Here are some of the major developments from the world of crypto over the past few days
Former US President Donald Trump’s crypto project, the World Liberty Financial, will come live on September 16, 2024. In a video on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Trump said that the project will be driven forward by his sons, Donald Jr. And Eric Trump.
“We are embracing the future with crypto and leaving the slow and outdated big banks behind,” Cointelegraph quoted him as saying.
Incidentally, Trump has spoken positively of the crypto community by repeatedly stating that he is going to make clearer regulations, and in case of his victory in the 2024 US Presidential election, dismiss Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler, who he described as ‘notorious’ for leading various attacks on the major crypto firms.
The platform will also likely cooperate with the decentralised finance (DeFi) protocol Aave, which suggests that it will operate on the Ethereum Blockchain.
But amidst all fanfare, the timing of the announcement so close to the presidential election has raised eyebrows.
Nic Carter, a supporter of Trump and partner at Castle Island Ventures, termed the project as a “huge mistake”, adding that probably Trump’s team decided to ride the wave of enthusiasm about crypto without being too much into it.
To make matters worse, the X accounts of Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara and daughter Tiffany were hacked earlier this month, with scammers posting links purporting to be connected to World Liberty Financial.
Nomic Launches tBTC For Decentralised Bitcoin Custody
Nomic, a layer-1 Blockchain, will soon start supporting Ethereum amidst its decentralised Bitcoin custody engine on a testnet that was launched on September 12, 2024. This move will help Nomic users to exchange flat currency or digital assets for crypto, mostly known as on-ramping, and to convert crypto back into flat currency or into any tangible assets, without any third party or a centralised custodian.
This will allow nBTC or Nomic’s individual Bitcoin to be used as an alternative to Wrapped Bitcoin or wBTC, and be backed by Bitcoins reserved by any custodian. It will also allow the use of Bitcoin in DeFi with less trust because of the introduction of nBTC, which might also be utilised on other Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-based chains in the future.
Matt Bell, the CEO of Turbofish, and founder and chief contributor of Noimc, said, “Bitcoin is the highest-valued crypto asset, and Ethereum is the highest-valued DeFi ecosystem […] It’s time to move beyond the current centralised and clunky BTC-on-Ethereum offerings and start truly bringing Bitcoin into DeFi.”
An nBTC, backed by the decentralised BTC reserves of Nomic, can be used and exchanged in place of Bitcoin. Further, nBTC can be moved on Cosmos, as Nomic is a part of the Cosmos ecosystem, or on any Blockchain that is compatible with the same inter-Blockchain communication protocol as Cosmos.
Initially introduced by Keep network, tBTC used to be the only alternative to wBTC prior to the introduction of nBTC. In August 2024, BitGo announced that it will start transferring wBTC custody to a joint venture with BiT Global, while preserving the technology that secures it. A few weeks later, it was suggested by Threshold Network, a company that leverages threshold cryptocurrency to protect digital assets, that they would swap wBTC’s centralised custody, mint and burn the model for permission-less mint and redeem mechanism used for tBTC.
Consumer Research Warns About Tether’s Dollar Reserve
Consumer Research, a consumer protection group, issued a warning in a report published on September 12, 2024 about Stablecoin issuer Tether for its lack of transparency regarding its US dollar reserves.
It said Tether has not yet come up with a full-fledged audit of the dollar reserves it holds, which purportedly backs the USTD from a reputable accounting firm despite promises by the Stablecoin issuer to produce an audited report.
The authors of the report likened this lack of transparency similar to the situation caused a hefty downfall of FTX and Alameda Research. It also sent an open letter to the governors of every US state along with its claims highlighting the perceived lack of transparency. In addition, they also circulated radio advertisements, and a special website dedicated to the solidification of the claims.
It described Tether as a “business with bad actors”.
Incidentally, Tether has also been accused of failing to avert the assistance of illegal entities using USDT to evade global sanctions.