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Uniswap’s BNB deployment should use multiple bridges, claims LIFI CEO

The LIFI executive proposed that a team of four researchers be appointed to study the idea of a multi-bridge approach.

As Uniswap DAO’s vote to deploy to BNB chain continues, LIFI CEO Phillip Zentner argued in a February 6 forum post that the current proposal is flawed. According to him, the plan to use Wormhole as the sole governance bridge for Uniswap should be abandoned. Instead, he claimed that Uniswap researchers should work on a standardized system for using multiple bridges to handle governance decisions.

In the post, Zentner stated that LIFI strongly recommends “that Uniswap not select one bridge provider for its BNB Chain Deployment Proposal” because “no single AMB [arbitrary messaging bridge] is tested enough to be considered a robust and secure solution that a project of Uniswap’s size can solely rely on at this point.”

As evidence of this, Zentner reminded readers of the slew of bridge hacks the crypto community has suffered over the past two years, stating:

“Lest it be forgotten, two major AMBs were exploited in the past twelve months (Nomad and Wormhole), while LayerZero has also come under fire recently for its security model (Prestwich 2, L2Beat). We do not say this as condemnation, rather, we point this out to highlight just how difficult it is to build secure AMBs and the subsequent risks a dApp is exposed to by choosing a single bridging solution.”

For this reason, LIFI wants to see “a multi-bridge, agnostic approach” to Uniswap governance. Zentner proposed that this could be accomplished by appointing a team of four engineers to study the subject and submit a proposal.

Related: Wormhole wins second “temp check” to become bridge for Uniswap

The LIFI CEO seemed to imply that the current proposal should be voted down and the date of BNB Chain deployment postponed until at least March 27. According to an image posted by Zentner, the Uniswap team had previously set a deadline of March 27 for a “final report published with community recommendations.” Zenter said that he believes this deadline can still be met, even if the current proposal is voted down.

Venture capital firm a16z recently attempted to use its 15 million UNI tokens to vote the BNB proposal down, due to the firm’s concerns about Wormhole bridge security. However, Metamask developer ConsenSys has used its 7 million UNI votes to support the proposal. The vote is scheduled to end on Feb. 10.

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Dingo crypto token flagged as scam over 99% transaction fee backdoor

Cybersecurity firm Check Point said it discovered a smart contract function called "setTaxFeePercent" which can reportedly change the contract's buy and sell fees.

The research arm of cybersecurity software firm Check Point has flagged the Dingo Token (DINGO) as a “potential scam” after reportedly discovering a smart contract function that has been used to manipulate transaction fees.

In a Feb. 3 blog post, Check Point Research (CPR) said it looked into the code behind the Dingo Smart Contract, discovering a backdoor function "setTaxFeePercent," which can change the contract's buy and sell fee up to 99%.

This is despite the project’s whitepaper stating that there is only a 10% fee per transaction.

An example of the smart contract function being used to manipulate transaction fees. Source: Check Point Research

According to CPR, this essentially allows the project’s owner to withdraw up to 99% of the transaction amount whenever a user buys or sells the token.

In one case the cyber security software firm observed a user who spent $26.89 to purchase 427 million Dingo Tokens but instead received 4.27 million, or $0.27 worth of Dingo Tokens.

An example of a user only receiving 1% of the transaction's value. Source: Check Point Research

The firm said it decided to investigate the Dingo Token project after seeing the token rise 8,400% this year, and found at least 47 instances of the function being used to allegedly scam token investors.

"We all know that 2022 was a hard year in the crypto market. However, when we saw a token raised by 8400% this year, we had to investigate the project and understand what was unique about it. We examined the Dingo Smart Contract and quickly found it seemed like a scam,” it wrote.

Check Point Research (CPR) has found at least 47 instances of the smart contract function being used. Source: Check Point Research

The firm also pointed to the Dingo Tokens website, noting that it has "no real information about the owners of the projects," other than a four-page whitepaper.

"If you've incorporated crypto into your investment portfolio or are interested in investing in crypto in the future, you should make sure to only use known exchanges and buy from a known token with several transactions behind it," wrote the research firm.

