Cryptocurrency
ETF filings changed the Bitcoin narrative overnight — Ledger CEO
Over the past 12 months, some investors learned the hard way why they needed to move their crypto offline. Those who kept Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins on crypto exchanges like FTX lost control of their assets, sometimes forever. Events drew a red line under the storied crypto adage: “Not your keys, not your coins.”
FTX’s loss was hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger’s gain, however. The Bahamas-based exchange’s November 2022 bankruptcy filing delivered to Ledger “our biggest sales day ever,” the firm’s chief experience officer, Ian Rogers, told Cointelegraph, and “November turned out to be our biggest sales month on record.”
Paris-based Ledger has been on a strong growth curve recently, though the past year has not been without controversy. In May, for instance, the firm drew industry ire when it launched a new secret recovery phrase storage service called Ledger Recover. Still, it remains one of the best-known and most-used crypto wallet makers in the world.
Cointelegraph recently caught up with Rogers and Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier in New York City to discuss the new crypto climate in the United States, the latest trends in crypto storage and differences in doing business in the U.S. and Europe, among other topics.
Cointelegraph: Many think that the crypto/blockchain sector is still in the doldrums or moving sideways at best, but you see reasons to be cheerful even here in the U.S.?
Pascal Gauthier: What happened in 2023 — and went virtually unnoticed — is a change of tone regarding Bitcoin. When the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] implied that Bitcoin was a utility and/or commodity — and not a security [like other altcoins] — this triggered two things: large companies like BlackRock began their ETF [exchange-traded fund] application process, and then the media narrative around Bitcoin changed almost overnight.
As 2023 began, Bitcoin was for drug dealers, terrorists, bad for the planet, etc. — and suddenly it became completely kosher. The biggest financial institutions in the U.S. are suddenly doing Bitcoin.
CT: The BlackRock application for a spot-market Bitcoin ETF was a turning point?
PG: Big money is coming into crypto; it’s been announced. It may take a few years to really finally arrive, but if you look at Fidelity, BlackRock, Vanguard…
CT: What about U.S. regulations? Aren’t they still a barrier?
PG: The next administration will decide the fate of crypto in the United States. If Biden stays in power, this administration could continue to be aggressive toward crypto. If it’s someone else, we’ll see what happens.
CT: Let’s talk about offline storage devices. Mark Cuban said in 2022 that crypto wallets were “awful.” Did he have a point?
PG: A lot of our early customers used our [cold wallet] product to “buy and hold.” You would purchase a Ledger [device], you put your Bitcoin in it, and then you put it someplace and forget about it. But that’s not what we recommend now.
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Today, you can connect your wallet to Web3 and use your private keys to do many things, including buying, selling, swapping and staking crypto, as well as engaging with DApps [decentralized applications] and even declaring your taxes.
CT: On a 1 to 10 scale, where would you put cold wallets today in terms of user experience (UX)?
PG: For the industry, it’s a three. For Ledger, maybe a four — and we’re striving to be a 10. The industry has a lot to do in terms of UX and UI [user interface].
Ian Rogers: Your hardware-software combo today is not just about hardware and software. It’s an end-to-end experience.
When you’re buying an Apple iPhone, for instance, you’re not buying a piece of hardware; you’re buying into the Apple experience. We would ultimately like that to be the same thing with Ledger. Our approach is to do the absolute best user experience possible without compromising on security or self-custody.
CT: Still, there’s these UX issues like the 24 seed words you need to recover your private key if you lose your Ledger device. Some users go to great lengths to safeguard those words, even engraving them in steel just in case their house burns down. Doesn’t that sound sort of extreme?
PG: It is a little backwards to have something like a metal plate in your home. It’s not very 21st century. But we came up with a solution for this.
When you use a Ledger product, you end up with your Ledger device and a PIN code. And you will also have those 24 words that become your master password, basically. You need to keep those 24 words safe, and this is a major barrier to entry for a lot of people. They don’t trust themselves with those 24 words. They don’t trust themselves not to lose them.
