Uniswap’s UNI Slides 8% Despite Upgrade Optimism

David Bailey, CEO of BTC Inc., the company behind Bitcoin Magazine, is reportedly gearing up to launch a publicly traded bitcoin (BTC) investing company, as per sources familiar with the situation. Bailey, who provided counsel on crypto policy to Donald Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign, is said to be aiming to raise $200 million through a private share sale and an additional $100 million in convertible debt to establish a small publicly traded entity focused on acquiring bitcoin.

The upcoming company, as of yet unnamed, is anticipated to merge with BTC Inc. and adopt the moniker “Nakamoto” in honor of the mysterious creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, according to the insiders. The announcement of this deal could come as soon as next week.

This move by Bailey follows in the footsteps of other companies, emulating the success of Strategy executive chairman Michael Saylor, who significantly boosted his company’s stock price by 3,000% by transitioning to bitcoin as its primary reserve asset and repositioning it as a bitcoin strategy company.

Recently, major players like SoftBank, Tether, and Cantor Fitzgerald revealed plans for a $3.6 billion bitcoin investment vehicle aimed at purchasing bitcoin. Additionally, Strive Asset Management announced a merger with Asset Entities to transition into a publicly traded bitcoin asset management firm.

The Solana Foundation has revealed a security vulnerability in its privacy-focused token system that could have allowed attackers to create fraudulent zero-knowledge proofs, enabling unauthorized minting or withdrawals of tokens.

The vulnerability was reported on April 16 through Anza’s GitHub security advisory, along with a proof-of-concept. Engineers from Solana development teams Anza, Firedancer, and Jito confirmed the bug and immediately started working on a solution, as detailed in a post-mortem published on Saturday.

The issue originated from the ZK ElGamal Proof program, which validates zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) used in Solana’s Token-22 confidential transfers. These extension tokens secure private balances and transfers by encrypting amounts and using cryptographic proofs for validation.

ZKPs are a cryptographic technique that allows someone to prove knowledge or access to something, like a password or age, without disclosing the information itself. In cryptocurrency applications, they can demonstrate a transaction’s validity without revealing specific amounts or addresses, which can be exploited by malicious actors.

The bug occurred due to missing algebraic components in the hashing process during the Fiat-Shamir transformation, a method to make zero-knowledge proofs non-interactive. A sophisticated attacker could create invalid proofs that the on-chain verifier would accept.

This vulnerability could have enabled unauthorized actions such as unlimited token minting or withdrawals from other accounts. However, standard SPL tokens or the main Token-2022 program logic were unaffected.

Patches were privately distributed to validator operators starting on April 17, with a second patch released later that day to address another related issue in the code. Third-party security firms, including Asymmetric Research, Neodyme, and OtterSec, reviewed both patches. By April 18, a supermajority of validators had implemented the fix.

There is no evidence that the bug was exploited, and all funds remain secure, according to the post-mortem.

Mastercard has announced its expansion in the digital asset economy with the launch of new global capabilities to support stablecoin payments across its extensive merchant network. The payment giant is collaborating with OKX crypto exchange to introduce the “OKX Card,” which aims to connect crypto trading and Web3 activities with everyday spending. Additionally, merchants will soon have the option to settle transactions directly in stablecoins like Circle’s USDC, thanks to partnerships with Nuvei and Circle, with Paxos extending this functionality to other supported stablecoins like USDP.

Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard, emphasized the benefits of blockchain and digital assets for mainstream use cases. He stated that making it easier for merchants to receive stablecoin payments and for consumers to use them is crucial for realizing the potential of this technology. Mastercard’s initiative covers various stablecoin use cases, from wallet enablement and card issuance to merchant settlement and on-chain remittances. The company has previously joined forces with crypto exchanges such as Kraken, Binance, and Crypto.com to enable users to pay with stablecoins via traditional cards.

In addition to these efforts, Mastercard introduced the Mastercard Crypto Credential service last year to simplify sending digital assets across borders using verified usernames instead of complex wallet addresses. The company also launched its Multi-Token Network (MTN) in 2023, which facilitates real-time settlements and redemptions of tokenized assets. Ondo Finance became the first provider to bring real-world assets to the network in February.

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