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The second phase of the PSC program will prioritize the development of a digital ecosystem and increased user engagement, emphasizing adherence to regulatory compliance. The Ministry of Finance of Palau officially launched the second phase of its Palau Stablecoin (PSC) program. Jay Hunter Anson, a cybersecurity consultant in Palau and adviser to the Ministry of Finance, confirmed the program’s second phase launch on Dec. 15 in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Anson said that Palau aims to extend its partnership with Ripple in phase two, allowing the PSC team to leverage Ripple’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) platform and technical expertise. PSC is a digital currency pegged to the United States dollar, which uses Ripple’s XRP Ledger.  Read more

Tapping into underlying blockchain infrastructure, Nodle’s Click application allows users to authenticate media content for various use cases. Decentralized infrastructure network provider Nodle has released the first version of its blockchain-based media authentication application called Click, which could prove useful in combatting artificially generated media and fake news.  As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Nodle has developed a software development kit (SDK) for its ContentSign solution, which cryptographically proves the integrity of data captured by mobile devices using blockchain technology. The Click application supports the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) and is a member of the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI). The latter is a project led by Adobe and the Linux Foundation to create a future standard for media attestation. Read more

A Yearn contributor said the value lost came from “strictly protocol owned liquidity” in the protocol’s treasury and that customer funds weren’t impacted. Decentralized finance protocol Yearn.finance is hoping arbitrage traders will return $1.4 million in funds after a multisignature scripting error, resulting in a large amount of the protocol’s treasury being drained. “A faulty multisig script caused Yearn's entire treasury balance of 3,794,894 lp-yCRVv2 tokens to be swapped,” according to a Dec. 11 GitHub post by Yearn contributor “dudesahn.” The error occurred while Yearn was converting its yVault LP-yCurve (lp-yCRVv2) — earned from performance fees on vault harvests — into stablecoins on decentralized exchange CowSwap. Read more

Immutable’s blockchain protocol will allow the game studio to cut out gas fees for users, which are widely cited as a significant barrier to Web3 gaming adoption. Web3 gaming firm Immutable is set to completely cut out gas fee payments for gamers when its proprietary zero-knowledge proof-based ( ZK-proofs ) scaling platform goes live in early 2024. Immutable zkEVM provides the technology for blockchain-based game developers to remove transaction fees from end users, which is touted to create a “frictionless onboarding” experience for gamers. Web3 games built on blockchain protocols typically require gamers to pay the gas fees paid to network validators for processing transactions. Before the advent of layer-2 scaling protocols, Ethereum-based decentralized applications (DApps) and services relied solely on validators and miners pre-Merge to process smart contract operations and their associated transactions. Read more

Institutional clients on the Coinbase International Exchange will be able to trade Bitcoin and Ether against USD Coin starting on Dec. 14. United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced that institutional investors on its international exchange can access spot crypto trading services. In a Dec. 13 announcement, Coinbase said institutional clients based outside the U.S. will be able to trade Bitcoin ( BTC ) and Ether ( ETH ) against USD Coin ( USDC ). The exchange said the services would launch on Dec. 14 and later expand to include retail investors, additional tokens, and “features that enable new trading strategies and enhance capital efficiency.” “[W]e recognize the hesitancy among some asset issuers and members of the crypto community to engage with U.S. exchanges due to the evolving and uncertain regulatory landscape in the United States,” said Coinbase. Read more

Binance’s CZ will have to wait for his sentencing in the United States, the U.S. Congress passed a bill supporting blockchain, and Elon Musk’s xAI seeks $1 billion in capital. Binance founder Changpeng CZ Zhao has been ordered to stay in the United States until his sentencing in February, with a federal judge determining theres too much of a flight risk if the former crypto exchange CEO is allowed to return to the United Arab Emirates. On Dec. 7, Seattle District Court Judge Richard Jones ordered Zhao to stay in the U.S. until his Feb. 23, 2024 sentencing date. He faces up to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to money laundering on Nov. 21 and has agreed not to appeal any potential sentence up to that length. A United States Congress committee has unanimously passed a pro-blockchain bill , which would task the U.S. commerce secretary with promoting blockchain deployment and thus potentially increase the country’s use of blockchain technology. The act covers an array of acti...

Binance’s new compliance obligations include cooperation to grant U.S. authorities access to all documents, records and resources upon request. Binance compliance commitments with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) were unsealed on Dec. 8, revealing a significant government oversight of the crypto exchange operation and business activities. In an analysis shared on X (formerly Twitter), John Reed Stark, a former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official, classified the “exhaustive list” of Binance’s new compliance commitments as a “consulting firm’s wish list” that will likely shut down the platform. Binance’s new obligations are described in an 11-page document and include cooperation to grant authorities access to documents, records and resources at their request, including access to information related to its “former employees, agents, intermediaries, consultants, representatives, distributors, licenses, contractors, suppliers, and joint venture partners,...

