Moonstake, a leading provider of staking services for blockchain networks, partners with Humans.ai, an AI and blockchain startup focused on harnessing the power of artificial intelligence in an ethical framework. The partnership will focus on the advancement of AI-powered applications on the blockchain in the Asian market, leveraging the strengths of both companies to drive innovation in the field.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Moonstake, a company that shares our passion for using cutting-edge technology to solve real-world problems,” said Sabin Dima, CEO & Founder at Humans.ai. “The combination of our AI expertise and innovation and Moonstake’s blockchain know-how will allow us to empower solutions that are truly useful to society and able to scale to meet the needs of the Asian user base and business clients,” added Sabin Dima.

The partnership will begin with a joint development program, aimed at exploring the potential of AI-powered applications on the blockchain and identifying new business use cases for this technology. The companies also plan to launch a series of joint initiatives, including regional events, to foster collaboration and innovation in the AI and blockchain sector.

European startup Humans.ai addresses some of the major dysfunctions present in the current AI status quo. As AI is rapidly gaining traction all around the world, benefiting numerous industries and businesses, the Humans.ai team has made it its mission to assist the transition of artificial intelligence, AI models, and AI-based solutions from the centralized Web2 domain, where giants of the tech industry hold the reins to innovation development, to a decentralized environment, where artificial intelligence is becoming a democratized asset that is constantly monitored by real humans to ensure its ethical use.

Moonstake started the staking business in 2020 with the aim to create the largest staking network in Asia. Since then, the company developed a user-friendly Web Wallet and Mobile Wallet (iOS / Android) with support for over 2000 cryptocurrencies. After a full-scale operation launched in August 2020, Moonstake’s total staking assets have grown rapidly to reach $1 Billion, allowing Moonstake to become one of the top 10 staking providers globally. Currently, Moonstake supports 18 leading PoS assets including Cosmos, IRISnet, Ontology, Harmony, Tezos, Cardano, Qtum, Polkadot, Quras, Centrality, Orbs (Ethereum and Polygon), IOST, TRON, Shiden, FIO, Everscale, Oasisa and Solana.

By merging AI with blockchain, Humans.ai aims to create the AIVERSE, which is an ecosystem hosting the economy of AIs, with the objective of giving people control and ownership over the future evolution of the technology. 

“We believe that the partnership between Humans.ai and Moonstake has the potential to revolutionize the way that AI and blockchain technology are used together,” said Mitsuru Tezuka, Founder at Moonstake. “By joining forces, we are able to expand a truly decentralized ecosystem for AI that is more secure, more transparent, and more accessible to a wider range of users.”

About Moonstake 

Moonstake is the world’s leading staking service provider that develops and operates decentralized wallet services for businesses and individuals.

Since its launch in April 2020, Moonstake has partnered with 27 leading platform providers, including Cardano’s constituent Emurgo, developer of the Polkadot-connected blockchain Astar Network Stake Technologies, and the TRON Network with over 50 million users. In May 2021, Moonstake further enhanced its corporate credibility by becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of OIO Holdings Limited, a company listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Using blockchain technology, Moonstake aims to progress toward a world where anyone can easily make use of highly secure and reliable digital asset management tools.

https://www.moonstake.io/      

About Moonstake’s staking business

For the staking industry, which has grown into a 630-billion dollar market as of September 2021, Moonstake provides a decentralized staking service that does not require user deposits and supports nodes around the world in addition to its own validator nodes. Moonstake currently supports the staking of 18 blockchains. With a total staking asset of 1.8 billion USD and a global user base, the company ranked third out of more than 10,000 providers worldwide in June of the same year.

About Humans.ai

Humans.ai is creating an all-in-one platform for AI-based creation and governance at scale. Humans.ai leverages blockchain technology and artificial intelligence to enhance the standard NFT and expand its functionality, transforming it from a static art form to an interactive and intelligent asset class capable of encapsulating neural networks or segments of a person’s digital DNA. The technology, named AI NFT, represents a new type of NFT that enables people to use their biometric data to create artificial intelligence solutions that are kept ethical by complex governance, consensus, and verification mechanisms. 

Humans.ai’s unique consensus mechanism, Proof-of-Human, will be integrated to demonstrate there is a real human behind every transaction, making it more secure and trustworthy.

Moonstake is pleased to announce that our users can now earn interest from staking Avalanche (AVAX)! Hold, send, receive, and stake AVAX to receive rewards with the best user experience through one single click. After Cosmos, IRISnet, Ontology, Harmony, Tezos, Cardano, Qtum, Polkadot, Quras, Centrality, Orbs (on Ethereum and Polygon), IOST, TRON, Shiden, FIO, EVER, ROSE, and SOL, the popular coin AVAX has become the 19th staking coin available on Moonstake. 

This accomplishment is made possible through technical integration between Moonstake and our strategic partner, RockX, whom we have also worked with to enable DOT and SOL staking for users! RockX is a top-13 digital asset platform and leading node operator for popular blockchains like Polkadot, Solana, and Avalanche.

Moonstake started the staking business in 2020 with the aim to create the largest staking network in Asia. Since then, we have developed the most user-friendly Web Wallet and Mobile Wallet (iOS / Android) with support for over 2000 cryptocurrencies. After a full-scale operation launched in August 2020, Moonstake’s total staking assets have grown rapidly to reach $1 Billion. Today, Moonstake is a recognized top 10 staking provider in the world and a Verified Provider of the VPP family of the leading staking data aggregator, Staking Rewards.

Meanwhile, Avalanche is an open-source platform for launching decentralized applications and enterprise blockchain deployments in one interoperable, highly scalable ecosystem. Avalanche is a EVM-compatible decentralized smart contracts platform built for the scale of global finance, supporting 4,500 TPS (transactions per second) output. Ethereum developers can quickly build on Avalanche as Solidity works out-of-the-box. For its consensus algorithm, Avalanche operates its own protocol called Snow which uses Proof-of-Stake (PoS) as the foundation. It uses three separate chains: X (transactions), P (staking and validator activities), and C (smart contracts, DApps) to run the network. Thanks to its robust technical architecture and DeFi ecosystem, Avalanche has become one of the most popular blockchains for DApp developers. Learn more about Avalanche in our AVAX 101 article here.

Here’s a simple 4-step process to stake AVAX on Moonstake Wallet:

1. Register your Moonstake Wallet via Web or mobile (iOS / Android)
2. Select AVAX from the “Wallets” screen and click the “Add Asset” button
3. Access the AVAX screen to check your staking information and validator. From the Staking tab, click the “Stake” button and enter your staking amount (must be more than 25 AVAX).
4. Enter your wallet password to complete staking. 

How AVAX Staking Works

You will have to transfer your AVAX onto P-Chain to start staking. When you hold assets in a P address, you make them illiquid. You will not be able to freely move your assets into your X address, and you cannot transfer them to another P address. To move assets from one P address to another, you have to send them back to your X address and then send them to another P address. 

