Circle Launches Second Major Stablecoin Backed 1:1 by the Euro

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Terra (LUNA) 2.0 relaunches according to Do Kwon’s revival plan

May 28, 2022 Coin Telegraph

The Terra 2.0 mainnet (Phoenix-1) went live today as per the original timeline set by Terra developers and started producing blocks.

Do Kwon, the co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs, confirmed the relaunch of Terra’s new chain, Terra 2.0, which aims to revive the fallen Terra (LUNA) and TerraUSD (UST) ecosystem.

Kwon’s revival plan for Terra involves hard forking the existing blockchain and reissuing LUNA tokens to existing investors based on a snapshot before the death spiral bled the LUNA and UST markets — effectively resulting in unrecoverable losses for investors.

Pheonix-1 mainnet is now live and producing blocks - public node services, wallets and explorers should be going live shortly. pic.twitter.com/cpxiNKl6aX
— Do Kwon (@stablekwon) May 28, 2022

Dubbed Phoenix-1, the Terra 2.0 mainnet went live today, May 28, as per the original timeline set by Terra developers and started producing blocks. Kwon also informed that public node services, wallets and explorers would follow the mainnet to go live soon after.

Following the plan from the original proposal, which recommended issuing the new LUNA tokens to existing investors, Kown stated that users should now be able to see the newly issued LUNA tokens balances:

“To view your $LUNA (or $LUNA2 as some exchanges call them) token balances, you only need to log into station and refresh the page.”

Moreover, investors that are migrating over the inter‐blockchain communication protocol (IBC) are required to create a station wallet with the same ledger and follow the instructions provided upon wallet creation.

Kown also shared an official portal link wherein users can view their Terra wallet balances. As Cointelegraph previously reported, numerous crypto exchanges have joined Terra’s relaunch by helping with airdrops.

According to the revival plan, users previously holding Terra Luna Classic (LUNC), TerraUSD Classic (USTC) and Anchor Protocol UST (aUST) are eligible to receive new tokens.

Among the numerous crypto ecosystems that stood up to help Terra projects come back to life, Binance’s BNB Chain (BNB) committed to providing investment and support to projects that are considering migrating from the Terra ecosystem.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Gwendolyn Regina, BNB Chain’s investment director confirmed the company’s intent to onboard prominent builders from the Terra ecosystem:

“The Terra ecosystem has a lot of talented creators and developers, and our support is aimed at helping those builders and teams, building new projects on the BNB Chain. Hence, we are simply interested in supporting developers and projects so that they do not miss out on future potential.”

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Samson Mow’s new company JAN3 helping build Bitcoin City in El Salvador

April 8, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Industry

Bitcoin entrepreneur Samson Mow has launched a new company called JAN3, reportedly raising $21M in funding at a $100M valuation.

Samson Mow, former chief strategy officer of Blockstream and founder of Pixelmatic, said on Thursday that he has started a new company called JAN3 which will focus on accelerating Bitcoin adoption.

The Chinese-Canadian Bitcoin entrepreneur told Reuters that JAN3 has already signed a memorandum of understanding to assist in developing digital infrastructure in El Salvador.

"It's a general MOU that says we'll work together to build digital infrastructure for the country and for Bitcoin City.”

Mow added that making the decision for JAN3 to work with El Salvador was an easy choice, "I just set up my company and I said 'do you want to work together?' and they said 'sure.’”

Mow and his new firm will work alongside El Salvador’s President, Nayib Bukele, and its government to assist in the establishment of Bitcoin City, a development that will reportedly use geothermal power from nearby volcanoes to power Bitcoin mining as well as the city‘s infrastructure.

According JAN3’s recently established Twitter account, which boasts a rapidly growing follower count of 3,300, the company has reportedly raised $21 million in funding at a valuation of $100 million.

