Crypto Exchanges Allow Russians to Circumvent Sanctions, Report Alleges

Major crypto exchanges have failed to prevent sanctioned Russian banks and traders from transacting, according to a blockchain forensics report. At least two established coin trading platforms continue to allow Russians to use their bank cards in peer-to-peer deals, the analysis shows. It also highlights an increased Russian interest in tether. Russian Traders Still Using … Read more

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Reaches All-Time High as Miners Face Second-Largest Increase This Year

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty reached an all-time high (ATH) on Feb. 24, 2023, at block height #778,176, reaching 43.05 trillion hashes and surpassing the 40 trillion mark for the first time ever. The network’s difficulty increased by 9.95%, which is the second-largest rise this year, as Bitcoin recorded a combined 24.89% increase during the last 60 … Read more

Developers Propose Cross-Chain Bridge for XRPL Network to Enhance Blockchain Interoperability

Software engineers and members of the development lab Ripplex want to create a cross-chain bridge for the XRPL network to bolster cross-chain transfers between different blockchain networks. According to a recent Github draft, the proposal outlines how the cross-chain bridge could function and suggests ways to prevent transaction replay. Ripplex Dev Proposes XRPL Cross-Chain Bridge … Read more

Bank of Japan to Launch Digital Yen CBDC Pilot Later This Year

The Bank of Japan is preparing to launch a pilot test for a digital yen, its central bank digital currency (CBDC), later this year. Shinichi Uchida, executive director of the Bank of Japan, explained that the goals of this new pilot are to test the technical feasibility of the currency and to include private businesses … Read more

Bank of Russia to Start Testing Digital Ruble With Real Users on April 1

The Central Bank of Russia plans to launch test operations with digital ruble transactions between real customers at the beginning of April. More than a dozen banks will join the upcoming stage of the pilot project, a high-ranking representative of the bank announced to Russian media. Russia’s Monetary Authority to Trial Actual Settlements With Digital … Read more

Block Sizes Exceeding 3 MB Now Common on Bitcoin Blockchain as Ordinal Inscription Demand Rises

Since Luxor, a bitcoin mining pool, mined a record-setting 3.96 MB block (#774,628) on the Bitcoin blockchain, block sizes have been larger than they were prior to that block height in the past 12 days. Statistics show that blocks larger than 3 MB are now quite common, and demand for Ordinal inscriptions has risen as … Read more

Central Bank of Brazil to Test Security and Transaction Privacy Levels of the Digital Real

The Central Bank of Brazil will focus its first digital real tests on determining the levels of privacy and security that can be achieved with the proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC) infrastructure. The tests will be conducted later this year and will set up a simplified operation to transact with a still-to-be-determined tokenized asset. … Read more

Starkware Plans to Open Source Key Tech Linked to Starknet Prover

At the Starkware Sessions 2023 event, held at the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv, Israel, Starkware co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson informed the audience that the company intends to open source “key tech” linked to the Starknet Prover. During the event, the co-founder of the Ethereum scaling project stated that this marks a “significant step for scaling … Read more