Today in Crypto: HashKey and SEBA Bank Join Hands, KuCoin Hires Mazars for Proof of Reserves, Bitget Launches PoR Page & User Self-audit Tool
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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Banking news
- Digital asset financial services group HashKey Digital Asset Group and crypto bank SEBA Bank AG today announced a new strategic partnership, formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which will see HashKey become SEBA Bank’s preferred digital asset trading and market development partner in Hong Kong, while SEBA Bank will be the banking partner of choice for HashKey in Switzerland.
Exchange news
- KuCoin announced that it engaged the international audit, tax, and advisory firm Mazars to provide a third-party factual findings report, said the press release. Mazars will offer KuCoin’s customers additional reporting on whether their in-scope assets are collateralized, and it will provide the details to showcase the exchange’s proof of reserves and customer liability, respectively, which will also account for customers’ main, trade, margin, robot, and contract accounts, etc. for BTC, ETH, USDT, and USDC, it said.
- Bitget is launching its Proof of Reserves Page, with the goal of demonstrating to users that it is a full-reserve exchange and that users’ assets stored on the platform are safeguarded, said the press release. It is also launching a new tool, Merkle Validator, for users to perform self-audit with their own accounts.
- Swyftx has fired 90 employees in its second round of layoffs in four months. “Swyftx has no direct exposure to FTX, but we are not immune to the fallout it has caused in the crypto markets,” co-founder and CEO of the Australian exchange, Alex Harper, said in a note to employees.
NFT news
- Forj, a subsidiary of blockchain gaming firm Animoca Brands, and VIKER, a Play-and-Earn mobile games studio, announced a partnership to launch the PolkaPet World NFT. The press release said that the pass, called VIKER PolkaPet Pass (VPPP) which is free for PolkaPet non-fungible token (NFT) holders, will enable holders to earn double bitcoin rewards across VIKERS portfolio of mobile games starting with Solitaire, and more to come, such as Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, Balls King, and others.
- Opera Crypto Browser announced a partnership with the Alteon.io ecosystem for content creators to enable “instant NFT publishing”. Per the announcement, “users who have little to no experience in Web3 or NFTs will be able to drag and drop any media file into the browser, which will automatically write a simple smart contract and upload the file to a blockchain—transforming NFTs into an accessible media type for all to explore and enjoy.”
Investment news
- Peer-to-peer payments technology company Circle and publicly traded special purpose acquisition company Concord Acquisition Corp mutually ended their proposed business combination – initially announced in July 2021 and amended in February 2022 – after the deal “timed out.” According to a press release, both companies’ boards of directors have approved its termination.
DeFi news
- The team behind Waves announced Power Protocol, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) governance method “designed to solve the issues of Simple Token Governance,” said a press release. The Power Protocol can be used to establish and validate traceable and transparent KPIs which, if fulfilled, will result in rewards for participating communities. Within the model, participants who vote for decisions beneficial to the objective of the DAO (which will be previously determined via a community vote) are rewarded, and those who do the opposite have their stake slashed.
Mining news
- Bitcoin miner CleanSpark released its unaudited bitcoin mining and operations update for the calendar year-to-date ending November 30, reporting: BTC 535 mined in November, BTC 4,157 mined calendar year-to-date, and total holdings of BTC 281. The company funded growth and operations through the sale of BTC 544 in November at an average of $17,300 per BTC. The sales equated to proceeds of approximately $9.4 million. November daily BTC mined averaged 17.8 and reached a high of 19.4.
- TeraWulf, which owns and operates bitcoin mining facilities, provided an unaudited monthly production and operations update for November, reporting that: it self-mined BTC 134, an increase of 13% compared to October’s BTC 119, and it deployed a fleet of 17,500 miners achieving hash rate capacity of 2.0 EH/s. Shipments of approximately 12,450 S19J Pro and S19 XP miners have been initiated out of Bitmain and are expected to be received by TeraWulf in Q1 2023.
- Capstone Green Energy Corporation said it is expanding in the Energy as a Service (EaaS) market with a 2-year rental agreement for a crypto data mining operation in West Texas, USA. The contract was secured by Lone Star Power Solutions, Capstone’s exclusive distributor in Arizona and the Gulf States and is expected to be commissioned in mid-December. The customer is currently evaluating an additional 1MW system to be deployed in early 2023, it added.