So, we came up with a service called Ledger Recover [i.e., an optional paid subscription service provided by Coincover that is expected to launch in October] to deal with that. It allows you to shard your private key into three encrypted shards and then send them to three different custodians. They cannot do anything with the [single] encrypted shard. Only you can bring your 24 words together again if necessary.
CT: Don’t we already have something like that with “social recovery,” where you entrust your cold wallet recovery to several friends or “guardians?”
PG: Social recovery doesn’t really work. We’ve done something that resembles social recovery — but with businesses [i.e., Ledger, Coincover and EscrowTech]. You will have to present your ID if you want to initiate the shard recovery.
CT: You were criticized when you first announced the Ledger Recover service in May. Then, the launch was postponed amid the “backlash.” There were security concerns. People said these three shard-holding companies could reconstruct your private key.
PG: There is still a lot of education to be done for people to understand really how security works. People said [at that time] that it might be a good product if it were more transparent and easier to adopt. So we didn’t go live in May, as planned, in order to make the product ‘open source,’ which adds something in terms of transparency though not security,
CT: But couldn’t three sub-custodial companies, at least in theory, collaborate and reconstruct your privacy key?
PG: It’s not possible. They don’t have the necessary tools necessary to decrypt and reconstruct.
CT: Moving on to Ledger’s business model, do you sometimes worry that as big institutions like Fidelity Investments or banks like BNY Mellon enter the crypto space that users may simply park their crypto with them? If they get hacked, those giant custodial institutions will then make them whole again. Or at least that is sometimes the thinking.
PG: We’re a pure technology company. So when Fidelity decides to become a [retail] crypto custodian, they’ll probably come to us and buy a part of our technology to build their own technology stack.
CT: Your business strides several continents. You’re based in France, but you sell many of your devices in the United States. You have first-hand experience of those two business climates — the U.S. and Europe. Are there key differences when it comes to crypto?
PG: Europe has a tendency to over-regulate or regulate too fast, generally speaking. Sometimes people say, well, you know, Europe has clarity because it has MiCA [Markets in Crypto-Assets, the EU’s new crypto legislation], while in the U.S., there is a lack of clarity and lots of lawsuits.
But in the U.S., the way that the law is designed is slow and bumpy. It takes time to change laws in the U.S., but when change finally does come, it’s often for the better.
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If you look at the biggest tech champions in the world, they’re mostly American or Chinese. Zero are European.
CT: Are you linking heavy regulation with a lack of innovation?
PG: It’s hard to say if they are directly linked, but Europe has always had a heavy hand in terms of taxation and regulation.
Ian Rogers: To me, there’s no question they are linked. At LVMH [the French luxury goods conglomerate where Rogers served as chief digital officer for five years], we worked with a lot of startups. Every European startup wanted to get to the U.S. or China to “get scale” before they came back to Europe. Europe is not a good market if you’re a startup.
CT: But Ledger remains positive about the future of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology overall?
PG: Things are not necessarily what they seem to be. It was our [late] French president François Mitterrand, who said: “Give time for time.” There’s something going on now, and only the future will be able to make clear what is happening.
The crypto market gained 2.5% on Thursday, hinting at a bullish May.
On the meme coin side of the market, Sealana (SEAL) and Dogeverse (DOGEVERSE) take centre stage. Sealana is a patriotic, overweight American redneck seal striving to trade his way out of his mom’s basement.
The Sealana presale launched to great reception, raising $100,000+ in a flash. The viral Dogeverse presale, on the other hand, has crossed past the $13M milestone.
Chubby Solana Meme Coin Sealana is Trending on Day 1
Sealana (SEAL) is the latest meme coin sensation.
The new Solana meme coin adds a fresh twist to the landscape dominated by dog, cat, frog, and sloth tokens.
Sealana stands out with a humorous narrative featuring a trader seal. The amusing, yet relatable theme is central to the project’s successful launch.
