“Gensler singled out bitcoin ETFs which invest in futures contracts that trade on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and register under the Investments Company Act of 1940. The so-called ‘40 Act “provides significant investor protections,” he said in prepared remarks for a Financial Times conference:
I look forward to staff’s review of such filings.
The SEC is reviewing almost two dozen ETF filings for bitcoin, bitcoin futures, ether and ether futures products. Industry observers expect decisions as early as October.“
“The Merge Interop spec was released on Friday. This “meta-spec” provides stable targets for engineers for an initial wave of testing and devnets.
After a flurry of specification activity over the past few months, Merge specs are near feature complete, and the core logic is stable. In this next phase, engineers will build out the Merge logic and test their software with other teams on short-lived devnets. The engineers will vet the specs as they stand today and provide dynamic feedback into the specs to refine and/or fix issues as they arise.
Proof-of-stake superceding proof-of-work is years in the making, and we’re just as excited as you to see it in action. Much fun coming in October. 🏺🚀”
“Twitter Spaces software engineer Mada Aflak showed a quick demo in which a person would click on their avatar and select an NFT from their crypto wallet. After downloading their NFTs from OpenSea, a popular marketplace for the digital collectibles, they can put the NFT in their avatar—complete with the customary blue checkmark to show that they’re the true owner of the image.
NFTs have become akin to social currency of late as devotees of Ethereum and other smart contract blockchains have recently begun posting their digital possessions as profile photos.”
“4K platform, a marketplace that allows users to mint non-fungible tokens (NFTs) representing physical assets, launched on the Ethereum network Wednesday morning.
4K says it will bring real-world assets onto the blockchain by issuing users of the platform an NFT symbolizing ownership of a physical good. The company obtains the item from a seller, authenticates, insures and stores it. The NFT holder can then trade their NFT for the physical item. Upon redemption, the NFT is destroyed, meaning the holder cannot possess both the physical object and the NFT simultaneously.
4K is an analog to digital converter for physical collectibles.
According to Li, most sales of luxury artworks occur only “on paper,” with no physical transferring of goods. ‘The ownership changes, but the pieces don’t move.’ NFTs therefore make ownership of non-fungible, real-world items easy to trade and gift, potentially disrupting traditional marketplaces or auction houses such as eBay, Christie’s and Sotheby’s.”
“The region of Central, Northern, and Western Europe (CNWE) has become the world’s largest cryptocurrency economy thanks to the proliferation of decentralized finance (DeFi), according to the latest report by crypto analytics firm Chainalysis.
Larger traditional institutional players have been paying increasingly more attention to DeFi, and this trend was most prominent in CNWE’s crypto sector. The combined value of large institutional-sized transactions—i.e. transfers worth $10 million or more—reportedly grew from $1.4 billion in July 2020 to $46.3 billion in June 2021. The data shows that over the last 12 months, the majority of large institutional-sized transfers went to DeFi platforms.
DeFi protocols represent three to four of the top five services in most months, with Uniswap, Instadapp, and dYdX making frequent appearances.
Ethereum and Wrapped Etherum became the most popular cryptocurrencies in almost every CNWE country, outpacing Bitcoin in terms of sheer volume. In the U.K., for example, Bitcoin makes up 27% of the total crypto transaction value while ETH and WETH made up 40%.”
“The 12 relatively unknown options merchants accused of failing to register with the CFTC are New York-based, according to a Wednesday press release. The two companies that are accused of “making false and misleading claims of having CFTC registration and National Futures Association (NFA) membership”– Climax Capital FX and Digitalexchange24.com – are based in Texas and Arkansas.
The CFTC has traditionally taken more of a backseat role in crypto regulation than the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but there are signs this might be changing as the two regulatory bodies jockey for power.”
“Cryptocurrencies were mostly lower on Tuesday, tracking losses in equities after the U.S. Senate failed to act to extend the debt ceiling and avoid a partial federal government shutdown as soon as Oct.15. The 10-year Treasury bond yield rose to 1.50%, the highest level since June, accompanied by a rally in the dollar as investors position themselves for a potential government default.
In equities, we are about to enter the most dangerous month of the year – October has been the month where crashes and major corrections take place.
Crypto is vacillating between resistance and support, waiting for regulatory clarity in the U.S. and central bank moves around the Chinese debt crisis.”
“Some prominent bitcoin influencers have begun pushing back against toxicity and isolationism in the bitcoin community. As Wertheimer argues, the case for coin tribalism is wearing thin.
