Worldcoin Rebrands as World and Launches New Orb

Worldcoin Rebrands as World, Launches New Orb

Worldcoin, co-founded by OpenAI's Sam Altman, has rebranded to "World" and introduced a redesigned version of its controversial iris-scanning Orb. The new Orb, which has 30% fewer parts and triple the production capacity, is powered by NVIDIA's Jetson, making it five times faster at performing AI operations than previous models.

The Orb’s main purpose is to provide proof of personhood through iris scans, a concept met with both interest and backlash due to privacy concerns. France and Germany opened investigations into the project after its initial launch in 2023. 

Alongside the hardware update, World launched World Chain on mainnet, a Layer 2 network built on the OP Stack, designed for decentralized apps and identity verification via World ID. The World ID and World App have also received upgrades, including new privacy features and deepfake protections.

Users can now connect World Chain to MetaMask and explore its expanding ecosystem.

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Kraken Enters Wrapped Bitcoin Competition with kBTC

Crypto exchange Kraken has introduced kBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin token designed to compete with similar products from BitGo, Coinbase, and 21.co. The ERC-20 token, backed by Bitcoin held in Kraken's reserves, allows users to use BTC within Ethereum-based DeFi protocols. Kraken emphasized its commitment to transparency, stating that it publicly manages reserves.

Kraken joins a growing space for wrapped Bitcoin products, following a wave of interest in competing tokens like BitGo’s Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Coinbase’s cbBTC, and 21.co’s 21BTC. Kraken's entry into the market comes amidst concerns about WBTC’s new custody arrangement, which involves Hong Kong-based BiT Global.

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Memecoin Frenzy Boosts Tron's Q3 Revenue to Record Highs

Tron’s revenue surged to a record $151.2 million in Q3, driven largely by meme coin activity on its new SunPump launchpad. Messari reports that meme coins launched on SunPump contributed to a 30% quarter-on-quarter revenue bump, with over 270 million TRX tokens burned in just two weeks, generating $42 million. Tron’s DeFi activity also soared, with a 487% increase in transactions.

Though meme coin launches dropped significantly by late September, SunPump has produced several notable TRON ecosystem projects, including SunDog and Tron Bull. TRX’s circulating market cap has grown by 24% in Q3, continuing its deflationary trend with a net burn of 587.6 million tokens. However, Tron's TVL has fallen from its Q3 peak, ending the quarter at $8.1 billion.

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Two Builders Produced 88% of Ethereum's Blocks in October

Concerns about Ethereum have resurfaced after two block builders, Beaverbuild and Titan Builder, were responsible for 88% of blocks produced in the first two weeks of October. This centralization stems from private order flow (XOF), which reduces competition among builders. However, Ethereum’s proposer-builder separation limits the control these builders have over transaction prioritization.

Despite reassurances about Ethereum's architecture, critics remain concerned about the potential influence of powerful validators exploiting maximal extractable value (MEV). While Ethereum has made progress in improving censorship resistance, issues like private order flow could still present risks. In response, the network has seen a 30% increase in validator count over the past year.

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Data of the Day

Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) are facing increasing challenges in the futures market, with their share of futures trading volume dropping to 3.26% in September, down from a high of 5.18% in February.

Despite platforms like Hyperliquid processing billions in daily volume, DEXs struggle to compete with centralized exchanges like Binance, which dominates the market with $480 billion in Bitcoin futures trading monthly.

Liquidity remains a key issue for DEXs, with CEXs offering deeper order books and more favorable pricing. Additionally, the user experience on decentralized perpetual is often less seamless, requiring users to understand gas fees and smart contracts.

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More Breaking News

• Bitcoin exchange reserves have reached a two-year low of under 2.7 million BTC, though analysts are divided on what this trend signifies for the market.
• The SEC has filed a last-minute appeal against Ripple, focusing on the ruling beyond XRP sales to retail investors, previously declared not to be securities.
• Conduit has launched its G2 Sequencer, claiming a throughput of 50-100 Mgas/s, a big improvement over existing rollup frameworks for blockchain applications.
• Season 2 of the Telegram crypto game, Hamster Kombat, will shift its focus to developing and publishing video games, following its initial success.
• Payments giant Stripe is reportedly in talks to acquire stablecoin platform Bridge as part of its planned re-entry into the digital assets sector.
• Venmo users in the US can now use their accounts to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum via MoonPay, though the service is not yet available in New York and Texas.
• The FBI has arrested Eric Council Jr., who allegedly hacked the SEC’s X account to post false (early) information about Bitcoin ETF approvals in January.

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