Sealana strategically steps into a bullish May, raising $100,000+ within hours of going live on Day 1. This strong start indicates a turbocharged presale that could end ahead of schedule due to massive traffic.
The community pages on Telegram and Twitter are live now.
The Solana meme coin features a “send-to-wallet” approach alongside a more conventional “Buy Now” widget. The goal is to cater to diverse investor preferences.
Can Sealana Move Out of its Mom’s Basement to Top Meme Coin Ranking?
Sealana’s core strength is its distinctive and relatable narrative. It integrates successful trends like Solana integration and send-to-wallet mechanics, while rooting its originality in the humorous and relatable theme.
The Sealana website introduces the meme coin with a playful description of the chubby seal immersed in Solana’s depths:
“Meet Sealana, the chubby seal who’s taken a deep dive into the Solana Sea. Whaled at his PC and growing by the day, Sealana is so absorbed in the degen market that he’s abandoned the gorgeous figure of his youth for a trader’s diet of chips and tinned tuna. His obsession with finding the next big Solana meme coin keeps his flippers busy and his living room a big fat mess.”
The narrative perfectly captures the essence of traders engulfed in the crypto frenzy.
Sealana resonates with traders who understand the appeal of the chaotic crypto world. As part of community building, the project is expected to post vibrant meme ideas that could go viral.
Strategic Investors Are Unlocking Meme Coin Potential
The meme coin market has proven that it is evergreen.
But the same can’t be said about individual meme coins. They are fleeting in nature. They can pump and dump in a matter of hours.
Even legendary meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu haven’t been able to reach anywhere close to their all-time highs after the crypto winter of 2021 and 2022.
Many view them as means of quick gains, which carry exponentially higher risks of capital loss. The rising traffic to Sealana and Dogeverse presale is the latest example of this trend.
Sealana attempts to cultivate a dedicated investor community around its quirky theme.
To join the presale, investors can send SOL directly to the designated presale wallet or follow the ‘Buy Now’ widget on the website.
Dogeverse Presale Heats Up, $13M Crossed
Dogeverse (DOGEVERSE) has emerged as one of the hottest meme coins of 2024.
It has generated close to 12,000 Twitter followers in less than a month. The project’s rise to success has been phenomenal.
Regardless of the market downturns, the presale has surged past the $13 million mark.
Dogeverse is breaking new ground in the meme coin market by integrating across major blockchains such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Solana, Avalanche, and Base.
The multichain compatibility enables token swaps for DeFi opportunities and cross-chain functionalities through protocols like Wormhole. This versatility gives the project a wide range of opportunities for utility integration. In addition, it attracts speculative attention across different blockchain communities.
The presale hard cap of Dogeverse is $17M, which means the sell-out is on the horizon. The token’s upcoming listings on both decentralized (DEX) and centralized (CEX) platforms are events to watch out for.
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[PRESS RELEASE – Burlignton, United Kingdom, May 2nd, 2024]
$SNUKE, a new meme coin inspired by the humor of the popular TV show “South Park” and based on the Solana blockchain, has recently achieved significant milestones in its presale. These achievements underscore its potential among the array of Solana-based meme coins poised for success.
Users can join The $SNUKE Coin Presale here.
Early Success in the $SNUKE Presale
SNUKE ($SNUKE), a meme coin with a vibrant community backing, has raised over 300 $SOL in the first four days of its 25 day token presale.
The $SNUKE Presale has a total allocation of 600 Million $SNUKE Tokens for early Presale participants.
According to the SNUKE team, the initial progress with both retail investors and prominent Solana stakeholders highlights interest in their community focused approach and transparent fundraising model.
$SNUKE is setting a new standard for fairness in the crypto space with no insider allocation. SNUKE’s team is optimistic that the presale, which commenced on April 25th, will encourage widespread participation by offering every early adopter an opportunity to secure tokens.
