In an interview with Cointelegraph, Francesco Andreoli, developer community head at ConsenSys, spoke about ensuring that the recently released MetaMask Snaps is secure for users. The executive highlighted the importance of consent and ensuring that users know each step of their journey across various chains and decentralized applications.

As a wallet containing various users’ crypto assets, the security of MetaMask Snaps could be a concern for users before trying out the new feature. However, Andreoli noted that user consent is one of its main priorities, and it has designed Snaps to provide full transparency around how each Snap interacts with the MetaMask wallet extension.

He said the new update shows users more data points to give them insights into their transactions: “So for security, one big category of our allow list is transaction insights. Basically, what is happening with transaction insights is you really get more data points on what the extension does today.”

Related: MetaMask Snaps to let users interact with Solana DApps through Solflare

In his keynote presentation, Andreoli also demonstrated how one Snap called Wallet Guard can help protect users from malicious transactions.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/consensys-metamask-snaps-interview-security

On Sept. 29, CommEx issued an open letter to the community, reiterating that the company is not owned by Binance, which announced its exit from Russia by selling the firm to CommEx.

“Although we do not disclose our UBO, we want to make it clear that we are not owned by Binance,” CommEx wrote on its website. A spokesperson for CommEx declined to comment to Cointelegraph about the reasons it won’t share any information about its owners.

“We are a vibrant and efficient start-up team, made up of dozens of passionate individuals from diverse backgrounds,” CommEx said in the announcement, adding that some of its core members are former Binance veterans.

The CommEx announcement said the firm has been developing its platform for six months, during which time it onboarded some ex-Binance employees. “This has allowed us to learn from Binance’s product and operations experiences, establishing indirect connections with them,” CommEx added.

The announcement confirms that former team members of Binance’s division in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are part of CommEx, despite Binance having no ownership in the exchange.

Former employees at Binance CIS will join or may have already joined the new firm, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said on X (formerly Twitter) on Sept. 28. “We think that is a good thing,” he added.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-buyer-in-russia-commex-silent-on-owners

“There is currently no Miss Universe cryptocurrency or blockchain offering, and these products are in no way involved with the voting or selection process for Miss Universe or the Miss Universe Philippines pageants,” it wrote.

Related: JPEX hikes withdrawal fee to almost $1K after Hong Kong watchdog warning

In a statement sent to Cointelegraph, a representative from the Miss Universe Organization claimed that the Miss Universe Coin is a “fraud,” and they expect it to be further announced in other events across the globe. “We suspect that people may be planning to mention this at upcoming blockchain conferences in Dubai and Singapore. If you see it there, please do not cover; it’s a fraud,” they said.

pic.twitter.com/wk0zk8EjjB

— Philippine Blockchain Week (@philblockchain) September 24, 2023

In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), PBW said it is currently in contact with all parties involved and will announce an update as soon as possible. Cointelegraph reached out to the Philippine Blockchain Week but did not get an immediate response.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/miss-universe-denies-link-recently-unveiled-coin-project

Others sought or taken in for questioning include the company’s sole director, Kwok Ho-lun, a restaurant director and three celebrities who had reportedly promoted JPEX in some form in the past.

Hong Kong’s authorities, however, said the ringleaders of the operation are still on the run. The police added that the investigation was continuing and that further arrests were likely in the near future.

Local police have also reportedly enlisted the help of Interpol and other international enforcement agencies after they identified suspicious crypto transfers being made from the JPEX exchange. The police have also requested that local telecommunications providers block access to the exchange’s website.

During the Token2049 conference in Singapore on Sept. 13, the JPEX team allegedly abandoned its corporate booth after Hong Kong police arrested six employees on charges of fraud for operating an unlicensed crypto exchange.

The exchange later shuttered a number of its yield-bearing products and ratcheted up its withdrawal fees to 999 USDT, while blaming its third-party market makers for “maliciously” freezing liquidity.

At the time, it claimed that it had attempted to register with the relevant authorities and cited “unfair” treatment from regulatory bodies, including the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC).

According to Spot On Chain, the source of the 2,000 ETH transaction is a “better-known address” (0xD04daa65144b97F147fbc9a9B45E741dF0A28fd7) belonging to Buterin than the middle address (0x5567A4bE2D5b77F5Fd870f99Ed9167Feab8831B1) that has been transferring funds to exchanges.

