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Neutron, launched as a cutting-edge interchain technology, is envisioning to grow within the Cosmos ecosystem. In May, Neutron underwent an on-chain vote in favor of its launch on the Cosmos network.

Neutron became the first smart contract platform on the Cosmos network. The consumer chain based on Replicated Security (RS) has had a lot happening within two months of its launch.

As the newly launched chain celebrates its first milestones, BeInCrypto got a chance to speak with the general manager of Neutron. Avril Dutheil is an entrepreneur and investor in various blockchain projects, including Ethereum and Polkadot.

He provided us with some insight into Neutrons next objectives and latest initiatives.

Neutron recently launched an AEZ Accelerator & Builders Fellowship program in partnership with ATOM Accelerator and LongHashX. The 12-week program promises to support early-stage applications built on Neutron and Cosmos Partner Chains. It includes providing builders with the necessary funding and networking opportunities.

According to Dutheil, the accelerator program serves two primary objectives. Firstly, it aims to enhance the quality and usability of applications within the Neutron ecosystem. This makes it easier for developers to create secure and efficient dApps. Secondly, as a consumer chain closely associated with the Cosmos Hub, Neutron envisions a collaborative trade zone within the Atom Economic Zone.

The executive emphasized that the accelerator program aims to foster privileged integrations, collaborations, and relationships among Cosmos Hub and consumer chain projects.

Dutheil also tells us that the accelerator program will initially fund five teams of builders working on the Neutron network. He explains that the program offers funding and ensures participants are ready to successfully launch their applications in the market.

Meanwhile, Binance Labs and CoinFund co-led a $10 million funding round for Neutron weeks after it went live on the mainnet.

Neutron is also looking to build a team of its own with the recent funding round. The developer earmarked $10 million to ensure the platforms ecosystem thrives and the development of the protocol remains independent of a single team.

He also underlined a significant need for stability on Neutron as teams commit to developing the protocol in the coming years. Dutheil told us,

The money is a resource that well be using in order to ensure that the design itself gets developed and improved over time, as much as possible and in a decentralized manner.

He also highlighted that Neutrons smart contract project could distribute voting power and liquidity on the platform without human intervention. In this regard, the executive said, I think it is pretty interesting. It made Neutron one of the most liquid assets and one of the most liquid chains in the ecosystem from day one.

This achievement positioned Neutron as one of the most liquid chains in the ecosystem from its inception. Although the number of applications on Neutron is still growing, Dutheil signaled the emergence of compelling DeFi possibilities.

According to DeFiLlama, Neutron is the seventh largest chain on Cosmos while housing one protocol. At press time, it has over $21.35 million in dollars locked. Cronos, Kava, and Osmosis remain the top three chains on the network by total value locked (TVL).

However, the figures alone dont ensure Neutrons profitability and, in turn, its sustainability.

Dutheil underlined that Neutrons scalability and profit generation as a smart contract platform is closely tied to its ability to become a more useful and appealing platform within the Cosmos ecosystem. But the platforms setup does help it to generate revenue.

While Dutheil says that the design makes Neutron profitable, it also puts significant effort into building a robust ecosystem to support successful applications.

In contrast to Osmosis success on Cosmos, Dutheil believes its profitability is limited due to the current economics of its token. He compared its liquidity incentives and staking rewards to Neutrons model, which does not involve token inflation for staking rewards.

He noted, Basically, there are no tokens being minted and spent on these staking rewards from Neutron. Therefore, validators share in the revenue generated by Neutron makes it more sustainable.

Dutheil explains,

One thing thats pretty interesting about Neutron is that due to Replicated Security, the protocol doesnt have a fixed cost. The protocol doesnt produce money over time. It can only earn money through transaction fees and MeV (Maximum Extractable Value) and other value capture mechanisms. And that value is then shared with the Cosmos Hub.

