FreeCryptoCurrency.Me

A break below the 50-day simple moving average would shift the focus to long-term support near $25,200, one analyst said.

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance will be launching its full service in Japan in August. The return was made possible by Binance’s purchase of regulated crypto exchange Sakura Exchange BitCoin last November.

Crypto exchange Binance has listed the new stablecoin First Digital USD and is offering zero trading fees for select FDUSD pairs for a limited time.

Binance won’t charge maker fees for FDUSD/BNB, FDUSD/USDT and FDUSD/BUSD spot trading pairs, as well as any new FDUSD spot and margin trading pairs, it said Wednesday. The exchange also won’t charge taker fees on the FDUSD/BUSD and FDUSD/USDT spot and margin trading pairs. (Maker fees are charged to traders who provide liquidity to the order book by placing limit orders, while taker fees are charged to traders who remove liquidity by placing market orders.)

Shortly after listing FDUSD, Binance halted its trading, citing technical issues faced by the stablecoin’s liquidity providers. The exchange said it would resume trading at 9:00 am ET today. As for zero fees trading, Binance said they will last until further notice.

Binance’s stablecoin controversy

Binance’s FDUSD listing comes amid controversy around its recent TrueUSD promotion. Last month, Binance announced zero trading fees for select TUSD pairs. Since then, the stablecoin has risen to the top fifth position in the market.

Reports have alleged that Tron founder Justin Sun might be behind TUSD, but he has denied the allegations. “I am not involved in any ownership or acquisition of TUSD,” Sun told The Block last week. “The management and operations of TUSD are entirely under the purview of Techteryx, an independent entity.”

Techteryx, an Asia-based consortium, assumed “full management of all offshore operations and services related to TUSD” last week after first purchasing it from crypto firm TrueCoin, LLC (a subsidiary of Archblock, Inc.) in December 2020.

Binance’s own BUSD stablecoin is also set to phase away as its issuer Paxos was ordered earlier this year to stop issuing the stablecoin by the New York Department of Financial Services. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said, at the time, that the exchange would eventually move away from using BUSD as the primary pair for trading.

The FDUSD stablecoin could see its supply growing with Binance’s listing. FDUSD is issued by Hong Kong-based First Digital Labs or FD121 and is part of the larger First Digital Group, which includes First Digital Trust, a qualified custodian and a registered trust company.

FDUSD is currently available on Ethereum and BNB Chain and plans to support more blockchains in the future.

© 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.

BadgerDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization focused on bringing bitcoin into DeFi, has unveiled a “purple paper” for its eBTC Protocol — enabling users to borrow synthetic bitcoin without any upfront fees or interest.

This fee-less borrowing mechanism aims to make Bitcoin accessible and affordable for users by using Lido’s liquid staking ether derivative token, stETH, as collateral, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

How eBTC works

Users deposit stETH to borrow over-collateralized eBTC without incurring initiation fees or interest charges. Instead, the protocol generates revenue by taking a percentage of accrued staking yield from the total system collateral, known as the “protocol yield share.”

To ensure the system’s solvency, eBTC employs a liquidation mechanism — meaning that if the collateral ratio of a collateralized debt position falls below a minimum of 110%, the debt position becomes eligible for liquidation. “The outstanding debt can be repaid by any market participant in exchange for some surplus collateral and the gas stipend as an incentive,” the team said.

In cases where a debt position is not liquidated despite its collateral ratio dropping below 103%, the protocol considers this under-collateralized and implements debt redistribution. Liquidators can receive the outstanding collateral at a 3% fixed discount, and any outstanding debt gets redistributed among active collateralized debt positions.

Governance and oracle mechanisms

eBTC is designed to be a trustless synthetic version of Bitcoin in DeFi, adopting a minimized governance mechanism. The approach ensures the protocol remains non-custodial and censorship-resistant while retaining some flexibility to address potential security risks, the team added.

The project’s governance can alter parameters related to fee competitiveness, peg stability, risk management and economic and technical security to adapt to market developments.

eBTC also aims to ensure reliable oracle infrastructure for price feeds based on a combination of a primary oracle provided by the decentralized oracle network Chainlink and a controlled backup oracle that kicks in automatically if the primary oracle becomes unresponsive.

The protocol aggregates price feeds from various sources for the ETH/BTC and stETH/ETH pairs to ensure accurate and reliable pricing information, the team said.

The full eBTC Protocol “purple paper” is available via Badger Finance’s Github.