Cointelegraph previously reported a 600 ETH ($1 million) transaction from the vitalik.eth address on Aug. 21, which was also identified by on-chain monitoring platforms.

The platform outlined deposits amounting to 321 ETH deposited to Kraken between Sept. 15 and Sept. 19. Buterin also reportedly deposited a total of 1,700 ETH to Bitstamp in several transactions on Sept. 17 and Sept. 20 and deposited 500 ETH to Paxos on Sept. 19.

Cointelegraph has independently verified several of these transactions using access to Nansen 2 beta’s wallet profiler. Blockchain data also highlights a transfer of 2,000 ETH ($4.9 million) to the address that has been carrying out these transactions from another wallet long associated with the Ethereum co-founder.According to a Sept. 25 announcement, the SFC said it would publish a list of all licensed, deemed licensed, closing down, and application-pending virtual asset trading platforms (VATPs) to better help members of the public identify potentially unregulated VATPs doing business in Hong Kong.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/vitalik-wallet-sends-400-eth-worth-600k-to-coinbase

At the time of writing, the transferred amount of ARB is worth around $56 million. The cryptocurrency slipped 1.6% over the past 24 hours, trading at $0.81, according to data from CoinGecko.

The amount of unclaimed ARB tokens accounts for 0.69% of ARB’s total supply of 10 billion. According to data from Dune Analytics, 93% of eligible users had claimed the tokens. Eligible Arbitrum users and developers were allowed to receive up to 12.75% of the token’s supply of 10 billion, or 1.275 billion ARB.

Related: Breaking: Mt. Gox trustee changes repayment deadline to October 2024

Founded in 2021, Arbitrum is a Layer 2 Ethereum scaling solution created by Off-chain Labs. In March 2023, the Arbitrum Foundation announced the launch of Arbitrum DAO and its native governance token, ARB. Airdropped on March 23, ARB is the ERC-20 governance token allowing holders to participate in the Arbitrum DAO's on-chain governance protocol.

The movement of the unclaimed ARB tokens to the Arbitrum DAO comes six months after the DAO was created and the ARB tokens were airdropped, as originally outlined in Arbitrum Improvement Proposal 7. The recipients were able to claim their tokens until the Ethereum block 18208000, which was estimated to be created on Sept. 24.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/arbitrum-dao-takes-56million-of-unclaimed-arb-tokens

In addition to adding these new blockchains, Google has also implemented a new feature intended to make blockchain queries easier to execute. Through a series of user-defined functions, the team has provided methods to handle the long-form decimal results often found on blockchains. In its post, Google claimed that these new functions will “give customers access to longer decimal digits for their blockchain data and reduce rounding errors in computation.”

Google Cloud has been taking an increasing interest in blockchain tech in 2023. On July 7, it partnered with Voltage, a Lightning Network infrastructure provider. It also partnered with Web3 startup Orderly Network on Sept. 14 to help provide off-chain components for decentralized finance.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/google-cloud-adds-11-blockchains-data-warehouse-big-query

“After investigation, it is clear that this was a social engineering attack on EuroDNS, the domain registrar used for .fi TLDs,” the firm explained in a Sept. 20 X (formerly Twitter) post. Approximately eight hours after the first warning of the attack, Balancer said its decentralized autonomous organization was actively addressing the DNS attack and was working to recover the Balancer UI.

A new analysis by investment management fund VanEck revealed that economic activity in the DeFi sector dropped 15.5% in August. Blockchain Capital, on the other hand, announced two new crypto-focused funds totaling $580 million.

Balancer protocol blamed its recent exploit on its DNS service provider, claiming that a vulnerability in the code allowed the exploiters to hijack the front end, and Chainlink and Arbitrum have teamed up on decentralized application (DApp) development on Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Arbitrum.

The top 100 DeFi tokens had a bearish week due to the market decline after the United States Federal Reserve’s interest rate pause, with most tokens trading in the red.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/defi-activity-on-the-decline-but-investment-rolls-in-finance-redefined

Bollinger Bands were created by John Bollinger in the 1980s. They are a useful technical analysis tool used in cryptocurrency trading and other financial markets to evaluate price volatility, pinpoint probable reversal points, and make trading decisions.

