The prover is the crucial engine Starkware uses to roll up hundreds of thousands of transactions and compress them into a tiny cryptographic proof written on the Ethereum blockchain.

The prover is the crucial engine Starkware uses to roll up hundreds of thousands of transactions and compress them into a tiny cryptographic proof written on the Ethereum blockchain.
Bitcoin (BTC) could face a retest of $20,000 and the United States will fail in its plans for a “soft landing” on inflation, a new analysis says.
In a YouTube update on Feb. 5, Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe, founder and CEO of trading firm Eight, warned that the tide is due to turn for risk assets.
Amid confusion over how incoming U.S. macroeconomic data may affect market sentiment, Van de Poppe says there is an increasing chance that the rebound seen in crypto and stocks this year may flip bearish.
Bitcoin, for example, saw 40% gains in January, but like some others, he believes that a disappointing February is a real possibility.
“I think that people should understand that there is no soft landing, that there is likely a continuation of this downward trend on the markets,” he said about the longer-term status quo.
The price of Fantom (FTM) risks pulling back in February due to a growing divergence between its price and momentum in recent weeks.
FTM’s price has grown by 230% in the past five weeks, trading at $0.61 on Feb. 5. The rally came as a part of a broader crypto market recovery but outperformed most top-ranking crypto assets due to the hype created by Andre Cronje.
Cronje is the co-founder and architect of Fantom’s layer-1 blockchain. On Dec. 26, 2022, the developer released a letter discussing the goals and priorities for the Fantom ecosystem in 2023, including his intention to allow decentralized app developers to earn 15% of the network’s revenue.
The FTM price has seen five weeks of gains in a row since Cronje’s letter to the Fantom Foundation team.
FTM/USD weekly price chart. Source: TradingViewThe FTM/USD pair looks ready to close the week ending Feb. 5 with at least a 25% profit, helped by Cronje’s latest Twitter thread that gives 13 reasons why Fantom will be one of the best layer-1 blockchains in 2023.
The Shiba Inu (SHIB) price was at the lowest versus its top rival, Dogecoin (DOGE), in November 2022. Three months later, the dynamics have flipped.
On Feb. 4, 2023, the SHIB/DOGE pair reached 0.00001638 DOGE, up almost 100% three months after bottoming out at 0.00000993 DOGE, its lowest level on record.
SHIB/DOGE daily price chart. Source: TradingViewThe sharp recovery came as investors’ focus shifted to the impending launch of Shibarium, a Shiba Inu-backed layer-2 blockchain built on the Ethereum mainnet, announced on Jan. 16.
As Cointelegraph reported, the SHIB price rebound gained momentum amid reports that Shibarium will go live on Feb. 14.
In comparison, Dogecoin’s fundamentals looked pale, with Elon Musk suspending a DOGE tipping bot for violating Twitter’s rules.
The identities of two individuals who helped former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried with his $250 million bail bond could be revealed next month following a recent ruling by United States District Judge Lewis Kaplan. Bankman-Fried’s legal counsel has until Feb. 7 to contest the decision. As bankruptcy proceedings continue, FTX and affected parties have requested subpoenas for information and documents from close relatives of Bankman-Fried, claiming not all members of his inner circle have responded to requests for information. Other recent news includes Alameda Research suing bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital in an attempt to claw back $445.8 million in loan repayments made before FTX collapsed.
The United Kingdom’s HM Treasury published a long-anticipated consultation paper for its upcoming crypto regulation. The document covers a broad range of topics, from algorithmic stablecoins to nonfungible tokens to initial coin offerings. The authority aims to level the playing field between crypto and traditional finance by incorporating digital assets into the U.K.’s Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
Top Stories This Week SBF’s $250M bail guarantors should be made public, rules judge The identities of two individuals who helped former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried with his $250 million bail bond could be revealed next month following a recent ruling by United States District Judge Lewis Kaplan. Bankman-Fried’s legal counsel has until Feb. 7 […]
Bitcoin (BTC) circled $23,500 on Feb. 4 as bulls refused to give up support in out-of-hours trading.
BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingViewData from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD holding a narrow range in place since the Feb. 3 Wall Street open.
Macroeconomic data releases from the United States provided modest volatility but no overall trend change as traders bided their time heading into the weekend.
Opinions on the longer-term outlook were mixed, however, with some maintaining that there was little reason to trust that Bitcoin’s rally would continue.
