Ethereum researcher Toni Wahrstätter has found that at least 23% of Ethereum blocks are complying with U.S. sanctions due to the use of a service called Flashbots. His research has shown that maximum extractable value (MEV) operator Flashbots is censoring all transactions originating from Tornado Cash.

Smart contract oracle platform and SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication are partnering to try to bridge the gap between traditional banks and blockchains.

Circle, the company behind the world’s second-largest stablecoin, USDC, has announced it will soon be making the cryptocurrency available on five additional blockchains: Arbitrum, Cosmos, NEAR, Optimism, and Polkadot.

CryptoCompare, the global leader in digital asset data and FCA-authorised benchmark administrator, and Blockdaemon, the leading institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure company for node management and staking, have announced the launch of their industry-first family of Staking Yield Indices.

Sponsored: Acquire.Fi is launching its native token ($ACQ) on the 28th of September 2022. Trading is scheduled to go live on the KuCoin centralized exchange at 15:00 pm UTC, with KuCoin adding support to the ACQ/USDC trading pair.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• 23% of Ethereum Blocks are Complying With US Sanctions
• SWIFT Partners With Chainlink to Bridge Traditional Finance and Blockchain
• Circle’s USDC Stablecoin Expands to Five New Blockchains
• CryptoCompare and Blockdaemon Launch Industry-First Staking Yield Indices

23% of Ethereum Blocks are Complying With US Sanctions

Ethereum researcher Toni Wahrstätter has found that at least 23% of Ethereum blocks are complying with U.S. sanctions due to the use of a service called Flashbots. His research has shown that maximum extractable value (MEV) operator Flashbots is censoring all transactions originating from Tornado Cash.

Out of all 19,436 Ethereum blocks generated on the Ethereum network after the Merge upgrade using Flashbots’ relay software that were included in the study, no block contained transactions connected to Tornado Cash.

Flashbots is seemingly censoring transactions by default on its offering as it looks to be compliant with regulatory requirements. While Flashbots accounts for 23% of Ethereum blocks, it’s possible the actual percentage of compliant blocks is higher.

Other MEV relay operators including Manifold, Blocknative, and Bloxroute are still producing blocks that include Tornado Cash transactions. Tornado Cash transactions are being blocked in response to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) blacklisting the mixing service in August.

SWIFT Partners With Chainlink to Bridge Traditional Finance and Blockchain

Smart contract oracle platform and SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication are partnering to try to bridge the gap between traditional banks and blockchains.

Both Chainlink and SWIFT have announced they’re working on an “initial proof of concept” using Chainlink’s cross-chain interoperability protocol, which provides a cross-blockchain communication standard.

The partnership will mean that the 11,000 financial institutions connected to SWIFT will be able to engage in token transactions across chains. Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov has said the move will accelerate the adoption of distributed ledger technology across capital markets and traditional finance.

SWIFT’s interbank messaging system is the most widely used platform for traditional cross-border fiat transactions. In August, it recorded an average of 44.8 million messages per day. Transactions made using SWIFT’s network can take days to complete, however.

Chainlink has said the collaboration with SWIFT allows financial institutions to gain blockchain capability without replacing, developing, and integrating new connectivity into legacy systems.

Circle’s USDC Stablecoin Expands to Five New Blockchains

Circle, the company behind the world’s second-largest stablecoin, USDC, has announced it will soon be making the cryptocurrency available on five additional blockchains: Arbitrum, Cosmos, NEAR, Optimism, and Polkadot.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to the value of government-issued fiat currencies or commodities, and the largest stablecoins are USDC and Tether’s USDT. Both are collateralized with cash and cash equivalents held in reserves. Circle’s VP of Product Joao Rginatto said in a statement:

“Extending multi-chain support for USDC opens the door for institutions, exchanges, developers and more to innovate and have easier access to a trusted and stable digital dollar.”

Compatibility with the Cosmos network is expected to launch by early 2023. The company has also announced the upcoming launch of a Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol for USDC, which will make it easier to move the stablecoin across blockchains.

CryptoCompare and Blockdaemon Launch Industry-First Staking Yield Indices

CryptoCompare, the global leader in digital asset data and FCA-authorised benchmark administrator, and Blockdaemon, the leading institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure company for node management and staking, have announced the launch of their industry-first family of Staking Yield Indices.

The CryptoCompare Blockdaemon Staking Yield Index Family is designed to measure the annualized daily staking yield generated by the digital asset, allowing institutional investors to create total return and yield swap products, benchmark portfolios, conduct research, and more.

The Index Family will initially feature five regulated indices that capture the annualized daily staking yield of the top-performing PoS digital assets: Avalanche, Cardano, Cosmos, Polkadot, and Solana.

ETC Group, the leading institutionally focused digital asset manager in Europe, was a key driver of the development of this suite of independent benchmarks and will be the first to license the Staking Yield Index Family for a series of products planned for Q4 2022.

Participants of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchains delegate - or stake - their digital asset holdings to a validator node to further secure and strengthen a blockchain network while being rewarded with staking rewards for doing so. Currently, billions of dollars are staked across the digital asset ecosystem, which have been ignored by traditional index products until now.

Announcing the Acquire.Fi (ACQ) Token and Closed Platform Beta Launch!

Acquire.Fi is launching its native token ($ACQ) on the 28th of September 2022. Trading is scheduled to go live on the KuCoin centralized exchange at 15:00 pm UTC, with KuCoin adding support to the ACQ/USDC trading pair. Five minutes later, the token will be listed on the Uniswap decentralized exchange.

Following the token listing, Acquire.Fi is also paving the way for the launch of its Closed Platform Beta a few days later. Within this platform, investors will be able to lock their $ACQ for access to exclusive investment pools, crypto mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deal flow, liquidity mining rewards, and other unique benefits.

The Token Generation Event (TGE) and Closed Platform Beta launch provide an opportunity for investors to engage in the world’s first Web3 M&A marketplace. By doing so, users will participate in the crypto economy and have access to fractionalized shares crypto companies, traditional businesses, and real-world assets, all without leaving the blockchain. 

$ACQ Tokenomics and Closed Platform Beta Functionalities

$ACQ is launching on the Ethereum mainnet as an ERC20 token. It will have a maximum supply of 300,000,000 tokens and an market cap of $90,000 on decentralized exchanges plus $300,000 of liquidity on KuCoin.

The Closed Platform Beta is estimated to be released on the first days of October to a few selected early stage investors. Only after this testing period is over will the platform be launched to the public.

In parallel, a decentralized liquidity farming protocol for $ACQ will be launched shortly after the platform goes live.

Besides staking and liquidity farming, users can also use the platform to view their dashboard, search for M&A listings, engage with investment pools and directly contact sellers.

About Acquire.Fi

Acquire.Fi is where Investing and Web3 intersect, creating a new wealth-building paradigm for all. Home to exclusive crypto, blockchain, NFT, and Web3 M&A deal flow while ushering in a new inclusive era of wealth creation through acquisitions using blockchain and digital assets.

Learn more by visiting the official website and socials (Telegram, Twitter, Discord)

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