Reported by Cointelegraph: MicroStrategy’s $1.11 billion Bitcoin purchase was funded by selling over 8 million company shares through a sales agreement.

MicroStrategy, a publicly traded business intelligence and software company, has announced that it acquired approximately 18,300 Bitcoin between Aug. 6 and Sept. 12.

The company’s Form 8-K to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission states that the purchase, worth $1.11 billion, was made at an average price of $60,408 per Bitcoin, including expenses and fees.

The firm, led by CEO Michael Saylor, has continued to expand its holdings of BTC over the past four years after making its first purchase on Aug. 11, 2020.

Bitcoin holding growthThe company’s recent acquisition increased its BTC holdings to approximately 244,800 BTC, currently worth around $14.14 billion.

The average purchase price for MicroStrategy’s BTC purchases since August 2020 is $38,585 per BTC, with a cumulative investment of around $9.45 billion.

MicroStrategy’s aggressive approach has sparked both debate and praise from financial analysts over the years, but the firm has not slowed its acquisition of BTC.

Source of funds for the BTC purchaseThe funds used to purchase this latest 18,300 BTC were raised through selling its company shares, enabled through a sales agreement with several financial institutions on Aug. 1.

According to the SEC filing, MicroStrategy had raised approximately $1.11 billion by Sept. 12 from selling “an aggregate of 8,048,449 Shares under the Sales Agreement.”

The capital raised from the sale of these over 8 million shares was directly allocated to expanding the firm’s BTC holdings and increasing the size of its portfolio.

MicroStrategy’s investment pays offOn Aug. 10, MicroStrategy held 226,500 BTC, worth $13.77 billion, in reserves, acquired at an average price of $37,000 per BTC.

At the time, BTC’s price was approximately $60,500, and MicroStrategy had $5.39 billion in unrealized profits. Since August 2020, it has effectively outperformed the S&P 500 index.

The value of MicroStrategy’s stock rose by around 1,000% since August 2020, equating to over 16.25x the returns of the SPX over the same period. 

Reported by Cointelegraph: Grayscale XRP Trust could potentially pave the way for an XRP ETF, subject to approval by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Grayscale Investments, a major cryptocurrency investment firm, is debuting a new crypto trust linked to the XRP cryptocurrency.

Grayscale officially announced on Sept. 12 the creation and public launch of Grayscale XRP Trust, which enables investors to gain exposure to XRP.

The firm noted that Grayscale XRP Trust is immediately open for daily subscription by eligible individual and institutional accredited investors. It functions like Grayscale’s other single-asset investment trusts and is solely invested in the token underpinning the XRP Ledger (XRPL).

How a crypto trust is different from a crypto ETFAccording to a report by Fox Business, the launch of Grayscale XRP Trust could potentially pave the way for an XRP exchange-traded fund, which is a different product.

“An ETF must be approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission since it is marketed directly to retail investors, while a trust’s structure and sales pitch to so-called accredited investors gets a lighter regulatory touch,” Fox Business’ Eleanor Terrett reported.

The report also mentioned that Grayscale has published an intended four-phase product life cycle for the XRP trust, which potentially implies the possibility of an XRP ETF in the future.

“Each Product is intended to follow a four-stage life cycle — with the ultimate goal of uplisting the product to an ETF,” Grayscale said on a dedicated FAQ page. “As a product progresses through this intended lifecycle, there is a correlated increase in investor access and transparency,” the firm noted.

XRP has an “important real-world use case,” says Grayscale

In the announcement, Grayscale’s head of product and research, Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, pointed out that the Grayscale XRP Trust gives investors exposure to a protocol “with an important real-world use case.” He added:

“By facilitating cross-border payments that take just seconds to complete, XRP has the potential to transform the legacy financial infrastructure.”The XRP Ledger is a decentralized, public blockchain led by a global community of businesses and developers. The XRPL is designed to provide a number of use cases, such as cross-border payment solutions, tokenization and decentralized finance.

Grayscale Investments is one of the world’s biggest Bitcoin investment firms, holding 222,300 BTC ($12.8 billion) in its spot BTC ETF, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC).

Since debuting GBTC in January with the other 10 issuers, Grayscale has emerged as one of the biggest sellers of Bitcoin. It has consistently offloaded billions in BTC from the ETF.

After launching two spot Ether ETFs in July, Grayscale has also posted multi-billion outflows from the new products.

