Iran officially unveiled its central bank digital currency (CBDC) on Sunday during a ceremony attended by Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Governor Mohammad Reza Farzin and chief executives of several major banks. This digital currency, issued electronically by the central bank, aims to streamline transactions within the country’s banking system. A pilot project will commence […]
Bitcoin News
Argentina Officially Launches Virtual Assets Service Providers Registry
The Argentine securities watchdog (CNV) announced the official launch of Argentina’s Virtual Assets Service Provider (VASP) Registry, allowing almost 100 companies and individuals to apply to be authorized to offer digital assets linked services in the country. The registry will remain open for more companies to submit their application, given that the regulator will only […]
Bitcoin News
Worldcoin Officially Launches in Colombia
Worldcoin, the iris-scanning biometric proof-of-personhood project, announced on Thursday the launch of its operations in Colombia. Via social media, the project reported that eye-scanning operations were already available in Bogota and Medellin, for World ID users. Currently, only ten locations with orbs (iris scanning machines) are available, six in Bogota and four in Medellin. Nonetheless, […]
Bitcoin News
Circle Officially Launches in Brazil, Partners With Latam Giants BTG Pactual and Nubank
Circle, the company behind USDC, the second-largest stablecoin in the cryptocurrency market, has announced its official launch in Brazil. The company inked an alliance with BTG Pactual, the largest investment bank in Latam, to provide onboarding and distribution services for Brazilian companies. Circle also partnered with Nubank, a leading digital neobank. Circle Partners With BTG […]
Bitcoin News
TRON Network Officially Supported By LayerZero
PRESS RELEASE. Geneva, Switzerland, May 28, 2024 – The TRON DAO has officially announced LayerZero support for the TRON blockchain, making TRON the second non-EVM chain to be integrated into LayerZero’s cross-chain interoperability protocol. This significant development allows TRON ecosystem developers to seamlessly expand their applications to over 70 other networks supported by LayerZero. LayerZero […]
Bitcoin News
Tether Officially Reorganizes, Announces Four Different Business Divisions
Tether, one of the largest companies in the cryptocurrency industry, has announced a reorganization of its business operations, seeking to restructure to support its expansion. Tether will now have four business divisions: Tether Data, focused on tech developments; Tether Finance, dedicated to the digital assets business; Tether Power, dealing with mining operations; and Tether Edu, […]
Bitcoin News
TOKEN2049 Dubai Officially Sold Out with 10,000 Attendees Following Unprecedented Demand
PRESS RELEASE. Dubai, UAE — April 5, 2024 — TOKEN2049, the premier crypto event, has officially announced that tickets for the inaugural Dubai conference have sold out over two weeks in advance with 10,000 industry participants confirmed. The unprecedented demand underscores the event’s role as the leading international gathering within the crypto and Web3 space, […]
Bitcoin News
‘Dencun’ Upgrade Officially Deployed On Ethereum Mainnet, ETH Price Holds Steady Below $4,000
Ethereum (ETH) has completed a major software upgrade, Dencun, that promises to make utilizing the network ecosystem more cost-effective. This update specifically targets Layer 2 (L2) networks, such as Arbitrum (ARB), Polygon (MATIC), and Coinbase’s Base, which are interconnected with Ethereum.
With Dencun, transaction costs on these networks have significantly decreased, with fees dropping from dollars to cents or even fractions of a cent.
Ethereum Dencun Upgrade And Cost Savings
Considered the most significant change in Ethereum’s end-user experience, the Dencun upgrade is expected to foster the development of new applications and services by significantly reducing expenses.
As NewsBTC reported on Tuesday, the update introduces a new data storage system, departing from the traditional approach of storing Layer 2 data on Ethereum itself. Adopting a new “blobs” repository reduces data storage costs since information is warehoused for only about 18 days instead of indefinitely.
One of the notable benefits of the Dencun upgrade lies in its impact on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and gas costs. For instance, projected gas costs for popular Layer 2 networks, such as Arbitrum, Optimism, and Coinbase’s Base, are set to be significantly reduced.
The projected savings translate into a reduction of Arbitrum’s swaps from .02 to .40, Optimism’s swaps from .42 to .28, and Coinbase’s Base swaps from .58 to .01, emphasizing the pivotal role of this upgrade.
As the upgrade was successfully launched on the mainnet, Tim Beiko, Ethereum Foundation core developer, expressed his satisfaction with the work accomplished and claimed:
Dencun is both the most complex fork we’ve shipped since the Merge, and tied for “most total EIPs in a fork” with Byzantium. There were more teams than ever involved in the process, and it somehow all worked out smoothly…! Grateful to work with all of them, onto the next one.
Blob Transactions And Pricing Changes
Layer 2 network Arbitrum has provided insights into the upgrade process. It will take around one to two hours for blob transactions to commence posting and for the new pricing changes specified by EIP-4844 to come into effect.
ArbOS Atlas, an upgrade that supports Arbitrum Chains, will introduce further fee reductions for Arbitrum One, set to be activated on March 18th. The updated configurations include a reduction in the Layer 1 (L1) surplus fee from 32 gwei to 0 per compressed byte and a reduction in the L2 base fee from 0.1 gwei to 0.01 gwei.
