Crypto lending platform Maker has doubled the debt ceiling of its staked ether vault to reduce its reliance on USDC. More than 34% of all locked USDC assets are locked on Maker. The token is the largest source of collateral on the platform, but the recent blacklisting of addresses by Circle has caused Maker to lessen the stablecoin's influence. Around $49 million worth of stETH has been added to the vault since the ceiling was raised. The stETH vault has a 0% stability fee, essentially creating free DAI for its users.
The US inflation rate slowed to 8.3% in August from 8.5% in the prior month. Investors had expected inflation to slow to 8.1%. The core CPI rate rose double what was expected. The Federal Reserve may now have to deliver two 75 basis point hikes before slowing the pace in December and January. Prices for risky assets, including cryptocurrencies, tumbled after the CPI report was released.
EDX Markets is a new cryptocurrency exchange backed by financial heavyweights including Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, and Fidelity Digital Assets. Its CEO will be Jamil Nazarali, a former senior executive at Citadel Securities. EDX Markets' trading platform will be provided by the Members Exchange.
The OpenWallet Foundation, a project backed by the Linux Foundation, was created to encourage interoperability across digital wallets. The initiative has buy-ins from companies including Okta, Ping Identity, Accenture, CVS Health, and the OpenID Foundation. Digital wallets are evolving beyond payments and are starting to include identity functionality. Interoperability will support competition and create better digital experiences.
The Helium Network recently passed a proposal that recommended moving Proof-of-Coverage and data transfer accounting to Oracles and migrating the Helium network onto the Solana blockchain. Oracles enable smart contracts to execute based on inputs and outputs from real-world sources. Moving to Solana will open up real-world NFT applications, B2B and B2C marketplaces, and lending and borrowing on the Helium ecosystem. Helium will also gain a developer ecosystem with thousands of devs worldwide.
This thread presents a summary of the US Treasury's OFAC Tornado Cash FAQs. People are allowed to withdraw from Tornado Cash if they apply for an individual withdrawal license. Victims of dusting attacks are still liable and need to report all blocked funds to the OFAC. US citizens are not to use Tornado Cash at all, but they can copy the code, discuss the code, show the code to others, and include the code in written text. The OFAC is an intelligence agency and not a regulator. Its mission only involves serving America's national security and foreign policy interests.
KKR & Co. is making part of its private equity funds available on the Avalanche blockchain. It has partnered with Securitize to tokenize an interest in the second iteration of its Health Care Strategic Growth Fund. Only qualified purchasers with at least $5 million in investable assets will be allowed to invest in the tokenized feeder fund. Investors will be able to sell their securities after a year on a secondary market managed by Securitize.
The FTX exchange website experienced issues following the release of the US consumer price index report. The website intermittently froze for browser users between 12:30 UTC and 13:25 UTC. The issue only affected the website and not the API and the exchange remained running the whole time. More than $110 million in liquidations were made in a one-hour period across crypto derivative exchanges following the release of the CPI report.