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The Bored Ape community was not very impressed by the Yuga Labs' reaction to the mishap, calling out their lack of basic health management at the event. Several attendees of Yuga Labs’ ApeFest event on Nov. 4 in Hong Kong reported eye-related issue s, including burns, damaged vision and “extreme pain” in their eyes. Yuga Labs’ official X account has now addressed the issue , claiming they are aware of the reports of potential eye-related issue s to many attendees and are investigating the cause behind them. I just opened up IG and Jasmine’s eye is swollen. Some Apes had an eye issue at ApeFest. Protect your eyes. Wash your hands. Be careful out there. pic.twitter.com/FNHF9hrDeg — PB Drip (@DripperPb) November 6, 2023 Yuga Labs claimed that less than 1% of the attendees have experienced eye-related symptoms, and most of the affected attendees are experiencing improvement in their conditions with the passage of time. Apes, we are aware of the eye-related issue s that affected ...

A report from the Bitcoin-only exchange River suggests increased Lightning usage will play a key role in Bitcoin becoming a better medium of exchange. Bitcoin’s layer 2 Lightning Network has seen an estimated 1,212% growth in two years , with around 6.6 million routed transactions in August, a significant jump compared to August 2021’s 503,000 transitions, according to data from the Bitcoin (BTC)-only exchange River. In an Oct. 10 report, River research analyst Sam Wouters explained the jump in routed transactions — which use more than two nodes to facilitate a transfer — came despite a 44% fall in Bitcoin’s price and considerably less online search interest. “‘Nobody is using Lightning’ should now be a dead meme,” Wouters said in an Oct. 10 follow-up X (Twitter) post, taking a shot at Lightning critics. “Nobody is using Lightning” should now be a dead meme. Launching a new #Bitcoin report from @River: How the Lightning Network grew by 1212% in 2 years It’s time to pay attention to ...

JPMorgan is reportedly developing the infrastructure to run a new deposit token, allowing settlements between banks for corporate clients. Financial giant JPMorgan is making another move into the crypto space with a new blockchain-based solution for cross-border transactions, reveals a report by Bloomberg. The system, however, won't be available until the bank receives the green light from regulators in the United States.  JPMorgan has reportedly developed most of the infrastructure to run the new deposit token , which will be first launched for corporate clients to speed up payments and settlements . Deposit tokens are issued on a blockchain by a deposit ory institution to represent a deposit position. The solution contrasts with stablecoins, which are usually issued by a non-bank private entity. The product is also different from its JPM Coin, which already allows corporate clients to transfer dollars and euros across the financial institution. The new deposit token , meanw...

KYC is an important measure for crypto exchanges to protect and recover user funds in the case of theft or hacking, KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu said. Amid KuCoin exchange preparing to adopt mandatory Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, the company’s CEO argued that privacy is not the most important feature of Bitcoin (BTC). “When it comes to the purpose of Bitcoin creation, I think privacy is just one of its Features ,” KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu told Cointelegraph in an interview on July 4. Instead of privacy, the core benefit of Bitcoin is a unit of exchange, which allows holders to hedge against recessions, Lyu hinted. The CEO mentioned that Bitcoin was created after the 2008 financial crisis, which was triggered by the United States subprime mortgage crisis. “These events led to the birth of Bitcoin,” Lyu noted. While some may believe that overly strict KYC practices are not good for users as they may limit one’s privacy, the KuCoin CEO believes that such policies are more useful than not, as...

Germany’s conglomerate Siemens AG was reportedly the first company to process euro-denominated payments using JPM Coin. The United States-based investment bank JPMorgan is expanding the implementation of one of its major blockchain projects, JPM Coin, into traditional banking. JPMorgan has deployed its blockchain-based payment system, JPM Coin, to introduce euro-denominated payments for corporate clients, Bloomberg reported on June 23. According to Basak Toprak, JPMorgan’s head of Coin Systems for Europe Middle East and Africa, JPM Coin went live with euro transactions on June 21. Germany’s conglomerate Siemens AG conducted the first euro payment on the platform, Toprak said. The system enables wholesale payments such clients, including large multinational firms, to transfer euros to and from their JPMorgan accounts instantly and 24/7. That brings a significant improvement in comparison to traditional banking transactions, which are usually processed only during business hours. “...

