BlockchainReporter Weekly News Roundup, Ethereum and SEC in Spotlight

This week has witnessed radical changes in the crypto industry. The drastic damages caused by the earthquake in Türkiye and measures taken all around the globe, especially the crypto sector, to confront it are at the top. Another significant event is the loss of up to $3.65M by DForce in an Exploit. In addition to this, the US SEC has cracked down on Kraken while accusing it of providing unregistered securities.

Ethereum to Integrate Shanghai Upgrade to Sepolia Testnet on 28^th of February

Ethereum developers have determined to carry out the integration of a Shanghai upgrade to the Sepolia testnet. This is scheduled to take place on the 28^th of this month. The testnet is specified for the developers responsible for operating validators on the Ethereum network. Following Sepolia, the conclusive testnet will be Goerli to reach the Shanghai upgrade. Shanghai is considered to be Ethereum’s 1^st hard fork since its Merge upgrade that took place in September and shifted the network from PoW to PoS mechanism of consensus.

OKX Starts Web Campaign for Worldwide Crypto Community to Assist the Earthquake Relief in Türkiye

OKX, one of the top crypto exchanges and tech firms operating to build the Web3 sector’s future, has initiated a web campaign to contribute to the earthquake relief in Türkiye. The campaign will be focused on the crypto community around the world and the funds will be transferred to AFAD and AHBAP (the relief organizations operating in Türkiye). The top crypto assets to be accepted in the donations take into account OKB/OKT, ETH, BTC, and USDT.

DForce Reportedly Suffers a $3.65M Loss in an Exploit

dForce network has recently gone through an extreme exploit and lost $3.65 million as a result, as per the reports. Peckshield disclosed that the losses included 719,437 USX and 1,236.65 ETH ($1.91M) from the L2 protocol of Arbitrum and 1,037,492 USDC ($1.73M) from Optimism. dForce reported that it instantly halted dForce Vaults after noticing the issue. The platform also promised to shortly issue a detailed report covering the remedies.

Aave, Balancer, and Other Players in the DeFi Sector Join Together to Boost Decentralization

Crypto Twitter witnessed the launch of a campaign started by the prominent DeFi protocols on the 6^th of February. The campaign comprises above 30 top DeFi protocols among which CoW Swap, Yearn, SushiSwap, Aave, and MakerDAO are also included. These projects intend to offer a substitute financial system that is more fair and egalitarian in comparison with TradFi. This initiative aims at confronting the threats faced by the DeFi sector.

Kraken Goes through Scrutiny from SEC over Providing Unregistered Securities

The US SEC is again attempting to choke the crypto industry with its latest stringent scrutiny against Kraken (a famous crypto exchange) over providing unregistered securities. The regulator is looking into the likely infringement of securities laws by the crypto platform. The aftermath of the FTX crash is already posing great challenges to the crypto market. A settlement is anticipated to take place in the coming days between the crypto exchange and the securities regulator. Such a move could build pressure on the other industry participants.

Fuse Network Offers Latest Update to Speed up Crypto Adoption through Web3 Payments

On February 7^th, Fuse Network declared releasing version 2.0 to cope with challenges hindering the wide-scale adoption of crypto assets. It also aims at facilitating the latest business models dealing with the software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology. With this initiative, the platforms will become stronger on the technical side to provide the finest user experience via blockchain technology. Additionally, the Fuse Network has gotten the potential to provide Ethereum-level instruments for businesses. Great attention has been paid by Fuse 2.0 to letting businesses avail of the network’s Web3 payments.