Max Koopsen

Margarethe Vestager is the European Commissioner for Competition. Image: Shutterstock.

EU Commissioner Says It’s Time to Define ‘Healthy Competition’ in the Metaverse

Margrethe Vestager, the European Union's competition, and digital affairs commissioner, wants to promote fair competition in metaverses, according to a speech in Brussels today. Noting the rapid growth in the digital economy over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, Vestager believes that the metaverse should yield new opportunities, but that historically, "dominance, entrenched positions, and abuses have rather been the norm." Vestager said regulators "need to anticipate and plan for change,...

Worldwide Webb's big screen setup at NFT Paris 2023. (Photograph: Daniel Roberts for Decrypt)

NFT Games 'Aren't Just About Minting': WorldWide Webb Founder

After profile pictures, NFT creators forayed into the world of gaming, with limited success in breaking into gamer culture. These days, though, Worldwide Webb founder Thomas Webb thinks this sentiment is changing. Webb told Decrypt at this year’s NFT Paris that "the real challenge for us is going to be showing gamers that NFT games aren't just about minting and staking and yield farming; actually, they're about competing, collaborating, taking on challenges and earning from that.” One needn't l...

Ethereum Developers to Let Goerli Testnet ‘Slowly Die’ as Coin Price Soars

GETH, the native asset powering the Ethereum testnet Goerli, is soaring. And that’s a problem. The testnet token peaked at $1.60 on Saturday and is now trading, according to CoinGecko, at about $0.31—and the fact that a testnet currency is even listed on price-tracking sites is indicative that something has gone wrong. More importantly, though, developers are now turning away from testing their apps on it due to the new costs. Ethereum developer Marius van der Wijden told Decrypt that the pro...

Yuga Labs to Replace Logo That Apes a Kids Drawing Guide

It appears the logo of the Yuga Labs-owned Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) NFT collection was used without a license or the permission of its artist. First noticed by an eagle-eyed Twitter user on Friday, the likeness was then acknowledged by both the image’s original creator, Easy Drawing Tutorial, and Yuga Labs co-founder Greg Solano (“Gargamel” before his identity was revealed one year ago.) Thanks for bringing this up @Jdotcolombo. @yugalabs doesn't have a license to the wolf skull drawing. Th...

Sam Bankman-Fried. Image: Justin Lane/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Judge Mulls More Electronics, Internet Restrictions for Sam Bankman-Fried

Federal Judge Lewis A. Kaplan yesterday tabled the possibility that the disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should be completely cut off from electronics, which would amend his current bail conditions, per the Associated Press. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos suggested that banning Bankman-Fried's use of all electronic devices would be a more drastic alternative to the current agreement, but admitted it could hinder Bankman-Fried's ability to prepare for his upcoming trial, tentatively...

Norwegian police crackdown on crypto. Image: Shutterstock.

Norwegian Authorities Recoup $5.9M From Axie Infinity Ronin Hack

Norwegian authorities have seized 60 million krone (nearly $5.9 million) in stolen cryptocurrency, according to a statement released today, as part of an investigation into last year’s attack on Sky Mavis and its game Axie Infinity. It is the largest crypto seizure ever made by Norwegian police, the statement notes, and is among the largest ever cash seizures made in Norway. "We are working with FBI specialists on cryptocurrency tracking. This kind of cooperation between countries makes us stron...

Cardano, Dogecoin Lead Recovery as Crypto Market Recoups $44B

The cryptocurrency market is enjoying some relief today after a rough start to the month. The altcoin-led rally over the past 24 hours has added roughly $44 billion to the market, bringing its total capitalization back over the $1 trillion mark. Two projects in particular, Cardano and Dogecoin, have led the rally, posting gains of 8.4% and 6.1%, respectively, over the past 24 hours. Cardano is a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain launched in 2015 by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson. Dogecoin...

The Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin. Image: Shutterstock

Paxos Halts BUSD Minting as SEC Prepares Lawsuit

The SEC is reportedly taking aim at the owner and issuer of the world’s third-largest stablecoin, Binance USD. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission plans to sue Paxos Trust for violating investor protection laws, the company has confirmed to Decrypt. Paxos said that it was halting the minting of BUSD and would “end its relationship with Binance” for the stablecoin in a press release. It also made assurances that existing BUSD tokens are fully backed and will be redeemable for at least a y...

Secret Network Votes Unanimously to Turn Foundation Into Non-Profit

After a tumultuous few months, the Secret Network’s community today passed a proposal to restructure the Secret Foundation, with Secret Foundation’s founder and CEO, Tor Bair, committing his support. The Secret Network is a layer-1 blockchain focused on privacy-preserving technology. Bair was accused by members of the community of financial mishandling along with calls for greater transparency. Members also demanded the Foundation become a non-profit organization (NPO) to be governed by a commun...

SEC Commissioner Peirce: Kraken Staking Action Not a ‘Fair Way of Regulating’

Yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced its enforcement action against Kraken, forcing the crypto exchange to shut down its staking service in the U.S. and pay a $30 million fine. Kraken’s staking service offered its customers an opportunity to earn rewards by depositing their crypto into various yield-generating protocols, advertising up to 24% yearly returns. The SEC’s complaint alleged that Kraken had failed to register its staking-as-a-service with the regulator. The Comm...

