Mantle

Bessie Liu

Eclipse will use Solana’s tech stack for its upcoming mainnet launch, the Ethereum layer-2 network project announced. Eclipse’s mainnet is expected to go live before the end of the year.



By design, a blockchain stack contains four different layers: execution, settlement, consensus and data availability.



Blockchains, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana, carry out all these tasks in a single layer. This means that when a transaction is made, the blockchain executes, settles, reaches consensus, and ensures data availability all within the same layer.&nbsp;



Modular blockchains, on the other hand, are designed to focus on specific tasks.&nbsp;



Neel Somani, founder of Eclipse, notes that he believes all layer-2s — validiums, optimiums and zk-rollups — should be considered “modular blockchains.” 



“At a minimum, they&#8217;ve all separated execution from settlement,” he said.&nbsp;



Notably, Eclipse will use <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/solana">Solana</a> Virtual Machine (SVM) for execution on its upcoming mainnet. The execution layer is the blockchain layer that holds the code and rules of a transaction; it enables transaction signing and smart contract execution.&nbsp;



On <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a>, for example, transactions are executed sequentially. On Solana, however, there is a parallel execution environment. This means that more transactions can be processed at a lower cost.&nbsp;



“That&#8217;s probably the biggest difference,” Somani said. “Another benefit is the ‘local fee markets,’ meaning if one application gets a ton of activity, it doesn&#8217;t impact fees for other apps. It is a smaller set of ‘opcodes,’ and it&#8217;s register-based which makes [zero-knowledge] proving easier.”



Elsewhere, Eclipse will use <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/risc-zero-zkevm">Risc Zero</a> for proving. Settlement, like most rollups today, will take place on Ethereum — meaning that it will utilize Ethereum’s security properties to validate transactions. Data availability (DA) will be derived from Celestia. 



Read More: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/data-availability-ethereum">Why data availability sampling matters for blockchain scaling?</a>



Unlike many rollup solutions today, Celestia’s DA layer utilizes Data Availability Sampling (DAS) over having a Data Availability Committee (DAC), meaning there are fewer trust assumptions.&nbsp;



That said, the team at Eclipse will continue to keep a close eye on <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-cancun-upgrade-blobs">Ethereum’s EIP-4844 upgrade</a> and consider migrating to Ethereum’s DA in the future.&nbsp;



“It&#8217;s become clear that the single-threaded EVM is not sufficient to scale Ethereum, which is why apps are turning to their own app-specific rollups,” Somani told Blockworks. “Yet even the most sophisticated designs like Arbitrum are now seeing fee spikes — and it&#8217;s all because of the lack of parallelism and local fee markets.”



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Eclipse is using Solana’s virtual machine to launch an Ethereum L2

Ben Strack

Europe-based CoinShares has launched a hedge fund division as part of its expansion into the US.



It’s a notable move, given that other industry firms are departing the US as regulatory uncertainties around crypto persist.



The expansion marks the first time the crypto investment firm will make its products available to qualified American investors, though CoinShares itself isn’t new to the hedge fund space.



The Jersey-based firm began as a commodity hedge fund called Global Advisors that founded the regulated Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund in 2014. That fund operated until 2017.



CoinShares is perhaps better known today for its crypto ETPs, as well as its research and venture arms.&nbsp;



Lewis Fellas is set to lead the new unit, called CoinShares Hedge Fund Solutions. Fellas joined CoinShares in March after founding and working as chief investment officer of Larks Leaf Asset Management, according to his LinkedIn profile.&nbsp;



CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti said in a statement that the demand for actively managed exposure to digital assets is a “natural progression” amid a macro environment marked by inflation.&nbsp;



The Federal Reserve has raised the federal funds rate repeatedly over the last 18 or so months to tackle inflation. Though the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/federal-reserve-rate-decision-bitcoin-ether">US central bank chose this week to keep rates steady</a>, it signaled the possibility of another rate increase by the end of the year.



“The long-awaited return of interest rate-driven volatility is a great opportunity that we plan to capture with our novel fund products,” Fellas said in a statement. “Each product that will be offered is designed to mitigate counterparty risk whilst providing investors with clearly defined asset class and strategy exposures.”



<a href="https://coinshares.com/hedge-fund-solutions">Funds</a> being made available to US investors include vehicles based on Bitcoin and Ethereum, a spokesperson told Blockworks.&nbsp;



The bitcoin fund, called Bitcoin Integrated Strategies, “deploys multiple strategies such as call overwrite, quantitative and arbitrage to generate alpha above the performance of bitcoin,” according to the company’s website.&nbsp;



CoinShares’ Ethereum Integrated Strategies fund uses the same methods, “but optimized for Ethereum.”



A spokesperson did not immediately comment further on the company’s plans in the US.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Expansion to the US market comes as others have abandoned their plans in the country.



Crypto exchange <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bittrex-us-shutdown">Bittrex said in March it would shut down its US operations</a>, citing “regulatory uncertainty” and an unwillingness by lawmakers to embrace innovation.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The US Securities and Exchange Commission <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-sues-coinbase">sued Coinbase and Binance</a> in June in part for allegedly operating as unregistered securities exchanges — claims the companies deny.&nbsp;



Dave Hirsch, the crypto unit chief within the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/sec">SEC’s</a> enforcement division, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-hirsch-faces-the-music">said that month</a> the regulator intended to continue “pursuing claims for the unregistered offer and sale of securities.”



