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upgrade
After years of development, Ethereum (ETH) has finally shipped a much-anticipated upgrade known as a “merge,” which saw the world’s second largest blockchain switch to an energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm. Have converted to an eco-friendly Proof-of-Stake (PoS) system.
The Ethereum blockchain no longer relies on miners, but on validators to achieve consensus and add new blocks, thereby reducing its energy consumption by 99.9%.
Major crypto exchanges including Binance, Coinbase, FTX and Kraken temporarily halted trading for ETH and Ethereum-based tokens during the transition period. Over 40,000 live viewers joined the Ethereum Foundation livestream of the transition, which took 12 minutes.
Prior to the upgrade, Ether flows to the exchanges increased significantly, causing a temporary 5-10% price drop following the merge. While some Ethereum investors were disappointed that ETH moved down against BTC following the landmark upgrade, many crypto natives, including BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, viewed the merge as a “sell news” event that marked a correction. will trigger the
A report by blockchain analytics platform Nansen states that prior to the transition, 5 entities held 64% of all staked ether (ETH). Decentralized staking protocol Lido Finance holds 31% of ETH staked, with Coinbase, Kraken and Binance controlling the other 30%. Data analysis from the blockchain platform Sentiment Has shown After the merger, 46% of PoS nodes were controlled by two addresses.
Following the recent Tornado Cash crackdown, the Ethereum community has been highly concerned with potential post-merge censorship as the biggest validators like crypto exchanges have to comply with regulators. Additionally, users cannot unstake Ether until the Shanghai upgrade, which is expected to go live in 6-12 months.
Many miners turned to other PoW cryptocurrencies following Ethereum’s successful transition to PoS, with Ethereum Classic (ETC) seeing a 500% increase in hash rate over the past month. Other significant benefits of miner migration are the Ergo and Ravencoin blockchains.
luna
Interpol requests law enforcement around the world to arrest Do Kwon, founder of Terra
Four months after the collapse of Luna and UST, a Seoul court issued warrants for Do Kwon, the South Korean founder of Terraform Labs, and five additional individuals on charges of violating the country’s capital markets law.
Singapore police issued a statement saying the South Korean entrepreneur had already fled the country. quon where did it go Said on Twitter that he is “not on the run” and is ready to cooperate with any government agency.
According to Bloomberg, Interpol has issued a “red notice” for Kwon at the request of Seoul prosecutors. South Korea’s foreign ministry is also trying to revoke his passport.
Following the collapse of Terra’s native token LUNA and its algorithmic stablecoin UST in early May, the crypto market has experienced a significant price correction with several centralized lending and borrowing platforms facing bankruptcy.
Do Kwon has a very controversial reputation in the DeFi space. On the one hand, the South Korean entrepreneur dared to challenge the US regulators and filed a lawsuit against the US SEC for unfair treatment. Kwon, on the other hand, has consistently dismissed criticism of his algo-stablecoins prior to the collapse.
in other news
The US Treasury clarified its stance on the approved privacy protocol Tornado Cash, providing guidance on how US individuals can apply for a license to recover their funds from the protocol without breaking the law. While use of the protocol is prohibited, copying and sharing its open source code will not violate the restrictions.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has criticized his political rival Pierre Poilevre for promoting “volatile” cryptocurrencies as a way out of inflation. Poilievre is a bitcoin enthusiast and supporter of Canada’s “Freedom Convoy” protest, which raised nearly $1 million in bitcoin earlier in February, when Trudeau invoked the Emergency Act, which gave authorities the power to freeze bank accounts without a court order. was given the power of
Crypto market maker Wintermute has been hacked for $160 million. Experts say the exploit may have been possible because of a bug in the tools used to generate “vanity addresses,” which usually contain recognizable names and numbers.
Cardano’s long-awaited Vasyl hard fork has gone live after months of development and testing. Some of the new upgrade features become effective from September 27.
