Here are some of the major developments in the world of crypto over the past few days
On 16th September, in a late-night livestream, former President Donald Trump sidestepped any reference to his family's new crypto project, World Liberty Financial (WLFI). That was where the mandate appeared to land for Zak Folkman, a member of the team, who revealed details of governance tokens of the platform a little later.
Folkman confirmed the publishing of non-transferable WLFI tokens, which will give the right to present proposals and vote on matters related to the system. In total, 63% of the token supply would go to the public, 20% would go to the platform's team and advisers, and 17% would be held in reserve for user rewards. Folkman noted that no pre-sales or discounted allocations had been made for venture capitalists.
Not much is known as of now about World Liberty Financial, but rumour has it that it will be a decentralised finance provider, which will enable borrowing, lending, and using stablecoin. Many remember the scepticism surrounding cryptocurrencies. Trump changed his mind but now wears the crown for embracing cryptos and NFTs.
Bhutan has emerged as one of the biggest Bitcoin wallets or at least has enough to outpace El Salvador on the last counts. An on-chain analytics platform named Arkham Intelligence identified Druk Holdings, also known as DHI, an investment arm of the Kingdom of Bhutan that held 13,029 BTC, or around $758 million. These resulted from its Bitcoin mining operations that use hydroelectric sources for power, and these commenced in April 2019 when Bitcoin prices were at $5,000.
The first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, El Salvador, began to buy its Bitcoins in September 2021 at significantly higher prices and therefore purchased 5,875 BTC with a current value of $331 million, thus averaging $43,900 per BTC.
Druk Holdings also holds 656 ETH, worth around $1.5 million, and smaller inventories of BNB and Polygon. Mining in Bhutan has been substantially ramped up through several partnerships, most recently a joint venture, announced in early May 2023, with carbon-neutral mine operator Bitdeer. By 2025, mining capacity in Bhutan will increase by 500 MW to 600 MW.
Both Bhutan and El Salvador mine Bitcoins with renewables. Bhutan has hydroelectric energy, while El Salvador draws on geothermal energy from volcanoes. Bitcoin has ballooned to become about a quarter of its expected 2024 GDP, which is $3 billion, making it an important player in the world of cryptocurrency, despite only 790,000 people residing in the country.
To lessen the complexity and security risks associated with old setups, a U.S.-based crypto company called BitGo announced a regulated platform that would allow custody and management of native tokens for Web3 protocols on September 16. The company said the platform simplifies token management for crypto-native organizations, including foundations and protocols, and manages tasks like token vesting, unlocking, staking, managing liquidity, as well as even tax reporting.
The multi-provider custody and smart contracts together with the token distribution structure is very badly designed with areas that are perfect providers for security gaps. That is why this new platform has pursued a minimalist approach to make things simpler bearing more custodian services that are focused on security, compliance, and transparency.
While self-custody reduces reliance on centralized intermediaries, it has its downsides, including cybersecurity risks and internal misconduct. Some of the recent hacking incidences on DeFi protocol Delta Prime that saw $6 million stolen and the BaseBros Fi case are proof of these risks.