Moonstone Bank, a rural Washington state bank that received an estimated $11.5 million investment from FTX’s sister company, Alameda Research, has announced today that it will be exiting the crypto space and returning to its "original mission" as a community bank. In a statement released by the bank — now known as Farmington State Bank — on Jan. 19, it cited that the change in strategy comes as a result of “recent events in the crypto assets industry and the changing regulatory environment surrounding crypto asset businesses.” As part of the bank’s initiative to "return to its roots," it shared …

Chris Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire, has released the results of an investigation from a commission aimed at recommending legislation around digital assets and blockchain as part of a 2022 executive order. In a Jan. 19 announcement, Sununu said the Commission on Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets had reported the legal and regulatory status of cryptocurrencies and digital assets was “highly uncertain,” stymying development and leading to less protection for investors and consumers. The group recommended New Hampshire establish a state legal regime aimed at drawing in blockchain firms and individuals. According to the report, sent to the governor on …

According to local news outlet News1, Busan, South Korea will establish a decentralized digital commodities exchange. Officials said the platform is scheduled to start operations this year and will support local cultural content via digital assets. “Taking advantage of the strengths of Busan, such as the Busan International Film Festival, G-Star; [the exchange] will include tokenization of intellectual property rights in the film and game fields, as well as gold, precious metals, agricultural and livestock products, ships, real estate, etc.” As told by the Busan Digital Asset Exchange Establishment Promotion Committee, the plan involves coordinating domestic financial companies and digital …

As the Web3 space continues to grow and evolve, there are now several defined aspects that users tend to affiliate it with. Whether one likes to use crypto for payments or is interested in hunting down the latest NFT collectible, the crypto space is rapidly diversifying what it can offer users. Regardless of the sub-sector, Web3 continues to onboard new users. According to the latest DappRadar industry report, the number of unique active wallets that connected to a blockchain-based application on a daily basis rose significantly in 2022. While in 2021, the blockchain industry saw an average daily wallet count …

MatchBoxDAO — a collective of developers, artists and designers building on-chain gaming infrastructure with StarkNet — has announced the launch of MatchBox Arena, an esports experience specifically designed for developer participation. Dubbing it the “World Cup of the Web3 companies,” the team said the gaming tournament is designed to find out which company has the best technical team. We are finally launching: "Matchbox Arena"✨ With the "Battle of Titans" as the first CTF competition released on the platform, we'll officially release "Matchbox Arena" tomorrow where the players will be able to upload their code.https://t.co/vGbEuyzus0 More info below — MatchboxDAO (@matchbox_dao) …

According to a Jan. 19 announcement by Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange has tightened its rules for nonfungible tokens, or NFT, listings. Starting Feb. 02, 2023, all NFTs listed on Binance before Oct. 2, 2022, and have an average daily trading volume lower than $1,000 between Nov. 1, 2022, and Jan. 31, 2023, will be delisted. In addition, after Jan. 21, 2023, NFT artists can only mint up to five digital collectibles per day. Binance NFT requires sellers to complete know-your-customer (KYC) verification and have at least two followers before listing on its platform. In addition to the revised rules, Binance …

The Amazon Web Services (AWS)-Avalanche “cooperation,” as it was carefully described last week, should almost immediately make it easy for developers to establish nodes on the Avalanche blockchain, including via “one-click node deployment.” Eventually, too, it might make it simpler for everyday businesses — i.e., non-crypto-related enterprises — and even individuals to establish their own subnets like smaller, private, layer-2 blockchains. But perhaps the outstanding message from the Jan. 11 announcement is that the blockchain revolution isn’t just about cryptocurrencies. It’s also about things as prosaic as storing documents more securely and sensibly so they can be quickly retrieved during …

Are HD wallets safe? HD wallets are as secure as the medium (physical or digital) on which they are stored. BIP-32 enables an HD wallet to produce a tree-like hierarchical structure of private keys from the seed. As a result, if a device is lost or destroyed, the seed backup can be used to restore the wallet along with all of the tree’s private keys. Hierarchical deterministic wallets offer enhanced security and privacy compared to non-deterministic wallets. They are secure because a new address is issued for every new transaction. Therefore, hacking them is a challenging and intricate process. Additionally, …

The celebrated union between blockchain and gaming has encountered several hurdles that have left many wondering if the new sector of crypto and gaming will ever live up to its potential. In the fifth episode of the Hashing It Out podcast, Cointelegraph’s Elisha Owusu Akyaw and Animoca Brands CEO, Robby Yung, discuss how the blockchain gaming industry is striving forward regardless of the challenges. Robby Yung believes that there are issues on both sides. Regarding blockchain developers, Yung argues that the industry has not been able to educate the masses on the benefits of blockchain technology. According to Yung, people …

National Australia Bank (NAB) is set to become the second “Big 4” Australian bank to launch an Australian dollar-pegged stablecoin on the Ethereum network. Set to launch sometime in mid-2023, the AUDN stablecoin is aimed at streamlining cross-border remittances and carbon credit trading, according to a Jan. 18 report from the Australian Financial Review (AFR). NAB’s chief innovation officer Howard Silby said the decision to mint the AUDN stablecoin on Ethereum — which is backed 1:1 by the Australian dollar (AUD) — was based on their belief that blockchain infrastructure will play a key role in the next evolution of …

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse expects the firm’s long-running dispute with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) will be finalized within “single-digit months” and remains confident in securing a favorable outcome. Speaking to CNBC on Jan. 18 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Garlinghouse said the verdict could come as soon as June this year now that both parties have “fully filled and fully briefed” their arguments before the U.S. District Court: “We expect a decision from a judge certainly in 2023. You don’t really have control over when a judge makes their decisions. But I’m optimistic that sometime in …

ConsenSys, the parent company behind MetaMask, is letting go of 11% of its workforce, with CEO Joseph Lubin blaming “uncertain market conditions” brought on by recent collapses. In a blog post from ConsenSys CEO Joseph Lubin on Jan. 18, the blockchain firm CEO said “poorly behaved” centralized finance (CeFi) actors have cast a “broad pall on our ecosystem that we will all need to work through.” Lubin said the decision will impact 96 employees and is part of plans to focus its resources on its core businesses. Today we need to make the extremely difficult decision to streamline some of …