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- BNB Chain’s Layer 2, opBNB, has experienced on-chain growth and became the second most popular L2 in terms of daily active users (DAU) in under two months of the mainnet going live, according to an announcement, citing each chain’s respective explorer. In addition, Binance announced it will support opBNB deposits and withdrawals. As for key highlights, the team noted a surge in DAU, peaking at 92,761 on September 15; opBNB’s market share surged from 13% to 22% in a month; more than 13.6 million transactions have been executed on opBNB since mainnet went live; the official mainnet announcement fueled a 23% surge in opBNB’s TVL, with net inflows reaching $4.7 million by the end of Q3; and opBNB has seen 143,502 total deployed contracts to date.
- The Ethereum research and development firm =nil; Foundation introduced zkSharding, described as “the first Ethereum zkRollup with sharding.” According to the press release, “this unique combination enables secure and parallel transaction execution across dedicated shards while maintaining Ethereum’s economic security and providing application developers with full composability and transparent Ethereum data access.” This will empower developers to build scalable, secure, and composable applications with transparent access to Ethereum data, it said, while =nil; aims to scale Ethereum to 60,000+ TPS. The zkSharding mechanism’s main shard leverages zero-knowledge proofs to validate transactions across all shards before submitting proofs to Ethereum. As the number of these dedicated sub-shards increases, so does the maximum Ethereum throughput linearly, it said.
- Crypto payments company Ripple “debuted the evolution” of its crypto-enabled cross-border payments solution, Ripple Payments, formerly known as RippleNet. According to the press release, the key updates include expanded access to Ripple’s full global network of more than 70 crypto and traditional payout markets. The Ripple Payments network now provides near-global payout coverage through single onboarding, the company said. It provides the enterprise-grade infrastructure required for businesses to “leverage blockchain easily for faster, cheaper, more efficient cross-border payments without needing to be an expert,” it added.
- European cryptocurrency banking platform Bitwala has relaunched to “reclaim its status as a pioneer of cryptocurrency” in Europe, focusing on returning to its core offering, which centers around buying and selling crypto, according to the press release. Late last year, Nuri, as it was formerly known, ceased operations and returned customer funds. Now, with the support of Striga, a compliant banking infrastructure company for fintechs and digital asset services, the platform relaunched under its original name, Bitwala. Striga solved one of the key challenges Bitwala was facing by providing compliant digital assets and banking infrastructure without the need to handle any regulatory burden. “This partnership allowed them to concentrate on creating a product that resonates with their user base,” the announcement said.
- Crypto exchange Bybit announced the appointment of Sebastian Gawenda as its new options business leader. Per the press release, Gawenda is a seasoned professional with a rich background in institutional sales, having previously led the Institutional Sales teams for Crypto.com‘s spot and derivatives exchanges. Prior to that role, he worked in the Institutional Relationships and Solutions division for the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) region at Kraken.
- Bitcoin mining company Bitdeer Technologies Group announced its unaudited mining and operations updates for October 2023, reporting self-mined BTC 462 compared to BTC 482 in September 2023, and 169 in October 2022. Bitcoin mined in October 2023 increased by 173.4% compared to October 2022, while bitcoin mined in October 2023 decreased by 4.1% compared to September 2023, primarily caused by an increase in the Bitcoin network’s total hash rate, it said. The company generally does not hold cryptocurrencies obtained through its self-mining business and promptly converts them into fiat, it added.
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