CoinShares had signaled in a July filing that it was <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinshares-pushing-into-active-management">laying the groundwork for hedge funds open to accredited US investors</a>.&nbsp;



“Today’s investors seek more than passive exposure to digital assets and are demanding increasingly sophisticated investment alternatives,” the company wrote in its first quarter <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/a.storyblok.com/f/155294/x/97c813bc14/coinshares_q1_23_report.pdf">report</a>.&nbsp;



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As others depart the US, CoinShares expands via new hedge fund unit

James Cirrone

Google Cloud has added 11 more blockchains to public data sets on BigQuery, the tech giant’s data analytics service originally launched in 2010.



Users can now query data from Avalanche, Arbitrum, Cronos, Ethereum Goerli, Fantom, Near, Optimism, Polkadot, Polygon, Polygon Mumbai and Tron, according to a Thursday blog post. 



Google called these blockchains “in-demand” and says that users can now retrieve information about “the flow of assets from one wallet to another, which tokens are most popular, and how users are interacting with smart contracts.”



It also <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/data-analytics/data-for-11-more-blockchains-in-bigquery-public-datasets">said</a> that customers are often asking things like how many NFTs were minted on specific chains or how transaction fees compare across chains. 



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/google-loosens-ad-guidelines-for-nft-game-providers">Google loosens ad guidelines for NFT game providers</a>



Google added that having more access to a wider array of networks can help curious individuals answer questions like those “without the overhead of operating nodes or maintaining an indexer.”



Back in 2018, Google’s cloud segment added support for Bitcoin and Ethereum on BigQuery. And with the advent of ordinals, essentially Bitcoin NFTs, coming to the network in January 2023, Google is also now allowing developers to query satoshis and/or ordinals from the Bitcoin dataset on BigQuery.



Previously, in 2019, six other chains were <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/data-analytics/introducing-six-new-cryptocurrencies-in-bigquery-public-datasets-and-how-to-analyze-them">added</a> to BigQuery beyond the big two, including Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Dogecoin, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, and Zcash.



Google’s commitment to advancing blockchain isn’t limited to maintaining large blockchain datasets. Blockworks previously reported that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/layerzero-google-cloud-oracle-operator-messaging">Google Cloud has become an oracle operator for LayerZero</a>, a cross-chain messaging protocol.



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Google Cloud adds data support for 11 more blockchains

Katherine Ross

ByBit is suspending services in the UK starting in early October as the UK implements new crypto marketing regulations.



“Bybit has made a choice to embrace the regulation proactively and pause our services in this market. The suspension will allow the company to focus its efforts and resources [on] being able to best meet the regulations outlined by the UK authorities in the future,” a blog post said.



UK customers will no longer be able to create new accounts on ByBit starting on Oct. 1. The company will cease new deposits and position buys on Oct. 8.&nbsp;



“UK Customers who are implicated by these measures are strongly encouraged to take action by Jan. 8, 2024,” the post <a href="https://announcements.bybit.com/en-US/article/announcement-bybit-to-suspend-services-in-the-uk-blt286daa9208c8f3aa/?category=latest_bybit_news&amp;channel=pr_&amp;medium=organic_social&amp;source=twitter&amp;sa_utm_ci=107&amp;pid=Social_twitter&amp;dtpid=16953838071898884&amp;campaign=enannouncement_16953838071898884&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=organic_social&amp;c=enannouncement_16953838071898884&amp;sa_utm_channel=pr_&amp;sa_utm_tcn=16953838071898884&amp;is_retargeting=true">said</a>.&nbsp;



ByBit cited a June posting from the FCA outlining the new approach as part of its choice to suspend its services in the UK market.



The June FCA <a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/policy-statements/ps23-6-financial-promotion-rules-cryptoassets">post</a> said that the regulation directly impacts consumers buying crypto, FCA-registered crypto companies, those attempting to register and overseas companies marketing to UK customers.&nbsp;



The announcement comes a day after the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/uk-fca-warning-crypto-firms-unregistered-risk-warnings">UK gave crypto companies a “final warning.”</a>



In the Sept. 21 letter, the FCA cited “poor engagement from many unregistered, overseas crypto asset firms who have UK customers…” It stated that some had “refused to engage with the FCA”, despite the authority&#8217;s outreach attempts. Out of over 150 firms approached, only about 24 responded to a survey.



According to Lucy Castledine, the director of consumer investment, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/uk-fca-deadline-crypto-marketing-regulation">the regulatory framework requires that crypto firms in the UK</a> present their offerings to UK customers “clearly, fairly and honestly. And they must provide risk warnings people understand.”



The regulations also require certain technical changes, such as the introduction of a cooling-off period. Firms registered within the UK have the option to request an extension of these deadlines until early January.



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ByBit to suspend UK market activity in early October

Shalini Nagarajan

Venture capitalist Tim Draper has launched a venture studio to boost budding crypto and Web3 startups.



Alon Goren, board member of projects like LunarCrush and Ownera, and David Bleznak, who recently worked on Coinbase&#8217;s institutional offerings, join Draper as founding members of the new studio called Draper Goren Blockchain (DGB).