Reported by The Block: Starknet has approved a governance proposal, named “SNIP 18,” to implement staking within its network.

The proposal, submitted by StarkWare, was ratified by a majority of STRK token holders.

Ethereum Layer 2 Starknet has approved a governance vote to implement staking within its network, with the network paying out rewards to stakers based on the total tokens staked.

Earlier today, the proposal submitted by core developer StarkWare — dubbed “SNIP 18” — was ratified by a majority of STRK token holders.

Now that the proposal has been approved, Starknet token staking may go live on the testnet soon, followed by the mainnet in the fourth quarter of this year.

Starknet will allow token holders with at least 20,000 STRK to become stakers while others can delegate to them.  A minting mechanism that aims to strike a balance between rewarding stakers and setting inflation expectations was also approved in the vote.

There will also be a 21-day time-lock period before funds can be withdrawn.

The staking governance vote was a step toward further infrastructure decentralization, according to StarkWare.  “It’s a historic milestone in Starknet’s march towards full decentralization.  As one of the first Layer 2s to offer this opportunity to its token holders, we are moving closer to having a network that is fully operated and run by the community for the community,” said Eli Ben-Sasson, CEO of StarkWare.

Looking ahead, the network plans to introduce more governance features and responsibilities for stakers in phases — including their potential role in decentralizing the network’s sequencer and prover.

Reported by The Block:  ZKsync has officially launched its governance model with smart contracts active on the mainnet.

EVM-compatible rollup ZKsync has officially launched its governance model, which includes smart contracts that are now active on the mainnet.

The newly activated governance system is built on a decentralized model that allows the community to participate in making collective decisions for the protocol’s future. This model is structured around three central bodies: the Token Assembly, Security Council, and Guardians, each aiming for a balanced distribution of governance power, ZKsync detailed in a blog post.

The governance system’s design claims that no single party has overarching control. The Token Assembly allows token holders and their delegates to propose and vote on changes directly. The Security Council comprises security experts who can review and approve code changes. The Guardians have veto powers to ensure all decisions align with the core values of the ZKsync ecosystem.

Matter Labs rolled out its Era mainnet in March 2023. In June 2024, the project revealed detailed plans for its governance system, and the ZK token was rolled out alongside an airdrop.

Reported by The Block: Ark Invest bought 53,708 Coinbase shares on Wednesday, worth $8.4 million, as the investment firm rebalanced its fund weightings amid a post-U.S. presidential debate price drop across the crypto market.It’s the first time Ark has bought or sold Coinbase shares since the early August lows.

Ark Invest bought 53,708 Coinbase shares, worth $8.4 million, across three of its exchange-traded funds on Wednesday amid a broad crypto-related market drop following the U.S. presidential debate on Tuesday night.

According to the company's latest trade filing, the Cathie Wood-led investment firm purchased 38,475 shares ($6 million) for its Innovation ETF (ARKK), 9,349 shares ($1.5 million) for its Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) and 5,884 shares ($925,000) for its Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF).

It’s the first time Ark bought or sold Coinbase shares for its funds since acquiring $21.8 million worth of COIN in early August, coinciding with crypto market lows that saw the price of bitcoin briefly drop below the $55,000 level.

Ark’s investment strategy involves letting no individual holding take up more than 10% of an ETF’s portfolio. This is to maintain diversification within its funds — meaning Ark is likely to continue rebalancing its weightings if the value of Coinbase stock rises or falls significantly relative to Ark's other holdings in its funds.

According to the firm’s disclosures, COIN is now the fourth-largest holding within its ARKK ETF, with a weighting of 6.5%, worth around $355 million, as of Sept. 12. COIN is the sixth-largest holding in its ARKW fund at 5.1%, worth $67 million. Coinbase shares represent Ark’s second-largest holding in its ARKF fund at 7.3%, worth $60 million.

Reported by The Block:Southeast Asia ride-hailing platform TADA has collaborated with TON Foundation to launch a new Telegram mini app.The mini-app allows users to book rides directly on Telegram and pay using Toncoin or USDT on TON blockchain.

Southeast Asia ride-hailing platform TADA has collaborated with Foundation to launch a Telegram mini app, dubbed TADA mini.

TADA mini enables web3 users to book rides directly on Telegram without requiring additional sign-ups or app downloads and pay using Toncoin or on TON blockchain, according to a statement shared with The Block.

