Aave’s Second Version, New Bitcoin Mining Pool in North America + More News

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.

DeFi news

• Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Aave has announced today that Aave V2 is live on mainnet. The new version brings the ability to trade for free assets that are used as collateral; the ability for users to close their loan positions by paying directly with their collateral in 1 transaction; and upgrades to flash loans, among other major changes. The announcement added that this week the Aave Protocol hit a major milestone, with USD 1bn in flash loans volume and, due to the 0.09% fee for flash loans, this has created an additional USD 906,000 going to reward depositors since the launch of V1 at the beginning of the year.

Mining news

• Titan, a company that offers software and services for Bitcoin (BTC) mining, has announced what the press release described as “the first enterprise-grade Bitcoin mining pool in North America, dedicated to spearheading the region’s presence and impact in Bitcoin mining.” Two of the major miners in the US — CoinMint and Core Scientific — announced that they are backing Titan’s North American mining pool, and are its inaugural partners. The Titan Pool’s open beta will begin mid-January 2021, while the full launch will follow soon afterward, said the company.

Trading news

• Valour, a Swiss-based exchange-traded product (ETP) issuer, has announced the launch of Bitcoin Zero, a bitcoin (BTC) ETP that comes with zero management fees. The product is available in euros and Swedish krona. Bitcoin Zero begins trading on the Stockholm-based Nordic Growth Market stock exchange today, and it can be traded through any broker or financial institution with access to the exchange.
• The digital asset data provider CryptoCompare said it has launched an index that measures the implied volatility of bitcoin (BTC) over a period of 30 days into the future. The firm uses technology that allows it to gauge the opinions on BTC volatility “held by sophisticated bitcoin option traders,” and was developed in conjunction with the University of Sussex’s Business School. Named the Bitcoin Volatility Index, the tool – said its masterminds – is reportedly “the first rigorously constructed index that is suitable for use as a settlement price for bitcoin volatility futures.”

Crime news

• US crypto intelligence firm CipherTrace said on December 2 that, within 24 hours, they noticed an uptick of alerts and comments within the online cryptocurrency community of users’ funds being stolen via a Chrome browser extension phishing attack posing as cryptocurrency wallet and browser extension MetaMask. The page for the phishing site mirrors the actual MetaMask site quite well, they said, adding that they have alerted and reached out to MetaMask to help take down the malicious browser extension.

Regulation news

• Australian lawmakers have resoundingly voted in favor of a measure to scrap a controversial measure that sought to limit the amount of cash that can legally be used in transactions to AUD 10,000 (around USD 7,430). The proposed measure was made following a recommendation from a government-run black economy taskforce back in 2017 as a means to fight organized crime and tax avoidance. A One Nation bill seeking to scrap the bill received unanimous support from senators, with a “senior” ruling Liberal Party MP stating (per The Sydney Morning Herald) that Canberra would not seek to revive the bill, which was now “dead, dead and dead.”

Investments news

• The New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) has accrued USD 150m from two new institutional investor-focused bitcoin funds. Per a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) report from late November and another from December 1, the NYDIG Digital Assets Fund I and Fund II have raised USD 50m and USD 100m respectively. They are joint investment funds, meaning a number of investors are involved with both. Ben Loski, the former New York State Department of Financial Services employee credited with founding New York’s BitLiscence crypto trading permits system, is thought to be a major decision-maker with the NYDIG.

Ethereum news

• Major crypto exchange Kraken said it will match USD 150,000 in donations to open-source Ethereum (ETH) projects in collaboration with Gitcoin, an Ethereum-based platform for fundraising. Kraken will match grants solely in Gitcoin’s “Ethereum Infrastructure Tech” category, which is designed to reward developers building the blockchain’s most essential software. The grants will mark Kraken’s first-ever donation to an Ethereum project.