Today's Highlights:
1. The Federal Service of the Russian Federation proposes legislation to allow the use of cryptocurrencies in foreign trade
2. MakerDAO will be launched on the L2 solution StarkNet
3. The NBA will launch an Ethereum-based "dynamic" NFT collection tomorrow
4. Yuga Labs may auction off the Otherside Meta-Universe Plot, with 600 APE starting at auction
5. The New York Times: Musk is financing debt for a Twitter acquisition plan
6. Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution Optimism or the upcoming launch of OP tokens
7.Framework Ventures has raised $400 million for its new fund, half of which will go to the on-chain travel sector
8. The EOS EVM network is named Trust Network, and the testnet is currently in the developer preview stage
Regulatory messages
The Federal Service of the Russian Federation proposes legislation to allow the use of cryptocurrencies in foreign trade
According to Russia's "Information Newspaper", the Russian Federal Tax Service proposed legislation to allow the use of cryptocurrencies in foreign trade. It is reported that in the digital currency regulation bill currently under discussion in Russia, it is clearly proposed to prohibit the use of digital assets as a means of payment, but the bill also contains a clause that the ban is effective "unless otherwise provided in this law". In this regard, the Russian Federal Service recommended that the Ministry of Finance make an exception to the operation and add the following provisions to the document: "Legal entities are allowed to pay for goods, work, foreign trade contract services, and to obtain income from foreign entities in digital currency." The position of the Russian Ministry of Finance on the proposal is partially supportive.
FATF report: Nearly half of jurisdictions still do not apply cryptocurrency money laundering norms
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global money laundering regulator, said in a report released Tuesday that nearly half of the world's jurisdictions still do not require cryptocurrency providers to properly identify their customers. The Paris-based international has vowed to tighten surveillance of its members, including the United States, the European Union and China, and to assess more frequently where illicit funds are at highest risk.
According to the report, 9% of jurisdictions do not meet the norms requiring virtual asset service providers (VASPs), such as wallet providers and exchanges, to ensure that funds are not used for money laundering or terrorist financing. 37% is only partially compliant, putting the cryptocurrency industry on a par with high-risk non-financial businesses such as legal, accounting and real estate.
IMF: Foreign exchange and capital control measures should cover crypto assets
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a financial stability report that as the war in Ukraine continues to raise concerns about evading sanctions, governments should ensure that they have the right to impose capital controls on traditional assets and cryptocurrencies. This means that citizens of crisis-hit countries such as Greece and Argentina may have limited access to bitcoin, while restricting cash withdrawals from ATMs or access to foreign currencies. "If necessary, laws and regulations on foreign exchange and capital flow management measures should be reviewed and amended to cover crypto assets," the report said. While the IMF acknowledges that it is "impractical" to make large ruble transfers on cryptocurrency exchanges, it warns that some those seeking to evade sanctions may turn to less cautious providers or use other privacy technologies, such as coin mixers. Crypto mining also offers opportunities for emerging-market countries to efficiently exchange energy for bitcoin, adding to concerns that countries' ability to stem the outflow of funds during financial turmoil could be undermined, the report said.
NFT
Ethereum
BNB Chain
The Chicago Board Options Exchange filed NFT and cryptocurrency-related trademark applications
U.S. lawyer Mike Kondoudis tweeted that the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) Chicago Options Exchange has filed an NFT and cryptocurrency-related trademark application for CBOE DIGITAL, indicating its plans to launch an NFT-backed digital asset trading platform, as well as plans for a cryptocurrency +NFT+ digital asset market and exchange.
The NBA will launch an Ethereum-based "dynamic" NFT collection tomorrow
According to Decrypt, the National Basketball Association (NBA) will begin casting its 18,000 Ethereum-based NFT collection on Wednesday (April 21, Beijing time) local time, called The Association. It is reported that the characteristics of the series of NFTs will evolve over the course of the playoffs based on the real performance of each player, which means that dunks, blocks, three-pointers, rebounds or assists will change the image of the player. The NFT background and "frame" will also change depending on the player's team performance. In addition, the NFT will be minted for free, and collectors will have to pay for Ethereum's gas costs. Earlier, the NBA announced the launch of its own NFT program, called "NBAxNFT".