As of writing, Dingo Token is ranked 298 on CoinMarketCap with a live market cap of $82,555,168.

Related: Sneaky fake Google Translate app installs crypto miner on 112,000 PCs

Cointelegraph reached out to the creators of Dingo Token for a response to the allegations but has yet to receive a reply before publication.

Users of Twitter and CoinMarketCap have also recently reported issues with the Dingo Token. Crypto trader IncredibleJoker said they could not sell their holdings in a Feb. 5 post.

A Dingo Token moderator responded to the user's Twitter post, asking the user to message them privately, but no further updates have been made public.

While on CoinMarketCap, user mraff1579 appeared to reference the backdoor function raised by CPR.

"Wow dont lislisten to send to new wallet they took 30 billion coins and only received 300 mil because of fraudulent tax wow ppieces of Shit. . I was going to send to deployed for coin but got screwed , pretty sure anything you do will result in lost of 99%," the post said.

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Australia introduces classification for crypto assets

The national regulators propose to distinguish four major types of products related to the crypto industry.

Following the global regulatory race, Australia opened the public consultation on its own taxonomy of crypto assets. The national regulators propose to distinguish four major types of products related to the crypto industry. 

On Feb. 3, the Australian Treasury released a consultation paper on “Token Mapping,” announcing it as a foundational step in the Government’s multi‑stage reform agenda to regulate the market. It seeks to inform “a fact‑based, consumer conscious and innovation-friendly” approach to policy development.

The paper, based on the “functional” and technology-neutral method, proposes a number of basic definitions for all the things crypto.

At the first level, it outlines the key concepts of ‘crypto networks,’ ‘crypto tokens,’ and ‘smart contracts.’ According to the Treasury’s vision, a crypto network is a distributed computer system capable of hosting crypto tokens. Its primary function is to store information and process user instructions. The paper cites Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) as the two most well-known public crypto networks.

Related: Australia bolsters crypto watchdogs in ‘multi-stage’ plan to fight scams

A ‘crypto token’ is defined as a unit of digital information that can be ‘exclusively used or controlled’ by a person who doesn’t administer the host hardware where that token is recorded. The concept of ‘exclusive use and control’ is a key distinguishing factor between crypto tokens and other digital records, according to the paper.

A ‘smart contract’ goes as the computer code that has been published to a crypto network’s database. It involves intermediaries or agents performing functions pursuant to promises or other arrangements or functions being performed by crypto networks in the absence of promises, intermediaries and agents.

Starting from these simple definitions, a paper proposes its taxonomy of four types of crypto-related products:

  1. Crypto asset services, which include lending and borrowing, fiat on/off ramping, crypto token trading, funds management, mining/staking-as-a-service, gambling, and custody.
  2. Intermediated crypto assets, which are the closest to a wide-spread definition of tokens: rights or licenses in relation to event access or subscriptions, intellectual property, reward programs, consumer goods and services, fiat money, non-financial assets, and government bond coupons. This class includes stablecoins.
  3. Network tokens — a “new type of currency” constituting peer-to-peer payment infrastructure. Think of your original BTC.
  4. Smart contracts exist on a spectrum from ‘intermediated’ to ‘public.’ The former is used by intermediaries in providing a service; the latter is used by parties to remove the need for an intermediary.

While the paper proposes to start the discussion on this taxonomy and doesn’t provide any legislative initiatives, its authors anticipate a relatively easy tailoring of existing laws for a large portion of the crypto ecosystem. It is the pockets of the ecosystem where functions are being ensured by the public, self-service software, which could demand the creation of a brand-new legislative framework.

The Treasury will wait for feedback up until March 3. The next major step of a national regulatory discussion will come with a release of a similar paper on the possible licensing and custody framework for crypto in mid-2023.

On Feb.1, His Majesty’s Treasury of the United Kingdom published its consultation paper for the crypto regulation as well. In it, the financial authority emphasized the lack of necessity in the separate legislation, given the capacity of the existing Financial Services and Markets Act to cover digital assets.

