Koons’ “Moon Phases” Project Lands Sculptures on Earth’s Natural Satellite In a historic first, American artist Jeff Koons has become the inaugural artist to have his artwork installed on the lunar surface. Koons’ project “Jeff Koons: Moon Phases” successfully placed three miniature stainless steel moon sculptures measuring just 4 inches each on the moon via the private spacecraft Odysseus, which landed on the lunar surface on February 14th, 2024. The project, a partnership between Koons and the female-led space company 4Space, aims to inspire future generations by celebrating achievements of ..read more

Key Takeaways The Avalanche blockchain network experienced a major outage that halted block production for nearly two hours on February 23, 2023. The incident affected all three of Avalanche’s core subnets and prevented new transactions from being confirmed until the issue was resolved. While the root cause is still under investigation, Avalanche developers have since addressed the problem. Blockchain Stalls According to the Avalanche status page and block explorer AvaScan, the last transaction on the primary network was recorded at block 42046853 around 12:13 UTC, after which no new blocks we ..read more

Key Takeaways As the value of Nigeria’s currency, the naira, has fallen by 70% against the U.S. dollar since June 2023, the country’s crypto community is criticizing the government’s anti-crypto stance and accusing officials of focusing on the wrong issues. Traders and observers argue the government’s consideration of a wider cryptocurrency ban and accusations against centralized exchanges ignore the root causes of the naira’s devaluation. Government Accuses Exchanges of Market Manipulation The government is considering prohibiting cryptocurrencies altogether, alleging exchanges like Binance m ..read more

Starknet Tokens Unlocked and Ecosystem Incentives Begin The Ethereum rollup Starknet has begun distributing over 728 million STRK tokens to more than 1.3 million addresses as part of its highly anticipated airdrop (External link). According to a tweet by analyst Alex Wacy (Tweet), Starknet’s token unlock schedules have been adjusted and incentives for the Starknet ecosystem have started. An upcoming Dankshard upgrade is expected to further reduce transaction fees on the network. Though STRK saw a 50% drop upon launch and traders express some initial discontent, overall crypto community sentime ..read more

Key Takeaways A recent study by Swiss researchers found that blockchain technology ranked as the highest performing sector among cybersecurity startups. Titled “Measuring the performance of investments in information security startups,” the study analyzed return on investment data from Crunchbase to compare sectors within the cybersecurity industry. Blockchain companies notably outpaced others with average annual returns of 177.27% and log returns of 105.42%. Blockchain Outperforms Other Cybersecurity Sectors Funded by the Cyber-Defence Campus, a Swiss government initiative, the study is one o ..read more

Acknowledges Growing Cryptocurrency Adoption Former United States President Donald Trump said that Bitcoin (BTC) has taken a life of its own as the cryptocurrency continues attracting more daily users. In a recent interview with Fox News, the Presidential Candidate revealed a shift in his stance on cryptocurrency compared to when he was in the White House. Former US President, Donald J Trump, is asked how he feels about #Bitcoin on national television. pic.twitter.com/1rBjkghFgy — The ₿itcoin Therapist (@TheBTCTherapist) February 23, 2024 Regulatory Pressure and Energy Concerns Trump was ask ..read more

Record Deposits and Winnings Drive Momentum Heading into February Meme token project Wall Street Memes (WSM) is preparing for a significant burn event in February aimed at boosting the value of its $WSM cryptocurrency. The token burn comes as the WSM Casino platform announces a new milestone with over $10 million in crypto assets now deposited on the platform. This surge in activity and deposits is being fueled by outsized sign-up bonuses and rakebacks of up to 200% that can reach $25,000 for top players. Momentum has been growing for WSM following a massive 57,000x jackpot win by a streamer o ..read more

Key Developments Signal Growing Legitimacy of Digital Assets Recent moves by major companies underscore growing acceptance of cryptocurrencies. Reddit announced it had invested excess cash reserves in Bitcoin and Ethereum, acknowledging blockchain technology’s potential (BTCUSD). Additionally, Marathon Digital launched “Slipstream” to boost large Bitcoin transactions via their mining network and holdings (external link). Reddit and Marathon Digital Take Steps to Advance Crypto Reddit’s Q1 2023 filing revealed investments in the top two cryptocurrencies by market cap, seeing them as legitimate ..read more

Key Takeaways Pudgy Penguins, a top blue-chip NFT collection, has partnered with Unstoppable Domains to offer “.pudgy” domain names. This enables various web3 activities for owners and exclusive rewards through the Pudgy Ambassador Program and Storytelling Campaign. The Pudgy Penguins project continues expanding into toys while building its digital ecosystem. Partnership Introduction On February 23rd, Unstoppable Domains announced a new partnership with Pudgy Penguins to launch the “.pudgy” top-level domain extension. This marks the tenth domain offered by Unstoppable Domains, following others ..read more

TAYLOR Achieves Stunning Gains before Profit-Taking Begins The Taylor Swift-inspired meme token, TAYLOR, saw a spectacular +298,583% price increase on the Solana blockchain this week, according to data from Dextools.io. Beginning with a +3,550% rally at 10:00 UTC on February 22, TAYLOR climbed from $0.0000144 to $0.00554 in a matter of hours as interest spiked on Twitter. However, as seen with past meme coin frenzies, the parabolic move was soon followed by some profit-taking. As noted by Leon Gallaher in a tweet, TAYLOR then retraced lower to around $0.0002122 before initiating another +3,915 ..read more