Bitcoin Sees Jump In Prices After Approval On Grayscale ETF

The price of Bitcoin has seen an unexpected 5% increase after American digital asset management Grayscale Investments secured a win on its filing for a Grayscale Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). The ruling by the federal court has reversed the rejection of Grayscale’s bid to convert its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust to an ETF, and this potentially opens the door for a spot bitcoin ETF in the United States. Such ETFs have long been in the sights of crypto advocates and institutions alike as it allows retail investors to gain exposure to crypto assets without having to acquire the actual asset itself.

Stablecoin Settlement Surpasses Payment Giants Mastercard And PayPal

Stablecoin settlements are steadily being used as a tool for regular payment transactions, and the total amount rivals even that of payment giants like PayPal and Mastercard, says a report by European hedge fund Brevan Howard. The study looked into non-speculation stablecoin activities across multiple Layer-1 blockchains like Ethereum, Tron, and Binance Smart Chain, which revealed that a majority of stablecoin users belong to the retail user category. Stablecoin settlements amounted to US$11 trillion which surpasses Mastercard’s volume of US$6.57 trillion.

Bitcoin Activity Will Reveal Hint Of Halving Bullishness In The Market

Bitcoin activity may remain within a narrow range until the end of the year, but two key indicators could drop hints of prices going higher prior to the Bitcoin halving event. The first is Bitcoin mining activity, where increased miner activity and bidding could indicate the start of the bull run since mining teams are collectively incentivised to raise prices higher before their revenue is halved. Another key indicator is the indicator of Bitcoin purchases, where speculators buying into the rumors of a bull run could also buoy the price of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Price Recovery Attracts Mining Interest Again

Bitcoin mining company Canaan reported that its Q2 mining revenues grew by 43.3% when compared to its Q1 performance, with a growth in computing power used and increased Bitcoin mining revenue which was attributed to the recovery in Bitcoin prices and rise in Bitcoin rewards. This recovery has started attracting other companies to dive deeper into the mining game as other companies like Iris Energy have started investing heavily in GPUs to bump up processing power for Bitcoin mining and generative AI usage.

ImpactMarket Partners With DeFi AMM To Give Back To Its Community

ImpactMarket, a protocol that seeks to empower underprivileged people with financial services and tools, has partnered with Double, a decentralized finance AMM that provides liquidity for token projects, to provide a new reward experience for its token holders. Token holders can deposit their assets into the Double platform to rank their wallets, and a score will be calculated for each participating wallet. The top 100,000 wallets will receive an additional reward of 100 Double tokens per wallet. Through this initiative, the program offers a chance to access special benefits and contribute to the liquidity of impactMarket.

HEADLINE Launches Month-Long Algo OS Campaign To Accelerate Algorand Adoption

HEADLINE, a fintech startup that is building software on the Algorand blockchain, has initiated its Algo OS campaign which aims to open-source the largest collection of production code in the Algorand ecosystem. The company will release one open-source Algorand repository daily, and developers can get access to Algorand codes for NFT marketplaces, DeFi protocols, analytics platforms, and decentralized applications to list a few. With this open-source sharing, more Algorand teams will have access to quality open-source codes and will be able to develop the ecosystem further.

Conflux Network Inches Closer To Planned Hardfork Upgrade

The rising Layer-1 blockchain Conflux network recently reminded teams who are maintaining a node on the network to upgrade it by 7 September for the incoming hardfork. The upgrade was deemed necessary to introduce a number of new enhancement protocols that would require a fork to be implemented. This includes CIP-113, which shortens the proof-of-stake consensus round time and the pivot decision signing wait time for faster finalization, and CIP-118, which introduces an internal contract interface to query unused storage points. The fork will also improve existing features such as refactoring the EVM code to improve readability and standardizing RPC namespaces.

Rollux Continues Driving Partnerships And Engagement In August

Rollux, Syscoin’s Layer-2 Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) rollup platform, continues to drive the growth of the network with a series of partnerships and community engagement. This includes its recent collaboration with Token Bulksender which will enable SYS tokens, ERC-20 tokens, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to be sent to multiple addresses in a single transaction. Plus, GoRollux, the Rollux-based launchpad enabling builders to launch projects with on-chain governance, also held an Ask-Me-Anything session with the Rollux team and   ESG-focused Alinti project to engage the Spanish community.