The funding round was led by Alistair Milne, the CIO of Atlanta Digital Currency Fund, Chun Wang, the co-founder of crypto mining firm F2Pool, as well as El Zonte Capital, a new investment fund founded by prominent Bitcoin bull Max Keiser and his wife, Stacy Herbert.

The news comes as Mow spoke at the Bitcoin 2022 Conference, where he announced that two new jurisdictions — The Caribbean island of Roatán and Madeira, an autonomous region of Portugal — would be adopting Bitcoin as legal tender. Mow also mentioned Mexico, however the country is still considering the idea.

The name “JAN3” is a reference to Jan. 3rd, 2009, which is the day that Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first block — also known as the “genesis block” — of Bitcoin. Playing on this namesake, the company’s first tweet was a not-so-cryptic reference to The Times’ headline on that day.

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March 18, 2022 The Crypto Briefing

Crypto.com rolls out its exchange platform in the United States

March 15, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The exchange is initially available to waitlisted users and will be available to more people soon.

Following its immense marketing efforts, Crypto.com finally begins the initial rollout of its services to users in the United States.

In an announcement, Crypto.com mentioned that its exchange platform is already available to users who are waitlisted and will be available to more users soon.

Currently, the trading platform can only be used by selected institutional investors. However, in the next few months, the exchange will be offering its services to more investors who want to trade using Crypto.com. The exchange is also inviting institutional investors based in the U.S. to join their waitlist and use the platform.

Apart from the standard services of the exchange, Crypto.com also mentioned in the announcement that its VIP users will have access to various events, rewards and market insights. Additionally, they will also give these users access to exclusive forums.

In the announcement, Kris Marszalek, the CEO of Crypto.com, expressed his excitement for the launch. "We are excited to be expanding our offering for professional traders to the U.S.," he said. He also assured investors that they are working to make it available to more people very soon.

“Crypto.com Exchange will support U.S. institutional investors through this initial launch phase. We are looking forward to rolling it out to everyone as soon as possible.”

Crypto.com has been actively pursuing efforts to expand its reach. Just last week, the exchange airdropped a nonfungible token (NFT) collection featuring NBA superstar LeBron James. The Moment of Truth collection was given to 5,550 viewers of the exchanges' advertisement on the Super Bowl.

Last year, Hollywood celebrity Matt Damon also advertised the exchange. The ad highlighting "fortune favors the brave" starring Damon appeared on billboards and television spots. However, it didn't escape critics. In an episode of South Park, its characters made fun of Damon's appearance in the ad.

Intel unveils 2nd-gen Bonanza Mine chip for efficient Bitcoin mining

February 21, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin mining

Intel's new chips are powered by a high-performance miner to deliver up to 40TH/s in a balanced environment.

Computer chip manufacturing giant Intel Corporation shared details of a new mining chip that will be coupled with a high-performance 3,600 Watt miner with the ultimate goal of improving Bitcoin (BTC) mining efficiency.

Intel revealed its second-generation BTC mining setup during the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) 2022, a conference dedicated to the electronics and chip manufacturing industry.

According to the company, Bonanza mine (BMZ2) is an ultra-low-voltage energy-efficient Bitcoin mining ASIC that can deliver 40 Terahashes per second (40 TH/s) performance.

*Intel's Bonanza setup. Source: 2022 IEEE*

As Cointelegraph previously reported, Intel’s patent related to “high-performance Bitcoin Mining” dates back to November 2018, which had proposed to reduce overall power consumption by approximately 15%. Intel representatives at the time showed confidence in competing against established players including Bitmain, MicroBT and Nvidia:

“Intel has done design work around SHA 256 optimized ASICs for several years beginning with pathfinding work done in Intel Labs.”

The BMZ2 chips are expected to follow an architecture similar to its 1st-gen mining chip BMZ1, wherein over 300 chips, powered by a 3600W miner, work together to deliver up to 40TH/s in a balanced environment.