The three bands that help construct a Bollinger Band include:

Upper band

The upper band is created by multiplying the middle band by the price’s standard deviation. A price’s volatility is quantified by the standard deviation. Traders often use a multiplier of 2 for the standard deviation (SD), but this can be changed depending on the state of the market and personal preferences.

Bollinger Bands are used to detect possible overbought and oversold scenarios, helping traders identify them. A potential sell opportunity arises when the price reaches or exceeds the upper band, which is a sign that the price is overbought. On the other hand, if the price reaches or drops beneath the lower band, it can be considered oversold, indicating a potential purchase opportunity.

Determine trend direction

Traders may use Bollinger Bands to ascertain the prevailing trend direction. The price may indicate an uptrend if it constantly moves along the top band. On the other hand, if it frequently touches or remains close to the lower band, it can be a sign of a downtrend.

Last year, Ontario Securities Commission CEO Grant Vingoe said the regulator believed “more than 30 per cent of Canadians plan to buy crypto assets” in 2023, despite the recent exodus of numerous crypto companies from the market.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, while ByBit and Binance both made their exits from the Canadian cryptocurrency scene, citing regulatory changes, WonderFi CEO Dean Skurka told Cointelegraph last month that the increased regulatory clarity was bringing institutional investors to cryptocurrency and digital assets to Canada.

Related: CoinSmart president says crypto taxes are a ‘little bit more favorable’ outside US

In a statement given to Cointelegraph, Localcoin ATM CEO Tristan Fong also announced the impending launch.

Bitbuy was the first cryptocurrency exchange to receive full regulatory approval in Canada. It was acquired by WonderFi in the January 2023 purchase of its parent company, First Ledger Corp., for close to $162 million (206 million Canadian dollars).

Localcoin purportedly operates the largest cryptocurrency ATM network in Canada. According to the press release, its 900 machines make up some 33% of the national total — which stands at approximately 2,700, making Canada second only to the United States in total adoption.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitbuy-strategic-partnershipcanadian-crypto-atm-bitcoin-localcoin

Speaking to Cointelegraph at the Permissionless II conference in Austin, Texas on Sept. 11, Peirce said she wouldn’t have expected the SEC to be “this far behind” in finding a solution for a regulatory framework on cryptocurrencies when she joined the commission in 2018. She pointed to countries like Switzerland and Singapore as seemingly ahead of the curve on crypto regulations globally but said they largely couldn’t be compared to the situation in the United States.

“I haven’t seen a lot of changes for the better,” said Peirce. “You do have a lot of people who know quite a bit about crypto at the agency, whether that’s in FinHub or throughout the divisions. You have people who are actually quite knowledgeable, and I think that that has changed in the time that I’ve been there.”

The SEC, under the leadership of Chair Gary Gensler, has taken a lot of criticism from industry leaders, regulators and lawmakers, often being accused of a “regulation by enforcement” approach to digital assets. At the time of publication, the commission was embroiled in civil actions against crypto firms Coinbase, Binance and Ripple and had not approved a spot Bitcoin

Bastion co-founder Eddequiouaq commented, “We founded Bastion to enable businesses to onboard their products and end-users into a Web3 environment without the complicated, overwhelming experience we know today.”

Arianna Simpson, general partner of a16z crypto, said, “We believe in Nass and Riyaz’s vision of making Web3 safe and accessible for companies in every industry and are extremely excited to support them in making it a reality.”

On Sept. 18, the new firm, Bastion, announced the launch of its product suite. The firm’s goal is to enable companies to integrate Web3 infrastructure into their existing enterprise technologies.

Bastion was co-founded by two former executives with a16z’s crypto division who left the firm in April, former Chief Technology Officer Riyaz Faizullabhoy and former Chief Security Officer Nassim Eddequiouaq.

The $25 million funding round was led by their former employer, a16z Crypto. Nomura Group’s Laser Digital Ventures, Robot Ventures, Aptos Ventures and Alchemy Ventures were also investors in the seed funding round.

In a statement, Bastion said the funding will be used to scale company operations, recruit top engineering talent and secure additional licensing to further diversify its product offerings.

Bastion co-founder Faizullabhoy added that the successful funding round came despite an ongoing crypto winter.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/former-andreessen-horowitz-execs-launch-bastion-after-seed-funding-round

Meta and Microsoft recently teamed up to launch Llama 2, an open-source large language model from Meta that will feature on Microsoft’s Windows and cloud computing platform Azure.

