Cryptocurrency

Introducing Credit Coop, a new private credit platform making strides in supporting the growth of the Web3 ecosystem by providing innovative financing solutions that leverage future cash flows. This approach directly addresses the capital constraints that have long hindered the scalability of cryptonative businesses as they seek growth capital to scale. As the Web3 ecosystem rapidly evolves, companies face significant hurdles as traditional financing models are ill-suited to the industry’s unique needs. Over-collateralization requirements and rigid repayment terms have become major roadblocks, stifling innovation and impeding growth in this dynamic sector. Credit Coop’s solution offers a way forward. By converting future cash flows into collateral through smart contracts, the platform offers businesses a more flexible and capital-efficient path to funding. This approach has already facilitated the deployment of $15 million in credit across four borrowers, with zero defaults.“Blockchain technology is redefining finance, yet many companies still struggle to access the capital they need to scale,” said Christopher Walker, Co-Founder of Credit Coop. “We’re here to change that. We’ve created foundational infrastructure for originating structured products natively onchain. Our mission is to make credit more accessible, allowing companies to access capital more efficiently and focus on growth.”Credit Coop’s transformative impact is already felt through the ecosystem. Rain’s Secured Line of Credit exemplifies this power. Within just one year, Rain increased its borrowing capacity from 20,000 USDC to 2,000,000 USDC per month. This remarkable 100-fold increase in financial firepower showcases how Credit Coop’s novel approach is not just enhancing, but fundamentally reimagining the growth trajectory and operational agility of businesses in the crypto space.“Credit Coop has been a great partner as we’ve explored turning our credit card receivables into a tokenized RWA. They’ve helped make the market for this groundbreaking product and been instrumental in sourcing liquidity,” says Farooq Malik, Co-Founder of Rain.Credit Coop has received investments from several notable venture firms, including Signature Ventures, Veris Ventures, TRGC, and others, reflecting confidence in its ability to address the financing needs of the Web3 market.“We’re excited about Credit Coop because they’re not just iterating on existing models – they’re creating an entirely new paradigm for lending,” commented Juliane Hahn, Managing Partner at Signature Ventures. “Their model is setting new standards for capital efficiency, allowing businesses to unlock growth potential that was previously inaccessible.”Credit Coop’s leadership team has deep expertise in finance, technology, and entrepreneurship, with backgrounds at institutions such as JP Morgan, Barclays, and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). Their experience in structured finance, DeFi, and FinTech positions them well to navigate the evolving digital finance landscape.With partnerships already established with Plume, Credora, and Index Coop, Credit Coop is positioned to continue supporting growth within the Web3 ecosystem. For businesses seeking to scale operations or investors looking to participate in the future of finance, Credit Coop represents a compelling opportunity at the forefront of blockchain-enabled lending.ContactCEOChristopher WalkerCredit Coopmarketing@creditcoop.xyzThis article was originally published on Chainwire More

