Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Eth2's Rocket Pool reaches $350M TVL and 635 node operators in five weeks

“In the staking market, there was significant latent demand for a decentralized option — it just needed our launch to spark an inferno,” said Rocket Pool general manager Darren Langley.　　Rocket Pool, a decentralized Ethereum 2.0 staking platform has surpassed $350 million worth of total value locked (TVL) within five weeks of its official launch.　　The project aims to remove the barriers to entry for Eth2 stakers and node operators. It allows any user to run a node for 16 ETH ($59,000), which is half of the 32 ETH ($119,000) required in the Eth2 deposit contract. Users with as little as 0.01 ETH can also stake their funds and receive yield.　　According to data from DefiLlama, Rocket Pool has surged up the decentralized finance (DeFi) staking platform rankings to sit at third with a TVL of $355.64 million at the time of writing. The project is currently behind the Keep3r Network at $584.34 million, and Lido Finance in first place with $6.04 billion.　　Lido Finance was launched in December 2020 and currently towers over its competitors in terms of TVL however, it only had 14 node operators as of Q4 2021.　　In comparison, Rocket Pool has around 635 node operators which the platform says contributes

2021-12-31Deep Dive

DAO treasuries surged 40X in 2021: DeepDAO

DeepDAO ranks the Uniswap DAO, BitDAO and Lido Finance DAO as the top three in terms of treasury value at $2.9 billion, $2.4 billion and $602 million each.　　The total combined value of treasuries, or assets under management (AUM) for the use of decentralized autonomous organizations, increased by around 40 times between January and September of 2021.　　According to data from DAO stats platform DeepDAO, the total AUM for DAO treasuries listed on the platform increased from around $380 million in January to a peak of roughly $16 billion in mid-September.　　As of mid-December, the total AUM has decreased by 28.1% since the high water mark to sit at $11.5 billion, dropping a hefty $3.6 billion over the past 30 days alone.　　User participation in DAOs has surged as well throughout 2021, with the total DAO members and token hodlers tallying in at around 1.3 million in December, marking a 130x increase since the start of the year.　　DeepDAO ranks the DAOs for decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap, the general purpose BitDAO, and decentralized finance staking platform Lido Finance as the top three in terms of total treasury value at $2.9 billion, $2.4 billion and $602 million apiece.　　The Uniswap DAO has roughly 275,000 members that can

2021-12-31Deep Dive

SEC Appoints New Senior Adviser On Crypto, Here’s How This Might Bring About Policy Changes

Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler has now added a new member to his executive staff. The new addition who is identified as Corey Frayer is appointed as an adviser on crypto-related matters, and policy making.　　SEC Appoints Corey Frayer And Some Others　　Corey Frayer‘s appointment was announced by the SEC on Thursday with claims he’ll be assuming the position of a senior adviser on the agencys crypto oversight. But Frayer is not exactly new to that kind of appointment. Having worked as a senior policy adviser alongside Reps Maxine Waters and Brad Miller for the House Financial Services Committee, he also served as a member of the Senate Banking Committee.　　Meanwhile, Frayer was not the only new addition to Genslers executive staff. Jennifer Songer, Jorge Tenreiro, Philipp Havenstein all came alongside and will be working as investment management counsel, enforcement counsel, and operations counsel respectively.　　And Gensler himself has since revealed his pleasure with the new appointees, saying that their addition will bring to the team;　　“valuable counsel on policy, enforcement and agency operations.”　　How The Appointment Could Change Genslers Stance On Crypto Policies　　By appointing Frayer, Genslers longstanding public position on crypto policy could potentially change. Recall that the

2021-12-31Deep Dive

Turkey seeks to implement the crypto law “as soon as possible”

The latest update in Turkey‘s upcoming crypto law saw the Turkish Parliament hold a meeting today with relevant entities to discuss the regulations for virtual currencies in the nation. According to the European publication, Daily Sabah, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Group’s Deputy Chairperson, Mustafa Elitaş ascertained that the “common opinion of the participants is that the law must be enacted as soon as possible.”　　The meeting participants included the cryptocurrency market stakeholders along with the representatives of public institutions. However, it may be speculated that the final decision of the meeting was gravitated in favour of the government given the State entities played an eminent role in lieu of their majority in the discussion.　　From the Technology and Infrastructure Ministry along with the Treasury and Finance Ministry, and the Turkish banking watchdog – Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) to Turkeys Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), the Revenue Administration and at last, the Central Bank, all were present at the meeting.　　According to Mustafa Elitaş, the new law will will carve out more general regulations for crypto and will keep updating in order to keep up with the ever evolving crypto industry. He said, “There has been very rapid

2021-12-31Deep Dive

Israeli Central Bank Forces All Banks to Accept Profits from Cryptocurrency: Report

The Bank of Israel (BoI) has reportedly instructed local banks to accept profits from digital asset endeavors as long as the source of the money is not related to criminal affairs. The procedure is intended to complement the Money Laundering Prohibition Ordinance, which applies to crypto-related entities and their operations.　　Israeli Banks May no Longer Refuse　　According to a recent local report, the central bank of Israel has distributed a draft circular to local banks with a supplement to Proper Banking Procedure 411. The document focuses on money laundering and other financial crimes.　　The directive aims to upgrade the rules imposed on cryptocurrency entities and thus manage the banks risks when receiving and transferring digital assets. Specifically, the move represents a direct instruction from the Bank of Israel to all local financial institutions that they may no longer refuse to accept profits generated from cryptocurrency operations.　　However, the circular sets out a list of details that a bank should have in mind when processing a digital asset transaction. These include the nature of the initial funds, the size of the settlement, and the risk classification.　　Speaking on some of the issues that might still be present was Ron Tzafrati, VP of Finance and Regulation at

2021-12-31Deep Dive

Just How Much has the Blockchain Industry Scaled up in 2021?

