Our experts tell you what you need to know about blockchain interaction technology. And a possible airdrop of the LayerZero project, supported by leading venture capitalists

In April, LayerZero Labs, a company that creates technology to help existing blockchains interact with each other. And announced it had raised $120 million in an investment round led by a16z crypto. This is the cryptocurrency arm of venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz.

The project, launched less than two years ago, has a total investment of $250 million at the time of publication. This is not the first time for LayerZero the large-scale funding round is one of the largest among cryptocurrency companies in 2023. And LayerZero Labs’ valuation of $3 billion puts it on par with market giants like Coinbase, which has a market capitalization of more than $13 billion.

Along with heavyweights Andreesen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, more than 30 investors have invested in LayerZero Labs. And including the venture capital units of Samsung, auction house Christie’s, USDC stabcoin issuer Circle, NFT-marketplace OpenSea, cryptocurrency exchange OKX and others. Participation of representatives of different spheres of activity. At the same time, directly or indirectly related to the crypto-business, probably, indicates the demand for solutions of this project. And their subsequent integration into a wide range of services of Web3 segment.

Interaction of different blockchains with each other

LayerZero Labs co-founder and CEO Brian Pellegrino has assembled a team of developers to tackle the problem of insularity of various blockchains. And the crypto-assets and applications that exist on them. He himself calls LayerZero a “messaging protocol” . That is, software code that allows application developers to send data, for example, from Ethereum to Solana.

By “messaging” is meant a variety of scenarios and operations. This includes, among others, converting coins or tokens from one network into coins or tokens in another. Thanks to the so-called bridges that use LayerZero, this transfer is faster. It is also cheaper and more convenient compared to existing solutions – both decentralized and those that involve an intermediary in the form of an exchange or an exchanger.

What blockchain bridges are and why they are needed

In a press release accompanying the April investment round, a16z lead partner Ali Yahya said. That there are already more transactions flowing through LayerZero than all existing bridges in known ecosystems. He added that “there is already no doubt” that the future of cryptocurrencies is “multichain.” That is, the process of interconnecting multiple blockchains and the assets, services and applications that exist on them. LayerZero already uses decentralized crypto exchanges, including PancakeSwap, SushiSwap, TraderJoe and Uniswap.

Pellegrino dropped out of college to become a professional poker player. When the U.S. government banned online poker in 2011, he already had the capital to launch his first startups. While studying computer science in college, he created a fantasy sports website. Which he sold two years after launching. Then his entrepreneurial career continued: he worked with professional baseball teams. And did research on machine learning algorithms and launched another business before LayerZero.

LayerZero Labs now employs 42 people and is co-founded by Ryan Zarick. Employees work from offices in Vancouver and Hong Kong. The company earns money by charging a commission for every interaction with its protocol. But Pellegrino said the significant amount of funding allows the company to focus on more global goals than maximizing profits alone.

Partners plans to continue to dominate the growing field of companies That offer developers ways to transfer data between different blockchains. LayerZero’s competitors include the Cosmos project. In which developers also position it as a protocol by which different blockchains can send and receive data.

“Our goal is to win and capture the whole market in this niche,” Pellegrino told Fortune. He said LayerZero is using investor funds to expand its Web3-gaming presence. It’s also expanding into the Asia-Pacific region.

Possible Airdrop by LayerZero

LayerZero is known not only for in-demand technical solutions and billion-dollar business valuation. Participants of the cryptocommunity consider the project to be one of the main candidates for a major airdrop.

The company itself has not announced the distribution, as well as the launch of its own token in principle. But certain business patterns and a significant amount of venture capital investment act as indirect evidence That LayerZero may follow the example of sensational airdrop projects such as Aptos, Blur, Optimism or Arbitrum. The latter went beyond the cryptocurrency community in terms of hype. When it became widely known that the participants of the giveaway received tokens worth thousands of dollars.

Service developers often don’t announce the token at launch. But similar parameters in doing business, as well as the experience of their competitors, help community members determine. Which projects will decide sooner or later to release their own asset. And which types of activity can be rewarded.

Even before the sensational distribution of tokens from Arbitrum by so-called drophunters, it was LayerZero that was in the list of the most obvious contenders.

It’s easy to find instructions or detailed checklists with a set of project activities in blogs, thematic channels or chat rooms. Who are using LayerZero solutions, claiming airdrop. It even goes so far that even quite large resources publish instructions on how to participate in an unannounced airdrop, such as the OKX exchange blog. Most of them duplicate each other in one way or another. For example, a potential candidate for distribution must be active in social networks of the project. And attract new members, use existing services in the test network, etc.

