The Block
Quick Take The funding will accelerate the launch and expansion of Balance, a groundbreaking Web3 infrastructure designed to enhance user experience and drive mass adoption.
Quick Take Global travel marketplace Skyscanner has integrated with blockchain-based Travala to offer hotel bookings in over 100 cryptocurrencies. The integration makes Travala discoverable alongside leading travel agencies such as Expedia and Booking.com.
Blockstream has launched Series 3 of its BMN2 security token, which provides direct exposure to the firm’s Bitcoin hash rate.The firm said the launch comes amid heightened investor interest in bitcoin mining opportunities.
Quick Take Synthetix has introduced a blockchain named SNAXchain using Optimism’s infrastructure. The development of the network involves a partnership with Conduit.
Quick Take EigenLayer has announced its season 2 “stakedrop,” planning to distribute 86 million EIGEN tokens to various stakeholders.
Quick Take Robinhood has agreed to a $3.9 million settlement with the California Department of Justice for not allowing customers to withdraw cryptocurrency from 2018 to 2022.
Quick Take Strive Enterprises, an asset manager co-founded by former Presidential candidate and current Trump surrogate Vivek Ramaswamy, announced the creation of its wealth management business. The business aims to integrate Bitcoin into “standard portfolios of everyday Americans” and launches amid a corporate move and the closure of a $30 million investment round.
Quick Take Donald Trump’s odds of winning the presidency on prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket have fallen more than 10% from their relative highest values as Tuesday’s election draws near. A French man who has placed large bets in favor of Trump on Polymarket denied any political agenda or connections in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
Quick Take Two Ethereum researchers, Justin Drake and Dankrad Feist, announced simultaneously that they were dropping their positions as advisors for Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer, for which they were paid in significant sums of Eigen tokens, sparking questions regarding conflicting interests. A promised conflict of interest policy from the Ethereum Foundation has failed to materialize publicly, though one researcher hinted at its existence in his post.
Quick Take Alex Blania, CEO of Tools for Humanity, emphasized Worldcoin’s primary goal of scaling up by distributing iris-scanning “Orbs” globally. Worldcoin is preparing new updates for its next-generation device, which will be published in the coming “weeks.”