The top executives from some of the world’s largest tech and web companies have concluded a closed-door meeting with U.S. lawmakers in Washington D.C., where they reportedly discussed AI technology and potential approaches to regulation.

The Sept.13 Senate “AI Insight Forum” was organized by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and attended by 22 tech titans, including X (Twitter) owner Elon Musk, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman from OpenAI and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, according to The New York Times.

Musk reportedly warned about existential risks from AI, exclaiming “If someone takes us out as a civilization, all bets are off,” before adding:

“If you have exceptionally smart A.I., the Communist Party will no longer be in charge of China.”

Speaking to CNBC after the event, he said it is essential to have a “referee” for AI, implying that it needs to be regulated. Musk added that the meeting “may go down in history as being very important for the future of civilization.”

When questioned about AI regulation, he said almost everyone in the room agreed that it needs to happen.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/elon-musk-sam-altman-bill-gates-discusses-ai-with-congress

The central bank warned the public that firms describing themselves with words like “crypto bank,” “digital asset bank,” and “crypto asset bank” or claims to be offering banking services or banking accounts may be breaking the law.

According to the HKMA, other than authorized institutions, it’s unlawful for persons or businesses to use the word bank in the name or descriptions of their companies. In addition, facilitating the taking of deposits without the proper license is also a violation of the law.

The HKMA reminded the public that crypto firms, which are not banks, are not supervised by the central bank. This means that funds placed within the so-called “crypto banks” are not protected by the region’s deposit protection scheme.

Related: Hong Kong’s crypto stance: Execs weigh in on Web3 in the region

Hong Kong has recently been cracking down on violators of its licensing laws. On Sept. 15, the region’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a warning against crypto exchange JPEX for allegedly promoting its products and services in Hong Kong without securing a license or applying for one.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-hong-kong-central-bank-warnscrypto-firms-using-banking-terms

Since the lawsuit, Binance.US halted trading for over 100 token pairs, contributing to a sharp decline in exchange activity.

Binance.US turmoil also comes with internal challenges. Brian Shorder, then CEO of Binance.US, stepped down last week, joining a number of global executives who left the group of companies over the past weeks. Following Shorder's departure, head of legal Krishna Juvvadi and chief risk officer Sidney Majalya announced their resignations as well.

Trading activity on Binance.US has reached new lows in September, as the crypto exchange faces unprecedented challenges. On Sep. 16, exchange volume stood at $5.09 million on Binance.US, as reported by Amberdata on The Tie Terminal.

The lowest point for the month was on Sep. 9, when trading activity totaled $2.97 million. This is a significant drop compared to Sep. 17, 2022, when its trading volume was around $230 million.

Binance.US's problems seem to be far from over. The SEC recently accused the exchange of non-cooperation in the ongoing investigation, claiming it produced only 220 documents during the discovery process. In another development, a judge issued an order on Sept. 15 granting the SEC a motion to unsealed documents on the case. Those documents were sealed or redacted at the SEC's request and are now being unsealed at its request. The documents are expected to be available in the coming days.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/binanceus-exchange-volume-slumps-amidst-crisis

Google Cloud has joined forces with Web3 startup Orderly Network to create user-centric developer tools for decentralized finance (DeFi) to lower the barrier of entry into the decentralized world.

The partnership will work to develop off-chain components of DeFi infrastructure focused on tackling self-custody and transparency challenges. Orderly will be a DeFi infrastructure provider, available on Google Cloud Marketplace.

Google Cloud told Cointelegraph that the partnership was struck in light of increasing interest from clients exploring blockchain workloads on the platform.

Rishi Ramchandani, head of Web3 for the Asia-Pacific region at Google, told Cointelegraph that the surge in demand highlights the necessity for a tailored Web3 product suite. He added:

“Working with Orderly Network to build robust infrastructure will help address the gaps in DeFi adoption and growth, and ensure scalability in the continuously evolving space through the development of secure and user-centric enterprise developer tools.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/google-cloud-joins-web3-startup-to-make-de-fi-mainstream

Brahimi confirmed that the agreement is global in scope, with Taurus providing custody and tokenization technology in line with local regulatory requirements.