Users must have 25 AVAX to delegate/stake in the wallet, the minimum amount of time one can stake funds for validation is 2 weeks for a lock-up period. The delegation fee set by validators is the portion of the rewards that are paid to the validators. The minimum delegation fee is 2%. However, there is no slashing on Avalanche, staked tokens are never at risk of loss due to poor validator performance.

When a validator is done validating the Primary Network, it receives back the AVAX tokens it staked. The validators will also vote on whether the leaving node should receive a staking reward for helping to secure the network. 

A validator will only receive a staking reward if they are online and respond for more than 80% of their validation period, as measured by a majority of validators, weighted by stake. When a node leaves the validator set, the validators vote on whether the leaving node should receive a staking reward or not.

How To Get Rewards for AVAX Staking and How Unstaking Works

AVAX rewards earned from staking are handled on the protocol level, and rewards will automatically be transferred to you once they are earned. AVAX tokens must be staked for a minimum of 2 weeks and a maximum of 1 year, and the staking rewards  (as well as the staked tokens) will be received by the user after the staking period ends.

Follow us on Twitter and Telegram for the latest updates on Moonstake news

About Moonstake

Moonstake is the world’s leading staking service provider that develops and operates decentralized wallet services for businesses and individuals.

Since its launch in April 2020, Moonstake has partnered with 27 leading platform providers, including Cardano’s constituent Emurgo, developer of the Polkadot-connected blockchain Astar Network Stake Technologies, and the TRON Network with over 50 million users. In May 2021, Moonstake further enhanced its corporate credibility by becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of OIO Holdings Limited, a company listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Using blockchain technology, Moonstake aims to progress toward a world where anyone can easily make use of highly secure and reliable digital asset management tools.

https://www.moonstake.io/        

About Moonstake’s staking business

For the staking industry, which has grown into a 630-billion dollar market as of September 2021, Moonstake provides a decentralized staking service that does not require user deposits, and supports nodes around the world in addition to its own validator nodes. Moonstake currently supports the staking of 18 blockchains. With a total staking assets of 1.8 billion USD and a global user base, the company ranked third out of more than 10,000 providers worldwide in June of the same year.

About Avalanche

Avalanche is the fastest smart contracts platform in the blockchain industry, as measured by time-to-finality, and has the most validators securing its activity of any proof-of-stake protocol. Avalanche is blazingly fast, low-cost, and green. Any smart contract-enabled application can outperform its competition on Avalanche. 

https://avax.network   

About RockX 

RockX is the smartest platform to participate in the growing digital asset economy by enabling anyone to capitalize on the emerging global asset class of digital assets and cryptocurrencies for the best risk-adjusted returns. RockX is a comprehensive digital asset platform where mainstream users can participate in the blockchain economy at a suitable risk-reward profile. RockX is the first of its kind in the market where users can diversify and be exposed to different digital assets in one simple interface.

https://www.rockx.com/ 

Moonstake is excited to announce we have become strategic partners with the leading multi-purpose blockchain domain solution Unstoppable Domains to simplify the crypto experience across the Web3 ecosystem. With the new integration, our users can now use a single “crypto username” to make transactions to others as well as applications and services supported by Unstoppable Domains. Conveniently send and receive Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, and USDT cryptocurrencies using one simple custom “name” instead of juggling between multiple complicated crypto addresses.

With a single Unstoppable Domain name, make transactions of BTC, ETH, ADA, and USDT hassle-free on Moonstake Wallet. Instead of having to share multiple long, alphameric addresses to send and receive, you can just use a simplified, easily readable domain name. Unstoppable Domains are built on the Crypto Name Service (CNS) on Ethereum, issued as ERC-721 tokens that grant user irrevocable ownership of the domains they have created. This means that users are always in full control of their domain and assets and can manage their domain from any compatible wallet, exchange, marketplace, or any other Web3 applications that support this standard.

Mitsuru Tezuka, Founder at Moonstake, says:

“We are thrilled to partner Unstoppable Domains to simplify crypto transactions for users worldwide. With the human-readable, customized domain name to replace long, complex crypto addresses, Moonstake hopes to improve the experience of crypto users by eliminating user error in your everyday crypto interactions. We are happy to be a strategic partner of the Unstoppable Domains ecosystem to help deliver a frictionless Web3 experience for global users while empowering you to always be in control of your assets.”

Moonstake started the staking business in 2020 with the aim to create the largest staking network in Asia. Since then, we have developed the most user-friendly Web Wallet and Mobile Wallet (iOS / Android) with support for over 2000 cryptocurrencies. After a full-scale operation launched in August 2020, Moonstake’s total staking assets have grown rapidly to reach $1 Billion, allowing Moonstake to become one of the top 10 staking providers globally. Currently, Moonstake supports 18 leading PoS assets including Cosmos, IRISnet, Ontology, Harmony, Tezos, Cardano, Qtum, Polkadot, Quras, Centrality, Orbs (Ethereum and Polygon), IOST, TRON, Shiden, FIO, Everscale, Oasisa and Solana.

Meanwhile, Unstoppable Domains enables seamless connection to Web3 through the use of blockchain domains. Purchasing your own Unstoppable Domain allows you to have a blockchain-connected web address that turns multiple crypto addresses into one human-readable name that can also connect with  exchanges, marketplaces, and other Web3 applications. This greatly simplifies crypto interactions by eliminating user errors when handling many lengthy randomized public keys. The purchased Unstoppable Domain is also in your full control, as you can transfer, upload, and link it to any compatible services and platform, such as Moonstake.

Follow us on Twitter and Telegram for the latest updates on Moonstake news!

About Moonstake

Moonstake is the world’s leading staking service provider that develops and operates decentralized wallet services for businesses and individuals.

Since its launch in April 2020, Moonstake has partnered with 27 leading platform providers, including Cardano’s constituent Emurgo, developer of the Polkadot-connected blockchain Astar Network Stake Technologies, and the TRON Network with over 50 million users. In May 2021, Moonstake further enhanced its corporate credibility by becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of OIO Holdings Limited, a company listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Using blockchain technology, Moonstake aims to progress toward a world where anyone can easily make use of highly secure and reliable digital asset management tools.

https://www.moonstake.io/     

About Moonstake’s staking business

For the staking industry, which has grown into a 630-billion dollar market as of September 2021, Moonstake provides a decentralized staking service that does not require user deposits, and supports nodes around the world in addition to its own validator nodes. Moonstake currently supports the staking of 18 blockchains. With a total staking assets of 1.8 billion USD and a global user base, the company ranked third out of more than 10,000 providers worldwide in June of the same year.

