Coindesk

Babylon Labs, developer of the largest BTC staking protocol, is building a trust-minimized Bitcoin bridge with the Cosmos network to enhance the world's oldest blockchain's interoperability. In partnership with Bitcoin developers Fiamma, Babylon is using the BitVM2 computing paradigm, which is designed to allow Ethereum-style smart contracts on Bitcoin, which then paves the way for zero-knowledge technology.Zero-knowledge computations allow different parties to verify that information is accurate without actually revealing to each other what the information is. In this sense, it is foundational to bridging digital assets between different blockchains.Developers like Babylon Labs and Fiamma are aiming to unlock the deep wells of value stored in BTC to finance other ecosystems and allow it to be transacted on blockchains that...

Crypto exchange Bybit said it will temporarily suspend its services for its users in India in response to regulation in the country.The Dubai based company intends to prevent its customers in India from being able to open new trades or access products on the platform from Sunday. "The only exception will be withdrawals," the company said in a blog post on Friday. The stoppage may be short-lived. Bybit said it is working to finalize its registration as a Virtual Digital Asset Service Provider under India law, "which we expect to secure in the coming weeks.""We are committed to resuming full service as soon as we have completed our registration process with the FIU," it added.In March 2023, India...

The U.S. renewable energy industry is in an odd position.Large-scale projects, like SunZia, the southwestern wind turbine project that is expected to provide enough electricity to power three million homes, are funded with relative ease thanks to long-established relationships with financial giants. Meanwhile, small-scale installations such as solar panels on one’s rooftop are becoming cheaper to implement by the day.But the consolidation of the energy sector is making it increasingly difficult for mid-sized projects to get the financing they need. These ventures, which are typically worth less than $100 million, are too pricey for regular people to pay for, yet too modest for financial heavyweights to take an interest in them. That’s where Plural Energy steps in. The two-year-old tokenization...

The employment market in the U.S. picked up steam in December, with job growth topping economist forecasts by a mile and the unemployment rate unexpectedly dipping.The economy added 256,000 jobs last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday, topping forecasts for 160,000 and up from 212,000 in November (revised from an originally reported 227,000).The unemployment rate fell to 4.1% in December versus an expected 4.2% and November's 4.2%.Attempting to rally from sizable declines earlier this week, bitcoin (BTC) fell more than 2% in the immediate aftermath of the report to $92,800.Today's job market readings came after a number of recent economic reports triggered a broad-market pullback across asset classes as investors quickly scaled back the idea of a...

The crypto industry's most notorious rapper, Heather Morgan – more widely known as Razzlekhan – released a new music video as U.S. authorities stand ready to imprison her for criminally laundering portions of the crypto loot her husband was convicted of pilfering from Bitfinex. In the song, 'Razzlekhan vs. The United States," Morgan's outlandish and proactively clad musical persona gyrates and scowls into the camera. Despite the legalese of the song's name, its lyrics don't make an overt attack on the investigation and court proceedings that landed her a federal sentence of 18 months in prison. "This ain't no free country; it running on money; capitalists chummy; old white men hella grumpy," raps Morgan, bound in red ropes. The aggressive...