The team indicated that their launch is strategically timed to align with bear market conditions, as they believe many crypto projects will benefit from support to thrive and succeed, according to a <a href="https://www.dgb.vc/">statement</a> published Sept. 20.



“It’s a cliche that bear markets are a time for builders to build, but that means there are incredible projects currently being developed that are in need of capital and support,” Draper said.



Draper is a well-known venture capitalist and entrepreneur, recognized for his contributions to the tech and crypto industries.



In the early 1980s, he founded Draper Associates, a venture capital firm known for its successful investments in prominent tech companies such as Skype, Tesla and Baidu.



Still, he was one of the early backers of the blood-testing startup Theranos, which, as we all know, turned out to be a <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ccaf2dbd-473f-4b1f-8724-79ca735bb07b">big flop</a>.



In 2014, he <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/us-government-dumps-bitcoin-silk-road">bought</a> around 30,000 bitcoin (worth around $798M at current prices) in a government auction for roughly $18 million, making him an early bitcoin investor.



“With DGB, we are reinforcing our dedication to amplify crypto projects that are advancing the industry in anticipation of an influx of millions of new users and institutions in the coming months and years,” he said.



Draper <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tim-draper-loves-decentralized-world">told</a> Blockworks last year that his firm chose not to invest in FTX and BlockFi.&nbsp;



Despite the challenges faced by the crypto industry in 2022, he emphasized that his investment strategy remained unwavering, as he continued to hold a strong affinity for the decentralized realm.



In a video <a href="https://twitter.com/AlonGoren/status/1704552918819684657">posted</a> on X, DGB founding member Goren was optimistic about the crypto space despite industry uncertainties, emphasizing the trio’s long-term commitment.



“We&#8217;re in the midst of a crazy bear market for all sorts of circumstances. But we were here early, and we&#8217;re going to be here often,” he said.



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Tim Draper ventures forth as bear market bites

Blockchain data analytics platform Nansen recently suffered a security incident that exposed some users&#8217; email addresses and passwords.



The breach appears to have originated from a third-party vendor whose system was compromised, allowing an attacker to obtain admin rights to an account used for granting customer access to Nansen.



Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik stated that the company became aware of the attack on Sept. 20. Initial investigations indicate that about 6.8% of its users are affected by the breach.



“These users had their email addresses exposed, a smaller portion also had password hashes exposed, and a last, smallest group also had their blockchain address exposed,” Svanevik <a href="https://twitter.com/nansen_ai/status/1705137387838574904">said</a> in an X post on Friday.



“We have informed our users via email if and how they’ve been affected,” he added.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">🚨 Important update from us at Nansen. Please take a moment to read this. <a href="https://t.co/syKE0sNnC6">pic.twitter.com/syKE0sNnC6</a>&mdash; Nansen 🧭 (@nansen_ai) <a href="https://twitter.com/nansen_ai/status/1705137387838574904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 22, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



A Nansen spokesperson declined to disclose the name of the vendor, but said it has asked them to communicate on the incident publicly in case others are affected.



Nansen contacted affected users via emails sent from its official support@nansen.ai email address on Sept. 21 between 5 pm and 9 pm UTC, instructing them to reset their passwords.



The team also informed users that while their passwords are not stored in plaintext, malicious attackers could still attempt to gain access to accounts using the compromised password and email address.



Data breaches have become increasingly frequent in the industry of late.



NFT platform OpenSea <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/opensea-warns-of-phishing-attacks-due-to-data-breach">told users about a data breach</a> in June last year when staff discovered that email addresses had been shared with an external party.



Last month, ConsenSys <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/metamask-security-breach-consensys-says">disclosed</a> that about 7,000 MetaMask users had their private information, including email addresses, compromised between Aug. 2021 and Feb. 2023.



Also in August, embattled crypto companies BlockFi and FTX also <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/block-ftx-data-breach-kroll">reported being indirectly impacted</a> by a cybersecurity breach related to third-party claims administration platform Kroll.



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Nansen alerts users to security breach involving vendor

Sebastian Sinclair

Options contracts for the quarter on the leading global crypto derivatives exchange are due to expire at month&#8217;s end, a timeframe that has traditionally seen heightened market volatility.



The week ahead marks the month-end and quarter-end expiry date for bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) options contracts for Deribit, with nearly $5 billion notional expiring on Sept. 29.



Luuk Strijers, Chief Commercial Officer at Deribit, told Blockworks the figures this September are consistent with this year’s trend when compared to the previous June&#8217;s $5.4 billion and March&#8217;s $5.2 billion expiries.



The current quarter&#8217;s expiries account for 35% of the platform&#8217;s open interest, involving 113,000 BTC and 1.1 million ETH options contracts, <a href="https://metrics.deribit.com/options/BTC">Deribit data</a> shows.



“Quarterly expiries are typically the most significant, in terms of volume and value,” Strijers said. “In the past month, we have seen stable markets while the Gamma of the September expiries has increased gradually as a function of time.”



In simple terms, Gamma measures how sensitive an option&#8217;s price is to a change in the price of the underlying asset, in this case, BTC and ETH. A rising Gamma means that, as the asset&#8217;s price changes, the option&#8217;s price will change quickly.



