Press Release
Spritz Finance, a Web3 personal finance platform for DeFi users to easily pay their bills with crypto, recently closed a USD 2.5 million pre-seed round. The funds will be used for hiring, expanding the platform’s crypto payments integrations, and making the product compatible across multiple blockchains.
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Here's your Thursday edition of Cryptonews Crunch, featuring the latest stories with GameStop & FTX.US agreeing to a partnership, Rug Pull Finder was exploited for hundreds of NFTs, and episode 159 of the Cryptonews Podcast.
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Source: CoinMarketCap.com
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- According to a Chainalysis report, one benefit from the Ethereum Merge is that it could trigger renewed interest in ETH staking. Over USD 30bn worth of ETH is already staked in Ethereum 2, making it the biggest blockchain by staked volume even before moving to PoS. Additionally, upgrades expected after the merge will enable stakers to withdraw their staked ETH at will as opposed to having to lock up their assets. This, in addition to an expected APY of 10-15%, will mean more liquidity for stakers. While these benefits are expected, the possibility of a miners' rebellion that could lead to a split of the Ethereum blockchain, as well as the fact that dApps that hold more than $50 billion in users' funds could be in danger if the merge goes wrong are some of the risks that have been talked off.
- Bloomberg reports that GameStop and FTX.US have agreed to a partnership in which they intend to collaborate on new e-commerce and online marketing initiatives. While the financial terms of the deal are not disclosed, GameStop will also begin carrying FTX gift cards in a selection of its stores, the report notes.
- Rug pulls, a type of theft which occurs when owners of a crypto project flee with the funds collected from their investors, dominated Web3 world-based scams and exploits in August, with 33 out of the 44 recorded exploits deemed rug pulls and exit scams, according to a recent report released by blockchain security company CertiK.
- In an unexpected development, NFT fraud watchdog Rug Pull Finder (RPF) has been successfully targeted by a smart contract exploit that allowed two persons to seize more than 450 NFTs, as per the entity. RPF offers its customers assistance which includes services related to social media platform Discord which has been increasingly used by hackers to steal digital assets. “We have reached an agreement with the wallets that took advantage of the contract, agreeing to pay them 2.5 ETH to purchase the remaining 366 NFTs. While they may have found an advantage, this is not a hack or scammers, etc. They found a bug, and they used it for profit,” the platform tweeted.
- Thomas Braziel, an investor who has made a living out of buying up bankruptcy claims and other distressed assets, in 2017 decided to buy up claims from the now-defunct Japanese crypto exchange Mt. Gox, a recent Bloomberg article has revealed. Braziel’s firm, 507 Capital – which is named after a section in the US bankruptcy code – bought claims worth nearly BTC 4,000, using USD 1m that was raised from a family office. About 850,000 BTC disappeared during the Mt. Gox collapse in 2014, with creditors as of 2022 still waiting to get their money back. Braziel said in the article that he expects disbursement to begin in “early 2023.” However, the long wait has not deterred Braziel, who is now on the look for new deals after the latest market downturn once again has caused bankruptcies among crypto firms.
- An exchange-traded product (ETP) that tracks an Ethereum proof-of-work (PoW) hard forked token is already being planned for listing in Europe, despite no such token existing as of now. The new investment product is being prepared by the London-based crypto firm ETC Group, and will be listed on Deutsche Borse’s Xetra marketplace under the ticker ZETW shortly after a potential hard fork, if all goes according to plan. According to an announcement from the company behind the planned fund, investors in its existing ETH ETP with the ticker ZETH will automatically receive shares of the new fund on a one-to-one basis if a hard fork occurs. The firm expects the new fund to be listed on September 16, the announcement said. The full name for the new fund will be ETC Group Physical EthereumPoW.
- The NFT market has reported tremendous growth during the past year. Multiple NFT competition platforms have also sprouted during this time, with one of them being Lucky Block. Lucky Block is one of the largest NFT competition platforms powered by the LBLOCK token.
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Instant Deposits/Withdrawals in BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, BUSD, Matic, CHP - and no KYC checks. Cash Games, Tournaments. Regular High Roller games. Transparent - Decentralized - Verifiably fair. All countries allowed. Windows, Mac, IOS, Android.
CoinPoker is the home of Crypto Series of Online Poker (CSOP). There are CSOP editions of our popular Big Bang, Sunday Special and NoMercy Shooting Star tournaments. (October 14 -23, 2022)
Also, CSOP Mini is back! CSOP Mini is like the Crypto Series of Online Poker, with the difference that it is designed for smaller bankrolls. (September 23 - October 2, 2022)
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Sebastien Borget is the Co-founder and COO of The Sandbox. Together with Arthur Madrid, he has co-founded 3 companies, 2 of which have been acquired. Sebastien has more than 10 years in mobile gaming, running production and marketing for top-grossing titles. His work was awarded the nomination for 2 consecutive years of The Sandbox in App Store Best Games of 2012 and 2013!
Sebastien also became the President of the Blockchain Game Alliance in 2020, a non-profit organization of 230 key members of the industry. He was recently named in the top 100 most influential people in crypto by CoinTelegraph.
In this conversation, we discuss:
- Turning players into creators - Sandbox Alpha Season 3 - Metaverse = creating new experiences - Owning experiences in the metaverse - OMA3 - Blockchain Game Alliance - Animoca Brands - Creator tools
Tune In!
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- Coinbase has helped organize and is paying the costs of a lawsuit against the US Treasury Department over its sanctions of coin mixer Tornado Cash, Bloomberg reported. The lawsuit claims Treasury overstepped its authority to block financial transactions benefiting foreign terrorists. It also alleges that the department ensnared law-abiding Americans conducting legitimate digital commerce through a crypto service that offers enhanced privacy and security, per the report. Coinbase will cover the legal costs for the six individuals challenging the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
- The White House says the environmental impact of producing cryptoassets like Bitcoin could impede US efforts to combat climate change, Bloomberg reported, citing a report by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The office said the US must take action to mitigate pollution tied to crypto production and the federal government should collect more data on power usage and work with states and the crypto industry to set standards.
- With the help of law enforcement and organizations in the crypto industry, more than USD 30m worth of crypto stolen from Axie Infinity by North Korean-linked hackers has been seized, according to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis. "This marks the first time ever that cryptocurrency stolen by a North Korean hacking group has been seized, and we’re confident it won’t be the last," they added.
- The Toronto crypto marketplace Coinberry, owned by Kevin O’Leary-backed WonderFi Technologies Inc., says it has lost some USD 3m in Bitcoin due to a software glitch and has yet to claw back two-thirds of it from hundreds of customers, Financial Post reported, citing a lawsuit.
- The UK Advertising Standards Authority said that crypto-related Instagram ads by reality show stars Jessica and Eve Gale were misleading. The ads must not appear again in the form complained about, and the Gale sisters have "to ensure that they did not trivialize the investment in cryptoassets by implying that it was straightforward or accessible to everyone and to not take advantage of consumer’s inexperience or credulity by not making clear [capital gain tax] could be due on cryptoasset profits," the authority said.
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Kucoin - Promotion
At Kucoin, we are thrilled to announce that we'll co-host the USDC September Carnival with the USDC team to bring more benefits to our users and the USDC community. This USDC September Carnival will last all of September with various campaigns. You are welcome to join this feast and share 250,000 USDC!
Activity Period: 10:00:00 on September 5, 2022 – 10:00:00 on September 11, 2022 (UTC)
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