BTC Price Rises to $60,000
By the end of the week, Bitcoin demonstrated rapid growth, almost reaching the $60,000 mark. At the time of writing, its rate is hovering around $60,160. The rest of the top 10 crypto assets by capitalization were also in the "green zone". Ethereum rose by 3.3%, exceeding the $2,400 mark. TON added 6.2%, again finding itself in the top ten largest cryptocurrencies. DOGE also showed growth of 6.4%.
Buterin Decides to Focus on Mature L2 Projects
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has announced a change in his approach to discussing L2 solutions. Starting in the new year, he will only mention projects that are in "stage 1+."
This stage is characterized by the fact that 75% consensus must be reached in the board for significant decisions to be made, and 26% or more of the board members cannot be part of the development team.
Buterin also emphasized the importance of moving away from multisig to an architecture based on cryptographic trust. The first option is a simpler but less secure system for L2 rollups.
Chang Hardfork Takes Place in Cardano
At block #10,764,778, the Cardano network successfully underwent the Chang hard fork, which marked the beginning of the Conway registry era and the transition to decentralized governance of the ecosystem. Now ADA token holders have the opportunity to actively participate in voting, determining the direction of the network.
The implementation of CIP-1694 introduced a new governance model consisting of three key elements: the Constitutional Committee (CC), delegate representatives (dReps), and staking pool operators (SPO).
In the first phase, the network will be overseen by a Temporary Constitutional Committee with limited powers for a period of 90 days. Its task is to ensure security and stability during the establishment of the new governance system. The second phase involves the full launch of the updated governance structure.
Bitcoin Difficulty Reaches New High
After the latest recalculation, Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 3.58%, setting a new historical record of 92.67 T. The average hashrate since the last change was 662.34 EH/s, and the average time between blocks decreased to 9 minutes 40 seconds. According to Glassnode, on September 8, the network computing power, measured by a smoothed 7-day moving average, peaked at 693.9 EH/s, but then corrected to 672.3 EH/s.
Coinbase Launches Coinbase Wrapped BTC
On September 12, the crypto exchange Coinbase introduced Coinbase Wrapped BTC (cbBTC), an ERC20 token backed 1:1 by Bitcoin. This was announced on the platform's blog. According to the company, Bitcoin plays a key role in attracting users to digital assets. At the time of launch, cbBTC is supported on the Base and Ethereum networks, with plans for further expansion.
The idea of launching cbBTC was first announced by Coinbase in mid-August. However, the community expressed concerns about the possible centralization of this product. BitGo CEO Mike Belshe ironically called cbBTC "central bank Bitcoin" - Central Bank BTC.
Tether Teams Up with TRON and TRM Labs to Fight Illegal Activity in USDT
Tether, TRON, and TRM Labs have joined forces in a new alliance, the T3 Financial Crime Unit (T3 FCU), aimed at combating financial crime. The main focus will be on preventing the illegal use of USDT on the TRON blockchain. According to the stablecoin issuer, the TRON blockchain accounts for 60.78 billion tokens out of a total of 118.37 billion, which is 51.34% of the total volume in circulation.
This initiative involves close cooperation between public and private entities in order to improve the security and reliability of the digital asset industry. The alliance members emphasize that as the popularity of the TRON blockchain grows and the number of its users increases, the risk of attracting criminal elements also increases.
The creation of the T3 FCU is aimed at limiting the ability of attackers to launder and use illegal proceeds, which helps maintain the integrity of the TRON blockchain. Within weeks of the alliance's launch, T3 FCU was able to freeze over $12 million in funds in cases involving extortion and investment fraud.
