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74% of Ethereum nodes ‘Merge ready’ ahead of Bellatrix upgrade
As many as 73.5% of Ethereum nodes are now marked as “Merge ready” ahead of the upcoming Bellatrix upgrade for Ethereum on Sept. 6, according to data from Ethernodes. The Bellatrix upgrade is seen as one of the last necessary steps prior to the official Merge, which will see Ethereum transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism between Sept. 10-20. To become Merge ready, Ethereum node operators must comply with the Bellatrix upgrade by updating its consensus layer clients prior to epoch 144896 on the Beacon Chain, which is scheduled to take place on 11:34:47am UTC on Sept. 6, 2022, according to the Ethereum Foundation. Percentage of Ethereum clients that are Merge Ready. Source: Ethernodes. However, with as many as 26.7% of nodes marked “Not-Ready” for the Ethereum Merge, Ether...
‘Far too easy’ — Crypto researcher’s fake Ponzi raises $100K in hours
Crypto influencer FatManTerra claims to have gathered over $100,000 worth of Bitcoin (BTC) from crypto investors in an investment scheme that was later revealed as fake. The crypto researcher said he created the fake investment scheme as an experiment and to teach people a lesson about blindly following the investment advice of influencers. The account on Twitter has around 101,100 followers and is mostly known for being a former Terra proponent that now actively speaks out against the project and founder Do Kwon following its $40 billion collapse in May. In a Sept. 5 tweet, FatManTerra told his followers he had “received access to a high-yield BTC farm” by an unnamed fund, and said that people could message him if they wanted-in on the yield farming opportunity. “I’ve maxed ou...
Price analysis 9/5: BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, ADA, SOL, DOGE, DOT, MATIC, SHIB
The cryptocurrency markets have been quiet over the weekend. The sideways price action continues on Sept. 5 and there are unlikely to be any fresh triggers from the United States equities markets, which are closed for Labor Day. However, the bullish picture for cryptocurrencies looks clouded as the energy crisis in Europe sent the euro to a two-decade low versus the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar index (DXY) which has an inverse correlation with the equities markets and cryptocurrencies soared above 110 for the first time since June 2002. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 A positive sign among all the mayhem is that Bitcoin (BTC) has not given up much ground over the past few days and continues to trade near the psychological level of $20,000. This suggests ...
Blockchain incubator valued at $100M following NGC Ventures-led Series A
Blockchain-focused incubator and adviser PANONY has closed a Series A funding round backed by NGC Ventures, one of Asia’s largest crypto investment firms, putting the company on track to expand its portfolio and geographic presence. Although the funding terms weren’t disclosed, the Series A gave PANONY a valuation of $100 million, the company reported Monday. The Hong Kong-based PANONY said it would use the funds to expand into other jurisdictions, launch new service offerings and expand its networking capabilities. Founded in 2018 by Alyssa Tsai and Tongtong Bee, PANONY invests in blockchain- and Web3-focused startups and offers ongoing advisory and business support. The company maintains operations across Greater China, South Korea and the United States. While PANONY didn’t disclos...
Reserve Bank of India preparing to trial a CBDC with public sector banks and fintechs
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is in talks with fintech companies and state-controlled banks about a trial run of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), local publication Moneycontrol reported on Sept. 5. An unnamed public sector bank official told the publication that the trial may precede an RBI launch of a CBDC this fiscal year. U.S.-based financial services company FIS was mentioned as one of the fintech companies with which the RBI is consulting. FIS senior director Julia Demidova confirmed to Moneycontrol that, “FIS has had various engagements with the RBI […] and, of course, our connected ecosystem could be extended to the RBI to experiment various CBDC options.” FIS announced the launch of its CBDC Virtual Lab on Aug. 25. The company was already active in the CBDC sphere as ...
Ethereum Classic books 12% rally as mining support for ETC gains pace
Ethereum Classic (ETC) price rallied on Sept. 5 on back-to-back positive reports concerning its adoption among crypto miners. Top mining pool supports Ethereum Classic On the daily chart, ETC’s price surged 14.5% to nearly $37.25 per token. Its massive gains came days after BTC.com, a blockchain explorer and crypto mining pool, launched a specialized Ethereum Classic pool with “zero-fee” mining for three months. ETC/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView The announcement appeared after “the Merge,” a long-awaited network update that would switch Ethereum’s energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) protocol to a “cost-efficient” and scalable alternative, the proof-of-stake (PoS), on Sept. 19 or before. But the switch to PoS will make Ether...