“If we want to accelerate the successful adoption of web3 solutions, it’s crucial that strong partnerships are forged with exciting web2 platforms that enable their users to quickly become familiar with the many benefits of web3,” Harvey Kim, Head of Korea at TON Foundation, said. “This partnership is a key milestone for us, as we look to continue TON blockchain’s growth across Southeast Asia.”

To demonstrate the new service, the organizations plan to host 4,000 complimentary rides during the TOKEN2049 crypto conference in Singapore from Sept. 14 to 18.

"At TADA, we’ve always focused on innovations that benefit both riders and drivers. TADA mini not only simplifies ride-hailing but also prepares for the future by enabling the use of digital assets in real-world applications. Looking ahead, TADA mini plans to expand into new regions, aiming to provide this service to a wider audience,” James Yang, CIO of MVL, the parent company of TADA said.

Founded in 2018, TADA currently operates in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, with plans to expand into Hong Kong by the end of this year.

Telegram introduces mini app store amid TON blockchain-related clicker game crazeTelegram mini apps are lightweight, web-based applications that can be embedded and accessed directly within the popular messaging platform.

Telegram has expanded its crypto footprint in recent months, with millions of gamers using the messaging app to play tap-to-earn games like Hamster Kombat, Notcoin and Yescoin in the hope of earning corresponding tokens on TON blockchain.

Capitalizing on explosive growth for the games, Telegram also introduced a mini-app store and an in-app browser with support for web3 pages in July.

Reported by The Block: Indodax said it has identified security issues on its platform, with Cyvers estimating the losses could amount to over $20 million.

Indodax added that it is conducting maintenance, and its website and app are currently inaccessible.

Indonesian cryptocurrency exchange Indodax appears to have experienced an exploit that has resulted in estimated losses of $20.5 million.

"We identified a significant security breach targeting Indodax's hot wallet, resulting in a loss of over $20.5 million across multiple chains," said Yosi Hammer from blockchain security firm Cyvers.  "Our real-time monitoring systems flagged 160 critical red flags at the onset, beginning with a transfer of 660 ETH."

PeckShield also wrote on X earlier today that it detected large outflows of cryptocurrency worth about $15.7 million from Indodax.  About 5,204 ETH was parked at an address on Ethereum, along with about 6.8 million POL on Polygon and about 380 ETH on Optimism, according to PeckShield.

In response to the reported security incidents, Indodax said in a post on X that its security team discovered potential security issues on its platform.  “Currently, we are conducting complete maintenance to ensure the entire system is operating properly.  During this maintenance process, the Indodax web platform and application are temporarily inaccessible,” said Indodax in a translated post.

Indodax claimed that its clients' funds remained “100% safe” both in crypto and rupiah.

The Indodax team did not immediately respond to The Block’s request for further comment.

Reported by The Block: Harris and Trump are now tied with 49% chances of winning the election on Polymarket’s $860 million prediction market.Harris’ odds of winning the debate according to polls stood at 94% on Polymarket.

Bitcoin rose above $58,000 briefly before the debate but fell to lows of $56,700 during the televised debate.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ odds of winning the upcoming November election on crypto-based prediction platform Polymarket rose following the presidential debate on Tuesday night. Now Harris and former president Donald Trump are at a tie on Polymarket’s $860 million market.

Tuesday night saw the first and likely last presidential debate between Harris and Trump before the election, where numerous recurring topics such as the war in Gaza and abortion rights were discussed, with no mention of crypto. Bettors on Polymarket placed a 94% chance that Harris won tonight’s debate in polls, which are yet to be disclosed.

Harris’ chance of winning the presidential election rose from 46% Monday night to 49% on Polymarket, while Trump’s odds fell from 52% to 49%. Trump has been vocal in expressing pro-crypto opinions, while Harris has started engaging with the crypto sector, though she has yet to take a solid stance on the industry.

Min Jung, an analyst of Presto Research, told The Block that while the debate did not specifically mention crypto, the odds in favor of Harris are rising on Polymarket, “which might be seen as less favorable for the crypto market.”

Bitcoin briefly grew above the $58,000 mark and stayed at higher levels in the hours leading up to the debate, but dipped to lows of around $56,700 during the debate. It is now trading at $56,797, according to The Block’s bitcoin price page.

