This round of funding (series A) is partly led by crypto investment fund Pantera Capital, but also includes Mayfield, Gaingels, Alchemy Ventures, Redbeard Ventures, Polygon and CoinGecko to name a few.

Funding used to support the long-term development of the Web3 platform

Launched in 2018 by Matthew Gould and Bogdan Goussiev, Unstoppable Domains is a platform that provides NFT domains that allow users to own their own digital identity. These NFT domains can be used to replace long crypto wallet addresses, website URLs, or as web usernames3.

“For too long, companies have controlled people’s digital identities, and Unstoppable Domains puts that power back in the hands of people.

Today, the platform has nearly 300 partners and has registered over 2.5 million domains since its launch.

According to the statement released on Tuesday, the unicorn Unstoppable Domains will use the new capital to expand its range of decentralised products and services, integrate new partners, while supporting the long-term development of its platform.

“Our main problem that we’re trying to solve – which is creating a user-owned digital identity for everyone on the Internet – requires a lot of pieces to come together, and that’s what we’re going to focus on over the next few years.”

The San Francisco, US-based company justified the timing of the fundraising by explaining that users are finally beginning to open their eyes to Web3 and the opportunities this growing sector offers: […] Today, people have begun to understand the promise of Web3 and how NFTs can empower people.

The article Crypto: Unstoppable Domains achieves unicorn status appeared first on Coin Academy.

The BAYC collection is one of the most popular NFT projects in the world. Indeed, even after a sharp drop in its floor, the minimum price to acquire a BAYC is around $100,000. In fact, the majority of people interested in the collection cannot enter the community because of the high economic barrier.

Kucoin is not satisfied with this situation and wants to offer a unique opportunity to its users to join the very selective club of BAYC holders. To this end, Kucoin introduces its new system: the sale of fractional NFTs.

Kucoin unveils its first fractional NFT project: HiBAYC

This split is relatively simple. In practical terms, Kucoin imagines a system in which 1 BAYC is equal to 1,000,000 hiBAYC. This system effectively allows modest users to invest in a BAYC without necessarily owning the whole.

In this first version of fractional NFTs, Kucoin offers for sale 2 million hiBAYC (ERC-20 tokens), which is the equivalent of 2 BAYC. The two copies chosen by Kucoin are BAYC #5066 and BAYC #8669.

Each hiBAYC will have a selling price of USDT 0.13, but a user will not be able to acquire more than 200,000 hiBAYC. In fact, Kucoin’s intention seems to be to create a community experience by avoiding that one player gets the majority of the hiBAYCs offered for sale.

Participation in the auction will be conditional on prior registration from Wednesday 27 July to Friday 29 July. Once this period has ended, registered users will be able to access the trading area specially designed for this new service to start trading the HIBAYC/USDT pair. This will be a flash sale where speed will be of the essence in order to get a piece of the pie.

Finally, Kucoin is collaborating with Fracton, a protocol specialising in NFT liquidity infrastructure, to launch a Learn to Earn programme in which users will be able to prove their NFT knowledge. The winners will share a prize pool of 250,000 hiBAYC.

Kucoin is optimistic that the project will succeed

Kucoin is confident that the sale will be successful. Firstly, the platform considers that the low price of hiBAYC will have a positive influence on the popularity of the process since “everyone will be able to participate in one of the most popular investments of the moment”.

Moreover, the availability of these hiBAYC tokens on the Kucoin platform should ensure, according to the company, significant liquidity for buying and selling in the long term.

It also emphasises the security and simplicity of the process, as the entire buying and selling process can be done from one’s trading account. Nevertheless, this centralised experience could also be a major obstacle for a part of the community that is strongly attached to the decentralisation of the market.

The success of this initiative could lead to a recurrence of these sales by popular trading platforms that are showing a continued interest in the NFT sector.

The article NFT: Kucoin sells 2 BAYC in split NFT format appeared first on Coin Academy.

The escalation of tensions between the United States and Iran has accelerated in recent years, particularly under President Donald Trump. Indeed, the latter reinstated violent economic sanctions against Iran back in 2018. This decision was directly followed by several violations of the Vienna Agreement by the Islamic Republic of Iran, resulting in a new period of instability between the two powers.