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Euro stablecoin launched in Finland, claims to be first approved in the EU

USDC issuer Circle Inc. previously released a euro-backed stablecoin that is regulated in the United States.

Finnish company Membrane Finance has released a fully-reserved stablecoin backed by the euro, according to a Feb. 2 blog post from the company. The company is licensed by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (Fin-FSA) and claims that the new ”EUROe” coin is “the first and only EU-regulated crypto stablecoin.”

U.S.-based Circle Inc. released its own euro-backed stablecoin in June, but its Euro Coin (EUROC) was initially custodied by Silvergate Bank, a U.S.-regulated entity.

Each EUROe token is backed by “at least one fiat Euro [...] In a European financial institution or bank, ring-fenced from Membrane Finance,” according to the company’s post. The company believes it will allow for “near-instant payments” at close to zero cost, in contrast to the high cost and slow speeds of traditional finance.

Membrane Finance CEO Juha Viitala expressed hope that the regulated EUROe coin would encourage more Europeans to grow their wealth through the use of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, stating:

“Stablecoins are an essential part of the transition towards blockchain-based money infrastructure, and Europeans deserve to have a full-reserve euro stablecoin from the EU and regulated by an EU-based financial authority. EUROe hopefully brings more regular people to DeFi, who were previously unable to or worried about the volatility of cryptocurrencies.”

Related: UK-native stablecoin integrates into 18,000 ATMs nationwide

The EUROe will initially be available on Ethereum, with support for additional blockchain networks planned for the future.

“Stablecoins,” or crypto tokens backed by fiat currency, have had a long and illustrious history in the crypto world. The first U.S. dollar stablecoin, Tether (USDT), was initially released for the Bitcoin Omni Layer, with an Ethereum version arriving in 2018. It is now the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap.

On Jan. 19, Circle and the team behind Uniswap decentralized exchange released a report claiming that blockchain-based foreign exchange can reduce remittance costs by as much as 80%.

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Smart Contract Token Market Soars to $332 Billion; Defi Value Reaches High Not Seen Since FTX Collapse

Smart Contract Token Market Soars to 2 Billion; Defi Value Reaches High Not Seen Since FTX CollapseThe smart contract token economy rose 5.6% against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, reaching $332 billion. Additionally, the value locked in decentralized finance (defi) increased to nearly $50 billion, a record high not seen since the collapse of FTX. Smart Contract Economy and Defi TVL Bounces Back On Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023, the top smart […]

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HSBC needs someone to helm its tokenization efforts

HSBC is looking for a candidate who knows of digital assets, especially asset tokenization and custody, according to a job posting.

HSBC, the British multinational bank which manages the largest amount of assets in Europe, doubles down its interest in digital currencies. The bank is looking for a top executive to work with asset tokenization. 

On Jan. 30, HSBC opened the GPBW Product Director of Tokenisation position with a hiring process scheduled to end by Feb. 13. According to the job description, the "tokenization director would be responsible for “designing and implementing” a global tokenization proposition and representing the bank in front of regulators and digital assets ecosystem.

The candidate should possess knowledge of digital assets, especially around asset tokenization and custody, as well as "deep insights” into the industry and key geographical wealth markets.

This marks HSBC’s accelerating interest in digital currencies, which had been manifested earlier in a number of collaborations. In April 2022, the bank rolled out its metaverse investment product for wealthy clients in Singapore and Hong Kong. Earlier, it joined the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Global Markets Advisory Committee (GMAC).

Related: Bank of Japan to trial digital yen with three megabanks

However, the main area of HSBC’s interest lies in the global development of the central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). In September 2021, HSBC Group CEO Noel Quinn outlined the firm’s commitment to supporting central bank digital currencies while stressing skepticism over risks associated with cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.

The British bank participated in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s 12-week proof-of-concept pilot for a CBDC and was present at the launch of the Universal Digital Payment Network (UDPN) — a distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform that would serve a similar purpose to what the SWIFT network does for banks, except for stablecoins and CBDCs. HSBC is also one of the 14 central and commercial banks, collaborating with SWIFT in its testing of transactions of CBDCs and tokenized assets on existing financial infrastructure.