Justin d'Anethan, head of APAC business development of crypto market maker Keyrock, said that bitcoin was more of a “dispassionate observer” as the debate unfolded. “The crypto market is watching but not reacting — at least, not yet. Bitcoin continues to behave like any other risk asset, moving in tandem with tech stocks and growth equities, searching for direction amidst a cocktail of inflation fears, rate uncertainty, and global political turbulence.”

“The debate itself is undoubtedly a significant moment, setting the tone for the likely battle between two different visions of America's future,” d'Anethan added. “For bitcoin, though, it will need something more concrete. As things stand, bitcoin seems to be waiting for a catalyst — a jolt from either the macroeconomic front, like an unexpected change in Fed policy, or something seismic from the political arena, such as a scandal or a surprising turn in election polling.”

PolitiFi coins dippedPolitiFi coins inspired by Trump and Harris fell over the past hour. Super Trump (Ticker: STRUMP), which has a market capitalization of $13.8 million, plunged 6.8% in the past hour, while Kamala Horris (KAMA) dipped 5.7%, according to CoineGecko data. MAGA (TRUMP) edged down 0.2%.

“The market is showing a knee-jerk reaction to seemingly a better-than-expected performance by Harris in the debate so far,” said Peter Chung, head of research at Presto. “This is clear from the timing of the PolitiFi coins’ big moves, which all started soon after 9pm EST, which is when the debate started.”

D'Anethan of Keyrock said that the PolitiFi coins could see some volatility spikes “as the debate continues to reverberate and Twitter feeds buzz with partisan fervor.”

“Speculators are likely to exploit any perceived sentiment shifts in the immediate aftermath, but with low liquidity and dwindling attention, any such moves are likely to be fleeting at best,” d'Anethan added. 

Reported by The Block: The 7-day moving average (7DMA) of daily transactions on the TON network has increased by 160% since the Telegram founder was arrested.

The following is an excerpt from The Block’s Data and Insights newsletter.

Following the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov by French authorities on August 24, 2024, activity within the network has surged exponentially, with a sharp rise in network transactions and active addresses.

The 7-day moving average (7DMA) of daily transactions on the TON network has reached a new all-time high. The network saw an all-time high of 8.68 million transactions on Aug. 31, surpassing the previous record of 8.56 million from Jan. 17.

Throughout the past week, this figure has continued to increase, reaching upwards of 10 million transactions on Friday. This figure has now increased by over 160% since Durov was arrested.

The 7-day moving average (7DMA) of the daily number of active addresses on the TON network has also seen a record high. As of Friday, the TON network has seen about 701,800 active addresses. This represents a 6% increase compared to the previous Friday.

However, unlike the network activity, the price of the TON token itself has not responded well to Pavel’s arrest. The TON token is down over 30% since the incident.

While poor general market conditions may have played a role in this downturn as well, the effects of the arrest cannot be discounted as TON fell by roughly 20% in the three hours following the news.

This is an excerpt from The Block's Data & Insights newsletter. Dig into the numbers making up the industry's most thought-provoking trends.

Reported by The Block: Fidelity’s FBTC led the inflows in spot bitcoin ETFs on Monday.

Spot ether ETFs continued their negative streak with a fifth consecutive day of net outflows.

Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the U.S. ended their eight-day streak of negative flows on Monday, reporting $28.72 million in net inflows.

Fidelity’s FBTC led the pack of inflows yesterday with $28.6 million, followed by Bitwise’s BITB, which saw inflows of $21.99 million, according to SoSoValue data.

Ark Invest and 21Shares’ ARKB reported smaller inflows of $6.81 million, while Invesco’s BTCO saw $3.14 million flow into the fund.

Monday’s inflows were offset by $22.76 million in outflows from Grayscale’s GBTC.  BlackRock’s IBIT, the largest spot bitcoin ETF by net assets, recorded $9.06 million in net outflows.  IBIT has seen outflows or zero flows since Aug. 26.

The 12 bitcoin ETFs recorded $1.61 billion in total daily trading volume on Monday, down from $2.39 billion last Friday.  They have accumulated $16.92 billion in net inflows since launching in January.

While spot bitcoin ETFs saw higher volumes and larger inflows during their peaks in March, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan recently said that “investment advisors are adopting bitcoin ETFs faster than any new ETF in history.”  Hougan cited data showing BlackRock’s spot bitcoin fund has attracted $1.5 billion from investment advisors.

