Prizmabet

Helium’s Frank Mong: Building Out DePIN’s First Big Success Story

Helium was a DePIN long before DePIN was a word. Long-time COO Mong is gratified to see (literally) a thousand projects emulating its economic model in 2024.

As (literally) a thousand DePIN projects bloomed in 2024, they could thank one decentralized physical infrastructure network in particular for showing the way: Helium. The original DePIN (before DePIN was a word), Helium was started by Amir Haleem, Shawn Fanning, and Sean Carey all the way back in 2013. It took until 2019 for the team to deploy IoT hotspots, allowing users to share wireless coverage and earn tokens.Of course, it’s harder to deploy hardware to people’s homes than it is to issue a memecoin on Pump.Fun. And as chief operating officer at Helium for the last seven years, Frank Mong has seen the struggle to deploy hardware up close. There are now more than 350,000 Helium hotspots deployed in 80-some countries.

“You have hurdles of building physical products and that’s everything from structures to electronics,” Mong said. “And those take time. And I think in the early days of Helium, at least for me, seven plus years ago, I recall that even when we do build a network, it takes time for things to be built physically to use that network.”Mong says it’s “very gratifying” to see so many DePINs come to life this year (1,300 is one estimate). “We’re seeing new companies come out this year in 2024 with all kinds of ideas and use cases for Helium’s economic model to really power through real-life physical infrastructure. It is quite amazing to see,” he said.

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Mong particularly likes mapping as a DePIN category and recommends that people watch Hivemapper.

Helium Mobile has 100,000 subscribers and the company is making money by onboarding customers from regular mobile providers, acting as an extra network inside buildings in cities like New York City, Miami and Los Angeles. Helium launched on its own blockchain before switching to Solana in 2023.

Mong hails from the Tenderloin in Downtown San Francisco, which he calls “the slums of the city.”

Helium continues to deploy at a lightning rate. In Portugal, its hotspots form parts of smart cities and smart utilities. U.S. Pacific Gas and Electric is using Helium for wildfire detection, and the U.S. Geological Survey uses the network for flood detection in Madison, Wisconsin. Nova Labs (the company that created the open-source tech) also has a beta test underway with Telefonica in Mexico to provide hotspots in certain neighborhoods, showing how Helium, and DePIN, is increasingly becoming part of real infrastructure.

Mong says it’s a long road, but worth the struggle. “The initial part is taking that leap. You have to just jump off the cliff and believe that you’re going to land safely. That’s probably the hardest part. Once you do it, the journey is amazing,” he said.

“Just realize that it’s going to take a long time. Physical products take time to iterate and you have to have the patience to enjoy the journey.”Looking forward to 2025, he adds: “I hope that the innovation of crypto software continues to thrive and continues to grow. Along the way, I hope responsible actors show up and come to a table with real useful products and services for consumers.”

This profile is part of CoinDesk’s Most Influential 2024 package. For all of this year’s nominees, click here.

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Russian Lawmaker Proposes Creating Strategic Bitcoin Reserve: Report

Anton Tkachev proposed “assessing the feasibility of creating a strategic BTC reserve in Russia by analogy with state reserve in traditional currencies.”

A deputy in the Russian parliament proposed the creation of a strategic bitcoin (BTC) reserve to tackle sanctions imposed on the country, state-owned news agency Ria reported on Monday.

Anton Tkachev of the New People party, which formed in 2020 and has 16 out of the 450 seats in the State Duma, asked Finance Minister Anton Siluanov to “assess the feasibility of creating a strategic bitcoin reserve in Russia by analogy with state reserve in traditional currencies.”

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The reserve would help counter the threat posed to Russian financial stability by sanctions, inflation and the volatility of traditional currencies that the country holds, such as the Chinese yuan, U.S. dollars and the euro, according to the proposal.

“In conditions of limited access to traditional international payment systems for countries under sanctions, cryptocurrencies are becoming virtually the only instrument for international trade,” Tkachev said in the proposal.

The proposal appears to echo U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to establish a strategic BTC reserve as a store of value to alleviate the pressures of the country’s national debt.

Microsoft Shareholders Vote Down Bitcoin Treasury Proposal

The negative vote was expected even as MicroStrategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor tried to convince Microsoft shareholders otherwise.

