Ethereum’s Inroads and Libra’s Concessions

The world’s second largest blockchain by market capitalization is making major in-roads despite the new coronavirus-led market turmoil.

The total amount of value transfer on the network has reached parity with Bitcoin, while dapp usage is reported to have surged 64 percent in Q1. Still, crypto isn’t confined to the major chains: With Quora finding a use case for charity and Solana entering the world of decentralized finance (DeFi) with a stablecoin integration, decentralized tech continues to earn its reputation as a disruptor.

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Libra’s Concession
In a major concession to global regulators, the Libra Association is pulling back from its original vision of a digital currency backed by a basket of national currencies. The Facebook-led consortium now plans to develop a handful of stablecoins each representing a different national currency, which will back their multi-currency stablecoin, rather than holding fiat currencies directly in a bank. The new model limits Libra’s flexibility, since adding (or removing) a currency from the basket requires issuing (or retiring) another digital token, but still maintains its blockchain-based tech stack.

Institutional Investors
The crypto-focused investment firm Grayscale raised a total of $503.7 million in the first quarter, primarily from institutional investors looking to take advantage of market turbulence. While bitcoin-weighted trusts continue to be the company’s most popular product, the report noted that ether trusts also received record inflows in the same quarter as investors added multiple Grayscale products to their portfolios.

UBI-light
Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang argues the one-time $1,200 federal stimulus paid to American citizens is not enough to curtail the financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 crisis. An advocate for universal basic income, Yang is instead throwing his support behind continuing payments of $2,000 monthly checks until the crisis is well and truly over. 

Hermit Kingdom
The United States government has outlined an aggressive set of countermeasures it said could stymie North Korea’s highly lucrative and often cryptocurrency-dependent global cybercrime campaigns. This includes implementing tough anti-money-laundering frameworks for digital currency, expelling North Korean IT workers, following best cyber practices, and communicating with law enforcement. The Hermit Kingdom is thought to have accrued a $1.5 billion cryptocurrency warchest, which could fund the regime’s development of weapons of mass destruction.

Series B
Swiss holding company Crypto Finance AG has closed a $14.5 million Series B funding round co-led by Swiss investor Rainer-Marc Frey, Beijing-based private equity firm Lingfeng Capital and joined by Hong Kong’s QBN Capital. The funds will go towards fulfilling capital requirements for obtaining a broker-dealer license from the Swiss financial regulator FINMA.

Wallet Mimicker
An unknown hacker is exploiting trust in well-known brands by creating fake cryptocurrency wallet extensions for Google Chrome that trick victims into disclosing sensitive information. As originally reported by ZDNet, Google has so far removed 49 extensions that mimic Ledger, Trezor, Jaxx, Electrum, MyEtherWallet, MetaMask, Exodus, and KeepKey from its Chrome Web Store.

‘Infectious’ Giving
IntellectEU, a New York software startup, has created a blockchain-based charity app that replicates viral transmission to spread the act of giving. The #SpreadLoveNotCorona web app encourages users to share a link to donate widely, recording each donation on the Corda blockchain, so a verifiable chain of giving can track who recruited whom.

Beta Prognosis 
ConsenSys spin-off Gnosis launches decentralized exchange with focus on best-price execution, already processed $2 million in value transfers while in private beta. (The Block)

Crypto’s State
Wyoming’s recently passed legislation allowing domestic insurance companies to invest in cryptocurrencies will go into effect July 1. (The Block)

3D Printing
CoinDesk columnist Cathy Barrera thinks patent and intellectual property law is holding back the possibility of 3D printing to address a mismatch between supply and demand in vital protective and medical equipment.

CoinDesk Live: Lockdown Edition
CoinDesk Live is back! Twice a week, the Lockdown Edition will feature timely discussions and public AMAs via Zoom – and shared on your favorite social platform, Twitter – with key speakers from the Consensus: Distributed agenda. Here you’ll get a preview of the content we have planned for our first fully virtual, fully free conference happening May 11-15.

Register to join the first CoinDesk Live with Alex McDougall, co-founder and chief investment officer at Bicameral Ventures, as we discuss data trails and how to clean them up on Thursday, April 16, at 4 p.m. EST / 1 p.m. PST. Then join us at Consensus: Distributed May 11-15, where there are more than 200 sessions and tons of interactive networking opportunities.

Quick Liquidation
Bitcoin’s nearly $500 price jump early on Thursday, triggered liquidations worth millions on crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX, according to data provider Skew. The top cryptocurrency by market value picked up a bid around $6,650 and rose to a high of $7,145 in the 90 minutes to 08:30 UTC, forcing liquidations of futures worth $23 million on BitMEX.

CoinDesk Research
March 12 changed how investors look at crypto markets and assets, shook out some participants and left others unmoved. The CoinDesk Quarterly Review is a Q1 analysis of how the narrative has changed for crypto blue-chips like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which assets outperformed, and how the participants in crypto markets are shifting in the wake of Q1’s defining event. Read the full report.

The Road Ahead
Messari’s Ryan Selkis, an early harbinger of the coronavirus crisis, joins Nathaniel Whittemore to discuss what the economy could look like six months down the line. 

Blockchain Bites is CoinDesk’s daily news roundup of the most important stories in blockchain tech from this site and around the web. You can subscribe here.