Detailing how Neutrons model works, Avril explained that the Cosmos Hub (provider chain) enters into an agreement with Neutron (consumer chain). This is where the Cosmos Hub lends its stake and validator set to Neutron in exchange for 25% of the revenue generated by Neutron, the entrepreneur explained.

He reiterated, Neutron is unlikely to be displaced from being the smart contract platform that the Cosmos Hub secures because, one, theres no point for the hub to have two platforms doing the same thing.

While he doesnt see smart contract launches on RS in the near future, Neutron is targeting collaboration over competition. Dutheil said,

I dont think Neutron is threatened at all. In terms of like the wider security, like shared security models that are coming to life in the industry, Neutron can actually work with a lot of them.

For instance, Dutheil cited that Neutron is compatible with Mesh Security. He explained that Neutron DAO could allow alternative mechanisms to use a portion of its treasury to provide security to other chains and earn staking rewards from them while creating mutually beneficial relationships.

Regarding other security mechanisms like Ethereum or staking, Avril highlighted the need for Cosmos to differentiate itself. He pointed out that Cosmos has to bring unique ideas to the market to avoid competition from Ethereum variants. He stated,

I think that just boils down to the point of, weve made really powerful ideas and technologies in this ecosystemAnd thats one of the things that were trying to do with Neutron right.

Dutheil noted that Neutron aims to allow building applications without reinventing the wheel. While its security model and focus on new applications position it well in the interchain smart contract space, can it move beyond DeFi to unlock its potential?

In response to the question about Neutrons plans to extend its use case beyond decentralized finance (DeFi), Dutheil mentioned that its important for Neutron to evaluate its value proposition.

He said,

We should approach what vertical we tried to serve. Lets look at what we have and which types of applications are right. And if we want to expand into a new category, then we need to make sure that our value proposition actually fits this right.

Dutheil emphasized that Neutrons current strength lies in its security and the ability to perform cross-chain operations, making it suitable for DeFi applications. However, he noted other verticals, such as gaming, have different requirements and may prioritize performance over cross-chain functionality.

Highlighting further that if Neutron intends to expand into these verticals, it needs to ensure that its technology can meet the specific needs of those applications.

The executive also mentioned an interesting idea for the future of Neutron, which involves implementing application-specific rollups. By pursuing this direction, Dutheil sees Neutron catering to new verticals, like gaming.

Notably, the crypto sector is struggling with the FTX collapse, a nail in the bear market. According to PitchBook data, private funding for crypto startups reached its lowest level in Q1 2023 since 2020.

The research also found that VC funding for the industry decreased by 80% compared to last years period, falling to $2.4 billion.

While that happens, Dutheil mentions that the crypto market is currently facing challenges. However, he believes that what truly matters is building technologies superior to existing systems. And therefore, creating applications that genuinely serve users needs.

The future of interchain smart contracts holds immense potential in how decentralized applications interact and operate. Meanwhile, seamless interoperability has been a central theme of the market for a few years.

While that happens, Neutrons general manager said he prioritizes three things building a very strong, very decentralized, very coordinated ecosystem that drives itself forward over time.

Following the Trust Project guidelines, this feature article presents opinions and perspectives from industry experts or individuals. BeInCrypto is dedicated to transparent reporting, but the views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of BeInCrypto or its staff. Readers should verify information independently and consult with a professional before making decisions based on this content.

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Will Neutron Rise to Be the Top Star in the Cosmos Ecosystem? - BeInCrypto

By Frances Yue

Hi! Welcome back to Distributed Ledger. This is Frances Yue, reporter at MarketWatch.

While the U.S. Securities and Commission recently took a slew of enforcement actions against crypto companies, it seems some financial institutions are still bullish on the industry.

In the past week, Cathie Wood's ARK Investment Management and crypto asset manager 21Shares amended their application for a spot bitcoin exchange traded fund to include a surveillance sharing agreement, which was similar to that in BlackRock's filing earlier this month. The move could place the firm and 21Shares ahead of BlackRock in the competition of launching a spot bitcoin ETF, analysts said.

