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Mutiny Wallet, a self-custodial Lightning wallet operating on the web, has reached its public beta phase, helping users to control their own funds without relying on Apple or Google app store downloads.

Stringent app store requirements mean many bitcoin wallets get stripped of features like tipping users or paying for digital content, Mutiny said in a blog post yesterday, claiming to make bitcoin more accessible to the 5 billion global internet users with access to a web browser.

The Nostr-based decentralized Twitter alternative Damus is one such example, with Apple warning it would remove the app from its store unless it dropped its Lightning tipping feature last month. Apple also rejected the latest version of the Lightning-enabled bitcoin wallet app Zeus, as it facilitated “the transmission of a virtual currency but was not submitted by a corresponding exchange or recognized financial institution.”

Mutiny Wallet said it leveraged the Lightning Development Kit project from Jack Dorsey’s Block, which offers developers customizable control over every aspect of the Lightning stack, including the ability to compile it for the web. 

To simplify liquidity management for users, the wallet firm also partnered with Lightning infrastructure project Voltage to help users receive payments without worrying about opening channels or managing liquidity. This means users can receive their first Lightning payment within seconds of launching the application.

Lightning Network operates as a network of bi-directional payment channels on top of the Bitcoin blockchain, designed to enable fast and cost-effective micropayments. It offers a solution to the slower transaction speeds and higher fees associated with Bitcoin’s mainnet, enabling users to transact directly without immediate settlement on the main blockchain.

Unified balances

While Mutiny said unified balances were an end goal for the wallet — abstracting away the distinction between users’ on-chain bitcoin and Lightning Network balances — the wallet still segregates funds locked up in Lightning channels from those available for on-chain spending for now. The team noted it made this trade-off to provide users with greater control over their funds but that when splicing becomes more widely available it would help solve the complexities of unified balances.

Splicing technology enables users to add or remove funds to a single channel, eliminating the need for multiple channels per user. Bitcoin self-custodial Lightning wallet Phoenix launched its third-generation wallet earlier this week, introducing splicing technology.

Mutiny Wallet secures on-chain funds using a seed phrase and offers encrypted and remote storage to restore users’ Lightning-related data in case of clearing browser storage or migrating their device. In the future, Mutiny plans to enable the same wallet to be used across multiple devices simultaneously but warned, “Please stay on a single device for now, bad things will happen otherwise.”

Nostr connections for social tipping

Nostr’s open protocol enables decentralized and censorship-resistant social media. Mutiny Wallet also incorporates Nostr Wallet Connect, allowing users to request payments directly from their wallet, facilitating social tipping on nostr clients like Damus and Amethyst and enabling further decentralized payment integrations like subscriptions. While payments currently require manual approval, Mutiny Wallet plans to introduce automatic payments in the future.

Mutiny Wallet acknowledged that the beta phase may still encounter some bugs and limitations, urging caution when loading large amounts of funds into the wallet during this early stage. However, the Mutiny Wallet team said it welcomed feedback from the community and was committed to stamping out any remaining bugs and shipping new features quickly, with the aim of creating a “normie-ready” wallet that appeals to both bitcoin enthusiasts and newcomers alike.

In April, Mutiny Wallet announced it had raised $300,000 during a pre-seed funding round.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The cryptocurrency XRP witnessed a remarkable surge in trading volume on Thursday, following a federal court ruling stating that some “programmatic” transactions of the digital asset did not constitute the sale of securities. This decision has opened the doors for exchanges to relist the asset after over two years.

According to data from CoinGecko, the 24-hour trading volume experienced a dramatic surge, jumping from $613 million to $11.2 billion between July 13 and 14, representing an 18-fold increase within a single day.

The mixed ruling was handed down by the Southern District Court of New York in the ongoing lawsuit between the Securities and Exchange Commission and XRP developer Ripple Labs. This lawsuit initially resulted in many U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchanges halting trading of XRP at the end of 2020. The future of the lawsuit remains uncertain, as the case may now go to trial.

In reaction to this development, crypto exchange platforms including Coinbase, Kraken and Crypto.com have opted to relist the asset. Similarly, Gemini, another major player in the market, announced that it was exploring the possibility of relisting XRP.

The market’s reaction was swift and dramatic. XRP’s value appreciated by 85% after the ruling was announced, rallying from $0.47 to $0.87 within a span of three hours on Thursday. Although the token’s price subsequently receded slightly, it currently trades at $0.78.

XRP-USDT market | Source: Binance (via Tradingview)

Additionally, XRP’s market capitalization saw a boost to $40.8 billion in the past 24 hours. This rise has positioned XRP as the fourth largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, trailing only behind Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Tether USD (USDT).