2021 has been a watershed year for blockchain technology, with several new trends prompting a rethink of financial possibilities. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the Metaverse, Exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) have become mainstays bringing with them more adoption of crypto. These innovations have seen businesses worldwide adopt blockchain solutions bringing about considerable investments in the space.　　Financial payment company TripleA estimates that the total number of crypto users exceeds 300 million. This claim is substantiated by data provided by Chainalysis, which shows that as of Q2 2021, global adoption was at least 880% higher than 2020.　　Growing Adoption Poses Scaling Problems　　As more users and investors come into the crypto ecosystem, the problem of scalability poses a challenge. As adoption grows, the need for faster transactions and increased throughput also goes up. However, scaling up in the industry brings up the age-old belief of the blockchain trilemma.　　The blockchain trilemma refers to the widely held notion that decentralized networks can only provide two of three benefits (decentralization, security, and scalability) at a time. The industry is rife with examples of this challenge.　　Bitcoin can only transact around seven transactions per second (TPS) with its decentralized and secure system. Ethereum has a throughput

2021-12-31Deep Dive

Only A Matter Of Time Until ETH Flips BTC, Says Raoul Pal

Real Vision Chief Executive Raoul Pal has stated that he is confident that Ethereum will surpass Bitcoin to become the leading crypto in the market. Pal made these comments in an interview with The Stakeborg Talks. 　　According to Pal, at its current speed and growth, the Ethereum network looks set to outperform Bitcoin in the not-so-distant future. BTC And ETH Prices Stagnant 　　Raoul Pal analyzed the markets in detail on Twitter and stated that data volumes for Bitcoin and Ethereum have been “stagnant since the run-up to 2022.” He stated that his statement holds true for Bitcoin more than Ethereum because the former has seen little growth during the year. According to Pal, Bitcoins growth can be attributed only to large investors and institutions joining the network. 　　Pal demonstrated through charts that these large investors and institutions had taken their profits in the first half of 2021, and very few of them have returned to the market. Benefiting From Metcalfe‘s Law 　　Pal stated that he believed BTC and ETH benefit from Metcalfe’s law. Metcalfe‘s law states that any network’s value is proportional to the square number of nodes present in the network. In simpler terms, any network benefits from adoption,

2021-12-30Deep Dive

Crypto community shows lack of empathy for victims of MetaMask token scam

Up to 400 people fell victim to a scam involving the yet-to-be-released MetaMask token, resulting in the loss of hundreds of Ethereum. An exact figure is not known at this time, but estimates range from $1 million to $1.8 million.　　The victims were fooled into believing they were buying legitimate $MASK tokens. A deeper analysis of the situation revealed that scammers had injected code into DexTools application front end to give a “verified” tick mark for the Uniswap WETH/MASK trading pair on Uniswap.　　“Code was injected into the title and description of the token on DexTools which the website executed, resulting in the token displaying a ”verified“ status.”　　One victim recounts the situation, saying, “everything always seems obvious in hindsight.” However, social media comments, in general, show an overwhelming lack of sympathy for the victims.　　MetaMask and DexTools have yet to make a public response to the situation.The MetaMask token　　The founder of Ethereum devs ConsenSys, Joseph Lubin, teased a MetaMask token during a Twitter exchange some two months ago.　　Surging growth in the number of monthly active users in 2021 has made MetaMask the most popular wallet in crypto circles.　　“MetaMask had 545,000 monthly active users in July 2020, but that shot up to 10.35 million

2021-12-30Deep Dive

Bitcoin and Web3: Why the Beef?

As predictable as night following day is that an overload of hype and excitement will soon run into a reactive wall of snarky cynicism, and therell be handbags on Twitter.　　And so, it is proving to be with web3 which after months of excitement, because were all going to be free, frivolous and fabulously rich, has suddenly been under attack from Jack Dorsey, formerly of Twitter, now to be found on Twitter.　　Jack is freshly emancipated from the restraining shackles of his own business, that he actually co-created and was the boss of, and so is now free to speak his mind, knowing that he is not being watched over by himself.　　He got into several exchanges, but one of his tweets seems to articulate his position succinctly,“You don‘t own ’web3‘.”“The VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives. It’s ultimately a centralized entity with a different label.”“Know what youre getting into…”　　Additionally, in an exchange with Elon Musk, he made what reads like a disparaging reference to venture capital firm a16z (founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz), which is heavily invested in crypto and web3 projects.　　It is easy to be cynical about the cynicism. Here is a guy who

2021-12-30Deep Dive

Crypto Firm Santo Blockchain Buys 50 Bitcoin ATMs

Santo Mining announced the purchase of 50 Bitcoin ATMs today. According to the details shared by the company, the purchased BTC ATMs will be shipped to the companys office in the Republic of Panama by the end of the first quarter of 2022.　　Over the next 12 months, Santo is planning to buy 300 Bitcoin ATMs through an investment of more than $1 million. Santo Pay de Panama, a subsidiary of the company, will be developing a multinational rollout plan for Panama, Colombia and Costa Rica.　　“2022 will be a non-stop year of growth for Santo, as I personally plan for the companies 2022-year workload schedule. Santo is on a journey to help bring a new wave of crypto banking, investment and commerce to over 400,000,000 people in Latin America that are unbanked or unbankable, including 10%-15% of the Hispanics in the USA that also are unbankable,” Frank Yglesias, the CEO of Santo, said.Bitcoin ATMs　　With growing adoption, the demand for BTC ATMs has increased significantly this year. The United States has the largest number of crypto ATMs in the world. In April 2021, Coinme installed more than 300 BTC ATMs across Florida. The company is now operating over 6,000 crypto ATMs in

2021-12-30Deep Dive

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