© 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.

Ripple partnered with the Republic of Palau on a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin pilot. The stablecoin will be minted on the XRP Ledger and will be distributed first to Palau government employees.

“Partnering with Ripple to help create our national digital currency is part of our commitment to lead in financial innovation and technologies, which will provide the citizens of Palau with greater financial access,” Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr said, according to a press release.

Palau’s pilot project involves an initial distribution of the U.S. Dollar-backed Palau Stablecoin (PSC) to government employees. The PSC has been nicknamed ‘Kluk’ and will be deployed on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), using Ripple’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Platform. 

“The Republic of Palau Stablecoin (PSC) aka ‘Kluk’ is a prototype digitization of the US Dollar under development in partnership with Ripple, using the XRPL blockchain. If successful, the PSC limited and controlled pilot could revolutionize the way goods and services are paid for in Palau,” Palau ministry of finance Jay Hunter Anson said on Tuesday.

Ripple launched its CBDC Platform in May, describing it as a “full-service platform allowing users to seamlessly mint, manage, transact and redeem CBDCs and stablecoins.” Palau’s stablecoin pilot is the latest project to run on the platform. Ripple has claimed it is now working with over 20 governments across the globe on CBDC projects.

Ripple Labs and the Republic of Palau are scheduled to issue a joint press release about the pilot on Thursday, 9:00 a.m. Palau Time (PWT).

© 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.

Gitcoin unveiled the mainnet activation of its Layer 2 Public Goods Network (PGN).

Jointly managed by Gitcoin and third-party infrastructure provider Conduit, PGN is designed as a low cost Layer 2 solution on Ethereum that will serve as a dedicated blockchain for financing public goods — key services underpinning the infrastructure for decentralized applications and their users.

PGN is developed using OP Stack, a software tool from the developers of OP Mainnet. It joins a roster of Layer 2 projects, including the Coinbase-backed Base, Zora, and BNB Chain, which have either already been developed or are currently in development using OP Stack.

It employs Optimistic Rollups technology to aggregate Ethereum transactions on a secondary layer, aiming to reduce user transaction costs while maintaining the Ethereum network’s security features. The network is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and offers functionalities similar to the OP Mainnet, the team noted.

Funding public goods with sequencer fees

A distinguishing feature of the PGN is its approach to sequencer fees, the costs associated with processing and ordering transactions on the Layer 2 system before they’re finalized on the mainnet (Layer 1).

A significant portion of these fees on PGN will be directed to support public goods projects. “PGN will allocate the vast majority of this revenue to fund public goods, rather than channeling profits to venture capitalists,” its website states.

The network will complement Gitcoin’s established operations, continuing its focus on incentivizing open-source software development within the Ethereum ecosystem. It provides a marketplace where developers can earn financial rewards for their contributions to open-source projects, mainly via a mechanism termed “bounties.”

© 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.

Cybercriminals are increasingly resorting to hacking servers and devices remotely, forcing them to mine cryptocurrencies and bitcoin without their owners’ knowledge.

Known as cryptojacking, a report by SonicWall found the attacks increased globally by 399% over the past 12 months.

“This nefarious practice has become the new modus operandi for hackers, as organizations increasingly refuse to pay ransoms,” SonicWall EMEA vice president Spencer Starkey said.

The data suggested cybercriminals have also pivoted to this more discrete method because of increased law enforcement activity and heavy sanctions.

“The seemingly endless digital assault on enterprises, governments and global citizens is intensifying, and the threat landscape continues to expand,” SonicWall CEO Bob VanKirk said. “Threat actors are relentless, and our data indicates they are more opportunistic than ever, targeting schools, state and local governments, and retail organizations at unprecedented rates.”

Cryptojacking attacks increase globally

“The global increase of 399% in cryptojacking attacks has resulted in a greater accumulation of bitcoin by cybercriminals and nation-states,” Starkey added.

The latest data showed that this type of attack rose 479% over the past year in the UK. In the US, meanwhile, there were 214 million attacks in 2023 alone, an increase of 340%, with the attacks plaguing enterprises, cities, airlines and even schools. 

© 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 movement is the latest in a trend of early buyers and holders moving their tokens to new wallets after several years of inactivity.

For many citizens, the central bank digital currency isn’t easy to use.

Wright claims he’s Bitcoin White Paper author Satoshi Nakamoto and holds intellectual property rights on numerous cryptocurrencies