Therefore, the above-mentioned economic sanctions commit any US company to cease its activities on Iranian territory to contribute to the severity of the sanctions. In concrete terms, these sanctions, which have been in place since 1979, prohibit the export of goods or services to persons or entities in the country.

In this context, Kraken, an American crypto-currency exchange valued at $11 billion, would have violated these sanctions by allowing Iranian nationals to use its platform. As a result, non-compliance with the enforcement measures put in place by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) could have significant consequences for the company.

Federal investigation opened against Kraken for its links with Iran

Specifically, Kraken is suspected of violating US sanctions by allowing Iranian users to buy and sell crypto-currencies according to five people close to the company or the investigation. The latter wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the company.

According to them, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control should fine Kraken for this activity. In fact, last year the company was fined $1.25 million for deploying an unauthorised trading service.

With the recent collapse of the crypto-currency market and its recent history with the US regulator, it is no wonder that Kraken is under a lot of scrutiny. Furthermore, since the start of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, crypto currencies have come under a lot of scrutiny as they are suspected of enabling the circumvention of state economic sanctions. Even if these assumptions turn out to be false, it is undeniable that crypto-currencies are currently perceived as a threat to their sovereignty by governments.

According to the New York Times, which had access to internal Kraken documents, a document on the company’s customers was published on the company’s Slack feed. The company reportedly lists 1,522 Iranian users, 149 Syrian users, and 83 Cuban users. Iran, Syria and Cuba are all subject to US economic sanctions.

Kraken appears to be an undisciplined company in terms of regulation

For several years, Kraken has appeared to be a company particularly hostile to compliance with existing regulations. Indeed, as early as 2018, the New York Attorney General’s office had asked Kraken and 12 other crypto-currency exchanges to answer a questionnaire about their operations, but Kraken had refused to answer.

Then, as early as 2019, doubts had arisen about Kraken’s activities when a former employee, Nathan Peter Runyon, had accused the company of generating revenue from users living in countries subject to economic sanctions. He had warned a company executive about these activities. Earlier in the year, Kraken resisted strong pressure to close the accounts of Russian residents on its platform.

Finally, in a 2019 internal company conversation, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell explained that he would consider breaking the law if the benefits of non-compliance outweighed the fines.

Marco Santori, Kraken’s general counsel, said that “the company does not comment on discussions with regulators” while a US Treasury spokesperson said that “the agency does not confirm or comment on potential or ongoing investigations, but is committed to enforcing sanctions that protect US national security”.

The article Crypto: Kraken under federal investigation in the US appeared first on Coin Academy.

This is not surprising when you put into perspective SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s recent comments about the industry. Concerned about the growth of the trading activities of these platforms, he strongly urged them to increase their efforts to protect small investors.

Coinbase has recently stood out for its strong crypto-currency listing activity. Many new crypto currencies have appeared on the exchange platform resulting in Coinbase being put on the SEC’s radar.

For example, in its first quarter earnings report, the company said it “received subpoenas from the SEC for documents and information about certain customer programs, operations and planned future products, including the company’s stablecoin and yield generating products.”

These revelations provide further insight into the allegations against the US giant.

Coinbase indicted by the SEC

This indictment remains unofficial, but several elements point to an official announcement in the coming weeks. Three people familiar with the case brought out the information.

According to them, the SEC’s investigation aims to determine whether Coinbase unduly allowed American investors to buy and trade digital assets that should have been registered as unsecured securities. The US company provides its users with more than 150 different assets, making its platform extremely popular.

The debate about the legal status of crypto-currencies is not new. For several years, Ripple has been fighting with the SEC to categorise XRP, while a class action lawsuit could be launched against Yuga Labs regarding the qualification given to BAYC.

This investigation is critical as it could result in Coinbase being required to register as an exchange with the SEC. Such a procedure entails high economic and human costs.

Coinbase denies issuing unsecured securities

The SEC’s ideology regarding the legal qualification of crypto-currencies has been similar for several years. Specifically, it believes that a large portion should be considered securities and should require platforms to register with the institution.