About Unstoppable Domains

Founded in 2018, Unstoppable Domains is an NFT domain name provider and digital identity platform working to onboard the world onto Web3. Unstoppable Domains offers NFT domains minted on the blockchain that give people full ownership and control of their digital identity, with no renewal fees. With Unstoppable Domains, people can replace lengthy alphanumeric crypto wallet addresses with a human-readable name and log into and transact with more than 200 apps, wallets, exchanges and marketplaces. The company was named by Forbes as one of America’s Best Startup Employers in 2022.

https://unstoppabledomains.com/ 

Welcome to this week’s article on the most relevant crypto news. Keeping up with the latest industry news is key to making strategic moves with your crypto assets. With this new article series, we hope to help users catch all the important information conveniently. For this edition, we will be covering all the market news you need to know in the week of 12th – 16th December 2022 including news about on-going Digital Assets vs Inflation, GBTC discount, FTX follow-up and other major industry and adoption news. Let’s dive in!

SEC Responds to Grayscale Suit Over GBTC ETF Conversion

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has denied claims that its rejection of Grayscale Investments’ application to turn its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) was arbitrary and discriminatory. Grayscale filed a lawsuit against the SEC on 29 June, the same day that the regulator rejected its application. 

The regulator’s first response since the lawsuit was filed, it reiterated that its reasons for denying Grayscale’s application were in line with its earlier decision to reject other applications for spot bitcoin ETFs. 

In its lawsuit, Grayscale argued that the SEC’s approval of several bitcoin futures ETFs meant that its rejection of its application violated the Administrative Procedure Act. However, the regulator argued that the two types of instrument were not the same, and that futures ETFs are only tradable on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which is overseen by federal regulators and performs “extensive surveillance of the trading activity on its market.” 

Bitcoin and Ether Rally on Slower-Than-Expected November Inflation Report

The US consumer price index (CPI) slowed more than expected in November, with a rise of 0.1% from the previous month, compared with an increase of 0.4% in October, according to the US Labor Department. The annual CPI rose 7.1%, down from a predicted 7.3%. The slowdown has boosted prices for cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, as it may give the Federal Reserve more justification to pause on interest-rate hikes.

Bitcoin rose 1.6% immediately after the report was released, while Ether was up 6.9% over 24 hours. Tight monetary policy can lower prices of assets, including stocks and cryptocurrencies. The Federal Open Market Committee is meeting this week to decide on interest rates.

FTX Founder Formally Charged with Conspiracy and Fraud in US Court

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto exchange FTX, has been arrested in the Bahamas and faces extradition to the US on a range of charges including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and campaign finance violations. The US Department of Justice has also sought to have Bankman-Fried forfeit any assets derived from the alleged crimes. 

In addition to the criminal charges, the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Future Trading Commission have filed their own charges against the former CEO of FTX. The indictment alleges that Bankman-Fried “agreed with others to defraud customers of FTX.com by misappropriating those customers’ deposits and using those deposits to pay expenses and debts of Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s proprietary crypto hedge fund, and to make investments.”

With the recent collapse of the FTX, the debate of self-custody has once again taken the spotlight. Moonstake offers non-custodial staking services for our users so never have to worry about the safety of your funds. Currently we offer staking for 18 PoS (Proof-of-Stake) coins and many more to come. Download the Moonstake Wallet today on Web or Mobile and get staking today!

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust’s Discount Reaches Record High

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) has hit a record-high discount rate relative to bitcoin (BTC), pushing past 50% for the first time. This follows the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to deny an application to convert the world’s largest bitcoin fund into an exchange-traded fund (ETF). 

Crypto analysts believe that if the conversion went ahead, the discount would likely close as the redemption process available for ETF market makers would likely cause the shares to trade back toward the price of the underlying bitcoin. GBTC, which is managed by Grayscale Investments, was designed to let investors in traditional markets gain exposure to bitcoin. 

The fund currently has around $10.7 billion of assets under management, but this figure has fallen 65% over the past 12 months due to this year’s steep decline in crypto prices. The fund is trading at a discount partly because investors have no way to redeem their holdings in exchange for bitcoin in the trust, but are still being charged a 2% fee. 

Fears have recently surfaced that crypto trading firm Genesis Global Trading, which is owned by Grayscale’s parent company Digital Currency Group, might file for bankruptcy. Grayscale claims that it is operating as usual, but analysts and Twitter posters have suggested that any financial issues for DCG could affect GBTC. Hedge fund Fir Tree is currently suing Grayscale to obtain details about GBTC in order to investigate potential mismanagement and conflicts of interest, and has called for Grayscale to resume redemptions and cut its 2% fees for the trust.

Binance CEO CZ Embraces ‘Stress Test’ as Exchange Resumes USDC Withdrawals

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has welcomed a “stress test” on the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, which saw withdrawals of USDC temporarily suspended on Tuesday. CZ said it was “business as usual” for Binance, which had net withdrawals on some days and net deposits on others. 

The temporary halt in USDC withdrawals had sparked speculation that Binance’s USDC reserves were depleted, while others said the exchange had paused the service to wait for new supplies. Net outflows on Binance reached $2.5bn at one point on Tuesday, according to blockchain data intelligence platform Nansen.

US Senators Warren and Marshall Propose Anti-Money Laundering Bill for Digital Assets, Including Crypto Wallet Providers and Miners

U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Roger Marshall have introduced a bill aimed at preventing money laundering and financing of terrorists and rogue nations through cryptocurrency. If passed, the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act would impose know-your-customer (KYC) rules on crypto participants such as wallet providers and miners, and prohibit financial institutions from conducting transactions with digital asset mixers. Digital asset mixers are tools designed to obscure the origin of funds. The act would also allow the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to implement a proposed rule requiring institutions to report certain transactions involving unhosted wallets, which are wallets that are completely controlled by the user rather than a third party like an exchange. There are ongoing concerns about the use of cryptocurrency for money laundering and terrorist financing, and this bill aims to address these issues through greater regulation of the digital asset industry.

PayPal Partners with Crypto Wallet MetaMask to Enable Easy Purchase and Transfer of Ether

PayPal and MetaMask Wallet have announced that they will integrate their buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency services in an effort to expand users’ options for transferring digital assets between their platforms. The partnership between PayPal and MetaMask developer ConsenSys will allow users to select their PayPal accounts as a payment option to buy ether (ETH) from within the MetaMask app, enabling seamless purchases and transfers of ether from PayPal to MetaMask. The offering is intended to help bring more users into the Web3 ecosystem at a time when the sector is seeking ways to move forward during the current “crypto winter.” The new offering will initially be available to select U.S. customers, with PayPal planning to roll it out to the rest of its U.S. customers over the coming weeks. This follows PayPal’s efforts in June to enable cryptocurrency transfers between its own platform and several popular cryptocurrency exchanges. The company launched its buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency service in October 2020.

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We hope you enjoy this carefully curated news roundup by Moonstake, as our team strives to only bring the most relevant information for your crypto experience. See you next week!

Follow us on Twitter and Telegram for the latest updates on Moonstake news!

Moonstake is pleased to announce that our users can now earn interest from the top-10 staking coin SOL of Solana network! Hold, send, receive, and stake SOL to receive rewards with the best user experience through one single click. After Cosmos, IRISnet, Ontology, Harmony, Tezos, Cardano, Qtum, Polkadot, Quras, Centrality, Orbs (on Ethereum and Polygon), IOST, TRON, Shiden, FIO, EVER, and ROSE, the highly demanded SOL has become the 18th staking coin available on Moonstake. This accomplishment is made possible through technical integration between Moonstake and our strategic partner, RockX, whom we have also been working with to enable DOT staking for users since January 2021.

