Cryptospace Spotlight (19 Dec 2021)
Polkadot moving forward with parachains, Another crypto exchange hacked and US Senators continue to hold different views in crypto regulation!
Asia
Gemini’s head of the Asia-Pacific region Jeremy Ng has left the firm after less than two years. (more)
Singapore-based blockchain data analytics startup Nansen raised US$75 million in a Series B funding round led by US venture capital company Accel, including Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC. Nansen analyses on-chain data, wallet labels and entities on blockchains including Ethereum, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, Fantom, Avalanche and Celo. It also tracks decentralised finance (DeFi) projects and non-fungible token (NFT) trades. (more-1, more-2)
Technology & Industry
Polkadot, an underlying framework for connecting various blockchains, has launched its first set of parachains, individual networks running in parallel to create a harmonized, interoperable ecosystem after near five years in development. The first five parachains that went live – Acala, Moonbeam, Parallel Finance, Astar and Clover – focused on a variety of topics from decentralized finance (DeFi), to investments and loans.(more)
Wall Street firms such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are looking into metaverse and Web3. (more)
Security
Crypto Exchange AscendEX lost nearly USD 80 million after adversary gained unauthorized passthrough access to its hot wallet infrastructure and initiated a number of transfers on the Ethereum, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash networks. AscendEX had since indicated that it will reimburse its customers. (more-1, more-report)
CoinMarketCap temporarily displayed sky-high crypto prices on Tuesday. But it didn't explain what caused the incident, after indicated rectification, leaving some suspecting that CoinMarketCap was hacked. (more-1, more-2)
Regulatory
US Senators are not on the same page when it comes to regulation during the digital asset hearing (more)