Coindesk

The DAO running Aavegotchi, a niche non-fungible token (NFT) game, voted overwhelmingly to migrate the entire ecosystem to Base from Polygon, a move reflecting shifting developer and user sentiment in the broader Ethereum layer-2 landscape.With 93.25% of the vote in favor, the proposal — titled “Make Aavegotchi Based Again” — lays out plans for a full deployment on Base, the Coinbase layer-2 blockchain that has gained traction among decentralized applications.All Aavegotchi NFTs, wearables, game assets and smart contracts will be cloned and relaunched on Base, according to the proposal, with legacy assets on Polygon set to remain viewable but frozen to prevent transfers or updates.The migration comes amid a steep decline in Polygon usage. According to data from DeFiLlama, total...

One of the oldest Bitcoin ecosystem projects is moving to the next stage of enabling developers to build layer-2 networks using its computational layer. Rootstock is one of many projects currently advancing the goal of bringing greater utility and interoperability to Bitcoin, which it is doing using "BitVMX", a modified version of the BitVM programming language.Rootstock's project is weeks away from releasing software development kits (SDKs), allowing developers to start producing their own Bitcoin layer-2s using BitVMX, founder Sergio Lerner told CoinDesk.SDKs are sets of tools enabling third-parties to build applications using a particular platform or framework."We are very close to having all the pieces ready for people to start building their own solutions on top of BitVMX," Lerner said...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) axed its crypto unit on Monday, telling staff that the DOJ would be “narrowing” its crypto enforcement activities in accordance with U.S. President Donald Trump’s January executive order on digital assets, which pledged to establish “regulatory clarity and certainty” for the crypto industry.In his four-page memo to staff titled “Ending Regulation by Prosecution,” U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) — created in 2022 under then-President Joe Biden — would be “disbanded effective immediately.”“The Department of Justice is not a digital assets regulator,” Blanche wrote in the memo seen by CoinDesk. “However, the prior Administration used the Justice Department to pursue a reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution,...

Coinbase (COIN) is more than just a crypto trading platform, Wall Street broker Cantor said in a research report Tuesday, initiating coverage of the stock.Cantor assumed coverage of the crypto exchange with an overweight rating and a $245 price target. In early trading, the shares were up more than 5%."Markets are missing what it is doing beyond trading, particularly with its L2 (Base) and its stablecoin relationship with Circle," analysts Brett Knoblauch and Thomas Shinske wrote. Coinbase shares are attractive at current levels, as they are trading at around a 32% discount to historical valuation multiples, the report added.The broker sees both these segments as "instrumental in changing the narrative surrounding COIN, from being a cyclical crypto trading platform to...

Frank Holmes has had a long career as a money manager: financing gold mining companies; getting involved in the creation of gold royalty companies; developing financial products for the airline industry — all of this with U.S. Global Investors (GROW), the publicly-traded asset management firm he’s been leading since 1989.He’s also the chairman of HIVE Blockchain Technologies (HIVE), a bitcoin mining company with a $345 million market capitalization and a rapidly expanding footprint in Paraguay, thanks to a recent deal in which the firm acquired facilities previously owned by another miner, Bitfarms. The firm was born, he said, after he attempted to launch a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in 2017.HIVE has been green from the get-go. Its first facility...