1. Crypto custody company BitGo completes $100 million financing at a valuation of $1.75 billion
According to Bloomberg, cryptocurrency custody company BitGo has completed $100 million in financing at a valuation of $1.75 billion. BitGo declined to disclose specific investors, but said that investors are from the United States and Asia, some of whom are from outside the cryptocurrency industry. BitGo's previous investors include Goldman Sachs Group, DRW Holdings and Galaxy Digital Ventures. This round of financing will be used for strategic acquisitions, and at least two transactions are already in progress. BitGo is currently the custodian of creditors of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. BitGo's other clients include financial services company Swan Bitcoin, blockchain developer Mysten Labs Inc. and clothing giant Nike Inc.
2. Archblock launches tokenized U.S. Treasury bond fund
Archblock, the developer of the TrueUSD token, announced the launch of a tokenized U.S. Treasury bond fund on its marketplace. Managed by Adapt3r Digital LLC, the Adapt3r Short-Term U.S. Treasury Bond Fund provides liquidity and access to short-term U.S. Treasury bond yields for non-U.S. USDC holders and non-U.S. on-chain investors who do not have access to traditional U.S. bank or brokerage accounts.
Investors interested in deploying funds on the Archblock Marketplace will need to connect their wallets and complete Archblock’s KYC/KYB and Anti-Money Laundering processes. Once an investor’s wallet is whitelisted on the Archblock Marketplace, they can deploy funds into any portfolio for which they qualify.
3. Decentralized social network Bluesky already allows users to self-tag their posts
According to TechCrunch, Bluesky, a decentralized social project funded by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, has begun allowing users to self-tag their posts so that they can be automatically filtered. Users can click the shield icon in the editor window to select a label. Over time, self-tagging will expand the categories of labels.
4. Tether CTO: Bitcoin mining software Moria has the function of precise data customization, which can dynamically group and arrange devices
Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino shared more information about the company's Bitcoin mining software Moria on Twitter yesterday. Ardoino said: "While there are a large number of cloud-based Bitcoin mining trackers, everything I have seen so far is not truly customizable and lacks deep orchestration capabilities to analyze real-time, transaction-by-transaction data to optimize output. Moria is building a scalable architecture based on the Web3 development platform Holepunch, which is precisely customized to collect, aggregate, and analyze data (i.e., artificial intelligence prediction models, etc.) from different types of devices to collect the best possible intelligence to optimize Bitcoin mining. Once Bitcoin mining is fully implemented, the software will segment and coordinate energy production. There are also solar panels, wind power plants, etc., which can provide a lot of information. Using Holepunch's P2P data structure and streaming technology will enable Moria to scale even to tens of millions of devices, enabling dynamic grouping and orchestration. Moria currently includes more than 30 modules/microservices and is still growing."
5. The Aave community will start on-chain voting for the proposal to “activate Aave V3 on the Base chain”
The governance page shows that the Aave community will start the on-chain voting for the proposal of "activating Aave V3 on Base chain" tomorrow morning, and it will end on August 19. The proposal allows Aave governance to activate the Aave V3 Base pool by completing all initial settings and listing wETH, cbETH and USDbC on Base's Aave V3. Previously, on August 1, the Aave community had voted on the ARFC proposal of "deploying V3 on Base".
6. Adidas will cooperate with Japanese trendy brand BAPE to launch limited edition sneakers based on NFT
According to Adidas' official website, Adidas Originals, a brand under Adidas, announced that it will cooperate with Japan's Harajuku fashion brand BAPE to launch a limited edition sneaker brand "Triple-White Forum 84 BAPE Low" based on NFT.
It is reported that this pair of sneakers will be auctioned on the Adidas Collect platform on August 22 with the support of Adidas Web3 studio Adidas /// Studio. This is the first time that Adidas has adopted the auction format to support NFT digital sports shoes. In addition, the left tongue of each pair of physical shoes will be equipped with an NFC chip, and the owner can use a smartphone to scan to obtain an NFT-based certificate of authenticity, which is limited to 100 pairs.
7. Vitalik: Community Notes may be the closest thing to an example of crypto value in the mainstream world
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin's latest blog "What do I think about Community Notes?" says: Community Notes is a fact-checking tool that sometimes attaches contextual notes to tweets. What interests me most about Community Notes is that although it is not a "crypto project", it may be the closest thing to an instance of "crypto value" that we have seen in the mainstream world. Community Notes can be written and voted by anyone, and which notes are displayed or not is entirely determined by an open source algorithm. The site provides a detailed and extensive guide that describes how the algorithm works, and you can download data containing posted notes and votes, run the algorithm locally, and verify that the output matches what is visible on the Twitter site. It's not perfect, but it's close to meeting the ideal of credible neutrality.
