Data availability (DA) blockchain startup Avail announced on Thursday that it will interface with five significant layer-2 networks in the Ethereum ecosystem. These chains consist of zkSync, Polygon, StarkWare, Arbitrum, and Optimism. Users will have the option to use Avail for data availability, which is a service that these “rollup networks” require in order to

Ethereum verification process Raising $20 million in Series A funding, Aligned Layer aims to provide faster and less expensive zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs on the second-largest blockchain globally. Leading the fundraising effort was Hack VC, with support from DAO5, L2Iterative, NomadCapital_io, FinalityCap, Symbolic VC, and Theta Capital. ZK proofs are protocols wherein a party can confirm

U.S. District Judge Frederic Block sentenced Jabara Igbara, also known as “Jay Mazini,” who purported to be a crypto millionaire on Instagram, to seven years in prison for wire fraud and money laundering. In addition, Igbara must forfeit $10 million as part of the penalty. According to the United States Attorney’s Office, Igbara, 28, committed

Established by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Block is a payments startup that is developing its own bitcoin (BTC) mining system in an effort to gain traction in the competitive cryptocurrency mining market, the company announced on Tuesday.After working on the three-nanometer mining chip since April 2023, the company—previously known as Square—announced in a blog post that it had finished development. A top-tier international semiconductor foundry is working on the complete design, as per the article. Additionally, Block stated that it has chosen to construct a comprehensive bitcoin mining system, which would include system design, after consulting with community members regarding the industry’s pain issues.“To identify the challenges faced by mining operators, we’ve spent a significant amount of time talking to a wide variety of bitcoin miners,” the post stated.Based on these discoveries and in line with our objective of promoting mining decentralization, we intend to provide both a stand-alone mining chip and a comprehensive mining system of our own creation. Few companies dominate the bitcoin mining sector, with Beijing-based miner Bitmain reportedly holding about 60% of the market, according to CoinShares estimates. “There are few serious competitors, which indicates significant potential for disruption,” said James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares. Block announced the completion of a five-nanometer bitcoin mining chip prototype in May 2023, which is the same technology that Bitmain’s S21 mining machine uses. “This leads us to believe that 3nm

A statement on Wednesday stated that retail stores will be able to automatically convert a portion of their daily sales into bitcoin (BTC) thanks to a partnership between Jack Dorsey’s fintech company Block (SQ), formerly known as Square, and two of its largest platforms, the peer-to-peer payments app Cash App and the merchant services system Square.Through the use of a specialized Cash App account set up to collect 1% to 10% of their store’s sales, qualifying Square users will have access to a tool called Bitcoin Conversions. From there, the service will convert the sales into Bitcoin, which the users can hold, sell, or transfer “as they see fit.”Until it is fully rolled out to Square users in the upcoming months, the service will only be available to sole proprietors or LLCs with one principal. According to reports, Block surveyed Square vendors as part of a market research project and discovered a need for a service similar to Bitcoin Conversions.According to the company’s news statement, a lot of retailers “are interested in bitcoin and believe it presents a wide range of use cases, such as long term savings and diversifying their businesses’ holdings.” “Many sellers have told us they want an easy way to access bitcoin and diversify their holdings, so we tapped into Block’s ecosystem to deliver a solution for them. Bitcoin Conversions automates the process for sellers while still giving them flexibility and control over how they manage their bitcoin,” Bitcoin Product Lead at

The native HBAR token of Hedera had a spike of nearly 107% on Tuesday before plunging 25% due to investor speculation that BlackRock was involved in a fund tokenization initiative on the Hedera blockchain. Hedera said on Tuesday that, in partnership with Archax, BlackRock’s ICS U.S. Treasury money market fund had been tokenized on the

The stablecoin provider Tether has declared that it will shut down wallets that use USDT to circumvent sanctions on Venezuela’s oil exports. The move was prompted by Reuters’ story that PDVSA, the state-run oil corporation of Venezuela, was using more tether following the reimposition of sanctions on oil exports by the United States. In December,

According to a recent release, the Central Bank of Nigeria ordered financial institutions to identify individuals or businesses using Bybit, KuCoin, OKX, and Binance for transactions on Tuesday. The public, Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFls), Other Financial Institutions (OFIs), Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), and other financial institutions (OFIs) were all reminded in the letter that it