In spot markets, a rising Gamma in options can have a ripple effect. When Gamma increases for options, market participants holding those options may have to adjust their positions more frequently to hedge their risks.&nbsp;



Adjustments often involve buying or selling the underlying in the spot market. If Gamma is rising and the price of BTC increases, an option holder might need to buy more BTC in the spot market to remain hedged. Conversely, if BTC&#8217;s price falls, they might need to sell BTC.&nbsp;



The effect of an options expiry depends on the open interest for particular strike prices and how they relate to the current market price, Strijers said.&nbsp;



If a position has a strike price significantly different from the current price, it will likely expire worthless, lessening its impact on trading.&nbsp;



On the other hand, if the strike price is close to the current market price, it could attract more trading activity, potentially leading to increased price fluctuations and volatility, the Deribit executive added.



“The impact of an uneven distribution of Gamma amongst traders would have [previously] resulted in much more volatility as compared to what we have seen these days,” Strijers said. “Therefore we don&#8217;t anticipate strong market moves in the coming week.”&nbsp;



The consensus around September’s expiry is forecasted to have little effect on digital asset spot prices, according to other analysts Blockworks spoke with.



Le Shi, head of trading at Auros said lower volatility in crypto is affecting institutional interest, implying a stable crypto market is likely, especially when juxtaposed with other financial markets that offer higher returns.



“Lower implied volatilities are reflective of the market consensus that not much is expected to happen in the near term,” Shi said.



Markus Thielen, Head of Research and Strategy at Matrixport agreed, adding there existed waning interest in options trading, specifically the decline in premium prices for option sellers.



“While volatility tended to trade at a hefty premium, the decline in premium is now synonymous with picking up pennies in front of a steamroller, Thielen said. “The potential approval of a US-listed bitcoin ETF has added event risk to the mix that is tough to manage for option sellers.”



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Deribit quarterly bitcoin options to expire, but volatility impact should be minor

A federal judge in California denied a motion on Thursday to dismiss a case against key figures in Compound Labs and its associated entities, following allegations they violated financial regulations by selling unregistered securities in the form of COMP governance tokens.



Plaintiffs in the case, initially filed 13 months ago, argue those in control of Compound effectively acted as unregistered &#8220;sellers&#8221; of securities under their soliciting role.



&#8220;They assert one cause of action against a range of defendants for violation of sections 5 and 12(a) of the Securities Act of 1933,&#8221; according to a court filing in the US District Court of Northern California on Tuesday.&nbsp;



They’re also unhappy with the price of the tokens, which have since fallen significantly from a peak in May 2021, when it reached more than $850. COMP is currently trading at a little over $38, down more than 95% from its all-time high.



The individual defendants include Compound Labs&#8217; co-founders Robert Leshner and Geoffrey Hayes. Associated entities include Bain Capital Ventures, Polychain Academy, AH Capital Management, Paradigm Operations and Gauntlet Networks.



Collectively, these entities allegedly control a significant portion of the <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/comp">COMP</a> token voting power, per the filing. It’s alleged fewer than ten people control over 50% of COMP tokens and, therefore, have significant influence over the protocol’s governance.



Blockworks reached out to Leshner and Compound representatives but has yet to receive a response.



Compound was initially created by Hayes and Leshner in 2017 with its Mainnet launching a year later. The protocol allows users to lend and borrow crypto, relying on smart contracts to handle operations.



Each COMP token holder can suggest and vote on modifications to the protocol, including the way its reserves and treasury are managed. A single COMP token equates to one vote, purportedly allowing for democratic decision-making.&nbsp;



If a token holder chooses not to participate in voting personally, they can assign their voting rights to another holder wanting to be actively involved.



The court found that the plaintiffs had &#8220;plausibly alleged&#8221; that each defendant solicited the public to purchase COMP tokens, thereby denying the motion to dismiss the case. A case management conference is scheduled for Oct. 10.



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Securities lawsuit against Compound founders, investors to proceed

Bitmain has agreed to invest $53 million in embattled bitcoin miner Core Scientific alongside a new hosting agreement, as the sector grapples with historically low prices.



The Beijing-headquartered ASIC supplier will plow $23.1 million in cash into the mining company, with the remainder slated for Core Scientific shares, the companies revealed Thursday.



The agreement is contingent upon a year-end approval of a Chapter 11 reorganization plan for the mining firm. Bitmain’s hosting contract with Core Scientific is intended to back its mining operations, the companies said.



It includes the supply of 27,000 Bitmain S19J bitcoin mining servers, with a maximum <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/hashrate">hashrate</a> of 151Th/s, to Core Scientific. The servers are slated for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2023 and are expected to add 4.1 EX/s to Core Scientific&#8217;s self-mining hashrate, they said.&nbsp;



It comes as the mining sector stares down historically low hash prices — the expected revenue per petahash per second of hashing capability for a miner, according to the <a href="https://data.hashrateindex.com/chart/bitcoin-hashprice-index">Hashrate Index</a>.&nbsp;



Core Scientific says it operates more than 200,000 miners, 99% of which are Bitmain S19 models. The new hardware is expected to improve Core Scientific&#8217;s mining efficiency.



