Earlier this month, members of the Liquid Federation and Blockstream attended Bitcoin Tokyo 2024, Japan’s largest annual Bitcoin gathering, to discuss the convergence of Bitcoin and Japan’s financial sector. Among the topics up for discussion was the potential role of Bitcoin layer-2 scaling technologies, including Liquid, in helping to drive a new era of innovation in global finance.

Full details in the Liquid blog:

https://blog.liquid.net/liquid-provides-glimpse-of-the-future-of-bitcoin-based-capital-markets-at-tokyo-bitcoin-2024/

Big news in the world of RWAs: Alongside Bitfinex Securities, NexBridge is issuing US Treasury bills (USTBL) leveraging Bitcoin's Liquid Network and Blockstream’s AMP technology. The initial offering has a soft cap of $30 million, providing investors with efficient access to U.S. Treasury returns through a regulated digital asset structure.

Full details: https://blog.liquid.net/press-releases/nexbridge-launches-first-regulated-public-offering-of-tokenized-u-s-treasury-bills/

Digital asset issuer and new member of the Liquid Federation, NexBridge, has successfully oversubscribed the initial offering of $30 million for USTBL, a token representing US Treasury bills on the Liquid Network, in less than 72 hours.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/el-salvador-platform-raises-30-million-tokenized-us-treasury-offering

Last month marked an important milestone for Liquid as the Blockstream team, led by CEO Dr. Adam Back, and members of the Liquid Federation, visited Taipei to engage with legislators and fintech leaders about developing capital markets on Bitcoin. Read the blog post below for full details:

https://blog.liquid.net/real-world-assets-in-taiwan-documenting-a-week-of-transformation/

We are excited to announce the release of Elements 23.2.5 and the deployment of ELIP 200: Discounted Fees for Confidential Transactions on Liquid mainnet. The new fee policy offers up to 90% reduction in CT fees, significantly lowering the cost of sending Liquid assets like USDT.

https://blog.liquid.net/confidentiality-made-affordable-elip-200-unlocks-up-to-90-lower-fees-on-liquid/

🇸🇻 Announcing El Salvador as the next stop for the Liquid Developer Bootcamp! 🇸🇻

If you're a developer looking to gain hands-on experience, explore career opportunities, and learn more about how Liquid works under the hood, sign up, and we'll be in touch!

http://liquid.net/bootcamp

There's a few spots left for the Liquid Developer Bootcamp in El Salvador, February 3-4! 💻

Join us for a special two-day training to learn how to integrate Liquid, Lightning and other layer-2 technology into your Bitcoin business. 🌊⚡️

Apply now: http://liquid.net/bootcamp

What is the Nick Szabo School of Economics?

Adolfo Contreras at Blockstream explains Bitcoin as a form of private property and its ability to scale trust without relying on institutions. Liquid expands this concept to capital markets, enabling societies that may lack institutional trust and rule of law, to build their own financial markets that can compete with the first world. 🌐🌊

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LDYH12MQoY

Traditional financial markets, with complex regulations and intermediaries, are costly and hinder growth. A secure, Bitcoin-based financial network, such as Liquid, enables economies in LATAM to connect valuable local assets with global liquidity with minimal overhead.

A real-world example is in Mexico, where local NBFIs are tokenizing promissory notes on Liquid to increase lending, utilizing previously illiquid assets as collateral to connect with global investors and financial institutions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCGy_M6PerQ

Federation update: A new ELIP dubbed 'DustCT' has been proposed by Kilian Rausch from Boltz and other members of the Federation's tech board to lower Liquid's dust limit, allowing for significantly smaller transactions (~21 sats) on the network.

Implementation work is already in full swing for wallet tools: Elements Core, GDK, and LWK. For more information on Elements Improvement Proposals (ELIPs) and how to propose your own, visit the official repo:

https://github.com/ElementsProject/ELIPs/tree/main

In addition to the opportunity in Buenos Aires next weekend, we're announcing two more bootcamps in Turin, Italy and Plovdiv, Bulgaria. 🇦🇷🇮🇹🇧🇬

Join and learn directly from experts at Blockstream, Breez, AQUA, and others.

Full details and application @ liquid.net/bootcamp

We're on a world tour to empower developers with Bitcoin layer-2: Liquid and Lightning. Free to attend. More dates and cities soon:

☑️Viareggio, IT
☑️Taipei, TW
☑️San Salvador, SV
☑️Buenos Aires, AR
🔳Plovdiv, BG [May 17-18]

[https://liquid.net/bootcamp]