The vast majority of China’s $1.5 million digital yuan lottery winners have received and spent their “red envelopes” of digital yuan. As of Sunday, a total of 47,573 out of 50,000 lottery winners in China have received their prizes, Shenzhen authorities officially announced. According to the announcement, the winners conducted a total of 62,788 transactions accounting for 8.8 million yuan ($1.3 million). This amount represents about 88% of the total 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) that was to be distributed in the giveaway pilot in Shenzhen. Some winners have not only spent their “red envelopes” but also topped up their …

BlockFi, a major American cryptocurrency lending startup, has completed another funding round featuring major industry investors. The company has raised $50 million in a Series C round led by Anthony Pompliano’s crypto asset management firm Morgan Creek Digital, BlockFi announced on Aug. 20. Also known as Pomp, Morgan Creek’s co-founder Pompliano is joining BlockFi’s board of directors following the investment. The appointment comes after Morgan Creek participated in all three of BlockFi’s funding rounds over the past 12 months, including the $18 million Series A round in August 2019 and the $30 million Series B round in February 2020. The …

As the crypto community is anticipating Ethereum 2.0, a large number of Ether (ETH) holders already have enough ETH for staking on the network. Nearly 80% of total Ether (ETH) supply is being held by non-crypto exchange wallets exceeding the amount required for staking on Ethereum 2.0, according to the latest “Ethereum 2.0 Economic Review” report. Published on July 16, the report is by executives at the Ethereum blockchain infrastructure developer ConsenSys. The network accumulates ETH required for staking on Ethereum 2.0 According to the report, 77.7% of the current ETH supply, or about 86.6 million ETH, lives in wallets …

Swiss data privacy startup HOPR is launching its first public testnet shortly after securing $1 million in investment from investors like Binance. HOPR said that the startup is preparing to launch the testnet and community support program on July 16. The event will feature rewards in MakerDAO’s stablecoin Dai (DAI). Token sale date undisclosed The HOPR project was launched in response to increasing concerns over online data privacy. The Swiss company develops open-source tools for the Web 3 ecosystem and offers a new blockchain protocol for protecting user data. Founded earlier this year, HOPR came under the spotlight of the …

London-based financial technology startup Plutus is offering rewards through its debit card when users shop Nike’s online store. Doing so unlocks up to 3% in crypto and 9% cash rewards for those purchases. Rewards are available for British pounds and euros only In order to receive the rewards, customers must use the Plutus Visa Card while shopping online. As Plutus currently operates within the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, the service is now available for purchase in euros and the British pound, a spokesperson from the firm told Cointelegraph. The rewards are generated in Plutus’s native token, Pluton …

AVA Labs, a blockchain protocol founded by Cornell’s Emin Gün Sirer, is planning to distribute 2 million tokens in its final testnet before the project’s full launch in summer. The so-called “Denali Testnet” will serve as the final stage of the AVA network testing before AVA’s mainnet launch. The new testnet will allow each validator to earn up to 2,000 AVA network’s native tokens, AVA Labs announced on May 29. AVA Labs tokens are not yet listed on any cryptocurrency exchange and are not available for public purchase, a spokesperson at AVA Labs told Cointelegraph. The testnet to run from …

Bitcoin (BTC) halvings are a little spooky, sort of like the witching hour, and one of the prophecies being murmured about last week was something about a Bitcoin network death spiral. This idea, which isn’t really new, premises a mass exodus of BTC miners whose work creating new parts of the blockchain no longer pays because of a reduction in their rewards. As put forth most recently by Zach Resnick, a managing partner at venture capital firm Unbounded Capital and a prominent supporter of Bitcoin SV (BSV), and summarized by Cointelegraph: “As the halving cuts the block reward, a large …

Free TON, a decentralized blockchain network derived from Telegram’s TON blockchain, is launching the first community contests to power its network. Starting Monday, users, developers and validators are invited to participate in three separate contests, with Free TON planning to distribute thousands of TON Crystals, or Tons, as rewards. On Monday, the Free TON Community officially introduced proposals for the first community contests on the Free TON forum. Each contest aims to distribute at least 50,000 Tons among winners, participants and juries. The three contests are expected to close on May 25. Free TON contests are the only way to …

In a bid to create a more user-centric social media platform — “a free frontier” — Reddit has introduced its new community points system built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. In a slide presentation shared Wednesday, May 13th, Reddit announced that Redditors will now be able to earn rewards in the form of ERC-20 tokens based on Ethereum blockchain for creating engaging content on the platform. This confirms claims that many users made in April about Reddit coming up with a blockchain-based reward system. Users will have the freedom to either save their community points or utilize them to …

Bitcoin (BTC) rewards company Lolli announced on Monday the close of an oversubscribed $3 million seed-II funding round led by Pathfinder and investors such as Michelle Phan, Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary. According to the announcement, the funding will help launch the company’s mobile application and expand it internationally, with a tentative launch date for the summer. Lolli assures that the app will allow greater accessibility to Bitcoin, allowing users to earn from merchants on both web and mobile. Making Bitcoin “more accessible” through rewards Speaking with Cointelegraph, Alex Adelman, the CEO and co-founder of Lolli, praised the funding — …

Blockchain rewards platform MiL.k has teamed up with Seoul-based luxury-retail-space chain Shinsegae Duty Free to provide loyalty points compatibility and management. The new partnership allows Shinsegae customers to connect their existing rewards accounts to the MiL.k mobile application, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Monday. Adoption for “millions” of clients? Once users interlink the accounts, they can reportedly trade their Shinsegae loyalty points for the in-house cryptocurrency called MLK, which currently trades at $0.19 per token. MLK, in turn, can be exchanged for reward points at other partnering vendors, such as Yanolja, a Korean travel accommodation platform. …

Rewards points Blockchain platform, MiL.k Alliance, has coupled up with Korean travel accommodation platform, Yanolja, for rewards points compatibility and usage. "The integration with South Korea’s fastest growing online travel agency means that Yanolja members can now connect the Yanolja app to the MiL.k app, providing the ability to earn rewards and participate in MiL.k promotions," said a statement provided to Cointelegraph. MiL.k makes rewards points less cumbersome Earning rewards points can be a siloed endeavor. Transferring or selling said points is often not possible. Points also often require usage at the company of origin. MiL.k's blockchain-based system focuses on …