Intel’s Bitcoin Mining Surprise, Crypto Mortgage, BNB Burn + More News

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.

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Mining news 

• On February 23rd, American multinational corporation and technology company Intel has a presentation scheduled during the ISSCC conference to outline a new “Bonanza Mine” processor — a new chip described as an “ultra-low-voltage energy-efficient Bitcoin mining ASIC.” For now, it isn’t clear if Intel will release the Bonanza Mine chip as a product for the public or if it remains confined to a research project. However, given that the chip is in the “highlighted Chip Releases: Digital/ML” track and Koduri’s comments, it’s logical to expect that these chips will be offered to customers in the near future, per Tom’s Hardware.

• Mining rig manufacturer Bitmain launched the Antminer S19 Pro+ Hyd., marking the company’s first product to combine liquid cooling technology along with increased hashpower. The mining machine will have a hashrate of 198 TH/s, power efficiency (at 35°C) of 27.5 joules per terahash (J/TH) and will consume 5445 watts of power, they said.

Adoption news

• Financial technology company Milo announced its new crypto mortgage, which allows crypto investors to utilize their digital assets to purchase US real estate. Milo’s clients should be able to pledge their BTC to purchase property and qualify for a 30-year crypto mortgage.

Exchanges news

• Binance announced they’ve completed their 18th binance coin (BNB) token burn, where a total of BNB 1.68m (USD 781.6m) was removed from circulation. Unlike their previous quarterly burns, the number of tokens removed for this quarter was automatically calculated according to the Auto-Burn formula.

Investments news

• Investment company Blossom Capital raised USD 432m to back early-stage tech startups in Europe, a third of which has been earmarked for crypto investments, per Bloomberg. They said that they’re looking to invest not just in cryptoassets, but in companies developing crypto infrastructure as well.
• Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Hubble Protocol raised USD 10m just before its mainnet launch slated for January 28. They added that they will leverage this support to expand its team and DeFi offerings across 2022.
• Social commerce platform SPACE Metaverse collected an unspecified strategic investment from Binance Labs, the incubator arm of major crypto exchange Binance. The project allows users to design their own virtual commerce spaces for gaming, arts, fashion, music, and more.
• Esports engagement platform Yesports said it has raised USD 2.25m in an oversubscribed seed round led by investors that include Polygon Studios, Alphabit, Kernel Ventures, and Cosmos. The funds raised will go toward the development of their non-fungible token (NFT)-based esports marketplace and esports-focused metaverse.
• NFT gaming platform Balthazar raised USD 3m in their first token sale at a valuation of USD 30m, as well as opened a private token sale round, raising USD 8m and closing next month.
• Decentralized reserve currency OlympusDAO has partnered with DeFi protocol Balancer to migrate their liquidity to the Balancer Protocol. This migration provides a path for Olympus Pro partners to leverage Balancer’s Liquidity Bootstrapping Pools (LBPs) to conduct initial fundraising denominated in OlympusDAO’s native token OHM, which dropped almost 70% in a month.

Regulation news

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for global cooperation to tackle the challenges posed by cryptoassets. He likened crypto to supply-chain disruptions, inflation, and climate change and called for collective, synchronized action.
• The UK government plans to bring the promotion of cryptoassets within the scope of financial promotions legislation, which will make the promotion of qualifying cryptoassets subject to Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules in line with the same standards that other financial promotions such as stocks, shares, and insurance products are held to. This is planned to mitigate the risks of consumer harm, ensuring people have the appropriate information to make informed investment decisions, the announcement said.

Security news

• Cross-chain bridge Multichain said users who did not update their approvals as instructed have been exploited and have lost 445 wrapped ether (WETH) (USD 1.4m). The project had warned its users to remove approvals for six tokens, otherwise, their assets would be exposed to a security vulnerability.

Career news

• Crypto payment services provider Bitpay announced Jim Lester as the company’s first Chief Operating Officer (COO), tasked with overseeing the company’s blockchain product innovation. Lester previously served as CEO and board director of ThingTech, where he was responsible for the overall strategic execution of the business.