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Chorus One’s bet on Urbit’s future growth is described by executives as a natural extension of the company’s staking services on blockchains including Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos and Polkadot.

The latest price moves in bitcoin (BTC) and crypto markets in context for June 12, 2023. First Mover is CoinDesk’s daily newsletter that contextualizes the latest actions in the crypto markets.

Binance.US has experienced a staggering decline in market depth across the top 25 crypto assets — dropping by 78% since the announcement of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit brought against it, Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao on June 5.

The primary reason behind the plummeting market depth can be attributed to the swift departure of market makers from the Binance.US platform in the wake of the lawsuit, according to crypto data firm Kaiko — sparking concerns about liquidity and raising questions about the future of the exchange. 

Market depth is a key metric indicating the liquidity and depth of order books — referring to the volume of buy and sell orders at different price levels. A decrease in market depth implies reduced liquidity and potential challenges for traders executing orders.

Market makers are crucial in providing liquidity by quoting bid and ask prices. Their sudden departure has left Binance.US with limited liquidity, making it increasingly challenging for traders to execute orders effectively.

Implications for the exchange

The significant decline in market depth raises concerns for traders who rely on robust liquidity to execute trades. With the reduced availability of buy and sell orders, traders may face increased slippage and potential difficulties in obtaining desired trade execution prices. The lack of liquidity may also undermine the overall efficiency and attractiveness of the exchange, potentially further damaging it’s reputation and ability to attract users.

The SEC sued Binance last week over several alleged violations of U.S. securities laws, which the exchange said it would defend rigorously. According to crypto analytics provider Nansen, over $2.5 billion in net outflow has left Binance during the past seven days — plus over $112 million from Binance.US.

However, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao disputes such figures.

© 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.

Censo is the latest in a crop of cheap, open-source options for organizations looking to store digital assets.

Ordinals developers have introduced a method, called recursive inscriptions, to overcome Bitcoin’s 4 MB per block size limitation that restricts the size of NFTs.

Previously, inscriptions representing tokens and NFTs on Bitcoin were independent of one another, unaware of other inscriptions. The new feature allows inscriptions to reference the content of other inscriptions using a special syntax. This was brought into the Ordinals system on June 10.

“This simple change unlocks many powerful use cases,” said pseudonymous developer Leonidas, who’s building the Ord.io marketplace for inscriptions. 

Focused on on-chain inscriptions on the Bitcoin network, the Ordinals protocol came to prominence earlier this year, enabling the creation of BRC-20 tokens and NFTs and causing a surge in Bitcoin transactions and fees on the network.

Recursive inscriptions, however, can enhance efficiency and reduce costs. For example, instead of individually inscribing thousands of JPEG files for a profile picture (PFP) collection, developers can inscribe the collection’s traits and programmatically render the images through small amounts of code in subsequent inscriptions. 

The approach not only streamlines the storage of artwork on-chain but also presents the opportunity to save on transaction fees. “The art is just stored on-chain in a much more efficient way, which could have saved over a million dollars in transaction fees in the case of Bitcoin Apes,” said Leonidas.

Leonidas points out that recursive inscriptions can also be used to inscribe functioning computer code that anyone can use. NFT project OnChainMonkey has already put code on Bitcoin that it used to create 3D art with less than 1 KB of data. Yet since this code is public, anyone can now use it.

Building video games on Bitcoin

Taking the concept further, combining inscriptions can enable additional functionality beyond the 4 MB Bitcoin block limit. While the size of each inscription wouldn’t exceed this limit, the combined inscription can.

This could lead to use cases including complex 3D video games. Each part of the game’s code could be stored in different inscriptions.

Right now there are already very simple games that are stored on Bitcoin and can be interacted with. Some can be played on the Ord.io marketplace.

Beyond this, there could even be an internal internet within Bitcoin. This would effectively transform Ordinal marketplaces and explorers into Bitcoin web browsers, allowing users to surf the blockchain and explore its ecosystem.

