Kategorie: Crypto Markets

• Kraken has closed the acquisition of Dutch cryptocurrency exchange Coin Meester B.V.
• The exchange has been expanding its services across EU ahead of MiCA regulation.

Crypto exchange Kraken has completed the acquisition of Coin Meester B.V., or BCM, a regulated Netherlands-based crypto broker.

BCM has regulatory approval as a registered virtual asset service provider in France and Poland.

This footprint in the Netherlands allows Kraken to offer its services in France and Poland. According to an announcement, the acquisition of BCM will help strengthen Kraken’s efforts to expand its services across Europe.

“The completion of the BCM acquisition is a key milestone in our European expansion, allowing us to leverage our strong footprint and market-leading position in euro volume and liquidity to significantly grow our market share in the years ahead,” Brian Gahan, Kraken’s managing director of Europe, noted in a statement.

Kraken will begin to extend its products to BCM clients in coming months. This will include access to over 200 cryptocurrencies. Users will also benefit from the liquidity, security and customer support available to Kraken’s users.

Kraken’s EU expansion

This deal follows Kraken’s expansion efforts across Europe as the industry eyes compliance with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) law.

Currently, Kraken provides VASP services either directly or through different partnerships across the EU. Countries where the exchange offers its services include Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and France. The crypto exchange also now offers its services in Ireland and Poland.

In Belgium, Kraken operates through its VASP platform in Ireland.

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• Metaplex Foundation announced the Metaplex Aura Network on September 23, 2024.
• Aura is a decentralised indexing and data availability platform designed to extend the Solana and Solana Virtual Machine networks.
• MPLX price rose 12% amid the news and overall crypto market surge.

The Metaplex Foundation, the non-profit supporting the Metaplex Protocol, has announced a new decentralized indexing and data availability layer for Solana (SOL).

Metaplex Aura Network is the new platform that Metaplex Foundation introduced on Sept. 23, revealing that the new platform complements the Solana Virtual Machine and the Metaplex Program Library with a decentralised network for real-time data availability.

1/ Introducing Metaplex Aura, a decentralized indexing and data availability network for @solana and the SVM, powered by $MPLX.

SVM + MPL + Aura = the full stack for decentralized applications 🦾

Learn more 👇 pic.twitter.com/AvoyggawKj

— Metaplex 🦾 (@metaplex) September 23, 2024

The Aura Network allows Metaplex to expand its developer solution, giving builders access to three key network components – data availability, multi-program indexing and elastic state management. Major benefits include flexibility, optimization and scalability.

Native Metaplex token MPLX will power the Aura nodes.

Metaplex adopted community approach to launch

According to the details in a blog post, the Metaplex Foundation opted for a “community-driven approach” as it looked to bring the Metaplex Aura Network to market. This included engaging Solana and SVM developers, who offered feedback and a chance for the Metaplex team to explore early implementations.

Moreover, the rollout saw more than 25 unique projects participate, from NFT marketplaces, game development, infrastructure providers and launchpads to creators and SVM layer 2 networks. Metaplex will open-source the Aura platform’s code to allow developers from across the globe to contribute as well as benefit from available tools and protocols.

MPLX, which traded near $0.36 early Monday, rose more than 12% in 24-gains. These gains pushed the token’s price above $0.42. Daily volume was up 87% to over $2.8 million amid buyside pressure catalysed by broader market gains.

Overall upside momentum had helped Aave price hit a two-year high in early trading. Arkham also spiked as AI tokens soared.

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Arkham is among the top trending artificial intelligence-related token as the price of its native token ARKM surges more than 27% in 24 hours. Per CoinMarketCap data, ARKM reached highs of $1.47 across major exchanges, its highest level since July.

The Arkham (ARKM) price surge comes amid a fresh spark of volatility across crypto, with Bitcoin holding above $63,500 and Ethereum near $2,700.

Arkham surge leads AI tokens

Binance launchpool released project Arkham sees its ARKM spike to rank as the biggest gainer among AI’s leading coins by market cap.

However, there are significant gains for Bittensor (TAO), Near Protocol (NEAR), the Graph (GRT) and ionet (IO). These AI tokens currently post an impressive double digit upside of between 12% and 19%.

However, they lag ARKM whose value is up 27% in 24 hours and 45% this past week at the time of writing. Prices near $1.48 mean bulls could eye $1.75 and then June resistance levels around $2.70.