For the past few days noted bitcoin booster Udi Wertheimer has been kicking the cyber hornet’s nest, challenging a non-dominant opinion in some of the online spaces bitcoiners congregate that bitcoin is the one, true crypto asset.
He’s been on a tear, questioning the immune-like response bitcoiners activate when anyone denigrates “the coin” or mentions other cool crypto things happening on other chains. Everything “crypto” – that is non-bitcoin – is a scam; everyone who sees value elsewhere is a scammer.
As bitcoin continues to gain prominence in the global economy and activity on the internet, it has also become central to some people’s sense of identity. Bitcoin is not just an asset to hold but a movement in which you participate. Extreme fanaticism conflates perceived attacks on the Bitcoin network to one’s sense of self. Bitcoin became a mind colony. Ideas about bitcoin hardened, the scope of acceptable debates shrunk and everyone slightly heterodox was now a heathen.
[S]eparatism used to be a fitting response, e.g., in 2017, when actual bad actors tried to hurt the movement. [H]owever, 2021 is different, the new crowds aren’t trying to hurt anyone, and separatism doesn’t achieve the stated goal of ‘educating’ anyone.
‘I used to believe that Bitcoin should be the base layer of everything and we should just build layer 2 solutions on top … to add flexibility.’ Looking a little closer, however, Wall discovered that these add-ons failed to live up to their expectations. That wasn’t the case for Ethereum, which has suffered from its own expansion issues but found “flexible,” “feature rich” and “decentralized” solutions like rollups.
That’s something that made me start to change my position on whether or not bitcoin was the only asset that had a role to play in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Sometimes when people invest in a blockchain’s promises, ‘they feel as if they have no way of backing out or changing their mind in light of new information or evidence.’ But crypto markets are open 24/7, and markets account for all available information.
When I realized this, the only thing that I had to do was to buy some ether [the native currency of the Ethereum blockchain] to be in alignment with my beliefs. Now I’m not afraid of ether becoming successful.”
“Connext, a platform based on the Ethereum blockchain that allows users to conduct transactions across different Ethereum-compatible networks, announced the launch of NXTP, a tool that allows communication between different blockchains and their offshoots, known as layer 2 systems and sidechains.
Our vision for NXTP is that it will become the internet protocol of the Ethereum multi-chain ecosystem. Now that it’s live, our focus will be on growing liquidity within the system, rapidly adding support for new chains/L2s, and transitioning the protocol to becoming entirely owned and operated by the community.
The growing field of “cross-chain interoperability” networks also includes Hermez, Loopring and StarkEx. Connext says one big advantage of NXTP is that it doesn’t introduce third-party validators to control user funds, which can pose a security risk.”
“Altair, which is described as the first mainnet upgrade to the Beacon Chain, is scheduled to take place at epoch 74240, or roughly Oct. 27.
This upgrade brings light-client support to the core consensus, cleans up beacon state incentive accounting, fixes some issues with validator incentives and steps up the punitive params as per EIP-2982.
EIP-2982 introduces “punitive parameters” to ensure that the proof-of-stake protocol is economically secure. “Inactivity leak” and “slashing” are the two proposed penalties under the improvement proposal.”
“The issue of CBDCs and financial privacy were featured during Tuesday’s contentious Senate Banking Committee hearing. Powell called the development of a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC) “critical work,” telling Senate Banking Committee ranking member Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) that “broad consultation and, ultimately, authorizing legislation from Congress” would be “ideal.”
The privacy of Americans has to be respected. We shouldn’t design a central bank digital dollar that allows the government to spy on Americans every transaction. [Sen. Toomey]
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a well-known supporter of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, lambasted the Treasury Department for the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) push to enact new regulations requiring banks to report transactions from all accounts with over $600.
This is invasive of privacy. Wyoming’s people literally will find alternatives to traditional banks just to thwart IRS access to their personal information, not because they’re trying to hide anything, but because they’re not willing to share everything.”
“Securitize has been issuing security tokens since 2017 through its U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission-registered transfer agent. Now it can sell and trade them through its alternative trading system (ATS), which is run by its broker-dealer.
We want to facilitate liquidity to companies earlier on without having to go through the expensive and lengthy process of registering with the SEC. We also want to give the opportunity to individual investors to invest in these companies early on and get a return that is otherwise not available to the public.”
“Announced Monday, the bill would task the Treasury Department, Attorney General, U.S. Trade Representative, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and members of the Federal Reserve with monitoring how crypto is used by both governments and private entities.
