HSBC has teamed with Metaco, a Swiss digital asset custody firm that was recently acquired by Ripple. This is a major development in the world of digital assets and blockchain. The "XRP Army" of Ripple, a passionate XRP group that is often referred as a community of XRP enthusiasts, has taken note of this partnership. They see it as indicating broader adoption for Ripple’s blockchain technology and XRP token. This collaboration was not a one-off, as Metaco courted HSBC over a period of ten months before Ripple acquired them.

Ripple Labs has released one billion XRP from its escrow accounts. This strategic move, which was tracked and reported by crypto monitoring platform Whale Alert aims to boost XRP’s liquidity in the cryptocurrency market. Since early 2018, these regular releases, which take place on the 1st of every month, have become a recurring tradition. This release is a large amount of XRP but it's part of Ripple’s broader strategy for ensuring the stability and access to its native cryptocurrency.

HSBC Partners With Ripple’s Custody Firm Metaco in a Move That Excites the XRP Community

The news of HSBC’s collaboration with Metaco - the Swiss digital asset custody firm that Ripple acquired earlier this year - has sent waves of excitement throughout the cryptocurrency community, especially amongst the diehard enthusiasts of Ripple’s XRP, also known as the “XRP Army.” The partnership has sparked optimism that major financial organizations are about to adopt Ripple's XRP token and blockchain technology.

The "XRP Army," a group of ardent XRP advocates, sees HSBC's choice to work with Metaco, as a sign that XRPL and the XRP Ledger are gaining traction in the traditional banking industry. The enthusiasm should, however, be balanced with some reality. Adoption is more complicated than it seems.

Adrien Treccani is the CEO of Metaco. He stressed that the partnership between Metaco & HSBC didn't happen overnight. Metaco was in talks with the bank over 18 months prior to the Ripple acquisition. This shows the careful planning and consideration that goes into forming such partnerships within the financial sector.

Treccani admits that there may not be a direct link between Ripple’s acquisition of Metaco, and HSBC’s decision. However, there is a indirect connection. The success of Ripple, as a business, ultimately contributes towards the broader adoption XRPL protocol as a blockchain. This reinforces the value of XRP token.

Ripple is actively courting banks, with an emphasis on streamlining processes like cross-border payment. XRPL is a leading example of a blockchain which combines both public and private uses cases, while also offering scalability benefits over its competitors such as Ethereum. It supports tokenized assets natively, reducing the reliance on smart contract, and facilitates trading on-chain with other blockchain-based platforms and automated market-makers (AMMs).

Metaco's collaboration with Ripple provides a comprehensive solution that includes both infrastructure and value-added service. The integrated approach allows banks to receive digital asset custody, tokenization capability, payment services and liquidity management all from one vendor.

The partnership between Metaco & Ripple is not without its challenges. Rumors emerged following the acquisition that Metaco's clients were looking at alternative solutions because of concerns about Ripple’s ongoing legal fight with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Treccani clarified some of the speculation, and that post-acquisition discussions were standard business practice. Most contracts with banks contain provisions for ownership changes.

Treccani said, "Yes, such discussions have taken place, and we've spent the last few months clarifying with banks the situation. I believe we've been successful. You will see more Tier One Bank Partnerships that we are soon going to announce in Europe, America, APAC and Africa."

HSBC, like many other major financial institutions is recognizing that tokenization, or the process of representing assets in the real world on blockchains, has great potential. It also recognizes the importance of robust technology for digital asset custody to facilitate this transition.

Treccani is driven by his dedication to cryptocurrency, and the principles that it represents. He will continue to serve banks as their needs change. He believes that many banks will eventually want to offer cryptocurrency-related services, and by building tokenization capabilities now, they will be well-prepared to embrace the world of cryptocurrency when the time comes.

Ripple releases one billion XRP as the Ripple-SEC case hints at resolution

Whale Alert, a popular crypto tracking platform reported that Ripple Labs in San Francisco, a fintech giant, had recently released one billion XRP through escrow. This move highlights Ripple’s commitment to support XRP’s liquidity in exchanges and the broader crypto market.

The crypto tracking platform identified three major transfers that each carried a significant amount of XRP. The transfers totaled one billion Ripple tokens, with 500,000,000, 300,000,000, and 200,000,000 of XRP. This is equivalent to $601.4 million in fiat currency. These withdrawals are regular and have occurred consistently since early 2018. They always occur on the first of every new month.

Ripple releases these XRP to the market as part of its strategy. Ripple Labs typically moves approximately 800,000,000 XRP back into escrow in the days that follow these withdrawals. This process is repeated every 30 days. These routine XRP releases don't seem to have a major impact on the XRP value.