Data shows top traders futures’ Bitcoin long-to-short at the lowest level in 30 days, but what does this mean for BTC's short-term price action. Bitcoin ( BTC ) has experienced a remarkable 15.7% price surge in the first six days of December. This surge has been heavily influenced by the anticipation of an imminent approval of a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States. Senior Bloomberg ETF analysts have expressed a 90% probability for approval by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which is expected before Jan. 10. However, Bitcoin’s recent price surge may not be as straightforward as it seems. Analysts have failed to consider the multiple rejections at $37,500 and $38,500 during the second half of November. These rejections have left professional traders, including market makers, questioning the market’s strength, particularly from the perspective of derivatives metrics. Bitcoin’s 7.6% rally to $37,965 on Nov. 15 resulted in disappointment as the movemen...

Ethereum price is up today as network revenue skyrockets and ETH clears the $2,300 resistance. Ether ( ETH ), the native token of the Ethereum network,  is witnessing a breakout on the back of increasing institutional interest in the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. The increased bullish sentiment pushed Ether price up by 23.7% over the past 30 days. The fact that ETH trades above $2,300 could indicate that increased attention is shifting toward Ether. Year to date, ETH price is up by 96.5%.  Let’s review a few of the reasons for Ether’s price strength. A surge in traders’ interest in Ether began on Nov. 1 when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC ) acknowledged Grayscale Investment’s application to convert its Ethereum trust into an ETF. Read more

Jamie Dimon has previously referred to cryptocurrencies as “decentralized Ponzi schemes” and Bitcoin as a “fraud.” JPMorgan Chase chair and CEO Jamie Dimon told several United States lawmakers that if he had the authority in government, he would try to shut down crypto. In a Dec. 6 hearing of the Senate Banking Committee on oversight of Wall Street Firms, Dimon responded to questioning from Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, who claimed North Korea had funded much of its missile program using “proceeds of crypto crime” in addition to funding Hamas. The JPMorgan Chase CEO said he had “always been deeply opposed to crypto” and associated digital assets with “criminals” and “drug traffickers” in addition to tax avoidance. "If I was the government, I'd close it down," said Dimon. Read more

Executives working in the gaming industry weighed in on potential Web3 gaming trends in 2024. In this week’s newsletter, read about how Michael Jackson’s first recording is coming to the blockchain and why the nonfungible token (NFT) lending protocol ParaSpace was rebranded to Parallel Finance. Check out how the Rarible ecosystem is furthering its commitment to royalty enforcement, and find out what executives working in the gaming industry think about the future of blockchain gaming in 2024.  An NFT of a track titled “Big Boy (One-Derful Version),” by Michael Jackson, will hit the blockchain through the music platform Anotherblock. The track is the first-ever studio recording of a young Michael Jackson.  The track was recorded in 1967 when an eight-year-old Michael Jackson recorded his inaugural studio session at One-Derful in Chicago with his brothers. Anotherblock CEO and co-founder Michel Traore told Cointelegraph that dropping the track on-chain will elevate the song ...

The platform allows clients to compare and benchmark quantum and classical algorithms for a given task. According to the Moody’s Analytics website, QFStudio is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering that will serve as “a continuous integration, benchmark, and delivery platform” for quantum computing solutions. The burgeoning quantum computing sector is expected to experience steady growth over the next few decades. A recent forecast predicted that quantum computing technologies would grow from a market capitalization in the United States of about $138 million in 2022 to $1.2 billion by 2030. Currently, most of the focus in quantum computing is on research and development. Companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Google, D-Wave and Rigetti have quantum, cloud-based quantum and hybrid quantum computing offerings on the market, but most of these solutions are geared toward early movers exploring use cases. Read more

Bitcoin is witnessing profit-booking by short-term holders, but institutional investors continue to put money into BTC investment products. Bitcoin ( BTC ) has been on a tear, rising more than 10% this week. This shows that traders are urgently scrambling to buy Bitcoin as they anticipate the price to rally further. CoinShares data shows that investors have pumped in more than $1.44 billion into Bitcoin investment products in the past ten weeks. The expectation is that the approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) will attract huge investments. Animoca Brands CEO Robby Yung, while speaking at the Next Block Expo conference in Berlin, said that Bitcoin ETFs could generate a potential income of “$10 to $12 billion.” While long-term investors have been accumulating Bitcoin, the short-term holders (STHs) holding coins for 155 days or less have been busy booking profits in December. CryptoSlate research and data analyst James Van Straten, while sharing a Glassnode chart on...

Bitcoin price is up today as institutional investor inflows and traders’ belief that a spot BTC ETF approval is on the way boosts bullish momentum. Bitcoin ( BTC ) price is up today, topping $44,000 for the first time in over 19 months. The rally highlights traders’ continued bullish bias for Bitcoin , which produced the best November performance since 2020.  The most likely catalyst for Bitcoin’s rally to $44,000 is the markets’ belief that a spot BTC exchange-traded fund ( ETF ) will be approved in January 2024 and this is bringing significant cash inflows from institutional investors . Bitcoin price. Source: TradingView Now that BTC has notched its best monthly close in 19 months, let’s look into the reasons why Bitcoin price is up today. Centralized exchange volumes return to norm Initially, Bitcoin price flashed mixed signals after former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s guilty plea and the exchange agreed to pay a $4.3 billion settlement to the U.S. Leaders in th...

