Wavesbet(WBET)

Bitcoin has seen some exciting action this week, as it experienced a significant price hike on Wednesday due to another TradFi institute taking a beating. However, it was immediately followed by a strong pullback influenced by other factors that soon resulted in a panic selling. Let’s find out more. Bitcoin Financial experts are wondering how the U.S. government’s decision to raise its $13.4 trillion debt ceiling would affect Bitcoin and the crypto market. Robert Kiyosaki has gone to Twitter to warn his followers of the excesses of the banks and recommended gold and bitcoin instead. Bitcoin was sailing higher on Wednesday due to the news of First Republic Bank going under when suddenly, there was a strong pullback. News of Mt Gox and the US Government moving their BTC caused panic selling. A Bitcoin white paper sneakily introduced through every MacOS update since 2018 has been removed from the upcoming operating system update. Ethereum Binance has announced a new and significant upgrade to its ETH staking service, where the crypto exchange will introduce Wrapped Beacon ETH (WBETH) on the staking platform. Altcoins Ripple reported selling over $361 million worth of XRP tokens in the first three months of 2023 (Q1). Technology Lens released a beta version of its blockchain scaling solution, Bonsai, to address the concerning issue of scalability for decentralized social media platforms. Google Cloud has partnered with Polygon Labs to help developers to build, launch, and grow their decentralized applications and Web3 products on the layer-2 blockchain. Former senior technology and security executives from venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) have reportedly started an institutional-focused cryptocurrency custody firm. Payment processing giant Visa is building upon current blockchain technologies to enable users to transact using stablecoins without fiat currency conversions. Stablecoin issuer Circle has launched its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) on the mainnet, enabling permissionless transfers of USDC natively across supported blockchains. Business Belgian cryptocurrency trading platform Bit4You has announced the suspension of operations after it discovered that CoinLoan, one of its service providers, was declared insolvent by an Estonian court. Investment giant Franklin Templeton has announced that its Nasdaq-listed OnChain US Government Money Fund is now supported on the Polygon Network. Binance.US has withdrawn from its planned $1 billion acquisition of Voyager, citing the "hostile and uncertain" regulatory climate in the United States. Regulation Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) is set to publish guidelines on its licensing framework for cryptocurrency exchanges in May. In a viral 2018 video that resurfaced on social media recently, Gary Gensler, the current chairman of the SEC, likened cryptocurrencies to cash. India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen around $916 million from bank accounts linked to companies involved in the HPZ token scam. After two years of intensive work, the 20th of April marked the final Plenary vote of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation or “MiCA.” Security Despite being highly ranked by auditing firm, CertiK, the Ethereum-based decentralized exchange Merlin, suffered an exploit in which roughly $1.8 million in funds were lost. CertiK is planning to launch a victim aid fund to return the funds stolen in the Merlin DEX exploit. A single wallet address has been traced to be the mastermind behind the launch of 114 questionable memecoins in just two months. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has announced a new and significant upgrade to its ETH 2.0 staking service, which will be rebranded to ETH staking. From the 27th of April 2023, Binance will introduce the Wrapped Beacon ETH (WBETH) on the ETH staking platform. The WBETH Solution Binance unveiled its latest staking offering through a Twitter post on its official handle. “Introducing Wrapped Beacon ETH (WBETH) on #Binance ETH Staking, available from the 27th of April at 8 am UTC. WBETH allows you to use DeFi while continuing to receive your $ETH staking rewards.” The latest staking solution from Binance is built on the Ethereum Network and puts Binance in the company of other liquid staking products such as Coinbase, Lido, Frax, and Rocket Pool. The new WBETH tokens will allow users to participate in DeFi initiatives outside the Binance exchange. In an official announcement, Binance stated, “Binance is rebranding ETH 2.0 Staking to ETH Staking and introducing Wrapped Beacon ETH (WBETH) on the ETH Staking service, effective from 2023-04-27 08:00 (UTC). WBETH is a new liquid staking token, where 1 WBETH represents 1 BETH and the total staking rewards accrued by the BETH token on ETH Staking after 2023-04-27 08:00 (UTC).” A Few Details Following the launch, 1 WBETH token will be the equivalent of 1 BETH. According to Binance, users will be able to create WBETH by depositing 1 ETH and vice versa. Binance stated, “Each WBETH token will accrue ETH Staking rewards daily, in accordance with the daily APR on ETH Staking.” Furthermore, to support the daily updates when it comes to the BETH/WBETH conversion rates, the “wrap” and “unwrap” functions will be paused each day at a predefined time. Binance will also continue to support its BETH/BUSD, BETH/USDT, and BETH/ETH spot trading pairings. However, users can also keep their BETH tokens in their spot wallets and receive daily staking rewards, and utilize the WBETH tokens to participate in DeFi projects. Adding WBETH to Binance’s ETH staking service also gives users greater control over how they receive their staking payouts. The new token will allow users to access DeFi projects on other networks besides Binance. As a result, users can expand and diversify their crypto portfolios. Binance has stated that it has also created two smart contracts for the WBETH token, one for Ethereum and the other for the Binance Smart Chain. The Growing Popularity Of Liquid Staking Products Liquid staking products have gained significant popularity on Ethereum over the past couple of years. According to data from DeFillama, over 8 million ETH worth over $15 billion is locked into liquid staking derivatives. A majority of these assets, nearly 75%, are held by Lido Finance. Next in line is Coinbase’s wrapped ETG product, which has just over $2 billion locked. These are followed by Rocket Pool, which has just over $980 million locked; Frax, with nearly $300 million; and Stakewise, with over $160 million. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.