Weekly Summary
- Bitcoin Rockets Past $24.7K to Reach 2023 High
- Paxos Reportedly Ordered to Stop Issuing BUSD; Tether’s USDT Gains $1b
- Polygon Announces Launch Date for zkEVM Mainnet Beta in March
- Binance and Huobi Freeze $1.4M in Crypto Tied to Harmony Bridge Theft
- Conflux Network Partners with China Telecom to Build Blockchain-Enabled SIM Cards
Industry Stories
Bitcoin Rockets Past $24.7K to Reach 2023 High: Bitcoin has surged past $24,700 this week, reaching a 13-day high and then a 6-month high, as market sentiment turns positive following the recent market correction. The uptrend is considered a result of bullish institutional investment and increased demand from retail investors. Meanwhile, NFT platform Ordinals, has enabled NFT inscriptions to be written into the Bitcoin blockchain through a new smart contract. The inscriptions, which can contain personalized messages, will be visible to anyone with access to the Bitcoin blockchain, and can be attached to Bitcoin transactions, marking a new milestone in the integration of NFTs and the Bitcoin blockchain.
US Regulators Ordered Paxos to Halt Minting Binance Stablecoin: The New York State Department of Financial Services has ordered Paxos Trust Company to halt issuing its stablecoin, Paxos Standard, to Binance, following allegations that the cryptocurrency exchange had not responded to concerns about potential money laundering risks. The firm confirmed that it would stop issuing the token on Feb 21. Amid the ongoing BUSD crisis, Tether has witnessed a surge in demand for its flagship token, USDT, which has just added another $1 billion, pushing its market cap to $69.52 billion as of February 15th.
Polygon’s zkEVM Mainnet Beta Will Go Live on March 27th: Polygon, a layer-2 protocol on Ethereum, announced to launch the beta version of its zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup, ZK-EVM mainnet in late March. The ZK-EVM mainnet will enable higher scalability and lower transaction costs by bundling multiple transactions and reducing the amount of data processed on-chain, while maintaining privacy using zero-knowledge proofs. The move is expected to further enhance Polygon’s position as a key scaling solution for Ethereum.
Binance and Huobi Freeze $1.4M in Crypto Tied to Harmony Bridge Theft: Binance and Huobi on Tuesday froze accounts linked to a $100m hack of the Harmony Horizon bridge in June 2021. Blockchain data firm Elliptic identified $1.4m of crypto in accounts linked to North Korean group the Lazarus Group. The funds were sent through a privacy mixer, but investigators traced them back to the original theft. The recovery follows a similar operation in January, when the exchanges froze and recovered 121 Bitcoin, worth $2.5m, linked to the same hack.
Conflux Network, China Telecom to build blockchain-enabled SIM cards: Chinese public blockchain project Conflux announced on Wednesday a new partnership with China Telecom to develop a blockchain-enabled SIM card. Blockchain technology will enable this SIM card to authenticate and verify user identities and also provide secure storage for private keys. The project will be rolled out to China Telecom’s extensive user base, potentially increasing blockchain adoption in China. Amid the partnership news, Conflux’s native token (CFX) has surged over 150%, trading at $0.1437 as of Feb 17.
Service Highlight
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Matrixport News
Matrixport is thrilled to be able to conduct regulated activities in the UK, and to introduce investment products and services to UK-based institutional investors. Our UK unit is now an Appointed Representative of UK FCA-Authorised Varramore Partners.
Asia’s ultra-rich are known for their curiosity in crypto, and some have taken steps to diversify their portfolios to hedge against losses from traditional asset classes such as #stocks and real-estate. Matrixport’s recently published Private Wealth in Digital Assets Study uncovered differing sentiments beyond this region, such as in the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia.
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