“Seeing $50,000 calls already on Bitcoin and we have yet to complete a higher high and higher low market structure change,” popular trader Crypto Tony summarized in part of a tweet on the day.
Nirmala Sitharaman hopes that finance ministers and central bank governors will be able to agree on crypto regulations in the G-20 meeting in Bengaluru later this month.
Crypto execs suggested that the "extremely challenging" times forced them to cut jobs in order to “weather this extended" crypto winter.
The seized property included a Bored Ape Yacht Club and Doodles NFT, 85.6 Ether and a flashy Audemars Piguet watch which ultimately helped ZachXBT identify the alleged scammer.
Observers can learn a few things from the failed effort by IBM and Moller-Maersk to develop TradeLens, a blockchain-enabled global trading platform.
ATOM gained 50% in January and while the wider crypto market could remain bullish for some time, does the Cosmos ecosystem have strong enough fundamentals to support further upside?
Bitcoin's bull market is likely to start earlier than expected due to anticipation of the BTC halving and favorable macroeconomic conditions, according to Mark Yusko, founder and CEO of Morgan Creek Capital Management.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell prior to the Feb. 3 Wall Street open as fresh United States economic data came in “hot hot hot.”
BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingViewData from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it erased gains from earlier in the day to center on $23,000 support.
The pair reacted negatively to U.S. unemployment data for January, which beat expectations so considerably that overall jobless figures fell to their lowest since 1969.
Non-farm payrolls (NFP) data likewise outperformed, while average hourly earnings conformed to forecast 0.3% growth.
“HUGE beat in NFP,” popular analytics account Tedtalksmacro responded on Twitter.
Bitcoin (BTC) headed toward $23,000 on Feb. 3 after a night of losses erased bulls’ latest progress.
BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingViewData from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting lows of $23,329 on Bitstamp.
The pair had come off a second trip above the $24,000 mark at the Feb. 2 Wall Street open, with buyers failing to sustain momentum amid macro market volatility.
In classic style for interest rate announcements by the United States Federal Reserve, an initial move was soon countered, with Bitcoin returning to its prior position.
U.S. dollar index (DXY) 1-hour candle chart. Source: TradingViewConditions worsened thanks to a rebound in U.S. dollar strength, with the U.S. dollar index (DXY) putting in a conspicuous bounce, which it began to consolidate on the day.
The new measures from the Australian government come as cryptocurrency scams skyrocketed 162% to $221 million in 2022.
For cryptocurrency to achieve mass adoption, breaches that can be easily prevented — like the phishing attack that resulted in OpenSea losing $1.7 million — need to end.
The hedge fund manager instead wants to see an “inflation-linked coin” be brought to the masses which would serve to ensure consumers secure their buying power.
Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.
According to a Jan. 28 report by Sina News, Chinese telecom giant Huawei has recently filed for eight trademarks related to its Huawei “YunYunBao” nonfungible tokens (NFT) series. The trademarks include digital collectibles in the scientific instruments, furniture, education, jewelry, advertising and telecom sectors. Last April, Huawei unveiled its YunYunBao NFTs, featuring characters inspired by its namesake cloud service. Huawei NFTs are minted on its proprietary Huawei Petal Chain, which the telecom giant says has over 1,000 nodes and can handle over 50,000 transactions per second.
A Huawei cloud NFT. Source: HuaweiIn a Feb. 1 Medium post, Sota Watanabe, the founder of Japanese blockchain Astar Network, announced that Astar had received a sponsorship from Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota for its latest Web3 hackathon. Astar is currently a parachain built on the Polkadot blockchain.
According to Watanabe, over $100,000 in prizes will be distributed to projects that develop “intra-company DAO [Decentralized Autonomous Organization] support tools for this hackathon which Toyota employees may actually use in the future.” The hackathon will run from Feb. 14 to March 25.
The Toyota hackathon prize structure. Source: Hakuhodo“Needless to say, Toyota is the largest company in Japan and one of the world’s leading international companies,” Watanabe wrote. “We are very excited to be hosting the Web3 Hackathon on Astar with Toyota. During the event, we aim to develop the first PoC DAO tool for Toyota’s employees. If a good tool is produced, Toyota employees will interact daily with products on Astar Network.”
Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments. Huawei moves to trademark its NFTs According to a Jan. 28 report by Sina News, Chinese telecom giant Huawei has recently filed for eight trademarks related to its Huawei “YunYunBao” nonfungible tokens (NFT) series. The trademarks include digital collectibles in the […]