Microsoft (MSFT) doesn’t appear to be adding its name anytime soon to the list of corporate entities holding bitcoin (BTC) after its shareholders voted against a proposal that would have directed the board of directors to study such a move.

Titled “Assessment of Investing in Bitcoin,” the proposal was put forward by the National Center for Public Policy Research. The think tank group suggested that Microsoft should consider diversifying 1% of its total assets into bitcoin as a potential hedge against inflation. According to the latest data by Bloomberg, Microsoft holds $78.4 billion of cash and marketable securities on its balance sheet.

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The board last month had urged shareholders to vote against the proposal.

The preliminary vote result was announced minutes ago at the company’s annual meeting.

Shares of MSFT were trading for $446 in the minutes after the decision was announced, roughly flat for the day. Already under pressure on Tuesday, bitcoin prices fell a bit more following the news, now lower by 4% over the past 24 hours to $95,700.

Michael Saylor gets involved

A 3-minute presentation by Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Bitcoin Development Company MicroStrategy (MSTR), which has seen its stock price surge as much as 2,500% since adding bitcoin to the company’s treasury strategy more than four years ago, was meant to convince shareholders otherwise.

Saylor argued that Microsoft had surrendered $200 billion in capital over the past five years by issuing dividends and stock buybacks instead of purchasing bitcoin.

From the beginning, though, Microsoft’s board had concerns over bitcoin due to the inherent volatility of the asset. The company, according to the board, prioritizes stable and predictable investments to mitigate as much risk as possible.

XRP, APT, ADA Tumble Another 15%; Investors May Be Paring Longs Ahead of CPI Data

Bitcoin is again outperforming, sliding just 3% back to $95,000.

Cryptocurrencies continued to this week’s decline on Tuesday, with altcoins in near-freefall as bitcoin (BTC) slid further from the $100,000 level.

Among the worst-hit cryptos were XRP, Polkadot (DOT), Litecoin (LTC), Aptos (APT) and Cardano (ADA), down 15%-18% over the past 24 hours, extending Monday declines. The CoinDesk 20 — an index of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding memecoins, stablecoins and exchange coins — tumbled almost 10% Most cryptos in the index plunged by double-digit percentage amount at the minimum, though Ethereum’s ether (ETH) and Solana’s SOL fell just 8% and 9%, respectively.

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Bitcoin, in comparison, held up relatively well compared to the rest of the market, dipping to $95,000 and down nearly 3% over the past 24 hours.

Cryptocurrencies had already plunged on Monday, triggering one of the largest leverage flushes in years liquidating over $1.5 billion of bullish derivatives positions. Tuesday’s fall so far forced $450 million in liquidations across all digital assets, mostly bullish bets, CoinGlass data shows. Open interest for bitcoin futures remains at record high at almost $58 billion, though it has decreased 6.8% from Sunday.

This week’s sell-off followed a month-long breakneck rally in crypto prices after Donald Trump’s election victory in early November. Some altcoin majors doubled or more in price, while bitcoin crossed the $100,000 threshold for time ever.

Bitcoin’s market cap dominance, which shows BTC’s share of the total cryptocurrency market, spiked to 57.9% on Tuesday, its strongest reading since late November, underscoring the general risk-off move from altcoins towards BTC.

The market moves could be in anticipation of inflation data coming on Wednesday, according to Youholder Chief of Markets Ruslan Lienkha. “The market anticipates a slight uptick in inflation,” he told CoinDesk in an email. “However, if CPI reveals figures higher than expected, it could intensify the ongoing correction across financial markets. In such a scenario, the timing and likelihood of Federal Reserve rate cuts will become a critical focus heading into the new year.”

Stocks, though, haven’t suffered the same way crypto has. After modest declines on Monday, the major U.S. average are flat today.

Companies Can Now Offer USDT Services in Abu Dhabi

Tether services can now be offered in the Abu Dhabi Global Market by authorized firms, the company said Tuesday.

Tether’s stablecoin USD₮ has been recognized as an accepted virtual asset in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the company announced on Tuesday.

The approval from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority means that companies which are licensed can offer pre-approved USD₮ services in Abu Dhabi’s Global Market. Though, the release did not say what those approved services might be. CoinDesk reached out to Tether for comment.

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Tether ‘s USD₮ exceeded a $138 billion market cap but the company wants to continue advancing its growth, the statement said.

