Transaction fees on the Bitcoin blockchain have been rising as users on it have been minting thousands of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), after a protocol called Ordinals started allowing people to mint them directly on the BTC network.

Voyager Digital’s creditors’ committee and Voyager itself have rejected an attempt by defunct cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research to recover $446 million in loan repayments made to the lender. Voyager filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2022.

Maker’s Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) has approved the launch of a $5 million legal defense fund that will “reimburse legal defense expenses incurred by active MakerDAO participants in case of legal or regulatory action.”

 Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Bitcoin NFTs Push Transaction Fees Higher
• Voyager Creditors Reject Alameda’s Bid to Recover $446 Million
• MakerDAO Approves $5 Million Legal Defense Fund
• Average Daily Aggregate Product Volumes Recover 30% to $72.5m

Bitcoin NFTs Push Transaction Fees Higher

Transaction fees on the Bitcoin blockchain have been rising as users on it have been minting thousands of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) after a protocol called Ordinals started allowing people to mint them directly on the BTC network.

Bitcoin's transaction fees, as a percentage of total block rewards from the blockchain, increased to over 2.5% on January 31st and continue to rise, Bloomberg reports.

Miners, who use specialized computers to validate on-chain data and transactions, receive compensation through transaction fees and a fixed amount of the cryptocurrency called the coinbase reward.

While Ordinals is designed so NFT creators enjoy a discount on fees, the size of data required for them is much larger than for normal transactions. Hundreds of NFTs have been minted on the Bitcoin blockchain since late January, and these include more data as they can be “anything from digital images to videos and even video game files.”

Voyager Creditors Reject Alameda’s Bid to Recover $446 Million

Voyager Digital’s creditors’ committee and Voyager itself have rejected an attempt by defunct cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research to recover $446 million in loan repayments made to the lender. Voyager filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2022.

According to court filings, Voyager’s creditors argued that Alameda’s claims should be either subordinated to all other creditor claims on an equal basis, or reclassified as equity. The creditors claimed that Alameda’s actions, which they deemed “inequitable and fraudulent,” cost them $114 million to $122 million.

The creditors have said Alameda made various false statements about its financial stability, including claiming to have a "bottomless sea of ordinary cryptocurrency," to Voyager and its creditors' committee. Due to these allegations, Voyager's creditors' committee voted in favor of selecting Alameda as the buyer of Voyager's balance sheet.

Court filings read that if the committee had “known the truth, it never would have allowed the AlamedaFTX [sic] deal.” The creditors added Alameda’s conduct may even constitute a felony.

Voyager itself said that Alameda has caused the debtors and their creditors “substantial harm” as they “made a bid for the Debtors’ business that they could never satisfy” under false pretenses.”

MakerDAO Approves $5 Million Legal Defense Fund

Maker’s Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) has approved the launch of a $5 million legal defense fund that will “reimburse legal defense expenses incurred by active MakerDAO participants in case of legal or regulatory action.”

In a series of tweets, Maker outlined that the legal defense fund has a contingency budget of 5 million DAI, the cryptocurrency-backed stablecoin the protocol issues, and is set to reimburse legal defense expenses against specific participants of the DAO.

The coverage will initially be provided to “Recognized Delegates, Core Unit Facilitators, Core Unit permanent contributors, and active MKR holders.” The coverage will cover legal against beneficiaries if it’s directly related to their activities at MakerDAO.

The fund will act as a self-insurance tool for MakerDAO’s participants, with the protocol noting self-insurance is a “risk management technique used to cover future costs when risk can't be transferred through traditional insurance.” Maker wrote:

“All claims and payouts will be managed by an external technical committee composed of insurance and risk management experts. The committee will issue a recommendation to approve or reject a payout based on a claim.”

Comptrollers are set to review recommendations from the technical committee and “decide whether to approve the payout or provide an explanation for rejection.”

Digital Asset Investment Product’s Average Daily Volumes Recover 30%

In January 2023, the average daily total volume of all digital asset investment products showed a notable improvement, increasing by 30.0% to reach $72.5 million.

However, these volumes remain 84.4% lower compared to January 2022 and 95.2% lower than the record high observed in January 2021.

Discover the latest insights on digital asset investment products. Download CryptoCompare's comprehensive Digital Asset Management Review report now.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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