The Block
Quick Take The PayPal USD token’s market capitalization is down 40% from a high above $1 billion set in late August, largely driven by a reduced circulating supply on Solana. DragonFly’s Haseeb Qureshi suggests the lowered yield opportunities for lenders on platforms like Solana-based Kamino, Drift and MarginFi have contributed to the trend.
Quick Take A new report from a16z crypto estimated that around 617 million global cryptocurrency owners, with up to 60 million monthly active users. This year also saw the highest users of mobile wallets, with the United States comprising 12% of global users.
Quick Take U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres sentenced Juan Tacuri to 240 months in prison and ordered him to forfeit over $3 million and his rights to a home in Florida. Tacuri pled guilty in June to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Quick Take Real-world asset tokenization firm Plume Network said it has made $100 million worth of solar assets available to users who want to earn yield. The deployment of the solar assets comes as a result of a partnership with Projective Finance.
Quick Take Ilya Lichtenstein should spend five years in prison for his role in the 2016 hack on crypto exchange Bitfinex, U.S. prosecutors told a judge on Tuesday. The suggested sentence is less than the guidelines for the charges given Lichtenstein’s cooperation in the case, prosecutors said. Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan aka “Razzlekhan,” pleaded guilty to money laundering charges related to the hack in August and face sentencing next month.
Quick Take The TON Foundation will leverage Axelar’s Mobius development stack as its preferred interoperability solution to improve connectivity with other blockchains. Axelar’s MDS will support the development of cross-chain decentralized applications within the TON ecosystem.
Quick Take Fuel Labs has officially launched the mainnet of its flagship optimistic rollup network, Ignition. Ignition supports parallel transaction capabilities and is powered by the FuelVM virtual machine.
Quick Take UTXO Management led the round, with additional support from CMS Holdings, Ethos Fund and others. Hermetica develops the yield-bearing synthetic dollar USDh, which is issued on the Bitcoin network.
Bitcoin rose over 4% in the past 24 hours to briefly surpass $68,000 amid a surge in short liquidations.The ETC Group’s Cryptoasset Sentiment Index has shifted from bearish to neutral, reflecting a decrease in selling pressure.
Quick Take The Italian tax authority plans to raise capital gains tax on bitcoin to 42% as part of 2025 budget plans. Crypto capital gains in Italy have been taxed above €2,000 at 26% from the 2023 tax year.
