Polygon, an Ethereum-scaling project, successfully completed a hard fork designed to reduce instances of spiking gas fees and disruptive chain reorganizations known as "reorgs."

The software upgrade occurred at 10:45 UTC (5:45 a.m. ET) on Tuesday, according to a tweet from Polygon Labs, the lead company behind the project.

The two proposals included in the hard fork were put forth in December. Some 87% of Polygon validator teams that participated voted for approval. Only 15 validator teams took part in the voting process, which is extremely low given the number of active validators at a time is limited to 100.

The first proposal adjusted a mechanism that sets gas fees, The second proposal aims to reduce the amount of time it takes to complete a data block.

Source: Coindesk

The share price of Coinbase fell as low as $31.95 on Jan. 6, before shooting up to $54.14 by the close of trading on Jan. 17. The rising share price will likely be accompanied by a huge sigh of relief for Coinbase executives after a challenging 2022 saw it cut 20% of its workforce and decide to wind down its Japanese operations. Despite the surge, COIN remains more than 84% below its all time high.

Other crypto-related stocks such as MicroStrategy and digital payments company Block Inc. have also posted strong gains in the new year.

MicroStrategy's share price has increased to nearly $236 from a low of just over $135 on Dec. 29 — representing an increase of over 74% — while Jack Dorsey’s Block has seen its share price increase by a muted but still respectable 27%, after rebounding from a low of under $59 on Dec. 28 to over $75.

Source: Cointelegraph

The notion that bear markets are good for builders appears to be true with the total number of monthly active Web3 developers increasing 5.4% to more than 23,300 over the last 12 months despite a near 70% drop in crypto prices.

According to a Jan. 16 report from Electric Capital, “full-time” developers — categorized as those who contribute to 76% of Github commits — also increased 15.2% to over 7000, while “one-time” builders fell 6.2% to over 3,500 during the same time period between December 2021 and December 2022

Source: Cointelegraph

DeGods has dominated the Solana NFT space, racking up more trading volume in SOL than any other project. It now plans to move over to Ethereum, and the project appears to have already caught the eye of at least one big investor in the space.

A pseudonymous NFT trader known as "Pokeee" spent nearly $1 million to sweep 69 DeGods NFTs on Monday. Pokeee made the buy through the Magic Eden marketplace, using its tool that lets buyers “sweep the floor” or buy up a desired amount of NFTs from a project. Traders sometimes purchase numerous lowest-priced NFTs in a project as a bet on the future success of the collection, rather than individually selecting more valuable assets.

Source: Decrypt

The Bank of Japan on Wednesday maintained ultra-low interest rates, including its 0.5% cap for the 10-year bond yield, defying market expectations it would phase out its massive stimulus programme in the wake of rising inflationary pressure.

At a two-day policy meeting, the BOJ kept intact its yield curve control (YCC) targets, set at -0.1% for short-term interest rates and around 0% for the 10-year yield, by a unanimous vote.

Markets had anticipated a possible change to policy at the meeting and the surprise decision to keep settings unchanged sent the dollar surging nearly 2% against the yen, its biggest one-day percentage jump since June 17.

Source: Reuters

According to Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister, Mohammed Al-Jadaan, the country is now willing to settle trades in currencies other than the US dollar. The revelation was made by Al-Jadaan on Tuesday during an interview in Davos.

“There are no issues with discussing how we settle our trade arrangements, whether it is in the US dollar, whether it is the euro, whether it is the Saudi riyal,” said Mohammed Al-Jadaan. He also stated that he doesn’t think that they are waving away any discussion that will help improve trade around the world.

Source: Watcher.guru

China's new Foreign Minister, Qin Gang, is embarking on a five-nation trip to Africa, which is in line with the tradition where the Foreign Minister's first trip of the year is to Africa. The main aim of the trip is to deepen the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership and boost friendly cooperation. 