8. Worldcoin ignored Kenyan government orders to stop collecting personal data before being forced to shut down
Months before Kenya finally banned Sam Altman’s crypto startup Worldcoin from using iris scans, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) had ordered its parent company Tools for Humanity to stop collecting personal data, Techcrunch reported.
The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner of Kenya (ODPC) directed Worldcoin in May to stop iris scanning and the collection of facial recognition and other personal data in Kenya, according to a letter to Worldcoin from the ODPC. But its parent company, Tools for Humanity, did not stop acquiring biometric data until earlier this month, and a more powerful regulator, the Ministry of Interior and Administration of Kenya, suspended the project after it was officially established. A new petition filed by the ODPC to the High Court shows details of the ODPC's attempt to stop the collection of biometric data. The ODPC sought the court's help and forced Worldcoin to preserve the data collected from Kenyans from April 19 to August 8.
9. MoonPay is registered as a virtual asset service provider in Ireland, providing fiat currency and cryptocurrency exchange services
According to Blockworks, crypto payment provider MoonPay has registered as a virtual asset service provider (VASP) in Ireland. VASP approved service providers can provide fiat-to-cryptocurrency deposit solutions in Ireland, including five services such as the exchange between digital assets and legal tender, and the exchange between digital assets and other digital assets. However, MoonPay CEO and co-founder Ivan Soto-Wright said that MoonPay is currently only allowed to provide exchange services between digital assets and legal tender.
10. Bloomberg analyst: US regulators may have delayed making a decision on Grayscale Bitcoin ETF application
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas tweeted that U.S. regulators have not made a decision on the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF application as expected, and it has now exceeded the 160-day standard. The next batch of documents will be released at 11 a.m. local time on Friday. Balchunas explained that based on the application records of the past two years, the vast majority (94%) of applications will be decided within 160 days.
11. PayPal will suspend cryptocurrency purchase services in the UK from October 1 and is expected to resume early next year
According to Cryptoslate, PayPal said in an email sent to some users on August 14 that due to the introduction of new rules by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), it will temporarily suspend cryptocurrency purchase services in the UK from October 1, 2023, and will resume in early 2024 (the specific date is unknown). The company did not specify which rules were involved, but said that these rules would require it to "implement additional steps before customers purchase cryptocurrencies."
Despite the inability to purchase cryptocurrencies, PayPal said that users will be able to hold and sell their cryptocurrencies during the service outage. The company did not specify whether users will be able to transfer cryptocurrencies to other wallets and exchanges, but it appears that this feature is only available to US users at this time. The company assured users that their cryptocurrencies remain safe and said that there will be no fees for holding them.
It is reported that the UK will implement the cryptocurrency travel rule in September 2023, requiring cryptocurrency companies to collect information about the parties involved in the transaction, although the September deadline of the rule does not seem to coincide with PayPal's October service changes. The FCA also recently introduced new crypto advertising promotion rules, which are designed to control how cryptocurrencies are promoted or advertised to potential investors. These rules came into effect in October.
12. Three senior executives including the CEO of Silvergate resigned
According to The Block, three senior executives of Silvergate Bank will leave before September 30. According to documents submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), CEO and President Alan Lane and Chief Legal Officer John Bonino left on August 15, and Chief Financial Officer Antonio Martino will step down on September 30. The three executives will receive severance pay. After Lane's departure, Silvergate Chief Risk Officer Kathleen Fraher will serve as the "Chief Transition Officer" of the company and the bank. Chief Accounting Officer Andrew Surry will take over the duties of Chief Financial Officer. Silvergate said that in view of the bank's liquidation plan, the company will not appoint a president, CEO and chief financial officer at this time. According to previous news, Silvergate announced in March this year that it would cease operations and voluntarily liquidate the bank.
13. Volatility Shares plans to launch Ethereum futures ETF trading on October 12
Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, tweeted that Volatility Shares announced plans to launch Ethereum futures ETF trading on October 12. According to previous news, Volatility Shares detailed its proposed "Ethereum Strategic ETF" in a document submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on July 28. The ETF will invest in cash-settled Ethereum futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).