Whale Alert, in addition to Ripple’s XRP movement, also detected a withdrawal from Binance of 27,000,000XRP, which is equivalent to $16,413,770USD. This purchase may seem unusual at first, and could be a violation of the trading maxim "buy low, sale high." On closer inspection, it was discovered that the wallet of the sender also belonged to Binance, which indicated this was an intra-exchange transfer.

Recent developments around Ripple sparked speculation in the XRP Community regarding the ongoing legal fight with the SEC. Since its inception in December 2020, this case has been a major fixture in the crypto-world.

The SEC has announced a closed meeting to be held in the near future, presumably for the purpose of discussing the Ripple lawsuit. This announcement has fueled optimism among the XRP community. Ripple won two important victories in court against the regulatory agency earlier this year.

In July, Federal judge Torres ruled XRP transfers from Ripple on the secondary market were not security sales. The price of XRP soared after this decision, reaching a high local value of $0.71. The price then began to decline.

In the fall, Ripple won a second victory when the SEC dropped all charges against Brad Garlinghouse (Ripple's CEO) and Chris Larsen (the company's cofounder). These developments have given XRP fans hope that a solution to the long-running Ripple/SEC case is on the horizon.

Ripple releases XRP strategically to maintain the currency's liquidity and stability.

Price Overview

Chart for the XRP/USDT pair (Source: TradingView).

After a 0.20% gain over the last 24 hours, XRP is approaching the major resistance at $0.6235. The remittance coin was trading at $0.6137 as of press time. If the cryptocurrency can break through the barrier within the next 24 hour, it may continue to climb to $0.6800. A rejection of the $0.6235 barrier could cause XRP to fall back to $0.5730.

The Colombian President Gustavo Petro is now a Bitcoin owner. He did not buy cryptocurrency, however. Samson Mow gave Colombia's president 100,000 sats, which is the smallest unit in the Bitcoin currency. He then shared the news via Twitter and revealed that Petro was "now a #Bitcoin HOLDER for sure."

It's a nice gift, but not very impressive, since it is the equivalent of 40 dollars. Still, it's a nifty PR stunt for Mow, a former chief strategy officer of Blockstream and currently the CEO of JAN3, a tech company focused on expanding access to Bitcoin, with a declared mission "to accelerate hyperbitcoinization."

Satoshis were exchanged during the meeting between President Mow and a delegation headed by Mow. The Chinese-Canadian cryptoentrepreneur has been actively advocating Bitcoin adoption in Latin America for several years. (JAN3 registered Prospera ZEDE, a private island and special economic zone in Roatan, Honduras).

He was a advisor to Nayib Bukele, the President of El Salvador. First, when the country adopted Bitcoin. The collaboration then evolved into the Bitcoin City project. Mow revealed recently that he plans to meet the newly-elected president of Argentina Javier Milei. Milei is a Bitcoin enthusiast, and self-described as anarcho-capitalist.

He stopped in Columbia on his way to the south where prospects of developing the Bitcoin-based economy are bright. Petro, during the meeting with the Colombian delegation, announced plans to create working groups within the Colombian public administration as well as work cooperatives in order to promote and support the growth of the crypto economy.

Petro, who will take the position in 2022 has already expressed his interest in crypto, elaborating the "strength of Bitcoin" on social media. He said that cryptocurrency could be used to take back power from governments and banks. He also took the topic to a metaphysical level, stating that "virtual money is pure energy and information."

Hayden Adams, one of the youngest crypto founders of today, earned his place among the crypto OGs by founding Uniswap as a cryptocurrency exchange decentralized and controlled by smart contracts rather than people. Uniswap is one of the most widely used crypto applications today. It has laid the foundations for DeFi.

Hayden Adams began working on Uniswap's first version as a hobby project to hone coding skills. His foray into Ethereum paid off in spades, making Adams, 32, a multimillionaire, and a hero to the crypto degens.

Also read: Jesse Powell's Net Worth: Just How Rich is the Founder of Kraken Crypto Exchange, Jesse Powell?

Hayden Adams’ journey is a heartwarming success story for crypto entrepreneurs and leaders. It serves as inspiration to individuals who are striving to be successful in a highly competitive industry. You've come to the right place if you are interested in how Adams created Uniswap, and what made it so successful. Learn more about Hayden Adams' net worth, Uniswap and its impact on crypto.

Hayden Adams' age, background and education

Hayden Adams, born October 21, 1992 in New York City, United States, was raised there. Hayden Adams prefers to keep the details of his family and early life private. Adams graduated from Stony Brook University in 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.

