Crypto Scoop: ETH’s Testnet, Ropsten Goes Live As USDT and USDC Announce New Additions

It's just been a few days into June, and it's already buzzing with many exciting new additions and updates. In this week's edition of the crypto scoop, we'll be reviewing: 

• ETH's testnet and hash rate 
• SOL's $100M Initiative
• Terra's lawsuits and updates to USDT and USDC
• Crypto regulations in Nigeria, New York, Ethiopia and Japan
• São Paulo FC Club acceptance of BTC in payment for tickets
• And more exciting new NFT and metaverse additions.

ETH Testnet, Ropsten goes live 

The last few weeks have marked a bearish market correction that has had top cryptocurrencies tumbling down. In fact, following the bearish market, crypto exchange giant Coinbase had to unhire and suspend job offers to navigate the market conditions better. 

While this is ongoing, Ethereum developers have worked hard in preparation for the move to Proof of Stake (PoS). In what has been labelled a "dress rehearsal" for the Ethereum blockchain, the Ropsten testnet migrated to PoS. According to the Ethereum Foundation, after Ropsten's transition, testnet Goerli and Sepolia will migrate to PoS before the mainnet switch.

That's not all! Following its all-time high (ATH) in May, Ethereum's hash rate soared to 132 petahash per second (PH/s) on June 4. Ethereum's hash rate is currently at 129 PH/s, with Ethermine, the network's top mining pool, controlling 0.24 per cent of the network's hash rate.

Solana (SOL) Launches $100M initiative.

Solana Ventures and the Solana Foundation have launched a $100 million investment and grant fund to help South Korean cryptocurrency projects thrive. The project will aid in attracting developers and businesses to the Solana blockchain to resolve issues such as the power outage.

While SOL may have experienced some difficulties with its network going dark temporarily, it continues to make waves in South Korea. After its last outage of 7 hours, SOL went dark again on Wednesday for about four hours. A glitch in how the blockchain executes a specific transaction meant for offline use scenarios knocked off the network for over four hours. "This was a defect that existed for a long time but was never really an issue because most people don't utilise it," Federa explained.

Tether (USDT) and USDC announce New additions to their network as DAOs grow 8x

Tether (USDT) stablecoin has announced that it will launch on the Tezos network. USDT is now available on 12 different blockchain networks, including Ethereum (ETH), Tron (TRX), and Binance (BNB) (BNB).

Polygon network now supports stablecoin, USDC, according to Circle. Without manual cross-chain bridge technology, USDC can be withdrawn through a Circle Account and Circle APIs.

While crypto enthusiasts celebrate the new additions, the Defi space has been buzzing as DAOs grew about 8x within a year's distance. Over the last year, the total number of Decentralised Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) has risen considerably, as has their participation rate. According to Snapshot Labs data, the number of DAOs has surged by 8.8X, from 700 in May 2021 to 6,000. The total rise is a strong indication of trust in the DAO structure.

Terraform faces lawsuits and police investigations

After revealing some allegations by FatmanTerra on Terraform and its CEO, Do Kwon, several lawsuits and investigations were filed. According to a report in a local newspaper, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency received an intelligence warning about probable embezzlement last month. According to the authorities, the inquiry into the suspected misappropriation of BTC from the company's treasury had no apparent connection to tainted co-founder Do Kwon.

In a separate investigation unrelated to the Terra collapse, the US regulator is looking into whether Terraform exploited its Mirror Protocol to market unregistered securities. 

LUNA 2.0 took a hit from the backlash as its price seemed to decline in Red in the past week. CEO Do Kown is reported to have taken his Twitter account private. 

While this is ongoing, Terra's whistleblower, FatManTerra, announced that he had launched his validator for LUNA 2.0. However, this has received backlash from community members who feel it's a selfish motive; however, Fatman insists it's solely for the community's benefit. 

Nigeria Blockchain Association Announces A Code Of Conduct For Nigerian virtual asset service providers. 

The Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association in Nigeria (SIBAN), a Nigerian blockchain and crypto advocacy group, recently announced the adoption of a code of conduct for Nigerian virtual asset service providers. All Nigerian VASPs are subject to the principle of conduct, which the association's president's office launched.

The code aims to "assist Nigeria to become the world's safest and largest blockchain space, with the largest blockchain solutions, investments, and adoption."

The New York State Senate suggested banning Proof of Work Bitcoin mining.   The governor of New York has yet to commit to enacting a ban on Bitcoin mining. "We'll be examining all of the bills extremely closely." Governor Hochul stated, "We have a lot of work to do over the next six months." 

The Japanese parliament has also passed a proposed law to regulate stablecoins and protect investors in the country following the collapse of Terra UST. However, Ethiopian Central Bank has taken a harsher approach by discouraging its citizens from crypto transactions, 

Brazil’s São Paulo FC Club accepts BTC in payment for tickets.

So Paulo FC, one of the most popular teams in both Brazil and the world, has made history by being the first Brazilian team to accept bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies as payment for match tickets.

The club unveiled the initiative late last month after signing a partnership with the Brazilian subsidiary of the Mexican crypto exchange Bitso. The partnership allows fans to purchase home tickets for games at Morumbi Stadium using BTC and other cryptocurrencies via a Bitso interface. 

The Bitso payment options are currently only available to official fan club members,  but the general public will be able to use them soon.

Yuga Labs Confirms Hack with 200 ETH Worth of NFTs Stolen

The firm behind the Bored Apes NFTs, Yuga Labs, announced a hack which resulted in the loss of 200 ETH worth of NFT. Voris Vagner, the project's community manager, had his Discord account hacked. The attacker utilised it to send phishing links on the official BAYC and its linked metaverse project, Otherside's Discord channels. Gordon Goner tweeted, "Discord isn't working for Web 3 communities." "We require a better platform that prioritises security."

The Bored Ape Yacht Club collection has dominated the NFT market since its launch, but changes in volume ranking indicate BAYC's crown is slipping to GODA Mint Pass Collection. NFT developer foobar has also highlighted a Bored Ape Yacht Club smart contract feature that would allow a single, non-multi-sig wallet to mint a limitless number of new Apes. If the owner of the token contract (a personal wallet, not a multisig) gets hacked or phished, thousands of fresh bored apes might be created and dumped onto the market. However,  BAYC is yet to respond to this tip. 

Warner Bros Takes  A Leap In The NFT Space

On Thursday, Warner Bros. announced a partnership with Nifty's, a non-fungible token (NFT)-a focused social media platform. The two companies will debut a story-driven NFT collection named "Looney Tunes: What's Up Block?" at the end of June. The next NFTs will present a new Looney Tunes plot while simultaneously commemorating the 80th anniversary of the character Tweety.

That's not the most interesting NFT news this week! The international law firm Holland & Knight used an NFT built and airdropped by its asset recovery team to serve a defendant in a hacking case. This is the first documented legal process assisted by an NFT. 

Metaverse godfather leaps into the Metaverse

Neal Stephenson, the novelist who originated the phrase "metaverse" 30 years ago, is establishing a blockchain project called LAMINA1. LAMINA1 will focus on the Metaverse. He's also changed his mind about the Metaverse, noting that the experience will most likely be focused on flat 2D screens rather than virtual reality or augmented reality technology like headgear and glasses, as proposed by Meta and Microsoft. 

The Metaverse will prioritise creators, both technical and artistic. It will provide support, spatial computing technology, and a community to help those building out the Metaverse. The network will probably be carbon negative, and there are few specifics available about the project.