Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced that it has decided to halt operations in Canada, citing an evolving and increasingly challenging legal environment as the reason behind its move.

Rune Christensen, the founder of decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform MakerDAO, has revealed plans to introduce a new stablecoin and governance token, marking the latest development in the platform's strategic overhaul.

The Ethereum network suffered another technical glitch on Friday, which disrupted transaction finality for approximately an hour. This issue, occurring less than a day after a similar disruption, has reignited debates about the stability of the network.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Binance Exits Canada Amid New Crypto Regulations
• MakerDAO Founder Proposes Upgraded Versions of DAI and Governance Token
• Ethereum Network Suffers Second Glitch in Less Than 24 Hours
• Derivatives Market Share Reaches New All-time High

Binance Exits Canada Amid New Crypto Regulations

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced that it has decided to halt operations in Canada, citing an evolving and increasingly challenging legal environment as the reason behind its move.

According to the exchange’s statement on the situation, it had “high hopes for the rest of the Canadian blockchain industry,” but new guidance on stablecoins and investor limits provided to exchanges “makes the Canada market no longer tenable for Binance at this time.”

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), in a recent guidance issued in February, imposed restrictions on the trading of stablecoins by digitalasset platforms within the country.

This guidance made it mandatory for crypto exchanges to seek CSA approval before enabling customers to buy or deposit stablecoins, which involves going through an array of due diligence checks by the CSA.

Binance noted it did not agree with the new regulations, but added it still hopes to work with regulators in the country to further develop a regulatory framework for digital assets.

MakerDAO Founder Proposes Upgraded Versions of DAI and Governance Token

Rune Christensen, the founder of decentralized finance (DeFi) lending platform MakerDAO, has revealed plans to introduce a new stablecoin and governance token, marking the latest development in the platform's strategic overhaul.

Details of the proposal were shared on MakerDAO’s governance forum and included upgraded versions of the platform's existing DAI stablecoin and maker (MKR) governance token, which are expected to launch alongside a rebranded website and unified brand image for the protocol within the next few months.

The proposal also indicates a potential integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the governance processes of MakerDAO. This move comes as part of MakerDAO's significant restructuring effort, dubbed "Endgame," which aims to stimulate the platform's growth and bolster application development for its stablecoin.

The platform has been embroiled in governance disputes, leading to community division, while its DAI stablecoin has experienced a consistent demand slump, plummeting from nearly $10 billion to $4.7 billion tokens in circulation in just over a year.

The Endgame plan, approved by the MakerDAO in October, includes dividing the DAO into smaller, self-governing SubDAOs, each with its own operating token within the MakerDAO ecosystem.

The introduction of the new stablecoin and governance token is the first step in a five-stage roadmap designed to implement the Endgame. The new stablecoin will be a wrapped version of DAI, with incentives set up for protocols that integrate the token.

Ethereum Network Suffers Second Glitch in Less Than 24 Hours

The Ethereum network suffered another technical glitch on Friday, which disrupted transaction finality for approximately an hour. This issue, occurring less than a day after a similar disruption, has reignited debates about the stability of the network.

Data from Beaconcha.in shows that the problem predominantly affected validators, with a significant drop in the number of attestations received during Ethereum epochs 200,750 to 200,758.

While the exact cause remains unknown, potential bugs in staking clients or MEV infrastructures have been cited as possible culprits. Despite the disruption, transactions on Ethereum did not halt, but the absence of finalization increased the likelihood of transactions being reverted.

Preston van Loon, co-founder of Prysmatic Labs, highlighted that Thursday's issue seemed to involve a condition that strained client implementations to keep up with the chain. As a similar problem reoccurred on Friday, van Loon mentioned a fix had been identified, but hadn’t yet been extensively tested.

Derivatives Market Share Reaches New All-Time High

Last month centralized exchanges experienced a 23.3% decline in derivatives trading volume, falling to $2.15 trillion. Simultaneously, the spot trading volume saw a more significant decrease of 40.2%, dropping to $621 billion.

Despite the overall volume decreases, the market share of derivatives trading continued to grow for the second month in a row, reaching a record high of 77.6%.

Binance retained its position as the dominant player in derivatives trading, recording $1.32 trillion in trades. This accounted for 61.4% of the total market share. OKX and Bybit followed Binance, holding the second and third positions respectively, with market shares of 15.0% and 14.6%.

Learn more about the current environment for cryptocurrency exchanges via CCData’s latest Exchange Review report.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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