Day: April 4, 2023

PayPal and the credit card industry are taking advantage of consumers

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As rising prices have forced consumers all over the world to reduce their spending and find new ways of coping with the increased cost of living, consumers are finding themselves relying on credit cards even more than they already were.  More Americans are unable to pay their credit card bills in full at the end of the month, with 46% of credit cardholders carrying month-to-month debt, up from 39% in 2022. A recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York highlighted how the current 15% year-to-year credit card…

Liquidity protocol Sentiment exploited for over $500K

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Sentiment, an undercollateralized lending protocol, appears to have been exploited on April 4 for over $500,000 in crypto. Ethereum blockchain data shows a transaction that transferred 536,738.410031 USD Coin (USDC) from the Synapse Bridge, and this links up with a series of Arbitrum transactions draining coins from the Sentiment protocol.  The wallet performing the attack has been labeled “Sentimentxyz Exploiter” by Arbiscan, and the Sentiment team has announced on Twitter that they are aware of a “potential issue” with the protocol. The Sentiment team has recently been made aware of a…

Fed liquidity injections drive down US Treasury yields, but not Bitcoin price

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Bitcoin (BTC) might have shown strength after successfully defending the $28,000 support amid unfounded rumors regarding Binance, but an interesting development to note is BTC is becoming less correlated to traditional markets after the United States Federal Reserve elected to provide emergency liquidity to banks.  This change in attitude from the central bank has caused a shift in the trajectory of U.S. Treasurys as traders sought refuge from the inflationary upward pressure. Bitcoin appears to be agnostic to the movement and its price has been hovering around $28,000 for the…

Paxful closing, CEO blames staff departures, regulatory challenges

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Peer-to-peer cryptocurrency marketplace Paxful announced on April 4 that it was suspending operations. Paxful founder and CEO Ray Youssef said in a blog that “key staff departures” and the regulation environment were behind the decision. “We are not sure if it [the marketplace] will come back,” Youssef wrote. He added that all customer funds are accounted for and asked customers to withdraw their funds. The blog post provided links to other platforms that Paxful suggested for non-U.S. users to migrate to. Youssef said in a Twitter Spaces meetup that Paxful is…

Celo Foundation and Google Cloud partner to support sustainable Web3 startups

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The Celo Foundation has partnered with Google Cloud to support mission-aligned projects in Celo’s blockchain ecosystem and advance the early adoption of Google Cloud services. The collaboration is set to allow founders building on Celo to access credits for Google Cloud and Firebase usage, thereby enhancing Celo’s mobile-first infrastructure and decentralized applications (DApps). Firebase is a mobile and web application development platform developed by Google that provides developers with various tools and services for building apps, including authentication, real-time databases, cloud storage and messaging. According to the announcement, the Google…

Orbs Releases Smart Contract for Validators in TON Blockchain

Orbs, a public blockchain infrastructure designed for mass usage applications, has announced the release of a new smart contract called the single nominator for validators in the Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain. The contract provides an isolated cold wallet for validators to secure their validation process, enhancing their independence, security, and protection against gas-spending attacks. In the TON blockchain network, validators participate in a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm by staking their cryptocurrency holdings to support the network’s security and transaction processing. The nominator essentially nominates a validator to represent their stake…

LayerZero raises $120M to expand cross-chain messaging efforts

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Cross-chain messaging protocol developer LayerZero Labs has raised another $120 million, according to an Apr. 4 announcement. The company plans to use the capital to increase its headcount and expand its reach into the Asia-Pacific region. The company had previously raised $135 million in March 2022. pic.twitter.com/mhJgoovYis — LayerZero Labs (@LayerZero_Labs) April 4, 2023 LayerZero Labs is best known for its cross-chain messaging protocol, LayerZero, which is often used to create asset bridges between blockchain networks. It is also the developer of the Stargate multi-chain bridge. With the completion of…