Binance’s venture capital arm has invested in aPriori, a liquid staking protocol on the Monad network focused on miner extractable value (MEV), according to a July 30 announcement. The deal comes amid a flurry of investment in layer-1 network Monad and its surrounding decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. According to the statement, aPriori seeks to create sustainable incentives…

Ethereum is about to close the month of July in the red, down roughly 1%, despite the launch of spot Ethereum ETFs in the United States. US spot Ethereum ETFs went live on July 23, and the market’s immediate reaction was a 9% drawdown. At present, the ETH price is down 4.05% since launch. However, other…

The Bank of England (BOE) is proposing an experimental program using its Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system and wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) to judge their settlement capacity and interoperability, the central bank announced in a discussion paper. The BOE promised to undertake the new series of experiments within the next six months. The experiments…

Designed to operate on top of the Bitcoin blockchain, layer-2s are emerging rapidly, fueled by years of innovation in the Ethereum ecosystem. Now, they promise to bring decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions to the original blockchain. Despite locking millions in value onchain in a few months, Bitcoin layer-2s are still in their infancy. As with any…

Slovenia has issued the first digital sovereign bond in the European Union. The bond was issued and placed by BNP Paribas. It had a nominal size of 30 million euros ($32.5 million) with a 3.65% coupon and maturity date of Nov. 25, according to the Slovenian Finance Ministry. BNP Paribas used its Neobonds platform for the July…

The Netherlands-based digital asset exchange One Trading has received an Organized Trading Facility license from the Dutch Financial Markets Authority (AFM). With that license, the exchange will be able to introduce several new financial products to Europe, including onshore crypto futures trading. In addition, One Trading will become the only perpetual futures trading platform in…