Ether ETFs continued to see outflowsSpot Ethereum ETFs in the U.S. saw another day of net outflows, totaling $5.20 million.  Monday marked the fifth consecutive day of negative flows.

Grayscale’s ETHE reported $22.64 million in net outflows, SoSoValue data showed.  It was the only spot ether ETF to record outflows on Monday.  The Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust (ETH), on the other hand, logged $7.97 million in inflows.

Fidelity’s FETH had $7.62 million in inflows, and Bitwise’s ETHW recorded $1.85 million in net inflows.

The total daily trading volume for the nine ETFs shrank to $124.51 million on Monday, compared to $210.43 million last Friday.  Their cumulative net flows remained negative, with $573.49 million in net outflows.

Markets are now looking toward the first U.S. presidential election debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, set to take place on Tuesday, as cryptocurrency has become one of the major election topics.

Reported by The Block: Bitcoin remains under $55,000, and ether trades below $2,300 after the U.S. non-farm payroll data showed lower-than-expected numbers.

Now, markets are looking toward more U.S. inflation data this week and the first presidential debate between Harris and Trump.

Bitcoin and ether remain under key price levels after sliding down over the weekend following Friday's bearish U.S. economic data.

The largest cryptocurrency trades at $54,744 when writing, gaining 0.64% in the past 24 hours.  Ether (ETH) added 0.17% to change hands at around $2,291, according to The Block’s crypto price page.

Friday saw the announcement of the latest U.S. non-farm payroll (NFP) data, a vital indicator of the country’s employment, inflation and overall economic health.  The U.S. NFP rose by 142,000 in August, lower than the market expectation of 160,000.

“Crypto would need a near-perfect mix of NFP outcomes to see higher prices,” said Augustine Fan, Head of Insights at SOFA.org.  “Instead, we received one of the worst-case outcomes as the repricing of risk sentiment dragged BTC and ETH down.”

Fan said recent data indicates that U.S. private sector growth is heading to its “weakest growth in over a decade” and that the economic recession looks much more imminent than thought.

However, the U.S. unemployment rate released on the same day sent positive signals, dropping to 4.2%.  “The lower unemployment figure has lessened the concerns of imminent recession,” said Lucy Hu, Metalpha’s senior analyst.  “However, it seems the lower-than-expected payroll data is dominating the market sentiment at the moment.”

More to come this weekMetapha’s Hu said the crypto market, which reacted more strongly to the numbers than equities, will continue to show significant volatility until the next Fed meeting.  The next Federal Open Market Committee meeting will be held on Sept. 17 to 18.

“The coming week might see more risk reduction with a lack of positive catalysts on the horizon,” SOFA.org’s Fan said.  “The focus will be on the U.S. Presidential Debate on Tuesday, along with a busy week of inflation data and central bank speeches across the globe.”

U.S. Presidential nominees Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are expected to hold their first televised debate.  According to reports, the latest polls show the two at neck-and-neck.  Cryptocurrency has been one of the major topics in the upcoming November election, although it was not mentioned in the previous debate between Trump and current U.S. President Joe Biden.

The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) data will arrive on Wednesday and Thursday.

Reported bu The Block: A bearish week for Coinbase’s stock saw the company fall below Block, the company behind Square, in total market capitalization.

Barclays bank revised its stance on Coinbase on Friday, shifting its price target down to $169 from $206 but upgrading the company to “Equal Weight” from “Underweight.”

Block, Inc., the company behind payment processor Square, music streaming service Tidal, and bitcoin funding iniative Spiral, among other subsidiaries, has surpassed Coinbase in market capitalization for the first time since March.

Coinbase's stock declined this week amid falling prices across the crypto market, logging its worst week of the year so far. Coinbase passed Block Inc. in market capitalization for the first time this past March, according to The Block's data.

Meanwhile, analysts from investment bank Barclays adjusted the firm's stance on Coinbase from Under Weight, meaning it's expected to underperform other companies in the industry over the next 12 months, to Equal Weight, according to Benzinga. Barclays argued that a maturing regulatory environment, steady diversification, and strong industry leadership shows the business maturing with reliable revenues.

However, the bank also revised its price forecast for Coinbase's shares down to $169 from $206. Coinbase's stock hit a year-to-date high of $279.71 on March 25 and closed at $147.35 as of Friday.