Aave is a lending and borrowing protocol in the DeFi space. Image: Shutterstock.

Ready to GHO? Aave Launches Native Stablecoin on Ethereum Testnet

Aave Companies, the firm behind the eponymously-named lending and borrowing protocol, are launching its native stablecoin GHO on the Ethereum Goerli testnet. Pronounced “GO,” the stablecoin is fully decentralized and over-collateralized. Its design ensures the GHO oracle price is always fixed one-to-one with the U.S. dollar, as minting will be through assets supplied as collateral in the Aave Protocol. Aave is a decentralized lending and borrowing platform that uses over-collateralization as a m...

Peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange LocalBitcoins. Image: Shutterstock

LocalBitcoins to Shut Down After 10 Years of Operation

LocalBitcoins, one of the earliest and most popular peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchanges, today announced that it is shuttering its business after more than ten years of operation. In its announcement, the P2P platform said that it was “proud of what we have achieved together with all of you, our loyal community,” but that it can no longer provide its service due to the “challenges during the ongoing very cold crypto-winter.” The platform also shared a timeline for its service closures, beginning with...

Cryptex Finance's New Index Token to Track Top 10 NFT Collections

One token, ten NFT collections. That's the promise of Cryptex Finance's new JPEGz product. The index token is powered by Coinbase Cloud data and Chainlink oracles, and it will be launched on the layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution Arbitrum One, offering investors an easy way to gain exposure to the NFT market. JPEGz tracks the market capitalization of various popular NFT collections, including Azuki Official, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and CryptoPunks, among others. Coinbase Cloud, Chainlink Launch Pr...

'Uniswap Controlled by a16z?': Crypto Twitter Split Over VC Firm's Governance Move

It’s another day in crypto governance experiments. This time, Uniswap has taken center stage in a divisive new proposal to deploy the trading protocol on BNB Chain. Specifically, commentators have raised concerns about the emergence of an influential whale in the project’s governance process. That whale is venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, which has deployed all 15 million of its UNI tokens to vote against the current proposal. UNI is Uniswap’s native token, which doubles as...

Render Token's RNDR Up Over 90% on the Week as New Tokenomics Model Passes DAO

RNDR, the token for blockchain-based distributed rendering service Render Network, has increased by over 90% in the past week, according to CoinGecko. Render has surged over over 300% in the last 30 days to reach around $1.69, alongside the launch of a new foundation and the passing of a new tokenomics model by the project's DAO. Despite its recent surge, RNDR remains down over 80% from its all-time high of $8.78, recorded in November 2021. On January 20, the project announced the Render Network...

If passed, a new bill could be used to close exchanges. Image: Shutterstock

Solana-Based DeFi Protocol Everlend Announces Shut Down

Solana-based DeFi borrowing and lending platform Everlend announced that it's shuttering the project and its future development. In yesterday’s announcement, the project highlighted a lack of liquidity and the overall shrinking of the borrowing and lending market as the causes of its demise. “Liquidity is just not there and this is so not just about Solana and the B/L [borrowing and lending] market (on which Everlend is 100% dependent) keeps shrinking,” said Everlend. The project said that eve...

Shiba Inu had a fun year. Image: Shutterstock

Here’s Why Floki Isn't Actually Going to Burn $100M Worth of Tokens

The community behind the Elon Musk-inspired meme coin Floki just voted to take down one of its key bridges. The bridge in question lets users move Ethereum-based Floki tokens over to the BNB Chain. Different blockchains are usually incompatible and need a “bridge” to move tokens from one network to another. To deconstruct the bridge, the project is burning (crypto lingo for destroying) 4.97 trillion Floki tokens. Those tokens, on the open market, would be worth over $117 million. So does that m...

Celsius Network is a crypto lending company. Image: Shutterstock

Celsius Problems 'Dated Back to at Least 2020': Examiner’s Report

"Celsius’s problems did not start in 2022," read today's examiner's report on the now-bankrupt crypto lender. "Rather, serious problems dated back to at least 2020, after Celsius started using customer assets to fund operational expenses and rewards." The final examiner’s report for Celsius’s bankruptcy proceedings paints a detailed account of the crypto lender’s finances and actions in the lead-up to its insolvency. Celsius filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022 after it had f...

Secret Foundation Faces Calls for More Transparency, Return of Funds

Tor Bair’s secrets are out, and the Secret Network community is not happy about what they’ve learned. The Secret Foundation has a stated mission to support the global presence and community of privacy-focused Layer-1 blockchain Secret Network—formerly Enigma. Early troubles surfaced last year when it was revealed that the Secret Foundation was established as a for-profit corporation, as many had believed it to be a non-profit organization. Then, over the course of 2022, the community had grown i...

The crypto industry has been hit hard by layoffs. Image: Shutterstock.

Crypto Firm Matrixport Slashes Headcount by 10%

Matrixport, a Singapore-based crypto investment and lending firm, has confirmed with Decrypt that it is making reductions in its marketing department, impacting 10% of its nearly 300-person workforce. The company was founded in 2019 by entrepreneur Jihan Wu, who became a billionaire from the success of crypto-mining manufacturer Bitmain Technologies. Matrixport’s chief operating officer, Cynthia Wu, told Decrypt via email that the layoffs reflect the company’s new focus on “accredited investor...

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Stories by Max Koopsen