Cryptocurency

Decentralized applications could tap into improved privacy features as blockchain firm Oasis launches its confidential EVM-compatible blockchain Sapphire. Sapphire and the Oasis Privacy Layer (OPL) are now live, allowing existing decentralized applications (DApp) on Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) networks to make use of the blockchain’s privacy-first features without having to carry out cross-chain swaps for

While account abstraction in Ethereum is perceived to be a catalyst that could onboard a billion users, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared some challenges in implementing the new feature on the blockchain.  Buterin, speaking on July 18 at the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) event in Paris, explained some of the key innovations that modern account

Bitcoin (BTC) remains stuck inside a narrow range, making it difficult to predict the direction of the next possible breakout. The United States dollar index (DXY), which generally moves in inverse correlation to Bitcoin, dropped below 100 but that has failed to propel Bitcoin higher. This suggests that Bitcoin is charting its own course in

CLabs, the organization responsible for developing the Celo blockchain, is seeking to return to the Ethereum ecosystem by transitioning from an independent EVM-compatible layer-1 blockchain to an Ethereum layer-2 solution.  According to a proposal discussion on Celo’s governance forum, the transition would include leveraging OP Stack as the architecture to become an Ethereum L2 blockchain,

The cryptocurrency market has encountered its share of ups and downs over the past year, but blockchain technology continues to see impressive growth as businesses seek digital transformation.  Recent findings from the market research platform, MarketsandMarkets, estimated the global blockchain market size to be $7.4 billion in 2022. While notable, the report indicates that the

Crypto mining firm Hive Blockchain is now calling itself Hive Digital Technologies — after enacting a branding pivot that seeks to highlight its foray into artificial intelligence. The Vancour-based mining company said in a July 12 statement it has dropped “blockchain” from its name to better represent the company’s “evolving focus” on revenue opportunities in

Lending protocol Geist Finance is shutting down permanently due to losses from the Multichain exploit, according to a July 14 social media post from the app’s development team. Geist contracts were been paused on July 6, then resumed in “withdraw and repay only” mode on July 9. The latest post confirms the team does not

Coinbase’s Base mainnet is now “open for builders,” according to a July 13 blog post from the network’s development team. The team is opening the network to builders ahead of its public launch to allow more time  for user onboarding. Base also announced that the public launch of the network will occur in August. Since

Ethereum (ETH) scaling protocols are dominating the use of zero-knowledge (ZK) rollups, with major launches, new research and healthy competition key points in a sector report published by ZK Validator. The node infrastructure operator’s “State of ZK Q2” report reflects on significant events across the ZK ecosystem, with notable launches of ZK-powered layer 2’s highlighting the

In this week’s newsletter, read about Ethereum nonfungible token (NFT) royalties hitting their lowest point in two years. Check out Bitcoin Ordinals trading volume, which hit $210 million in the second quarter of 2023, and how a decentralized finance (DeFi) borrower used an NFT representing a physical luxury watch to take out a loan. In

A person is using the Multichain Executor to drain tokens associated with the AnySwap bridging protocol, according to a July 10 report from on-chain sleuth and Twitter user Spreek. The report follows outflows of over $100 million from Multichain bridges that occurred on July 7, which were reported by the Multichain team as “abnormal.” The

The Arcadia Finance attacker used a reentrancy exploit to drain $455,000 from the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, according to a July 10 post-mortem report issued by the app’s development team. A “reentrancy exploit” is a bug that allows an attacker to “re-enter” a contract or interrupt it during a multi-step process, preventing the process from

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes the Bitcoin network needs scalable solutions like the zero-knowledge (ZK) rollups to become more than another payment network. Buterin’s comments came during a Twitter space hosted by Bitcoin developer Udi Wertheimer with discussions revolving around Ethereum’s scaling experiments. A ZK-rollup chain is an off-chain protocol that operates on top of

The news surrounding BlackRock’s application for a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (EFT) sent the asset’s price from its local lows in mid-June to a strong monthly close of +12%. To most observers, this was a sign that institutional investment into the cryptosphere is once again on the horizon. A future approval of a spot

Blockchain network Avail has launched a testnet data availability bridge to Ethereum, according to a July 7 announcement. Once testing is completed, the bridge will allow developers to easily create “validiums” or low-cost layer 2s that do not store full transaction data on Ethereum, the announcement stated. Avail was originally created by Polygon Labs, but

Layer-2 blockchain Public Goods Network launched a testnet on July 7, promising to spend “the vast majority of net sequencer fees” on public goods instead of paying them out to the development team or token holders, according to an announcement from the network’s developers. In economics, a “public good” is a good that cannot be

A decentralized finance “circuit breaker” could have prevented billions of dollars worth of crypto being stolen from DeFi protocols in 2022, according to the developer of the newly published ERC-7265 proposal. A new Ethereum request for comment (ERC) was published on Github on July 3. In it, the lead developer Diyahir Campos proposed a standard

Zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs) are a key technology explored by many in the crypto industry. A zero-knowledge protocol is a cryptographic method that allows one party to prove to another party that something is true without revealing any information.  The technology is vital for Ethereum layer-2 solutions to achieve blockchain scalability, and to the privacy and

Crypto exchange dYdX has launched a public testnet of its V4 iteration, according to a July 5 announcement from the exchange’s development team. This marks the completion of “milestone 4” out of five, paving the way for a future V4 mainnet launch. Once implemented on mainnet, V4 is expected to allow for “full decentralization” of

Account abstraction, also known as “smart accounts” could eventually onboard a billion users from the Asia region to Web3, according to an executive at Ethereum software solutions provider ConsenSys. Speaking to Cointelegraph, the director of strategic initiatives at ConsenSys, Laura Shi, noted that the Ethereum and Web3 ecosystem has seen a strong expansion in Asia