Three Arrows ‘Mess’ & Babel’s Losses, Ethereum’s Testnet, Bitcoin’s Defense, NFT ETF Zone + More News

Bitcoin Cardano Economics El Salvador Ethereum EU

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Sumejja Muratagić-Tadić

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Sumejja Muratagić-Tadić

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Sumejja is a freelance copywriter from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, who delights in pulling things apart to see how they work. That does not necessarily mean she puts them back together; she's...

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June 26, 2023 06:54 EDT

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Legal news

• Liquidators overseeing the wind-down of failed crypto fund Three Arrows Capital may soon try to force founders Kyle Davies and Su Zhu to “help clean up the mess left behind by the crypto hedge fund’s collapse,” Bloomberg reported, citing attorney Adam Goldberg. “The founders have not made themselves available for any discussions or interviews with the liquidators whether formal or informal,” Goldberg was quoted as saying.

Blockchain news

• Ethereum (ETH)’s Goerli/Prater testnet deployment, the final test to be completed prior to the Ethereum’s transition to proof of stake (PoS), will occur sometime between August 6 and 12. The merge between Goerli and Prater will move all Ethereum network activity off of its current proof-of-work (PoW) chain, and onto the beacon chain.
• The Cardano (ADA) Vasil hard fork has been delayed again as the team behind the Cardano blockchain development, Input Output Global (IOG), aims to “flush out any final issues” with additional testing.
• Blockchain-based cloud computing platform Oasis Labs announced it partnered with social media giant Meta to launch a platform to assess fairness in Meta’s products while protecting people’s privacy.

Adoption news

• El Salvador’s finance minister Alejandro Zelaya defended the country’s strategy to adopt bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender, stating that the asset has brought financial services to a largely unbanked population and attracted tourism and investments, per Bloomberg. While its use as a means of exchange is low, Zelaya said he remains a believer in digital money and added that the government is still planning to issue a bitcoin-backed bond using blockchain technology.

NFTs news

• Crypto exchange KuCoin announced the launch of its NFT ETF Trading Zone. The new product aims to improve the liquidity of NFT assets and lower the investment threshold of blue-chip NFTs for its users, they said.
• The Mayor of Miami, Florida, USA, Francis X. Suarez, announced a partnership with media company TIME, payments giant Mastercard and cloud-based software company Salesforce to launch an NFT initiative for the City of Miami designed to drive revenue to local businesses and non-profits through exclusive rewards offerings. The city will unveil a collection of nearly 5,000 NFTs designed by 56 local Miami artists, representing the city’s 56 square mile area, they said.

Investments news

• Troubled crypto lender Babel Finance suffered heavy losses, around BTC 8,000 and ETH 56,000 (USD 285.6m total), due to proprietary trading with customer funds, The Block reported, citing the company’s restructuring proposal deck. Due to these massive losses, Babel’s lending and trading departments were unable to meet margin calls from counterparties, they said.
• Crypto investment fund Variant raised USD 450m for a new umbrella fund split across a USD 150m seed purse for Web3 projects and a USD 300m opportunities vehicle that will “double-down on projects with demonstrated traction in [their] portfolio.”
• Cross-chain messaging protocol Nomad announced a USD 22.4m seed round that saw participation from Coinbase Ventures, OpenSea, Crypto.com Capital, Wintermute, Gnosis, Algaé, and Polygon.
• NFT project VeeFriends announced it received an unspecified amount in seed funding from crypto venture firm a16z crypto. It added that it will use the capital injection to support building the future intellectual property of the 283 VeeFriends characters.

Economics news

• In the second quarter of 2022, seasonally adjusted GDP increased by 0.7% in the euro area (0.5% in Q1), beating forecasts, and by 0.6% in the European Union (same as in Q1), compared with the previous quarter, and +4% in both areas compared with Q1 of 2021, according to a preliminary estimate by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.