Gang will also visit the African Union Headquarters in Ethiopia and meet the Secretary-General of the Arab League in Egypt. The itinerary of Gang's trip has caught attention as it follows President Xi's trip to Saudi Arabia where he announced "a new paradigm of all-dimensional energy cooperation," proposed "RMB settlement in oil and gas trade," and pressed for "deepening in digital currency cooperation and advance the m-CBDC Bridge project." 

This has led to speculation that some countries in Africa may be next in embracing Beijing's advances to conduct some, or all, of its energy trade in RMB. This could challenge the petrodollar system with significant implications for the dollar, the Treasury market, commodities and, ultimately, U.S. hegemony.

In addition to the potential implications for the petrodollar system, it is also worth noting that China views Angola as an important supplier for its energy security and that Angola is heavily dependent on China. This, combined with Beijing's willingness to enter long-term energy contracts, means that Beijing is likely to dictate the terms of trade. 

Beijing has a history of driving a hard bargain, for example, by pressing for steep discounts and payment in RMB for importing oil from sanctioned countries like Russia, Iran and Venezuela. With Saudi Arabia and the GCC, Chinese investment in non-energy sectors such as 5G/6G, infrastructure, green technology, and surveillance came hand in hand with energy settlement in RMB. It is possible that Beijing may exact similar terms from Angola if Gang's visit is to lay the groundwork for an African OPEC member to trade and settle oil in RMB.

Expanding RMB trade and settlement into Africa is also likely to dampen foreign demand for dollars and act as a tailwind for oil prices and the broader commodity complex. Furthermore, with South Africa taking over the rotating chair of the BRICS organization for 2023 and the ruling party, the ANC, supporting considerations for the expansion of BRICS, it is possible that more countries, particularly from Africa, may join the organization in the future. This would further support Beijing's drive to increase the RMB in cross border trade and to reduce its sanctions risk by holding dollars.

Source: 13D Research and Strategy

Crypto-focused asset manager HashKey Capital has raised another $500 million for investments in the Web3 ecosystem (“Hashkey’s FinTech Investment Fund III” (Fund III)).

The raised capital will be deployed towards blockchain infrastructure, applications, and tools that have the potential for mass adoption, with a focus on opportunities in emerging markets. The firm said it will provide investors with “institutional-grade exposure” to all facets of the crypto industry.
Source: Decrypt, Hashkey

Polygon, Animoca Brands, Magic Eden, Planetarium, Big Brain Holdings, Crit Ventures, JoyCity, Pearl Abyss, XL Games, Wemix and Global Coin Research were among the investors.

Intella X was developed by South Korean gaming firm Neowiz in partnership with Polygon. It describes itself as a next-generation gaming platform aiming to remove high entry barriers and improve user experience in web3 through features such as streamlined wallet creation and meta transactions.

Source: The Block

Investment firms Pantera Capital and Archetype co-led the round, with additional participation from BlockTower, Nascent, Placeholder, Spartan and IEX, the company said in a statement. Obol's prior investors, Coinbase Ventures and Ethereal Ventures, also joined the round. 

Obol Labs intends to make proof-of-stake blockchains more secure with its Distributed Validator Technology, which allows multiple machines to simultaneously run an Ethereum proof-of-stake validator.

Source: The Block

An increase in Bitcoin trading volume and positive on-chain data appear to be the primary forces behind BTC’s newfound strength.

Bitcoin’s price spike has been accompanied by massive growth in trading volume. Over the last week, BTC volume has more than doubled, reaching $10.8 billion, a 114% increase over sevendays.

Source: Cointelegraph

The S&P 500 continued its recovery last week and has reached the downtrend line. The 20-day exponential moving average (EMA) of 3,904 has started to turn up and the relative strength index (RSI) is in the positive territory, indicating an advantage to the buyers. If bulls overcome this resistance, the index could rally to 4,200 and then 4,325.

The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) has been falling inside a descending broadening wedge pattern for the past few days. Buyers are trying to protect the support line of the wedge. The relief rally could reach the 20-day EMA (103), which could act as a strong barrier. If the price turns down from this level, it will suggest that the sentiment remains negative and traders are selling on minor rallies. Contrarily, if buyers propel the price above the 20-day EMA, the index could march toward the resistance line of the wedge. 