Just days after buying $21 million of Coinbase shares, ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood has added another $19.9 million in Block Inc. shares across its ETFs. ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood doesn’t appear to have been swayed by recent crypto regulatory action, after buying another $19.9 million shares of Block Inc. right after buying $21 million of shares in Coinbase. Wood’s latest buying spree comes despite the United States Securities Commission suing two of the industry’s exchange heavyweights — Binance (June 5) and Coinbase (June 6) for offering what the regulator considers to be unregistered securities, among other things. Coinbase's share price has been depressed in the days following the SEC lawsuit, however, Block Inc.'s shares saw a sharp rise in that same time period. ARK Invest’s 305,573 new shares of Block came across six buys between June 7-8, which now represents ARK’s fourth largest holding at 4.81%, according to ARK Invest Daily Trades. Of the new shares , 240,174 were ...

Popular entrepreneur and VeeFriends creator, Gary Vaynerchuck, shared his thoughts on NFT tickets, VeeCon 2024, cryptocurrency and blockchain adoption at VeeCon 2023. Famous entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuck — also known as Gary Vee — is a long-time supporter and collector of nonfungible tokens (NFTs). In May 2021, Vaynerchuck announced the launch of his VeeFriends NFT collection, which consisted of 10,255 unique tokens to give holders access to exclusive events. Shortly after launching the VeeFriends collection, Vaynerchuck demonstrated the potential behind NFT tickets during VeeCon 2022 — a Web3-focused conference built around NFTs, pop culture, entrepreneurship and marketing. Attendees of VeeCon 2022 needed to hold at least one VeeFriend Series 1 NFT to access the event. Based on the success of this model, Vaynerchuck moved forward with NFT-based tickets for VeeCon 2023, which was held from May 18–20 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The event organizers told Cointelegraph that VeeCon 2023 att...

Crypto miners paid millions of dollars in energy fees last year following the regulation of the fiscal burden of mining activities. The government of Kazakhstan has received 3.07 billion tenge (approximately $7 million) in tax payments from crypto mining entities in 2022, following the implementation of an amended law regulating the fiscal burden of mining cryptocurrencies, according to the local media reports. Preliminary data from the government for 2023 shows that mining fees collected by April 27 totaled 240 million tenge - worth over $541,000 at the time of writing. The figures are much lower than the 652 million tenge (~$1.5 million) in fees paid in the first quarter of 2022.  Kazakhstan ranks among the world's top Bitcoin mining  hubs. As of January 2022, the Central Asian country contributed to 13.22% of the total Bitcoin hash rate, just behind the United States (37.84%) and China (21.11%), shows data from Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. Related: Can Canada stay...

Five people have been charged in relation to alleged market manipulation of an Ethereum-based token called “Hydro.” A freshly unsealed indictment has charge d five individuals with “conspiring to manipulate the market” in relation to an alleged scheme involving the ERC-20 Hydro (HYDRO) token. An April 24 statement from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) said the indictment charge d three people for conspiring to manipulate the market for Hydro. Two other individuals were separately charge d for their roles in the scheme . The DOJ alleges that from June 2018 through April 2019, Michael Ross Kane, the former CEO of Hydrogen Technology Corp., Shane Hampton, Hydrogen’s chief of financial engineering and George Wolvaardt defrauded market participants looking to trade the Hydro tokens Hydrogen issued. Five Individuals Charged in $2M Virtual Asset and Securities Manipulation Schemehttps://t.co/qLrHjkTKlY — Criminal Division (@DOJCrimDiv) April 24, 2023 According to the in...

Druk Holding and Investments CEO Ujjwal Deep Dahal said in a Forbes statement that the issue is confidential and the matter with BlockFi has already been settled. The Kingdom of Bhutan’s sovereign investment arm, estimated to manage around $2.9 billion in assets, has placed millions of dollars in crypto currencies and was a customer of bankrupt crypto firms BlockFi and Celsius. Druk Holding and Investments (DHI), a commercial arm of the royal government of Bhutan, has grown a crypto portfolio without disclosing it to the public, according to a report released by Forbes. The funds were brought to light following the crypto contagion in 2022 when companies like Celsius and BlockFi filed for bankruptcy. User Deposit and Withdrawal - 90 Day - Source: Celsius SoFA Shout out to those who were able to Chapter 7 liquidate themselves at 100 cents on the dollar pic.twitter.com/nTdIVFrBXq — Celsius Loans (@CelsiusLoans) February 20, 2023 According to the report, a Celsius filing sh...