It remains to be seen how developers will react to this, if they actually arrange an airdrop. One way or another, from a financial point of view they benefit from any interaction with the protocol. Both from a really interested in the project, and from another “airdrop hunter”.

Data from the TradingView analytics platform became available to users directly through a Binance account

Binance has announced the integration of spot trading with its TradingView analytics platform. This will expand the exchange’s users’ ability to analyze trading strategies with an additional range of charts and tools, according to a press release.

The initial integration of Binance Futures Trading with TradingView in December 2022 went very well. The platform’s customers appreciated the convenience of a single login to trade directly on Binance. And the use of TradingView’s wide range of graphical tools for performance analysis. For example such as cross-comparison of crypto-assets and securities. As well as benchmarking between different cryptocurrencies.

Our experts note that according to the exchange’s instructions, in order to use the new feature. Then the user has to log in to his TradingView account and select Binance as a broker. Then, after logging in to his account at the cryptocurrency exchange, he will need to connect his TradingView account to it.

After that the user will be redirected to the Trading View interface. The order history on the Binance spot market will automatically synchronize with the Trading View account.

Mining company Marathon Digital itself has pledged up to $500,000 to develop the Bitcoin Core group by the end of 2023

Marathon Digital Holdings announced a partnership with Brink to raise up to $1 million to support Bitcoin developers Bitcoin Core. Marathon has promised to contribute up to $500,000 by the end of 2023.

Bitcoin Core is a client (software) for the Bitcoin network operated by an independent group of developers. They maintain the blockchain. And also write updates and make decisions on improvements to the first cryptocurrency network. They also maintain the main repository of the protocol on GitHub.

Brink, a non-profit company, is dedicated to supporting the Bitcoin developer community through scholarship and grant programs. The firm was founded in 2020 with funding from John Pfeffer and Vences Casares. The company’s website states that it is 100% funded by donations from individuals. As well as organizations that want to support the Bitcoin network and protocol.

Marathon and Brink have set a goal of raising up to $1 million for Bitcoin Core developers. They announced the fundraiser at the Bitcoin 2023 conference, taking place May 18-21 in Miami, USA. Marathon has pledged to double all contributions from other participants up to $500k by the end of the year, so if the amount of donations from third parties reaches $500k. Then Marathon Digital will also contribute $500k and the $1 million plan will be met.

Our experts note that Marathon Digital is one of the largest Bitcoin miners. The public U.S. company has tens of thousands of cryptocurrency mining devices in data centers in North Dakota, Ohio and Texas. At the end of the first quarter of 2023, Marathon had $1.3 billion in assets, and about $715 million of that was in hardware and $189 million in digital assets.

Worldcoin has not yet been launched, but scammers have already figured out how to cheat the identification system

The Worldcoin token was supposed to launch within the next few weeks. But fraudsters have already figured out how to cheat the system, The Block reports. The project from ChatGPT creator Sam Altman is being forced to change security measures.

According to the developers’ plans, the Worldcoin token will be issued to users. Who have been identified by iris scanning. The technology scans the eye and creates a digital World ID for the user based on that. Which can be used “in a wide range of everyday applications without revealing identity,” the company said. More than 1.7 million people have already signed up for the project.

On May 18, the Chinese publication BlockBeats, reported that the residents of China, where people can not register. to get Worldcoin tokens, buy iris scans made in Cambodia and Africa for as little as $30. A Worldcoin spokesman acknowledged the incidents. But stressed that the problem was limited to “a few hundred cases.”

“Through continuous threat monitoring and awareness, the Worldcoin team uncovered suspicious activity where people were encouraged to create a World ID, which was then sent to a third party,” they said.

Worldcoin has taken a number of steps to try to address the problem. And including “adjusting the initial in-person registration process” and implementing dynamic and static QR codes.

The illegal sale of IDs will also be able to prevent them from being returned to the user via a repeat eye scan, the developers believe. However, earlier Worldcoin claimed. About not storing iris scans to exclude the risks of losing confidential data.

The company admitted that despite all these precautions. They don’t fully protect the system from fraudsters’ attempts to circumvent the “one person, one proof” principle.

Our experts note that solving these problems will require innovative ideas in the development of mechanisms and attribution of social relationships.

