Last Week in Crypto February 19-25 Top Stories You Might Have Missed
Although it was quite a short month, February came with so many updates in the crypto industry that it seems a bit hard to stay up to date. Now, being close to its end and ready to enter a season full of new major events, such as the long-awaited Bitcoin halving.
Still, we cannot leave the last week without discussing the main events the crypto industry experienced. Thus, lets dive in and see what happened last week in crypto.
Table of contents
- 1. Binance Will Shut Down Multiple Leveraged Token Services
- 2. Forbes Launched a Permanent Metaverse Presence in The Sandbox
- 3. UK Might Come with New Crypto Laws
- 4. Human Institute Developed Biometric Palm Recognition Technology
- 5. MetaMask Developed a New Security Feature
- 6. Stellar Launched New Smart Contracts After Bug Fixes
- 7. Apple Welcomes Giant Update for iMessage, Uses Cryptography to Increase Security
- 8. Do Kwon Will be Extradited to the US
- 9. BAYC Co-Creator Steps in as Yuga Labs CEO
- 10. Former President Donald Trump Changed His Opinion on Bitcoin
1. Binance Will Shut Down Multiple Leveraged Token Services
Summary: Binance continues to cease support for multiple trading pairs involving tokens related to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Binance Coin.
Details: Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world, announced that it will stop supporting various tokens on April 3, 2024. The tokens are related to Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Binance Coin (BNB). The crypto exchange stated that the cease will be automatically completed on the set date.
The recent announcement is not the only one of its kind, as Binance also announced that it will cease trading pairs related to USDT. There will be 6 affected pairs in this case, the cessation time being February 28, 2024. After they are ceased, users will have a short time to redeem their tokens. If they fail to recover tokens in time, Binance will convert them into USDT based on their corresponding value on the delisting date.
Source: Cointelegraph
2. Forbes Launched a Permanent Metaverse Presence in The Sandbox
Summary: Forbes announced its official permanent presence in The Sandbox metaverse, where it aims to introduce its audience to the potential of the metaverse and the wonders of Web3.
Details: Forbes recently announced its official establishment of permanent land in The Sandbox metaverse. This way, the American company aims to prove yet again its belief in the potential of the metaverse and its dedication to growing the Forbes Web3 community.
The Sandbox is one of the most popular metaverse platforms, renowned for its interactive platform and countless opportunities. Through its permanent metaverse presence in The Sandbox, Forbes aims to offer increasingly more interactive experiences, various workshops and special events, and many other activities available to The Sandbox community.
Source: Forbes
3. UK Might Come with New Crypto Laws
Summary: The British government stated that it would focus on developing new rules for stablecoins and staking services, aiming to publish them within the next 6 months.
Details: The British government announced it will publish new rules for stablecoins and crypto asset staking services. According to the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Bim Afolami, the government aims to have the rules passed by lawmakers in the next 6 months.
According to Bim Afolami, the government is pushing very hard to establish a concrete set of rules, thus also proving its plan to support the crypto industry and build a reliable framework for cryptocurrencies to progress and be widely adopted in the jurisdiction.
According to market experts and observers, fiat-backed stablecoin might be required to comply with specific regulations created under existing payment laws. Furthermore, staking services might receive a new classification that overcomes categorization as collective investments.
Source: CryptoPotato
4. Human Institute Developed Biometric Palm Recognition Technology
Summary: Human Institute, a project created by Polygon Labs and Animoca Brands, started developing a new biometric technology focusing on palm recognition.
Details: Human Institute, a project launched by Polygon Labs in collaboration with Animoca Brands, launched Humanity Protocol, a biometric palm recognition technology that aims to contribute to verifying Web3 identity. The technology was launched on the Polygon chain development kit testnet on February 20, 2024.
The Humanity Protocol leverages zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs) to increase and improve network security. Besides, it integrated a PoH (Proof of Humanity) consensus mechanism to allow for identity validation. According to Yat Siu, the co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, Humanity Protocol will lead to better equity and inclusion for users.
Source: Cointelegraph
5. MetaMask Developed a New Security Feature
Summary: MetaMask announced that it will further develop its security alerts to multiple blockchains, aiming to increase users safety on the web extension and mobile app.
