Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) crackdown on crypto-staking services could lead to uncertain consequences for the DeFi ecosystem. Cybercriminals used various methods to siphon funds through
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has denied a report that the company is considering cutting ties with United States business partners. Binance has been the object of increasing scrutiny from U.S. regulators in recent weeks. Bloomberg reported on Feb. 17 that Binance Holdings “is looking at whether to sever ties with intermediary firms such as banks and
Colombian courts held one of the first judicial hearings using metaverse tech. María Victoria Quiñones Triana, the magistrate of the Magdalena court, approved the realization of this hearing, using Horizon Worlds technology provided by Meta and virtual avatars to represent participants in the process. Colombian Court Holds Metaversal Judicial Hearings A Colombian court has ostensibly
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has announced a $1.4-million settlement with former NBA player Paul Pierce for allegedly promoting a token project on social media. In a Feb. 17 announcement, the SEC said Pierce touted EthereumMax (EMAX) tokens through social media channels without disclosing he had received payment for the promotion and made
The upcoming Ethereum Shanghai hard fork is slated to occur in March 2023, and the upgrade will cap off the network’s move to proof-of-stake (PoS), which started during the Merge on Sept. 15, 2022. Once Shanghai is implemented, previously locked Ether (ETH) will gradually become liquid for the first time since December 2020. According to on-chain Etherscan data,
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Basketball Hall of Famer Paul Pierce for touting EMAX tokens and making misleading comments about unregistered crypto securities. The former Boston Celtics small forward agreed to settle the charges and pay the SEC $1.409 million. SEC Chair Gary Gensler Wants to Remind Celebrities of Disclosure Laws
Prosecutors in the financial fraud case against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) are attempting to persuade the judge to restrict his use of electronic devices. It has been revealed that SBF used a virtual private network (VPN) to watch the Super Bowl through a foreign subscription service he had purchased before his arrest. Prosecutors,
Bitcoin miner CleanSpark is growing its mining capacity in the United States, with the purchase of 20,000 new Antminer S19j Pro+ units for $43.6 million. The acquisition is expected to boost the company’s computing power by 37%, and brings the total number of miners purchased during the bear market to 46,500 units. According to a
Polygon has extended recent gains, with prices climbing to a fresh ten-month high during Friday’s session. The token has now risen for a fourth consecutive session, and is up 13% from the same time last week. Polkadot also rallied on Friday, colliding with a key resistance level in the process. Polygon (MATIC) Polygon (MATIC) rose
Most blockchain upgrades have an impact on price action. The Ethereum Shanghai upgrade would be no different. Ether supplies on exchanges have already started to plunge as investors choose to move their assets to self-custody. The previous Ethereum upgrade created good volatility in the market, which traders tapped into. ETH prices skyrocketed from around $1,000
Bitcoin (BTC) climbed back above $24,000 at the Feb. 17 Wall Street open as analysis favored “consolidation and continuation” higher. Bitcoin faces key level to “break” bear trend Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD recovering some overnight losses after dipping to $23,369 on Bitstamp. The pair had hit fresh six-month highs the
In a year of crypto upheavals, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s settlement with crypto exchange Kraken, announced on Feb. 9, set off yet another tremor. Agency chief Gary Gensler took to mainstream media last week to explain the agency’s action, which seemed to be an attack on crypto staking — part of the
Opera, the Web3 browser, and Unstoppable Domains, the non-fungible token (NFT) domain provider, have announced that users can now access all domain endings, including .x, .crypto, and .nft, across Opera’s browsers. Additionally, Opera and Unstoppable are offering a free .nft domain that matches an Opera user’s Twitter handle after account verification. Opera Expands Web3 Capabilities
On this week’s episode of NFT Steez, co-hosts Alyssa Expósito and Ray Salmond continue their chat with Justin and J.P. Alanis, the co-founders of StoryCo — an open media platform — on the prospect of a community of creators franchising intellectual property (IP) through collaboration and soulbound tokens. Speaking on his experience with musician Tyler
The Bank of Russia is preparing to roll out the first consumer pilot for the nation’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) on April 1, 2023. Russia’s central bank is set to soon debut the first real-world digital ruble transactions involving 13 local banks and several merchants, first deputy governor Olga Skorobogatova said. The official noted
Bitcoin fell below the $25,000 mark on Friday, as markets moved into consolidation, following recent gains. Prices fell by almost $1,700 in the last 24 hours, with the global cryptocurrency market cap down 1.89% as of writing. Ethereum also dropped, after breaking into the $1,700 level on Thursday. Bitcoin Bitcoin (BTC) fell sharply below a
press release PRESS RELEASE. Early Jan 2023, in GloryFinance’s Development office, the Project’s Core team and representatives from one of the top Korean Technology Venture Capital has signed in a seed round funding investment agreement with a value confirmed to be USD 3.5M. The funding will be under the form of Equity acquisition while further
Bitcoin mining operation Cleanspark has acquired 20,000 brand-new Bitmain mining rigs for $43.6 million, the company reported. Once installed, Cleanspark expects to increase its capacity by 37% by adding roughly 2.44 exahash per second (EH/s) to the firm’s fleet. Cleanspark CEO Says Proprietary Mining Model Gives Company Greater Control and Efficiency Cleanspark, the publicly listed
Terraform Labs and its founder, Do Kwon, are in the sights of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has sparked various reactions from lawyers within the crypto community. On Feb. 16, the SEC accused and charged Kwon and Terraform Labs for allegedly selling a “suite of crypto asset securities.” While community members
Japanese gaming company Square Enix has announced that it will be using Polygon, an Ethereum sidechain, as a base for Symbiogenesis, its upcoming Web3 experience. Naoyuki Tamate, producer of the game, cited the high transaction speeds and low transaction gas costs as the reasons for making this change in the game’s design. Square Enix to