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy Awards Universal Music With Peace Prize for Wartime Support
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has awarded Universal Music Group the Ukraine Peace Prize for its support of Ukraine during the country’s war with Russia. At a ceremony on Monday (Sept. 5) at UMG’s Belgium headquarters in Brussels, Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, presented the award to Frank Briegmann, UMG’s chairman and CEO of Central Europe. UMG, which was among the first major labels to declare its support for economic sanctions against Russia after it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, is the first music company to receive the award from Ukraine. “Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Universal Music has proven that they are true friends of Ukraine,” Stefanishyna says. The label says its efforts include support f...
US congressman and crypto skeptic explains why a crypto ban won’t work
In a recent interview, United States congressman and a known crypto skeptic Brad Sherman claimed that banning cryptocurrencies is not an option at this point. In a statement to LA Times, the Northridge-area Democrat said that the crypto industry has become quite powerful over the years. He added that the high capital donations to the politicians and strong crypto lobbying make it impossible for them to impose a blanket ban. He explained: “We didn’t ban it at the beginning because we didn’t realize it was important, and we didn’t ban it now because there’s too much money and power behind it.” The democratic representative is a well-known skeptic who has been demanding a crypto ban since 2019. Nearly three years later, Sherman has changed his tune about a ban and now advocates for regul...
ETH Merge: CoinGecko co-founder shares strategy for forked tokens
Many believe that after Ethereum transitions to proof-of-stake (PoS), a faction of Ether (ETH) miners will be creating a proof-of-work (PoW) fork of the network so that they can still keep mining. An executive believes that there are ways for ETH holders to take advantage of this upcoming event. In a Twitter thread, Bobby Ong, the co-founder of token information website CoinGecko, shared his strategies when it comes to the upcoming ETH Merge. According to Ong, ETH holders will soon be getting airdrops of ETH PoW tokens and shared some tips on how ETH holders can fully seize this opportunity. Ong noted that the easiest way to get the fork airdrops is to hold ETH at exchanges that support the forks. However, holding ETH in hardware wallets would also work and could make a trader ...
Bank of Russia agrees to legalize crypto for cross-border payments: Report
The Bank of Russia, the country’s central bank, has reportedly admitted that cross-border payments in crypto are inevitable in the current geopolitical conditions. The Russian central bank has been rethinking the approach to regulating crypto and agreed with the finance ministry to legalize crypto for cross-border payments, the local news agency TASS reported on Monday. Deputy finance minister Alexei Moiseev reportedly said that the Bank of Russia and the finance ministry expect to legitimize cross-border payments in crypto soon. Moiseev outlined the importance of enabling local crypto services in Russia, noting that many Russians rely on foreign platforms to open a crypto wallet. “It is necessary to do this in Russia, involving entities supervised by the central bank, which are obliged to...
Ripples of Bitcoin adoption at Biarritz’s Surfin Bitcoin Conference in France
A sublime sunset enveloped Biarritz Casino on Aug. 27, bringing France’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) conference to a close. Located in southwest France and organized by French Bitcoin exchange Stackin Sat, Surfin Bitcoin assembled a host of Bitcoin OG’s, newbies and no coiners, those yet to buy or earn crypto, in a setting that would rival any Hollywood film set. Bitcoiners networked in the hope of learning more about the Lightning Network, landing jobs at one of the many French Bitcoin companies present — from Galoy Money to Découvre Bitcoin — or simply rubbing shoulders with fellow Bitcoin believers. In a touch of bear market irony, as the Bitcoin chips are currently way down, the event venue took place at the illustrious Biarritz Casino. From Bitcoin core maintainers to European royalty...
NFT watchdog Rug Pull Finder gets its own NFT giveaway exploited
In an ironic twist, Rug Pull Finder (RPF), a nonfungible token (NFT) watchdog focused on identifying Web3-based fraud has fallen victim to a smart contract exploit of its own. According to the NFT investigator’s post on Twitter on Sept. 2, two people exploited a technical flaw in the project during the free mint stage — pilfering 450 NFTs out of a possible 1,221 which were intended to be limited to one per wallet. As discussed on our Twitter space’s earlier today – We messed up. We messed up big. Our contract had a flaw that allowed 2 people to scoop up over 450 NFTs. Here is what we are doing to fix it — Rug Pull Finder (@rugpullfinder) September 2, 2022 According to RPF, their smart contract had a flaw that allowed the code to be exploited, allowing the bandits to allocate mo...