Details: MetaMask, one of the most popular and widely used self-custody wallets, announced that it will extend its default security alerts to web and mobile users. The announcement was made through a tweet posted on MetaMasks account.
According to the tweet, MetaMasks security alerts will be available on multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Linea, and Optimism. The security alerts will notify users during transactions when they interact with a recognized threat.
The feature was developed in collaboration with Blockaid, and its effectiveness was already proved during a phishing scam from September 2023, when Vitalik Buterins X (Twitter) handle was compromised.
Source: Cryptonews
6. Stellar Launched New Smart Contracts After Bug Fixes
Summary: The Stellar blockchain announced that it will continue with its Soroban project by launching new smart contracts similar to Ethereums.
Details: Stellar moved forward with Protocol 20, an upgrade focusing on smart contract development. The blockchain initiated a phased rollout that will add Ethereum-style smart contracts under the Soroban project, which has been under development for quite some time.
The Stellar Development Foundation stated that the launch of new smart contracts came after validators voted for the mainnet upgrade. Stellar had some trouble when first developing the smart contracts, noticing some bugs that could compromise the main purpose of the protocols.
Source: CoinDesk
7. Apple Welcomes Giant Update for iMessage, Uses Cryptography to Increase Security
Summary: Apple will launch a major security update for iMessage, using a new cryptographic protocol to protect users even better than before.
Details: Apple announced it will launch a new cryptographic protocol for iMessage to protect users against future quantum computing attacks. The protocol will be called PQ3 and will be available with the upcoming release of iOS 17.4, iPadOS 17.4, macOS 14.4, and watchOS 10.4.
Although quantum computing attacks are not such a big threat these days, with the constant technological updates, it is highly possible that they will start to raise major concerns at some point. This is why Apple aims to be prepared for a future where hackers try to get past the security features it developed.
Source: The Verge
8. Do Kwon Will be Extradited to the US
Summary: Do Kwon finally received approval from Montenegrin to be extradited to the US, but it is still unclear when the extradition will take place.
Details: Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon will finally be extradited to the United States to face various fraud charges. Do Kwon has been in Montenegro since March 2023, when he was arrested while trying to exit the country using false travel documents.
The High Court of Podgorica previously rejected a request to extradite the Terraform co-founder to South Korea. However, after his legal team argued that the decision should have been made by Montenegros Justice Minister, authorities approved the extradition request made by US authorities.
It is still unclear when Do Kwon will actually be extradited. However, the SECs trial against Do Kwon is still scheduled for March 25.
Source: Cointelegraph
9. BAYC Co-Creator Steps in as Yuga Labs CEO
Summary: Greg Solano announced he would step back as CEO of Yuga Labs and Bored Ape Yacht Club, revealing huge plans for the 2 projects.
Details: Yuga Labs, the creator of the world-renowned BAYC NFT collection, announced that Greg Solano, co-founder of the company and co-creator of BAYC, will step back into the role of CEO. Solano expressed his and co-founder Wylie Aranows appreciation for the former CEO, Daniel Alegre, through a tweet.
Greg Solano revealed his plans for Yuga Labs and Bored Ape Yacht Club, primarily focusing on the Otherside Metaverse and its upcoming updates. He also announced the launch of BAYCs new subsidiary team, BAYC LLC. BAYC LLC will be developed to give Bored Ape more autonomy and creativity.
Source: NFT Plazas
10. Former President Donald Trump Changed His Opinion on Bitcoin
Summary: Donald Trump made a big change regarding his opinion on Bitcoin and crypto, stating that he can live with them one way or the other.
Details: Former United States president Donald Trump made an unexpected change in his opinion regarding Bitcoin and crypto in general. During a recent interview on Fox News, Trump was asked about his views on the rise of Chinese digital currency and whether it is right to counter it through a decentralized currency network.
Donald Trumps response was truly surprising, stating that while the US dollar is still the top currency for him, he is aware of the growing popularity and adoption of Bitcoin. I like the dollar, but many people are using Bitcoin (), so I can live with it one way or the other, said Trump.
Source: Cointelegraph
The post Last Week in Crypto February 19-25 Top Stories You Might Have Missed appeared first on Coindoo.
Read more: https://coindoo.com/last-week-in-crypto/
Text source: Coindoo
