Monat: Februar 2023

: Den Raises $2.8M to Solve Coordination Issues for On-Chain Orgs

02/232023

• Den, a wallet startup, has closed $2.8 million in seed funding led by IDEO CoLab Ventures and was joined by Gnosis.
• Den is building tools that make it easier for crypto projects to move their operations on-chain, as well as tools to make it easier for teams to initiate transactions.
• The founders experienced the coordination problems firsthand when ConstitutionDAO bid to buy a copy of the U.S. Constitution from Sotheby’s in November 2021.

Den Raises $2.8M Seed Round

Den, a multi-signature wallet startup, has closed $2.8 million in seed funding led by IDEO CoLab Ventures with other notable participants including Gnosis. The exact valuation was not disclosed.

Tools To Streamline Crypto Projects

Den is building tools that make it easier for crypto projects to fully move their operations on-chain and solve coordination issues when it comes to multi-signature wallets. This includes bots that send out recurring notifications to automate the coordination process and tools that allow teams to initiate a transaction and understand what’s going on in a token transfer.

Coordination Challenges Experienced By Founders

The Den co-founders, who are also behind the viral hit ConstitutionDAO, experienced the coordination problem firsthand when ConstitutionDAO put in a bid to buy a copy of the U.S. Constitution from Sotheby’s in November 2021 which required them to execute a single transaction worth over $40 million of Ethereum (ETH).

IDEO CoLab Ventures Leads Funding Round

IDEO CoLab Ventures led the round with participation from Gnosis and other unnamed investors – though the full valuation was not disclosed by Den at this time.

Conclusion

By solving coordination issues between multi-signature wallets and offering automated notifications for token transfers, Den is helping streamline blockchain based operations for crypto projects all around the world – something they have personally seen first hand with their involvement with ConstitutionDAO’s purchase of an original copy of the U.S constitution last year from Sotheby’s auction house

Binance CEO Distances Himself From BUSD Stablecoin as Regulators Act

02/152023

• Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has distanced himself from the BUSD stablecoin following regulatory action.
• CZ stated that Binance has an agreement to let Paxos use their brand, but that they did not create the coin.
• Zhao also expressed skepticism about claims that Circle had raised alarm bells with regulators.

Binance CEO Distances Himself From BUSD Stablecoin

Binance’s Chief Executive Officer Changpeng „CZ“ Zhao distanced himself from the Binance-branded stablecoin BUSD, after regulatory action caused minting to cease. CZ said at a Twitter Spaces on Tuesday that „BUSD is not issued by Binance,“ and that they only have an agreement to let Paxos use their brand.

Regulators Act Following Minting Cease

On Monday, it was reported that BUSD issuer Paxos would stop minting new tokens following a request from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). The cryptocurrency, which is pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar, had been accused of constituting an unregistered security by regulators.

Working With Other Stablecoins

Despite this setback, CZ stated that they will continue working with other stablecoin issuers or creators, citing existing support for USD coin (USDC) and tether (USDT). He also expressed skepticism about claims that rival stablecoin issuer Circle had raised alarm bells with regulators.

Mounting U.S Crypto Regulatory Pressure

The news comes amid mounting US crypto regulatory pressure as authorities seek to enforce stricter compliance standards in the industry. It remains unclear what further action could be taken against entities involved in providing services related to the tokenized asset class in future months and years ahead.

Industry Implications

The implications of these latest developments are yet to be fully understood by those in the industry, but it seems likely that more stringent regulations could cause disruption across various service providers going forward as authorities look increasingly closely at cryptocurrencies and stablecoins issued in their respective jurisdictions.

Bitcoin Holds Near $23K as Investors Weigh Next Steps

02/072023

• Bitcoin traded near $23,000 Monday afternoon.
• Ether traded sideways at around $1,635.
• Traditional markets declined as investors weighed the Federal Reserve’s response to strong employment data.

Bitcoin Holds Steady Near $23K

Bitcoin (BTC) traded near $23,000 Monday afternoon despite a fifth consecutive day of dips. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was down about a half a percentage point over the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinDesk. The CoinDesk Market Index, which measures overall crypto market performance, was up 1% for the day.

Ether Also Sideways

Ether (ETH), the second-largest crypto in market value, edged higher by 1.3% to recently trade at $1,640. Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at forex services firm Oanda noted that Bitcoin has “had a few rough sessions but broadly speaking it still looks in good shape” and is not far from its highs this year.

Equities Decline

Traditional markets kicked off a new week lower as investors mulled the U.S. Federal Reserve’s response to strong employment data released on Friday. The S&P 500 index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed down 0.6% and 1%, respectively, during the afternoon trading session while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was down 0.1%. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter point last week after eight months of more hawkish rate hikes in response to dwindling inflation levels without plunging U.S economy into recession levels yet again .

Investors Weigh Their Next Steps

Job numbers gave credence or credibility to the fact that the Fed couldn’t leave rates high for too long and had to start bringing them back down eventually which sent crypto assets below $23,000 over the weekend after it breached $24,000 on a couple of occasions last week . Investors are now weighing their next steps as they anticipate further responses from central banks around world and evaluate conditions in equity markets as well as other asset classes such as commodities which have been volatile lately .

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LayerZero Denies Allegations of Secret ‚Backdoor‘: Uniswap Vote Looms

02/012023

• LayerZero, a cross-chain bridging service, was accused of having a “backdoor” vulnerability in its code.
• The co-founder of LayerZero denied the allegations, claiming that all applications have the ability to set their own security parameters.
• Uniswap is voting on whether to partner with LayerZero, which could be the motivation behind the allegations.

Allegations Against LayerZero

James Prestwich, founder of the cross-chain bridging service Nomad, alleged in a blog post on Monday that LayerZero can bypass security controls in order to pass data between blockchains without anyone’s permission. He claimed that LayerZero has an undisclosed capability of a trusted party, which can compromise the function of the system.

LayerZero Denial

Bryan Pellegrino, a co-founder of LayerZero, said the project does have backdoor-like capabilities but denied the platform has ever tried to hide them. He said all applications have the ability to set their own security parameters and there is nothing anybody can do unless they configure it themselves.

Uniswap Vote

Pellegrino suggested Prestwich’s motives may be tied to an upcoming Uniswap governance vote to pick a bridge provider. Uniswap is considering partnering with LayerZero which could be behind these allegations from its competitor Nomad.

Motives Behind Allegations

Pellegrino suggested Prestwich’s motives may be tied to an upcoming Uniswap governance vote to pick a bridge provider. By making these accusations he may be hoping it will influence people’s opinion when voting for who should become Uniswap’s bridge provider.

Conclusion

It remains unclear why Prestwich chose now as his time for making these accusations against LayzerZero or if they are true or false. Until further evidence arises it appears that this is yet another battle between two competing companies trying to win over Uniswap as its bridge provider partner.