Jack Dorsey’s Bitcoin Lightning Network Plan, Pre-Crash Crypto Enthusiasm, Cryptopia’s Liquidator Sells DOGE + More News

Linas Kmieliauskas

Last updated: June 26, 2023 06:54 EDT | 3 min read

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.

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Adoption news

• TBD, a Bitcoin (BTC)-focused subsidiary of Jack Dorsey-led payments company Block, will start building infrastructure for the Lightning Network, Nick Slaney, Product Design Engineer at Block, said. “Our goal is to not only build the tools and infrastructure we need for our products, but also to be additive to the Lightning Network ecosystem on the whole,” he noted, adding that they plan to develop and share this project with the community, and they’ll be posting jobs for this initiative in the near future.
• On-demand services network Splyt announced a partnership with crypto exchange Binance to offer ride-hailing services and experiences within the Binance app and pay for them in crypto.
• The French Government’s Olympics envoy has recommended the widespread deployment of blockchain ticketing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and all major international sporting events held in France, according to Ticketing Business News. The tickets would be based on blockchain technology in order to prevent ticket fraud, in that they would be active only within a virtual perimeter and corresponding to the security perimeter of the site, per the report.
• Romania’s National Institute for Research and Development In Informatics Bucharest (ICI) announced that work is underway for building an institutional NFT marketplace and a decentralized Domain Name System (DNS/TLD) based on the Elrond Network (EGLD) blockchain.

Investments news

• A crypto survey by Bank of America (BofA), covering 1,000 current and potential users of crypto and crypto exchanges in the US, showed that 91% of respondents said at the beginning of June that they would be buying crypto in the next six months, according to Business Insider — the same percentage as those who said they had bought in the previous six months. Most of the respondents were short-term investors, with 77% stating that they have held crypto for less than a year.
• Crypto gaming guilds Merit Circle DAO and Yield Guild Games (YGG) announced that Merit Circle will buy out the YGG and Nifty Fund allocation for USD 1.75m. As reported, after a USD 175,000 seed investment by YGG into Merit Circle last year, the latter guild’s community proposed to refund the investment, complaining about a “lack of value” received from the investors. Now, the guilds say that YGG has provided more value to Merit Circle than what is openly visible through advice, introductions, and the opening of new opportunities.
• Digital asset venture studio ScienceMagic.Studios announced that it raised USD 10.3m in pre-seed investment. The company will advise on and create digital assets (e.g. NFTs and social tokens) for brands, talent, and their communities, and the funding will support the company to scale as it meets interest, they added.

Exchanges news

• GrantThornton, the liquidator of New Zealand’s collapsed crypto exchange Cryptopia, announced that they have converted the equivalent of NZD 5m (USD 3.12m) of dogecoin (DOGE) into fiat currency “to meet the reasonable cost and expenses of and incidental to the protection, preservation, recovery, management, and administration” of any crypto held by the company, on an order of the High Court of New Zealand.
• Crypto platform Zonda announced plans to enter the Italian market on June 15, with the move to be spearheaded by newly appointed Chief Marketing Officer Barnabas Goh.

Regulation news

• Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, USA, is planning to ask Kathy Hochul, the current governor of New York to veto a bill passed by the state legislature that would put a two-year moratorium on crypto mining that uses carbon-based fuel in the state, Crain’s New York Business reported.
   

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(Updated on June 20 at 16:50 UTC to specify that the French Government’s Olympics envoy has recommended the widespread deployment of blockchain ticketing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and all major international sporting events held in France.)