Meanwhile, the head of digital assets at Franklin Templeton, which manages over $1.4 trillion in assets, said in an interview that cryptocurrencies can become "regular parts of people's portfolios" once regulations become clear in the U.S.

For this installment, I talked to Matt Zhang, founder and managing partner at Hivemind, a Web3 and blockchain technology focused investment firm, to learn about his vision of cryptocurrencies' future.

Find me on Twitter at @FrancesYue_ to share any thoughts on crypto or this newsletter.

AI plus crypto?

While some market participants said the AI craze has lured some venture capital money away from crypto, Zhang, a former Citigroup Inc. (C) executive, said he thinks AI could be the next catalyst for the mass adoption of bitcoin.

Zhang said he expects AI and blockchains to be the two key pillars for the next generation of the Internet, which is often referred to as Web 3. Bitcoin could be used for transactions when AI agents interact with each other, with smart contracts eliminating the need for human intermediaries, Zhang noted.

"How do you open a bank account for AI?" Zhang said in an interview.

"AI will actually have intelligence, and it will be another participant in the economy. I think there could be a point when AI agents all make transactions to each other," said Zhang. To reduce the need of human intermediaries, "you are gonna have them using Internet native currencies, which is bitcoin."

Zhang also said he expects further consolidation in the crypto space in the future.

"Not every blockchain needs a native token that is tradeable," Zhang said. "For the past three years, almost every project had a token. Sometimes I don't know why they need a token. They don't even know what the token does."

"You should only issue a token when you have a well-capitalized business that has organic growth while the token is native to this business model," according to Zhang.

Zhang said he expects many cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin and ether to fade away in the next cycle, but tokens that actually have utilities may have the potential to become leading players.

Ark amends bitcoin ETF filing

Cathie Wood's ARK Investment Management and crypto asset manager 21Shares amended their application for a spot bitcoin exchange traded fund to include a surveillance sharing agreement, which was similar to that in BlackRock's filing earlier this month.

The Cboe BZX Exchange Exchange, where the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF will be listed, expects to enter into a surveillance-sharing agreement with "an operator of a United States-based spot trading platform for Bitcoin," according to an updated filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

ARK Invest and 21Shares originally filed their application two years ago.

The SEC approved several bitcoin futures-based ETFs in the past, but has yet to greenlight anything that is backed by bitcoin itself.

Read more here about why the amendment is important.

Crypto in traditional portfolios?

Cryptocurrencies can become "regular parts of people's portfolios" once regulations become clear in the U.S., according to Franklin Templeton.

While investors now can buy crypto directly, there are limited ways for them to include digital assets in traditional portfolios, said Sandy Kaul, head of digital asset and industry advisory services at Franklin Templeton.

Kaul said she is expecting more regulatory clarity from the U.S. regulators. While some regulators said existing laws are adequate for crypto, "they're not giving a pathway of how to use existing law, which makes people feel maybe existing law is not adequate. I think [regulators] they are leaving too much uncertainty in the system," noted Kaul.

If the SEC could clarify which crypto can be registered as U.S. securities, "we can include them in broader portfolios," said Kaul.

Read more about my conversation with Kaul here.

Crypto in a snap

Bitcoin gained 1.2% in the past seven days and was trading at around $30,512 on Thursday, according to CoinDesk data. Ether declined 2.6% during the same period to around $1,852.

-Frances Yue

Must-reads

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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06-29-23 1649ET

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Why AI could lead a lot more people to pay with bitcoin - Morningstar

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Historically, the crypto markets have suffered from weekend volatility. This weekend is no exception. A massive amount of Bitcoin options are slated to expire today, according to crypto market analysts, marking the largest bulk expiry in months. Derivatives trading fever has recently risen in response to many ETF registrations, but will speculators get burned? Crypto Read more

Historically, the crypto markets have suffered from weekend volatility. This weekend is no exception. A massive amount of Bitcoin options are slated to expire today, according to crypto market analysts, marking the largest bulk expiry in months. Derivatives trading fever has recently risen in response to many ETF registrations, but will speculators get burned?

