Kategorie: Crypto Business

Decentralized exchange platform dYdX has announced plans to build a standalone blockchain, according to details the Ethereum Layer-2 protocol shared on Wednesday.

dYdX, one of the largest crypto derivatives platforms in the market today, says it intends to build the new chain based on the Cosmos SDK (software development toolkit). 

For transaction processing, the dYdX V4 will utilize the Tendermint proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus protocol.

A ‘fully decentralized orderbook’ and higher throughput

“dYdX V4 will feature a fully decentralized, off-chain, orderbook and matching engine capable of scaling to orders of magnitude more throughput than any blockchain can support,” the platform noted in a blog post.

While the team at dYdX plans to transition the DEX protocol into one of crypto’s biggest exchanges, they acknoelwdge the enormity of that ambition and the magnitude of how difficult it could be. However, led by co-founder Antonio Juliano, they are confident of successs.

“Developing a decentralized off-chain orderbook and moving from Ethereum to a dYdX-specific chain as a major DeFi protocol is very much untested, but we believe this gives dYdX the best shot at offering a competitive product experience with centralized exchanges,” the team said in a Twitter thread.

dYdX V4 will have a Layer1 token native to the chain, though the team says it hasn’t settled on the DYDX token as the community will need to have an input on that.

The $DYDX token would seem to be a natural fit to be used as the layer 1 token of the V4 network, but we look forward to understanding the perspective of the dYdX community

— dYdX (@dYdX) June 22, 2022

According to the platform, the plan is to build dYdX and open source it by the end of 2022.

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Nexo has today announced that it is spearheading talks with Citigroup as it seeks consolidation of the crypto lending space. Citigroup is poised to take the role of a financial advisor.

Through this new relationship with Citigroup and the extensive expertise of its investment arm, Nexo Ventures, Nexo has both the liquidity and the market know-how to lead a successful consolidation in the crypto lending sector.

The crypto lending sector in particular has proved to be in dire need of liquidity amid the ongoing turbulence within the crypto space. A number of crypto lenders like Celsius have been faced with the risk of insolvency as crypto prices nosedived over the past few weeks.

Since the cryptocurrency industry has no central body similar to the Federal Reserve that acts as a last resort for financial institutions at the risk of insolvency, mass consolidation of the crypto industry through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) becomes the way of least resistance for the remaining solvent players.

Stability for companies facing insolvency

Nexo has been doing a lot of acquisitions in the recent past with the main aim being to “instill stability in the companies facing insolvency and, more importantly, to protect retail and other investors who would otherwise be most adversely affected by the failure of multiple crypto lenders” to refund their deposits when requested to do so.

According to Nexo’s co-founder and Managing Partner, Antoni Trenchev:

“We have been approached by multiple Wall Street banks and decided to officially explore the opportunities for acquisition to help stabilize our nascent industry. At Nexo, we have long advocated for the implementation of prudent practices and sustainable business models in our industry, as a result of which the company has amassed a war chest of funds to be used in such aid deals.”

Nexo has been looking for crypto firms that have been adversely affected by the recent crypto market conditions and Citigroup could be a great partner, especially as a fanatical advisor.

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Crypto gambling has picked up significantly around the globe, as more people turn to crypto casinos. As with the rest of the world, the trend is fast catching on in Europe, including in Germany, where a growing number of traders see current government regulations as overly restrictive and unacceptable.

Why more players are opting for crypto casinos

The rise in crypto casino players is largely down to the move to unleash a new gambling law that simply hasn’t worked.

For instance, the revised State Treaty on Gaming, effective since July 1, 2021, has the maximum bet per game round at €1. But while there are many online casinos without this 1-euro limit, these don’t have a German license. For local casino operators, the law places a lot of other restrictions that have players looking elsewhere:

Operators are obligated to forward to a central federal database the gaming behavior of gamblers, including their deposits and their stakes. This monitoring is what has pushed many into crypto casinos – offshore casinos whose business operations are on exotic islands such as Curacao – where they can gamble pseudo-anonymously.