Coinbase scored a narrow victory last week when a New York judge ordered the SEC to grant Coinbase access to certain documents related to the agency's litigation with the company; however, the exchange's attempt to subpoena SEC Chair Gary Gensler was thrown out.

"While it may be the case that we withdrew one particular request, and the judge recognized certain reasonable limits, this was an order granting the heart of the discovery that we have been seeking for months," Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal told The Block. 

Reported by The Block: Fidelity’s FBTC saw the largest amount of outflows on Thursday, with $149.49 million.Spot ether ETFs showed comparatively small net movements in funds.

Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the U.S. saw $211.15 million in net outflows on Thursday, recording their seventh consecutive day of negative flows.

Fidelity’s FBTC saw the largest amount of outflows among spot bitcoin ETFs, with $149.49 million, according to data from SoSoValue. Bitwise’s BITB followed with $30 million in net outflows. Both Grayscale’s GBTC and mini trust recorded outflows on Thursday: GBTC saw $23.22 million, while the mini trust saw $8.45 million move out from the ETFs.

There were no funds that recorded net inflows yesterday. The eight other funds, including BlackRock’s IBIT, logged zero flows for the day.

The total daily trading volume for the 12 ETFs declined further to $1.35 billion, down from $1.41 billion on Wednesday. The spot bitcoin funds have amassed total net inflows of $17.06 billion since launching in January.

Ether ETFs little changedSpot Ethereum ETFs in the U.S. saw relatively small movements of funds on Thursday, recording around $152,720 in net outflows.

Net flows were observed only in Grayscale’s two ether funds: ETHE reported $7.39 million in net outflows, while the Ethereum Mini Trust recorded $7.24 million in net inflows. Seven other ETFs saw zero flows on Thursday.

Ether funds also saw a lower daily trading volume of $108.59 million on Thursday, compared to $145.86 million the day before. The funds have accumulated a total of $562.31 million in net outflows since their listing in July.

Meanwhile, global markets currently await Friday's release of the latest U.S. non-farm payroll data, a key indicator of the country’s economic health.

“The reaction to NFP will be nuanced and dependent on details,” said Augustine Fan, head of insights at SOFA.org. “The ideal case for equities and BTC will be for a number that is just weak enough, but not so weak to induce imminent recession concerns so that the Fed can still be seen as ahead of or 'on time' with the economic trajectory.”

Reported by Cointelegraph: Previously, former Ripple’s board member Gene Sperling left the White House to join Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign.

A key executive at Ripple, the firm behind the XRP (XRP) cryptocurrency, is among multiple signers who have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

Chris Larsen, co-founder and executive chairman at Ripple, has signed a letter to endorse Harris for president, CNBC reported on Sept. 6.

Citing a letter signed by a total of 88 corporate leaders in the United States, the report mentioned that other prominent signees included co-founder and CEO of the enterprise cloud company Box, Aaron Levie, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, Snap chairman Michael Lynton, former 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch and others.

Previously, former Ripple’s board member Gene Sperling left the White House to join Kamala Harris’ 2024 presidential campaign in early August.

Reported by The Block: Synthetix has introduced a blockchain named SNAXchain using Optimism’s infrastructure.The development of the network involves a partnership with Conduit.

DeFi protocol Synthetix is working on introducing its app chain, SNAXchain, on Optimism’s Superchain infrastructure.

The team announced that SNAXchain aims to serve as a neutral hub for governance and protocol decisions as Synthetix expands to more chains and Layer 2 solutions.

The network has been developed with partnerships with Conduit for chain infrastructure and Wormhole for cross-chain messaging.

Optimism Superchain infrastructure is expected to enhance user interoperability and facilitate user growth for SNAXchain, the team noted.

The chains in the Optimism Superchain ecosystem utilize optimistic rollups on top of Ethereum to reduce transaction costs for decentralized applications. This ecosystem is governed by a DAO known as the Optimism Collective. The ecosystem’s flagship network is OP Mainnet. Other chains include Base, Mode, Zora, Lyra and Aevo.

The rollout comes amid a new governance epoch for Synthetix, starting with nominations for various governance councils. The project added that candidates must nominate themselves via the SNAXchain.

Reported by The Block: Blockstream has launched Series 3 of its BMN2 security token, which provides direct exposure to the firm’s Bitcoin hash rate.The firm said the launch comes amid heightened investor interest in bitcoin mining opportunities.

