Author: Chris Lion

Ripple’s co-founder Chris Larsen has formally supported Kamala Harris in her bid for the United States presidency.

According to a CNBC report, 88 current and former high-ranking executives from various sectors of corporate America have Vice President Kamala Harris for president, including Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of the enterprise cloud company Box, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, Snap chairman Michael Lynton, and former 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch.

Larsen’s endorsement of Harris could surprise many XRP supporters, especially given that Ripple has faced a prolonged securities lawsuit during her tenure as Vice President under the current administration.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit against Ripple has been active for nearly four years, since December 2020. Although the court has issued a final judgment, there is speculation that the SEC might extend the case by filing an appeal.

Uphold Co-Founder Endorse Harris

Meanwhile, Larsen is not the only crypto executive who views Harris as the industry’s best option. On August 1, 2024, J.P. Theriot, co-founder of Uphold, also publicly supported the Democratic presidential nominee.

Theriot argued that Harris is well-suited for the position, highlighting her superior understanding of crypto compared to her opponent, Donald Trump. He criticized Trump’s crypto-related promises as unclear, suggesting they may not produce favorable outcomes.

Importance of the Upcoming U.S. Elections

For most crypto executives, the upcoming presidential election is crucial for the industry. They believe the results could either hinder or promote its growth.

Many crypto executives have also supported Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, attracted by his appealing promises. The list includes notable figures such as Ripple CLO Stuart Alderoty, Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell.

To ensure the success of the upcoming election, Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s general council member, donated $300,000 in XRP to Trump’s campaign, whereas Tyler, Cameron, and Powell each gave $1 million in BTC.

Trump has repeatedly expressed his support for the crypto industry, pledging to dismiss SEC Chairperson Gary Gensler on his first day in office. Additionally, he has promised to transform America into the global hub for crypto by welcoming “industries of the future” rather than targeting them.

The banks will utilize Progmat’s stablecoin platform for this trial, as it adheres to legal regulations.

Japan’s top three banks—Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), and Mizuho Financial Group—have announced their collaboration to launch a stablecoin platform for international settlements.

The latest development aims to revolutionize cross-border transactions and bring greater efficiency and transparency to international trade.

In 2022, cross-border transfers totaled $182 trillion, prompting the G20 to highlight four key challenges—cost, speed, accessibility, and transparency—that could be significantly addressed using stablecoins for international settlements.

Project Pax Testing Initiative

According to the press release “Project Pax,” the pilot test will involve three blockchain firms: Progmat, Datachain, and TOKI. This collaborative initiative aims to develop a cross-border stablecoin transfer platform.

The press release noted that the banks will utilize Progmat’s stablecoin platform for this trial, as it adheres to legal regulations. Additionally, the platform’s stablecoins comply with accounting and tax regulatory standards.

Project Pax will leverage Swift’s API framework, enabling banks to direct Progmat for blockchain-based settlements. According to the announcement, the approach tackles challenges related to AML/CFT, regulatory compliance, and operational setup while also considering the complexities businesses encounter when using digital wallets.

“This enables financial institutions to avoid operational redundancy with fiat currency transfers and minimize investment costs,” Datachain said in the report.

Commercialization to Commence in 2025

The pilot test will start soon with a prototype to broaden collaboration with additional countries and financial institutions. The objective is to commercialize the platform by 2025.

Datachain stated that as it advances toward commercialization, it plans to steadily grow the number of participating financial institutions and broaden the target regions, aiming to establish a global standard for international payment networks powered by stablecoins.

If successful, the initiative is anticipated to significantly grow the stablecoin market as it becomes integrated into the global economy. Datachain estimates the stablecoin market could surpass $2.8 trillion by 2028.

The report also noted that as of 2022, the cross-border transfer market had grown to a massive $182 trillion. The G20 has also established goals to be met by 2027 in four critical areas: cost, speed, access, and transparency, marking these improvements as a top priority on the global agenda.

Meanwhile, with the advanced stablecoin regulations in Japan, it is anticipated that stablecoin issuance and use in the real economy, adhering to these regulations, will commence by the end of 2024.

Each BMN2 security token entitles holders to the bitcoin produced by 1 PH/s (Peta hash per second) of Blockstream’s mining hash rate.

Blockchain technology firm Blockstream has launched the third series of its Blockstream Mining Note 2 (BMN2), a security token that allows investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin mining without owning or managing physical mining infrastructure. The blockchain technology firm aims to raise $10 million in this final round.