On June 30, approximately $4.8 billion in notional value Bitcoin options contracts will expire. It is the most significant batch expiry of BTC options contracts in several months, which may cause some market volatility. The put/call ratio is 0.56, which means that there are nearly twice as many call (long) contracts as put (short) contracts.

The ratio is derived by dividing the number of put (short) contracts by the number of call (long) contracts. Because more derivatives traders trade long contracts than short contracts, values less than one are considered bullish.

In addition, the maximum pain threshold is $26,500. The price with the most open contracts is the maximum pain threshold. It is also the price at which the most losses will be incurred upon the expiration of the contract. Adam Cochran, a partner at Cinneamhain Ventures, remarked that market volatility may be forthcoming.

Additionally, there are approximately $2.3 billion worth of Ethereum options with a notional value that expire on June 30. Similar to these, the put/call ratio is 0.58. The contracts maximum pain point is $1,700.

Since Bitcoins big rise on June 21, crypto markets have remained stagnant. The current market capitalization, which is $1.23 trillion, represents a daily increase of 2.4%.

Nonetheless, for the second time this year, the BTC price has been unable to surpass resistance at current levels. At the time of writing, the asset was trading 2% higher on the day at $30,758. Ethereum had gained 2.2% and was changing hands for $1,844 during the morning of June 30.

As Asia markets opened on Friday in Hong Kong, bitcoin was trading sideways, largely unaffected by the news that financial services behemoth Fidelity Investments resubmitted an application for a spot bitcoin ETF or by surprisingly robust U.S. economic data.

Fidelity joined Blackstone, Invesco, and WisdomTree in filing spot BTC ETF applications with the SEC, which has been happening in the past two weeks. These initiatives have encouraged investors and pushed up crypto prices.

Ether, the second-largest crypto by market value, was recently traded at $1,844, essentially unchanged from Wednesday at the same time. SOL, the token of the Solana smart contracts platform, has risen by more than 14% in recent days.

Following in the footsteps of Ethereums Liquid staking token (LST) mania, crypto traders on the Solana blockchain have leveraged their SOL token derivatives in pursuit of high yields via a convoluted re-leveraging process. The emergence of this trend follows Drift Protocols Tuesday release of a new service, Super staking, which bundles the entire cycle into a single click operation.

The U.S. equity markets largely disregarded positive economic data a revised 2% increase in GDP and a decline in weekly unemployment claims that suggested inflation would remain problematic and offered potential support for the Federal Reserves plans to increase interest rates twice more in 2023. In the past year, such monetary hawkishness has repeatedly unnerved asset markets.

At the Fourth Conference on Financial Stability hosted by the Banco de Espana, Fed Chair Jerome Powell expressed central bank ambiguity regarding the appropriate inflationary treatment in the coming months, despite indicating in recent weeks that the Fed would raise interest rates in the coming months.

Nonetheless, inflation pressures continue to run high, and the process of getting inflation back down to 2 percent has a long way to go [] We see the effects of our policy tightening on demand in the most interest ratesensitive sectors of the economy, particularly housing and investment. It will take time, however, for the full effects of monetary restraint to be realized, especially on inflation.

Despite having a reputation for volatility, a particular bitcoin metric has consistently increased, demonstrating bitcoin investors confidence in the asset as well as their propensity to hold BTC.

Bitcoin is at an all-time peak, according to data from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, despite enduring a bear market that drove the price from a high near $70,000 in 2021 to about $16,000 at the beginning of 2023. Bitcoin is currently valued at approximately $30,000.

However, more than 55% of the bitcoin supply has not moved since 2021, reflecting a 10% decline during the period.