Intel’s next-generation BTC miner will be able to deliver a balanced performance of 40.4 TH/s by drawing 2,293W of power — recording a low energy consumption of 56.97 joules per terahash (J/Th). When compared to Bitmain's hardware, Antminer S19j ASIC Bitcoin miner consumes 3,100 Watts for delivering up to 90 TH/s at room temperature, resulting in an efficiency of 34.5 J/Th.

In addition, the hardware will also have the option to operate in high-performance and power-saving modes to optimize the energy-cost ratio across various degrees of mining efficiencies.

Intel is yet to announce a date for its official launch along with the technical requirements of the 2nd-generation mining setup.

The Bitcoin network mining difficulty maintains an upward trend, showcasing a strong indication of growing resilience against network attacks.

At its peak, Bitcoin recorded a hash rate of 248.11 EH/s on Feb. 13 after jumping 31.69% from 188.40 EH/s in just one day.

*Bitcoin hash rate over the past year. Source: YCharts*

With the increase in the hash rate, BTC mining equipment needs to evolve for delivering higher performance while consuming comparatively energy.

Gnosis (GNO) continues uptrend after vCOW airdrop and rebrand to CoW Protocol

February 14, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Altcoin Watch

Momentum for GNO builds as Gnosis rebrands to the Coincidence of Wants (CoW) Protocol and launches an airdrop for GNO stakers and validators.

Airdrops, going 'multi-chain' and massive multi-million dollar developer incentives were some of the key marketing and rebrand tactics blockchain projects used in 2021. This trend appears set to continue in 2022 and Gnosis (GNO) appears to be jumping on the bandwagon.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that since hitting a low of $219 on Jan. 24, the price of GNO has put on a gain of 57% to hit a daily high of $351 on Feb. 14 as the Gnosis chain begins to make its mark in the decentralized finance sector.

*GNO/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView*

Three reasons for the bullish reversal in GNO price include the protocol's rebrand to CoW protocol, the launch of several interesting proposals, including one that would burn a large portion of the circulating GNO supply and several major integrations that have helped increase the liquidity and access to the Gnosis ecosystem.

Gnosis rebrands to CoW Protocol

The most significant development for Gnosis in 2022 has been the protocol's rebrand to the Coincidence of Wants Protocol, also known as CoW.

The impetus behind the change was the rising popularity of CowSwap, a decentralized exchange that was the first interface built on Gnosis Protocol.

As part of the rebrand and full launch of CowSwap, GNO holders have the opportunity to lock their tokens on the protocol for one year in order to receive an airdrop of vested COW (vCOW) tokens, the native token on CowSwap.

The airdrop is also available to Gnosis Beacon Chain (GBC) validators and all airdrop participants will be qualified to receive future airdrops, such as the newly launched Gnosis Safe. GNO stakers will also be allowed to opt-in for liquid staking on Gnosis Chain once liquid staking becomes available.

GnosisDAO proposals

A second factor helping stoke the momentum for GNO has been a number of proposals focused on bringing about big changes within the Gnosis ecosystem.

The most recent proposal submitted by the Gnosis team is designed to establish SafeDAO and launch a SAFE token that can be used to govern the Gnosis Safe ecosystem and infrastructure.

The proposal also seeks to set up an independent Safe Foundation in Switzerland that will protect strategic off-chain assets, issue a "SAFE" token and help grow the Gnosis Safe ecosystem.

There is also a proposal currently available for comment that asks the community if the GnosisDAO should burn 68% of the circulating supply of GNO to help improve the economics of the token and give more voting power to GNO holders.

Should the GnosisDAO burn 68% of the total GNO Supply?
Leave your comment in this proposal!https://t.co/V8O72PRkGc @gnosisPM @gnosischain @GnosisGuild @gnosisSafe @MEVprotection
— Karpatkey (@karpatkey) February 3, 2022

New mergers and integrations

A third reason for the increase in GNO price has been the expansion of the Gnosis ecosystem which has helped increase access to the GNO token as well as activity on the network.