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Social token platform Rally announces shutdown of sidechain

Rally cited a "challenging year" for the crypto industry in its decision to “begin to sunset” the platform's sidechain after Jan. 31.

Rally, a social token platform, has announced nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on its sidechain will no longer be accessible.

Users reported across social media platforms that Rally said the platform’s sidechain will “begin to sunset” after Jan. 31, leaving users unable to access NFTs once the site fully shuts down. The site’s developers did not say that they would be offering another path forward in the future, but hinted at building “leaner web3 experiences and/or products on mainnet.”

“2022 was a challenging year not only for the platform, but also for the entire crypto industry,” said Rally. “The team has worked relentlessly to try to find a path forward, however the challenges and macro headwinds are too overwhelming to overcome in the current environment.”

Related: Social tokens will be the engine of Web3, from fanbases to incentivization

Rally facilitated creators and artists launching their own social token projects and establishing independent communities directly on the platform. The “creator coins” allowed users to essentially monetize themselves, providing additional revenue.

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Binance stablecoin BUSD sees a sharp market cap drop amid solvency and mismanagement worries

Persistent worries about Binance’s solvency, increased regulation of the crypto sector and questionable use cases are chipping away at BUSD’s market capitalization.

Stablecoins in the cryptocurrency market help provide U.S. dollar-pegged tokens within the volatile industry. In bull markets, the market capitalization of stablecoins tends to decrease as investors flock to more volatile assets; and in bear markets, investors seek shelter in low-volatility stablecoins, thus increasing their market caps.

On Jan. 26, the total market capitalization for stablecoins like Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), Binance USD (BUSD) and Dai (DAI) is over $131 billion.

Stablecoin supply dominance. Source: Glassnode

Stablecoins are so crucial to the future of crypto that Moody’s, a well-respected analytics agency, is planning to develop a scoring system, which may help reduce the speculation and fear that some investors have with stablecoins.

Such fear amid a lack of stablecoin transparency has led one of the top stablecoins, BUSD, to see a major usage decline in recent weeks.

Let’s examine the factors affecting the BUSD stablecoin.

BUSD’s market cap takes a major hit

While the BUSD market cap witnessed a large bump on Sept. 30, 2022, those gains came from Binance’s decision to forcefully swap the exchange’s USDC holders to its own stablecoin. Those gains have since evaporated. At the time, the automatic conversions took $3 billion off of USDC’s market cap.

BUSD’s market cap has continued to fall due to problems with the dollar-pegged tokens’ management that first came to light in January 2023. While Binance pushed back on reports that the stablecoin was not fully backed, investor fears led to a major exodus.

According to blockchain analytics provider Nansen, the circulating supply of BUSD decreased to $15.4 billion on Jan. 25. The drop represents a decrease of $1 billion from the previous week and $2 billion compared with December 2022.

Stablecoin market caps. Source: Nansen

The most recent decline sped up BUSD’s market cap decrease from $22 billion when worried investors rushed to withdraw money from Binance after it misrepresented the amount of digital assets in its collateral reserves by combining corporate holdings on reports.

BUSD inflows struggle

When the price of Bitcoin (BTC) is on the rise, like it has been recently, stablecoins typically see a decrease in inflow as investors sell for other assets. A way to measure demand for stablecoins is to look at exchange inflows.

According to analytics provider CryptoQuant:

“Higher value indicates investors who deposited a lot at once are increasing recently. For stablecoin, value rise indicates buying pressure.”

This means negative numbers show a decrease in buying pressure. While all stablecoins are seeing lower demand or inflows, BUSD has witnessed nearly 3x more inflow.

All stablecoins' inflow versus BUSD. Source: CryptoQuant

The massive decrease in demand may continue as the markets continue to rise and questions around BUSD remain.

The majority of BUSD is on Binance

Stablecoins see an uptick in demand when they are utilized in trading pairs with altcoins. The trading use case works on both centralized exchanges (CEX) and decentralized exchanges (DEX).