Ledger, a company that makes hardware cryptocurrencies, said it had always been able to install firmware on the devices that would allow customer passwords to be extracted. This message was later removed

Protecting its new product, hardware cryptocurrency wallet maker Ledger caused a scandal in the cryptocurrency community. With its statement that it has technically always been able to get users’ keys giving access to their crypto-assets.

“Don’t worry about us holding a gun to your head the whole time. And see? It’s not like you’re dead, so there’s no problem with us continuing to hold a gun to your head,” Ledger commented on Ledger’s social media statements.

The company soon deleted its message. But it had already made its way around the web. Ledger later wrote that her words were misunderstood. And there are layers of protection and control in the firmware of its devices to ensure that no hacker (even internal) can introduce malicious firmware.

In response to this, one user noted that when he bought a Ledger device, he was not buying “layers of control”. He was simply buying a cold wallet in which the seed phrase could not leave under any circumstances. Never before has a real-time company ruined its reputation like this, another commenter stated.

Protection from critics

Ledger tried to protect its new lost key recovery tool Ledger Recovery, announced on May 16, from criticism from the cryptocurrency community with its firmware statements. The tool allows you to create a backup copy of a seed phrase. And that will help restore access to the Nano X cryptocurrency wallet in the event that a secret phrase is lost.

The new service breaks the seed phrase into three fragments. Which in encrypted form store three different sides. As Wired reported in February. Those firms would be crypto company Coincover, Ledger itself. And backup service provider EscrowTech.

If a key is lost, the owner of the wallet will have access to its backup by authenticating themselves. The Ledger Recover service will be paid for and voluntary.

The Ledger tool has been very badly received by the cryptocurrency community. The main complaint of users is that the company positioned its cold wallet as a way to autonomously store cryptocurrencies. That is, access keys could only reside on it and not be allowed to leave it.

By adding the ability to upload keys, albeit in encrypted form, Ledger set a precedent. Which completely contradicts its initial claims. According to critics, the new tool reduces the security of the device, making it vulnerable to scammers.

“This is a terrible idea, do not enable this feature,” wrote Polygon Labs Director of Information Security Mudit Gupta.

Also Ledger says this backup option will be popular. That’s because the possibility that assets could become inaccessible simply because a key is lost is a deterrent to investing in cryptocurrencies.

“That’s what future customers want. It’s a way for the next hundreds of millions of people to really move to cryptocurrencies,” Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier was quoted by CoinDesk.

Our experts point out that at the end of March it became known that Ledger attracted funding of up to $100 million. Gauthier said that the company will use the funds received to develop its business, expand its network of distributors. As well as increasing production and improving products.

Regulation of both ordinary financial services of trading and investing in cryptocurrencies will create a false sense of security among depositors, officials say

The U.K. House of Commons Treasury Committee argues that investing in “unsecured” cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum should be equated with gambling. Regulating the industry without such an approach could create an illusion of safety for investors in crypto-assets. That’s according to a committee report released May 17.

The House of Commons Treasury Committee is charged with examining Treasury spending, administration and policy. With all of its agencies and related bodies, including the Internal Revenue Service, Customs, the Bank of England.And the Financial Conduct Authority, the Royal Mint, and other government agencies. And the Financial Conduct Authority, the Royal Mint, and other government agencies.

Late last October, members of the U.K.’s lower house of parliament voted to recognize cryptocurrencies as regulated financial instruments. In their opinion, cryptocurrencies should be considered another type of financial assets, rather than a separate category.

The committee criticized this position in its report, saying that the government should take a different approach to regulating cryptocurrencies. To better protect consumers from losses due to the increased volatility of “unsecured assets,” such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Characteristics of cryptocurrency are more reminiscent of gambling than financial services.

Which is also supported by data on their consumer behavior, the report’s authors say. They argue that regulating trading and investing in crypto-assets as regular financial services would lead depositors to believe that the investments are safe, when in fact they are not.

In addition, the committee recommends that the government take a balanced approach to investing in cryptotechnology. And avoid spending public funds to support cryptocurrencies without a clear and profitable application scenario. It is not the government’s job to promote specific innovations for their own sake, the report warns.

Our experts point out that last year, the kingdom’s government set itself the goal of increasing London’s global competitiveness in the financial sector. And that includes the cryptocurrency industry. The U.K. is in the process of developing regulations for crypto-assets. According to the Ministry of Finance, they are aimed at realizing the government’s “ambitions. Which intends to make the country a leader in the cryptocurrency industry.

