Despite the crypto winter, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) continue to draw interest. This has become apparent as many brands and retailers have started to offer digital NFTs attached to physical products. Known as “phygitals,” these offerings allow real-world products to be tied to digital NFTs. For example, RTFKT — a digital fashion and collectible company — recently launched a project called Cryptokicks iRL. According to sources, RTFKT is creating digitally-designed sneakers backed by a physical product. RTFKT’s official Twitter account recently tweeted that Lace Engine NFT holders will be able to reserve a pair of Cryptokicks iRL, which can then be …

Daniel Friedberg, controversial lawyer who served as top compliance chief at now-defunkt exchange FTX, has reportedly cooperated with United States’ prosecutors investigating FTX collapse. Friedberg provided details about FTX in a meeting with two dozen investigators hold by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York's (SDNY) office on Nov. 22, Reuters reported. The meeting included officials from the Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the report notes, citing a source familiar with the matter. At the meeting, Friedberg provided prosecutors with his knowledge of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's use of …

Companies that applied to win over the $244,000 contract to develop a central bank digital currency (CBDC) wallet proof of concept (PoC) for the Bank of England (BOE) provided questions about the project. In response, the central bank published its answers to over 70 questions. On Dec. 9, the BOE opened applications asking suppliers to submit applications. About 20 companies submitted their applications and handed in their questions before Dec. 25. Following this, the BOE published the questions asked by the competing providers and gave its answers that aimed to offer insights into the project. According to the BOE, it …

A class action lawsuit has been filed against password management service LastPass following a data breach from Aug. 2022. The class action was filed with the U.S. district court of Massachusetts on Jan. 3, by an unnamed plaintiff known only as “John Doe” and on behalf of others similarly situated. It alleges that the data breach of LastPass has resulted in the theft of around $53,000 worth of Bitcoin. The plaintiff claimed he began accruing BTC in Jul. 2022 and updated his master password to more than 12 characters using a password generator, as recommended by the LastPass “best practices.” …

Fiat-to-crypto on-ramp solution provider Juno has urged its users to sell or self-custody the crypto on its platform citing “uncertainty” with its crypto custodian partner Wyre. In a Jan. 4 tweet, the platform explained it that it doesn't hold any of its customer's crypto, and relies on its “crypto partner” for those services. “Due to uncertainty with our crypto partner, we have taken preemptive action in the interest of our customers,” it wrote, adding it’s also actively reaching out to customers to ask them to self-custody. 2/ Juno as a platform doesn’t custody crypto assets & relies on our crypto …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a “limited objection” to crypto exchange Binance.US’s proposed $1 billion takeover of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital, citing a lack of “necessary information.” The limited objection was filed on Jan. 4, with the SEC pointing to a lack of detail regarding Binance.US’s ability to fund the acquisition, what Binance.US’s operations would look like following the deal, and how customer assets will be secured during and after the transaction. A limited objection is similar to a normal objection but only applies to a specific part of the proceedings. Additionally, the regulator …

Judge Martin Glenn, who is presiding over the Celsius bankruptcy case, ruled on Jan. 4 that the funds in the Celsius interest-bearing Earn program belong to Celsius under the terms of the program’s terms of use. The funds reportedly amount to more than $4 billion. “The issue of ownership of the assets in the Earn Accounts is a contract law issue,” Judge Martin wrote, citing the latest version of the Earn program’s terms of use that stated lending platform Celsius held “all right and title to such Eligible Digital Assets, including ownership rights.” Related: Core Scientific shuts down 37K mining …

South Korean tech giant LG Electronics announced that it has teamed up with Oorbit, a cloud-based technology platform and PIXELYNX, a company building an integrated music, gaming, and Web3 ecosystem, to bring the metaverse directly into the living rooms of viewers. Announced just in time for #CES2023, we’re excited to announce that we have partnered with @LGElectronics to bring interoperable gaming and social experiences directly to your LG Smart TVs. READ: https://t.co/nppJZe650B — Oorbit (@OorbitOnline) January 4, 2023 The collaboration is set to allow viewers to be able to explore interconnected virtual worlds, concerts, and AI multiplayer games through their …

Derar Islim, interim CEO of crypto market maker and lender Genesis, has sent a letter to clients updating them on the company’s efforts to prop up its finances and resume withdrawals and new lending. The letter, sent on Jan. 4, comes two days after a Twitter exchange between Barry Silbert, CEO of Genesis’ owner the Digital Currency Group, and Cameron Winklevoss, cofounder of the Gemini crypto exchange, in which Winklevoss criticized Genesis’ handling of its problems. “We believe was can arrive at a solution,” Islim wrote in the letter, according to a report in Bloomberg on Dec. 4. Nonetheless, Islim …

Singapore-based decentralized finance (DeFi) services firm, Cake DeFi, has announced the release of its Proof of Reserves using the cryptographically-audited Merkle tree method. Developed by Ralph Merkle in 1979, the Merkle tree method is a way of proving that a certain piece of data is included in a set of data, without revealing the entire set of data. Under the proof of reserves method, a Merkle tree is used to prove that a cryptocurrency exchange has the reserves it claims to have, without revealing the exact amounts of each cryptocurrency that it holds, in order to protect the privacy of …

According to a blog post published on Jan. 4, Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange MEXC announced that it would allocate $20 million to support developments on Sei Network. A layer one blockchain designed for trading, Sei Network's stated features include native order matching, frontrunning protection, smart block propagation, and 600 milisecond on-chain trade settlement. Leo Zhao, investment manager of MEXC Ventures, commented: "AMM [Automated Market Makers] was the dominant market-making method in crypto for the past 2 years. The lack of a more efficient market-making strategy is in large part because of technology restrictions like low speed and smart-contract restrictions. We believe …

Time-weighted average price is an algorithmic trade execution strategy commonly used in traditional finance tools. The goal of the strategy is to produce an average execution price that is relatively close to the time-weighted average price (TWAP) for the period that the user specifies. TWAP is mainly used to reduce a large order’s impact on the market by breaking it down into smaller orders and executing each one at regular intervals over a period of time. How TWAP can reduce the price impact of a large order Bids can influence the price of an asset in the order books or …