unregistered broker in connection with its crypto trading platform. As part of the settlement, eToro will end most of its crypto trading activity on the platform, according to the Thursday announcement from the SEC.
Earlier this week, eToro announced that it would alter its crypto offerings “due to the regulatory environment.”
US users can only trade bitcoin, bitcoin cash and ether. Other positions will be liquidated in mid-March of next year.
“Proceeds from these liquidations will be transferred to users’ available cash balance in their investment accounts,” the…
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Bitcoin mining has seen exponential growth since the first ASIC miner was shipped in 2013, improving hardware efficiency from 1,200 J/TH to just 15 J/TH. While these advancements were driven by better chip technology, we’re now reaching the limits of silicon-based semiconductors. As further efficiency gains plateau, the focus must shift to optimizing other aspects of mining operations—particularly the power setup.
Three-phase power has emerged as a superior alternative to single-phase power in bitcoin mining. With more ASICs being designed for three-phase voltage input, future mining infrastructure should consider adopting a uniform 480v three-phase system, especially given its…
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Bitcoin is expected to reach new all-time highs by the end of 2024, according to Geoff Kendrick, Standard Chartered’s head of forex and digital assets research. He forecasts Bitcoin hitting $125,000 if Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidential election and $75,000 if Kamala Harris is elected. Kendrick notes that Bitcoin’s price is less dependent on election outcomes than in previous cycles, with strong fundamentals driving its growth.
Kendrick highlights regulatory progress, including the potential repeal of SAB 121, which restricts banks’ digital asset holdings, as a key driver for Bitcoin’s price. These changes are expected to continue in 2025, regardless of the election results. In addition, positive trends in U.S. Treasury markets are creating momentum for Bitcoin’s long-term growth.
Although Trump’s victory is seen as more favorable for crypto, a Harris win may initially trigger a price dip. However, Kendrick believes other factors, including regulatory progress and market resilience, will keep Bitcoin on a bullish trajectory.