Tencent Animation launched the "Tencent Animation Ten Years Limited" digital collection
According to the Central Broadcasting Network, Tencent Animation launched the "Tencent Animation Ten-Year Limited" digital collection, which was officially released at 12:00 on April 20 at 11:00, and was officially released at 12:00 on April 24. The digital collection takes ten classic works of Tencent Animation in the past ten years such as "Under One Person", "Little Red Lady of the Fox Demon", "The Great King Spares Life" as the core of creation, and is designed with the concept of "Collection Commemorative Stamps", a total of 10 models, with a unit price of 68 yuan and a limited edition, a total of 4800 copies.
Former Universe
Yuga Labs may auction off the Otherside Meta-Universe Plot, with 600 APE starting at auction
Renegademaster, host of The DYOR Show, said on Twitter that Yuga Labs may auction off its new project, the Otherside Meta-Universe Plot, which will be auctioned in Dutch style, with 600 APE starting at the auction.
Earlier, nWayPlay, an NFT trading platform owned by Animoca Brands, announced on March 17 that a new game developed in partnership with BAYC parent company Yoga Labs will use ApeCoin as the in-game currency. It is reported that the game will be released on PC first, and it will be possible to implement cross-play functions after the launch of the mobile terminal. On March 19, Yuga Labs unveiled a promotional video for its new project "Otherside" on social media, featuring the Inner NFT Series including The Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, Meebits, CoolCats, World of Women, and Nouns.
Chinese University established the first meta-universe research center in China
According to Beijing Daily, recently, the Institute of Interdisciplinary Sciences of Chinese University has established the first meta-universe research center in domestic universities, which will launch research reports, publish Chinese and English books and publish high-quality papers, set up talent training courses for undergraduate masters and doctors, and promote interdisciplinary and interdisciplinary academic exchanges and talent training through the exploration of the international innovation field of meta-universe. With the help of the Meta-universe Research Center, the university will promote the development of national meta-universe technology, meta-universe industry, meta-universe risk prevention, meta-universe governance, meta-universe supervision and law, meta-universe culture dissemination, etc., and build a national meta-universe field government-industry-university-research cooperation and exchange platform. Provide intellectual support and decision-making consultation for the scientific decision-making of the party and the government, and promote the deep integration and innovative development of production, learning and research. Previously, Chinese Online and Tsinghua University jointly built the first meta-universe culture laboratory in China.
Project dynamics
The New York Times: Musk is financing debt for the Twitter acquisition
According to the New York Times, Musk is currently preparing to raise debt for The Twitter acquisition plan. According to people familiar with the matter, Morgan Stanley, the partner of the acquisition plan, is raising funds for the acquisition recently, and Musk is currently only considering debt financing with tesla shares he holds as collateral, not considering equity financing, and will complete financing as soon as this week. According to previous news, Musk plans to launch an acquisition offer for Twitter within 10 days, and his personal investment is $10 billion to $15 billion.
Ethereum Layer 2 scaling scheme Optimism or the upcoming op token
According to the official announcement, Optimism, the Ethereum Layer2 scaling scheme, said in a retrospective article that the next phase will launch community ownership and community governance, and this phase will soon come. In addition, optimism has so far saved users more than $1.1 billion in gas costs, deployed more than 6,800 contracts, contributed to more than $17.4 billion in transaction volume, and generated more than $24.5 million in revenue. According to community speculation and the official roadmap, Optimism may soon launch OP tokens. Previously, on April 13, people familiar with the matter said that one of the four layer2s may issue tokens next month. Today's news followed that Coinbase appeared on Optimism's price page, suggesting that the token may be listed soon.
MetaMask iOS version v5.0.0 is launched, adding support for hardware wallet Keystone
MetaMask iOS v5.0.0 version is already online. Major updates include new support for hardware wallet Keystone, support for Apple Pay payments when using Transak, and so on.
The Ethereum Foundation, AMD, Polkadot, and others launched a $7 million zero-knowledge proof-of-knowledge innovation competition
The Zero-Knowledge Proof of Innovation Competition, called ZPrize, launched on April 19, will provide $7 million in prize money for the competition by 21 Web3 organizations including the Ethereum Foundation, Polkadot, Polygon, Mina, and AMD-Xilinx will provide teams with high-performance computing equipment, TheDefiant reported.
MakerDAO will be available on the L2 solution StarkNet
The decentralized organization behind dai stablecoins (DAO) MakerDAO today announced that the protocol will be deployed on StarkNet, Ethereum's Layer 2 extension solution. It is scheduled to go live on April 28.
