“Optimism has “soft launched” its solution to Ethereum’s transaction problem, the Optimistic Virtual Machine (OVM). The startup announced Friday that OVM is now live, at a time when gas fees have reached near all-time highs for decentralized finance (DeFi) traders.
First on the docket is DeFi exchange Synthetix, which has been working on an integration for some weeks now. The transition will roll out in four phases to limit risk to the platform. Staking the platform’s native token, SNX, is now possible on OVM.
We have opted for initiating the transition with the absolute minimum risk to [layer one], and then adding functionality over the course of the next few months as we build confidence in [Optimistic Ethereum].
In conjunction with other technical solutions, the expectation is Ethereum will be able to execute and settle about 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) with rollups.”
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“Only one major ETF was trading at volumes slightly higher than the BTCetc ETP in the first 11 days of January. The average daily order book turnover for the BTCetc ETP (BTCE) reached €57 million ($69 million).
The most highly traded exchange-traded product on the stock exchange – the iShares Global Clean Energy Ucits ETF (INRG) – was ahead of the BTCE by only €1 million.”
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“U.S. banking powerhouse Goldman Sachs has issued a request for information (RFI) to explore digital asset custody. When asked about timing, the Goldman source said the bank’s custody plans would be “evident soon.”
Like JPMorgan, we have issued an RFI looking at digital custody. We are broadly exploring digital custody and deciding what the next step is.
A tectonic shift took place in the world of crypto custody this week, as San Francisco-based Anchorage attained conditional approval from the OCC to become a national digital bank and “unequivocally” meet the definition of “qualified custodian” in the process.
Anchorage President Diogo Mónica said in an interview this regulatory approval will invite many large and risk-averse institutional players into crypto. Goldman, JPMorgan and Citi are all said to be looking at crypto custody.“
“The Chinese national blockchain project, the Blockchain Service Network, is planning to pilot integration with global central bank digital currencies. According to a Jan. 15 blog post, the BSN is looking to build a universal digital payment network, or UDPN, based on CBDCs of various countries as part of its 2021 roadmap.
With the UDPN, BSN aims to enable a standardized digital currency transfer method and payment procedure. The new system intends to bring together systems like banking, insurance, enterprise resource planning and mobile apps through APIs to provide a cost-friendly global payment solution.”
“Bitcoin’s two-day rally has stalled as the U.S. dollar gains ground in the wake of Joe Biden’s fiscal stimulus announcement. The lack of a bullish response by the bitcoin market is perhaps surprising, given that fiscal/monetary stimulus is inflationary and bitcoin is widely considered a store of value.
The strength of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies could be playing spoilsport. The performance of USD on the Dollar Index (DXY) has affected the cryptocurrency’s price in the past, and the negative correlation between the two assets is strengthening.
Analysts, however, expect the greenback’s bounce to be short-lived.”
“Creditors of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox will be presented with the option to claim up to 90% of the exchange’s remaining bitcoin. The deal between Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy trustee and MGIFLP, a unit of Fortress Investment Group, will be presented to creditors for a simple up or down vote.
Investors aren’t obligated to take the early payment and can wait for the lawsuits against the former exchange to settle. It was not clear at press time how many bitcoins are left for creditors to claim.”
The Disrupt 