Buyers are trying to pierce the overhead resistance at $21,480 and extend the recovery in Bitcoin but the bears are in no mood to relent. The RSI remains in deeply overbought territory, indicating a possible consolidation or correction in the near term.

The immediate support on the downside is the psychological level of $20,000 and then the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level of $19,489. If the price turns up from this zone, it will suggest that traders are viewing the dips as a buying opportunity.

Source: Cointelegraph

On Jan. 17, the Thai SEC issued regulations requiring virtual asset service providers (VASP) to establish a digital wallet management system to guarantee efficient custody. The new rules target crypto custodians or VASPs that provide crypto storage services.

The regulations include three major requirements, including the provision of policy and guidelines for overseeing the risk management of digital wallets and private keys. The rules require VASPs to communicate with regulators regarding such policies and provide action plans to ensure compliance.

Source: Cointelegraph

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has reportedly leaked the names and email addresses of many crypto miners connected to blockchain firm Green.

According to a Jan. 17 report from the Washington Examiner, the SEC unintentionally included 650 names and email addresses in an email communication with Green as part of an investigation, leaving the blockchain’s nodes vulnerable to hacks. The financial regulator had reportedly been reaching out to Green users regarding their purchase of the firm’s products.

Source: Cointelegraph

Blueberry is developing a unified service for one-click automation, leveraging, deployment & hedging of multi-step strategies.

Deadline: TBA

Rewards: TBA

When rewards: TBA

Guide:

1. Set your Metamask network to "Goerli test network"

2. Claim some test $ETH using this faucet: https://goerlifaucet.com 

3. Connect your wallet: https://testnet.blueberry.garden 

4. Click on "Faucet" on the left tab and claim some USDC.

5. Go to the "Earn" tab and open a position.

6. Navigate to the lend tab and deposit some USDC.

7. Now, the important step is to provide feedback. For that join them on discord: https://discord.gg/NRyaNq9g 

- Navigate to the "💡-your-ideas-feedback" channel and post your feedbacks

Polygon, an Ethereum-scaling project, successfully completed a hard fork designed to reduce instances of spiking gas fees and disruptive chain reorganizations known as "reorgs."

The software upgrade occurred at 10:45 UTC (5:45 a.m. ET) on Tuesday, according to a tweet from Polygon Labs, the lead company behind the project.

The two proposals included in the hard fork were put forth in December. Some 87% of Polygon validator teams that participated voted for approval. Only 15 validator teams took part in the voting process, which is extremely low given the number of active validators at a time is limited to 100.

The first proposal adjusted a mechanism that sets gas fees, The second proposal aims to reduce the amount of time it takes to complete a data block.

Source: Coindesk

The share price of Coinbase fell as low as $31.95 on Jan. 6, before shooting up to $54.14 by the close of trading on Jan. 17. The rising share price will likely be accompanied by a huge sigh of relief for Coinbase executives after a challenging 2022 saw it cut 20% of its workforce and decide to wind down its Japanese operations. Despite the surge, COIN remains more than 84% below its all time high.

Other crypto-related stocks such as MicroStrategy and digital payments company Block Inc. have also posted strong gains in the new year.

MicroStrategy's share price has increased to nearly $236 from a low of just over $135 on Dec. 29 — representing an increase of over 74% — while Jack Dorsey’s Block has seen its share price increase by a muted but still respectable 27%, after rebounding from a low of under $59 on Dec. 28 to over $75.

Source: Cointelegraph

The notion that bear markets are good for builders appears to be true with the total number of monthly active Web3 developers increasing 5.4% to more than 23,300 over the last 12 months despite a near 70% drop in crypto prices.

According to a Jan. 16 report from Electric Capital, “full-time” developers — categorized as those who contribute to 76% of Github commits — also increased 15.2% to over 7000, while “one-time” builders fell 6.2% to over 3,500 during the same time period between December 2021 and December 2022

Source: Cointelegraph

DeGods has dominated the Solana NFT space, racking up more trading volume in SOL than any other project. It now plans to move over to Ethereum, and the project appears to have already caught the eye of at least one big investor in the space.

