BIS Releases Report On ‘Project Icebreaker’ — Develops Cross-Border Retail CBDC Payment Model

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has released a report summarizing the “Project Icebreaker” trial, which explored the potential advantages and difficulties of utilizing a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) in cross-border payments. The experiment was designed to test “the…

Stanford Alumni Revealed as Co-Signers of FTX Co-Founder’s $250M Bond

According to the latest court documents in the fraud case involving former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in Manhattan, the New York judge presiding over the case unsealed the co-signers of Bankman-Fried’s bond on Wednesday. The names of the two bail bond…

File Transfer Giant Wetransfer Joins NFT Industry, Partners with Blockchain Platform Minima for March Launch of Minting Product

File transfer service giant Wetransfer announced Monday it is collaborating with blockchain platform Minima to offer a non-fungible token (NFT) minting product in March. Wetransfer’s announcement details that users leveraging the Minima cooperative will be able to mint NFTs from a…

60 Organizations Launch Campaign Urging US Congress to Protect Privacy

On Wednesday, 60 organizations involved in cryptocurrencies, open-source and free software, and human rights and privacy-preserving projects launched a new campaign calling on the 118th U.S. Congress to protect privacy. The groups, including Fight for the Future, Electric Coin Co., and…

Combined Transactions on Arbitrum and Optimism L2 Chains Outpace Ethereum’s Daily Transfer Count 

Since The Merge, Ethereum’s onchain fees have been considerably lower. However, combined transaction volume on layer two (L2) chains Arbitrum and Optimism has outpaced Ethereum’s onchain transaction output. On Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023, Ethereum processed 1.10 million onchain transactions, while combined…

Coin Center Sues US Treasury Over Tornado Cash Ban — Lawsuit Says Government’s Action ‘Was Unlawful’

The non-profit that focuses on policy issues facing cryptocurrencies, Coin Center, has filed a lawsuit against the Treasury department, the secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) director Andrea Gacki. Coin Center’s court filing…

Ethereum’s Pivot to Proof-of-Stake Consensus Worries Users About the Possibility of Protocol Level Censorship

The upcoming consensus change that Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is planning to execute in September has worried many users about the possibility of censorship happening at a protocol level. This means that, even by interacting directly with…

Coin Center Says OFAC’s Tornado Cash Ban ‘Exceeds Statutory Authority,’ Plans to ‘Engage’ With US Watchdog

On August 15, the non-profit that focuses on policy issues facing crypto assets, Coin Center, published a blog post that says the organization is looking at the legality of the recent Tornado Cash sanctions enforced by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office…

De-Mixing Wasabi Coinjoin Transactions: A Deep Dive Into Chainalysis’ Deanonymizing Claims

On Tuesday, journalist Laura Shin published a story that claims to identify the 2016 Genesis DAO hacker who siphoned 3.6 million ethereum from the decentralized autonomous organization. While the story surprised the crypto community, one of the biggest eye-openers was the…