Through a particularly scathing blog post, whose equivocal title “Coinbase does not list unsecured securities. End of story’ leaves no room for doubt, the company is defending itself from these accusations.

Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s General Counsel, explains that “the rigorous due diligence process – a process that the SEC has already reviewed – keeps unsecured securities off the platform, and we look forward to discussing this with the SEC.

This audit takes into account the famous “Howey test” used by the SEC to determine whether a token falls into the category of security token under the Securities Exchange Act of 1933.

The company goes even further by officially asking the SEC to provide a coherent and readable framework for crypto-currencies. It considers that this test does not effectively analyse a crypto currency and that the institution should unveil new rules on the matter.

Nevertheless, this defence did not prevent Coinbase’s share price from falling by 4.8% at the opening of the stock market following these revelations. In any case, it would be particularly healthy for the market if the SEC finally took a position on the issue to avoid FUD and investor concerns.

The article Crypto: Coinbase in the SEC’s sights? appeared first on Coin Academy.

The bill is sponsored by two senators. They are Pat Toomey and Kyrsten Sinema. Called the Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act (VCTFA), they introduced it to Congress earlier this week. In fact, the VCTFA is not new. The purpose of the legislation is to strengthen the legitimacy of cryptocurrencies in the digital economy. It also aims to expand the use of cryptocurrencies for payments in the country. In other words, this text is intended to encourage and favour cryptos, while providing a clear and precise framework for them.

Recall that it contains to date a provision similar to that presented by the senators. Except that this one involves a higher threshold. Specifically, the first bill in this sense provided to exclude from gross income (for income tax, “IR”) the gains from the sale of cryptocurrencies, and this in the limit of $200 dollars.

Crypto taxation: A reporting exemption for small amounts in the US?

At the same time, the de minimis exemption would exempt investors from reporting their small transactions. This is less burdensome and burdensome for consumers. Currently, US law requires them to report gains made on the value of crypto they spend. It would be applicable to crypto transactions – cryptos only. Because the text comes to expressly exclude fiat – crypto transactions. In addition, “all sales or exchanges that are part of the same transaction (or series of related transactions) are treated as a single sale or exchange.” Another advantage is that the $50 threshold could be adjusted in times of inflation.

One of the senators sponsoring the bill states:

“While digital currencies have the potential to become an ordinary part of Americans’ daily lives, our current tax code stands in the way.”

Politicians are expected to decide by the end of August. Further legislation on cryptocurrencies is also expected.

The article Regulation: Is the US moving towards softer crypto taxation? appeared first on Coin Academy.

The Series A funding was led by FTX Ventures (the venture capital arm of FTX) and Jump Crypto, and supported by crypto industry giants such as Apollo, Griffin Gaming Partners, Franklin Templeton, Circle Ventures, Superscrypt, the a16z fund and Multicoin Capital.

Aptos Labs – A blockchain that wants to become THE trusted foundation of the Web3 ecosystem

In concrete terms, Aptos Labs is a layer 1 blockchain that promises scalability of more than 100,000 transactions per second. Furthermore, Aptos is based on the “Move” programming language of Mark Zuckerberg’s failed Diem project. According to them, this would make “transactions cheaper and more efficient”.

“We have known for some time that due to issues such as outages and downtime, current blockchains are not suitable for the mass adoption of Web3” […] “That’s why we are building a blockchain to be the reliable foundation for Web3 that allows users around the world to enjoy the benefits of decentralisation.”

Aptos is now coming out of a long test phase of almost 7 months where its technology has been put to the test. During this period, Aptos organised numerous hackathons, reached 20,000 operational nodes, and launched several incentive tests.

According to the statement, the new capital will be used to support the long-term development of blockchain and its applications, including the recruitment of new staff:

“We look forward to continuing to build our team, providing a secure, scalable and reliable foundation for Web3 and creating a high-performance, scalable blockchain that powers our rapidly evolving ecosystem.” – According to the Aptos statement

In fact, this round of funding comes a few months after an initial $200 million funding in March 2022, bringing the valuation of this round to $350 million. It would seem that the initial results brought by Aptos have convinced many crypto companies to pull out their wallets to support the new blockchain in its decentralised adventure.