A pseudonymous NFT trader known as "Pokeee" spent nearly $1 million to sweep 69 DeGods NFTs on Monday. Pokeee made the buy through the Magic Eden marketplace, using its tool that lets buyers “sweep the floor” or buy up a desired amount of NFTs from a project. Traders sometimes purchase numerous lowest-priced NFTs in a project as a bet on the future success of the collection, rather than individually selecting more valuable assets.

Source: Decrypt

The Bank of Japan on Wednesday maintained ultra-low interest rates, including its 0.5% cap for the 10-year bond yield, defying market expectations it would phase out its massive stimulus programme in the wake of rising inflationary pressure.

At a two-day policy meeting, the BOJ kept intact its yield curve control (YCC) targets, set at -0.1% for short-term interest rates and around 0% for the 10-year yield, by a unanimous vote.

Markets had anticipated a possible change to policy at the meeting and the surprise decision to keep settings unchanged sent the dollar surging nearly 2% against the yen, its biggest one-day percentage jump since June 17.

Source: Reuters

According to Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister, Mohammed Al-Jadaan, the country is now willing to settle trades in currencies other than the US dollar. The revelation was made by Al-Jadaan on Tuesday during an interview in Davos.

“There are no issues with discussing how we settle our trade arrangements, whether it is in the US dollar, whether it is the euro, whether it is the Saudi riyal,” said Mohammed Al-Jadaan. He also stated that he doesn’t think that they are waving away any discussion that will help improve trade around the world.

Source: Watcher.guru

China's new Foreign Minister, Qin Gang, is embarking on a five-nation trip to Africa, which is in line with the tradition where the Foreign Minister's first trip of the year is to Africa. The main aim of the trip is to deepen the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership and boost friendly cooperation. 

Gang will also visit the African Union Headquarters in Ethiopia and meet the Secretary-General of the Arab League in Egypt. The itinerary of Gang's trip has caught attention as it follows President Xi's trip to Saudi Arabia where he announced "a new paradigm of all-dimensional energy cooperation," proposed "RMB settlement in oil and gas trade," and pressed for "deepening in digital currency cooperation and advance the m-CBDC Bridge project." 

This has led to speculation that some countries in Africa may be next in embracing Beijing's advances to conduct some, or all, of its energy trade in RMB. This could challenge the petrodollar system with significant implications for the dollar, the Treasury market, commodities and, ultimately, U.S. hegemony.

In addition to the potential implications for the petrodollar system, it is also worth noting that China views Angola as an important supplier for its energy security and that Angola is heavily dependent on China. This, combined with Beijing's willingness to enter long-term energy contracts, means that Beijing is likely to dictate the terms of trade. 

Beijing has a history of driving a hard bargain, for example, by pressing for steep discounts and payment in RMB for importing oil from sanctioned countries like Russia, Iran and Venezuela. With Saudi Arabia and the GCC, Chinese investment in non-energy sectors such as 5G/6G, infrastructure, green technology, and surveillance came hand in hand with energy settlement in RMB. It is possible that Beijing may exact similar terms from Angola if Gang's visit is to lay the groundwork for an African OPEC member to trade and settle oil in RMB.

Expanding RMB trade and settlement into Africa is also likely to dampen foreign demand for dollars and act as a tailwind for oil prices and the broader commodity complex. Furthermore, with South Africa taking over the rotating chair of the BRICS organization for 2023 and the ruling party, the ANC, supporting considerations for the expansion of BRICS, it is possible that more countries, particularly from Africa, may join the organization in the future. This would further support Beijing's drive to increase the RMB in cross border trade and to reduce its sanctions risk by holding dollars.

Source: 13D Research and Strategy

Crypto-focused asset manager HashKey Capital has raised another $500 million for investments in the Web3 ecosystem (“Hashkey’s FinTech Investment Fund III” (Fund III)).