Platforms such as the official Ordinals explorer and Ord.io will soon support recursive inscriptions, including any of the various potential use cases.

© 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.

Hyblock Capital’s global bid and ask indicator plunged 20% during Saturday’s altcoin crash, indicating a sharp deterioration in the crypto market liquidity.

Without a more solid legal framework, cryptocurrency activity will probably continue moving outside the U.S. and into decentralized entities, the report said.

Episode 55 of Season 5 of The Scoop was recorded with The Block’s Frank Chaparro, U.K. Member of Parliament Dr. Lisa Cameron, and CryptoUK Board Advisor Ian Taylor.

Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Please send feedback and revision requests to podcast@theblock.co.

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Dr. Lisa Cameron is a UK Member of Parliament and is the Chairperson of the Crypto and Digital Assets All-Party Parliamentary Group. Ian Taylor is a Board Advisor to CryptoUK — the trade association for the UK’s crypto industry.

In this episode, Dr. Cameron and Taylor share how the UK is taking steps to become a global hub for crypto and web3.

According to Dr. Cameron, the crypto industry could play an important part of the UK’s economy in the years to come:

“I can see the potential of the technology for the future of of people’s livelihoods in the UK and I want to make sure that we harness the skills here as well and that we have the correct opportunities for young people moving forward into the workforce.” 

During this conversation, Chaparro, Cameron, and Taylor also discuss:

• How the UK’s regulatory approach compares to the U.S.’s
• UK consumer protection in the wake of FTX
• Bipartisan support for crypto in the UK

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This episode is brought to you by our sponsors PayPal and CleanSpark.

About CleanSpark

CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) is America’s Bitcoin Miner™. Visit cleanspark.com/theblock to learn more about the CleanSpark way.

© 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.

Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov has deposited $24 million worth of Curve DAO (CRV) tokens to decentralized lending platform Aave to mitigate against liquidation risk on a $65 million stablecoin loan.

All eyes are on Venus Protocol, a decentralized lending platform operating within the BNB Chain ecosystem, as a significant Binance Coin (BNB) position teeters on the edge of liquidation.

This position belongs to an entity that executed a massive hack on the BNB Chain last October, resulting in the loss of an estimated $120 to $150 million in cryptocurrency assets.

Exploiting the stolen BNB, the attacker leveraged Venus Protocol to borrow $150 million worth of stablecoins with sizeable position of 900,000 BNB (approximately $210 million). This position has remained in place since the hack.

With the tumbling crypto prices since last year, the health rate of this large loan position has come down to hover precariously around 1.03, dangerously close to its liquidation point. A drop in BNB’s price to $220, down from its present rate of $231, could trigger the liquidation process.

Taking over the liquidation

Yet the BNB Chain core team is set to take over the position if it hits the liquidation threshold, as reiterated by a tweet today.

In November, a proposal was passed that meant only the core team had the permissions to liquidate the position, in order to reduce the impact on the rest of the market were it to take place.

Earlier today, the developers started acting on this responsibility. They sent $30 million of USDT from Binance to the wallet that has permission to liquidate the position, as noted by analysts at Scope Protocol and confirmed by Venus.

“The whitelisted wallet was initially funded with $30 [million] in USDT with the assurance of preventing shortfall on Venus and providing additional support through this Venus governance approved mechanism,” said Venus on Twitter.

The exploit itself

Last year’s exploit involved the hacker manipulating security proofs, capitalizing on a vulnerability related to the “iavl hash check” within the BNB bridge. By exploiting this weakness, the attacker was able to mint 2 million BNB tokens, valued at $560 million at the time. 

In response to the attack, the BNB Chain team swiftly halted the blockchain, instructing all its validators to cease operations. This decisive action aimed not only to impede the attacker’s progress but also to salvage any exploited funds that the hacker had not yet transferred to other chains.

© 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.