CoinDesk

The Voice of Layer 1s Is Needed in Washington Industry leading layer 1 blockchains must collaborate on policy engagement, delivering a uniform message that regulatory clarity is needed beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The Psychological Differences Between Bitcoin and Ethereum Governance An attempt to bridge the gap between good-faith advocates of both networks and show how the two largest crypto networks’ development processes matter for long-term success.

Argo Blockchain Suspends Trading in US Shares for 24 Hours The company said earlier this month it was close to restructuring without having to declare bankruptcy.

Crypto Lender Nexo Canvasses Vauld Creditors Directly With Final Takeover Offer In an open letter, the firm said earlier offers were misrepresented and it wanted to deal directly.

First Mover Asia: Bitcoin Ho Ho Holds Near $16.9K Bitcoin held steady throughout the Christmas holiday weekend at about $16.9K; most other major cryptos were flat, although tinted more green than red. Also: CoinDesk columnist David Z. Morris considers an upside to this year's various crypto industry debacles.

Solana’s Top NFT Projects DeGods and Y00ts to Migrate Chains DeGods will bridge over to Ethereum while its sister project Y00ts will move to Polygon with a grant from the layer 2's partnership fund.

Defrost Finance Says Hacked Funds Have Been Returned The hack, which some observers had characterized as a rug pull, was estimated to have netted $12 million.

Crypto Lender Vauld Calls Off Potential Acquisition by Rival Nexo The two started negotiations earlier this year and signed an initial agreement in July.

Bitcoin Miners Powered Off as Winter Storm Battered North America Computing power on the Bitcoin network dropped about 40% over the weekend.

Defrost Finance Hacked in Attack Some Say May Have Been a Rug Pull The total value of funds locked on the protocol had dropped to less $93,000 on Dec. 25 from about $13 million, Defi Llama data show.

5 Crypto Things That Riled Me Up in 2022 The FTX fraud, the Three Arrows Capital collapse, bitcoin maximalist rhetoric, centralized blockchains and privacy deniers, haters and destroyers were just a handful of the things that irritated CoinDesk research associate George Kaloudis in 2022.

Crypto Markets Today: Bitcoin Ends Penultimate Week of (Awful) 2022 on Quiet Note A year of steep declines in crypto markets brought another unwanted element – a dramatic increase in scams including “rug pulls.”

Binance Failing to Get US Exchange Listings for BNB Is Yellow Flag for Crypto Analysts Despite being one of the biggest cryptocurrencies, with a market capitalization around $40 billion, Binance’s BNB token has failed to win a listing on any major U.S. crypto exchanges, aside from Binance.US. Some analysts are now looking at whether that’s a yellow flag.

Blockware Solutions Customer Accuses Bitcoin Mining Firm of Fraud Lawsuit seeks at least $250,000 of damages.

Brazil’s Securities Regulator Allows Investment Funds to Invest in Crypto Assets will have to comply with current regulations approved this week by the country’s outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro.

Greed, Lies and FTX: Is Crypto a Force for Good or Evil? Despite the headlines, the industry still has a lot to offer the world, says the Giving Block's Pat Duffy.

Crypto Adds Unsavory Footnote to Dreadful 2022: Year of the Rug Pull Fraudsters deployed over 117,000 scam tokens from January through Dec. 1, a 41% increase over the full 2021, according to study from Solidus Labs.

2023: The Year of Regulation vs. Decentralization Crypto regulation remains a dark forest. In the year ahead, the SEC and CFTC will likely push the boundaries of their existing authorities through novel enforcement actions, says attorney Mike Selig.

Over $30B of NFT Trading Volume on Ethereum Is Wash Trading, Research Suggests According to a report based on data pulled through Dune Analytics, the shady trades accounted for over half of the total NFT trade volumes in 2022, and nearly 45% of all-time NFT volume.