The raised capital will be deployed towards blockchain infrastructure, applications, and tools that have the potential for mass adoption, with a focus on opportunities in emerging markets. The firm said it will provide investors with “institutional-grade exposure” to all facets of the crypto industry.
Source: Decrypt, Hashkey

Polygon, Animoca Brands, Magic Eden, Planetarium, Big Brain Holdings, Crit Ventures, JoyCity, Pearl Abyss, XL Games, Wemix and Global Coin Research were among the investors.

Intella X was developed by South Korean gaming firm Neowiz in partnership with Polygon. It describes itself as a next-generation gaming platform aiming to remove high entry barriers and improve user experience in web3 through features such as streamlined wallet creation and meta transactions.

Source: The Block

Investment firms Pantera Capital and Archetype co-led the round, with additional participation from BlockTower, Nascent, Placeholder, Spartan and IEX, the company said in a statement. Obol's prior investors, Coinbase Ventures and Ethereal Ventures, also joined the round. 

Obol Labs intends to make proof-of-stake blockchains more secure with its Distributed Validator Technology, which allows multiple machines to simultaneously run an Ethereum proof-of-stake validator.

Source: The Block

An increase in Bitcoin trading volume and positive on-chain data appear to be the primary forces behind BTC’s newfound strength.

Bitcoin’s price spike has been accompanied by massive growth in trading volume. Over the last week, BTC volume has more than doubled, reaching $10.8 billion, a 114% increase over sevendays.

Source: Cointelegraph

The S&P 500 continued its recovery last week and has reached the downtrend line. The 20-day exponential moving average (EMA) of 3,904 has started to turn up and the relative strength index (RSI) is in the positive territory, indicating an advantage to the buyers. If bulls overcome this resistance, the index could rally to 4,200 and then 4,325.

The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) has been falling inside a descending broadening wedge pattern for the past few days. Buyers are trying to protect the support line of the wedge. The relief rally could reach the 20-day EMA (103), which could act as a strong barrier. If the price turns down from this level, it will suggest that the sentiment remains negative and traders are selling on minor rallies. Contrarily, if buyers propel the price above the 20-day EMA, the index could march toward the resistance line of the wedge. 

Buyers are trying to pierce the overhead resistance at $21,480 and extend the recovery in Bitcoin but the bears are in no mood to relent. The RSI remains in deeply overbought territory, indicating a possible consolidation or correction in the near term.

The immediate support on the downside is the psychological level of $20,000 and then the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level of $19,489. If the price turns up from this zone, it will suggest that traders are viewing the dips as a buying opportunity.

Source: Cointelegraph

On Jan. 17, the Thai SEC issued regulations requiring virtual asset service providers (VASP) to establish a digital wallet management system to guarantee efficient custody. The new rules target crypto custodians or VASPs that provide crypto storage services.

The regulations include three major requirements, including the provision of policy and guidelines for overseeing the risk management of digital wallets and private keys. The rules require VASPs to communicate with regulators regarding such policies and provide action plans to ensure compliance.

Source: Cointelegraph

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has reportedly leaked the names and email addresses of many crypto miners connected to blockchain firm Green.

According to a Jan. 17 report from the Washington Examiner, the SEC unintentionally included 650 names and email addresses in an email communication with Green as part of an investigation, leaving the blockchain’s nodes vulnerable to hacks. The financial regulator had reportedly been reaching out to Green users regarding their purchase of the firm’s products.

Source: Cointelegraph

Blueberry is developing a unified service for one-click automation, leveraging, deployment & hedging of multi-step strategies.

Deadline: TBA

Rewards: TBA

When rewards: TBA

Guide:

1. Set your Metamask network to "Goerli test network"

2. Claim some test $ETH using this faucet: https://goerlifaucet.com 

3. Connect your wallet: https://testnet.blueberry.garden 

4. Click on "Faucet" on the left tab and claim some USDC.

5. Go to the "Earn" tab and open a position.

6. Navigate to the lend tab and deposit some USDC.

7. Now, the important step is to provide feedback. For that join them on discord: https://discord.gg/NRyaNq9g 

- Navigate to the "💡-your-ideas-feedback" channel and post your feedbacks