The article Crypto: Blockchain company Aptos Labs raises $150 million appeared first on Coin Academy.

Polygon is a layer 2 platform that allows Ethereum-based applications to solve problems such as slow transaction processing and high fees, while taking advantage of Ethereum’s security. In addition, the protocol has enabled it to solve its scalability problems.

In fact, the project has been known for a year already. It was first presented by Mihailo Bjelic, co-founder and CEO of Polygon, at the EthCC in Paris in July 2021.

At that time, the team in charge of developing it assured that it would be designed to “work effortlessly with all smart contracts”. The developers are very enthusiastic and consider that we are facing a real revolution. It is true that initially industry specialists thought that such technology would not arrive for years.

Mihailo Bjelic says:

“The Holy Grail of Web3 infrastructure should have three major properties: scalability, security and Ethereum compatibility. Until now, it has not been possible in practice to offer all these properties at once. The key promises of Polygon zkEVM include a significant reduction in the current costs of the Ethereum Layer 1 network – around 90%, by the team’s estimate – as well as a dramatic increase in throughput capacity, while inheriting the security of the Ethereum blockchain.”

Polygon zkEVM, the Ethereum compatible layer 2

The announcement is shared in a twitter thread on the official Polygon Matic account as well as in a press release. Some details are revealed.

Polygon zkEVM has multiple advantages. Indeed, it is fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) environment. Thanks to this, it is now possible to integrate all native Ethereum decentralised applications (DApps), without exception. In other words, any smart contract that can be used on Ethereum will be used on Polygon zkEVM. But that’s not all, because all Ethereum tools (MetaMask) will also be compatible.

At the same time, throughput will be higher than at present and charges will be reduced.

“It’s like using Ethereum, but with the revolutionary power of ZK technology.”

Polygon promises to release new documentation about it very soon to clarify the details. In the meantime, it is only possible to view its basic architecture to get an “idea of how it works”.

The article Crypto: Polygon launches its first zkEVM Layer 2 network appeared first on Coin Academy.

This information comes directly from our colleagues at CoinDesk who revealed the information yesterday. At first, the French bank refused to comment on this possibility, leaving doubt as to the veracity of this information. Nevertheless, three people directly linked to the launch of this new service have confirmed the information.

Thus, this rumour should quickly become a press release. It is likely that the information was leaked to the press on purpose to gauge the reaction of the community, but also to receive feedback before the official launch of the service.

BNP Paribas partners with Metaco to launch its cryptocurrency custody service

The launch of a custody solution requires the involvement of domain experts in the creation of the project. BNP Paribas has therefore teamed up with a Swiss company specialising in the field, called Metaco. The latter has also remained silent in the face of the rumour, despite the many requests it has received.

Metaco is a company specialising in crypto-currency management, mainly for institutional investors. Recently, the company distinguished itself by announcing an agreement with Citigroup (C), but also partnerships with several banks including BBVA, UnionBank Philippines and especially with Société Générale. Metaco is now considered a behemoth in the sector, becoming a reference in the field of crypto-currency custody for banks and renowned institutions.

In concrete terms, the extent of this collaboration is estimated thanks to the weight held by BNP Paribas on the market. Indeed, the bank’s asset custody subsidiary, BNP Paribas Securities Services, already manages nearly $13 trillion in assets as a custodian for clients around the world.

Mixed reactions on social networks

Following this announcement, the community took it upon themselves to give their opinion on what they thought of this collaboration. It quickly became apparent that there are two fundamentally different opinions.

On the one hand, one side believes that the retention of digital assets by a banking entity is a guarantee of security for the whole ecosystem. Indeed, it is unlikely that a bank like BNP Paribas would be in financial distress as some CeFI companies have been recently. The only situation in which one can imagine the bank failing would certainly plunge the global economy into even murkier waters than those experienced today.

