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The leading game retailer will distribute Telos-based games on its forthcoming Web3 gaming launchpad, GameStop Playr.

The TON Foundation proposed introducing a burn mechanism that would destroy 50% of all transaction fees on the TON network. 

This is a similar strategy to Ethereum’s EIP-1559 upgrade, which saw a massive reduction in Ethereum’s network inflation because the burn amounts have been so large. Only this proposed burn will have a much smaller impact on TON’s level of inflation because transaction fees are dwarfed by the network’s staking rewards.

“In the short term, the deflationary impact may seem modest, estimated at roughly 350-400 Toncoin daily, given a daily issuance rate of 71,000 Toncoin,” said Kirill Emelyanenko, a core lead developer at TON Foundation. “However, as the network volume grows, this number has the potential to increase significantly, leading to visible deflation in both the total and circulating supply.”

If the burn mechanism is implemented, when a user makes a transaction on the network, a portion of those tokens would be burned, with the remaining going to the validator as usual. The validator will also continue to receive staking rewards for helping to run the network.

The TON Foundation proposed that the burn mechanism be set at 50%, but Emelyanenko noted that this would be subject to the decision of the validators and its community.

The proposal will need to get approved by the majority of TON validators to be enacted. It has already been passed to the validators and discussions are underway.

© 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.

Formula 1’s top-performing team Red Bull Racing is partnering with yet another crypto company.

Red Bull Racing and Mysten Labs have announced a new partnership that will utilize Mysten’s Sui blockchain, which launched earlier this month. As part of the deal, Mysten will create “immersive experiences for fans” on behalf of the team, while the Sui logo appears on both Red Bull Racing’s cars and the jackets of drivers and pit crew.

Mysten co-founder and CEO Evan Cheng appears eager, like many crypto startups, to remind the public that some blockchain startups are focused on providing services and solutions that have nothing to do with trading digital currencies or playing video games. “The potential of Web3 to fundamentally change the way humans transact, interact and communicate extends far beyond the basic cryptocurrency trading apps or the NFT card games we have seen so far,” he said in a statement.

Cheng and three other former Meta employees founded Mysten in 2021. The company’s Sui network is a Layer 1 blockchain positioned as a more efficient alternative to competitors like Solana, Aptos and Sei.

This is not Red Bull Racing’s first partnership with a crypto company. The team has also previously struck sponsorship deals with Tezos and the trading platform Bybit, which agreed last year to pay Red Bull Racing $150 million. 

The announcement comes ahead of this weekend’s Formula 1 race in Spain.

© 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.

Avalanche, a Layer 1 blockchain network, has crossed 1 million monthly active users for the first time.

The recent launch of AvaCloud is the main reason for the growth, according to Ava Labs, the creator of Avalanche. AvaCloud is a no-code platform for launching “custom blockchains,” also known as subnets, on top of the Avalanche network.

With subnets, developers can build customizable blockchains and specialized decentralized applications. “Before AvaCloud, building your own blockchain could cost millions of dollars and years of research with an experienced team. Today, you can launch your own chain as a testnet in minutes, and deploy a fully mature network in weeks, all without hiring an extensive engineering team,” Emin Gun Sirer, founder and CEO of Ava Labs, said last week.

He added that launching a subnet via AvaCloud “should be as easy as spinning up a new website” and will help developers “onboard the next wave of users.”

Several projects have committed to building subnets via AvaCloud, including Korean conglomerate SK Group, gaming app Blitz, and AAA game studio Shrapnel, Ava Labs said.

“The consistent growth in Avalanche users reflects momentum the network is generating from a string of partnerships announced in 2023, from AWS through Avalanche Evergreen,” John Nahas, VP of business development at Ava Labs, told The Block. “We’ve had a steady stream of innovative new dApps launches, the number of Subnets is continually increasing, with more on the way.”