The new system works a lot like a time delay safe for digital assets with a policy engine to broker communications. IBM announced the launch of IBM Hyper Protect Offline Signing Orchestrator (OSO), an air-gapped cold storage solution for digital assets, on Dec. Working with digital asset manager Metaco — an IBM partner and Ripple subsidiary  — and tier-1 banks, IBM developed the end-to-end asset encryption service to address common vulnerabilities found in typical cold storage solutions. According to the announcement: “When it comes to offline or physically air-gapped cold storage, there are limitations, including privileged administrator access, operational costs and errors and the inability to truly scale. All these limitations are due to one underlying factor—human interaction.” Cold storage IBM designed OSO to address these vulnerabilities by removing the manual functions of initiating and conducting transactions. This, according to the blog post and accompanying ...

Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation. Cosmos-based networks Umee and Osmosis have announced plans to merge and create a so-called "DeFi Hub." Meanwhile, Brazilian bank Itau Unibanco has reportedly launched a cryptocurrency trading service for its clients as part of its investment platform, and Bitcoin has reached the $40,000 milestone, its highest price level in 19 months. Cosmos-based networks announce merger plans Umee and Osmosis, two networks that operate on the Cosmos chain, have announced plans to merge through a software upgrade and create a "DeFi Hub" for the entire Cosmos ecosystem.  According to the Dec. Osmosis x Umee This is much needed for $OSMO and also great for $UMEE . With Mars planning to migrate to Neutron, Osmosis needs to gather the DeFi legos required to offer a complete exchange experience Cosmos ec...

Presidential candidates Asa Hutchinson, Vivek Ramaswamy and Dean Phillips will discuss blockchain and crypto ahead of the New Hampshire Primary. The “Stand With Crypto” campaign launched by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase plans to bring candidates for the 2024 United States presidential election together to discuss blockchain technology and digital assets. According to its website as of Dec. 4, Stand With Crypto confirmed that Republican candidates Asa Hutchinson and Vivek Ramaswamy, as well as Democratic candidate Dean Phillips, will appear in person in New Hampshire on Dec. “This special opportunity allows you to hear from each presidential candidate and will provide candidates with a venue to address the crypto and blockchain community in New Hampshire,” said Stand With Crypto. We are excited to announce the first-ever Crypto Presidential Forum! Join us in New Hampshire to hear directly from candidates about their positions on crypto policy and a wide range of other topics...

Crypto industry figures are backing a judge’s threat to sanction the United States securities regulator in court, while the brothers behind the Platypus Finance hack are out free. Debt Box case judge ‘not fucking having it’ with SEC conduct A Utah federal judge’s threat to sanction the United States Securities and Exchange Commission over alleged deceptive statements about a crypto company it sued shows its conduct is “exceptionally bad,” according to one crypto executive. On Nov. 30, District Judge Robert Shelby alleged the SEC lied about Debt Box moving funds outside of the United States so a court would grant a freeze on its assets. The SEC sued the company in August, accusing it of running a $50 million fraudulent enterprise. “This sort of conduct is exceptionally bad, even by SEC standards,” crypto consulting firm Zero Knowledge founder Austin Campbell said in a Dec. 1 X (Twitter) post . “The most insulting part of this is that in the process of being mustache-twirling vil...

A malicious actor behind at least $5 million in crypto theft through “address poisoning" significantly ramped up attacks against Safe Wallet users in the last week. A crypto hacker specializing in “address poisoning attacks" has managed to steal over $2 million from Safe Wallet users alone in the past week, with its total victim count now reaching 21.  On Dec. 3, Web3 scam detection platform Scam Sniffer reported that around ten Safe Wallets lost $2.05 million to address poisoning attacks since Nov. According to Dune Analytics data  compiled by Scam Sniffer, the same attacker has reportedly stolen at least $5 million from around 21 victims in the past four months. Scam Sniffer, reported that one of the victims even held $10 million in crypto in a Safe Wallet, but "luckily" only lost $400,000 of it.  about ~10 Safe wallets have lost $2.05 million to "address poisoning" attacks in the past week. the same attacker has stolen $5 million from ~21 vic...

U.S. Space Force Major Jason Lowery wants the U.S. military to prioritize the investigation of proof-of-work systems like Bitcoin for the country’s defense. The United States needs to formally investigate using proof-of-work networks such as Bitcoin (BTC)  to protect the country from cyber-inflicted warfare, according to Jason Lowery, a member of the United States Space Force. In a four-page letter  to the U.S. “As a result, this misconception underplays the technology’s broad strategic significance for cybersecurity, and consequently, national security.” The Defense Innovation Board is an independent advisory board set up to bring the technological innovation and best practices of Silicon Valley to the U.S. Lowery used the letter to urge the board to advise the Secretary of Defense to investigate the "national strategic importance” of PoW systems like Bitcoin. In his letter, Lowery explained that a proof-of-work system like Bitcoin could work to deter adversaries from ...