The Ethereum Shanghai upgrade was completed successfully; Binance CEO responds to Forbes claims: ‘They don’t know how an exchange works’; Visa and Mastercard hit the brakes on crypto road.
The Ethereum Shanghai upgrade was completed successfully
The Sepolia testnet of the Ethereum blockchain has successfully completed the Shanghai hard fork simulation, which is expected to take place on the mainnet next March.
The Shapella upgrade, which combines the names of the Shanghai and Capella hard forks expected soon, was implemented on the testnet without any problems on February 28.
Shanghai is the application layer client-side name of his fork, and Capella is the name of the consensus layer client-side upgrade. One of the most important changes is that it enables validators to withdraw their staked Ethereum (stETH) from the Beacon Chain to the application layer.
Validators are required to deposit 32 Ethereums to validate on the Ethereum blockchain. With these updates, they will now be able to withdraw rewards exceeding 32 ETH and continue to verify; Those who want to withdraw completely will receive 32 ETH plus all the rewards and stop the verification.
On the other hand, it is stated that the next step before the Shanghai fork is published on the mainnet will be the publication of the upgrade on the Ethereum Goerli testnet, which is expected to start in March.
Binance CEO responds to Forbes claims: ‘They don’t know how an exchange works’
Following the collapse of FTX, Forbes published an article about the mixing of funds by the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
Binance CEO responds to Forbes article
As of February 28, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) took the current FUD thread to Twitter. In response to Forbes’ article, Zhao made the following statements:
“They don’t seem to understand the fundamentals of how an exchange works. Our users are free to withdraw their assets at any time.”
In a series of tweets he shared, CZ addressed the various allegations in the Forbes article. These allegations included that Binance transferred $1.8 billion in stablecoin collateral to hedge funds such as Tron, Amber Group and Alameda Research between August and December 2022.
Given the movement of funds, the article drew parallels between Binance and the now-defunct FTX on the way to its demise. Also touched upon was Binance.US’s recently failed Voyager bid and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) legal action against Paxos Trust Company, which issued Binance’s stablecoin, Binance USD (BUSD).
Visa and Mastercard hit the brakes on crypto road
According to information shared by Reuters, Visa and Mastercard have decided to delay the launch of certain crypto-related products and services until market conditions and the regulatory environment improve, they said in the conversations that the anonymous individuals are confidential.
Visa and Mastercard take firm steps in their evolution towards crypto
A spokesperson for Visa, one of the world’s largest payment services, made a number of statements about crypto steps:
“Recent high-profile failures in the crypto industry are an important reminder that we still have a long way to go before crypto becomes a part of mainstream payments and financial services.”
A spokesperson for Mastercard added:
“Our efforts continue to focus on the underlying blockchain technology and how it can be applied to help address current hotspots and create more efficient systems.”
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