Threshold Network announced this week that it has completed a multi-year effort to upgrade its Bitcoin-to-DeFi bridge tBTC from its original structure and security model launched in 2020. Specifically, the protocol added redemption capability – that is, the ability for customers to not only put their bitcoin in escrow and mint tBTC (an ERC-20 token) but also reverse the process and “unmint” back to BTC. This is the latest in a string of Threshold announcements beginning in January with tBTC minting, an integration with interoperability protocol Wormhole in May and four subsequent partner launch announcements, three involving Ethereum “Layer 2” (L2) scaling juggernauts Polygon, Arbitrum and Optimism. The reason given…
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Crypto & AI: Competition, Convergence or Both?
Part one: AI-based Trading
The convergence of cryptocurrency with artificial intelligence (AI) is attracting significant attention from builders and investors alike. “We’ve never been more excited about crypto and we continue to invest across all stages,” Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang said in a recent tweet, adding, “We’re also a group of curious nerds and the developments in AI are too interesting to ignore.” As one example, AI-metaverse startup Futureverse raised a $54 million in Series A funding this month, with growth equity fund 10T Holdings leading the round, joined by Ripple Labs. Naturally, it has also caused pundits to speculate on an exponential increase in crypto values. Arthur Hayes, BitMEx co-founder and former CEO,…
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RadioShack: Bringing Cryptocurrency to the Mainstream
After filing for bankruptcy twice in previous years, RadioShack takes a different approach to its business
RadioShack announced their move into cryptocurrency on December 19th via Twitter. The rebranding of this company follows after two previous bankruptcy filings in 2015 and 2017. The company’s mission is “to be the first protocol to bridge the gap in mainstream usage of DeFi (decentralized finance) ” according to their Twitter. The plan is to capitalize on the well known RadioShack brand in order to bring awareness to their new token. RADIO Token One of the main issues in the world of cryptocurrency is that a gap exists between many traditional business models and blockchain technology. Many CEOs of big corporations have yet to put the time in to understand…
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Crypto users break 100 million worldwide
A sharp increase to 106 million from the 66 million found in a study last May by Crypto.com can be attributed to PayPal, DeFi, and institutional investors
According to Crypto.com, this growth is largely driven by strong Bitcoin adoption which was a 15.7% increase. Other factors that seem to have driven the sharp upturn in adoption include the huge growth of decentralized finance (DeFi) since last summer, PayPal’s decision to enable customers to hold bitcoin, and the massive institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies by mainstream companies and highly regarded investors like Stanley Druckenmiller.