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Crypto market braces for weekend volatility with $5B BTC options ... - Cryptopolitan

The distributed ledger, Hedera, continues to gain momentum in the market due to a host of upgrades and the addition of new services. Hedera operates as a fourth-gen network that supports full smart-contract programmability. Here's how the network has remained a competitive option for Dapp developers and traders alike.

Hedera added EVM support to its network. This decision falls in line with the growing trend of new systems to include some form of Ethereum developer onboarding. The upgrade added full support for Solidity and Vyper programming languages. Both are popular coding languages used in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Hedera seeks to court Ethereum's development to its advanced platform via this maneuver. The protocol empowers users to create more immersive and helpful dapps. It accomplishes this task by improving performance and lowering costs. Additionally, Hedera offers a major upgrade to Ethereum such as immediate finality, fixed fees, and upgraded security.

Source Hedera Homepage

The developers leveraged the open-source JSON-RPC Relay codebase to create ERC-20-compatible token services and assets. Currently, Hedera users can create on Hedera using the HIP-206, HIP-358, HIP-376, and HIP-514 token standards. These new token standards fall in line with ERC-20 standards.

This year saw Hedera focus on the growing identity token market. These advanced blockchain assets can save users and firms time and money by eliminating the extremely wasteful and outdated verification systems in use today. Hedera will place efforts on supporting the two most popular identity token types in the market today, KYC tokens and Badges.

KYC/KYB Tokens are like digital IDs. These systems are usually required to participate in regulated markets or hold tokens that service these industries. In most instances, users will need to provide all of their info and get approval to receive a KYC token.

These tokens leverage 3rd party service providers to verify your ID. This style of digital ID is more popular than ever and has also found use in proving that someone is human and not a bot. This style of ID token differs from Badge tokens which operate more like a resume of sorts.

Badge tokens are another digital ID system growing in popularity. Hedera uses badge tokens to help track the reputation of users. A developer could create badge tokens that look to their many accomplishments. These accomplishments can include things like the users actions, history, or reputation.

Badge tokens currently serve a vital role in many systems. They are often used to confirm that a person has the level of experience they claim. The cool thing about Hedera badge tokens is that you can point them to any information that highlights your accomplishments and reputation.

The integration of badge tokens can help several blockchain-related platforms. Badge tokens are commonly used to show that a node has been working with a network for some time and has met its service requirements. In this way, it is like an online resume and ID in one.

The real advantage of blockchain ID systems is that they prevent the user from the need to share sensitive information with third parties. This strategy is much safer than leaving your complete data with every organization that requires it. A digital token ID offers zero-knowledge confirmation of your identity to third parties which improves your long-term safety considerably.

Hedera conducted a major network upgrade to its security model this year. The HSCS Security Model v1 was effective but left some attack vectors open and was a bit slower in terms of transaction throughput. The version 2 upgrade to the Hedera security model brings along with it some major improvements in network performance.

The new update supports the latest Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) changes following the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade. The streamlined deployment offered by this maneuver has helped improve onboarding. To accomplish the task, the system now executes all smart contract transactions using the Besu EVM.

The platform leverages a Hedera-optimized Virtual Merkle Tree state to improve smart contract execution. The newest upgrade speeds up contract executions by seconds and improves security. Notably, the upgrade does add a few steps to the creation process, but the delays pale in comparison to the added security obtained through the maneuver.

Hedera has entered the AI race with its latest plans. The network recently released a toolset and directions on how to integrate the Hedera blockchain and ChatGPT functionalities. ChatGPT is the world's best-known conversational AI tool. The system has gained international notoriety over its capabilities and ease of use.

The popularity and capabilities of the ChatGPT AI have made international headlines and created a lot of hype. Hedera developers can now create Dapps that leverage the system's advanced capabilities via seamless integration. The new protocol opens the door for a host of AI-assisted blockchain features.

