Solana's Second Smartphone, Ethereum's Testnet Trouble

Transcript

welcome to this week's crypto Roundup today we're going to delve into several topics from technological advancements in blockchain integrated mobile devices to complexities in the legal realm impacting major industry figures we'll also examine shifts in the Bitcoin mining sector discuss the implications of a notable stable coin steeg and highlight a substantial legal settlement within the crypto lending and waving up will add a touch of humor with an unexpected turn in corporate social media within the crypto world I'm Megan Christensen a producer here at Unchained salana mobile has announced the launch of its second crypto integrated smartphone this development comes shortly after the company revealed it couldn't fulfill all orders for its first model The Saga which experienced a

complete sellout in the United States and the European Union available for pre-order now at $450 the new device is more affordable than its predecessor and is set to ship in the first half of 2025 salana mobile spokesperson Megan Enright emphasized the company's commit commitment to making crypto products and services more accessible stating quote this product will further what we set out to do with the salana mobile Saga by putting web 3 securely in the palms of the Public's hands end quote the initial sonophone saw a surge in popularity after Traders discovered it contained millions of Solon mcoin Bonk tokens worth more than the phone itself contributing to its eventual sellout Ani yakovenko salon's founder highlighted on Unchained the

importance of reaching a substantial user based for developers aiming for 25,000 to 50,000 units in news related to the ecosystem the community of major decentralized protocol a community is deliberating on a proposal to extend its services to the neon evm on the salana network ethereum stenin upgrade a critical step in enhancing the blockchain's efficiency was implemented on the girly test net on Wednesday this upgrade is part of ethereum's ongoing Evolution following the chaella upgrade of April 2023 which which enabled the withdrawal of staked ether the denin upgrade is aimed at reducing transaction cost in layer 2 networks by implementing Proto dink sharding a process that could slash these costs by a factor of 10 or

more however the roll out on the girly test net encountered issues as the chain failed to finalize as expected developers believe the non-f finality might be due to either low participation estimated at around 80% or validators being offline in Terrance a synonymous user suggested the issue could stem from operators not upgrading necessary software or else an unidentified bug he wrote quote personally I will not base my assessment of gurley's DB's Readiness on immediate finality results it will take time to accurately evaluate the status end quote from Terrence the Duncan upgrade is slated for further testing on the sepolia test net on January 31st and the whole Sky test net

on February 7th prior to its main net release in Thursday filing the SEC has deferred its decision on Fidelity's proposed body TF to March 5th the extension according to the SEC is to allow adequate time to consider the proposed rule change and related issues thoroughly Fidelity's application for the ethereum fund made in November referenced a Court ruling where judges questioned the sec's consistent rejection of spot crypto ETFs despite approving Futures based products Bloomberg intelligence ETF analyst James seford anticipated this delay suggesting that key dates to watch would be in late May the trial of Doan the former CEO of terraform Labs has been pushed back to

late March originally scheduled for January 29th the delay is being attributed to complications in Quan's extradition process from Montenegro where he was currently detained Quan faces charges from the SEC related to the collapse of Tera USD algorithmic stable coin his legal representation has been trying to expedite his extradition but faces challenges since Quan is serving a sentence in Montenegro for a separate conviction US District Court Judge Jed rof who's overseeing the case has acknowledged the potential delay in Quan's release from Montenegro but has said that the trial could not be postponed further than the new date which is set for March 25th the SEC had previously succeeded in their claim

against Quan and terraform labs for offering and selling unregistered Securities and Joseph bankman and Barbara freed parents of FTX founder Sam bankman freed filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought against them by debtors of FTX and Alam research the lawsuit filed in September 2023 accused them of fraudulent transfers and breaches of fiduciary duties however the couple's attorneys argue that the familial relationship with their son does not automatically imply involvement in the allege activities the plaintiffs in this case had claimed that Joseph and Barbara exploited their connections within FTX to enrich themselves including purchasing a 16.4 million luxury property in the Bahamas with

funds from the debtors the lawsuit also alleged that the pair pushed for substantial political and charitable contributions including to Stanford University where they are professors which supposedly boosted their professional and social status at the expense of the FTX group the defense attorney stated that these allegations hold no legal significance as there is no evidence suggesting that bankman are freed directly benefited from these transactions they emphasized that the lawsuit does not prove that the parents used the Bahamas property as a primary residence nor received any direct financial gain from the donations made to Stanford and the cross chain protocol socket faces significant security breach this week resulting in a loss of $3.3