Announcing the partnership, Deutsche Bank global securities services head Paul Maley said the cryptocurrency space is expected to grow to trillions of dollars in assets and will likely become a priority for investors and institutions.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm, DWS Group, had reportedly been in discussions to invest in two different German-based cryptocurrency firms in February 2023 — crypto exchange-traded product provider Deutsche Digital Assets and market maker platform Tradias.

Deutsche Bank Singapore and Memento Blockchain recently completed a proof-of-concept called Project DAMA (Digital Assets Management Access), which allows for the management of digital funds in tokenized securities.

Founded in Switzerland in 2018, Taurus’s Series B round was led by Credit Suisse and included the likes of Deutsche Bank alongside Arab Bank Switzerland, indicating major interest from traditional finance banks.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/deutsche-bank-crypto-custody-partnership-taurus

Realized cap is an on-chain metric that shows the total sum of profits and losses from all on-chain sales and purchases. An increasing realized cap would mean new investors are buying and selling Bitcoin (or any other cryptocurrency) for higher prices. This also means that the net sum of trades is in profits, and therefore, people are now bullish on Bitcoin. – Abhishek Singh, Acknoledger

Halving

Bitcoin halving should be considered by financial institutions because it can influence Bitcoin’s price through altered supply dynamics, potentially impacting miner profitability and network security. Halving can indicate broader mainstream adoption trends, present speculative opportunities and serve as a focal point for educational and marketing initiatives within the finance sector. – Irina Litchfield, Lumeria

Hash rate

As financial institutions explore cryptocurrencies, they should focus on a key Bitcoin blockchain measure: the hash rate. The hash rate measures the network’s strength and security by gauging its computational power. Keeping an eye on Bitcoin’s hash rate helps financial institutions assess the stability of the network and any investment risks linked to cryptocurrencies. – Vinita Rathi, Systango

Growth in the number of wallets with large holdings

In addition to the often-discussed “halving” of Bitcoin, financial institutions should also pay heed to the growth in the number of wallets holding large amounts of BTC. A wallet with a small amount of BTC could probably be assumed to be a retail investor, while wallets holding large amounts could potentially be “whales” or institutional holders. – Zain Jaffer, Zain Ventures

https://cointelegraph.com/innovation-circle/11-bitcoin-blockchain-metrics-tradfi-organizations-should-watch

.On Episode 30 of Hashing It Out, Elisha Owusu Akyaw speaks with Sara Drakeley, CEO of MobileCoin, a company enabling cryptocurrency payments through instant messaging applications such as Signal. Drakeley talks about going from working on animated films like Frozen and Moana at Disney to entering the cryptocurrency space. She also shares her experience as a mother in crypto and explains what is happening at MobileCoin.

Drakeley shares her journey in the Web3 space and highlights her encounters as a woman in leadership. She acknowledges that crypto has a reputation as being a “bro space,” especially when looking at the marketing of some projects. However, she also points out that there are some pockets of inclusiveness that create safe spaces for women in the arena. Drakeley adds that despite the existence of these safe spaces, the cryptocurrency world needs to find ways to accommodate the particular needs of women who are mothers, for instance. Although this may not be an accommodation necessary for many, the ability to manage these special cases will go a long way to creating a welcoming environment.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/hashing-it-out-mobilecoin-ceo-crypto-needs-more-women

When it comes to Europe, Germany has also taken a fair share of funding within the region's blockchain ecosystem. The report noted that the country secured 9.4% of Europe-based blockchain funding and 10.3% of all European blockchain deals.

The report highlighted that Germany's progress in funding comes as all continents are experiencing a venture capital funding downturn. According to the report, all continents experienced YoY declines in funding. The report highlighted that there's a 62% decline in funding and a 44% decrease in deals compared to the previous four-quarter period globally.

Related: Crypto VCs made $2.6B worth of deals in the first quarter of 2023

Meanwhile, a venture capital executive believes that the funding downturn in crypto is due to the lack of innovation in the space. In a recent Cointelegraph interview, Foresight Ventures' Tony Cheng said that most of the narratives in the space like zero-knowledge proofs, layer-2 solutions and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have already "played out." Cheng belives that this may be the reason why venture capital firms are being driven away from the space.

Within CVVC's report titled "The German Blockchain Report 2023," the country's blockchain sector recorded a total of $355 million invested across 34 deals. This represents a 3% year-over-year (YoY) increase in funding for the Western European country, according to the CVVC.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/germany-blockchain-funding-up-3-amid-market-downturn-report