Tether announced a change in investment strategy and the decision to increase the share of the first cryptocurrency in providing reserves

Tether has decided to regularly buy millions of dollars worth of Bitcoins. The company announced that it would spend up to 15% of its realized operating income on buying Bitcoins. The company may have already spent $222 million to buy its first cryptocurrency. This was calculated by CNBC, based on Tether’s first-quarter statements.

The issuer of Tether (USDT), the largest stablecoin by capitalization, announced a new investment strategy. Starting in May 2023, the company will begin regularly allocating a portion of its net realized operating income to buying Bitcoins.

According to Tether’s first-quarter report, Tether had about $1.5 billion in Bitcoin in its reserves at the end of March. And that was about 2% of their total holdings. About 85% of the collateral was held in cash and cash equivalents. And it was also placed in short-term deposits – mostly in U.S. Treasury bills.

Although many institutional investors deposit their Bitcoins with third parties. Then Tether takes a “not your keys, not your Bitcoin” stance. And it keeps the assets on its own, the company said in a press release.

“Bitcoin has consistently proven to be sustainable and has evolved into a long-term savings vehicle with significant growth potential. Its limited supply, decentralized nature and widespread adoption have made Bitcoin the preferred choice among both institutional and retail investors,” said Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino.

Investing in Bitcoin, he said, is one way to boost Tether’s portfolio performance. And the company expects the BTC exchange rate to rise.

Tether will also invest in building infrastructure for Bitcoin mining and exploring other “innovative opportunities in the ever-evolving landscape of digital assets.”

Our experts note that in the fourth quarter of 2022, Tether posted a profit of $700 million. The USDT issuer closed the first quarter of this year with a profit of $1.48 billion. The company noted that this is a “huge success.” And they said they already have an “extremely positive outlook” for the second quarter of this year as well.

After the Dogecoin blockchain was able to issue NFT and other tokens, the daily transaction volume increased more than 20 times

The daily number of transactions in the Dogecoin network grew to an all-time high. This happened after the appearance of a new token standard DRC-20. This standard allows NFT and other tokens to be issued in the blockchain of the leading meme cryptocurrency.

On May 16, according to the BitInfoCharts platform, the number of transactions in the Dogecoin blockchain exceeded 719,000. This is not only the highest number for the DOGE coin network. But also for the first time exceeds the maximum values for the Bitcoin network, where a similar standard BRC-20 was recently launched.

The BRC-20 and DRC-20 protocols were modeled after the ERC-20 for Ethereum. These are protocols that allow other tokens to be created “on top of” the blockchain in a single network-compatible way. Prior to this generalized standard, a separate blockchain had to be created for each token. ERC-20 is the most widely used standard today for creating new tokens.

On May 9, the DRC-20 standard was launched on the Dogecoin network. And it allows the creation of a token tied to each indivisible DOGE unit. And which is called Elon ( in honor of the most famous fan of the meme cryptocurrency, Elon Musk). There are 100 million Elons in one Dogecoin coin. Also these tokens can be issued in the form of NFT or other cryptocurrency.

Similar to tokens in the Bitcoin network called Ordinals, this standard has already been nicknamed Doginals.

Compared to the daily average of 20,000-30,000, the daily volume of transactions in the Dogecoin network has increased more than 20 times since May 9. This increased activity could lead to network congestion. Which is not designed for a large number of transactions, and to increase transaction fees.

Our experts note that the BRC-20 standard in the Bitcoin network became effective in March. And on May 8, fees reached two-year highs due to the excitement with the issue of memcoins on the blockchain of the first cryptocurrency. The popularity of their issuance was boosted by a surge in the price of meme tokens like PEPE and LADYS.

Our experts tell us what we need to know about Bitcoin halving. As well as when to expect it, and what impact it may have on crypto market

The fourth Bitcoin halving is about a year away. This event occurs every four years and historically serves as a bullish catalyst for Bitcoin’s price rise and popularity.

Halving is a planned reduction in the number of newly issued BTCs. Which are created and distributed to miners who perform transaction verification and validation on the network. This is embedded in Bitcoin’s software code to ensure that the total number of coins in the network never exceeds 21 million units.

Halving first took place in November 2012, when the reward per block was reduced from 50 BTC to 25 BTC. The second reduction occurred in July 2016, when the reward dropped from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC. The third and final halving occurred in May 2020, when the reward dropped from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC.

The next Bitcoin halving is expected in April 2024. The reward per block will be reduced to 3.125 BTC, reducing Bitcoin’s annual inflation rate from 1.7% to 0.8%. The final halving will occur in 2140, when the last Bitcoin will be mined. And the total supply of coins will reach 21 million.

