Brave Reveals Solana Dapp Support, Revolut Announces Crypto Staking Support, Binance Full Audit is ‘Some Way Off’

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

• Crypto-native Brave browser announced Solana (SOL) decentralized app (dapp) support on Android and iOS. “In addition to storing, sending, and buying SPL tokens in the wallet, you can now also connect and interact with apps like MagicEden, Orca_so, and JupiterExchange, right in your browser app,” it said.

Banking news

Exchange news

• A full audit of Binance‘s assets and liabilities is unlikely to happen soon, the crypto exchange’s head of Asia-Pacific Leon Foong said for Bloomberg amid calls for more transparency following the collapse of rival FTX. It is difficult to find an auditor to go over the whole balance sheet given the complexities of auditing cryptoassets. “It shows you the limitations of the more traditional industries because there is a learning curve,” he said. “Number one, it’s not their core competence. And number two, obviously there’s a lot of scrutiny if they get it wrong.”

CBDC news

• Gazprombank, a subsidiary of the leading Russian government-owned gas company Gazprom, proposed giving banks more time before implementing the digital ruble to adapt and to minimize losses, according to a local report. “It is imperative that banks take measures to mitigate potential losses. Hence, it is crucial to recognize the potential risks associated with the transition to a digital ruble and approach its implementation with caution, allowing the financial system sufficient time to adjust,” the bank reportedly said.

Mining news

• Argo Blockchain‘s bitcoin mining production increased 14% in January, producing BTC 168, compared to BTC 147 in December 2022. Argo’s mining revenue increased to $3.42 million in January compared to $2.49 million in December 2022. “The increase in BTC mined was primarily due to fewer curtailment hours in January compared to December, when a severe winter storm impacted much of the United States,” said a filing to the London Stock Exchange. As of January 31, the company held BTC 115 or bitcoin equivalents, it added.
• TeraWulf published an unaudited monthly production and operations update for January 2023, reporting: self-mined BTC 157, an increase of more than 25% from December 2022; a fleet of 18,000 miners deployed; an average cost of power of approximately $0.035/kWh; and a power cost decrease to approximately $0.052/kWh, compared to approximately $0.060/kWh in December 2022 following the return to more normalized weather.

Career news

• Metaco, a provider of digital asset custody and orchestration technology, appointed a number of key new executives to its leadership team, to address the increased demand for institutional digital asset services, while expanding its addressable market within and beyond the banking industry, said the announcement. This includes the former global Head of Digital Asset Infrastructure at IBM, Peter DeMeo, who joined the company as Chief Product Officer, and the former IBM lead architect Angel Nunez Mencias, who joined as Chief Customer Officer. Metaco said that, over the past 12 months, it has trebled its headcount.

NFT news

• PLAY! POP! GO!, a direct-to-consumer art, fashion, and lifestyle omniverse created by visual artist Amber Park, has integrated Chainlink Verifiable Random Function (VRF) on the Ethereum mainnet. According to the announcement, leveraging Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network helps ensure that the traits for each non-fungible token (NFT) are generated in a provably fair manner, which ultimately “creates a more exciting and transparent user experience, as users can verify that everyone in the community has an equal chance of minting the rarest NFTs,” it said.

Blockchain news

• Climate tech Thallo announced a technical integration with carbon removal registry Puro.earth, expanding the range of credits that can be brought onto the Thallo platform to include Puro Standard-issued credits for engineered carbon removal processes, said the press release. Puro.earth is the second registry that will be connected to Thallo’s two-way carbon bridge, a piece of technical infrastructure that allows for the tokenization of carbon credits from a registry onto a public blockchain. It complements Thallo’s existing registry integration with BioCarbon Registry, which primarily issues nature-based carbon avoidance credits.