$SNUKE Presale: Early Access to 60% of Tokens and Zero Transaction Tax
The $SNUKE Presale allocates 60% of its total supply of 1 Billion #SNUKE Tokens to early adopters. The $SNUKE Token offers a commitment of 0% tax on transactions, with liquidity pool (LP) tokens burnt to ensure security, and the minting function permanently disabled to prevent the creation of new tokens
How to Participate in the $SNUKE Presale
To participate in the $SNUKE Presale, users can follow these simple steps:
- Wallet Preparation: Users should ensure they have a compatible Solana wallet, such as Phantom or Solflare, set up for participation.
- $SOL Acquisition: Users should acquire $SOL from Binance or Coinbase, considering applicable transaction fees, and then transfer it to their Solana Compatible self-custodial wallet.
- Contribution: Users should visit the $SNUKE presale page and adhere to the provided instructions to transfer $SOL to the designated address.
- Token Tracking: Users can utilize the user-friendly dashboard to monitor the $SNUKE tokens entitled based on the total $SOL contributed.
- Token Receipt: After the presale, $SNUKE tokens will be airdropped to the user’s wallet in proportion to their contribution.
Joining the $SNUKE Community
Joining $SNUKE is an opportunity to be part of a movement set to redefine meme coins on Solana. With growing social media presence and a surge in community engagement, the $SNUKE team sees a great future for $SNUKE in the industry.
Users can stay connected with the $SNUKE community and receive updates or information about partnerships by joining the $SNUKE Telegram group and following us on Twitter.
About $SNUKE
$SNUKE is a pioneering project launched on the Solana blockchain, inspired by the beloved “South Park” series. It blends humor with investment potential, designed to captivate meme lovers and crypto investors alike.
Users can stay updated by following $SNUKE on social media:
Website: https://snuke.wtf
Twitter: https://twitter.com/snukecoin
Telegram: https://t.me/snukecoin
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Aave Labs, the team behind the DeFi lending platform Aave, has proposed a slew of major upgrades and expansions two years after introducing its V3.
The suggested improvements include Aave V4, Aave Network, a Cross-Chain Liquidity Layer, non-EVM L1 deployments, and a fresh visual identity.
Aave V4
According to the latest blog post, Aave V4 will be built with a brand-new architecture featuring an efficient and modular design while aiming to minimize disruptions to third-party integrators.
The most important architectural change of the latest iteration is the proposed introduction of a Unified Liquidity Layer, which expands on the Portals concept introduced in Aave V3. This layer enables a fully agnostic, independent, and abstracted infrastructure for liquidity provisioning.
It is also proposed to manage supply/draw caps, interest rates, assets, and incentives while enabling other modules to draw liquidity from it. This would allow the Aave DAO to add or remove borrow modules without the need to migrate liquidity.
The main function of this architecture approach is to facilitate the addition or improvement of borrowing features without overhauling the entire system or the liquidation module while simultaneously addressing the issue of fragmented liquidity present in older versions of the protocol.
Aave’s proposal revealed that the liquidity layer is capable of natively supporting both supplied and natively minted assets, thereby improving integration with GHO and other collateralized protocol-native assets. Aave V4 also proposes fully automated interest rates with adjustable slopes and kink points.
Other Proposed Features
‘Smart Accounts’ is yet another feature that has been proposed for introduction in the V4 iteration in a bid to streamline the user experience by addressing a major issue with Aave V3 – eliminating the need for separate wallets to manage positions when borrowing using eMode or isolated assets. Users will be able to create multiple smart accounts within a single wallet, simplifying interactions with the protocol.
The proposal also features a dynamic configuration mechanism per asset, where users are “hooked” to the current configuration of an asset when they borrow. If a new asset configuration is needed, a new instance is created while existing users remain hooked to the previous configuration.
Meanwhile, the company mentioned that they are collaborating with Chainlink to investigate solutions for fully automating risk management. The concept involves utilizing ad-hoc, on-chain feeds to evaluate asset risk and dynamically adjust risk parameters through control theory or artificial intelligence.
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