As of the end of August 2023, Core Scientific had a total energized hash rate of 22 EX/s per second, according to a statement. The two companies have also agreed to upgrade older Bitmain models hosted at Core Scientific&#8217;s facilities, aiming to further increase the company&#8217;s hashing power.



Core Scientific, currently in the throes of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-miner-core-scientific-to-file-bankruptcy-stock-tanks-30">bankruptcy proceedings</a>, is attempting to shore up its business after being caught up in the chaos of last year’s market rout.&nbsp;



CEO Adam Sullivan, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/core-scientific-new-ceo">recently hired in Augus</a>t, hopes to pull the company back on track and is anticipating an <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/core-scientific-new-ceo-2">exit of its bankruptcy</a> by year’s end — though no definitive timeframe has yet been given.



The Texas-based miner fell on hard times following the collapse of FTX which sent crypto prices reeling alongside a hike in operational costs, namely, rising electricity prices for crypto miners.



In a securities document dated Nov. 21, the company revealed it needed more cash to sustain operations through 2023 and expressed uncertainty about its capacity to secure financing or tap into capital markets.



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Core Scientific gets $53M from Bitmain in bid to re-energize bitcoin mining business

In the ongoing FTX case, Judge Lewis Kaplan accepted the US government’s motion to disallow testimony from seven individuals who Sam Bankman-Fried and his legal team believed could educate the court on the fallen crypto exchange’s procedures.



Attorneys representing the Department of Justice moved to throw out all of Bankman-Fried’s proposed witnesses in late August, and they have now gotten their way.



One desired witness for the defense — Lawrence Akka, an English barrister — was set to testify on FTX’s terms of service, stating that it “did not contain a declaration of trust over any fiat currency, but gave rise only to a contractual creditor-debtor relationship,” according to a Aug. 29 court filing from US attorneys.



Now, the court says that Akka’s testimony isn’t something that would help the jury understand FTX’s terms of service but rather that he’s simply offering “legal opinions as to the meaning of the contract terms at issue.”&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sam-bankman-fried-doj-discovery-testimonies">Government moves to toss seven testimonies in Sam Bankman-Fried case</a>



Therefore, his testimony wouldn’t qualify under the <a href="https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-1999-title28a-node246-article7-rule702&amp;num=0&amp;edition=1999#:~:text=If%20scientific%2C%20technical%2C%20or%20other,L.">US code’s Rule 702</a>, which states that if a witness’s expertise can assist in the jury’s understanding of matters of fact, that person can opine in the courtroom.



The defense also sought testimony from consultants Thomas Bishop and Joseph Pimbley and data analytics expert Brian Kim on topics relating to FTX’s financials, its software, and document metadata.&nbsp;



The judge denied all of their potential testimony on the grounds of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcrmp/rule_16#:~:text=of%20the%20Disclosure.-,The%20disclosure%20for%20each%20expert%20witness%20must%20contain%3A,the%20previous%2010%20years%3B%20and">Rule 16</a>, which ensures the government discloses certain evidence it plans to use during the trial. If <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/sam-bankman-fried">Bankman-Fried</a>’s attorneys believe that the witnesses can push back against government witnesses, then Bankman-Fried can file to allow certain witnesses to testify. However, the government may object to the filing.



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sbf-bail-decision">Bankman-Fried’s bail was revoked in early August</a> after the court said he engaged in witness tampering by allegedly leaking Caroline Ellison’s diary <a href="http://nytimes.com/2023/07/20/technology/ftx-caroline-ellison-bankman-fried.html">entry</a> to the New York Times. He’s now in jail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn awaiting trial, which begins on Oct. 3.



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Bankman-Fried’s expert witnesses can’t testify, judge says

Aztec has revealed a new testing environment for developers who want to build privacy-focused smart contract apps.



Joe Andrews, Aztec’s co-founder and head of product, told Blockworks that the Aztec Sandbox brings together software pieces that represent “a full implementation of the future execution environment that the Aztec rollout will have.”



Developers will have access to a private execution environment, or an RPC server, which can generate proofs.&nbsp;



This means developers can construct a transfer transaction that will create a zero-knowledge proof, which mutates the encrypted data, and change it in a way that can not be observed — proving to the network that a transaction is accurate without revealing the information.



According to Zac Williamson, co-founder and CEO of Aztec, there are three privacy categories when it comes to blockchains.



“You have user privacy, data privacy and code privacy,” Williamson explained. “User privacy is hiding the identity of the transaction center. Data privacy is hiding the information and encrypting the information that they are transacting with. Code privacy is hiding the actual knowledge of the contracts that they are communicating with.”



Williamson went on to note that Aztec is designed to achieve these privacy categories. This means that when a transaction is sent on the network, the only thing that will be visible from the observer&#8217;s perspective, is that the encrypted information would be added to the network state.&nbsp;



“All of this gets bundled together into an easy-to-use package that you can download as a developer, open up Visual Studio code, and start writing contracts on Aztec and test it against the Sandbox,” Andrews said.



Aztec’s major focus is building a platform for engineers who want to write smart contracts with strong privacy guarantees but lack the complicated mathematical know-how typically required.



“We’re creating a lot of patterns and designs from scratch, which has made our roadmap more complicated than other [layer-2s],” Williamson said.



