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Welcome to the final edition of Datawallet Daily for the week and the year. Here is your rundown of the essential crypto news from the past 24 hours:
- Avalanche Foundation to Begin Purchasing Memecoins
- OKX Delisting Privacy Coins: Monero, Zcash, Dash
- Vitalik Buterin Wants to Revive Ethereum’s Cypherpunk Essence
- Court Rules Terraform’s LUNA and MIR as Securities
Avalanche Foundation to Begin Purchasing Memecoins
The Avalanche Foundation, overseeing the Avalanche Network, has announced plans to invest in select memecoins using its $100 million NFT incubator fund. This initiative, part of the “Culture Catalyst” program, aims to support the creativity and culture blockchain enables, including the “fun symbolized by meme coins.”
Avalanche views memecoins as more than utility assets, representing the collective spirit of crypto communities. The foundation will apply strict criteria to select memecoins for its portfolio. Recent memecoin frenzy across networks has seen significant trading activity, including on Avalanche with tokens like Coqinu (COQ), which experienced a dramatic price surge despite its self-proclaimed worthlessness.
OKX Delisting Privacy Coins: Monero, Zcash, Dash
Cryptocurrency exchange OKX is set to delist several privacy-focused cryptocurrencies including Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC), Dash (DASH), and Horizen (ZEN) in early 2024. The decision, announced on December 29, involves the removal of 11 trading pairs with these tokens on January 5, 2024. This move comes after regular monitoring and reviews of the performance and listing qualifications of trading pairs, coupled with feedback from users and adherence to OKX’s token delisting guidelines.
Additionally, OKX has already suspended deposits for these privacy coins as of December 27, 2022, and plans to halt withdrawals from March 5, 2024. OKX, which trades over $3 billion in crypto daily, joins other exchanges like Huobi and Binance that have previously delisted or considered delisting privacy tokens due to policy and compliance reasons.
Vitalik Buterin Wants to Revive Ethereum’s Cypherpunk Essence
Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder, is calling for a revival of the blockchain’s original “cypherpunk” vision, which prioritizes decentralization, open participation, censorship resistance, and neutrality. He notes that Ethereum’s initial concept as a decentralized shared platform has been overshadowed by financial applications since 2017.
Buterin advocates for a stronger focus on non-financial uses and highlights the potential of technologies like rollups and zero-knowledge proofs to support these values. He warns against centralizing trends and praises solutions addressing ecosystem challenges. Recently, Buterin suggested reducing validator signatures to simplify Ethereum’s proof-of-stake mechanism, aiming to make the network more efficient and aligned with its foundational principles.
Court Rules Terraform’s LUNA and MIR as Securities
A U.S. federal judge ruled that Terraform Labs, the company behind Terra and Luna cryptocurrencies, violated securities laws by not registering LUNA and MIR tokens as securities. This summary judgment by Judge Jed Rakoff could influence an upcoming trial on Terraform’s securities violations. The judge allowed testimony from expert witnesses analyzing UST’s depegging in May 2022 but blocked two defense witnesses.
This decision aligns with the SEC’s stance that most cryptocurrencies should be classified as securities. Despite Terraform Labs disagreeing and asserting that the tokens are not securities, the ruling emphasizes the SEC’s regulatory authority over specific cryptocurrencies. This lawsuit followed the collapse of Terraform Labs’ UST stablecoin, significantly impacting the crypto industry.
Other breaking news
- Hashdex Ramps Up Marketing Before Bitcoin ETF Ruling
- Binance Sees 30% User Growth in 2023, Despite U.S. Legal Hurdles
- Canadian Crypto Exchange Stops Withdrawals, Trading Post-Security Breach
- FTX Debtors Suggest $16,871 Bitcoin Price for Creditor Claims
- zkSync Surpasses Ethereum in Monthly Transactions, Driven by Inscriptions
For the latest updates on digital asset markets, follow us on X @Datawalletcom.