Adams worked for Columbia University Medical Center while he was pursuing his degree at Stony Brook University. He developed a search algorithm to retrieve relevant articles from the PubMed Database. After completing his degree, Adams began working for Siemens where he was in charge of performing engineering simulations within the automotive and aerospace industry. Adams, who had been working at Siemens for more than a year, was let go from the company late in 2017. He found himself at a crossroads, not knowing what to do with his life.

The creation of Uniswap

Hayden Adams, feeling down about his future and worried, sought the advice of Karl Floersch who was at the time working for the Ethereum Foundation. Floersch encouraged him to explore the Ethereum blockchain by describing it as a field with great potential. Adams, who lacked the necessary coding knowledge, took on the challenge. He spent the next two month learning the basics of Ethereum Solidity and JavaScript.

Hayden Adams chose a real-world project to expand his skill set: a decentralized cryptocurrency trading platform that relies on automated market makers, controlled by smart contracts without any human trust. Alan Lu, a Gnosis employee, came up with the idea. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin then developed it further, hoping that this novel concept would be more popular among DeFi enthusiasts and builders.

Hayden Adams gave it a shot. He worked from October to November 2017 on the proof-of concept for the first version Uniswap. It consisted of a one-pager with a single liquidity provider. Adams' POC had a better UX than EtherDelta at the time, which was the only decentralized exchange that gained traction.

Hayden Adams learned a lot about writing smart contracts while creating the first demo for Uniswap. However, he lived off the crypto he managed to accumulate earlier in the year. After reviewing the Uniswap Demo, Pascal van Hecke, a smart contract developer, reached out to Adams and offered him mentorship as well as a grant for his next month's work on the project.

As time went on, Uniswap became more than a hobby project for Hayden Adams. He was so enamored with Ethereum's core principles of decentralization, censorship resistance and transparency that he set a more ambitious goal.

"I started thinking about Uniswap as a tool not only for myself, but also for others. I couldn't imagine a world in which it was competing with "real" project. You know -- those that raised between 20,000,000 and 150,000,000 dollars in Summer 2017. Hayden Adams, writing on the Uniswap Labs Blog, said that it might serve as a good example of an Ethereum-based application.

The dev team grew as Uniswap developed, adding two new members who helped Adams with the frontend, which was lagging. By April 2018, Uniswap's founder had seen his crypto holdings plummet by 75%. This drastically reduced his personal runway. Hayden Adams was encouraged to apply for a grant by Vitalik Buterin after a short exchange at a crypto conference.

Hayden Adams, armed with a grant, prepared himself for the last effort before releasing the protocol. The team conducted a code review and modified smart contracts so that they always favored liquidity providers rather than traders. They also audited protocol security and implemented new frontend design.

Uniswap was launched in Prague on the final day of Devcon 4's conference, November 2, 2018. Hayden Adams originally named the exchange Unipeg, a mix of pegasus (a unicorn) and pegasus (a horse). However, Vitalik Buterin suggested the name Uniswap.

Uniswap token airdrop

Uniswap quickly rose to prominence as a leader in the decentralized finance industry. Uniswap, despite its rapid rise to prominence in decentralized finance, still lacked a native token as of September 2020 - nearly two years after it was launched. Hayden Adams noted at the start of his work with Uniswap that many Ethereum projects from the ICO era had been designed around the idea of a token, without the need for one. This was not the future he wanted for his project.

Token governance was needed to ensure self-sustainability, community ownership and to allow for shared community ownership of the decentralized exchange. Governance tokens in DeFi give token holders voting rights within the decentralized autonomous organisation (DAO) which steers the protocol's development. The voting power is directly proportional to tokens owned by each member.

Uniswap, with the goal of neutrality and minimization of trust, created UNI. The new token was airdropped to all users who have ever used the exchange. On September 17, 2020 400 UNI tokens will be distributed to over 250,000 accounts. The airdrop, which was worth more than $1400 at the moment, generously compensated early adopters of the protocol. It naturally gained widespread community attention. Within a month, nearly 91% of the assets were claimed by eligible accounts. Three years after the airdrop, over 30,000 wallets have not claimed their UNI bags. This leaves over $84,000,000 worth of tokens untouched.

Uniswap and decentralized finance

Uniswap v4's history is marked by continuous innovation. It has set new standards in the field of decentralized financial services. Take a look at a small pet project that reshaped crypto.

