Crypto Roundup: Bitfarms Acquires Stronghold, DBS Pilots Blockchain Grants, Zellic Boosts Security, Binance Hires for Compliance

Our canary is chirping with exciting crypto news. Bitfarms is acquiring Stronghold Digital to expand its mining operations. Meanwhile, DBS Bank is piloting a blockchain-based grant system to streamline processes. In a move to strengthen security, Zellic has acquired Code4rena. And finally, Binance is hiring 1000 new employees to bolster its compliance efforts.

Follow the lead of our Canary to discover unseen treasures!

Alpha Offerings

Seize your daily airdrop rewards, guided by our Canary's discovery!

1. Plena Finance (Premint)

   Potential: $300 - $750

   Here is a step-by-step process:

   • Submit HERE

   • Supply: 1000

   • Mint Price: FREE

   • Chain: Polygon

   • Mint Date: TBA

2. XION

   Potential: $500 - $1250

   Here is a step-by-step process:

   • Xion New Task

   • Follow Twitter & join Discord

   • Go to HERE and log in with your XION Meta Account

   • Next, claim the faucet funds and join the FCFS round.

   • Buy the Allocation and claim your tokens. Remember, these are testnet tokens and hold no monetary value.

Meme of the Day

Market Movements - 22 Aug 2024

The crypto market witnessed a general upwards movement on Thursday. Bitcoin was up by +2.13% to $60,858.26, and Ethereum rose by +1.73% to $2,627.42. BNB also increased by +4.13% to $580.61, while Solana surged by +1.36% to $143.57.

Among altcoins, Tron was down by -0.61% to $0.159, while Toncoin was down by -2.10% to $6.55. Cardano increased by +5.23% to $0.371, and Avalanche was in green by +1.22% to $23.64.

Movers and Shakers

In the last 24 hours, the top gainers included FLOKI (+17.12%), Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (+13.48%), and Fantom (+12.56%). The top losers included Helium (-7.45%), UNUS SED LEO (-4.21%), and Bittorrent (-3.85%).

Project Updates

1. Aptos has partnered with Web3 streaming service myco to expand its market reach and introduce myco's content to a wider audience.

   Read more here

2. Aave V3 has launched on ZKSync's Era mainnet, expanding DeFi accessibility and institutional use cases. This integration offers advanced ZK technology, GHO stablecoin, and Chainlink price feeds.

   Read more here

3. Chronicle, a decentralized RWA oracle, has partnered with M^0, a U.S. Treasury-backed stablecoin protocol. Chronicle will validate M^0's collateral.

   Read more here

4. Nym launches a privacy-preserving VPN app, NymVPN, with strong anonymity and zero-knowledge cryptography.

   Read more here

5. Compute Labs has partnered with Plume to enhance AI computing in DeFi using tokenized AI assets.

   Read more here

Hall of Fame, Hall of Shame

McDonald's Instagram Hacked for Scam

Hackers compromised McDonald's Instagram to promote a fake Solana memecoin named Grimace. The scam netted them $700k before the post was removed.

Read more here

OmegaPro Mastermind Arrested in Istanbul

Swedish citizen Andreas Szakacs, now known as Emre Avci, has been arrested in Istanbul for his involvement in the OmegaPro crypto scam, which defrauded investors of billions. The scam was a Ponzi scheme, similar to the OneCoin fraud.

Read more here

What moved in the Crypto World Today

Bitfarms to Acquire Stronghold Digital

Canadian Bitcoin miner Bitfarms is acquiring its U.S. rival Stronghold Digital in a $175M stock and debt deal. This move aims to diversify revenue streams and increase hashrate, solidifying Bitfarms' position in the mining industry.

Read more here

DBS Pilots Blockchain Grant System

DBS Bank piloted a program using blockchain technology to streamline government grant disbursements in Singapore. This system used smart contracts to automatically distribute funds to approved businesses upon fulfilling specific conditions.

Read more here

Zellic Acquires Code4rena to Bolster Security

Zellic has acquired Code4rena, a smart contracting auditing platform, to expand its security offerings. The combined entity, Audits+, aims to provide clients with more comprehensive and rigorous blockchain security reviews.

Read more here

Binance Hiring 1000 for Compliance

Binance plans to hire 1,000 employees this year, with a focus on compliance roles. CEO Richard Teng emphasized the importance of meeting regulatory demands after the exchange faced legal challenges.

Read more here

Funding Announcements

Our Canary tweets of the latest funding news:

1. Web3 virtual personality platform, Reflection AI raised undisclosed funding in Seed round from Cryptogram Venture (CGV), K24 Ventures, and CatcherVC.

   Read more here

2. Layer 1 intellectual property blockchain, Story Protocol (PIP Labs) raised $80M in a Series B funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.

   Read more here

3. Gaming platform, GAMEE received undisclosed funding from Pantera Capital.

   Read more here

4. Web3 project focused on creating a financial stack for the AI-driven machine economy, Skyfire raised $8.50M in a Seed funding round from Circle Ventures, Ripple, and others.

   Read more here

5. Crypto derivatives decentralized exchange, BSX raised $4M in a Seed funding round led by Blockchain Capital.

   Read more here

Whale Movements

1. Fresh wallet 3NpY3 withdrew 110.895 BTC ($6.76M) from Binance. More details here

2. Dormant whale 0x63b (likely an investor) withdrew 1.48M UNI ($10.4M) from Coinbase Prime. Txn details here

3. Giant whale 0xa92 further bought $33.62M worth of AAVE and WBTC. More detail here

Today’s Token Unlocks

KONET (KONET) - $63.96M
Worldcoin (WLD) - $8.20M
SPACE ID (ID) - $7.31M

Coinversation Street

Our Canary brings some of the trending and informative tweets from the crypto world:

@0xShual sharing list of DeFi coins to buy:

@0xCygaar on how L2s actually work:

Upcoming Events