The Sandbox is the first step on the development roadmap for Aztec.&nbsp;



The team is currently working toward a testnet launch with the goal of going live next year. Aztec’s execution environment, fee model, sequencers and provers are future points on the roadmap.



“We want to launch Aztec as a fully decentralized [layer-2],”&nbsp; Williamson said. “You can’t have identity on blockchains without strong user privacy guarantees.”



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Aztec advances privacy product roadmap with test environment launch

Andrew Thurman

A “routine” Binance account consolidation process sent gas fees on Ethereum soaring, prompting accusations of incompetence on Thursday.&nbsp;



At approximately 6 am ET, an address labeled Binance 14 received hundreds of incoming ether transactions. Per Etherscan, the process sent gas prices as high as 280 gwei — over twenty times more expensive than the 13 gwei at the time of writing. 



The activity briefly made the address one of the largest gas guzzlers on Ethereum, as the wallet was responsible for 83% of fees at the peak of the transfers. Top spenders tend to include the decentralized exchange Uniswap, various MEV bots, and layer-2 networks settling transactions to the base chain.


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="aligncenter"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6M72JeG1TyD9gcp0l1MsumSsNMXeJ5au8t8rPiecxwBZUWlQT8ZHJLNLJH9V5qM9wllDD05AfXeccn2TgOfT2gFEH9F3gGmgR9s3c-1jx649jT9IipIFbsBnOV5Cbwm4_Gy4VpRbXvKfJ1Ucn8E53l4" alt=""/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://etherscan.io/dashboards/gas-guzzler">Etherscan</a></figcaption></figure></div>


The <a href="https://etherscan.io/address/0x28c6c06298d514db089934071355e5743bf21d60#analytics-txfees">Binance 14</a> address has spent $842,000 in total gas fees on a 24-hour basis, and just $562 in the last three hours. Over the course of its existence, the address — which currently accounts for $250 million of Binance’s <a href="https://portfolio.nansen.ai/dashboard/binance">nearly</a> $56 billion in holdings — is responsible for $95 million in gas expenditure between both incoming and outgoing transfers. 



In a statement to Blockworks, a Binance spokesperson said, &#8220;Binance carried out a routine consolidation of [ether] <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/eth">ETH</a> to one of its wallets. Any impact to gas prices was unintentional but quickly resolved.&#8221;



Indeed, throughout its existence the Binance 14 address has seen a number of gas spend spikes, including one on Dec. 9, 2022 that led to an 880 ETH spend over a 24-hour period.&nbsp;



Binance was the target of ire on social media as a result of the account consolidation process, with many observers noting that if they had simply spread the transactions out over a longer period of time, the gas spike would have been significantly subdued.&nbsp;



As a result of what some <a href="https://twitter.com/SOLenjoyoor/status/1704810573928767644">labeled</a> as inefficient methodology, Binance ended up spending more on gas than they would have otherwise and made the network more expensive for others.&nbsp;



“Every interaction I have had with them screams of incompetence,” said Rotki app founder Lefteris Karapetsas of the transfers.



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Binance account consolidation sends Ethereum gas fees soaring

The Financial Conduct Authority gave crypto firms marketing to UK customers a “final warning” ahead of the financial promotion regime implementation.&nbsp;



The regime comes into effect on Oct. 3.&nbsp;



“All firms marketing crypto assets to UK consumers, including firms based overseas, must comply with this regime,” a letter from the FCA stated.&nbsp;



The FCA published a <a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/good-poor-practice/firms-preparations-cryptoasset-financial-promotions-regime#:~:text=and%20poor%20practice-,Firms'%20preparations%20to%20comply%20with%20the%20cryptoasset%20financial%20promotions%20regime,on%20good%20and%20poor%20practice&amp;text=Ahead%20of%20the%20cryptoasset%20financial,understand%20how%20prepared%20they%20were.">post</a> detailing good and bad practices on Sept. 9.



“It is up to consumers to decide whether they buy crypto assets, but they should do so based on fair and accurate information that helps them make effective investment decisions,” the FCA said. As part of the&nbsp;



The Sept. 21 <a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/correspondence/final-warning-cryptoasset-firms-marketing-consumers.pdf">letter</a> comes as the FCA expresses concern about the “poor engagement from many unregistered, overseas crypto asset firms who have UK customers…”



The letter also said that the firms “refused to engage with the FCA” despite efforts, and “only 24 firms responded to a survey that was sent to over 150 firms.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/uk-proposes-bringing-crypto-under-regulatory-eye">UK proposes bringing crypto under regulatory eye</a>



Once the regime is in place, unregistered firms caught violating the law could face “up to 2 years imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both.”



As <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/uk-fca-deadline-crypto-marketing-regulation">part of the new framework,</a> crypto companies are expected to make their marketing fair and accurately labeled with risk warnings. Campaigns that engage in incentive schemes are prohibited, such as marketing that uses a refer-a-friend bonus.



The regulations establish four legal avenues to market to UK customers, which include both qualifying for exemptions and regulatory approval.



“From this October, crypto firms must market to UK consumers clearly, fairly and honestly. And they must provide risk warnings people understand,” said Lucy Castledine, director of consumer investment, in a statement.