Users of cryptocurrency typically lose their money when they misplace their private keys or are conned out of their coins by a con artist.Their cryptocurrency is typically gone permanently. However, there is still hope, according to a father-and-son partnership based in New Hampshire.Throughout the course of their careers, they assert to have recovered cryptocurrency valued at over $6 million.Crypto Asset Recovery is a service that Chris and Charles Brooks provide to assist cryptocurrency customers in recovering lost wallets.They also offer victims of cryptocurrency theft fraud tracking services. About 70% of the clients of Charles Brooks and Chris Brooks come to them after losing their Bitcoin wallet password, according to Chris Brooks, Charles Brooks’ father, in an interview with Cointelegraph.Sometimes these users don’t have backups of their seed words, which makes it hard to retrieve their wallets without a professional’s assistance if they lose their password. “The BIP39 recovery seed [generated by most modern wallets], was only proposed in 2013 and it didn’t start getting wide adoption until 2015, and so, for folks who have older wallets, that’s not even an option for them,” he stated. Even if a wallet is fairly new, there is still a “handful

A new prime brokerage service has been launched by cryptocurrency trading company FalconX, enabling institutions to trade on exchanges while keeping their money in controlled, bankruptcy-remote custody. Post-trade settlement, institutional-grade credit, and portfolio margining are also included in FalconX’s Prime Connect, which was revealed on Tuesday, according to a recent press release from the business.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wants to urge a New York judge to punish the business that created the XRP Ledger blockchain around $2 billion. Ripple Labs filed an opposition to this plan on Monday. “The SEC should be denied an injunction, disgorgement, and pre-judgment interest, and a civil penalty of no more

According to Reuters, PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil corporation, is considering using Tether (USDT) as a way around fresh penalties imposed by the US on it.According to Reuters, PDVSA is attempting to increase its use of USDT as a safeguard against having its foreign bank accounts seized. The biggest stablecoin based on the dollar in the

A number of high-profile scandals and controversies that have seriously damaged consumer confidence have made a rebranding in the bitcoin space necessary. Several well-known cryptocurrency businesses collapsed in 2022, leaving investors with large losses and raising concerns about the industry’s overall stability and security. FTX’s demise, which was mostly caused by liquidity problems, and the

A $1 million pre-seed financing round has been secured by Egypt-based HRtech startup Wamda Bluworks in order to grow its staff and enhance its product. The investment round was led by Khawarizmi Ventures and included participation from Camel Ventures, Acasia Ventures, and other angel investors. This development is a reaction to the demand for improvement,

The first cryptocurrency exchange to expose retail clients to tokenized US Treasury bills is Woo X, and they are proud of it. RWA Earn Vaults, named after real-world assets, is a yield-bearing product that was revealed on Monday. It was developed in collaboration with OpenTrade, an institutional tokenization platform based in London. Willy Chuang, the

According to a Friday announcement, Thai authorities have chosen to restrict “unauthorised” cryptocurrency sites in an effort to improve the effectiveness of law enforcement in combating internet crime. The Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand was directed to furnish the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society with information about unapproved digital asset service providers in

Beyond the “4/20” halving date, Bitcoin is providing some timeless memes this week.Market watchers are rejoicing over a halving that has been “almost too perfect” because to the popularity of the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Even though the BTC market action is solidly sideways following this halving, some people seem to believe that everything was meant to be.Eric Balchunas, a devoted ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, shared an interesting coincidence regarding halving day in a post on X (previously Twitter).The most significant occurrence occurred on April 20 (also known as “4/20,” a significant meme date in and of itself), as the biggest Bitcoin ETF in the US completed 69 days of nonstop inflows.“It’s a bit too idealistic,” Balchunas said. Since reaching their peak in March, the inflows into Bitcoin ETFs have significantly slowed.Even so, there hasn’t been a single day of withdrawals from BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which is the largest ETF in terms of assets under management.The most recent data on ETF flows, which comes from investing firms based in the UK like Farside, indicates that momentum may have started to pick up again at the end of last week.IBIT received somewhat less than $30 million on April 19, whilst Fidelity Investments’ second-largest ETF managed close to $55 million. Jim Bianco, the founder of the macro analysis company Biacno analysis, called the first-quarter allocation statistics a “disappointment.”In an X post comparing the gains made by ETF investors to the present BTC price action, he continued, “Unrealized gains are shrinking fast.” Balchunas countered by stating that asset managers would handle the goods like “hot sauce.”He stated in an X forum that “IBIT now has about 60 holders reported, but they only account for a tiny 0.4% of total shares out.” “Shows that most of the bites are nibbles but there are a LOT of fish. This in tune with the high daily # of trades as well and our thesis that this is gonna be used like hot sauce for 60/40 ppl, just gonna add a little bit.”