“By bringing USD₮ to the forefront of ADGM’s regulated virtual asset framework, we are not only validating the importance of stablecoins as critical tools for modern finance but also opening new doors for collaboration and growth across the Middle East,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, in a press release.

The United Arab Emirates has been praised for being a crypto hub. Abu Dhabi, its capital, started regulating crypto activities including those undertaken by exchanges and custodians in 2018 ahead of most regulators. The European Union will begin enforcing its rules in the coming days and the U.K. by 2026.

Circle, another stablecoin issuer, is also diving into the Middle East after incorporating a company in the ADGM, it said in a statement.

XRP Rallies 10% as Ripple’s Stablecoin Gets Regulatory Approval, CEO Garlinghouse Says

The approval is a necessary step towards the public launch of the RLUSD token, which is currently in test mode on Ethereum and XRP Ledger.

XRP, the native token of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) network, surged during the U.S. afternoon hours on Tuesday as Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the company’s much-anticipated stablecoin obtained regulatory approval from the New York Department of Financial Services.

“This just in…we have final approval from NYDFS for RLUSD! Exchange and partner listings will be live soon,” Garlinghouse posted on X.

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XRP rallied 10% following Garlinghouse’s announcement in a broader crypto market bounce, erasing today’s losses. The token was up 6.8% over the past 24 hours, outperforming bitcoin (BTC) and the broad market CoinDesk 20 Index. The XRPL network was developed by engineers who later established Ripple, and the company has long been associated with products and services using the token.

Ripple laid out its plans in April to enter the quickly growing stablecoin market with its heavily regulated, short-term U.S. government bond-backed cryptocurrency. Stablecoins are a key piece of infrastructure in the crypto economy, and increasingly used for global payments, which is one of Ripple’s business focuses. The two largest issuers, Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC), currently dominate the almost $200 billion stablecoin market. The sector, however, is forecasted to grow to trillions of dollars over the next few years, and Ripple is vying for a piece of that.

With RLUSD, Ripple strives to leverage the company’s established position for payments services among institutions and serve as a key intermediary for real-world asset tokenization, Ripple President Monica Long told CoinDesk in an interview in October. Tokenization is a red-hot trend in crypto to place traditional financial instruments on blockchain rails for more efficient transactions.

RLUSD is in beta testing on the XRP Ledger and Ethereum networks. Ripple’s Long said earlier that the token has been “operationally ready,” only awaiting approval from regulators for the token’s public launch.

There are currently $41.7 million worth of RLUSD tokens on Ethereum and $10.4 million on XRPL, data compiled by analytics firm CryptoQuant shows.

El Salvador and Argentina Regulators Sign Agreement to Help Develop Crypto Industry

Regulators from both countries are looking to collaborate to foster crypto innovation.

El Salvador and Argentina are partnering to help develop the crypto industry in Latin America.

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Juan Carlos Reyes, El Salvador’s top crypto regulator and president of the Comisión Nacional de Activos Digitales (CNAD), and Roberto Silva, the president of the Comisión Nacional de Valores of Argentina (CNV), on Tuesday signed an agreement for the two countries to collaborate on crypto regulation.

“At CNAD we have two core objectives, when it comes to international collaboration,” Reyes told CoinDesk in an email. “To share our expertise with international partners, enabling them to harness the benefits of a well-regulated industry. … [And] to broaden the international footprint of our regulated companies by forging strategic partnership agreements with nations worldwide.”

“This landmark agreement with Argentina holds particular significance, given the country’s standout reputation for pioneering innovative technologies and its remarkable rate of adoption,” Reyes added.

While the details of the deal are still unknown, Reyes stated on LinkedIn that the agreement aimed to enable the two regulatory bodies to share knowledge and experience, to spur crypto innovation.

“The joining of efforts between El Salvador and Argentina will lay the foundations for greater regional cooperation, promoting a favorable environment for the development of the digital asset industry,” he wrote.

Reyes previously told CoinDesk that El Salvador had a head start on most countries in terms of crypto regulation thanks to President Nayib Bukele making bitcoin legal tender in the Central American nation.

Argentinian President Javier Milei, meanwhile, has been ideologically open to cryptocurrencies and bitcoin and is popular among Argentinian crypto developers for his inflation-mitigating policies.