ZKCandy is excited to announce the launch of the ZKcandy Voyage public testnet, a major milestone in ZKcandy’s mission to create a fast, low gas fee, and vibrant gaming ecosystem utilizing cutting-edge zero-knowledge proof technology, powered by ZKsync.ZK Chain Launched with Tremendous Community SupportThe public testnet launch comes off the back of a very successful closed testnet campaign called the ZKcandy OG Voyage that ran for 2 weeks prior.ZKcandy is among the first ZK Chains to be up and running with a publicly available testnet. ZK Chains are an interoperable network of Layer 2 blockchains built on ZK Stack that make up the Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) Chain ecosystem pioneered by ZKsync.The community’s support and engagement were instrumental in making the testnet a tremendous success. The ZKcandy team expected only 500 users to sign up for the closed testnet campaign but more than 16,830 users signed up within 24 hours of ZKcandy announcing its closed testnet.In order not to disappoint the community, the ZKcandy team admitted as many users as possible for the closed testnet. Users of the closed testnet played the one game featured with lots of enthusiasm and helped ZKcandy test out its testnet. Additionally, more than 45,000 registered users played the first game featured on ZKcandy, BTFD Arcade. Full stats of the closed testnet are shared below.The Elastic Chain Improves Web3 GamingZKcandy will become one of many ZK Chains built to meet the unique needs of ZKcandy gamers. This will make it easy for developers on ZKcandy to build games that are able to take full advantage of all that the ZKsync technology enables. By being part of the Elastic Chain ecosystem of fully interoperable ZK Chains, the entirety of the ZKsync user base — from ZKsync Era and any other ZK Chain — will be able to seamlessly enter the ZKcandy ecosystem and take part in the growing gaming community.ZKcandy Voyage Public Testnet: What You Need to KnowThe ZKcandy team is now ready to take the next big step with so much encouragement from the community.The ZKcandy Voyage Public Testnet is designed to stress-test our system with the help of our community over a four-week period, running from Septemeber 9, 2024, to October 9, 2024, to ensure a smooth and robust mainnet launch.The community’s participation will play a crucial role in refining the ZKcandy platform. Additionally, we seek gamers to play some of our featured games to validate all features and functionalities, allowing the ZKcandy team to fine-tune its gaming ecosystem, and by engaging a broad user base it can identify and rectify potential vulnerabilities.Participants will be rewarded with exclusive Candy Points and Voyager Pass NFTs for their contributions. These NFTs will not only offer a multiplier effect on calming tokens upon the Token Generation Event (TGE) but also grant 10,000 Candy Points.Voyager Pass NFT GiveawayTo help incentivise the community the ZKcandy team is giving away 8,888 exclusive Voyager Pass NFTs to early participants. These NFTs come with unique benefits, including:How to get Candy PointsTo start earning points, users must sign up at https://portal.zkcandy.io/ using an invite code. After registering, each user will receive a unique invite code that can be used eight times only. More codes can be earned based on performance.Here is a detailed article on how to earn candy pointsGames for Campaign ParticipationAs a Campaign Participant, users will need to play ZKcandy ecosystem games and climb the leaderboards to earn points. The higher the rank, the more points they can earn. Here is the list of available games:LinkReferral ProgramZKCandy’s referral program is a great way to earn points by inviting friends to join ZKcandy ecosystem. Here’s how it works:Invite Friends: Users can share their unique referral link. When someone joins using the link, they will receive a welcome bonus of 150 points.Earning More with Tiers: Users will also earn points based on the activity of those you refer.Users can read more details about the referral program.Campaign TimelineAbout ZKcandyZKcandy is an Ethereum-based gaming network developed and operated by iCandy, the largest game developer in Southeast Asia with a track record of building 500+ games, 300M+ gamers, 750 employees, publicly traded on the ASX. This platform strategically leverages ZK rollup technology powered by ZKsync, and is designed specifically for gaming and meme entertainment within the ZKsync Elastic Chain.Stay ConnectedStay updated on the latest news and announcements by following us on our social media channels. Your journey with ZKcandy is just the beginning, and we are excited to embark on this adventure together!Website | X | Discord | TelegramContactAlexeyalexey@zkcandy.ioThis article was originally published on Chainwire More

Preparing for mainnet, Cork secures investments from OrangeDAO, a16z CSX (NASDAQ:CSX), Ideo Ventures, Steakhouse Financial, Outliers Fund, and Unbounded Capital, among others to accelerate launch Cork Protocol, which has built the new DeFi primitive similar to credit default swaps for pegged crypto assets, today announces its participation in the a16z Crypto CSX Fall 2024 cohort. Backed by investors including OrangeDAO and Ideo, Cork Protocol’s participation in the 8-week program aims to speed up its early-stage go-to-market strategy. The missing piece that will bring maturity to the emergent crypto financial system is competitive market risk pricing, whether for insurance or efficient hedging. One asset class that is sorely lacking these tools is crypto assets that track a par value (stablecoins, LSTs, LRTs, etc). These often experience ‘depegs’ or price deviations from par in secondary markets. Notable cases include USDC in March 2023 or situations in emerging technologies, such as the temporary depegs of Liquid Restaking Tokens (LRTs). These events have the potential to cause cascading liquidations across borrowing and lending protocols and propagate risk across the system as a whole. Cork Protocol introduces Depeg Swaps to bring the power of competitive markets in risk pricing to crypto. Cork Protocol can be used as part of a long-term buy-and-hold strategy by rolling hedges, as a yield enhancement for underwriters of the hedged asset, or as part of a collateral stack for lending and borrowing. The Cork Protocol team hopes that using the platform will aid crypto users and institutions in finding temporary price deviations less frequent, shorter, and less severe. While Cork cannot prevent black swan events, it offers investors a way to price risk and insurance against both temporary and permanent depegs. Cork can offer institutional users of liquid staking tokens, like stETH, access to competitively priced and effective market insurance for slashing and liquidity risks. Depeg Swaps are also designed for other crypto assets, including stablecoins or restaking tokens, like eETH, for users who wish to hedge more complex positions on-chain. Cork has received investment from Web3 leaders, including a16z CSX, OrangeDAO, Ideo Ventures, Outliers Fund, Unbounded Capital, Steakhouse Financial, and 20 other investors and angels from Tradfi and DeFi.In conjunction with this announcement, Cork Protocol is launching a Testnet Trading Competition starting the week of September 17th. The competition will take place on the Sepolia Testnet, allowing participants to test the protocol under simulated conditions while competing for profits and reporting any bugs found during the competition. A total of 1.75 ETH will be awarded for tasks like 0.5 ETH to the trader with the highest overall profit, 0.25 ETH for the most profitable liquidity provider, and 0.1 ETH for the best bug report. What Others Are Saying About Cork:Cork Protocol is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that introduces Depeg Swaps, a new financial primitive designed to price and manage the risks associated with pegged assets, such as stablecoins and liquid (re)staking tokens. Cork Protocol aims to enhance liquidity, reduce risk, and foster safer on-chain credit markets by providing tools for both hedging and trading risk.| Website | X [Twitter] | Discord |ContactExecutiveKyle HeiseC3kyle@cryptocontent.coThis article was originally published on Chainwire More