According to recent favourable inflows in the U.S. Bitcoin ETF market, there is an increasing demand for ETFs, which is reflected in the prediction. Wealth management companies will own more Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) than they did a year ago, according to Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley. As the halving is predicted to occur, the prediction

It’s premature to get thrilled, according to Bloomberg ETF expert Eric Balchunas, even though Grayscale’s new Mini Bitcoin ETF will be around ten times less expensive than GBTC’s costs. The most affordable choice among the authorised spot Bitcoin ETFs is Grayscale Investments’ planned “mini” version of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF), which

Victory Securities has revealed its costs for Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, even though the Hong Kong SFC hasn’t yet released an approved list of issuers. Following the recent licencing of cryptocurrency ETF products within the region, Hong Kong-based investment firm Victory Securities apparently revealed its planned fees to investors for Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds

Even among seasoned blockchain developers who detest the digital tokens that can be created on the platform, attention was drawn to the launch of prominent Bitcoin builder Casey Rodamor’s latest creation, Runes, even though this was the most anticipated Bitcoin halving to date (at least based on Google search history). The Ordinals protocol, which enables

According to a pro forma financials in its most recent filing, Bitcoin ETF provider Grayscale has disclosed some information on its spin-off fund, the Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC), including a more appealing 0.15% fee than the uplisted mothership GBTC product. An example of how much Bitcoin (BTC) Grayscale will donate to the mini fund is

Chukwuka Ikuazom, the attorney for Gambaryan, protested, citing Nigerian law and claiming he couldn’t enter a plea until Binance, the main defendant, was served. The tax evasion trial of cryptocurrency exchange Binance and two of its executives in a Nigerian court has been postponed until May 17. The reason for the delay was that the

Dr. Bosun Tijani, the minister of communications, disclosed that 21st Century Technologies and Galaxy Backbone are working together to accelerate the advancement of important artificial intelligence projects for the country. In an effort to establish Nigeria as a pioneer in the continent’s artificial intelligence (AI) development, the government of that nation has introduced Nigeria’s first

The collaboration seeks to improve commercial relations while guaranteeing the safe, secure, transparent, and reliable application of AI. In order to investigate possible collaboration opportunities, the United States of America (U.S.A.) and Nigeria are prepared to have talks about the digital economy, cutting-edge technology, and the development of artificial intelligence (AI). This information was disclosed

Community leaders who attended the event were shocked by the amount of attendees who persisted, even in the face of challenges faced by members of the crypto community who had flown to the United Arab Emirates for the Token2049 event.Roadblocks and other difficulties that may have caused many individuals to simply give up and leave the nation were presented to the delegates on April 18.Leaders in the field who were due to speak with Cointelegraph were stranded in several airports and were forced to return due to the circumstances. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino had to wait an extra two hours in the sky because the plane was unable to land due to the storm. “I was quite lucky because I only spent two more hours in the sky,” said Ardoino. Nonetheless, Ardoino expressed gratitude for the kind of individuals in the crypto world after observing the sheer number of attendees. He remarked “It’s a good sign that this industry is made by people

Quests and airdrops are combined into a loyalty programme on the new site. Exchange of cryptocurrency For web3 users, Binance has introduced an early access incentive and rewards programme with quests and airdrops. The new programme, called “Megadrop,” is a platform for token launches where users, according to a Binance blog post, “can subscribe BNB

Following Justin Sun’s attempt last month to have the lawsuit dismissed on the grounds that the regulator lacked jurisdiction, the SEC filed an updated lawsuit against Sun. The US Securities and Exchange Commission has restructured its case against Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, alleging that he has “travelled extensively” throughout the nation, granting the