Magic Eden’s $5B Token Airdrop Raises Crypto Wallet Security Questions

To claim aidrops, users had to download Magic Eden’s wallet, a highly atypical process that industry insiders said threatened to breach security best practices.

Early traders of NFT marketplace Magic Eden’s new token ME had a lot to be thankful for – if they could access their airdrops, that is.

In the first minutes of trading Tuesday, the token’s fully diluted valuation hit $15 billion. But as more claimants managed to process their airdrops – and in some lucky cases, sell – that valuation began to crater. It eventually settled at an FDV around $5 billion.

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ME’s rocky rollout stood in sharp contrast to other recent token launches. Hyperliquid’s HYPE token immediately went parabolic after launching in late November. And Move’s days-old MOVE token had a far more stable rollout – even shooting up at times.

Some observers saw ME’s down-only price action as comeuppance for a crypto project whose airdrop processing procedure was highly atypical, and, according to three industry insiders, threatened to breach security best practices.

The $ME airdrop is a great example of the dangers of trying to do too many things at once

An airdrop is probably the biggest brand and community moment any crypto company will ever have

The key focus should be on rewarding loyal users and transforming them into your biggest…

— Alex (@AlexOnchain) December 10, 2024

Magic Eden did not respond to CoinDesk’s questions.

Traders who managed to claim thousands of dollars-worth of ME publicly shunned anyone badmouthing their “free money.” Others bemoaned apparently getting their wallets drained while wading through Magic Eden’s convoluted process.

It was a mixed day for Solana’s best-known NFT trading platform, which has partly weathered the hollowing-out of crypto’s digital collectibles economy by supporting newer, flashier and more highly-traded NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain too.

Security concerns

The same wallet issues that complicated ME’s launch also could threaten user privacy, according to one industry source who asked not to be named.

Magic Eden earmarked ME tokens for NFT traders as a reward for their past business. To get their airdrop, those traders had to either import the private keys from their qualifying wallets into Magic Eden’s wallet app or create a new wallet on Magic Eden’s app and link it to their old ones. The latter action potentially creates a privacy-busting link between previously unaffiliated wallets.

Usually, crypto apps are content to let their users claim airdrops within their wallet of preference. Of course, most apps don’t pair their token launch with an in-house wallet. The process doubtless boosted adoption of Magic Eden’s new wallet.

Nevertheless, CoinDesk found a number of atypical security practices within the Magic Eden wallet. It keeps a backup of users’ recovery phrases and private keys on-app with no clear route to delete that information. While this makes the service more user-friendly, it also goes against established norms in wallet design and security.

“It’s a very bad idea to store this stuff” anywhere digitally, be it locally on one’s own device or – even worse – remotely on a company’s servers, said Ogle, a pseudonymous crypto-security sleuth. It’s not clear exactly where Magic Eden is storing the wallet recovery information.

The process also opened up airdrop claimants to attack from bad actors who might pretend to be Magic Eden.

Wallets created within Magic Eden’s app cannot easily be transferred to other wallet applications. CoinDesk attempted to recover a Magic Eden-created wallet on Phantom by using the Magic Eden-provided 12-word recovery phrase. This process resulted in the control of a completely different address.

An industry source said it had to do with Magic Eden’s reliance on a different tech setup than other leading wallets. It can be overcome by importing the private key, which is nestled deeper in Magic Eden’s app settings.

Not-so-savvy users might attempt to move their Magic Eden wallets to a different app using the 12 word recovery phrase alone.

“They are not going to be finding any money in there,” the insider said, predicting such users would panic, and perhaps incorrectly assume their money was gone for good.

As BitMEX Turns 10, the Market Is Still Thankful for the Perpetual Swap

BitMEX’s CEO says he’s OK with everyone copying the exchange’s most important invention.

“Good artists copy, great artists steal,” was a favorite saying of Apple’s Steve Jobs to explain his company’s blatant copying of technology from Xerox.

Fast forward to the Web3 era, and BitMEX CEO Stephan Lutz, who was appointed to the role in late 2022, says he’s fine with competitors copying the crypto exchange’s invention of the perpetual swap, the financial instrument that underpins the crypto derivatives market. The more traders access the tool, the healthier the market, the logic goes.

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“It was copied by everyone, because that’s just open-source know-how,” Lutz said in an interview with CoinDesk. The whole world works on it, which is like the best form of flattery we can wish for in the end.”