Innovative startup from Ethereum Core research, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Brain, Stanford, MIT, and CMU aims to democratize on-device intelligence, empowering users with control over their personal AI, and receiving investment from a16z CSX (NASDAQ:CSX), Hack VC, and investors from projects like Solana, Polygon, Near, Worldcoin, etc.PIN AI, a pioneering AI infrastructure company, announces $10 million in pre-seed funding to develop the world’s first open-source Personal Intelligence Network (PIN). A16z CSX, Hack VC, and notable investors, including Blockchain Builders Fund (Stanford Blockchain Accelerator), Illia Polosukhin (Transformer paper author; Founder, NEAR Protocol), Anagram/Lily Liu (President, SOL Foundation), Symbolic Capital (Co-Founder, Polygon), Evan Cheng (CEO, Mysten Labs/SUI), dcbuilder (Worldcoin Foundation), Foresight Ventures (parent company of the Block), Nomad Capital, Tim Shi (Co-Founder, Cresta), Ben Fisch (CEO, Espresso), Scott Moore (Co-Founder, Gitcoin), Alumni Ventures, and Dispersion Capital, have backed the project.Offering an open-source, web3-enabled alternative to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Intelligence, PIN AI’s platform turns smartphones into privacy-focused AI personal assistants. By redirecting profits from users’ data and attention, it empowers users to regain control and monetize their data. The platform leverages personal, contextual data and cryptography, deploying cutting-edge AI models on-device to handle tasks across apps—like shopping, ordering food, wealth management, and interacting with centralized exchanges, DeFi, and prediction markets.This AI-driven assistant ensures robust privacy and user-controlled data management, disrupting ultra-profitable models of web2 giants, including Apple’s 30% app revenue cut (over $100 billion) and Google’s mobile ads and Android store revenue cuts.At launch, PIN AI partners with Worldcoin and is developing a front-end product similar to Siri, expanding its reach and enhancing user experience.Leading the team are co-founders Davide Crapis and Ben Wu. Crapis, formerly of Ethereum Core Research, leads Protocol Research. Ben Wu, heading Strategy, is an MIT graduate, Y Combinator alum, and serial entrepreneur. The technical leadership includes Bill Sun, a Stanford AI/Math PhD and early Google Brain researcher, as Chief AI Scientist, and Regan Peng, a CMU graduate and former lead at Didi Fintech and Yahoo Data Infra, as Founding Head of Engineering.About PIN AIPIN AI is developing an open-source personal AI operating system that leverages smartphone and app data to empower users with control and privacy. The company’s approach aims to connect AI developers with users, promoting data sovereignty and developer empowerment. PIN AI collaborates with Ethereum Core Research and is committed to privacy and innovation.For more updates, visit pinai.io, X (formerly Twitter), Telegram, Discord, and Linkedin.ContactPIN AIcontact@pinai.ioThis article was originally published on Chainwire More

It has matched the numbers seen in March, the largest recorded outflows this year. Stronger than expected macroeconomic data has likely pushed this bearish sentiment on the market, according to CoinShares. The market is buzzing with speculation that the U.S Federal Reserve may announce a 25-basis-point interest rate cut in the near future.In addition, some are expecting a potential 50-basis-point rate cut after the unveiling of employment data last week. The Consumer Price Index (CP|) inflation report is expected to be released tomorrow, and the financial markets are keeping an eye on it. If the inflation numbers see a decline, the 50-basis-point rate cut is likely to happen.These macroeconomic discussions have fueled fear and uncertainty on the markets, including the crypto market. The last weekend saw major losses in the prices of top currencies like BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL and others. The Bitcoin price even went below the crucial $52,000 mark before rebounding to the $55,000 price level.However, Solana has managed to deal with this pressure and gain investor interest. While others were bleeding, Solana products witnessed inflows of about $6.2 million. These are the largest of inflows seen for any asset during the past week. It is a positive development for the SOL price as the rise in institutional sentiment can change market sentiment.This article was originally published on U.Today More