These groups would also be charged with estimating how much crypto was mined overall between 2016 and 2022, and identifying which cryptocurrencies were mined. It is unclear whether mining in the context of the bill refers solely to cryptocurrency mining through proof-of-work coins like bitcoin, or if proof-of-stake coins would also qualify.
The bill would also require the U.S. agencies to ‘identify vulnerabilities, including those related to supply disruptions and technology availability of the global microelectronic supply chain, and opportunities with respect to virtual currency mining operations.'”
“Native tokens of leading decentralized trading platforms are surging as the biggest centralized exchanges, Binance and Huobi, cut back on China to comply with local regulations.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) coins have picked up in the wake of China’s blanket ban on virtual currency-related businesses announced Friday, and Huobi’s decision to stop serving mainland Chinese investors. The crypto market is perhaps pricing an impending shift in trading volumes to the supposedly censorship-resistant DeFi rails from centralized exchanges.
According to China journalist Colin Wu, Chinese users will flock to DeFi platforms, bringing solid user growth to MetaMask and dYdX.
All Chinese communities are discussing how to learn DeFi.
dYdx has registered a trading volume of more than $4.3 billion in the past 24 hours, surpassing the Nasdaq-listed centralized crypto exchange Coinbase’s $3.7 billion.
Synergia Capital’s Denis Vinokourov told CoinDesk that the great rotation into all things DeFi has begun, and the sub-sector could see a prolonged bull run. Spartan Capital’s general partner and head of research, Jason Choi, tweeted that overregulation would be a bullish catalyst for DeFi.”
“Aave Arc may be close to onboarding its first “whitelister” – a possible step towards institutional users integrating with the decentralized lending platform.
Aave Arc is an implementation of the Aave version 2 code designed to allow institutions to enforce regulatory compliance. Whitelisters would ensure that users of these permissioned lending pools comply with relevant laws depending on the jurisdiction of the user.
Fireblocks’ R&D, compliance and legal teams have developed a new whitelister framework for permissioned DeFi. This framework meets both enterprise-grade requirements for accessing DeFi and adheres to Aave Arc’s whitelister governance criteria.
Approving Fireblocks could also lead to integrations enabling new products, ‘such as the onboarding of regulated fiat on/off ramps and protocol deployments connected to debit cards, high yield savings accounts and other innovative fintech products.’“
“Up north in Canada, all is quiet. The debate over whether cryptocurrency exchanges need to register with Canada’s version of the SEC has already been settled. In a March 2021 notice, the Canadian Securities Administrators confirmed that crypto exchanges do need to be registered with a securities regulator.
To bring Coinbase and Kraken under the jurisdiction of securities law, the CSA has created a new catch-all term: a crypto contract. Crypto contracts are securities, and because Coinbase and Kraken offer them these platforms come under the ambit of Canadian securities law.
Pretty much everyone (including Canada’s regulators) agree that bitcoin is not a security. But according to the CSA, the bitcoin that a Coinbase client holds in their Coinbase account isn’t actually bitcoin. It is a contractual right or claim to underlying bitcoin, or as the CSA terms it, a crypto contract. Furthermore, the CSA deems all crypto contracts to be securities, even if the underlying crypto, say bitcoin, isn’t itself a security.
The CSA’s assertion about crypto contracts is one that ‘no other international securities regulator has yet taken.’ Will large U.S. exchanges like Kraken and Coinbase that serve Canadians choose to comply with Canadian securities laws?
The CSA’s list of requirements is long and demanding. Many exchanges won’t meet the CSA’s requirements, or can’t. But Canadian cryptocurrency venues such as Wealthsimple and Coinberry have fallen into line. And they don’t seem too salty about it, either. From the perspective of consumers, I’d argue the Canadian approach makes a lot of sense.
Whether Canada’s approach to crypto regulation becomes another export to the U.S., along with maple syrup or hockey, remains to be seen. But you can be sure that Gary Gensler is watching and pondering the idea of crypto contracts.“
“On Monday, Coinbase announced “Get paid in crypto,” a new service that will let nearly anyone in the U.S. who gets paid by direct deposit receive all or part of their wages in Bitcoin, Ethereum or various other cryptocurrencies.
Coinbase is working with major payroll and HR companies to let millions of workers get paid in crypto. Coinbase is billing the service as the “future of payroll.”
You can set up direct deposit in just a few steps without leaving the Coinbase app. Find your current payroll company or employer and we’ll automatically update your paycheck allocation.
Coinbase’s direct deposit offering follows a nascent push by 401k providers to let employees put crypto in their retirement accounts, reflecting how crypto is becoming increasingly mainstream in the broader American workforce.”