On the other side, many voices are being raised to criticise BNP Paribas’ opportunism to interfere in the world of blockchain and crypto-currency. Disintermediation, as well as the disappearance of traditional banks, is an ideology that is strongly imbued in the sector. Therefore, the custody of crypto currencies by a centralized entity, and symbol of the traditional financial model is not necessarily viewed favorably.

While waiting for the official confirmation of this partnership between BNP Paribas and Metaco, the ideological confrontation between these points of view makes for a particularly interesting debate. Finally, regardless of one’s opinion, the potential launch of this service undeniably rhymes with the democratisation of the crypto-currency sector within society.

BNP Paribas denies entering the crypto custody business

According to the latest information, BNP Paribas has denied that it is in the business of holding crypto-currencies. For the time being, this service should not see the light of day. Nevertheless, one can legitimately wonder about the impact of the bear market on this probable collaboration.

Indeed, in times of crypto winter, many projects delay announcements about their activity, hoping for better days. Thus, BNP Paribas is potentially waiting for a turnaround in the market trend to officially launch its crypto custody service in a more favourable economic dynamic.

The article Crypto: BNP Paribas bank gets into crypto? appeared first on Coin Academy.

On the occasion of a technical demo, the owners of Otherside lands had the opportunity to make a “trip” to The Otherside. 4,500 players were able to participate in the experience, simultaneously, directly from their internet browser.

After connecting your wallet and proving that you own a piece of land in the Metaverse Otherside, you are invited to join the thousands of other players in a vast, bright room with few textures and details. This room was used in the first tech demo to test the ability of the servers to bring so many players together in one place, while still allowing for unlimited microphone communication.

A giant Bored Ape led the technical demo and invited players to dive into a sort of black hole leading straight into the Metaverse Otherside.

This same leader then handed out several missions to the thousands of players, asking them to move around this vast world in order to save a Koda, recover obelisks and finally confront another Koda, this time turned demonic.

The trip finally ends with a very short teaser that hints at the continuation of the Metaverse Otherside:

This first demo seems to have won over most of the players and members of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, but many Internet users continue to ask many questions about the real technological advance that this Metaverse represents. In the end, players just moved around, jumped around and talked to each other in a vast open world?

If the first technical demos of the Metaverse The Otherside do not impress you. It’s probably because of a bad comparison with games like Fortnite. Remember that Fortnite has a hundred players, not thousands, and requires a next-generation console or a powerful computer to run properly with good graphics.

The real revolution lies in the fact that an impressive number of players can be onboarded even more easily, by offering them the possibility of joining the game directly from their internet browser.

Who is Improbable and why does the Metaverse Otherside impress connoisseurs?

Improbable is a multinational technology company founded in 2012 and based in London. It develops distributed simulation software for video games, employs over 1,000 people and has already raised over $500 million.

To put it simply, Improbable develops technologies useful for creating vast open worlds for video games (the Metaverse).

In 2016, Improbable partnered with Google and launched SpatialOS in open beta a year later. The first games built on this technology are Worlds Adrift and Fall Guys.

Fall Guys sold over 7 million units on the Steam marketplace and became the most downloaded game on PlayStation Plus in just 23 days.

Soon, Improbable partnered with gaming giant Epic Games to launch a $25 million fund to enable game developers to work on Unreal Engine.

With war simulation contracts for the US and British armies, partnerships with Google and Epic Games and several hundred million dollars in fundraising, Improbable is now one of the pillars of its field with a multi-billion dollar valuation.

Recently, Improbable stood out with its “Project Morpheus”. During its technical demo in 2021, the project proved to be reliable by gathering 10,000 players simultaneously, in the form of customised avatars and with the ability to communicate through a proximity voice chat.

By creating MSquared through a 150 million dollar fundraising, Improbable announces its arrival in the web3 and here we are in 2022, at the dawn of a more than interesting collaboration for the creation of a “next gen” Metaverse.

Bored Ape Yacht Club x Improbable direction le Metaverse Otherside

If Improbable seems to have all the necessary weapons to develop the Metaverse of tomorrow, it lacks a point that is essential to the success of a vast digital universe: a community.