The Dencun upgrade unlocks cost-saving opportunities for Layer 2 networks and addresses congestion concerns by freeing up more space on the Ethereum network for additional transactions. While the upgrade offers enhanced efficiency, it does come at the cost of no longer retaining a complete record of all data indefinitely.
However, as Layer 2 networks embrace this new update to the Ethereum ecosystem, the stage is set for accelerated adoption, usage, and broader accessibility within the Ethereum community and its underlying protocols.
Dencun Upgrade Fails To Propel ETH Above ,000
Despite the successful upgrade, ETH’s price remains unaffected, continuing to consolidate below the ,000 threshold. The token attempted to surpass this crucial resistance level on Monday and Tuesday but failed to sustain its position above it.
For over 24 hours now, ETH has been trading between ,930 and ,970. Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that ETH has maintained its upward momentum, with gains exceeding 18% over the past fourteen days and nearly 60% over the past thirty days.
Additionally, introducing the Dencun upgrade is expected to drive increased demand for ETH, potentially sparking a renewed uptrend that could bridge the gap between current trading prices and its previous all-time high (ATH) of ,878, achieved in November 2021.
Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com
The Polygon Vesting Contract Is Officially Empty, Will This Send MATIC Price To $3?
Like many other crypto projects, the native token of the Polygon network, MATIC, was launched with some portion of the supply vested for the team over a period of time. In the case of Polygon, the vesting was for five years, and since 2019, there have been periodic token unlocks. However, the unlocks, which have often been a deterrent for investors, are now over, as the last batch was just released to the team.
Polygon Last Unlock Goes To Team
On Wednesday, February 21, the Polygon Foundation received the very last portion of their vested tokens from the vesting contract. In total, 273,304,816 million MATIC tokens valued at 0 million were released to the Foundation’s wallet.
This unlock marks the very last unlock that the Foundation will receive, meaning that almost all of the available supply of MATIC is now in circulation. The latest unclog brings the circulating supply of the cryptocurrency to 9,618,318,574 out of its 10,000,000,000 maximum supply. As a result of this, the market cap of Polygon is sitting just above .14 billion with a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of approximately billion.
The entirety of the MATIC supply has been unlocked, which means that there will be no more tokens being brought into circulation. This is a huge milestone for the project, whose investors have waited years for the vested tokens to finally run out.
How Will This Affect The MATIC Price?
The fact that the entirety of the MATIC supply is now in circulation is bullish for the digital asset, especially in the long term. Inflation is a factor that tends to drive investors away and keep them from holding their coins due to the fear of more tokens coming into circulation, causing supply to exceed demand.
Now that the entirety of the supply is now in circulation, it gives the MATIC price a chance to enter into price discovery. However, there is still some concern about when the Polygon Foundation might start selling their coins as the entirety of the unlocked tokens still sit in the Foundation’s wallet.
If they do decide to sell, though, it is likely that the foundation would do so through OTC (over-the-counter) deals to minimize the impact of such a sale on the token price. As a result, the MATIC price might not suffer much.
At the time of writing, the MATIC token is trading at .95 with a 24-hour increase of 1.11%. Although its performance has been far from encouraging, the token is sitting only 67% below its 2021 all-time high of .92.
ZKSpace Officially Upgrades to ZKBase, Launches ZKSwap for BRC20, and Implements 1:1 Exchange between ZKS and ZKB
PRESS RELEASE. To empower the BTC and ETH ecosystems, the ZKSpace team has rebranded and upgraded to ZKBase. As an infrastructure protocol based on ZK (Zero Knowledge) proof technology, ZKBase is dedicated to providing scalability solutions for mainstream blockchains such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, and building decentralized cross-chain and Layer2 ecosystems. Our new official website, zkbase.org, is now live.
We are about to launch ZKSwap(Bitcoin), catering to BRC20 and other Bitcoin ecosystem token trading. This marks the first step in our exploration of BTC Layer2 solutions. ZKS tokens will be exchanged for ZKB tokens at a 1:1 ratio. ZKB will also be upgraded to serve as the governance token of the ZKBase protocol. We will provide ERC20-BRC20 cross-chain solutions, allowing ZKB holders to enjoy the benefits of both Ethereum and Bitcoin ecosystems. While maintaining existing benefits, 100% of the transaction fees generated by ZKSwap(Bitcoin) will continue to be used for the repurchase and burn of ZKB tokens, empowering ZKB holders.
On December 30th, we will conduct the final ZKS token burn and simultaneously issue ZKB tokens with a total supply of 600 million. Starting from January 2nd, 8:00 AM UTC, users can exchange any amount of ZKS tokens for ZKB tokens through a smart contract. More detailed instructions will be announced in subsequent updates.
Furthermore, we will continue to explore the programmability of the Bitcoin network and ZK cross-chain bridge, enabling secure and convenient cross-chain transactions of BRC20 and other Bitcoin network assets on other public chains. The ZKBase team will actively develop and apply a complete Layer2 ecosystem on the Bitcoin network, creating more use cases for user assets and providing greater composability.
ZKBase Team
https://twitter.com/ZKSpaceOfficial/status/1740678651903971508
This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release.