According to TheBlock, MakerDAO's StarkNet integration will be carried out in four phases, the first phase, the release of a simple token bridge for DAI transactions on April 28; the second phase will be implemented in the second quarter of this year, enabling a rapid exit from L2 to L1; the third phase, the third quarter to achieve L2 to L2 delivery; and finally MakerDAO will be in Starknet in Q4 2022 or Q1 2023 Deploy the complete Multi-Collateral DAI (MCD) on it.
Pai Dun: MaxAPY Finance had a Rug Pull, and the official team was suspected of running away
PeckShield tweeted that the automatic pledge agreement MaxAPY Finance on bnb Chain had a Rug Pull, the token Metal fell 67% in a short period of time, its official Twitter account and Telegram group have been deleted, and the MaxAPY contract owner has transferred 1042 BNBs.
RSS3 kicked off the second round of early incentive airdrops, totaling about 5.48 million RSS3 tokens
Web3 Information Distribution Protocol RSS3 today announced the second round of early incentive airdrop rule announcements. According to the announcement, this round of airdrops will have 5479895.362803 RSS3 tokens airdropped to the community's on-chain token holders, and the official will be based on the on-chain interaction of token holders. The airdrop collection channel has been opened and will be closed at 4:00 p.m. Beijing time on April 27, 2022. It is reported that the first round of airdrops for the early incentive of RSS3 opened the collection channel on March 15, and this announcement belongs to the second part of the early incentive.
South Korean mobile game giant Mesh's MBX wallet will open its DEX function on April 26
According to N.news, South Korean mobile game giant Netstone announced that it will add DEX functionality to its MBX wallet (wallet) on April 26 to revitalize its blockchain ecosystem "MBX". As a result, it is expected to realize the exchange of blockchain game tokens with MBX as the core currency.
The EOS EVM network is named Trust Network, and the testnet is currently in developer preview
The EOS Network Foundation tweeted that the official name of the EOS EVM network will be determined as Trust Network. According to the documentation, Trust is an EOS network-based Ethereum virtual machine that provides a one-stop solution for developers. Users can run their applications on a fully Ethereum-compatible chain, support the creation of Solidity smart contracts, and enjoy the high throughput of the EOS network. The Trust testnet is currently in developer preview. According to the quarterly report released by the EOS Network Foundation, the testnet of the EOS EVM network will be launched in the second quarter, and the mainnet will be launched in the third quarter.
Gold House launched a $30 million venture capital fund for founders in Asia Pacific, with Binance Labs and others participating
Gold House, a nonprofit organization, announces the launch of Gold House Ventures, a $30 million venture capital fund that will invest in local founders in the Asia-Pacific region (API), including Accel, Alley Corp, Bain Capital, Basis Set, Bling Capital, CircleUp, Coatue, Decibel, Eniac, Floodgate, General Catalyst, GGV, Goodwater, Graph Ventures, Imaginary Ventures, Juxtapose, Lightspeed, Maveron, Mayfield, NEA, Northzone, Tribe, Trinity, Upfront, Wing VC and Xfund, among others. Binance Labs said it was also involved in the financing of Gold House Ventures. Gold House is a non-profit collective of Asian founders, creatives and organizers designed to help Asians and Pacific Islanders achieve multiculturalism and social equity.
Framework Ventures has raised $400 million for its new fund, half of which will go to the on-chain travel sector
Framework Ventures, a cryptocurrency-focused venture capital firm, said Tuesday that it has raised $400 million for a new fund. Framework said in a statement that half of the new capital, about $200 million, will be deployed to "the emerging blockchain gaming space." Framework Ventures co-founder Michael Anderson said he believes the next phase of the blockchain industry will attract many new users to join, and blockchain games are still in the early stages and full of opportunities. The convergence of P2E's economic model with truly interesting AAA games will bring explosive growth to the field.
The Layer2 interoperability protocol Connext plans to launch the governance token NEXT and airdrop
The Layer2 interoperability protocol Connext unveiled its native token, NEXT, and plans to convert to a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). NEXT is a utility token and governance token that will drive the full decentralization of Connext, similar to tokens for other blockchain infrastructure projects such as The Graph. Validators on the Connext network (called routers) will be able to pledge NEXT tokens in return for participating in the network and receiving corresponding fees. NEXT will also be used to manage the Connext ecosystem Treasury through the DAO.