Recent notable collaborations include integrations with the decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch and the private transaction protocol Tornado cash, while the protocol’s early December merger with xDAI helped establish the Gnosis Chain.

The Gnosis Chain ⛓ (formerly xDai Chain) journey begins!

♻️ STAKE to GNO swap application now live on Ethereum and GC.

Details and Swap Link ➡️ https://t.co/m34tWgQUVx pic.twitter.com/a9JeMfYuUE
— Gnosis Chain (@gnosischain) December 12, 2021

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro also began to detect a bullish outlook for GNO on Jan. 22, prior to the recent price rise.

The VORTECS™ Score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historical and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

*VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. GNO price. Source:* *Cointelegraph Markets Pro*

As seen in the chart above, the VORTECS™ Score for GNO hit a high of 76 on Jan. 22, around 48 hours before the price began to increase 61% over the next two weeks.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Trader Joe (JOE) makes a 110% V-shaped recovery after Rocket Joe launch

February 9, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Altcoin Watch

JOE price made an impressive comeback after the rollout of the Rocket Joe liquidity launch program lured new projects and token listings to the DeFi platform.

The market appears to be finding its feet and as the smoke clears, its easier to see which projects are fundamentally flawed and which are returning to their previous trading range where they were before the recent three-week downturn.

Trader Joe is one of the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols that continued to push out new developments during the market-wide correction..

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low of $0.658 on Jan. 24, the price of JOE rebounded 147% to a daily high of $1.63 on Feb. 1 before entering a new consolidation range.

*JOE/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView*

Three reasons for the turnaround seen in the price of JOE are the launch of the Rocket Joe liquidity platform, the addition of new projects and staking pools on Trader Joe and a climbing total value locked (TVL) on the platform.

Rocket Joe blasts off

The biggest development to come out of Trader Joe thus far in 2022 has been the launch of Rocket Joe, a liquidity launch platform designed to facilitate the launch of a new tokens on Trader Joe by providing seed liquidity for the protocol.

JOE token holders are now able to stake their JOE on the Rocket Joe platform to earn rJOE, which is a credit used to enter Rocket Joe Launches. Every 100 rJOE that a user deposits into a Rocket Joe Launch will enable them to unlock a 1 Avalanche (AVAX) allocation towards that pool.

The committed funds are used to help determine the starting price for that token and bootstrap its liquidity on Trader Joe. Users who opt to provide liquidity will have their funds locked in the liquidity pools for seven days. In exchange for helping to provide liquidity, users receive an allocation of the newly launched token

This method of token launch allows Avalanche users to acquire newly issued tokens without needing to compete with bots during other token launches or high gas prices.

New listing and project launches at Trader Joe

A second factor helping boost the value of JOE has been the addition of multiple new tokens and projects on the Trader Joe platform, including the first project to launch out of Rocket Joe, Heroes of NFT (HON).

Registration for @HeroesofNFT is now closed and our community showed up massively!

Registrants: 27,336
XAVA Staked: 15,595,114
TVL: $113.13M

Stay tuned for more content with the team and make sure to claim your guaranteed allocation starting on 1/31. pic.twitter.com/enEugDvOBp
— Avalaunch (@AvalaunchApp) January 30, 2022

Some other new arrivals to the Trader Joe ecosystem include Dragon Crypto Gaming and Domi Online, a pair of play-to-earn gaming projects, as well as integrations with Cook Finance, the Open DeFi Notification Protocol and the cross-chain trading terminal Kattana.

TVL is rising again

As a result of the increase in the price of JOE and the addition of new tokens and liquidity pools to the Trader Joe ecosystem, data from Defi Llama shows that the total value locked on the platform has begun to recover following the recent multi-month market sell-off.

*Total value locked on Trader Joe. Source: Defi Llama.*

The TVL on Trader Joe is $1.43 billion at the time of writing, up from $957 million on Jan. 28 but still well below its all-time high of $2.59 billion on Dec. 1, 2021.

launch