EU Lawmakers to Vote on Limited Ban on Self-Hosted Crypto Payments

Under the current proposal, traders would be forbidden from making or accepting anonymous crypto transfers over 1,000 euros ($1,080). If the customer’s identity can be verified or if a regulated crypto provider is involved, the transaction would be allowed. The initial draft of the law was even harsher, but the text was liberalized at a March 22 internal meeting, CoinDesk understands. Source

MicroStrategy Splurges $150 Million On Bitcoin, Repays $205 Million Silvergate Loan At 22% Discount

Summary: MicroStrategy bolstered its Bitcoin bag with a 6,455 BTC purchase worth around 150 million at today’s prices. Former CEO Michael Saylor noted that the company also repaid its $205 million Bitcoin-collateralized loan at a 25% discount. Saylor’s digital asset firm now holds around 138,955 BTC worth approximately $4.14 billion. Digital asset powerhouse MicroStrategy recently bought more Bitcoin for $150 million and repaid its BTC-collateralized loan to troubled crypto-friendly bank Silvergate, per a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company scooped up some 6,455 BTC at an…

Binance Unveils Opening of Brand-New Blockchain Hub in Georgia

Binance’s regional presence is also defined by its active role in the development of the blockchain ecosystem in other countries like Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Binance, the world’s largest digital currency trading platform has announced the opening of its new regional blockchain hub in the Eastern European nation of Georgia. As announced by the crypto exchange, the regional hub is set to reposition Binance’s efforts in the region with respect to the facilitation of blockchain adoption initiatives and the promotion of Web 3.0 education. Binance has a rich engagement in Georgia…

Gaming and Web3 outlook, what’s available on the market? Report

Where gaming and finance meet in Web3 has been termed GameFi, and it has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past few years. There are even several data analytical resources to try and figure out what are the hottest blockchain and Web3 games currently available. Cointelegraph Research dove into this topic head on and developed a top 20 games report. The report goes over some of the differences between Web2 and Web3 gaming and some of the evolution in GameFi. Discussing play-to-earn and play-to-own, as well as providing…

Kokomo Finance Exit Scam Sees Developers Make Away with $4M Worth of Tokens

The Kokomo Finance protocol has been found to be an elaborate exit scam after developers used wrapped Bitcoin to steal user funds worth $4M. According to reports, developers behind crypto lender Kokomo used Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) to perpetuate a $4 million exit scam. A CoinDesk report alleges developers pulled off the scam over the weekend after manipulating tokens to steal millions in user funds. The report further stated that these developers attacked the smart contract of wrapped Bitcoin token cBTC, from KOKO’s primary address. KOKO is the native digital currency of…

Microstrategy Buys 6,455 More Bitcoin — Now Holds 138,955 BTC – Featured Bitcoin News

Microstrategy has purchased 6,455 bitcoins for approximately $150 million at an average price of $23,238 per coin. With its latest purchase, Microstrategy now holds 138,955 bitcoins acquired at an average of $29,817 per coin. Moreover, the company also paid off its loan from troubled Silvergate Bank in full. Microstrategy Buys More Bitcoin Nasdaq-listed Microstrategy Inc. (Nasdaq: MSTR) announced Monday that it has acquired 6,455 more bitcoins. CEO Michael Saylor tweeted: Microstrategy repaid its $205M Silvergate loan at a 22% discount. As of 3/23/23, MSTR acquired an additional ~6,455 bitcoins for…

Polygon’s ‘holy grail’ Ethereum-scaling zkEVM beta hits mainnet

Polygon has released its open-source zkEVM Ethereum scaling technology to the mainnet, promising reduced transaction costs and increased throughput of smart contract deployments. Polygon’s zkEVM is a zero-knowledge rollup (ZK-rollups) scaling solution equivalent to the Ethereum Virtual Machine. ZK-rollups increase throughput on Ethereum’s blockchain by batching computations and state storage to layer-2 platforms. The technology allows thousands of transactions to be batched off-chain, with a proof containing a minimal data summary posted to the Ethereum mainnet. Polygon’s zkEVM is a type of ZK-rollup that mimics the transaction execution environment of Ethereum’s…

UBS’s acquisition of Credit Suisse brings some good and bad for crypto

On Sunday, March 19, the 167-year history of banking giant Credit Suisse ended with a takeover by the largest Swiss bank, UBS. Under pressure from the Swiss government, UBS took over its ailing competitor for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.25 billion) — less than half the $8 billion market value of Credit Suisse just two days before, on Friday, March 17.  A day later, on March 20, shares in Credit Suisse plunged more than 60% in European trading, with UBS down 9%. To cover any losses UBS may incur in…