Uniswap was the first decentralized exchange in November 2018 to introduce the Constant Product Market Maker model (CPMM). Uniswap, instead of relying solely on order book solutions, allows anyone to provide liquidity to a pool of two tokens by putting up an equivalent amount of both assets in exchange for pool tokens. These pool tokens track the value deposited assets, and can be redeemed at any time. The liquidity providers can also earn fees on trades made in the pool.

The pairs of tokens in the pool act as automated market-makers, rebalancing both tokens' prices and allowing the users to exchange one asset for another. The ratio between the two tokens within the pool is altered when a trade takes place, and this in turn affects their relative price. Arbitrage opportunities are created by any divergences in the process.

Uniswap's new token swap approach was a catalyst in DeFi’s evolution. It opened up new horizons, including yield farming and liquidity mining, for the decentralized economic system. It has also led to new financial instruments, including DEX aggregators, which are specialized protocols searching for the lowest prices on all exchanges, and directing users towards the best trading outcomes.

Uniswap, in addition to its role in the development of a decentralized governance paradigm, also sparked some new narratives, popularizing retroactive token airdrops to transfer protocol ownership from the central authority to the community. After Uniswap governance token airdrops were a popular trend in DeFi. Popular protocols such as Optimism Arbitrum and Curve participated.

Hayden Adams' net worth: Where did it come from?

Hayden Adams' net worth has never been publicly disclosed, but various sources estimate that it is around $250 million. The majority of Hayden Adams' wealth is likely derived from his stake in UNI, which were distributed to early users and reserved for advisors and investors. According to the Uniswap Labs Blog, 21.5% out of 1 billion UNI minted during genesis were allocated to future employees and team members with a vesting period of four years.

It was not disclosed how much UNI Adams received from the airdrop. However, as a lead developer and founder of UNI, it is safe to assume he received a substantial compensation for his participation. Hayden Adams may have a substantial net worth, given the significant appreciation of UNI's price since its launch.

Adams likely also has a substantial equity stake in Uniswap Labs. The company's success will directly impact his net worth. Uniswap Labs achieved elite unicorn status in October 2022 after its Series B financing round, which brought its valuation up to a whopping $1.75 billion.

Adams' involvement in the crypto-industry and his connections make it likely that Uniswap's founder has various crypto assets, and may even have stakes in promising startup companies. Adams' Crunchbase page shows that he participated in two funding rounds for notable blockchain companies: Lens Protocol and WalletConnect.

Hayden Adams, the CEO of Uniswap Labs, is likely to receive a salary that is competitive with the market for his position within the company.

Bottom Line

Uniswap was founded in late 2018 and has since become one of most popular crypto apps, with millions users and over $1.5 trillion of trading volume in a lifetime. Hayden Adams's determination and daring would have made it impossible for Uniswap to succeed. He ventured into uncharted DeFi territory despite not having the skills or guidance necessary at the time.

Adams' willingness and ability to explore and learn about the potential of Ethereum have since paid off. As of November 2023 his estimated networth is approximately $250 million. This comes mainly from his UNI holdings, and equity stakes in Uniswap Labs. Adams' success goes beyond his inclusion on Forbes 30 Under 30: the 31-year old founder is one of the crypto industry's most influential voices, often sharing his thoughts on decentralized government and the future.

You can learn more about other crypto personalities' net worth by reading our articles on Vitalik Buterin, Michael Saylor, Kevin O'Leary, Shark Tank and Jesse Powell.

Custodial Staking is a method of earning rewards in crypto by entrusting your cryptocurrency to a third party service or platform.

It allows users to take part in Proof-of-Stake networks, without having to manage technical aspects or maintain constant connectivity.

As blockchain networks mature users discover new ways to contribute and participate to these decentralized eco-systems.

In this article we will explore the finer points of custodial stake and explain why it's important for the blockchain.

Understanding Staking

It's important to understand the basics of staking before you can move on to custodial stakes.

Staking is a way to actively participate in the operation of a blockchain by securing a certain amount as collateral. The collateral plays an important role in validating and securing transactions.

In traditional staking, users are required to manage the wallets of their staking-nodes and directly participate in the consensus mechanism on the blockchain. Custodial Staking adds a new twist to the process.

What is Custodial Stabbing?

Custodial Staking is the process of delegating responsibility for staking your cryptocurrency and securing it to a third party entity. This entity can be a custodian, or a service provider that provides staking services.

Users trust these entities with the technical aspects of stake, including node maintenance, transaction validation and other related tasks, while still maintaining ownership of their cryptocurrency.

The rise of custodial staking platforms

There are several custodial stake platforms that simplify the process, especially for those users who lack the technical knowledge or time to actively manage their staking. These platforms offer user-friendly interfaces and seamless staking experience, as well as additional features to enhance the overall stake process.