In the derivatives market, data from CoinGlass shows that the aggregated volume-weighted derivatives funding rates have climbed to the highest level for the year, at 0.014% globally. When the funding rates increase, it typically indicates that there are more traders holding long positions, which means more traders are betting on the price to increase. Meanwhile, the open interest for XRP derivatives currently stands at $1.08 billion, also the highest for the year.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The SEC has officially acknowledged Bitwise’s spot bitcoin application. The San Francisco-based digital asset manager first filed for a spot Bitcoin ETF in October 2021, but amended and refiled their application on June 28 of this year.

“Notice of filing of a proposed rule change to list and trade shares of the Bitwise bitcoin ETP Trust under the New York Stock Exchange ARCA Rule 8.201-E, commodity-based trust shares,” the SEC notice said.

Bitwise’s filing follows a host of institutional applications, fueled by BlackRock’s June 15 spot Bitcoin ETF application.

Following in BlackRock’s footsteps

Referring to the firm’s re-filing, Bitwise’s Chief Investment Officer Matthew Hougan told CoinDesk: “You have to listen when Blackrock comes to the market, because they’re the largest ETF issuer in the world, they are very careful and connected.”

“I would be lying if I didn’t say that that was an important signal,” he said.

Hougan said he couldn’t elaborate on a specific surveillance-sharing agreement for Bitwise’s ETF. “The most successful spot Bitcoin ETF application will need to include multiple pieces of analysis. These include analysis focusing on the CME market and obviously surveillance-sharing agreements are an interesting idea. But, I think it is going to be a more holistic approach that Bitwise will take,” he added.

The collective assets under management (AUM) of BlackRock, Fidelity, Invesco, WisdomTree, VanEck, Ark Invest, Valkyrie, and Bitwise Asset Management, all of whom have recently resubmitted filings for a spot Bitcoin ETF, total approximately $15.39 trillion.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

MultiversX, formerly Elrond, introduced Guardians, an opt-in, on-chain two-factor authentication (2FA) security standard that aims to mitigate the risk of crypto scams and theft.

By leveraging popular 2FA methods like Microsoft Authenticator, Authy or Google Authenticator, users can ensure that only authorized actions are performed on their accounts, MultiversX said in a statement.

Cryptocurrency users have long been vulnerable to various scams and thefts, tricking them into validating fraudulent transactions and resulting in the loss of billions of dollars each year. A report from the Federal Trade Commission revealed that crypto phishing attacks alone lead to losses of over $1 billion annually. More broadly, total DeFi exploits are approaching $3 billion in funds stolen, according to The Block’s data dashboard.

Battle-tested

With Guardians, users gain an added layer of security against common scams and thefts, MultiversX said, claiming that even in the event of compromised private keys, users can maintain control of their funds.

“The Guardians feature has been thoroughly battle-tested in a public $20,000 hacking competition, where hundreds of participants, including security experts, unsuccessfully tried to get the bounty from a guarded account despite knowing the 24 words secret phrase that has been leaked publicly,” it said.

“We still see too many users losing funds because they share their keys with strangers or on fake websites,” MultiversX CEO Beniamin Mincu added. The cost of not taking action is easily in the billions of dollars and a significant obstacle adoption-wise. Guardians introduce an industry-first protection for users and make wallet accounts resilient against the most common scams and theft.”

The feature has already been integrated into multiple wallet solutions with a combined 1 million users, MultiversX claimed.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Cross-chain project Multichain has confirmed, after weeks of rumors, that its CEO Zhaojun was detained by Chinese police and is still under custody.

The project said that Chinese police took his computers, phones, hardware wallets, and mnemonic phrases. While the project is protected by multi-party computation, the servers running this were controlled by Zhaojun’s personal cloud server account. As a result, when he was detained, those who would normally sign such transactions had their access revoked — hence why the project was unable to initially fix its technical issues.

The project noted that all operational funds and investor funds were under Zhaojun’s control and are now with the Chinese police.

On June 4, Multichain team engineers managed to fix the project’s technical issues after getting access via historical information on Zhaojun’s home computer.

On July 7, funds were moved abnormally from the network. The cloud server platform showed a login from an IP address in Kunming, China, according to Zhaojun’s sister, the project said. Two days later, she transferred $220 million of remaining user assets — primarily stablecoins and ether — into new wallets under her control.

On July 13, Chinese police took Zhaojun’s sister into custody too, the project said, and the project is unclear about the status of the assets.

“Due to the lack of alternative sources of information and corresponding operational funds, the team is forced to cease operations,” it said.

Multichain also explained that it did not disclose the information that Zhaojun was detained throughout the last few weeks due to local laws and regulations. At first it said there was a force majeure incidence and later said it had lost contact with the CEO but had not confirmed that he was detained.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.