Moonstake started the staking business last year with the aim to create the largest staking network in Asia. Since then, we have developed the most user-friendly Web Wallet and Mobile Wallet (iOS / Android) with support for over 2000 cryptocurrencies. After a full-scale operation launched in August 2020, Moonstake’s total staking assets have grown rapidly to reach $1 Billion. Today, Moonstake is a recognized top 10 staking provider in the world and a Verified Provider of the VPP family of the leading staking data aggregator, Staking Rewards. For the integration of SOL staking, Moonstake is once again working with partner RockX, a top-13 digital asset platform and leading node operator for popular blockchains like Polkadot, Solana, and Avalanche, to provide staking access to the much demanded SOL coin to our users. 

Meanwhile, Solana is a layer-1 blockchain that focuses on scalability, speed, cost minimization, and energy-efficiency. It uses a hybrid model of Proof of Stake (PoS) that combines a unique timestamp-based Proof of History (PoH) algorithm with a high-speed synchronization system. This lets Solana provide a high speed and low-cost experience to both users and developers, promising less than 0.01 USD for transaction fee and 0.001 seconds in transaction time. Thanks to these innovations, Solana has become one of the most popular blockchains for DApp developers and staking users. In fact, the SOL coin now sits in the ranking of the top 10 cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization. 

Here’s a simple 4-step process to stake SOL on Moonstake Wallet:

1. Register your Moonstake Wallet via Web or mobile (iOS / Android)
2. Select SOL from the “Wallets” screen and click the “Add Asset” button.
3. Access the SOL screen to check your staking information. From the Staking tab, click the “Stake” button and enter your staking amount (must be more than 1 SOL).
4. Enter your wallet password to complete staking.

How SOL Staking Works

When you make a staking transaction for SOL, a stake account is created automatically created. You can have as many stake accounts as you want. Each new stake account has a unique address, and a single wallet, like your Moonstake wallet, can manage or “authorize” many different stake accounts. 

With Moonstake, you can stake SOL to the RockX validator, which is the node provider partner we are working with to offer you the SOL staking functionality. 

How To Get Rewards for SOL Staking

SOL staking has historically yielded around 6% APY, though as usual this number will fluctuate depending on network activity. Staking rewards are computed and issued once per epoch which is approximately 2 days. However, to begin earning rewards, you must first wait for two epochs (around 4 days). 

Rewards accrued in a given epoch are issued to all validators and delegators in the first block of the following epoch. Rewards are issued once per epoch and deposited into the stake account that earned them. Stake rewards are automatically re-delegated as active stake. 

How SOL Unstaking Works

Tokens can only be withdrawn from a stake account when they are not currently delegated. When a stake account is first un-delegated, it is considered “deactivating” or “cooling down”. Tokens may not be withdrawn from the account until some or all of them have finished deactivating and are considered “inactive” and therefore no longer earning any potential staking rewards. The lock period of SOL unstaking is around 1 epoch (2 days). 

Once the tokens in a stake account are inactive, they can be withdrawn back to your main wallet address or to another address immediately. Tokens in a stake account with a lockup may not be withdrawn until the lockup expires, regardless of the delegation state of that account. Once the lockup expires, undelegated tokens may be withdrawn immediately. There is no action required by the account holder to specifically unlock the account. 

Follow us on Twitter and Telegram for the latest updates on Moonstake news

Welcome to this week’s article on the most relevant crypto news. Keeping up with the latest industry news is key to making strategic moves with your crypto assets. With this new article series, we hope to help users catch all the important information conveniently. For this edition, we will be covering all the market news you need to know in the week of 5th – 9th December 2022 including news about on-going Ethereum Staking Release, Bitcoin Mining Update, Chainlink Staking and other major industry and adoption news. Let’s dive in!

Nexo to Exit US Market Due to Regulatory Challenges

Crypto lender Nexo will immediately stop offering its Earn Interest product in eight US states and will no longer be signing up any new US customers to the product. In a blog post, Nexo said it had been in talks with both state and federal regulators in the US, but these had come to a “dead end”. The company did not provide many specifics about these discussions, but said it had shared information with the regulators and tried to “proactively modify its business” to respond to these law enforcement agencies’ concerns. The company also said it would stop offering products and services in the US in the coming months.

Nexo had already off-boarded Earn clients in New York and Vermont at those states’ regulators’ insistence. It will now suspend access to new users in Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Wisconsin, California and Washington. Residents of these states can continue using Nexo’s other services. “It is now unfortunately clear to us that despite rhetoric to the contrary, the US refuses to provide a path forward for enabling blockchain businesses and we cannot give our customers confidence that regulators are focused on their best interests,” the blog post said.

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Experiences Largest Drop in Over a Year as Crypto Winter Impacts Profitability

Bitcoin mining difficulty has fallen by 7.32%, with miners turning off their machines as the bear market hits profitability. Data from mining pool BTC.com indicates that the adjustment at block height 766,080 is the largest downward change since July 2021, when China banned the industry and saw hordes of miners drop off the network. The country was then the world’s biggest bitcoin mining hub. 

The mining difficulty automatically adjusts according to the online hashrate, or computing power, to maintain a stable mining time for a bitcoin block. The more miners working, the higher the difficulty becomes. Bitcoin miners have been caught between a low bitcoin price, which cuts revenue, and high electricity rates, which increase costs. Leading producers including Core Scientific and Argo Blockchain are dealing with liquidity problems, while Compute North has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. 

Efficient new machines and an increase in the number of miners coming online as projects started months ago come to fruition have exacerbated the situation, driving the hashrate higher. Between early August and the last upward adjustment on 21 November, the hashrate and difficulty both rose by around a third. The hashrate started dropping around mid-November, but is still well above levels seen after China’s crackdown on the industry. 

Profitability has fallen by around 20% in the past month, according to Luxor’s hashprice indicator. Even miners using energy-efficient machines need access to electricity priced lower than 8 US cents per kWh, said Jaran Mellerud, an analyst at Luxor. Although the average energy price on the network is around 5 cents per kWh, many miners are paying 7-8 cents per kWh, Mellerud added.

Goldman Sachs to Invest in Cryptocurrencies Following Market Turmoil

Goldman Sachs is reportedly looking to invest tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency firms, according to Reuters. The move comes following the bankruptcy of crypto exchange FTX and the troubled financial condition of several other high-profile firms in the industry. Goldman Sachs believes there is an increased need for trustworthy and established players in the market and sees an opportunity in the discounted valuations of crypto firms following the market turmoil. “We do see some really interesting opportunities, priced much more sensibly,” said Mathew McDermott, head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs.