According to Connext co-founder Arjun Bhuptani, Connext plans to launch the token in the next one to two months. Once launched, next tokens will also be airdropped to users of the Connext network and Router, and the snapshot is complete. Next has a total supply of 1 billion pieces. All tokens have been minted, but have not yet been publicly issued or transferred. The only way to get NEXT at the moment is through the Connext Contributor Program, which will launch today.
Financing messages
SPAC company AFARU, which has raised $115 million in a NASDAQ IPO, will focus on the crypto industry
According to Cointelegraph, special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Aura FAT Projects Acquisition Corp. AFARU has recently completed its initial public offering on NASDAQ and raised $115 million to focus on crypto industry assets. In addition, it has secured sponsorship funding with Singapore-based financial services firm AuraGroup and Fat Projects. AFARU will focus on acquisitions in the blockchain space, with a clear interest in emerging technology companies dealing with Web3, cryptocurrencies, digital ledgers, and video game assets.
Enterprise-grade blockchain platform BlockApps completed $41 million in funding, led by Liberty City Ventures
Kieren James-Lubin, president and CEO of enterprise-grade blockchain platform BlockApps, revealed that BlockApps completed a $41 million funding round to continue its expansion into the enterprise blockchain space. The round was led by Liberty City Ventures and led by Morgan Creek Digital, Eidetic Ventures, Givic, ConsenSys, Bloccelerate, Fitz Gate Ventures, Arab Angels, Kenetic Capita, PropelX and others. BlockApps currently has a total funding of $50 million.
Blockchain data analytics company Flipside Crypto completed a $50 million funding round, led by Republic Capital
Flipside Crypto, a blockchain data analytics firm, announced the completion of a $50 million funding round led by Republic Capital, along with True Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Terra, Dapper Labs, M13, Blockchain Coinvestors, Collab Currency, Hashkey, avon Ventures (venture capital fund affiliated with Fidelity Investments), Lightshed, Resolute, Boston Seed, Converge, Hutt Capital, Gangeels, Commerce Ventures, Quiet and Tribe Capital, among others.
NEAR Ecosystem NFT Infrastructure Mintbase Completes $12.5 Million Series A Funding Round
MINTBASE, the NEAR ecosystem NFT infrastructure, announced a $12.5 million Series A funding round, including a $7.5 million strategic round and a $5 million grant program, Mintbase Grants, supported by the NEAR Foundation. The strategy round was led by Woodstock Fund, with investors including Coinbase Ventures, Libertus Capital, Sino Global Capital, Animoca Brands, Fundamental Labs, Figment, TRGC and others. Previously, Mintbase completed a $1 million seed round in November 2020, led by Sino Global and invested by D1 Ventures, Block Oracle Capital, Arweave and others.
Mining news
Canadian miner Hut 8 will purchase 960 mining machines from hosting customer TAAL, becoming a 100% self-mining company
Hut 8 Mining Corp., one of North America's largest innovation-focused digital asset mining companies, announced that it has reached an agreement with TAAL to end its escrow relationship and purchase 960 MicroBT Whatsminer M31S+ mining rigs, a transaction expected to close on May 1 that will make Hut 8 the owner of mining equipment without having to pay rent to TAAL. Once purchased, Hut 8 allocates 100% of its operations at all mining sites to self-mining. These machines are expected to provide 81 PH/s of real-time incremental hash rate, bringing the Hut 8's final power to 2.62 EH/s.
Important data
PAData: Optimism's current independent address has accumulated more than 130,000, and the average number of daily transactions has increased by more than 25% this month.
Since its launch, Optimism has maintained a good development trend. According to Dune Analytics, as of April 19, optimism had 134431 number of independent addresses, which had grown by 13,193 this month, representing a monthly growth rate of 10.88%, equivalent to an average daily growth rate of 0.57%, which is basically the same as the average daily growth rate of 0.63% in the previous month. Although the number of independent addresses has only maintained a moderate growth rate, the number of on-chain transactions has increased significantly over the same period. According to statistics, as of April 19, optimism had 49,401 on-chain transactions on the same day, and the average number of daily transactions this month was about 46,660, an increase of 9,512 transactions over the previous month, an increase of about 25.61% month-on-month. Currently, there are about 80 protocols that interact with Optimism more than once a day.
Data: The number of non-zero addresses with balances on the BTC chain exceeded 42.29 million, another record high
According to OKLink data, the number of non-zero addresses with bitcoin balances on the BTC chain reached 42.29 million, a record high.