million this exploit affected wallets with infinite approvals to socket contracts the socket team identified the issue and promptly paused the affected contracts to prevent further losses assuring users that no immediate action was required on their end blockchain analysts briway reported the exploit which involved using a token approval from an ethereum address to carry out the attack the analyst advised users to revoke all approvals from this address known as quote socket Gateway end quote on ether scan amid this incident fishing scammers attempted to exploit the situation by creating a fake socket account urging users to revoke their approvals using a malicious app but it was swiftly removed core science paciific a major player in the Bitcoin

mining sector is set to relist its shares following its exit from bankruptcy this move could Mark a significant recovery step for the company which faced challenges during the crypto Market downturn simultaneously a report from coin shares highlighted a looming challenge for Bitcoin miners the upcoming Bitcoin having an event that haves the reward for mining new blocks is expected to significantly impact propability the report suggest that only a few miners will remain profitable after the having underscoring the need for operational efficiency and technological advancements in the sector furthermore coind Des reported that Bitcoin minor outflows have reached a six-year High ahead of the having this activity indicates that miners are transferring their Holdings to exchanges possibly to build liquidity in anticipation of the

having's effects this week the stable coin true USD dagged from its one to1 parody with the US dollar the devaluation to 0.984 occurred following substantial sell orders and binance leading to a frenzy of speculation about the cause the Deep pagging coincided with a significant trade of true USD for tether's usdt stable coin followed by a large Bitcoin purchase for the same amount suggesting the possible liquidation of binance's true USD Holdings concerns have been raised in the past about true usds ability to maintain its Peg the stable coin had previously faced issues with real-time attestations of its reserves leading to questions about its collateralization further complicating the situation the lack of Arbitrage

opportunities on poniac were true USD has been trading at a discount LED some to be suspicious about withdrawal and deposit restrictions crypto lender Genesis global trading has agreed to pay $8 million to settle a lawsuit with the New York State Department of Financial Services the settlement resolves allegations of anti-money laundering and fraud alongside the monetary settlement Genesis will seize its business operations in New York and forfeit its bit license Adrien a Harris superintendent of DFS said quote Genesis global trading failure to maintain a functional compliance program demonstrated a disregard for the Department's regulatory requirements and exposed the company and its customers to potential threats end quote the

settlement comes amid Genesis ongoing legal challenges including a lawsuit filed in October by the New York attorney general's office alleging that the company defrauded investors in conjunction with its parent company digital currency group and Gemini trust Genesis which declared bankruptcy earlier this year remains involved in court proceedings to recover lost investors funds now time for fun bits Franklin Templeton usually known for its stayed Financial expertise caused a stir by handing its X formerly Twitter keys to its digital assets research team this led to a flurry of tongue and cheat crypto tweets transforming their typically composed fiend into a treasure Trove of crypto humor from declaring

quote speculation as a feature not a bug end quote in crypto to expressing enthusiasm for ethereum's quote midlife crisis end quote the team's post were a far cry from the accounts usual corporate demeanor this unexpected shift prompted a mix of hilarity and disbelief among followers with some amused by the company stud inote shitcoin chilling end quot While others questioned the wisdom of his social media experiment Bitcoin enthusiasts found joy in the chaos interpreting it as bullish for Bitcoin amid jokes about over caffinated interns and lawyer imposed limitations on replies Franklin templeton's trial turned out to be a surprise Ing and entertaining departure from the norm in the usually button down world of asset management and that's all thanks so much

for joining us today if you enjoyed this recap go to unchain crypto.com and sign up for a free newsletter so that you can stay up to date with the latest in crypto Unchained is produced by Laura Shin with help from Nelson Lang Kevin fukes Matt pilchard Wan rovic Megan gavis shash shank and Margaret Korea the weekly recap was written by wanovich and edited by Nelson Wang thanks for [Music] listening Unchained is now a part of the coindesk podcast Network for the latest in digital assets check out markets daily 5 days a week with host Noel aters follow the coindesk podcast Network for

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