Ethereum is growing up’ with each upgrade, says Grayscale
The research arm of Grayscale Investments believes the ongoing Ethereum network upgrades will soon pay off for the blockchain — particularly the scalability issues that have plagued adoption of the network.
“With every upgrade, Ethereum is effectively ‘growing up’ and continuing to close its throughput and cost gap,” Grayscale researcher Will Ogden Moore said in a Feb. 23 post.
Moore listed the upcoming Dencun upgrade, Ethereum’s deflationary supply model and revenue generation as the main “tailwinds” for the network in addition to a possibly favorable outcome on spot Ether exchange-traded fund applications which the U.S. securities regulator must decide on by late May.
Moore acknowledged that high fees and slower transaction fees remain a bottleneck for Ethereum, which could drive away users to other networks.
However, Moore and Grayscale are confident that Dencun will improve Ethereum’s scalability issues.
“[The Dencun upgrade] represents a major step forward and could help Ethereum compete in terms of scalability with faster chains […] such as Solana.”
A successful implementation of Dencun on the Ethereum mainnet could lower rollup costs by up to 10 times, according to Philippe Schommers, head of infrastructure at Gnosis, who recently spoke with Cointelegraph.
While Ethereum has been overtaken in transaction count, Grayscale’s data shows it is still by far the largest network by total value locked at $45.9 billion. Tron is a distant second at $8.7 billion.
U.S. court approves Binance’s $4.3M plea deal
Binance’s proposed $4.3 billion plea deal with the United States Department of Justice has been approved by a district court judge in Washington.
Of the $4.3 billion, approximately $1.8 billion will be paid in fines, while Binance will forfeit the remaining $2.5 billion, according to a Feb. 23 order by Judge Richard A. Jones.
It is one of the largest criminal penalties ever imposed in U.S. history.
“This really is a case where the ethics of the company were compromised by greed,” said Jones, according to a Bloomberg report.
Binance’s deputy general counsel Joshua Eaton reportedly told Jones that the company “accepts full responsibility for its past and for the reasons we’re sitting here today.”
“We’re also proud of the compliance enhancements” undertaken over the past few years, the Binance executive reportedly added.
Under the plea deal, Binance will also be subject to compliance monitoring by an independent firm for up to five years.
Binance and its founder, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, were indicted on Nov. 14, and both pleaded guilty to several Anti-Money Laundering and sanctions charges.
CZ’s sentencing date was recently pushed back to April 30, 2024, where he is expected to face up to 18 months behind bars.
Mandating Bitcoin miners to disclose data is an abuse of power: Emmer
United States Representative Tom Emmer has slammed the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approving an emergency request that subjects Bitcoin (BTC) mining firms to a mandatory information collection regime.
In a Feb. 20 letter to the OMB, Emmer claimed that emergency orders can only be utilized when there is an “imminent threat” to public safety and argued Bitcoin mining operations pose no such threat.
“The OMB’s abuse of its emergency powers to attack Bitcoin miners demands an explanation,” Emmer explained in a follow-up X post on Feb. 23.
In the letter, Emmer added that emergency approval “will work to the detriment” of the country’s system of checks and balances.”
The order mandates cryptocurrency mining firms to provide detailed reporting of electricity consumption, energy providers, chip types and other proprietary information.
The request by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) was approved by OMB on Jan. 26.
The EIA argued that Bitcoin price increase would lead to more mining activity and, as a result, more energy consumption.
Emmer noted the EIA claims to be a “policy-neutral agency” but instead seems to be enforcing the Biden administration’s “regressive policy position” against energy consumption as it relates to Bitcoin and other proof-of-work cryptocurrencies.
Hackers shill fake NBA NFT scam on ESPN reporter X account
The X account of ESPN NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski was hacked on Feb. 24, which led to the account posting a fake NBA Top Shot nonfungible token (NFT) scam.
A “free NFT pack” was falsely promoted to Wojnarowski’s sizable 6.3 million X followers in which viewers could click a link and be taken to “nbatopshot.org” — as opposed to the real website, nbatopshot.com — and connect their cryptocurrency wallets to partake in the fake NFT airdrop.
The Woj post below about NBA Top Shot is a scam, don’t click
And please never rush to click a free NFT mint off of an X post, ever pic.twitter.com/tqp0HLbT13
The post received hundreds of thousands of impressions and hundreds of retweets and likes.
The scam on Wojnarowski’s X account appeared at 11:30 pm UTC on Feb. 24 but was reportedly removed within half an hour.
