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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched its review of the latest bitcoin exchange-traded-fund (ETF) applications.

The native token of decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator 1inch (1INCH) has risen by more than 30% in the past 24-hours as trading volume hit $597 million, its highest level since October, 2021.

ConsenSys, the Ethereum developer behind MetaMask, held talks with investors over the summer about a potential capital injection. But the company insists it doesn’t need money and isn’t actively fundraising.

The blockchain firm has met with multiple investors about fundraising in recent weeks, according to four people familiar with the matter.

ConsenSys last raised capital in early 2022 in a $450 million Series D round led by ParaFi Capital that valued the startup at $7 billion. Deep-pocketed backers like SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Temasek and Microsoft also participated.

A ConsenSys spokesperson brushed off the talks, stating that while the startup sometimes considers “inbound investor interest,” it still has plenty of cash.

“Consensys has been widely perceived as the winner after the debacles of 2022,” the spokesperson said.

“Consequently, the company has experienced a significant influx of inbound investor interest, fueled in part by inaccurate reporting on the secondary market activity in our stock earlier this year,” the spokesperson continued, adding that the company doesn’t need money and is “not actively engaged in a formal process.” 

Asked about those inaccuracies, the spokesperson clarified that secondary markets represent “a tiny fraction” of transactions in ConsenSys stock. 

Secondary market discounts

News of the talks comes after a period in which the shares of numerous highly valued, privately held crypto startups — ConsenSys among them — have traded at significant discounts on secondary market platforms. 

Two of the people familiar with ConsenSys’s recent funding discussions said that any resulting raise would be a “down round,” valuing the firm at less than $7 billion. ConsenSys again dismissed that claim.

“Consensys is highly capitalized and has demonstrated strong performance across all areas year to date,” the company spokesperson said. “Therefore, our existing shareholders have no intention of accepting any dilution on terms inferior to our Series D. Any claims suggesting engagement with the company regarding discussions of a down round would be providing you with inaccurate information and may be an attempt to negotiate via the press on their part.” 

They added that ConsenSys has, in fact, been making use of its capital to hoover up its own shares.

“The company has ample cash, believes nearly all of the proposed secondary transactions we have been given notice of this year significantly undervalued the company and have been exercising our right of first refusal on them, accordingly,” the spokesperson said.

ConsenSys has developed half a dozen core products, all aimed at widening access to the Ethereum ecosystem. Crypto wallet MetaMask and Infura, the developer platform, are its flagship tools. It recently unveiled a Layer 2 network called Linea, which aims to make Ethereum transactions up to 15 times cheaper.

© 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 crypto-based debit card will allow web3 users to use their stablecoins to pay for products in everyday life.

The decentralized social graph project, Lens Protocol, has released version 2 of its platform, incorporating enhanced external smart contract functionality called “Open Actions” and the ERC-6551 token standard.

The main change brought with the second version of Lens is “Open Actions,” a feature that enables the execution of any external smart contract action directly from Lens’ content posts. For example, with this feature, users can mint non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on an OpenSea contract directly from Lens’ published content.

“By plugging into any web3 social application and supporting two-way integrations, Lens Open Actions extends the composability and modularity of Lens itself,” the team said in a statement.

Lens Protocol’s new version also integrates the platform with the ERC-6551 token standard, thereby allowing NFTs’ ownership to be attached to other assets and interact with applications.

In this new framework, NFTs’ ownership can be assigned to profiles instead of their owner’s address, thereby granting them the capability for advanced integrations. For instance, a virtual land in the metaverse can now be programmed to own its Lens profile and interact with its land users.

Launched on Polygon in May 2022, Lens Protocol is a decentralized social graph used to construct social media platforms. It facilitates the storage of social media activity via NFTs and on-chain data.

In June, Lens Protocol announced a $15 million funding round led by IDEO CoLab Ventures. The team is also working on a blockchain scaling solution named Momoka, which is designed to store social media transaction data off-chain while verifying them on-chain.

© 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.

Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain Mantle Network has officially launched its mainnet alpha at the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) in Paris. 

The launch follows six months of development and testing, during which the network processed over 14 million on-chain transactions, according to a statement. “The testnet phase concluded following multiple security audits that helped remove potential risks and vulnerabilities,” Mantle said.

Following its merger with backer BitDAO in May, which amalgamated BitDAO’s governance framework and treasury with the network, Mantle is now backed by one of the largest treasuries in crypto — worth over $2.4 billion.

Modular design

Unlike monolithic blockchains that funnel all transactions through the same layer, the Ethereum-compatible Mantle Network takes a modular chain approach, separating execution, data availability, consensus and settlement into distinct layers, Mantle said.

Mantle’s modular architecture, Optimistic Rollup design and availability of data in collaboration with the ether restaking protocol EigenLayer, aims to combine high performance with low costs while retaining Ethereum’s decentralization and security, it added.

Arbitrum and Optimism currently dominate the Ethereum Layer 2 Optimistic Rollup landscape, with more than $5.9 billion in combined value locked, according to The Block’s data dashboard.

‘L2 summer’

Mantle said this design meant upgrades could be implemented swiftly by swapping modular components in and out, potentially paving the way for the adoption of the latest Ethereum improvements like account abstraction. Account abstraction allows wallets to work similarly to smart contracts and handle more complex tasks automatically.

“Mantle Network is the first among the L2 blockchains currently in testnet to hit mainnet, and the only modular chain amongst a forest of monoliths,” Mantle strategic advisor Jordi Alexander said. “As this burgeoning space sizzles on the eve of ‘L2 Summer’, the agility enabled by Mantle Network’s adaptive and iterative design will keep it at the bleeding edge of the latest technological breakthroughs for years to come.”

The scalability of the Layer 2 opens up use cases like more advanced blockchain gaming, DeFi and social protocols without incurring high fees, Mantle added.

Ecosystem fund

Mantle’s mainnet alpha launches with partners including blockchain gaming accelerator Game7, web3 game launcher HyperPlay and blockchain education initiative EduDAO. Infrastructure providers and dApps like Ankr, Bullieverse, Covalent, LayerZero and The Graph also contribute to the network.

The DAO-led ecosystem recently approved a $200 million ecosystem fund to support the development of early-stage dApps on the Ethereum Layer 2, which it proposed last week.

The fund launched in collaboration with venture partners including Animoca Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Figment Capital, Hashkey Capital, Pantera Capital, QCP Capital and SevenX Ventures and is operated by Mirana Ventures.

© 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 domain provider will also offer auto renewal for the .eth domains as well as the ability to use fiat payment methods like credit cards.

Crypto exchange Binance has completed the integration of the Bitcoin Lightning Network, enabling faster and cheaper bitcoin transactions for users.

Binance first hinted at the Lightning Network integration in May and then set up Lightning nodes in June. Today’s full integration means Binance users can now deposit and withdraw bitcoin via the Layer 2 network.

The Bitcoin Lightning Network sets up direct payment channels between users, allowing them to conduct off-chain transactions with minimal fees later settled on the main Bitcoin blockchain. Direct payment channels make sending and receiving bitcoin easier without congesting the main chain.

Lightning Network adoption

Lightning Network adoption has continued to grow over the last year, with its current total capacity of over 5,000 bitcoin (about $152 million), according to The Block’s Data Dashboard. The Lightning Network capacity represents the total sum of bitcoin that can be transacted through the network at a given time.

Binance joins several crypto exchanges offering Lightning Network services to users, including Kraken and Bitfinex. In April, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong also suggested that the exchange would integrate the Lightning Network 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.

The next halving will see a reduction in miners’ revenues and an increase in bitcoin production costs at the same time, the report said.