However, in early September, the regulator <a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-sets-expectations-ahead-incoming-crypto-marketing-rules">said</a> that there was a possibility that some firms could be given until Jan. 8 of next year “to introduce features that require greater technical development.” Firms are required to submit an application for flexibility, and they must be registered or authorized with the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/fca">FCA</a>.



Earlier this week, the former chair of the FCA <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/uk-fca-crypto-firms">alluded to politicians pushing for crypto</a> firms to enter the market and insinuated that the regulator should have been more cautious.



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FCA issues ‘final warning’ to crypto firms ahead of Oct. 3 marketing regulation rollout

Upland, a metaverse platform mapped to the real world, is launching an NFT fundraiser to help support an American nonprofit building playgrounds in neighborhoods that historically haven’t had access to them.&nbsp;



KABOOM! has built or renovated over 17,000 playspaces since its founding more than 25 years ago. According to Upland chief of staff Danny Brown Wolf, ending playspace inequity is a mission that resonated with users of the Upland metaverse.&nbsp;



“Our community members who are avid Uplanders brought in…KABOOM!,” Wolf said, adding that some of those members participate in real world fundraisers for the playground manufacturer.&nbsp;



Thanks to the community members, KABOOM! was able to get in touch with the Upland team so a fundraiser could be facilitated in the metaverse through in-game map assets.&nbsp;



Map assets in Upland equate to <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/nfts">NFTs</a>, and users can buy assets such as land, houses, apartments and even decorations for their virtual living spaces. 



So, in that same vein, Upland is selling an NFT playground collection with 1800 NFTs, the proceeds of which will be going to KABOOM! Upland takes a 10% transaction fee.



The minting process, visible to all metaverse participants through an in-game representation of a factory churning out the playgrounds, will be underway on Thursday. The first sales will begin on Friday.



The collection was designed by an Uplander who is a graphic artist. It features five different playgrounds that, once bought by a user, can be put in their virtual backyard, Wolf said.&nbsp;



This isn&#8217;t Upland&#8217;s first charitable endeavor. In December 2022, Upland launched a similarly-styled fundraising campaign, this time with UNICEF Brazil to fund its “youth program teaching metaverse and Web3 skills to young adults who wish to work in the industry,” according to Wolf.



This sale featured ornaments and winter gnomes that people could buy to adorn their virtual homes for winter — just like in the real world, Upland has seasons.&nbsp;



Leveraging its established relationship with UNICEF, Upland initiated a sale of items in February to aid the victims of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkey and Syria.



Both sales of these winter decorations raised a combined $89,692, Wolf told Blockworks.&nbsp;



Wolf views the UNICEF fundraiser, as well as Upland&#8217;s involvement in other metaverse funding projects, as testament to the medium&#8217;s validity and a confirmation of its future business model.



Wolf said that “just like every impact organization has a social media team that does GoFundMe campaigns on Facebook,” she wants to see the same use case play out in a broader sense in the metaverse.



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Upland to sell NFTs to raise money for equitable playground access

The upcoming bitcoin halving could be a boon for the share price of payment company Block, as Berenberg Capital Markets analysts argued bitcoin’s impact on the stock is more than it should be.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



The correlation between Block shares and the price of bitcoin — standing at 0.61 — “appears to be a case in which investors’ perception of the impact of bitcoin on the company’s prospects matters more than the reality,” the analysts said in a Wednesday research note.



A potential price boost to <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/btc">bitcoin</a> with the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-halving-a-year-out">upcoming halving set for April 2024</a> — an event when rewards offered to bitcoin miners are cut in half — could support Block’s stock price, the note adds.



History would suggest bitcoin’s price could spike in the upcoming halving’s aftermath, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/anniversary-of-2016-btc-halving">industry watchers have said</a>. Matt Lason, chief investment officer at crypto hedge fund Globe 3 Capital, told Blockworks in July that such events “serve as a great reminder for everyone of the power of bitcoin’s monetary policy and the true value of scarcity in an inflationary world.”



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/block">Block</a> — formerly known as Square — was founded by <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/jack-dorsey">Jack Dorsey</a> and Jim McKelvey in 2009. Square remains the name of its payments platform for businesses, while mobile payment service Cash App is another one of its main offerings.&nbsp;



The company’s stock price was $45.39 at 1 pm ET Thursday — down about 30% year to date. Berenberg’s price target for Block shares is $75.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A questionable correlation?</h2>



Investors have used stock in Block as a means of gaining bitcoin exposure since the company announced in November 2017 that it would facilitate BTC trading for customers, according to Berenberg analyst Mark Palmer.



“There are more equities that provide that kind of exposure now, but Block stands out because of its high profile and large market capitalization,” Palmer told Blockworks.



Stock prices with a correlation to bitcoin higher than Block’s 0.61 correlation include Coinbase and MicroStrategy — at 0.93 and 0.90, respectively, he added.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/microstrategy-bitcoin-buying?utm_source=CryptoNews&amp;utm_medium=app">Will MicroStrategy ever stop buying bitcoin?</a>



Block officially launched bitcoin trading on Cash App in 2018. The total sale amount of bitcoin sold to customers of the mobile payment service during this year’s second quarter <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/block-earnings-cash-app-bitcoin">jumped 34% year over year to $2.39 billion</a>.