ConsenSys to Improve MetaMask Wallet in Response to User Concerns Over Privacy

ConsenSys, the company behind the popular MetaMask crypto wallet, has announced plans to release a series of updates to the platform in response to user backlash over its data-collection practices. In a statement, ConsenSys clarified that it only collects and shares MetaMask user internet-protocol (IP) information with Infura, its “RPC (remote procedure call) service” for reading and writing data to the Ethereum blockchain, in connection with “write” requests or transactions. The company added that it does not collect wallet and IP address information for “read” requests, such as checking account balances. The changes follow concerns raised by some users that the company’s data-collection practices violated Ethereum’s privacy-focused, decentralized ethos.

Chainlink launches staking of its native token LINK, providing incentives for system growth

Chainlink, a provider of price feeds and other data to blockchains, has launched staking of its native token, LINK, on its network to help keep the protocol secure. Staking will provide incentives to help the Chainlink system to grow, according to co-founder Sergey Nazarov. Stakers will commit LINK tokens in smart contracts to back certain performance guarantees around oracle services. This first phase of Chainlink staking will help secure data feeds. The Chainlink network has enabled more than $6.6tn in transaction value this year, Nazarov said. The staking is setting the foundation for Economics 2.0, Chainlink’s vision for the protocol to scale and become more efficient by providing the right incentives as the network continues to expand.

Would you like to see Moonstake offer Chainlink staking?

Let us know through our twitter @moonstake!

Ethereum Developers Plan Staked Ether Release for March 2023, With Withdrawals Available in Spring. “Proto-Danksharding” to Follow in Subsequent Hard Fork.

Ethereum developers have agreed that the network’s next hard fork, known as “Shanghai”, will have a target release time frame of March 2023. The upgrade will include EIP 4895, which will enable Beacon Chain staked ether (ETH) withdrawals. Developers also plan to address the implementation of the EVM Object Format (EOF) in Shanghai, which is a collection of Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) that upgrade the Ethereum Virtual Machine. If EOF is deemed too complicated to implement by the next All Core Developers call on 5 January, the team will push back EOF to the fall. The Shanghai hard fork will be followed by a second hard fork in the fall of 2023 to address the issue of proto-danksharding, or EIP 4844.

Coinbase Urges Users to Switch from Tether to USDC, Citing Questions About Tether Reserves.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has launched a campaign encouraging users to switch from Tether to Circle-owned US Dollar Coin (USDC) by waiving conversion fees. The move comes amid speculation about the quality of Tether’s reserves, which have reportedly been called into question by a US judge. Tether was knocked off its peg in the days following the collapse of FTX, trading as low as 93 cents. The majority of trading pairs on exchanges have since returned to $1, although data from CoinGecko shows that it continues to trade at 99 cents on some pairs at Binance. Coinbase is a co-founder of USDC, which on-chain data reveals is the third-most traded digital asset on the exchange, accounting for 5% of its volume. The company said in a blog post that it believes USDC to be a “trusted and reputable stablecoin” following recent events. In late September, Tether was ordered by a US judge in New York to produce financial records relating to the backing of its coin. Separately, the New York Supreme Court is considering a lawsuit asking the New York Attorney General to release documents it gathered in its investigation into Tether’s reserves.

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We hope you enjoy this carefully curated news roundup by Moonstake, as our team strives to only bring the most relevant information for your crypto experience. See you next week!

Follow us on Twitter and Telegram for the latest updates on Moonstake news!

Crypto applications are now more popular than ever. In Q4 2021 alone, new installs of crypto apps skyrocketed by 902% year-on-year .With the recent FTX collapse further eroding trust in centralized platforms, there is now renewed interest and demand for decentralized services. 

To access dApps and DeFi services on multiple blockchains, you can use crypto wallets that integrates with WalletConnect. Moonstake is one such wallet that supports WalletConnect, as well as 17 leading PoS chains, each with their own DApp ecosystems. In this article, let’s learn more about the WalletConnect protocol and how to use it to access your favorite apps and services on Moonstake Wallet!

What is WalletConnect

WalletConnect is an open-source protocol that establishes a remote, encrypted connection between crypto wallets and dApps of multiple supported blockchains like Ethereum and Cosmos.

As of v2, WalletConnect supports connecting to multiple chains at once, decentralized messaging between compatible wallets, and direct push notifications that notify users of incoming transactions. This makes it a secure and convenient solution to access dApps especially using handy mobile wallets.

How WalletConnect Works

Currently, WalletConnect supports connection between more than 170 wallets, including Moonstake, and 450 dApps like Uniswap and Aave. Users of a compatible wallet can scan the QR code of the compatible DApp to start paying for dApp transactions with their wallet funds and confirm transactions with the wallet.

Is WalletConnect Safe?

WalletConnect uses a shared key between the two peers to develop a symmetrically encrypted connection, where information is only transmitted between them and securely encrypted. No third party has access to this key This is claimed to be safer than connecting with browser extensions like MetaMask.

How to Use WalletConnect on Moonstake

Both the mobile and web versions of Moonstake Wallet support WalletConnect, allowing users to connect to various DeFi and dApps without any restrictions on devices or browsers. In this detailed step-by-step guide, we will use the mobile wallet as the example.

1. Go to the top right menu to access “Settings”.
2. Click the “Wallet Connect” button.
3. Scan the QR code displayed on the DeFi / dApps side of the connection.
4. Click “Connect” to start the connection.
5. Once connected, you can start confirming transactions made on the DApp using your wallet. Your wallet funds will be used for these transactions. To stop, simply click “Disconnect” and confirm.

Note:

• With the Moonstake mobile wallet, the QR code needs to be scanned with a camera to access DeFi / dApps, therefore the DeFi / dApps service cannot be opened on the same device and connected to it. Please display the QR code to connect to DeFi / dApps on another device, and scan the QR code from the mobile device to access the service.
• While using WalletConnect, exiting the connected screen will disconnect you from the DApp. You can stay on the connected screen and approve transactions there.
• The dApps will support its own set of chains, so you will not see all of your funds on Moonstake Wallet on the DApp, only the balance of the coins the DApp support. For example, Uniswap only supports Ethereum, Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, and Celo.

How to Ensure Safe Transactions When Using WalletConnect

WalletConnect is a secure solution to access dApps but it is by no means foolproof. There is always a user risk when interacting with any online application. As with any crypto transaction, check that the recipient address and transaction amount are correct before confirming it. This is to ensure that the dApp isn’t altering the transaction details with any intention of sending a malicious transaction, especially if you are using a more obscure dApp. Make sure to DYOR on dApps before trying out any of them. You can consult DApp data aggregators and ranking sites to see how active and trusted the app is.

Additionally, it’s a good practice to disconnect your wallet from the dApp once you’re finished with your transaction. You must also make sure that you’re accessing the dApp with a secure, trusted URL. And if you are using public WiFi, turn on VPN to keep yourself protected.

Moonstake also natively supports the Shiden dApp Store natively for users looking to stake with Shiden dApps via an official app store without needing to use WalletConnect. Follow us on Twitter and Telegram for the latest updates on Moonstake news!