Introduction of BMN2

BMN2 is a security token that is compliant with EU regulations and is available to qualified investors outside the United States. It exposes holders to the Bitcoin hash rate generated by the company’s enterprise-grade mining operations in North America. It is provided in partnership with Luxembourg-based virtual assets service provider STOKR.

In this round, BMN2 is priced at $31,000 per petahash per second (PH/s), equivalent to a hash price of $21.23. Investors who bought BMN2 during the first and second series, when the token was sold at a higher price, will receive additional BMN2 to compensate for the price difference between the earlier and third rounds.

The release of BMN2 follows the successful performance of the initial Blockstream Mining Note, BMN1, which delivered a 32% return in BTC.

According to the company, BMN2 has raised nearly $7 million since its initial offering launched in July. It provides an investment opportunity with the potential to outperform direct Bitcoin purchases on the spot market.

Blockstream is also issuing the note in 1 PH/s increments, as petahash is now the standard unit for measuring hash price. The contract’s length aligns with Bitcoin’s four-year halving cycle.

The minimum investment is $10,000 for professional investors, while non-professional investors must meet a $115,000 minimum. Shares of the security token offering (STO) will be fungible and available for trading, in both full and fractional forms, on secondary markets like Bitfinex, SideSwap, and Merj Exchange. The note will also be available at a 50% discount on the current spot hash price.

Hashprice is a Bitcoin mining metric indicating a miner’s terahash revenue. In other words, it represents the average daily value, in fiat currency, of the reward a miner receives for each terahash calculation (USD/TH/s per day). These rewards encompass both transaction fees and newly minted Bitcoin.

The Success of BMN1

The BMN1, which also provided 2 PH/s over 36 months, mined 1,242 bitcoins and achieved up to 103% cash-on-cash returns and a 32% return over BTC. Blockstream aims to offer comparable returns to investors with the BMN2.

Blockstream will reward investors with a 3% bonus in additional BMN2 securities for transitioning from BMN1 to BMN2.

Validators can gain from the 2% emission policy, as they consistently earn rewards for maintaining the security of the proof-of-stake (PoS) network.

Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Polygon has recently transitioned its native token from MATIC to POL as part of a broader rebranding and technical upgrade in the Polygon 2.0 roadmap. On the downside, the latest action failed to meet bullish expectations, as the token traded at $0.38 at the time of writing.

POL is currently the latest ticker for Polygon’s native token. Users can swap their MATIC for POL at a 1:1 ratio. Crypto exchanges and price-tracking websites must also update the token’s ticker on their platforms accordingly.

Polygon Unveils POL

Polygon’s POL has been in development since July 2023. Polygon Labs, the team behind the layer 2 blockchain, proposed replacing MATIC with POL, stressing that both tokens cannot coexist. According to the team, POL will be available to users across all platforms linked to Polygon.

Following the proposal’s approval, POL will reorganize the asset’s tokenomics and enhance its flexibility. Despite maintaining a total supply of 10 billion tokens, Polygon Labs revealed that POL will feature a 2% annual emission rate over a decade. This approach allows the development team to fund the community treasury, which can be utilized to support a grant program for the community.

Additionally, validators will also gain from the token emissions, as they will receive ongoing token rewards for maintaining the security of the proof-of-stake (PoS) network.

According to the development team, MATIC holders on the Polygon mainnet don’t need to do anything. Still, those with digital assets on Ethereum, Polygon zkEVM, or centralized exchanges must use a migration contract to participate in the transition. Fortunately, Polygon Labs has confirmed no deadline for completing the migration.

Price Drops Almost 10%

Following the upgrade, Polygon’s native token has struggled to follow the positive trend, experiencing a 9.13% drop in the last 24 hours. At press time, the crypto exchanged hands with $0.3829.

The Penpie hacker moved $7 million via Tornado Cash after stealing $27 million, underscoring the security challenges within DeFi.

The hacker behind a $27 million security breach from the decentralized finance (DeFi) project, Penpie, has transported $7 million of the stolen funds through crypto mixer Tornado Cash.

Web3 security firm Cyver Alert recently detected the hacker moving about 26% of the hacked funds via the privacy protocol.

Tornado Cash is a crypto privacy protocol developed on the Ethereum blockchain. It allows a user to deposit crypto assets into a shared pool and receive a transaction key. The user can later input the key to withdraw crypto from the pool into a different crypto wallet. It is often used to mask the whereabouts of crypto transactions.

Hacker Transfers Fund to Tornado Cash Address

According to the blockchain security firm, the attacker’s address persistently transfers the stolen funds through various transactions to Tornado Cash addresses. The hacker’s decision to use Tornado Cash is unsurprising, given its reputation as the go-to tool for laundering illicit funds in crypto.

