Binance US CEO resigns.

☕️ On today's Top Picks:

  1. Binance US CEO resigns.
  2. U.S. inflation rises to 3.7%.
  3. Sony developing new blockchain platform with Startale Labs.
  4. CoinEx exploited for ~$53 million by suspected Lazarus Group.

Read time: 8 minutes

Alpha

Nansen 2 Early Access is live. Access will be rolled out in slow and gradual batches for successful waitlist applicants.

Astar zkEVM calling all interested users and builders to fill out the DeForm to receive more information. Astar zkEVM is an Ethereum layer 2 scaling solution powered by Polygon's CDK. Astar previously raised $24.4 million.

Lukso Universal Profile Beta browser extension released and live on testnet. Lukso is a blockchain for new creative economies and previously raised $18 million.

INTMAX Wallet waitlist, last chance to sign-up. INTMAX is a stateless zkRollup and previously raised $5 million.

Orbiter Finance and Scroll NFT campaign is live. Orbiter Finance is a cross-rollup bridge and raised an undisclosed amount in a previous funding round.

Pheasant Network and Scroll NFT campaign is live. Pheasant Network is a optimistic bridge funded by an Ethereum Foundation Grant.

🪂 Airdrops

ZKX announces $ZKX token and details for airdrop.

Binance airdrops $3 million in $BNB to users in Morocco affected by earthquake.

📰 TRADFI News

U.S. inflation rises to 3.7% which is higher than expectations.

Franklin Templeton files for a spot Bitcoin ETF with SEC. Franklin Templeton handles around $1.4 trillion and is one of the world’s largest asset managers.

Nasdaq stock exchange files for an Ethereum ETF with SEC for Hashdex, a Brazilian asset manager.

FTX has contacted more than 75 bidders to consider the possibility of relaunching FTX and/or FTX US cryptocurrency exchanges.

Tornado Cash developer, Alexey Pertsev; will face trial in Dutch court on March 26th and March 27th of next year.

Sam Bankman-Fried will remain in jail ahead of trial after motion for a temporary release was denied by a federal judge.

Bitfinex and Tether CTO, Paolo Ardoino; to testify in market manipulation lawsuit.

OneCoin co-founder, Sebastian Greenwood; sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in $4 billion OneCoin pyramid scheme.

Former Celsius CEO, Alex Mashinsky; want FTC charges against him dismissed because of the timing when he resigned.

BinanceUS president and CEO, Brian Shroder; resigns and 1/3 of BinanceUS staff is laid off.

BitMEX launches prediction markets where users can now predict the outcomes of real-life events,

Huobi cryptocurrency exchange rebranding to HTX.

📰 DeFi News

Sony subsidiary, Sony Network Communications; establishes a joint venture with Startale Labs to develop a new blockchain platform. Startale Labs previously created the Astar blockchain.

Argent X Cairo 1 upgrade is live. Sign in to your Argent X wallet and click on the red banner to upgrade your account.

LayerZero announces availability of Google Cloud oracles for LayerZero applications which means every message within LayerZero will leverage the secure infrastructure of the Google Cloud.

MetaMask launches Snaps Open Beta. Snaps are features or functionality built by independent developers that users can install directly into MetaMask.

zkSync unveils new ecosystem portal managed by DappRadar which features dapps’ key metrics, rankings, and more.

Offchain Labs announces partnership with Espresso Systems to bring decentralized and open shared sequencing technology to Ethereum rollups.

BNB Chain launches opBNB Mainnet. opBNB is an L2 built on the OP Stack.

Manta Network launches Pacific Alpha mainnet. Pacific Alpha is a modular EVM L2 for ZK-enabled applications. Manta Network previously raised $31 million.

Synapse launches Synapse Interchain Network testnet. Synapse Interchain Network is a L2 built on the OP Stack.

Astar Network launching Astar zkEVM, an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution; powered by Polygon's CDK.

🛡 Security and Exploits

CoinEx Global exchange exploited for ~$53 million. Deposits and withdrawals suspended, but full compensation planned. Hackers suspected to be North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group.

Vitalik X account hack due to SIM swap attack.

MetaStealer malware targeting Apple macOS business users.

Googles releases critical security update which fixes zero-day vulnerability.

Firefox releases critical security update which fixes zero-day vulnerability.

Revoke cash teams up with Nefture to provide a wallet health indicator and value at risk metrics within the Revoke cash UI.

ZachXBT legal fund refund claim contract is now live for the next 365 days for all donors who donated on Ethereum, Arbitrum, and zkSync.

💰 Funding

Electric Capital aiming to raise $300 million fund.

Pahdo Labs, a video game development studio; raises $15 million in Series A funding round.

Flashwire, a Singapore-based digital bank; raises $10 million in Series A funding round.

Age of Dino, a Web3 Strategy game; raises $8 million in Seed funding rouind.

Mythic Protocol, a collaborative entertainment IP; raises $6.50 million in Seed funding round.

Parallax, a one-stop solution for international payments; raises $4.5 million.

Range Protocol, a universal gateway to DeFi asset management; raises $3.75 million in Seed funding round.

Octav, a data analytics platform; raises $2.65 million in Seed funding round.

0xPass, a key management infrastructure; raises $1.8M in pre-seed funding round.

Mountain Protocol, a nationally regulated yield bearing stablecoin; raises an undisclosed amount in Seed funding round.

GRVT, a next-gen hybrid derivatives exchange; raises an undisclosed amount in Seed funding round.

Okapi, a Web3 discovery platform; raises an undisclosed amount in pre-Seed funding round.

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