About Moonstake

Moonstake is the world’s leading staking service provider that develops and operates decentralized wallet services for businesses and individuals.

Since its launch in April 2020, Moonstake has partnered with 27 leading platform providers, including Cardano’s constituent Emurgo, developer of the Polkadot-connected blockchain Astar Network Stake Technologies, and the TRON Network with over 50 million users. In May 2021, Moonstake further enhanced its corporate credibility by becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of OIO Holdings Limited, a company listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Using blockchain technology, Moonstake aims to progress toward a world where anyone can easily make use of highly secure and reliable digital asset management tools.

https://www.moonstake.io/     

About Moonstake’s staking business

For the staking industry, which has grown into a 630-billion dollar market as of September 2021, Moonstake provides a decentralized staking service that does not require user deposits, and supports nodes around the world in addition to its own validator nodes. Moonstake currently supports the staking of 17 blockchains. With a total staking assets of 1.8 billion USD and a global user base, the company ranked third out of more than 10,000 providers worldwide in June of the same year.

Welcome to this week’s article on the most relevant crypto news. Keeping up with the latest industry news is key to making strategic moves with your crypto assets. With this new article series, we hope to help users catch all the important information conveniently. For this edition, we will be covering all the market news you need to know in the week of 28th November – 2nd December 2022 including news about on-going BlockFi Bankruptcy, BNB Chain OpenSea Integration, Ankr Exploit and Alameda and FTX debacle and other major industry and adoption news. Let’s dive in!

BlockFi Seeks Bankruptcy Protection in Wake of FTX Contagion

Crypto lender BlockFi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday, days after suspending withdrawals amid the ongoing fallout from the bankruptcy filing of exchange FTX. In a press release, BlockFi said it had around $257m in cash on hand. The company’s petition indicated that it has over 100,000 creditors, and estimated its assets and liabilities to be between $1bn and $10bn. BlockFi’s largest creditors are West Realm Shires Inc. (the legal name for FTX US), with a $275m unsecured claim, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with a $30m unsecured claim. 

The majority of the other top 50 creditors were not named. BlockFi’s largest creditor is Ankura Trust Company, which it appears to have hired in February and which now has a $730m unsecured claim. BlockFi, which suspended withdrawals due to confusion about FTX’s assets, has had a challenging year. It liquidated a large client earlier this year and needed a line of credit from FTX to survive. In announcing the suspension of withdrawals, BlockFi warned clients not to deposit funds to its wallet or interest accounts. 

The lender had planned to raise funding at a $1bn valuation in June, after raising $350m at a $3bn valuation in March 2021. Last July, the company was looking to go public within the next year and a half, with a potential $500m fundraise in the pipeline. However, in February it had to pay $100m as part of a settlement with the SEC and several state regulators over allegations that its high-yield crypto lending product violated state and federal securities laws. As part of the settlement, BlockFi also had to register its BlockFi Yield product with the SEC. The company cut around a fifth of its workforce in June as the wider crypto market declined. The market capitalization fell from over $3tn a year ago to $1tn by June. After the collapse of Three Arrows Capital, BlockFi CEO Zac Prince announced that the company had to liquidate a large client, though he did not confirm whether it was Three Arrows. 

Shortly afterwards, crypto exchange FTX extended a $250m credit facility to the lender, which later increased to $400m and also gave FTX US the option to acquire the lender. However, FTX filed for bankruptcy in the second week of November, after days of speculation about whether it was fully liquid. FTX later suspended withdrawals.

Phantom, Solana’s Leading Crypto Wallet, Plans to Expand to Ethereum and Polygon Networks

Phantom, a leading crypto wallet provider in the Solana ecosystem, has announced that it will add support for assets on the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains over the next three months. The self-custody wallet is built on closed-source code and will take aim at Ethereum ecosystem stalwarts such as Metamask, which is open source. Phantom’s CEO, Brandon Millman, has previously said that the company meant to challenge Ethereum wallets in 2021 before focusing on the then-nascent Solana ecosystem. The firm says it has three million active users on Solana.

However, Solana’s short-term prospects have been disrupted by the sudden collapse of FTX and Alameda, two major supporters of the ecosystem, which triggered a drop in Solana-linked asset prices and caused chaos among the blockchain’s developers. Some projects are now planning to pivot to other ecosystems. Despite this, a representative for Phantom said that the wallet remains committed to Solana. Phantom’s multichain strategy will focus on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and will include protection against malicious spam drops, as well as added capabilities for viewing multimedia NFTs. The company is working with Polygon on the Polygon wallet.

BNB Chain NFTs to be Supported by OpenSea by End of Year

BNB Chain will integrate its non-fungible tokens (NFT) onto OpenSea’s Seaport protocol by the end of the year. The move will enable multiple creator payouts, collection management and other benefits for BNB Chain creators looking to list and sell digital collectibles on OpenSea’s marketplace. The BNB ecosystem already supports over 1,300 dApps across multiple categories including decentralized finance, the metaverse, blockchain gaming, and NFTs. Last month it launched a $10 million fund to incentivize growth on the blockchain. In September, OpenSea announced it would be expanding support for additional blockchains and languages to retain its standing as the world’s largest NFT marketplace.

Morgan Stanley: Crypto Winter Dented Confidence but Digital Asset Infrastructure Development Key

Morgan Stanley has published a research report that suggests retail interest in the price levels and volatility of digital assets has eased, while demand for regulated products for traditional financial clients has increased. The bank held its second annual Cryptocurrency vs. Traditional Finance event earlier this week, with discussions suggesting that there will be more bankruptcies and deleveraging in the sector. Despite this, participants were in agreement that crypto, blockchain and distributed-ledger technology will continue to be developed and increasingly used to trade financial assets. Some investors predict that digital assets will take 10 to 15 years to become fully mainstream. The bank said that it is a year since the start of what has been called the “crypto winter” and that current market conditions are similar to those seen in 2017-18. It expects deleveraging to continue, with stablecoin market capitalization falling, particularly for the largest stablecoin, Tether.

Telegram is Developing Crypto Wallets and a Decentralized Exchange

Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has said the company has sold $50m worth of blockchain-based usernames in less than a month through its auction platform Fragment. The success of the platform has convinced Durov to push forward with Telegram’s plans to build a decentralized exchange and non-custodial crypto wallets, which could reach millions of users given the app’s popularity among traders. Durov has said the Telegram Open Network blockchain, which was abandoned in 2020 under regulatory pressure, will be at the heart of the new services. Earlier this week, backers of the TON network announced a $126m “rescue fund” to support crypto projects affected by the collapse of FTX.