“Pelosi announced that the house will vote on whether to pass the Biden administration’s controversial $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill on Thursday, Sept. 30. However, the infrastructure bill faces opposition from some lawmakers who believe it should be held back until negotiations have ended regarding the follow-up $3.5 trillion social welfare and climate bill.
Tomorrow, September 27, we will begin debate on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework on the Floor of the House and vote on it on Thursday, September 30.”
“Shares of crypto-focused bank Silvergate Capital Corp. rose about 6% Monday after Morgan Stanley initiated coverage of the stock with an overweight rating and a $158 price target, indicating a 52% upside from the current price.
Silvergate gives bank investors a nearly pure-play way to participate in the rapid growth of the nascent cryptocurrency industry.
Silvergate Bank accepted a whopping $4.3 billion in new deposits from new and existing digital currency customers in the second quarter, the company announced in July.”
“CTX sold tokens corresponding to 5,000 metric tons of carbon credits generated by a wind project in Zhangjiakou. To issue a token, companies verify their carbon credits with a third-party agency, and then “freeze” the carbon credits at China’s national carbon trading market.
Tokens contain shared carbon information including emission records and tracing, carbon offsetting, carbon capture, storage, and reuse.
China launched its carbon trading market in July. The market is predicted to be the world’s largest once it is fully operational.”
“We’ve certainly come to an era now where private currencies are in real competition with central bank currencies.
The major trendlines, of private companies creating their own money, the rise of open-source crypto projects, the fintech stack, have not even begun to play themselves out.
To stay relevant, governments around the world will likely issue their own central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). This might be the most significant monetary event of all, which will have far-reaching consequences at every level of society. Money will never have been more transparent, more programmable, more technocratic.
In countries that are small, or where the central banks themselves are not that credible, and where their currencies suffer from a lot of volatility or possibly inflation or hyperinflation, the easy availability of digital versions of major currencies such as the dollar, the euro or even the Chinese renminbi, or even stablecoins issued by corporations such as Facebook, could lead to the decimation of some of the smaller currencies.
There are questions about whether something like ether – if Ethereum does adopt proof-of-stake – could serve as a more efficient medium of exchange, because it would then have lower latency and higher throughput. So maybe that might be a route to stability. But it’s hard to see proof-of-work protocols successfully supporting mediums of exchange. Perhaps ethereum will start giving fiat currencies some degree of competition.”
“On July 28, 2021, a new bill was introduced in the US House of Representatives. The bill is called the “Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act” (“Digital Asset Bill”). And for the majority, it sets out future rules for crypto. However, hidden in this bill, changes to the foundation of the Dollar are proposed.
Included in the Digital Asset Bill, amendments to the Federal Reserve Act and the definition of legal tender are proposed. These amendments drastically expand the powers of the Federal Reserve, and change how money is created and distributed in the US.
The original idea behind the Federal Reserve was for private bank deposits to be combined in a reserve. This could provide an emergency line of credit in times of economic stress. Contrary to what is widely understood, the Fed does not “print money.” It can only manage the money supply indirectly.
According to the Digital Asset Bill, section 11 of the Federal Reserve Act is to be amended to provide the Federal Reserve Board with new powers:
The Federal Reserve System is authorized to issue digital versions of Federal reserve notes in addition…is authorized to use distributed ledger technology for the creation, distribution and recordation of all transactions involving digital Federal reserve notes.
The Fed is currently not as powerful as it wants the market to believe; the Federal Reserve Act restricts a lot of its actions. This amendment, however, could drastically expand the powers of the FED, by allowing them to create and distribute a “digital USD” directly. It could change the entire structure of the financial system, with far reaching consequences.
It is a bit hard to imagine that such a centralized structure would not lead to monitoring of all transactions. And what mechanism will determine how funds (and how much) are added to the economy? And where and how will they be distributed? Will this all be under the control of a board of seven unelected bureaucrats? And how will they control a distributed ledger of such magnitude?“
“Fans buy, acquire or earn tokens, which represent a share in a creator’s career.
Crypto networks facilitate stronger relationships between creators and users. These relationships will introduce economic rewards and incentives to strengthen network effects.
It’s possible that “empowered” fans may go too far. Giving someone an economic stake in your career may make them feel entitled to make decisions on your behalf. Artists may be less incentivized to experiment or change direction, and super-fans may become your most vocal critics. And it’s not just your art that affects a token’s price, but potentially anything you do or say.
