Unknown coin and known name shine

Unknown coin ANKR and household name Ethereum sparkled on Thursday as most cryptocurrency prices remained in the green.

ANKR surged 44% as the company behind it received an investment from crypto exchange operator Binance’s venture capital arm.

Meanwhile, Ether (ETH), which is the Ethereum blockchain’s main coin and often referred to as Ethereum, briefly surpassed $1,900, hitting a two-month high as Merge Mania continued. (All figures based on CoinMarketCap data.)

Binance invests undisclosed sum

The ANKR coin was created by a blockchain technology developer of the same name. Binance announced that its venture capital arm, Binance Labs, invested an undisclosed sum to boost Ankr’s RPC service Web3 developer suite.

Ankr has previously made open source technology contributions to Binance’s BNB chain and liquidity efforts and helped build out BNB’s core infrastructure.

In addition, Ankr improved the BNB ecosystem by implementing the Erigon and Achive node upgrades and improved the BNB Application Sidechain’s scalability.

ETH to USD

Storage requirements reduced

Binance said the Erigon upgrade reduced the BNB chain’s storage requirements by 75%, increased RPC performance tenfold, and doubled the speed of the sync process.

Ankr also supports the BNB chain ecosystem by bringing decentralized finance (DeFi) composability to BNB’s liquid stake, Binance said.

According to Cointelegraph.com, liquid stake protocols allow holders of staked assets to obtain liquidity in the form of a derivative token. Holders can then use the derivative token in DeFi as the staked assets continue to earn rewards, generating income in multiple ways.

PoS is becoming increasingly popular

The proof-of-stake (PoS) cryptocurrency production mechanism is rapidly gaining popularity. Due to uncertainty surrounding market conditions, increased scrutiny from regulators and legislators, and environmental and social governance rules, many investors have soured on the traditional, more expensive and energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) mining model.

According to Crypto Potato, Ankr’s decision to enable token staking has enabled ANKR holders to stake their tokens to nodes and earn rewards.

The hype around Merge continues

PoS is a staple of Ethereum’s upcoming hard fork, known as Merge. The Ether coin, often referred to as Ethereum, has been riding Merge’s hype wave lately.

Ether rallied after the network announced it completed a Merge exercise on Wednesday on the Goerli testnet, or testnet. Although the coin’s price fell after surging above $1,900 on Thursday, it remained around that mark after conventional markets closed in North America.

Ethereum Classic (ETC) also had a good day, rising 14%. ETC was the Etherum network’s main coin before ether was created through a previous hard fork.

Bitcoin (BTC) stayed above $24,000 all day.

ETC to USD

Mavs owner faces lawsuit

In other crypto news, distressed lender Voyager Digital’s investors have filed a class-action lawsuit against Mark Cuban, the owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. The plaintiffs claim they lost $3.5 billion after Cuban and the team named in the suit promoted Voyager Digital to them.

Stephen Erhlich, Voyager Digital’s CEO, was also named in the lawsuit, which was filed in a federal district court in Florida.

Cuban came under fire in July from Mavericks fans on social media, including Reddit and Twitter, for promoting Voyager in a five-year partnership involving the team and the company.

The critics included New York Times best-selling author James (Jim) Rickards, who is also the editor of Strategic intelligence financial newsletter.

Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy in July. The financial problems of Travelr, Celsius network, and Three Arrows Capital, also known as 3AC, contributed greatly to a meltdown in cryptocurrency prices in June and July. Voyager and Three Arrows have also filed for bankruptcy.

Coinbase faces SEC investigation

Crypto exchange operator Coinbase saw its stock ( COIN ) plunge on Thursday after the company said it is being investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

COIN closed down 10.77% on the NASDAQ Global Select market. In a regulatory filing on Tuesday, Coinbase said crypto betting programs are being investigated by the SEC.

“The company has received investigative subpoenas and requests from [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission] for documents and information about certain customer programs, operations and existing and proposed future products, including the company’s asset listing processes, the classification of certain listed assets, its stake programs and its stablecoin and return-generating products.”

COIN has been riding the proverbial rollercoaster this week after the company’s earnings report failed to impress analysts. Last week, Coinbase and global investment finance Black Stone (BLK) announced a new partnership that received widespread praise within the crypto sector.

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