The company invested $50 million in <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/bitcoin">bitcoin</a> during the final quarter of 2020 and an additional $170 million in the crypto asset during the first three months of 2021. The fair value of the company’s bitcoin investment was $245 million, as of June 30.&nbsp;



Block’s affiliates include Spiral, an independent team focused on open-source work around the Bitcoin blockchain and TBD, a builder of decentralized platforms, protocols and tools.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Still, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/cash-app">Cash App</a> reported just $44 million in gross profit from bitcoin transactions in the second quarter — a fraction of its total gross profit was $968 million in the three-month span.&nbsp;



The bitcoin that Block held on its balance sheet at the mid-year point — when adjusted for fair market value — represented 0.79% of its total assets, Berenberg analysts said.



“The impact of bitcoin on Block’s operating performance is not all that significant at this point,” the Wednesday Berenberg note states.



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Bitcoin, Block shares more correlated than they should be: Berenberg

Darren Kleine

“It’s a wild time to be building in crypto,” says Josh Cornelius. “The macro environment is obviously horrible. Twitter sentiment is horrible. NFT volume is horrible.”



“But then you look at some of these new tech stacks that are emerging — and it&#8217;s just such an exciting time to actually be building in consumer crypto.”



Speaking on the On the Other Side podcast (<a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/2l4CfSyfXhfRNU9TuWXuQq">Spotify</a>/<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/90-the-next-wave-of-consumer-crypto-w-seed-club/id1570685120?i=1000628720852">Apple</a>), the Seed Club incubator partner explains that the program is focused on supporting the development of consumer-facing Web3 apps. “We ended up selecting 10 [projects], all pushing on interesting and weird edges of consumer crypto.”



These aren’t your typical DeFi or DAO-tooling projects, Cornelius insists, saying the new projects are focused on the consumer experience “through and through.”



As most crypto investors fled to the <a href="http://blockworks.co/news/quicknode-blockchain-development-platform">relative safety of building infrastructure </a>during recent <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitcoin-short-term-apathy">bearish conditions</a>, Seed Club founder Jess Sloss says “the world never looked better for building consumer experiences in crypto.”



“The infrastructure had never been better.”



“What we&#8217;re hearing from builders,” Sloss continues, “is that they had the tools to go do interesting things, but that maybe the interest from the money wasn&#8217;t quite there.” Sloss says he observed a “mismatch” between builders and money, giving Seed Club the opportunity to “step in.”&nbsp;



“We have deep belief in this stuff. And we believe we can find some incredible teams who are pushing it at new and novel edges.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Feels nothing like Web2</h2>



The Seed Club incubator program’s most recent cohort saw nearly 300 applications, from which they chose 10 to support, Sloss explains. “What&#8217;s interesting from that experience is, you get to see a wide selection of the visions people have out there in the space.”



“We have 10 teams of incredible builders with big visions and over the last two and a half months, we&#8217;ve seen them just run at it very, very hard,” Sloss says, adding that he’s excited to “open the doors and let other people see what we’ve been seeing for the last few months.”



Sloss explains that the new projects will tap into “new potential mechanisms for value creation that exist in the <a href="http://blockworks.co/tag/web3">Web3</a> space.”



“We&#8217;ll see which ones are enduring and create lasting value. But at the very least, we&#8217;re running at new, interesting opportunities rather than the sort of the <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/investors-guide-blockchain-gaming">very thin games</a> that exist today.”



Cornelius says the current cohort of Seed Club’s developing projects consist of “novel consumer experiences that feel nothing…like Web2.”



“We have a project called Sofamon, which is hard to describe,” he says. The app is a browser extension that acts as a wallet interface, he explains. “It&#8217;s this cute little bunny that reacts to all of your on-chain interactions. If a friend sends you tokens, if something happens in your wallet, it reacts.”



“Your friend can jump onto your screen and, you know, slap you if you did something dumb on-chain. They&#8217;re building this completely new social layer to on-chain experiences.”



Cornelius mentions a few other projects that focus on building a “lifestyle culture layer” for IRL experiences and “ephemeral art installations” that enrich the experience and “make it fun to be there.”



Sloss then details another project dubbed SenSpace. “They&#8217;re being very methodical in building their core community of creators,” he says. “They’re not <a href="http://blockworks.co/news/magic-eden-nfts">running at the 10K PFP</a>, not running at the speculation side, but using these <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/nfts">NFTs</a> as a way of really bringing those creators into this world of SenSpace.”



“Each entity is a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/mastering-nfts">soulbound token</a>, but more importantly, each one is a character and a world that is designed specifically for that creator.”



Sloss explains that the tokens act as a means to encourage buy-in to the community, where the creators then collaborate with others in the network. “You start to see the compounding effects of that, even over the last two months that we&#8217;ve been working with the team.”



<iframe loading="lazy" frameborder="0" height="200" scrolling="no" src="https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=BWG7692827018" width="100%"></iframe>







It’s an implementation of NFT technology where the “asset ties a group of people together,” Sloss says, “but speculation isn&#8217;t the core incentive.”



“It&#8217;s going to lead to new, interesting opportunities — and we&#8217;re seeing the early stages of that already.”



“At the core,” Sloss says, “is this novelty around <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/real-world-assets-empire-buzzwords-defi">what a token can be used for</a> and how it can bring people together, coordinate people and create value together.”



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