Unlike futures — which are contracts to buy or sell an asset at a specific price on a specific date — the perpetual swap eliminates expiration and mirrors the feel of margin trading. Perpetuals act as a rolling series of short-term futures contracts using a funding rate, or payment exchanged between long and short positions, to maintain price alignment with the underlying asset.

Lutz argues that the perpetual swap was a cornerstone innovation in crypto trading because it addressed a fundamental challenge in building derivatives in the early crypto market structure.

“You faced counterparty credit risk, and there was no real structure for bringing longs and shorts together,” he said. “The perpetual swap with the funding mechanism and the insurance fund in the background sparked the whole [futures] trading industry.”

It also allows traders to react with the hyperdrive speed required in crypto.

“If you say it’s a seven-year cycle [some investors believe the market functions in this pattern] in TradFi, this cycle is six months in crypto,” Lutz, a veteran of Deutsche Börse, which operates the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, said. “You need to react to new developments very quickly.”

While BitMEX is nowhere near the largest derivatives exchange by volume anymore – that’s what happens when larger centralized exchanges, like Binance, adopt the perp and get into the derivatives business – it still has a loyal cadre of traders.

One reason for that is because BitMEX does not have its own market-making desk. It doesn’t trade against its own customers, Lutz said.

“Our funding rates can sometimes differ because we ensure completely independent price discovery, which is important for maintaining fairness,” he said. “It’s a matter of neutrality.”

During periods of high volatility, particularly market downturns, BitMEX often sees its market share spike — sometimes double — Lutz explains because of the exchange’s loyal cadre of derivatives traders.

Another 10 years

Sometimes it’s tough to imagine where a crypto company will be in 10 years, given the speed at which the industry operates.

Compare the liquidation and winding up of Lehman Brothers, to the relatively rapid resolution of FTX’s bankruptcy.

As for BitMEX, Lutz foresees the exchange maintaining its niche in bitcoin-based derivatives while selectively expanding its offerings.

And maybe sometime during this next decade, BitMEX will invent something new — and be flattered when the entire industry copies it.

Binance Partners With Circle to Push USDC Stablecoin Adoption Across the Globe

The partnership will bring more USDC trading pairs, special promotions on USDC across trading and other products, Binance CEO Richard Teng said.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has formed a strategic partnership with stablecoin giant Circle to accelerate global adoption of the USDC stablecoin, the companies said on Wednesday at Abu Dhabi Finance Week.

Through the partnership, Circle’s USDC will be more extensively available to over 240 million customers for trading, savings and payments. Binance will also adopt the second-largest stablecoin as “a vital dollar stablecoin” for its own corporate treasury, according to a press release.

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“Through our strategic partnership, our users will have even more opportunities to use USDC on our platform, including more USDC trading pairs, special promotions on USDC across trading, and other products on Binance,” Binance CEO Richard Teng said in a statement.

Staunch competition for growth exists between Circle, which has $40 billion worth of USDC in circulation, and its bigger rival Tether, whose USDT stablecoin has a market capitalization of about $140 billion.

Circle has typically cast itself as the more regulated stablecoin, so the high-profile tie-up suggests Binance is charting a path that complies with global regulation. Binance settled U.S. allegations last year by paying more than $4 billion.

Asked if this was a conscious choice to be more compliant with regulations, a Binance spokesperson said via email: “Our users want choices. We always work with multiple stablecoins. Today we support USDT, USDC, FDUSD, and a bunch of others. And we will continue to work with multiple stablecoin issuers or creators.”

As well as a tool for simply buying and selling other cryptocurrencies, U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins can be used to hedge inflation in developing countries or facilitate lower-cost and efficient remittances, a Binance spokesperson said. Each USDC and USDT token is worth close to $1.

“With Binance rapidly becoming the world’s leading financial super app, and stablecoin adoption and utility at the core of this future financial system, this is a tremendous opportunity for USDC as it becomes ubiquitous on the Binance platform,” Jeremy Allaire, chairman and CEO of Circle, said in a statement.

Also in the UAE this week, Circle established an Abu Dhabi partnership with LuLu Financial Holdings to facilitate remittances and cross-border payments with USDC.

Tether has also been at large in the region, with news that USDT is now an “Accepted Virtual Asset,” with the blessing of regulators in Abu Dhabi Global Market.