Binance’s “Centralized Exchange” Could be Obsolete in 10 Years, Chief Strategy Officer Says

Binance’s centralized exchange may not exist in 10 years because the crypto market is moving toward decentralized finance (DeFi), said Patrick Hillman, the company’s chief strategy officer. Binance is implementing proof of reserves to show customers their assets are fully backed, but the process has been slow, Hillman said on CoinDesk’s “First Mover” program. Binance is participating in an industry recovery initiative for Web3, contributing up to $2 billion from its corporate reserves. Hillman claimed that while Binance is “larger than New York Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange [and] almost the Tokyo Stock Exchange combined,” it’s “a little bit embarrassed” about how slow it has been to set up a proof-of-reserves system.

Ankr to reimburse users after $5M exploit

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Ankr has said it will reimburse users who were impacted by a $5m exploit on its platform. A bug in the code of the platform, which calls itself “node-as-a-service”, enabled unlimited minting of its token. The attacker was able to swap 20 trillion of these tokens for Binance Coin (BNB) and then sent them to crypto mixer Tornado Cash. From there, the BNB was swapped for roughly $5m in USDC. Ankr said it will take a snapshot of the situation and reissue its ankrBNB token to all valid aBNBc holders before the exploit. “The ankrBNB token will continue to be redeemable, while aBNBc and aBNBb will no longer be redeemable,” it said in a tweet.

Alameda Research Loses Up to $1 Billion in Leveraged Trade in 2021: Financial Times

Alameda Research, the company affiliated with the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, reportedly shouldered losses of up to $1 billion following a leveraged trade in early 2021, according to the Financial Times. The news comes as it has been revealed that FTX bailed out Alameda with as much as $10 billion in user funds this year. The revelations shed light on the close ties between the two companies. In early 2021, a client’s leveraged bet on mobilecoin caused it to spike from almost $6 to $70, exposing weaknesses in FTX’s financial buffers. The trader then borrowed against the position on FTX, which could have allowed them to extract dollars from the exchange. Alameda then stepped in to assume the trader’s position to protect FTX’s liquidity, incurring losses of hundreds of millions of dollars that could have been as high as $1 billion.

Trader Joe to Deploy on Ethereum Scaling System Arbitrum

Avalanche-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Trader Joe is set to deploy on Ethereum scaling system Arbitrum in a bid to attract new users. This marks the first time that Trader Joe will be deployed on a separate network. The DEX will initially be deployed on the Arbitrum testnet, with a mainnet launch scheduled for early 2023. Trader Joe is the largest DEX and lending service on Avalanche, with over $95m worth of tokens locked as of Friday. The exchange captured $2.5bn in locked value at its peak and continues to attract the highest transactional volumes among all Avalanche-based products. Trader Joe’s Liquidity Book AMM will be introduced in the initial launch, but the DEX’s native JOE token and full suite of DeFi products will not be available on Arbitrum.

We recognise that AVAX is a high-demand coin and the Avalanche network is an esteemed blockchain project with active development and continued growth. We are confident that AVAX will be a strategic addition to the lineup of PoS coins supported by Moonstake. AVAX Staking will also be coming soon to our platform. Look out for the official announcement on our Twitter!

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We hope you enjoy this carefully curated news roundup by Moonstake, as our team strives to only bring the most relevant information for your crypto experience. See you next week!

Follow us on Twitter and Telegram for the latest updates on Moonstake news!

Welcome to this edition of 101 article exploring one of the staking coins on Moonstake. This time, we’ll be looking at Avalanche and its native coin AVAX which has grown rapidly since its inception just a few years ago and is in the list of the most popular cryptocurrencies on the market.

What Makes Avalanche Unique?

Launched in September 2020, Avalanche is a Layer-1 blockchain that functions as a platform for dApps and custom blockchain networks. As a rival to Ethereum, Avalanche aims to dethrone it as the best blockchain for smart contracts with its impressive 4,500 TPS (transactions per second) output without compromising on scalability nor security.

Most notably, the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine)-compatible Avalanche network boasts a unique architecture consisting of three individual blockchains. All three chains serve a unique role and work together to run the Avalanche network, instead of letting a single chain handle all transaction processing like other blockchains on the market. Specifically:

• X-Chain (exchange chain): Handles transactions. Has a fixed transaction fee of only 0.001 AVAX and utilizes directed acyclic graph (DAG) technology to optimize speed.
• P-Chain (platform chain): Handles staking and validator activities. 
• C-Chain (contract chain): Handles smart contracts, DApps, and DeFi.

Users can swap AVAX between these three chains and they are secured and validated by the Primary Network, a special subnet. On Avalanche, users can build their own custom blockchain network that is seamlessly interoperable with the broader Avalanche ecosystem. Custom subnets need to be a member of the Primary Network by staking 2,000 AVAX.

For its consensus algorithm, Avalanche operates its own protocol called Snow that uses Proof-of-Stake (PoS) as the foundation. The Snow consensus protocol aims to balance transaction speed, network capacity, decentralization, energy efficiency, and security. The Avalanche team also claims that its network boasts the “lightest hardware requirements of any blockchain platform” and does not implement slashing, making it a very friendly PoS chain for validators.

How Did Avalanche Become Popular?

Avalanche is one of the most popular blockchains out there for DeFi, with a thriving ecosystem of applications It is home to market-leading DeFi platforms including the lending protocol AAVE, SushiSwap DEX, and the first regulated stablecoin TrueUSD.

Thanks to its robust technical architecture and DeFi ecosystem, Avalanche has become one of the most popular blockchains for DApp developers. In 2020, Avalanche raised 42 million USD in its ICO in just 24 hours.

Avalanche’s Technical Milestones and Why Moonstake Supports AVAX

At Moonstake, we work to support the most demanded coins on the market. Here are some key milestones of Avalanche so far:

• 800 network validators by January 2021, less than half a year since Mainnet launch.
• TVL increased significantly from early 2021 and peaked at 400 million USD before the market crash in May 2021.
• By Q1 2021, users have moved more than $100M in assets from Ethereum to Avalanche, including $8.2M within the first 24 hours.
• By late November 2022, Avalanche network had processed 450 million transactions total, a 1507% increase from one year ago.
• Over 200 dApp projects are currently available on Avalanche, with many projects being cross-chain thanks to the robust bridging ecosystem around Avalanche.
• Avalanche has also secured institutional partnerships with major global companies like accounting firm Deloitte and publicly traded insurance company Lemonade, demonstrating practical use cases of blockchain and crypto for enterprises.
• Avalanche currently has over 1,300 validators securing its highly active network.

We can see that AVAX is a high-demand coin and Avalanche network is an esteemed blockchain project with active, continued growth and development. This makes AVAX a great and strategic addition to the lineup of PoS coins supported by Moonstake and we are working hard to bring AVAX staking to you very soon.

How AVAX Staking Works

You will have to transfer your AVAX onto P-Chain to start staking. When you hold assets in a P address, you make them illiquid. You will not be able to freely move your assets into your X address, and you cannot transfer them to another P address. To move assets from one P address to another, you have to send them back to your X address and then send them to another P address. 

Users must have 25 AVAX to delegate/stake in the wallet, the minimum amount of time one can stake funds for validation is 2 weeks for a lock-up period. The delegation fee set by validators is the portion of the rewards that are paid to the validators. The minimum delegation fee is 2%. However, there is no slashing on Avalanche, staked tokens are never at risk of loss due to poor validator performance.