Custodial stakes: Benefits and Advantages

Cryptocurrency custodial stakes have many benefits. These are:

Simple and accessible

Custodial stake platforms are designed to appeal to a wider audience, by simplifying the process of staking. This accessibility is especially beneficial for those who are new to the crypto world, since it allows them participate in staking while not having to learn the technical aspects of running nodes.

Reduced Technical Burden

Staking can be a technical challenge, especially when self-managed. This includes maintaining server uptime and keeping software current, as well as troubleshooting any potential problems. The custodial stake services relieve this burden, as they handle the technical aspects for users. It allows users to stake without requiring specialized knowledge or constant supervision.

Liquidity

Custodial stake platforms are more flexible than traditional staking, which locks assets up for a fixed period. Users can keep their staked assets liquid, allowing them to react quickly to market changes or unexpected circumstances.

Earn Passive Income

Custodial Staking is a way for users to earn passive income by staking. Users can earn passive income by delegating assets to a custodian.

Risks and considerations

It is important to know the advantages and disadvantages of custodial stakes.

Trust Dependency

The inherent trust that users have in the custodial services is one of the main risks involved with custodial stake. Users must have faith that the custodian is going to manage their staked assets responsibly and securely. This dependence on a third-party introduces a single point of failure and emphasizes the importance of conducting thorough research before choosing a custodial stake platform.

Security Concerns

Due to their concentration, custodial stake platforms are attractive targets for malicious agents. In the event of a hacking or security breach, users risk losing their staked asset. It is important to choose a custodial service that has robust security features, such as encryption protocols, two factor authentication, and an open security history.

Centralization Concerns

Critics claim that custodial stakes introduce a degree of centralization into blockchain networks. This is contrary to the principles of decentralization these networks strive to maintain. Users who delegate their staking powers to a central entity run the risk of a few custodians controlling a large portion of staking power. This could compromise the security and decentralization of the network.

Possible Platform Closure

Users should be aware that the platform may close or stop offering its services. Users may have difficulty retrieving staked assets in such cases. This highlights the importance of selecting a well-established and reputable crypto exchange.

The Future of Custodial Staking

Custodial stake is a simple way for anyone to earn rewards and participate in blockchain networks without requiring extensive technical knowledge.

Although the benefits are obvious, it is important to choose a reputable custodian and thoroughly research them before staking.

As custodial stake continues to develop in conjunction with the crypto ecosystem, it is important to strike a balance between security and convenience.

Onyx is a cross token liquidity market that appears to be in limbo, trying to figure out the best way to recover from the hack of November 1, when the Web3 Project lost more than $2 million.

After the DAO leaders rejected the first two reimbursement plans, which offered the community the choice of using the DAO's treasury to compensate for hacks or depending on Strike Finance who was ready to takeover the protocol, they introduced the third proposal. The proposal focused on the use of the XCN DAO in order to resolve financial issues, while preserving Onyx and the XCN token. The plan included reducing inflation, changing staking rewards and winding down the lending markets.

Onyx Community tries to save the project with a new proposal

Onyx's community came up with a new proposal after the rejection of the old one. It was defeated as well on 25 November, despite a strong showing of support. Six addresses voted in favor with a total of 64,69 million votes and 11 addresses voted against with 260 million votes.

The Onyx team then proposed a new plan. They suggested the launch of Onyx V2 with an emphasis on primary markets. The proposal aims at maintaining current stake rates to encourage governing XCN stakeholders. The strategy also suggests redeploying NFT money markets in v2 market, with only ETH and WBTC lending markets and continuing support for all three NFTs.

The proposal has received support from 14 addresses, a total of 250.38 millions votes, and no votes have been cast against it. However, some members of Onyx's community are concerned about the lack of a clearly defined reimbursement plan.

The recovery strategy will include a snapshot of the user balances as v1 ends to create a plan for ongoing recovery. The recovery strategy explains that these high-revenue assets can be used to support the recovery plan.

Read on: Onyx Community rejects Strike Finance's proposal for Protocol acquisition

A number of community members also expressed their distrust, raising concerns over a large withdrawal, estimated at almost half a mil dollars as at the time of press, which was worth nearly 500 million XCN. The withdrawal took place two days after hacking, causing investors to worry about the possibility of an unauthorized withdrawal. The withdrawn XCN were divided between multiple wallets, and then moved to exchanges.

Alex, the DAO leader, explained that "Whales staked tokens or supplied XCN before the hack and, after they learned about the incident, withdrew the tokens from the protocol because they were confused as to whether it was safe for them to keep the staked tokens."