Ava Labs has introduced its new Evergreen subnets, aiming to help institutions improve control and intercompany communication on the blockchain. Ava Labs, the developer of the Avalanche layer-1 Blockchain platform, is introducing new institutional deployments to improve the Blockchain environment. On April 6, Ava Labs introduced Avalanche Evergreen Subnets, a suite of institutional blockchain tooling and customizations designed to address company-specific requirements for financial services. The new product aims to allow institutions to maintain control over their blockchain environment while enabling intercompany communication, Ava Labs’ institutional business development director, Morgan Krupetsky, told Cointelegraph. “Currently, many institutions are building use cases on enterprise blockchains such as Corda, Hyperledger, Quorum or R3, which inherently are not interoperable and rely on third-party bridges,” Krupetsky said. With Evergreen subnets, member institutions will be able to...

Angel investors are seed-stage financiers who offer mentorship to nascent businesses for equity, while venture capitalists inject substantial capital into later-stage firms. Angel investors and venture capitalists are two types of private investors who provide funding for early-stage and growth-stage companies. However, there are some key differences between them that we will cover in this article. Who are angel investors? High-net-worth individuals who invest in companies at an early stage in exchange for equity in the business are known as angel investors. They frequently invest their own funds and take a more active approach to investment, offering advice and mentoring to the businesses they support. The well-known angel investors in the crypto world include: Roger Ver — He is known as “Bitcoin Jesus” and is an early investor in Bitcoin (BTC) startups, such as Blockchain.info, BitPay and Kraken. Barry Silbert — He is the founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group, which invests in a...

United States prosecutors have labeled this as the first insider trading case in cryptocurrency. Ishan Wahi, a former product manager at Coinbase Global Inc., has admitted to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire Fraud in a case that U.S. prosecutors have labeled as the first insider trading case involving cryptocurrency. Ex-Coinbase manager pleads guilty in insider trading case https://t.co/i6fG3c3wHc pic.twitter.com/zKfjqnNpzT — Reuters (@Reuters) February 7, 2023 According to a report by Reuters, the prosecutors claimed that Wahi disclosed private information to his brother Nikhil and friend Sameer Ramani, regarding imminent announcements of new digital assets that Coinbase would enable users to trade. The announcement later caused assets to rise in value, allowing Nikhil and Sameer Raman to generate illicit gains of at least $1.5 million. Nikhil Wahi and Ramani were charged with using Ethereum (ETH) blockchain wallets to acquire digital assets and trading before the Coinba...

The Damus app is powered by Nostr which uses decentralized relays to distribute end-to-end encrypted messages. Damus, a so-called “Twitter killer” built on a decentralized network has been approved on the Apple App Store. The Damus team confirmed the approval to its 11,500 Twitter followers on Jan. 31, following what it claims was at least three rejections from the Big Tech player. Shortly after, Twitter co-founder and Nostr contributor Jack Dorsey shared the news with his 6.5 million followers, with the entrepreneur labeling it as a “milestone” moment for open source protocols: a milestone for open protocols...#nostr is now officially on the Apple App Store with @damusapp:https://t.co/GQmvPE5nfX — jack (@jack) January 31, 2023 The app dubs itself the “social network you control” and is a messaging service built on Nostr — a decentralized network enabling encrypted, end-to-end private messaging, among other things. It plans to become a Social Media platform with uncensored cont...

The program aims to provide selected projects with upfront seed funding of $30,000 in addition to mentoring, masterclasses and support from industry experts. Blockchain startup accelerator Cronos Labs has announced the opening of applications for its second cohort of the $100 million-backed Cronos Accelerator Program.  The program, which begins on April 24, 2023, will last for 12 weeks and provide selected projects with upfront seed funding of $30,000. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to secure up to $300,000 in seed funding from Cronos Labs and receive mentoring, masterclasses and support from industry experts. The program is focused on the decentralized finance (DeFi), GameFi, SocialFi, and Infrastructure verticals and will accept applications until March 24, 2023. The selection of projects for the second cohort of the Accelerator Program will be based on various factors, including their market potential, the leadership team's expertise, market compatibilit...