When a validator is done validating the Primary Network, it receives back the AVAX tokens it staked. The validators will also vote on whether the leaving node should receive a staking reward for helping to secure the network. 

A validator will only receive a staking reward if they are online and response for more than 80% of their validation period, as measured by a majority of validators, weighted by stake.When a node leaves the validator set, the validators vote on whether the leaving node should receive a staking reward or not.

How To Get Rewards for AVAX Staking and How Unstaking Works

AVAX rewards earned from staking are handled on the protocol level, and rewards will automatically be transferred to you once they are earned. AVAX tokens must be staked for a minimum of 2 weeks and a maximum of 1 year, and the staking rewards  (as well as the staked tokens) will be received by the user after the staking period ends.

References:

https://www.avax.network/ 

https://core.app/ecosystem/projects 

https://el33th4x0r.medium.com/state-of-avalanche-q1-2021-2565921a36d8 

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/avalanche/

About Moonstake

Moonstake is the world’s leading staking service provider that develops and operates decentralized wallet services for businesses and individuals.

Since its launch in April 2020, Moonstake has partnered with 27 leading platform providers, including Cardano’s constituent Emurgo, developer of the Polkadot-connected blockchain Astar Network Stake Technologies, and the TRON Network with over 50 million users. In May 2021, Moonstake further enhanced its corporate credibility by becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of OIO Holdings Limited, a company listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Using blockchain technology, Moonstake aims to progress toward a world where anyone can easily make use of highly secure and reliable digital asset management tools.

https://www.moonstake.io/       

About Moonstake’s staking business

For the staking industry, which has grown into a 630-billion dollar market as of September 2021, Moonstake provides a decentralized staking service that does not require user deposits, and supports nodes around the world in addition to its own validator nodes. Moonstake currently supports the staking of 18 blockchains. With a total staking assets of 1.8 billion USD and a global user base, the company ranked third out of more than 10,000 providers worldwide in June of the same year.

About Avalanche

Avalanche is the fastest smart contracts platform in the blockchain industry, as measured by time-to-finality, and has the most validators securing its activity of any proof-of-stake protocol. Avalanche is blazingly fast, low cost, and green. Any smart contract-enabled application can outperform its competition on Avalanche. 

https://avax.network  

Welcome to this week’s article on the most relevant crypto news. Keeping up with the latest industry news is key to making strategic moves with your crypto assets. With this new article series, we hope to help users catch all the important information conveniently. For this edition, we will be covering all the market news you need to know in the week of 14th – 18th November 2022, including news about on-going FTX debacle, The Cardano Stablecoin, Self-Custody Debate, regulatory sentiments towards crypto, and other major industry and adoption news. Let’s dive in!

Cardano-Based Regulated Stablecoin USDA To Hit the Market in Early 2023

USDA, U.S.-pegged stablecoin is being launched early 2023 by Emurgo, the official commercial arm and a founding entity of the Cardano blockchain. It will become the first fully-fiat backed and regulatory-compliant stablecoin in the Cardano Ecosystem. Partnering with a regulated financial services company based in the United States, Emurgo ensures the strength and credibility of the product. Not only will USDA enable the tokenization of USD, but will also enable the conversion of other other stablecoins to USDA in the future. 

Emurgo looks to bolster the robustness and usability of the Cardano ecosystem through a $200 million investment, which was announced towards the end of September this year. With USDA being a part of Emurgo’s Anzens product plans which include lending and borrowing services, crypto-based card payments and bridges between traditional markets and decentralized applications (dApps), we are excited to see the growth and adoption which will take place in the Cardano space. 

Market response to FTX Collapse

The FTX Collapse has triggered a major slide in cryptocurrency prices that wiped out around $183 billion of value from digital assets this month. The lowest market capitalization level seen was on Nov. 9, at around $736 billion. At the time of writing, the total crypto market capitalization stands at around $794 billion. 

This decline has been prompted by wavering investor confidence since the collapse of FTX and the on-going investigations. On Nov. 10, the traditional markets had a positive week following the much-awaited October US CPI print, coming out at 7.7% YoY over the 8.0% predicted. With major stocks being rallying off the hope that inflation has peaked, leading indices also had their best performance since spring 2020. 

Bitcoin is now trading below $16,000. Ethereum saw its low around $1,100 on Nov. 9 and is now trading at around $1,100.

Proof of Reserves Have Too Many Shortcomings: BOA

As the crypto industry deals with the aftermath of the collapse of FTX, crypto trading platforms are rushing to provide “proof of reserves” to their clients. However, The Bank of America (BAC) suggested in a report on the 17th of Nov. that “proof of reserves, at least in the form they’ve been suggested, have too many shortcomings to inspire confidence.” 

Many exchanges have already reported or are planning to report their assets through data structures known as Merkle Trees. These can be securely verified and provide a map of customer funds. The bank noted that among the shortcomings, opportunities for manipulation are present when assets are shown at a fixed point in time when snapshots of accounts are taken. 

In order to get a more accurate understanding of the reserves, proof of liabilities is required in order to determine leverage and safety of assets. The note also added that proof of reserve procedures often rely on third party audit firms that can be manipulated or which may be even created by the trading platform itself. 

To conclude, BOA also stated the need for clear delineation between MMs (Market Makers) and trading platforms along with the all-important regulation aspect for the future growth of the industry.

Genesis Block Ceases OTC Trading Services Amid FTX Contagion

According to a Reuters report, Hong Kong based crypto services firm Genesis Block said on Nov. 18th that they would cease over-the-counter (OTC) trading services in the wake of risks stemming from the contagion risks from the collapse of FTX. OTC trading which is also referred to as off-exchange trading is a transaction conducted directly between two parties without the supervision of an exchange.

“We have ceased trading, as we don’t know which counterparties would fail next, so we would rather close out all our positions to regain some of our liquidity,” Genesis Block chief executive Wincent Hung told Reuters this week. 

Genesis Block also asked customers to withdraw their funds and stated that they will not be accepting any new customers.

Crypto Self-Custody Debate

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted “Self-custody is a fundamental human right” on Nov. 13th to his 7.8 million followers. Understood to be a call on the members of the crypto community to take charge of their digital assets, CZ’s comments follow the wake of FTX’s collapse as well as a hack of around $600 million from the same exchange. 

The above mentioned tweet sent TWT token (the official token for Trust Wallet, a hot wallet company acquired by Binance in 2018) soaring by about 80%, to a record $2.30.

CZ also recommended that investors start with small amounts and get comfortable with the technology to avoid mistakes that can be very costly. Data from on-chain analytics providers points to the fact that investor preference for self-custody has increased recently.

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We hope you enjoy this carefully curated news roundup by Moonstake, as our team strives to only bring the most relevant information for your crypto experience. See you next week!

Follow us on Twitter and Telegram for the latest updates on Moonstake news!