The Daily: Germany continues BTC selling spree, Bitstamp aims to distribute Mt Gox bitcoin ASAP, and more
Quick Take
- The German government continues to transfer thousands of bitcoins to exchanges and market makers.
- Bitstamp will aim to distribute Mt Gox bitcoin ‘as soon as possible’ once it arrives.
- Coinbase Ventures invests in Ampleforth’s flatcoin technology, SPOT launches on Base.
- The following is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.
German government continues bitcoin selling spree
The German government transferred over 15,000 bitcoins ($866 million) to addresses labeled by Arkham as belonging to market makers and exchanges on Monday.
- Among the recipients were market makers Cumberland DRW, Flow Traders and B2C2 Group.
- Crypto exchanges Bitstamp, Coinbase and Kraken were also among the recipients, per Arkham's data.
- The government began moving bitcoin to exchanges last month, following the seizure of 50,000 BTC from the film piracy site Movie2k in January.
- The previously unidentified "139Po" address has now been labeled by Arkham as potentially belonging to B2C2 Group.
- Last week, an independent member of the German Bundestag, Joana Cotar, heavily criticized the government's decision to "hastily" sell the bitcoin in its possession, urging it to retain the funds as a strategic reserve asset.
- The German government still holds 23,788 BTC, worth around $1.3 billion, Arkham's dashboard shows.
Bitstamp aims to distribute Mt. Gox bitcoin 'as soon as possible'
- The Mt. Gox Trustee has already sent 47,229 bitcoins ($2.7 billion) to Japanese exchanges BitBank and SBI VC Trade, who seemingly distributed their allocated funds within hours rather than the maximum two weeks available.
- The remaining 94,771 bitcoins ($5.4 billion) are still to be distributed among the remaining three firms processing the repayments: Bitstamp, Kraken and BitGo.
- Kraken has up to 90 days to process payouts and BitGo up to 20 days, but neither firm has disclosed how quickly they intend to process the funds once received.
Coinbase Ventures invests in Ampleforth's flatcoin technology, SPOT launches on Base
- Flatcoin technologies aim to track the cost of living and are considered the "next iteration of stablecoins" by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.
- SPOT also launched on the Coinbase-incubated Ethereum Layer 2 Network Base on Monday as part of the investment deal, with new markets going live on the Aerodrome Finance DEX.
- SPOT is designed to combine characteristics of fiat money and hard commodities to create a decentralized, less volatile asset for the onchain economy.
ZKM plans to launch Bitcoin Layer 2 GOAT Network
- Unlike some so-called Bitcoin Layer 2s, GOAT Network uses a decentralized sequencer model, allowing node operators to help secure the network and earn yields.
- GOAT Network has secured commitments of 5,000 BTC ($287.5 million) from institutional node operators so far and plans to open a $5 million Series A fundraising round soon.
- Ultimately, GOAT Network plans to become a "Universal Layer 2," with Bitcoin being the first ecosystem it intends to integrate, followed by Ethereum, TON, Cosmos and others.
$1 million bug bounty program for 'Firedancer' Solana client set to begin
- The six-week program, powered by Immunefi, will offer rewards for finding significant bugs in the first version of the client, nicknamed "Frankendancer."
- The Firedancer client aims to boost Solana's resiliency and is optimized for the high-frequency trading Jump is known for via its C/C++ implementation.
In the next 24 hours
U.S. Fed Chair Jerome Powell is due to testify on the economic outlook and recent monetary policy actions before the Joint Economic Committee on Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET.
U.S. FOMC member Michelle Bowman will speak at 1:30 p.m.
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