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On Thursday, MakerDAO co-founder Rune Christensen shared a proposal via the network’s official Discord server. Christensen raised the suggestion that the MakerDAO organization should swap its $3.5B  worth of USDC for Ether. However, Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin tagged Christensen’s plan a “terrible idea” despite the potential benefits of such a move on Ethereum’s value.  Christensen To Remove USDC Exposure Rune’s actual goal is to eliminate MakerDAO’s exposure to USDC following the US Treasury’s recent sanction on crypto mixer Tornado Cash.…

Ethereum developers have established tentative, official scheduling for the merge on September 15th. On that day, the network’s consensus mechanism will change from proof of work to proof of stake.  The date was established on Thursday during an Ethereum Foundation Consensus Layer Call. Developers agreed to target either September 15th or September 16th with the upgrade. However, the timing remains an estimate, and devs stressed that the official date is not finalized yet. On Thursday, developer Tim Beiko tweeted the…

BlackRock – the world’s largest asset manager – has launched a Bitcoin private trust offering clients direct Bitcoin exposure. This will give U.S. institutional customers exposure to Bitcoin’s price, less the trust’s expenses and liabilities.  BlackRock's Clients Want Bitcoin On Thursday, BlackRock stated that its clients have shown “substantial interest” in gaining cost-effective crypto exposure through its platform. Bitcoin, it said, is a particular eye-catcher: “Bitcoin is the oldest, largest, and most liquid crypto asset, and is currently the primary…

Via a lengthy Twitter post, Ethereum fork advocates recently promised to put an end to EIP-1559. In a detailed open letter, they claimed the Ethereum Foundation had used the proposal to foster a bullish narrative that ultimately harms miners.  Ethereum Abandoning Decentralization Ethereum’s forthcoming transition to proof-of-stake has seen a lot of positive attention, with several eagerly awaiting the Merge. However, there have also been opponents who believe the switch to Proof-of-Stake is a step backward. The account behind the…

In a Twitter thread late on Wednesday, OpenSea revealed that it is working on strengthening its policies around asset theft. The marketplace acknowledged the failings of its existing measures, however, going forward the team intends to be more open with users. Users Dissatisfied With Stolen Items Policy Since the onset of space, thefts have been one of the biggest issues the NFT industry has faced. OpenSea does have policies in place for stolen items. However, over the past year, the…

Jenny Johnson – CEO of $1.4 trillion money manager Franklin Templeton – recently called Bitcoin a “distraction” from true financial innovation. By contrast, she said its blockchain technology will have a “pretty dramatic” impact on the financial industry, and others. In an interview with Bloomberg, Johnson doubted that governments will allow Bitcoin to become a dominant global currency. “It’s more like religion, and people are going to debate it,” she said.  Blockchain, however, was another story. She claimed that her…

MailChimp CEO Ben Chestnut has announced that he’s stepping down from his executive role to be replaced by Rania Succar. Interestingly, his resignation is occurring shortly after multiple crypto companies have reported being ejected from the platform.  In a tweet on Tuesday, Decrypt editor-in-chief Daniel Roberts said Mailchimp deactivated the firm's newsletter account “without warning or explanation.” Decrypt is a cryptocurrency news publication founded by the blockchain software technology company, Consensys. Messari – a crypto markets intelligence provider – has…

Major exchange Binance appears unbothered by the stiff opposition it has received in its bid to expand to the Philippines. In a recent interview, the company’s Asia-Pacific executive Leon Foong expressed their eagerness to start operations in the region.  Binance Isn’t Focused on “Lobbying Bodies” Earlier this month, the Philippine Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) issued a warning about Binance to the public. The regulators advised residents against using the platform’s services. This came as a response to complaints from policy…

Trung Nguyen, the CEO, and co-founder of Axie Infinity is facing allegations of insider trading after recent data shows he transferred $3 million worth of tokens shortly before disclosing the March hack. At the time, the attack saw the P2E blockchain game lose $622 million worth of assets. Sky Mavis, the game studio behind Axie Infinity, debunks the accusations, claiming the founders transferred the assets to create more flexibility in response to the Ethereum sidechain attack. Moreover, Nguyen says the…