Author: Andrei Ionescu
As the summer progresses, the crypto ecosystem is set to witness significant token unlocks from several major projects, injecting substantial liquidity into the market. According to data from Token.Unlocks, these releases, worth $10 million or more at current prices, are poised to impact the circulating supply of various cryptocurrencies. Wormhole Unlocks $180 Million Worth of Tokens Wormhole, a prominent cross-chain project, will unlock 600 million tokens on August 3, amounting to one-third of its circulating supply. Valued at approximately $180 million, this unlock follows a significant airdrop in April, where Wormhole distributed over 670 million tokens. As a communication bridge…
In a significant expansion of its leadership team, Coinbase announced the addition of Chris Lehane, Paul Clement, and Christa Davies to its board of directors. Chris Lehane, an executive at OpenAI and a former Democratic strategist for Bill Clinton and Al Gore, will provide strategic counsel to Coinbase’s leadership, guiding the company in its mission to make “onchain the new online.” Paul Clement, a partner at the law firm Clement & Murphy PLLC and former U.S. Solicitor General under President George W. Bush, along with Christa Davies, Chief Financial Officer at Aon since 2008 and board member at Stripe and…
This week, Galaxy Ventures unveiled a new fund targeting early-stage crypto firms, while the crypto markets saw over $75 million flow into various projects across the ecosystem. Among the notable recipients of this funding was Bitlayer, a layer-2 blockchain that raised $11 million in a Series A round, boosting its valuation to $300 million. The funding round was led by traditional finance giant Franklin Templeton, known for its Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, along with investment fund ABCDE. This marks the first time a Bitcoin layer-2 infrastructure project has received strategic investment from an ETF-licensed institution. “We believe that Bitlayer’s unique…
According to Santiment data, the term “Bitcoin” is being used more positively on social media now than at any time in the past 16 months. Santiment highlighted this shift in sentiment, noting in a July 27 post on X (formerly Twitter), “Bitcoin’s +20% 3-week price rally has left traders feeling a whole lot more bullish than they were at the beginning of the month.” At the time of publication, Bitcoin was trading at $67,950, up 6.22% since July 25, according to CoinMarketCap data. The company’s weighted sentiment index, which measures Bitcoin mentions on social media and compares the ratio of…
Patrick O’Grady, Vice President of Engineering at Ava Labs, the blockchain developer behind Avalanche, has announced his departure from the company to start his own venture. O’Grady shared the news on X (formerly Twitter), revealing his plans to embark on a new entrepreneurial journey. During his tenure at Ava Labs, O’Grady played a significant role in developing the Vryx scaling solution, which aims to enable the Avalanche blockchain to handle 100,000 transactions per second. This ambitious goal aligns with the targets of other modern blockchains like Monad, MegaETH, and TON. In his announcement, O’Grady mentioned that he would remain connected…
Sygnum, a global Swiss crypto banking group managing around $4.5 billion in client assets, has reported profitability following a robust first half of the year, marked by significant growth across key metrics. In a recent news release, Sygnum announced that compared to the same period last year, it experienced a twofold increase in crypto spot trading volumes, a 500% expansion in crypto derivatives trading, and a 360% surge in lending volumes. While specific profit figures for the first half were not disclosed, these metrics underscore the bank’s successful performance. The bank also highlighted substantial growth in its Staking-as-a-Service, with the…
The U.S. State Department has announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the location or identity of Rim Jong Hyok, a North Korean hacker indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice. Rim Jong Hyok and his accomplices have been accused of participating in ransomware attacks against U.S. hospitals and medical providers. They developed and used a custom ransomware called “Maui” to attack and encrypt the computer networks of multiple U.S. hospitals and medical institutions. The victims were then extorted to pay a ransom to unlock the data. The hackers laundered the virtual currency proceeds from…