Mythical Games Sues Former Executives for Secretly Raising $150M for New Firm The Web3 gaming studio alleges that the former executives, who departed the firm in November, used knowledge gained from raising funds for Mythical to acquire capital for their new firm, Fenix Games.

The End of Crypto Twitter as We Know It? An impending departure of millions of users from Twitter could threaten the platform's diversity of viewpoints and force crypto enthusiasts to fully adopt decentralized Web3 social media.

Craig Wright Can Appeal Satoshi Defamation Finding, Norwegian Court Rules Claims by Twitter user Hodlonaut that Craig Wright is a “fraud” and “scammer” for claiming to found bitcoin will come under a judicial gaze once more

2023 Will Be the Death of Bitcoin Energy FUD TKTK

DeFi Derivatives Trading Has Untapped Potential If we learn to read the markets, make smart use of the data at our disposal and overcome a few speed bumps along the way, options will certainly drive the next era of DeFi to higher highs than ever before.

ZK Rollups Bring Ethereum's Decentralized Vision Into Focus TKTK

International Chess Federation Checks Into Web3 With Avalanche Integration The global chess authority is looking to onboard the game’s 500 million players into Web3 with the new partnership.

Crypto Funding Plunged in 2022, but VC Head Sees Areas of Opportunity for 2023 CoinFund’s David Pakman talks FTX, DeFi and the way forward.

First Mover Americas: SEC Scrutnizes Crypto Audits; SBF Gets Bail The latest price moves in bitcoin (BTC) and crypto markets in context for Dec. 23, 2022. First Mover is CoinDesk’s daily newsletter that contextualizes the latest actions in the crypto markets.

Authorities in Italy, Albania Bust $16M Suspected Crypto Investment Scam Law enforcement authorities in Italy and Albania have busted a cryptocurrency investment scam worth 15 million euros ($15.91 million).

OKX Unveils 2nd Proof-of-Reserves Report, Promises Monthly Publication Users can now view and download the old and new reserve ratios and assess the exchange's health and the safety of their assets.

SEC Increases Scrutiny of Audits of Cryptocurrency Companies: WSJ The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is increasing its scrutiny of audits of cryptocurrency companies and warning both investors and audit firms, WSJ reported.

QuadrigaCX Has Had an Improbable Week Strap in folks: It’s a big week. Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and current FTX CEO John J. Ray III were supposed to speak to the House Financial Services Committee. Obviously, things didn’t quite work out that way.

First Mover Asia: Bitcoin, Ether Hold as US Stocks Fall Plus: Glenn Ardi of Coindesk Indonesia writes about Indonesia's vision of government permitting and controlling Web3 and DeFi by providing a government-sanctioned payment layer.

Ransomware Payouts Declined in 2022: Crystal Blockchain Victims of ransomware attacks paid hackers 4.5 times less in crypto in 2022 than in 2021, according to a new report.

The Final Word on Decentraland’s Numbers Metaverse platforms present a challenge of sorting bots from real people, and then even real people can be inactive or AFK, short for “away from keyboard” for hours, days, even weeks. One way to filter out bots is to filter users by those with NFTs, which also weeds out “tourists” who pop in for a quick look and leave without meaningful interaction. In addition, it can be argued that those users with NFTs matter the most, as in a Web3 metaverse like Decentraland, users with NFTs such as ones that denote ownership of real estate in Decentraland (LAND) or wearable items that unlock some of the more popular experiences like ICE poker are the ones who are most active in the platform, and certainly are the most valuable to the ecosystem’s success.

Crypto Markets Today: Federal Judge Releases Bankman-Fried on $250M Bond Top crypto assets hold steady as stocks get pre-holiday bounce. Crypto Markets Today is CoinDesk’s daily newsletter diving into what happened in today's crypto markets.

Bitcoin Protocol Development Steadily Progressing Despite Only 40-60 Monthly Active Developers: NYDIG The report was written by Bitcoin-focused investment firm, New York Digital Investment Group