A concerning statistic surrounding BUSD is the lack of stablecoin use outside of its parent exchange, Binance. While $13.8 billion in BUSD resides on Binance, the next closest tally is $32.6 million in BUSD on Crypto.com. While Crypto.com may be the second-largest exchange for BUSD, USDC is the largest stablecoin on the CEX, with $582 million, dwarfing BUSD’s numbers.

Stablecoins on exchanges, sorted by BUSD. Source: Nansen

The lack of use cases following the major decrease in demand for BUSD does not bode well for its market cap if the trend sustains over a long period of time. Combining these two negatives with the recent move by SWIFT to ban dollar transfers lower than $100,000 on Binance suggests that the stablecoin could continue to face major headwinds.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

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Blur NFT Marketplace Surges in Volume and Market Share, Rivaling Industry Leader Opensea

Blur NFT Marketplace Surges in Volume and Market Share, Rivaling Industry Leader OpenseaBlur, the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, has seen a significant increase in volume since its launch in October. According to statistics from Dune Analytics, Blur has captured about 30% of the market share in terms of sales volume. The NFT marketplace leader, Opensea, commands 48% of the market share. Blur NFT Marketplace Captures 30% of […]

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Which tokens could FTX dump on the market?

The list of illiquid tokens includes a Donald Trump prediction token, an animal fundraising coin and tokens for several Solana projects.

The new management of the bankrupt FTX exchange has identified $5.5 billion in assets that can be used to repay creditors, sparking fears a large swathe of crypto assets could be dumped on markets.

On Jan. 17, FTX debtors identified $3.5 billion in crypto assets with $1.6 billion associated with the bankrupt exchange. The best known holdings are Solana's SOL and FTX exchange token FTT, along with liquid assets including XRP, DOGE, Aptos (APT), Polygon (MATIC), TON, and BitDAO (BIT).

Liquidators valued the tokens at the time of the bankruptcy petition. Cinneamhain Ventures partner, Adam Cochran, commented:

“So liquidators were counting token prices on the day of filing, and consider the $529M of FTT to be ‘liquid’ in this calculation, as well as $685M of Solana which would mega nuke the SOL market.”

He added these were the only “liquid” tokens they counted, adding “everything else is going to tank the price if you sell it.”

A list of illiquid crypto tokens has also been identified raising concerns they could be sold off causing a price crash.

On Jan. 18, Fortune reporter Leo Schwartz also posted the FTX report, highlighting the  “illiquid tokens” list includes almost 10 billion Serum (SRM), LUNA, and Solana-wrapped versions of BTC and ETH.

But many were obscure project tokens such as TRUMPLOSE, BEAR, and MEDIA.

He highlighted TRUMPLOSE as an "Easter egg" which ties in with FTX and Alameda supporting Democrat politicians with large donations. TRUMPLOSE is a prediction token that FTX used during the U.S. presidential election. Traders could purchase TRUMPWIN or TRUMPLOSE tokens that would resolve to $1 should Trump have won or lost. FTX holds almost 14 million of them.

BEAR Coin is a cryptocurrency designed to help animals by decentralized fundraising in cooperation with NGOs and animal lovers. There are 190 billion of them on the FTX balance sheet.

It also has 8.3 million tokens from the bandwidth-sharing network, Media. The list goes on with 9.8 billion MAPS tokens from the Maps.me travel app, and almost 10 billion OXY tokens for the Solana-based DeFi broker Oxygen.

Related: FTX has recovered over $5B in cash and liquid crypto: Report

Other illiquid assets include 2.4 billion Alium Finance (ALM), and more than 277 million in Bonafida (FIDA), a Solana developer platform. The list also included BRZ, GT, LIKE, HRXO, MSOL, JSOL, XSUSHI, AELPH, and JET holdings.

SBF still blogging

On Jan. 18, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried reappeared with a new blog post claiming the FTX report’s information on the state of the business was “extremely misleading.”

“FTX US was solvent when it was turned over to S&C [Sullivan & Cromwell], and almost certainly remains solvent today,” he stated.

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