💥 DeFi on Ethereum L2 Networks Grows By 964%

View in browser April 29, 2022 We've all been here before... The prices of most crypto assets have dipped over 4% in the last 24 hours in spite of relatively positive crypto news as chaos continues to reign in the traditional financial markets. That said, fasten your seatbelts, HODL on, and read on! Markets - Change 24hr Source: CoinMarketCap.com DeFi on Ethereum L2 Networks Sees Significant Growth Total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms built on Layer-2 networks for Ethereum (ETH) rose by a massive 964% in the first quarter compared to the same quarter last year, even as average transaction fees on Ethereum's base layer fell by 80%. The data about the surprising growth in TVL on Layer-2 platforms was shared in a quarterly State of Ethereum report from the crypto educational resource Bankless, stating that the amount increased by 964% from USD 686.9m as of the end of Q1 2021 to USD 7.3bn at the end of Q1 2022. The figure includes the total value locked across all Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solutions, including optimistic rollups, zero-knowledge rollups, and validiums, the report said. It added that in all, more than USD 23bn in digital assets, including USD 4.2bn worth of ETH, have been bridged from Ethereum to Layer-2 networks and other Layer-1 blockchains. Read more... Roger Ver Embraces Dogecoin After Bitcoin Cash Loses 50% Against Bitcoin Roger Ver, the early Bitcoin (BTC) evangelist-turned Bitcoin Cash (BCH) supporter known as 'Bitcoin Jesus', is now voicing his support for Dogecoin (DOGE), calling it better than BTC. The strange turn of events comes as BCH continues to lose ground against its competitor BTC. Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, Ver said that "dogecoin is significantly better [than bitcoin]," adding that "it's cheaper and more reliable." "If I had to pick three contenders [for the top crypto], they would be DOGE, litecoin and bitcoin cash," Ver said. The comments from the early bitcoin proponent came as Ver returned to Twitter after a one-year hiatus from the platform. During the time he has been away, bitcoin cash – the crypto Ver has advocated passionately for since its inception in 2017 – has lost about 50% against BTC and 60% against the US dollar.  Read more... 7 in 10 Retail and Institutional Investors Plan to Buy More Crypto The survey conducted by the crypto exchange Bitstamp found that 73% of retail investors and 72% of institutional investors stated that they plan to buy more tokens over the course of the next five years. This may have been spurred by the fact that, the data showed, 68% of institutions are now actively encouraging crypto investment. This kind of sentiment has seen just under 74% of institutional investors trade crypto "at least once a week," with 56% of retail investors doing likewise. The survey indicated that, at least among investors, crypto-related sentiments tend toward the optimistic, with almost 80% of retail and 73% of institutional respondents opining that crypto will go mainstream within the next 10 years. Most said this will become the case within the next five years, with almost 15% of retail investors opining that crypto was "already mainstream." Fewer than one in 10 of both groups stated that crypto would never be accepted by the mainstream. Read more... Promotion Get a 7% Bonus on Your First Deposit at PrimeXBT! Enter the code CRYPTONEWS7000 in the promo section after sign-up and make your first deposit. Claim Deal Daily Briefs The American investment banking heavyweight Goldman Sachs has granted a customer a cash loan backed by bitcoin (BTC). Ali Khawar, acting assistant secretary of the Employee Benefits Security Administration at the US Labor Department, said that they have "grave concerns with what Fidelity has done" with regards to Fidelity's move to allow bitcoin to be added to clients' 401(k), or retirement savings, accounts, as it "risks the retirement security of Americans." Earlier this month, the US online trading platform Robinhood provided about 2m customers from its waitlist with crypto wallets, and this week completed the full roll-out of this functionality to all clients, the company said. Starting May 1, any legal person established in Belgium that wants to provide exchange services between virtual currencies and legal currencies, or custody wallet services, within Belgium will have to register with the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) in advance. A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the US reintroduced a bill that would give oversight over the crypto spot market to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). German Member of Parliament for the liberal Free Democratic Party, Frank Schäffler, organized a crypto tax roundtable in the German Parliament. During discussions, it was agreed that staking and lending of crypto should not extend a required holding period in order to benefit from tax-free selling of crypto to 10 years. Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital is planning to move its headquarters from Singapore to Dubai. Binance has decided to shut down a number of accounts linked to relatives of senior Russian decision-makers in response to the intensifying Western sanctions on the country. Coinbase introduced Coinbase Intelligence, a suite of tools that Coinbase says is "dedicated to crypto compliance" and "designed to help secure the crypto economy from bad actors." Coinbase's recently launched non-fungible tokens (NFT) marketplace has so far seen just 742 total users on the platform, including 302 unique sellers and 503 unique buyers, according to Dune Analytics data. The total transactions currently stand at 985, and the total volume at USD 315,874. Bybit launched a dedicated team in Brazil to give Brazilian users access to its crypto trading offering. Messaging app Telegram enabled a Wallet bot, allowing payments with bitcoin (BTC) and toncoin (TON) directly to other app users without the need to enter a wallet address. The gift cards-for-crypto company Bitrefill has launched a crypto bill payments service for US customers. Blockchain-powered, real estate transaction and offer platform Propy and digital asset wealth management platform Abra announced a partnership that aims to enable Propy customers to buy real estate by securing a loan using their digital assets as collateral. Banque Delubac & Cie has obtained its registration as a DASP (Digital Assets Service Provider) with the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) and the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR). The European Central Bank (ECB) is inviting front-end payment solutions providers and banks to design prototypes for payment solutions for its central bank digital currency (CBDC) project known as the digital euro. Euro area annual inflation is expected to be 7.5% in April 2022, up from 7.4% in March according to a flash estimate from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In the first quarter of 2022, seasonally adjusted GDP (gross domestic product) increased by 0.2% in the euro area and by 0.4% in the EU, compared with the previous quarter, according to a preliminary flash estimate published by Eurostat. Asset manager WisdomTree reported that it managed an average of USD 324m worth of cryptoassets in the first quarter of 2022, compared to USD 264m recorded in the same period last year. The company recorded a net loss of USD 10.3m. Digital asset investment platform Yieldstreet launched the Enhanced Crypto Fund in partnership with US investment firm Osprey Funds. The cross-exchange digital asset trading network Apifiny hired Diana Pires as Chief Revenue Officer. Pires previously worked for financial market giants S&P Global and ICE. READ MORE Read All Cryptonews Promotion Check Out The New Ledger Nano S Plus Bigger screen. More memory. The world's most popular wallet just got better. Claim Deal New To The Crunch? Click To Subscribe! Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Forward email Cryptonews.com support@cryptonews.com You received this email because you signed up on Cryptonews.com. Unsubscribe