On Thursday, Bitcoin infrastructure developer Blockstream launched series 3 of its security token, the Blockstream Mining Note 2 (BMN2).

BMN2 is an EU-compliant security token available to qualified, non-U.S.  investors.  It provides exposure to the Bitcoin hash rate operated by the firm’s North American enterprise-grade mining facilities, offered in collaboration with the Luxembourg-based virtual assets service provider STOKR.

The launch comes in response to heightened investor interest in the mining industry, the firm claimed in a statement shared with The Block.

Each BMN2 security token entitles holders to the bitcoin produced by 1 PH/s (Peta hash per second) of Blockstream’s mining hash rate.  The firm said the token is designed to provide an onramp for investors to take part strategically in the market before the next Bitcoin halving.

The token aims to replicate the success of the first iteration of Blockstream's mining note (BMN1), which launched in 2021 and matured in July 2024.  This token delivered a 32% bitcoin return over the three-year term in what STOKR co-founder and co-CEO Arnab Naskar describes as “the highest payout in real-world asset security token history.”

While the Bitcoin industry has matured since 2021, with mining-adjacent investment products like hash rate contracts and hosted mining contracts becoming widely available to investors, Blockstream argues that they lack the secondary market liquidity, long-term fixed rates, instant exposure and market timing protection that BMN2 can provide.

“We know first-hand the complexities involved in mining Bitcoin — hardware challenges, energy curtailment, and price fluctuation, to name a few.  We created the BMN product to deliver a consistent hash rate with the goal of maintaining a strong and steady investment outcome,” Blockstream CIO Chris Cook said.

Below market hash priceBMN2 has raised nearly $7 million since its primary offering went live in July, the firm claimed.  It offers an investment opportunity that can outpace bitcoin purchases on the spot market.

It also includes safeguards such as a reserve of 50% of the stated hash rate to protect against potential miner failures, reduced efficiency and other issues.

Hash price is a term coined by Bitcoin mining services firm Luxor. It refers to the expected value of 1 PH/s of hashing power per day. The metric quantifies how much a miner can expect to earn from a specific quantity of hash rate.

BMN2 Series 3 offers a hash price of $21.23 for 48 months, equating to a fixed cost of $31,000 PH/s. According to The Block's data dashboard, this is significantly below the current market hash price of around $0.041 TH/s/day ($41 PH/s/day).

Bitcoin mining operations for BMN2 commenced this week at an equivalent hosting rate of less than $.045 kWh compared to an industry average of $.065 for enterprises and $.075 for retail customers, the firm claimed, adding that 80% of the power used for the operations is derived from carbon neutral sources.

Blockstream CEO and co-founder Dr. Adam Back is the inventor of the HashCash algorithm behind the proof-of-work protocol, a fundamental component of Bitcoin’s security architecture.

Reported by The Block: On Tuesday, spot bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. recorded $287.78 million in net outflows.Bitcoin traded down 3.93% over the past 24 hours at $56,680 at the time of writing.

U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds continued their streak of negative flows on Tuesday.

According to data from SosoValue, the 12 spot bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of $287.78 million on Tuesday, the largest negative flows since May 1. BlackRock’s IBIT, the largest spot bitcoin ETF by net assets, logged zero flows for the day.

Grayscale’s GBTC, the second-largest spot bitcoin ETF, saw $50.39 million leave the fund, while Fidelity’s FBTC recorded the largest outflows, with $162.26 million.

Ark and 21Shares’ ARKB logged outflows of $33.6 million, and Bitwise’s BITB reported $24.96 million in net outflows. Several other ETFs managed by VanEck, Valkyrie, Invesco and Franklin Templeton also saw modest outflows.

The significant outflows came amid a market selloff, with Wall Street plummeting on Tuesday on weaker ISM data in the U.S. The U.S. ISM manufacturing index for August came in at 47.2%, up 0.4 percentage points from July.

The total trading volume for the spot bitcoin ETFs amounted to $1.56 billion on Tuesday, compared to $1.54 billion last Friday. The U.S. market was closed on Monday for a holiday.

Ether ETFs also experienced outflowsMeanwhile, spot ether ETFs in the U.S. recorded net outflows of $47.4 million on Tuesday, the most significant daily negative flows since August 2.

The Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) was the only spot ether ETF to report outflows for the day, with $52.31 million. Fidelity’s FETH logged $4.91 million in net inflows. Seven other spot ether ETFs saw no flows. The daily trading volume of these ether ETFs shrank to $163.5 million on Tuesday from $173.66 million last Friday.