The native token of blockchain intelligence platform, which leverages AI to deanonymize blockchain and on-chain data, has also seen a 280% spike in daily volume to over $127 million.

Meanwhile, the market cap has surged to over $326 million, up 27% in 24 hours to push ARKM into 159th largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

According to data from Coinglass, open interest for Arkham (ARKM) is up more than 56% to over $39.9 million. Elsewhere, a sudden rise in prices has seen more bearish bets on the token liquidated in the past 24 hours at over $119,000.

Liquidated long positions were $9,900 over the same period at the time of writing.

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• AAVE price reached highs of $173 on Monday, its highest level since April 2022.
• TVL has also recovered as the decentralised finance protocol witnessed bullish sentiment.

DeFi protocol Aave (AAVE) has seen the price of its native token surge to highs last seen in April 2022.

The surge to above $173 represents Aave’s highest price level since the coin traded at around $176 on April 28, 2022.

For AAVE, it was a sharp downturn after bulls reached the all-time high above $670 in May 2021, before a massive accumulation phase for nearly two and half years.

Aave now looks poised above the horizontal line that has constrained buyers for this long.

Part of this recovery comes as the broader crypto market eyes an upward run, led by Bitcoin’s flip above $60k and the rally that includes retesting of bear resolve above $64,800. According to CoinGecko data, AAVE/USD has jumped more than 172% in the past year, including an uptick of over 23% in the past week.

These gains have come as AAVE’s total value locked recovered since the decline to $5.7 billion in January 2023. In a year where the decentralised finance market has benefited from an overall recovery amid greater lending and borrowing, DeFiLlama shows Aave’s TVL has touched $22.1 billion.

Most of the value is on Aave V3, which has seen a lot of key integrations across the market. Total TVL for the network stood around $20.5 billion.

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• A new project, Ashigaru, has forked from Samourai Wallet to enhance user privacy.
• Ashigaru developers, former Samourai users, emphasize open-source security solutions.
• The original founders of Samourai Wallet face serious legal issues for money laundering.

On September 20, an enigmatic group of developers announced the hard fork of the popular Samourai Wallet, launching a new project called the “Ashigaru Open Source Project.”

Samourai Wallet has been forked. Some brave souls have picked up where Samourai Wallet left off and the fight for privacy lives on.

Excellent work in reigniting this flame in the darkest hour. Running your own Dojo now required.https://t.co/464YMuDoOMhttps://t.co/0QMBUCKVRy

— burn the bridge (@econoalchemist) September 22, 2024

The developers’ move aims to bolster user privacy and security in cryptocurrency transactions, utilizing CoinJoin and other mechanisms to shield users from analytical heuristics and tracking.

Samourai Wallet hard forked into Ashigaru

According to the new project’s website, Ashigaru is committed to developing, releasing, and maintaining free and open-source software that prioritizes security and privacy.

The developers of Ashigaru emphasize their goal of providing solutions with a low technical barrier to entry, ensuring that users can engage in peaceful, voluntary, and private commerce on the internet without facing tracking, surveillance, or censorship.

The developers, who identify as former users of Samourai Wallet, have clarified that they have no connections to the original Samourai Wallet development team. This separation has fueled curiosity about the motivations and identities of the new developers.

The team has indicated that they extensively use code from the public domain and other cryptocurrency projects, further enhancing their commitment to open-source principles.

Original Samourai Wallet founders are facing legal problems

The backdrop of this development is marked by significant legal troubles for Samourai Wallet’s founders, Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill.

In April 2024, both were arrested on money laundering charges in a case initiated by the United States Department of Justice. Keonne Rodriguez, however, entered a plea of not guilty and was released on a $1 million bounty.

Authorities allege that the duo facilitated over $2 billion in unlawful transactions and more than $100 million in money laundering activities. Following the arrests, the FBI seized Samourai Wallet’s website and servers, leading to its removal from app stores.

As the Ashigaru Open Source Project begins its journey, it seeks to reclaim the ethos of privacy-focused digital transactions that Samourai Wallet once represented.

With an emphasis on user empowerment and censorship resistance, Ashigaru could potentially redefine how individuals navigate the complex world of cryptocurrency. As the project unfolds, the crypto community will be closely watching its developments and impacts.

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