Following the initial hack incident of $27 million, the Penpie protocol temporarily halted all deposit and withdrawal activities.

The Penpie protocol team noted that at 1745 UTC, the attacker deployed the first contract for the attack.

The protocol also noted that it contacted security specialists at Seal 911 for assistance in preventing further related attacks.

The Pendle team said that it paused all contracts,  preventing additional attempts to drain assets from Penpie and protecting approximately $105 million that the attacker could have potentially stolen.

After several rigorous checks, the development team assured that Pendle contracts were safe. It further noted that the attack was due to an issue specific to Penpie. Additionally, the dev team said that the vulnerability was found to be linked to a unique feature that allowed permissionless listing of Pendle markets on Penpie.

“At 0050 UTC, after rigorous checks and coordination with all relevant parties to confirm step 1 and 2, Pendle contracts were safely unpaused, and normal operations resumed,” the team said.

Exploit Attacks on Protocols Stealing Millions

Meanwhile, this is not the first time a protocol has fallen victim to an exploit. On July 12, 2024, DeFi protocol Dough Finance fell victim to a flash loan attack, resulting in a $1.8 million loss of Ether (ETH).

Another security attack happened on July 17, 2024, causing the loss of approximately $8 million on Li.Fi protocol, an API facilitating Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and Solana (SOL) transactions.

Galois Capital misled some investors by claiming that redemptions required at least five business days’ notice before the end of the month.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged and subsequently reached a settlement with Galois Capital, a crypto-focused investment advisory firm, regarding issues involving its handling of client assets.

According to a statement from the SEC on Tuesday, Galois Capital failed to curtail investors’ losses.

“By failing to comply with Custody Rule provisions, Galois Capital exposed investors to risks that fund assets, including crypto assets, could be lost, misused, or misappropriated,” said Corey Schuster, Co-Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Asset Management Unit.

Galois Pays $225,000 Civil Penalty

The Commission also noted that Galois provided misleading information regarding the notice period required for redemptions to fund investors. To resolve the SEC’s charges, Galois has agreed to pay a $225,000 civil penalty, which will be allocated to compensate the affected investors in its fund.

“We will continue to hold accountable advisers who violate their core investor protection obligations,” Schuster said.

The SEC order concluded that Galois Capital violated the Investment Advisers Act. Although Galois Capital did not admit or deny the SEC’s findings, it agreed to an order that required it to stop further violations of the Advisers Act, be censured, and pay a civil penalty.

Galois Capital’s Financial Troubles

In July 2022, the SEC disclosed that Galois Capital did not ensure that some of the crypto assets held by the private fund it advised were kept with a qualified custodian, which violated the Custody Rule of the Investment Advisers Act.

The order noted that Galois Capital kept some crypto assets in online trading accounts on platforms like FTX Trading Ltd., which were not qualified custodians. Around half of the fund’s assets under management were lost during FTX’s collapse from early to mid-November 2022.

The report also revealed that Galois Capital misled some investors by claiming that redemptions required at least five business days’ notice before the end of the month while permitting other investors to redeem with shorter notice periods.

In addition, Annie Hancock and Rory Alex conducted the investigation, supervised by Colin Forbes, Brent Wilner, Mr. Schuster, and Andrew Dean, all of the Division of Enforcement’s Asset Management Unit.

The latest development aims to unlock many opportunities for users, developers, and entrepreneurs within the DeFi sector.

Ripple, the blockchain company behind the XRP Ledger (XRPL), has announced plans to integrate smart contracts into its platform.

In a recent announcement on social media platform X, Ripple revealed that the initiative is designed to unlock many opportunities for users, developers, and entrepreneurs. The goal is to draw in developers eager to leverage the enhanced features of the XRPL. The company also mentioned that the smart contracts functionality will launch on the XRPL Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) sidechain in the coming months.

Making Blockchain Appeal to Developers

A smart contract is a computer program or transaction protocol intended to automatically execute, control, or document events and actions according to the terms of a contract or agreement. These programs manage transactions and enforce terms without relying on third-party intermediaries.

According to Ripple, smart contracts will be introduced to the XRPL ecosystem via a sidechain developed in collaboration with the blockchain company Peersyst. The firm believes this advancement will make the blockchain more attractive to developers.

The payment firm also noted that smart contracts will be available on the XRPL mainnet. However, the company, known for its cross-border payment solutions, said that the feature is still under research, and no specific timeline for its deployment has been provided.

