Aave Announces Launch of GHO Stablecoin on Ethereum’s Goerli Testnet, MakerDAO Establishes Phoenix Labs, LocalBitcoins Shuts Down

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DeFi news

• Aave today announced the launch of stablecoin GHO on Ethereum’s Goerli testnet. The Aave Companies said that GHO (pronounced ‘GO’) is the first Aave Protocol-native decentralized, over-secured crypto-backed stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the USD. The Aave DAO will control the access to GHO and the interest rate, and determine the risk parameters. Developers and potential integrators can now access the GHO codebase and begin testing ahead of GHO’s planned launch on the Ethereum Mainnet. “The official launch of GHO is subject to discussion, voting and approval by the Aave DAO which governs the Aave protocol and GHO,” it added.
• The Maker community participants introduced Phoenix Labs – a newly founded company with a mission to build new products on top of the Maker protocol, completely focused on the DAI stablecoin and with built-in interfaces, it said in an announcement. All products built by Phoenix Labs are intended to be fully controlled by Maker Governance, meaning that MakerDAO will own every product made by this team. Phoenix Labs has proposed its first product – the first Maker-owned liquidity market for end users – Spark Protocolwhich will act as a liquidity market to supply and lend crypto-assets with variable and fixed interest rates.
• Core DAOa Layer-1 blockchain running on a combined Proof-of-Work and Delegated Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism known as Satoshi Plus, launched its first airdrop to 1.2 million individual users. An announcement said that “this February 8 allocation is among the largest token distributions and smart contract deployments to date.” The airdrop was carried out in collaboration with The Satoshi appan application that allows users to “mine” in-app rewards.
• Chainlink Labs and TP ICAP, a company that provides diversified, global market infrastructure and data solutions, has announced that TP ICAP has joined the Chainlink Network “to bring high-quality currency data to the blockchain ecosystem, with the ability to support 960+ pairs,” the press release said. This forex data is contributed to the Chainlink decentralized oracle network (DONs) by Parameta solutionsTP ICAP’s data and analysis department, and will support the generation of tamper-proof oracle reports, it says.

Exchange news

• LocalBitcoins, one of the earliest peer-to-peer Bitcoin (BTC) exchanges, announced that it is shutting down its operations after more than ten years of operation. “We are therefore sad to share that regardless of our efforts to overcome challenges during the ongoing very cold crypto winter, we have regrettably concluded that LocalBitcoins can no longer offer its Bitcoin trading service,” the press release said. Suspension of new registrations began today.

Legal news

• Bitcoin miner Bit farms settled $21 million in debt from BlockFi with a payment of $7.75 million in cash, the press release states. “Our remaining debt, primarily secured by new, high-efficiency mining equipment in Quebec, matures on or before February 2024, allowing us to be debt-free before the next halving event expected in May 2024,” said Jeff Lucas, CFO of Bitfarms.

Payment news

• Crypto payment service provider BitPay partnered with the Web3 infrastructure company MoonPay giving BitPay users increased ways to buy cryptocurrency instantly. Benefits of the integration include fast delivery to any owned wallet address, as well as the ability for buyers to pay with their preferred method, including credit card, debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or a variety of local bank transfer methods, the press release said. Future plans include the integration of NFT Checkout, MoonPay’s industry-first solution that enables anyone to purchase NFTs with a credit card.

Staking news

• NEAR announced today that they have joined Ledger Livewhich allows users to send, receive and bet (powered by Figure) their NEAR tokens through the Ledger Live app for digital asset management. According to a press release, the Ledger by Figment validator allows users to stake their digital assets without sacrificing self-storage or security. Users are also enabled to contribute to the protocol’s security and receive rewards in the form of NEAR.

Stablecoin news

• Tether issued its certification for the fourth quarter of 2022, stating that reserves remain liquid, with the majority of investments held in cash, cash equivalents and other short-term deposits. The report highlights a $300 million reduction in secured loans, more than $700 million in net profits added to Tether reserves, and the highest percentage to date of assets allocated in US Treasuries, with direct exposure exceeding 58%, it said.

Regulatory news

• Bitso, a cryptocurrency-driven financial services company in Latin America, released “the regulatory principles that guide its business and its strategic decisions in accordance with the highest industry standards,” the press release said. The eight regulatory principles of crypto are: defend customers’ interests above all else; safe custody of funds; a truly inclusive financial system; technological neutrality; anti-money laundering (AML) policies that prevent crimes; education as a driver of informed risk-taking; unlimited access to financial services; and corporate governance agreements that promote ethical practices in companies.

Investment news

• zkSync developer Matter Labs announced with which it would cooperate Gitcoin, thanks to which many of Gitcoin’s grant rounds will soon be integrated with zkSync, “ensuring that leading web3 projects can fund what matters to them with new funding models like Quadratic Funding,” a press release said. Gitcoin is going to launch its new main platform Hellowhere they will host all their grant programs to promote public funding, and they have chosen zkSync as the home for this platform, it added.
• Aptos Labsthe team that launched Aptos blockchain, made a stock investment in Chingari, a short video app in the chain. “Chingari has significantly increased its user base by 2022 with more than 2.2 million on-chain users, and intends to expand its community with Aptos Network as its layer one blockchain of choice,” it said in a press release.