Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Legal news
- A UK Court today handed down judgment in a libel claim brought by nChain Chief Scientist Craig Wright against Bitcoin podcaster Peter McCormack and concluded that it was “more likely than not that each of the Publications caused serious harm to Dr Wright’s reputation,” but that, in light of Wright’s “deliberately false case and evidence on serious harm, maintained until days before the trial, it would be unconscionable for him to recover more than nominal damages. Damages of GBP 1 were accordingly awarded.”
- Tesla chief Elon Musk countersued Twitter on Friday, escalating the legal fight with the social media company over his bid to walk away from the USD 44bn deal, although the lawsuit was filed confidentially, Reuters reported. Also on Friday, Musk was sued by a Twitter shareholder who asked the court to order the billionaire to close the deal, find that he breached his fiduciary duty to Twitter shareholders, and award damages for losses he caused.
Investments news
- Digital asset investment products saw inflows totaling USD 81m last week, signifying the 5th consecutive week of inflows totaling USD 0.53bn, per CoinShares data. Bitcoin saw inflows totaling USD 85m last week (compared with USD 19m a week earlier), ethereum inflows dropped from USD 8m to USD 1m in a week.
- France-based major crypto hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger is in talks to raise at least USD 100m in a funding round that will give it a higher valuation than what it commanded (USD 1.5bn) at its most recent financing in June 2021, Bloomberg reported, citing undisclosed people familiar with the plans.
- FC Barcelona announced that blockchain-powered fan engagement and rewards platform Socios.com will become a strategic technology partner accelerating FC Barcelona’s blockchain, NFT, and digital assets, as well as its Web3 strategies. The partnership will see Socios.com owner and technology provider Chiliz invest USD 100M in Barça Studios to acquire a 24.5% stake in the Club’s digital content creation and distribution hub.
- US-based fintech company Ripple announced that Q2 2022 was a record quarter for their On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) network as volume grew 9x in a year. Also, last quarter, total XRP sales by Ripple, net of purchases, were USD 408.9m vs. USD 273.27m the previous quarter.
- W3BCLOUD, a storage and compute infrastructure provider powering Web 3 applications, announced today it will be going public via special purpose acquisition company Social Leverage Acquisition Corp. Once the deal is complete, the company expects to have an initial enterprise value of USD 1.25bn. Founded in 2018, W3BCLOUD is a joint venture between AMD, ConsenSys, and the company’s founders.
Exchanges news
- Binance is set to issue Binance Account Bound (BAB), which they described as the first-ever Soulbound Token (SBT) built on BNB Smart Chain. BAB will only be accessible via the Binance mobile app, as an opt-in feature, allowing users to mint their BAB directly on the wallets they use on the platform. The tokens will function as a Binance identity, indicating that customers have passed the know your customer process, but as “decentralized society” use cases evolve, Binance may issue other types of BAB tokens in the future, the exchange said in a press release shared with Cryptonews.com.
- Crypto exchange CoinFLEX announced that they had let go of “a significant number” of the team “across all departments and geographies,” stating that the staff cuts and non-staff costs they made will reduce their cost base by approximately 50%-60%. The majority of the team that remain are focused on product and technology, while the exchange’s intention is “to remain right-sized for any entity considering a potential acquisition of or partnership opportunity with CoinFLEX,” they added.
- FTX Exchange FZE announced that it has received approval to enter Dubai’s ‘Minimum Viable Product’ program for virtual assets under the world’s only specialist regime for this sector operated by the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority, and can now operate its Virtual Asset Exchange and Clearing House services in Dubai.
- Derivatives exchange Bitget announced the launch of the USD 200m Bitget Protection Fund, consisting of BTC 6,000 and USDT 80m. Bitget said in a press release shared with Cryptonews.com that the fund is entirely self-funded, and it has pledged to secure the value of the fund for the next three years.
Adoption news
- Honduras has launched “Bitcoin Valley” in the tourist town of Santa Lucia, Reuters reported. The project targets 60 businesses to initially get trained and adopt cryptocurrencies to market their products and services, expecting to spread these practices to more enterprises and nearby areas, it added.
Metaverse news
- Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin argued that “anything [metaverse-related] Facebook creates now will misfire.” He explained that “we don’t really know the definition of “the metaverse” yet, it’s far too early to know what people actually want.” Per Buterin, the metaverse is “going to happen.” but none “of the existing corporate attempts to intentionally create the metaverse are going anywhere.”
Adoption news
- Since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine in February this year, blockchain analysis company Chainalysis identified 54 organizations that have collectively received over USD 2.2m worth of crypto, primarily from bitcoin (BTC) and ether donations. “Considerable” quantities of tether (USDT), litecoin (LTC), and dogecoin (DOGE) have been sent as well. Social media posts from the groups indicate that a large portion of these funds are being used to equip paramilitary groups, they added.
