The advocacy group was joined by the DeFi Education Fund in arguing that the crypto mixer has important social functions and OFAC could set a dangerous precedent. Crypto advocacy groups Blockchain Association and DeFi Education Fund filed a brief in United States District Court in Austin in the case brought by six individuals against the...Continue Reading

Today’s CPI report highlighted a slight decline in inflation, a development which could put a strong price floor beneath Bitcoin and select altcoins. The March consumer price index climbed marginally by 0.1%, below economists’ expectation of a 0.2% increase and February’s advance of 0.4%. Although inflation is showing signs of slowing, the year-on-year CPI increased...Continue Reading

Calgary’s police department has launched the Western Canada Cryptocurrency Investigations Centre, in partnership with blockchain data firm Chainalysis. A joint task force featuring investigators from the Calgary police department and analysis from blockchain data firm Chainalysis, dubbed the Western Canada Cryptocurrency Investigations Centre, was officially launched on April 12.  In a blog post announcing the...Continue Reading

If initial tests are successful, the firms will expand their activities into tokenized credit issuance and equities. Financial market firms T. Rowe Price Associates, WisdomTree, Wellington Management, and Cumberland have joined an Avalanche (AVAX) subnet to test the idea of blockchain-based foreign exchange, according to an announcement from the Avalanche team. The new subnet is...Continue Reading

Volumes from the top five Ethereum staking platforms suggest holders are hedging against the unknown until after ETH withdrawals are enabled. The Ethereum network’s planned Shanghai hard fork is nearly here. Planned for April 12, this is the first major upgrade since The Merge in September 2022. The “Shapella” upgrade (a combination of the two...Continue Reading

The Ethereum lending protocol was exploited in a $197 million flash loan attack in March. On April 12, Ethereum-based noncustodial lending protocol Euler Finance announced that it would open redemptions after hackers returned the vast majority of assets stolen in a $197 million flash loan exploit last month.  Euler says it will repay all sub-account...Continue Reading

The Swedish central bank’s third report on a potential CBDC raised several issues while focusing on a rather narrow question. Sweden’s central bank Riksbank has released a report detailing the third phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) research. A collaborative model for retail payments and conditional payments is the focus this time. The...Continue Reading

LooksRare releases an upgrade that lowers its fees by 75% to compete with OpenSea and Blur. In this week’s newsletter, find out why a nonfungible token (NFT) collector paid $192,000 for a free NFT. Check out how community members responded as Reddit deployed its contract for its Gen 3 NFT avatars, and how a previously...Continue Reading

ETH traders are exercising caution ahead of the April 12 Shapella hardfork, but the signal to watch is staking unlock requests. Ether (ETH) price has increased by 58% year to date, but it has far underperformed the market leader Bitcoin (BTC). In fact, the ETH/BTC price ratio has dropped to 0.063, its lowest level in...Continue Reading

Sam Bankman-Fried’s failed cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy in November 2022 and has since been mired in court proceedings. Cryptocurrency exchange FTX may be considering restarting in the future, according to the legal team behind the debtors. In an April 12 hearing in United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, lawyers with Sullivan...Continue Reading