Avalanche adoption

The main Avalanche network has also seen growth in adoption recently. Circle, the issuer of the second-largest stablecoin USDC, announced recently that its euro-backed stablecoin EUROC is now natively available on Avalanche — marking its first foray into multichain expansion. Also this month, the cloud division of Chinese tech behemoth Alibaba built a launchpad for businesses to deploy metaverse spaces on the Avalanche blockchain.

Launched in September 2020, Avalanche is currently the seventh largest blockchain network with a total value locked or TVL of around $700 million, according to DeFiLlama data. Ethereum remains the largest network with nearly $27 billion TVL. For comparison, Ethereum, which was launched in 2015, currently has over 12 million monthly active addresses, according to The Block’s Data Dashboard.

© 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 central bank should proactively identify and sanction service providers breaching its 2019 prohibition, according to the Financial Action Task Force

Ethereum staking provider Rocket Pool has been deployed on the zkSync Era network.

This will be the first Ethereum liquid staking protocol to deploy on the newly launched network. It joins 58 projects that are already live on it.

By operating on zkSync Era, Rocket Pool users will be able to move its token rETH faster and cheaper, enabling a more user-friendly experience in DeFi applications. Rocket Pool is already live on Ethereum Layer 2 networks Optimism and Arbitrum.

“This is another exciting step in our mission to lower barriers to entry and ensure everyone can participate in Ethereum’s proof-of-stake system,” said Nick Ashley, marketing manager at Rocket Pool. “By holding Rocket Pool’s rETH on zkSync Era, users will continue to earn rewards backed by the most decentralized liquid staking protocol, while also enjoying Era’s faster speeds & lower transaction costs.”

ZkSync Era is a Layer 2 network on Ethereum that uses zero-knowledge proofs to secure all transactions. It went live in March, as the first such network that’s also natively compatible with Ethereum, allowing applications to easily port across.

Rocket Pool is one of the biggest Ethereum liquid staking providers, allowing users to stake their ether and receive rETH in return — unlocking the liquidity that would otherwise be locked up. It’s a more decentralized liquid staking protocol that’s run by node operators.

One of the differences between Rocket Pool and some other liquid staking providers is that its token is non-rebasing, meaning that it grows in ether value rather than token holders receiving additional tokens as rewards.

Other liquid staking providers include Lido Finance, crypto exchange Coinbase and Frax.

© 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.

Sui will roll out a series of digital experience for racing fans over the coming months.

Stablecoin issuer Circle said Thursday that it is launching USDC natively on Arbitrum, which will make it the official version in the Layer 2 ecosystem and replace liquidity that had been previously bridged. 

The benefits of native USDC include new support to eliminate bridge withdrawal delays and the possibility for institutional on and off-ramps, Circle said in a thread on Twitter. The official launch will happen on June 8. 

The Ethereum-bridged version of USDC on block explorers will be renamed as “USDC.e,” Circle said.

“Arbitrum Foundation will be working with ecosystem apps to provide a smooth transition of liquidity from bridged USDC to native USDC over time,” Circle said. “There will be no immediate changes to the Arbitrum Bridge & it will continue to operate normally for bridging USDC to-&-from Ethereum.”

Circle plans to bring Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol to the Layer 2 network after the launch of native USDC, the Arbitrum Foundation said in a separate blog post. 

“Upon integration into the Arbitrum Bridge, this will enable USDC to move natively to-and-from Ethereum (and other supported chains) in minutes — no more withdrawal delays,” the foundation said. 

Circle last month rolled out its Euro Coin stablecoin on the Avalanche network, making it the second blockchain to support the asset following the initial launch on Ethereum last 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.

CleanSpark has been buying up assets during the bear market to reach its 2023-end of 16 EH/s, but discounts are getting smaller.

The latest price moves in bitcoin (BTC) and crypto markets in context for June 1, 2023. First Mover is CoinDesk’s daily newsletter that contextualizes the latest actions in the crypto markets.