Three large whales have amassed about 2,814 BTC, or roughly $157 million, from Binance since Sept. 1, according to on-chain data. At approximately $55,887 per Bitcoin the average accumulation price is found. Despite price fluctuations, the addresses involved in these transactions demonstrate massive whale interest in the asset. At $55,212, the price of Bitcoin is presently following a descending triangle pattern. Although this pattern is frequently interpreted as bearish, it can also indicate consolidation prior to a breakout. Given the whales’ continued accumulation, it is possible that Bitcoin will soon reverse this negative trend and begin to rise again. Whale inflows additionally indicate that big investors are probably seeing this decline as an opportunity rather than a time to sell. Institutional investors have been pulling back slightly, which is in contrast to their actions and the overall sentiment of the market. Even though institutional player participation has decreased, Bitcoin’s resilience and neutral price performance in the face of these inflows suggest that the market is stabilizing and that there has not been any notable bearish activity.Increased liquidity and a stronger push to break out of the descending triangle could be experienced by Bitcoin if this whale accumulation persists. Given the amount of money being invested in the asset, this would result in increased volatility and the possibility of a sudden upward move.This article was originally published on U.Today More

The firm argues: “Crypto is the rare instance, where the difference in election outcome could determine the destiny of the industry.”While both campaigns have engaged with crypto leaders, Bernstein suggests that the Trump campaign’s overt pro-crypto stance is much more favorable for Bitcoin’s growth.Trump has actively promoted making the U.S. “the Bitcoin and Crypto Capital of the world,” as demonstrated by his speeches at events, such as the Bitcoin Nashville conference.Bernstein explains that Trump’s policy promises include appointing a crypto-friendly SEC chair and creating a national strategic Bitcoin stockpile.”Trump’s speech at Bitcoin Nashville included – 1. U.S. to be a Bitcoin mining powerhouse – Bitcoin to be mined in U.S.; 2. Appoint a Crypto-friendly SEC chair on Day 1; 3. A national strategic Bitcoin stockpile; 4. A Crypto advisory council to the President,” states Bernstein.In contrast, Bernstein says the Harris campaign has largely avoided the topic of crypto, with no specific mentions in her policy statements.”Crypto has not found even one mention in any of Harris speeches. There is no mention of crypto in the recent policy statement released on the Harris website,” they state.Bernstein expects Bitcoin to reach new highs if Trump wins, predicting a price range of $80K to $90K by Q4. However, under a Harris victory, they forecast a potential decline, with Bitcoin testing the $30K to $40K range, citing concerns about continued regulatory challenges.The note highlights that Bitcoin has already shown resilience, rising 112% over the past year despite regulatory and macroeconomic headwinds.They believe a Trump victory could provide a much-needed positive regulatory environment, spurring innovation and institutional participation in the crypto space.On the other hand, a Harris win may prolong uncertainty, keeping Bitcoin under pressure. This election could, therefore, mark a pivotal moment for the cryptocurrency’s future trajectory. More

The discussion was sparked by three proposed “Wish For Change” (WFC) scenarios introduced by Jonas Gehrlein, a research scientist at the Web3 Foundation. Gehrlein’s proposals seek to adjust the network’s inflation rate to ensure a balance between staking rewards, economic security, and ecosystem development.The three WFC proposals are as follows: Proposal 1 suggests a fixed 10% total inflation rate, Proposal 2 proposes an 8% fixed rate, while Proposal 3 recommends an 8% rate for the first year, followed by a gradual decrease. These proposals are currently open for voting within the community.Zou Yang, founder of Polkadot Ecological Research Institute, responded with a fourth proposal suggesting a 5% fixed inflation rate. According to Yang, reducing the inflation rate to 5% would provide a better balance between staking rewards and growth within the Polkadot ecosystem. He argued that the current inflation rates in Gehrlein’s proposals, which all exceed 8%, could negatively impact the development of ecosystem projects by diverting too much focus towards staking rewards.Gehrlein defended the higher inflation rate proposals, citing the need to maintain a balance between validators’ profitability and Polkadot’s economic security. He warned that reducing rewards below a certain threshold could necessitate a higher minimum commission rate, ultimately destabilizing the network’s security in challenging market conditions.Gehrlein also highlighted the complexity of the economic dynamics at play, noting that any big reduction in the inflation rate should be approached cautiously and monitored closely. He stated that his proposed third WFC, which involves an initial 8% inflation rate with a gradual reduction, provides a balanced approach while allowing room for adjustment based on ecosystem observations.Yang, however, claims that Gehrlein’s proposals focus excessively on the security and profitability of validators at the expense of broader ecosystem development. He pointed out that an inflation rate of 8% or higher could deter developers and reduce market activity, ultimately harming Polkadot’s long-term growth.Yang’s call for a 5% fixed inflation rate reflects the concerns of several community members, including those who have left the Polkadot ecosystem, such as former investors, developers, and project teams.The current discussion is a non-binding referendum, meaning the results will serve as guidance for a future on-chain vote to adjust the inflation parameters.  More