Partnership with DeFi Developers

Smart contracts serve numerous purposes and have a range of applications, from decentralized finance (DeFi) to managing supply chains. They are vital in creating decentralized applications (dApps) on popular blockchain platforms like Ethereum, BNB Chain, Avalanche, and Solana.

Introducing smart contracts into the Ripple ecosystem means users can access DeFi products. The blockchain payment firm expressed enthusiasm for partnering with DeFi developers and encouraged community members to share feedback on design details. The company also invited developers skilled in EVM languages to explore opportunities on its sidechain.

Ripple also said the sidechain was designed for developers of Ethereum-based smart contracts. It offers a familiar environment for deploying DApps, enabling them to utilize Solidity, the programming language commonly used for creating smart contracts on Ethereum.

The company added that the push to enhance XRPL’s programmability is expected to gain significant momentum in 2025 as the organization advances towards integrating smart contracts into the mainnet.

IDA seeks to enhance the efficiency of cross-border trade through blockchain technology.

IDA, a leading crypto firm based in Hong Kong, has successfully raised $6 million from a funding round to launch HKDA, the city’s first stablecoin.

Boosting Efficiency in Cross-Border Trade

According to a recent announcement, IDA revealed that the newly acquired funds will be allocated to creating HKDA, a fiat-backed stablecoin. Notable backers of this funding round include Hack VC, Yolo Investments, Chorus One, and Raj Gokal from Solana.

HKDA marks IDA’s debut into the fiat-backed stablecoin sector, although a precise launch date is yet to be determined. Lawrence Chu, co-founder and CEO of IDA, noted that the stablecoin market, valued at around $170 billion, could surpass $3 trillion in the next five years.

Chu further highlighted that the swift growth will significantly boost the role of stablecoins within the broader crypto asset landscape. IDA aims to improve cross-border trade efficiency through blockchain technology.

Sean Lee, co-founder and CSO of IDA, also noted that the company’s primary objective is to promote widespread adoption and facilitate smooth integration for businesses transitioning between Web2 and Web3. To reach these objectives, IDA is working closely with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB), and other local partners to launch regulated stablecoins in the region.

Increase in Stablecoin Adoption

As digital currencies become increasingly popular, stablecoins have experienced notable expansion. According to Forbes, the stablecoin market has a total capitalization of approximately $171 billion. Tether (USDT) holds the largest share at $118.27 billion, with USDC coming in second at $34.77 billion.

The latest development comes after Tether recently announced plans to launch a new stablecoin pegged to the UAE dirham (AED). In collaboration with Phoenix Group PLC and Green Acorn Investments, this project will provide a stable and transparent digital asset supported by liquid reserves in UAE dirhams. This new offering is similar to the current USDT, pegged to the U.S. dollar.

Bitcoin miners earned $827 million in revenue last month, marking the lowest since September 2023.

Bitcoin miners have recorded their lowest revenue in nearly a year, as the number of coins mined fell in August.

According to on-chain data from Bitbo, bitcoin miners’ revenue generated approximately $827.56 million in August, declining over 10.5% from July’s $927.35 million. On the bright side, the revenue was up 5% from August 2023.

Over 13.8K BTC Mined Last Month

In August, 13,843 BTC was mined, a decrease from the 14,725 BTC generated in the previous month. The leading miners for August include Foundry USA, which mined more than 1,240 blocks, representing a 30% share, and Antpool, which mined 1,074 blocks, accounting for 25.04% of the total.

The decrease in revenue comes as miners faced pressure from declining transaction volumes and an increase in bitcoin mining difficulty, which intensified following April’s halving event that slashed block rewards by 50% to 3.125 BTC.

According to data from Blockchain.com, miners’ median fees accounted for just 2% of the overall block reward in August. This suggests that transaction volume was probably lower than usual or users were not opting for higher fees to expedite transactions. Additionally, the data revealed that daily confirmed transactions by miners reached a year-to-date (YTD) high in July, hitting approximately 631,648, which declined slightly to 594,871 by the end of August.

Mining difficulty has also increased, reaching a record high of 89.47 trillion in August, up from 86.87 trillion in July. This indicates that more computing power was required to discover a new block and earn a reward, thereby increasing the cost of mining for miners.

How Bitcoin Halving Enters the Picture

Historically, the halving event propels BTC’s price to greater heights approximately every four years. Bitcoin halving drives miners to optimize energy consumption and increase hash power, contributing to the sustainability and long-term viability of the Bitcoin ecosystem. The most recent halving event, which occurred in April, saw the block reward for miners go from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.

BTC was up 0.44% in the past 24 hours at press time, changing hands around $58,380. However, the crypto asset has fallen over 5% in the past week and more in the past month.