Billionaire investor Mark Cuban criticized Opensea's decision to make royalty fees optional in the NFT marketplace.

"Not collecting and paying royalties on NFT sales was a HUGE mistake by Opensea," Cuban wrote on social media. "This reduces trust in the platform and harms the industry. And I say this as an Opensea investor."

NFT illustration

In response to someone who supports eliminating NFT royalties, Cuban said "buyers know what the royalties are before they buy them. Creators can set the royalties to zero. They are part of the smart contract that mints the NFT. This is not a smart decision. This is an act of desperation."

Offchain Labs Says Arbitrum experienced no outages for an hour, despite transaction issues

Offchain Labs, the team behind the Arbitrum Layer 2 project, said the network experienced no outages for an hour yesterday. "Did Arbitrum One experience an hour-long outage? No," CTO Harry Kalodner said Friday on social media. "Did the batch giver stop posting for an hour? Yes."

Many users thought that Arbitrum experienced an hour-long outage as the Ethereum Layer 2 network did not appear to be processing transactions. However, Kalodner explained that the disruption was caused by the batch giver. "What happens if the batcher stops posting? The sequencer will continue to accept and sequence transactions along with publishing confirmations, but the batch will not post," explains Kalodner. "For most users, blocks will operate as usual, although anyone waiting for full finality will experience a pause."

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams shared on X (formerly known as Twitter) that the team behind the decentralized exchange has let go of an employee after what some are calling a rug pull.

Illustration

Responding to a post detailing how FrensTech — a memecoin that capitalizes on the hype of Base's new friend.tech social platform — was implemented and "effectively entangled" by developer AzFlin, Adams said: "Wanted to let people know that this person no longer works at our company ."

Valor Capital Group partner Brian Brooks believes that clear regulation of stablecoins is beneficial for the United States dollar — although some US lawmakers argue that it could harm the financial system and economy.

Brooks — the former CEO of Binance's US branch and former Acting Comptroller of the US Currency — told CNBC that the Biden administration's apparent stance against stablecoins is less than ideal.

Brian Brooks (Mantan CEO Binance US)

“If only the US government could create a framework that allows dollars to back stablecoins in a regulated way, demand would grow,” Brooks said. "Which will be good for global adoption of the dollar, but as long as we allow governments to suppress stablecoins, you will have a push-pull phenomenon, which creates problems," he added.

The United States Securities and Exchange Authority (SEC) will not currently approve Bitcoin mutual funds (ETFs), that is the statement from  the former head of the Agency's Office of Internet Enforcement, John Reed Stark.

"My opinion is that the SEC will NOT currently approve Bitcoin mutual fund (ETF) applications for a variety of compelling reasons," Stark wrote today on X (formerly known as Twitter).

BTC ETF illustration

However, Stark shared that if a Republican wins the United States Presidential election in 2024, it is likely that the SEC will reduce its enforcement efforts against cryptocurrencies and "become more receptive to approving Bitcoin mutual funds (ETFs) as well as more inclined to take regulatory action significantly crypto-friendly."

Binance is pleased to announce that the exchange has become the first crypto exchange to be fully licensed in El Salvador after being granted a Bitcoin Service Provider (BSP) license by the Central Bank (Banco Central de Reserva) and a non-provisional Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) license first by the National Commission on Digital Assets (Comisión Nacional de Activos Digitales).

Binance Officially Becomes the First Crypto Exchange in El Salvador

This achievement is another step in Binance's efforts to obtain local licenses and worldwide permits. With this, Binance has obtained approval and registration in 18 markets worldwide, including France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Dubai, more than any other crypto exchange. Min Lin, Head of Binance for Latin America, commented: “We are honored to obtain this license, as Binance continues to work closely with regulatory agencies around the world to support global standards for the crypto and blockchain industry.