TRON DAO To Encourage Web3 Ecosystem growth In Japan

TRON DAO, a community-governed, decentralized autonomous organization that supports the TRON blockchain which focuses on entertainment applications, has joined the Japan Cryptoasset Business Association (JCBA) as an associate member to promote the growth of the crypto industry in Japan and across Asia. The JCBA is a Japanese association which has over 134 members seeking to foster the development of digital assets in Web3 and traditional industries. As a member of the association, the DAO will leverage TRON's efficient network and community to achieve the collective goal.

Pyth Network Collaborates With WEMIX Network To Provide Oracle Feeds

Pyth Network, a specialized oracle solution for financial data has teamed up with the Layer-1 blockchain WEMIX network to provide low-latency pull oracles to the WEMIX ecosystem. The latter is a decentralized blockchain network that focuses on building a vibrant blockchain gaming ecosystem, and the ongoing efforts are part of a greater collaboration with the WEMIX3.0 Foundation. The WEMIX Foundation has deployed a price scheduler that allows  developers on the WEMIX network to utilize over 300+ real-time oracle data feeds from its partner without cost, and Pyth has also launched its WEMIX/USD price feed.

LEND Finance Expands On LEND Potential As Part Of Token Presale

LEND.finance, a cross-chain lending protocol that facilitates lending, borrowing, and earning for its users, has launched a new video that expands on the potential and utility of its upcoming LEND token that will be released in the near future. The protocol aims to create a fairer decentralized finance sharing platform amongst DeFi users, and over 50% of all revenues is expected to be distributed among LEND token holders. Active users on the platform can also expect to be rewarded with LEND tokens, and the DeFi platform emphasizes fairness and inclusion. Currently, the token sale is still in its private round phase, and will move into the IDO phase once it concludes.

SPACE ID Celebrates First Anniversary As A Domain Naming Service

SPACE ID recently crossed its one-year anniversary mark of being a successful universal naming network in the Web3 space, and the project is celebrating with a slew of discounts and giveaways on their domain products. Web3 users can purchase domains from any of the three supported blockchain networks of Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Arbitrum on the platform while enjoying a hefty discount as part of the celebration. In addition, Binance Smart Chain users can also participate in a raffle to win over US$50,000 worth of gift cards as part of a giveaway.

Merit Circle Community Passes Proposal To Develop Gaming-Focused Network

Merit Circle, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that aims to maximize yield across play-to-earn (p2e) games and the metaverse, recently had its 27th governance proposal passed by its community with a one-hundred percent confidence vote. The MIP-27 proposal aimed to draw up to 75 million MC tokens from the treasury to develop and provide liquidity to Beam, a gaming-focused blockchain that enables game developers to include blockchain elements easily. At the same time, up to 2.7 million USDC tokens will now be available after the vote to develop Beam and its ecosystem products. 200,000 USDC will also be utilized to provide liquidity to the AMM on Beam.

Celo Network Partners With Polygon To Showcase Positive Impact Of Celo Projects

Celo Network, a mobile-first project that focuses on global payment infrastructure for cryptocurrencies, has partnered with Ethereum scaling solution Polygon to field testimonials of Celo project founders who have utilized the blockchain to create a positive impact on the world. Coined ‘TheValueProp’ by Polygon, the effort aims to advocate for regulations to preserve the integrity of blockchain technology. A number of Celo projects have been featured, including GainForestNow, which combines blockchain and satellite data to reward impactful conservation projects, and ToucanProtocol, which issues carbon credits to grow the voluntary carbon market.

DIVA Protocol Brings Onboard Decentralized Interest Rate Products With IPOR Protocol

DIVA Protocol, a universal smart contract-based system that allows for the creation and management of peer-to-peer derivatives, has inked a collaboration with IPOR Protocol to create derivative products with automated smart contract-determined interest rates. This is achieved by bringing IPOR Protocol’s on-chain interest rate index which derives its data from oracle references, and combining it with DIVA Protocol’s unique smart contract derivatives to create an amalgamated DeFi product. This will lead to a new, wider range of novel offerings that are focused on the DeFi and CeFi interest rate differentials.