To help new players getting into crypto casinos on the back of limited experience with the sector and cryptocurrencies, is online casino software giant SoftSwiss.

SoftSwiss – The software for crypto casinos

SoftSwiss was founded in Belarus in 2008, and originally developed software for auction houses. However, since 2021, the company has primarily focused on online casino software. The firm’s technology offers modern, highly flexible solutions that casino operators can easily integrate into their platforms.

SoftSwiss has over 800 employees worldwide and its technology is currently integrated across hundreds of online casinos.

Manage fiat and cryptos with CoinsPaid

With crypto adoption rising fast and its use in online casinos becoming more popular, SoftSwiss began to integrate virtual currencies into their payment modules. The team also decided to develop a wallet –CoinsPaid.

Key features of CoinsPaid wallet

• Compatibility: The wallet is designed to ensure the interfaces between the payments module and the casino are 100% compatible.  

• Multi-currency support: CoinsPaid is a hot wallet that currently supports 25 virtual currencies and 40 fiat currencies. 

• No fees: Users do not pay any fees for transactions to and from casinos, except for miner fees of the respective coins and tokens.

• Built-in exchange: The wallet also has a built-in crypto exchange that supports one-click exchange of all supported currencies.

Crypto entry made easy

For all online casino visitors who come into contact with virtual currencies and crypto casinos for the first time, SoftSwiss has the perfect solution ready under one roof.

Certainly there are no problems with most other wallets either. Here, however, most become the “German Michel” again and prefer to have everything from one source. In this case, SoftSwiss offers a great one-stop-shop for everything online casinos.

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eBay and KnownOrigin did not disclose the terms of the acquisition.

Global e-commerce platform eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) has announced its acquisition of leading NFT marketplace KnownOrigin.

According to a press announcement published on Wednesday, eBay’s deal to acquire KnownOrigin was signed and closed as of June 22, 2022. The companies did not disclose the amount of money involved.

eBay said that the acquisition marks a crucial step in its tech-led re-imagination, with the development set to make it the world’s top destination for digital collectibles.

Jamie Iannone, CEO of eBay added:

“KnownOrigin has built up an impressive, passionate and loyal group of artists and collectors making them a perfect addition to our community of sellers and buyers. We look forward to welcoming these innovators as they join the eBay community.”  

KnownOrigin is a UK-based NFT platform founded in 2018, and has become one of the largest destinations for artists and collectors. On the other hand, eBay started allowing its customers to buy and sell NFTs in May 2021. 

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Citi, one of the largest custodians in the world with nearly $27 trillion in assets, has announced a strategic partnership with Swiss-based crypto custody firm Metaco as it looks to offer digital asset custody.

Citi will tap into Metaco’s crypto custody technology to develop a platform for its clients, the two firms said in a press release on Wednesday.

🤝🏻 We’re incredibly proud to share that @Citi, one of the world’s leading #custodian banks, has selected METACO to develop and pilot Digital Asset Custody capabilities.

Read the full press release here: https://t.co/W451ALDtL3#digitalassets #digitalcustody #globalcustodian pic.twitter.com/ziIGfcJLfO

— METACO (@metaco_sa) June 22, 2022

Citi to integrate Metaco’s Harmonize platform

To provide a seamless experience for customers, Citi will undertake full integration of Metaco’s Harmonize, a platform that offers bank-grade crypto custody and orchestration. It’s this platform that will help the banking giant to develop and pilot its digital asset custody, the statement added.

Commenting on the collaboration and what it means for Citi, the bank’s Global Head of Securities Services Okan Pekin said:

“We are witnessing the increasing digitization of traditional investment assets along with new native digital assets. We are innovating and developing new capabilities to support digital asset classes that are becoming increasingly relevant to our clients.”

Citi boasts over 200 million customer accounts, with its business operations accessible in more than 160 countries worldwide.

The bank’s move to develop a crypto custody platform sees it join a growing group of banking giants exploring and offering crypto services. These include some of the world’s largest custodians like BNY Mellon, JPMorgan, State Street, Northern Trust and HSBC.

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