Share this article
Blockchain Bites: Avanti's Angel Round, Civil's Closure and a Data Breach
Ethereum Classic hardforked to become more compatible with Ethereum while a French energy firm is cleared to issue a new ICO.
By Daniel Kuhn
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 8:47 a.m. Published Jun 3, 2020, 4:14 p.m.
Top shelf
Data Breach
Coincheck has fallen victim to a data breach after attackers accessed one of its domain name accounts and used it to impersonate the cryptocurrency exchange. The Japanese firm said Tuesday that an unknown third party gained access to an account it held with domain registration service Onamae.com. An incident notice suggested the attackers then used its .jp domain account to send “fraudulent” emails to customers.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Hard Fork
Ethereum Classic completed its “Phoenix” hard fork, making the network fully compatible with Ethereum. The hard fork represents a major departure for Ethereum Classic, which is sticking with Proof-of-Work (PoW) while its sister chain moves to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) and sharding.
You’re reading Blockchain Bites, the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why they’re significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’s newsletters here.
Mainnet
Matic, a sidechain scaling solution for Ethereum, began deploying its mainnet, which allows the network to run dapps and support asset transfers to and from the ethereum mainchain. The India-based Matic Foundation announced via a blog post that it had brought 10 nodes online and hopes to grow tenfold.
Angel Round
Crypto bank Avanti raised a $5 million angel round led by the University of Wyoming Foundation with participation from Anthony Pompliano’s Morgan Creek Digital, Blockchain Capital, Digital Currency Group, Lemniscap, Madison Paige Ventures and others.
Civil Closure
Blockchain journalism startup Civil is shutting down, with its team moving to the employ of parent company ConsenSys. “This pivot led to closer coordination with ConsenSys and the team building solutions for identity and provenance tracking, which in turn started conversations about a strategic merger,” Civil CEO Matthew Iles said.
New IPO
Renewable energy services provider WPO has won approval from the French financial markets regulator to raise funding through an ICO. WPO will hold a sale of its GreenToken (GTK) with the expectation of raising €10 million ($11.2 million).
Market intel
Quantitative Easing
Prices for bitcoin shot up 8% on Monday to a three-month high around $10,200, then quickly reversed on Tuesday, falling back to about $9,500. Some investors are looking ahead to Thursday’s European Central Bank meeting for fresh monetary stimulus that might underscore the cryptocurrency’s potential as an inflation hedge.
CoinDesk Research
CoinDesk Research: May 2020 Review
Bitcoin’s returns continue to outpace stocks, bonds and gold, and so does its volatility. Spot exchange volumes probed historic highs in May and bitcoin options markets passed a milestone and didn’t look back. Outperforming crypto assets a couple of use-specific crypto tokens that topped crypto returns for the month. Download the full report here.
Who won #CrypoTwitter?
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Bitcoin gets 'base case' price target of $143,000 at Citigroup
The Wall Street bank said its bitcoin forecast relies on further crypto ETF inflows and a continued rally in traditional equity markets.
What to know:
- Citigroup's base case for bitcoin (BTC) is a rise to $143,000 in 12 months.
- Analysts highlight $70,000 as key support, with the potential for a sharp rise due to revived ETF demand and positive market forecasts.
- The bear case sees bitcoin falling to $78,500 amid a global recession, while the bull case predicts a rise to $189,000 due to increased investor demand.
Top Stories