Bitcoin’s monetary policy is unique compared to most other crypto-assets, which tend to have inflation. Dogecoin (DOGE) has 2-3% inflation. And Solana (SOL) has long-term inflation of 1.5%. Ethereum has had a negative inflation rate since the blockchain switched to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) algorithm. As the volume of transaction fees burned on the network exceeded the volume of newly issued ETH coins. Halving occurs not only in Bitcoin, but also in other Proof-of-Work (PoW) cryptocurrencies, such as Litecoin (LTC) or Zcash (ZEC).

Profits of miners

Now the main part of the miners’ profits comes from the distribution of rewards for a found block of bitcoin (newly mined bitcoin). And at which 6.25 BTC is paid out to miners about every 10 minutes. The annual issuance of new Bitcoins creates about $9.8 billion, creating additional selling pressure. Which the market is forced to absorb every year.

Despite the fact that the number of new Bitcoins mined per block is halved. The cumulative income of miners after each halving increased. This is due to the rise in the price of BTC. But when the number of new Bitcoins mined in each block approaches zero.Then miners will no longer be able to rely on rising prices to cover costs.

In addition to newly issued Bitcoins, miners also receive income in the form of transaction fees. It can be assumed that the commissions for this should increase. At the same time compensating miners for the decreasing income from the issuance of new Bitcoins. Right now transaction fees are only 2.6% of miners’ income as a percentage of the total reward per block found.

This year has seen an upward trend in transaction fees. This is largely due to the emergence and popularization of so-called ordinals or BRC20-tokens. These are analogous to NFT in the Bitcoin blockchain, which require space in a block. New experiments with second-tier technologies such as the Lightning payment network or the Stacks smart contract platform. So too could further increase the strain on the blockchain.

If transaction fees don’t rise appreciably. Or miners fail to find alternative sources of income. Then Bitcoin’s long-term viability could be in question. And subsequent halving will put additional pressure on miners.

How Halving will affect the price

If you estimate the price dynamics in three Bitcoin halving cycles over a two-year period. And beginning one year before each halving and ending one year after it, one can get an idea of Bitcoin’s price trajectory as the fourth halving approaches. Over such a two-year period in 2012, Bitcoin gained about 30,000%. And in 2016, 786%, and in 2020, 712%. If Bitcoin performs as well as in the last two periods, its price could reach the $220,000 mark in 2025.

However, past performance is no guarantee of future results. And there are many other factors influencing Bitcoin’s price. Moreover, as Bitcoin develops and becomes more widespread over time, its price may become less volatile and more stable.

Another expectation of halving is less pressure on the price due to sales, especially from miners. Miners are the most predictable sellers of Bitcoin. That’s because they need to cover the cost of maintaining operations by converting new Bitcoins into fiat money. With each halving, the structural pressure to sell decreases. And assuming demand stays the same or goes up, the resulting price should also go up.

Because of the small amount of liquidity of the asset on exchanges. It may be difficult for large holders of LADYS token to realize these profits. Crypto-Upvotes expert review

Amount of unrealized profit of the top 10 holders of the cryptocurrency Milady Meme Coin (LADYS) exceeded $20.4 million, according to the analytical service Lookonchain. These addresses hold 180 trillion LADYS tokens. Which is 20.3% of the issued coins.

The LADYS token was launched on the Ethereum network in early May. And it also supports the Arbitrum network standard (ARB). On the evening of May 10, Elon Musk posted a meme on Twitter with an image of NFT from the Milady Maker collection. After that, the LADYS token rate went up 119 times. Or almost 12,000% – from $0.0000001444 to $0.000000172234.

Coin is trading both on decentralized platforms, as well as on major DEX exchanges. LADYS has already been listed by Huobi, Gate.io, Bybit, Bidget and MEXC. According to CoinGecko, the market capitalization of the asset as of May 16 is $88 million. And the daily trading volume is $89.5 million.

At the same time, Lookonchain analysts noticed suspicious transactions with the cryptocurrency LADYS. And as they then stated, related to DWF Labs. After this information emerged, developer Milady added the three largest token holders to its blacklist. They contain 109 trillion LADYS (about $15 million) and it is now impossible to withdraw funds from these addresses.

Other large holders of the coin may also find it difficult to realize profits. According to him, the liquidity of the asset is about $3 million, distributed on the Uniswap v2 and v3 platforms. If token owners want to sell the cryptocurrency. Then they should either consider the possibility of huge slippage, or close their positions gradually.