Reported by The Block: Polygon developers have migrated the MATIC token to POL after a year of extensive community-led discussions.

POL is now the new ticker symbol for the native gas and staking token on the Polygon PoS chain.

After a year of extensive community discussions, Polygon developers announced that the migration of its token to POL was live.

This change introduces POL as the new ticker symbol for the native gas and staking token on the Polygon PoS chain. Exchanges are expected to list the upgraded token.

The transition to POL is a crucial component of Polygon’s development into a ZK chain and its integration with AggLayer, which aims to consolidate liquidity and state across multiple chains. POL will maintain MATIC’s existing tokenomics and a supply of 10 billion tokens.

The initial exchange ratio from MATIC to POL is set at 1:1, with a gradual increase of 2% in emissions over ten years to support growth. "For validators, this emissions model ensures continuous rewards, making it attractive for new validators to join and participate," Polygon stated.

MATIC holders on the Polygon PoS do not need to take any steps, as the upgrade to POL will occur automatically. However, MATIC holders on Ethereum, Polygon zkEVM, or centralized exchanges must actively migrate their tokens to POL via a migration contract.

The upgraded POL token will have expanded functionalities in the future, including roles in block production, zero-knowledge proof generation, and participation in Data Availability Committees (DACs).

Polygon employs two scaling solutions: a sidechain named Polygon PoS and a zero-knowledge rollup network known as Polygon zkEVM.

POL was first proposed as the network’s upgraded native token in July 2023. In July this year, Polygon officially announced that the MATIC token would upgrade to POL on September 4.

Reported by The Block: The entity behind the WazirX hack transferred 2,600 ETH worth $6.5 million to the sanctioned mixer Tornado Cash to launder the funds.

The hacking entity responsible for the WazirX exploit appears to have transferred 2,600 ETH ($6.5 million) to the U.S.-sanctioned cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash to launder the stolen funds, security firm PeckShield noted.

Sending funds to a mixer is a common tactic cybercriminals use to make it harder for law enforcement to track and recover stolen crypto.

On July 18, 2024, cryptocurrency exchange WazirX reported a major cyber attack targeting its multi-signature wallet, resulting in a loss exceeding $230 million.

The exchange stated that this incident has impacted WazirX’s ability to maintain balanced collaterals against its assets.

Withdrawals remain frozen, and trading has been paused since July 21 as the team focuses on partial recovery, with losses expected to be socialized among users. According to reports, the restructuring efforts may result in users not receiving the total value of their cryptocurrency held on the platform during the attack.

This attack is believed to be the work of the North Korean Lazarus Group, a notorious state-sponsored hacking organization known for executing high-profile exploits, including a $600 million hack on the Ronin sidechain in 2022.

Reported by Cointelegraph: Buterin said that the biggest criticism of X’s Community Notes is that they do not appear fast enough.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes that artificial intelligence and prediction market technology can speed up the production of Community Notes on the social media platform X.

Community Notes are an X feature that enables users to add context to potentially misleading posts.  Contributors can leave “notes” on posts, and if enough contributors rate the note as helpful, it will be publicly shown below a post.

Speaking at Korea Blockchain Week 2024, Buterin said that while these notes are helpful, the biggest criticism of community notes is that they “don’t appear fast enough,” with people potentially being misled before the notes appeared.

Prediction markets can make other mechanisms fasterButerin added that whatever delay is needed to provide context on posts through Community Notes is “too much.”  However, the Ethereum co-founder argued that the solution might be found in prediction markets.

Prediction markets are open markets that allow users to bet on specific outcomes. One of the examples Buterin gave is the decentralized prediction platform Polymarket, where people bet on highly debated topics like politics, sports and crypto. Buterin said:

“One way to think about prediction markets is as a building block that can make other mechanisms faster. [...] You take some existing mechanism, and then you make something much faster that gets incentivized to do as good a job as possible.” He said that whenever a post is made, there could be a question to determine whether it warrants a community note. Buterin said that people could use large AI language models and bots to bet small funds on this prediction market.

Buterin believes that this can potentially speed up the process of getting to the truth and incentivize the mechanism for the participants.

“This mechanism will put the note at the end, and then it would reward people who predicted the result correctly, right? So over here, you basically have a vector with low cost but fast,” he explained.