This is where the Bored Ape Yacht Club comes in. With the biggest success story in the web3 2021 universe, Yuga Labs through BAYC has established itself as the undisputed leader in the field, even going so far as to buy out CryptoPunks and their MeeBits, the primary source of inspiration for Bored Apes.

The private club reserved for OG members, the rich and famous, was then partially opened to the rest of the web3, with the sale of Metaverse lands to create The Otherside.

The Otherside is likely to work because it is not expected to take the player into an MMORPG-like gaming experience and will not need to compete with the AAA video games in that sector. Instead, the imagination of gamers and web communities3 will enable the creation of this virtual world.

The most important point in this objective is therefore to succeed in gathering as many players as possible simultaneously while allowing them to communicate and this is exactly why the collaboration between Yuga Labs and Improbable.io seems perfect.

While many NFT collections and communities would welcome even the slightest interaction with BAYC, just being able to provide an experience for their members in a quality Metaverse that has already been built makes it much easier.

It would not be shocking to see more and more NFT communities moving to The Otherside rather than attempting to create their own Metaverse.

And to take it a step further, MSquared needs to enable other projects, brands, events and experiences in the Metaverse to connect and interact with each other.

Moreover, The Otherside’s Litepaper insists on interoperability between the different Metaverses, a crucial point for the future of this industry:

OPEN OBJECT STANDARDS

We want objects made with our authoring tools to be interoperable and to be used anywhere in Otherside – or any other metaverse that conforms to these standards. To achieve this, we are working with Improbable’s M2 network to create a set of open object standards that describe what objects are, what they look like and how they behave:

Metadata Ontology - We will allow objects to be labelled using descriptors from the Otherside metadata ontology, allowing for common behaviour
Examples: labelling an object as a chair allows you to sit on it, labelling an object as a ball allows you to pick it up and throw it
Metadata tags will follow the JSON metadata standard ERC-721
2D Images - We support common image formats, starting with PNG, JPG - and more will be added as Voyagers request them
3D Objects - We support 3D models through the popular gITF format (which includes meshes, materials, cameras, textures, animations and everything else you need to create a complete model) These objects can accommodate lighting and engineering physics
Universal scripting system - We will support scripts to attach to objects and worlds to define and extend their functionality
The current prototype uses JavaScript and is being tested at scale
Objects built using this open standard will be fully supported in the Otherside game, any MSquared metaverse network project and any external project that adopts this standard

The article NFT: Yuga Labs and Improbable unveil the Metaverse Otherside appeared first on Coin Academy.

The loan was closed in September 2021, with a 12% interest rate accepted by Three Arrows Capital (3AC).

A letter sent in June already stated the Moonbeam Foundation’s intention to recover the stablecoin loan amounts:

“We reiterate our request for immediate repayment of the principal of our two outstanding loans (US$7MM and US$10MM),”

A conflict of interest with a particular Three Arrows position at Moonbeam?

An interesting point raised by these recent court documents concerns the relationship between Three Arrows Capital (3AC) and Moonbeam. Alongside the various loans, 3AC was also engaged by Moonbeam as a ‘liquidity consultant’ for the network’s moonriver (MOVR) and glimmer (GLMR) tokens.

Under the terms of the liquidity consultation, Three Arrows Capital (3AC) was instructed by Moonbeam to make “commercially reasonable efforts to open new markets” for both tokens, with the fund also conducting “market analysis” and suggesting new “appropriate exchanges” on which the tokens could be traded.

However, 3AC was not responsible for “final performance” and had no specific trading volume targets. The obligations were “limited to making commercially reasonable efforts to advise on methods to increase the liquidity” of the river and glimmer tokens.

3AC held over 10 million GLMR tokens and 200,000 MOVR tokens worth over $10 million at current market rates. These have not been returned to Moonbeam at this time.

Instead, the documents show that Moonbeam paid 3AC $90,000 as a semi-annual staggered fee for consulting services.

This kind of dual relationship seems to be commonplace in the crypto ecosystem and could be one of the reasons why the downfall of large companies can quickly prove catastrophic for much of the ecosystem, as projects are so interconnected.

The article Crypto: 3AC owes $27m to Polkadot’s Moonbeam Foundation appeared first on Coin Academy.