According to company documentation, the team has already put forth a system that uses ChatGPT to gather real-time data from the Hedera blockchain. Additionally, the AI could assist in a variety of network actions. For example, the system could help in tracking the platform consensus via the ability to timestamp and order events for specific software use cases.

Another major reason why the AI integration has so many people excited in the Hedera community is the promise of an upgraded Hedera Token Service protocol. The integration would make it much easier for the average user to mint and manage NFT tokens without the need to program smart contracts.

ChatGPT developers can use the system to improve development features like API integration and smart contract services. Notably, the protocol will make it possible for Solidity programmers to enter the ecosystem. Solidity is the programming used by Ethereum. Its the most widely used blockchain programming language in operations today.

Everything about Hedera demonstrates the level of research and market understanding the developers behind this project obtained. The network is fast and highly programmable. Additionally, the constant focus on improving the systems makes it one of the most interesting options for Dapp developers to consider.

To learn more about this project, make sure to check out our Investing Guide HERE.

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What's New With Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR)? - Securities.io

Ethereum (ETH) Price remains below $2,000 despite a resounding 15% rise in the global cryptocurrency market cap (TOTAL CAP). Are institutional investors overlooking Ethereum amid the Crypto ETF rave?

On-chain data and general market sentiment suggest that crypto derivates traders appear to be favoring Bitcoin ETF over ETH alternatives. How could this impact ETH price?

Fluctuating user activity is one of the key factors that has slowed down the ETH price rally in recent weeks. According to IntoTheBlock, ETH has not been able to maintain steady growth in Transaction Volume despite renewed interest among institutional investors.

The chart below shows how ETH Transaction Volume fluctuated wildly in June 2023. At the monthly peak on June 5, 3.98 million ETH were transferred among Ethereum users. Since then, it formed a series of zig-zag patterns before it reached 1.86 million ETH again on June 28.

Transaction Volume provides a picture of real-time changes in economic activity carried out by network participants. When it rises, it puts upward pressure on the price of the underlying token.

Over 20% of Ethereums circulating supply is currently staked in smart contracts. Most investors are more interested in generating passive income from their ETH than utilizing it in daily transactions.

This has played a pivotal role in ETH price stagnation in recent weeks. If the Transaction Volume remains in a downtrend, ETH price could face more headwinds in the coming weeks.

Furthermore, Ethereum also appears to be losing ground to Bitcoin in the battle for investors attention. Reports show that institutional investors are showing a preference for Bitcoin ETF over similar ETH funds.

On-chain data corroborate this report, as ETH Social Volume has dropped significantly in recent weeks.

As of June 29, ETH Social Volume is down 86% to 1,655 from its recent high of 11,959 on June 7.

Social Volume tracks the volume of mentions of a project across relevant crypto media channels. When it drops significantly, as seen above, it indicates that investors are paying less attention.

In summary, fluctuating transaction volumes and lag in social sentiment could see ETH prices continue to move at a relatively slow pace.

Given the aforementioned factors, the ETH price will likely consolidate around $1,900 in the coming days. As seen below, 2.3 million investors that bought 1.52 million ETH at the average price of $1,908 could slow down the rally.

If ETH scales that zone, it will face another major resistance around the $2,000 mark. At that zone, 660,000 that bought 26 million ETH could look to book some profit.

Still, ETH could fall into a downtrend if the price slips below $1,800. However, the buy-wall from 3.39 million investors that bought 11 million ETH at the average price of $1,803 could offer support.

But failure to hold that support line could otherwise trigger a further drop toward $1,700.

In line with the Trust Project guidelines, this price analysis article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial or investment advice. BeInCrypto is committed to accurate, unbiased reporting, but market conditions are subject to change without notice. Always conduct your own research and consult with a professional before making any financial decisions.

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Ethereum Price Remains Below $2,000 Despite Bitcoin Rally - BeInCrypto