There’s also the unknown effects of conflating artistic worth with financial success. In a great introduction to social tokens, venture capitalist Rex Woodbury wrote, ‘In the future, instead of measuring a creator’s clout based on her Instagram following, we’ll point to her market cap.’
So what happens after the token creator dies? Assuming crypto is as “unstoppable” as claimed, the tokens should still exist and be tradeable. It’s possible death spells the end for a community, or, as so often the case in the history of art, a new critical awareness of the artist’s work.
There’s no single answer to this question, in part because tools like social tokens allow for the creation of so many different types of communities.”
“Frontrunning isn’t just for Citadel anymore. Undertaking these types of transactions in the world of crypto is far easier than it is on equity markets or futures markets.
The creators of Flashbots attest that they are simply “trying to solve a serious problem” of miners having power to decide which transactions in a block get priority while processing transactions for the ledger. While Flashbots doesn’t eliminate the frontrunning, it makes it available for everyone. The software “makes a market out of cutting in line.”
These transparent auctions differentiate crypto from the predatory, opaque manipulation that goes on in traditional financial exchanges.”
“Similar to the “.com” web craze, the latest fever in cryptocurrency markets has buyers scooping up blockchain domain names, which are being minted and sold as NFTs. Blockchain domains turn complex hexadecimal wallet addresses into easy-to-remember names and also enable censorship-resistant websites.
The domain names typically end in phrases such as “.crypto” or “.eth.” And some of the tokens are changing hands for upwards of $100,000 on NFT marketplaces like OpenSea. Since starting in 2018, Unstoppable Domains has registered over 1.4 million domain names, including several for Fortune 1000 companies.
These blockchain naming services are similar to the Internet’s Domain Name Service (DNS) but possess different underlying architecture and are based on the Ethereum blockchain. Some speculators are betting the value of blockchain domain names will approach the value of their Internet equivalents if crypto adoption heats up.”
“NFTs and blockchain technology have steadily seeped into the art and charity world, enabling artists and museums to monetize their work and continue to receive payments for their work even after it is sold.
Earlier this month, Russia’s Hermitage Museum, the largest art collection in the world, sold NFTs of several masterpieces in partnership with Binance’s NFT marketplace in order to cover the budget shortfalls brought about by the continuing COVID-19 crisis, with the auction including the sale of a work by Leonardo da Vinci for $440,000. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the largest art museum in the U.S., is expected to do the same by selling 219 prints and photographs to help make up for $150 million in lost revenue.
DoinGud’s blockchain-based social media and marketplace is designed to facilitate charitable giving via NFT sales to vetted social impact organizations of the creator’s choice. It will lead to ever-increasing opportunities to support worthy charitable causes that share the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals like ending world hunger, solving climate change and more.”
“With Oasis Multiply, you can now use your ETH, wBTC or other Maker supported collateral types to create a Multiply position (up to 4x*) and take advantage of upward trends of the supplied collateral.
Oasis Multiply, which is built on top of the Maker Protocol, 1inch DEX aggregator and Aave, allows users to borrow Dai and create Multiply Positions, which are similar to leveraged or margin positions but without the need to borrow funds from a centralised counterparty.
Overall, the approach in Oasis differs from existing models because instead of traditional options, such as counterparties lending users traditional fiat money for assets (like stocks), users access Dai by utilizing Vaults on the Maker Protocol. A user deposits collateral in a Vault to self-generate Dai as a funding source to purchase more collateral, multiplying their exposure to the asset.”
According to the Bitcoin Mining Council’s Q2 2021 Global Review, 56% of the energy used to power the Bitcoin network is renewable. Bitcoin mining companies do have a financial incentive to lower their energy costs and be sustainable.
In a memo in April, ARK Funds, led by Cathie Wood, and Square Crypto, led by Steve Lee, elaborated on research into how the Bitcoin network will lead to the growth of renewable energy. They made the case that bitcoin will likely do more than any government subsidy or program to grow renewables.
Former engineer and bitcoin mining expert Hass McCook noted that bitcoin mining emits less than 5% of the legacy financial sector’s carbon emissions.
Social:
Some 70% of the citizens of El Salvador are unbanked according President Nayib Bukele, and yet most have a phone. Accordingly, they can use a mobile bitcoin wallet, which is now plugged into a worldwide monetary system.
Because the supply of bitcoin is capped at 21 million, foreign leaders cannot make decisions that affect the savings of Salvadorans.
Governance:
Bitcoin has no decision-makers. Bitcoin is for all, and whether you have 0.00001 BTC or 10,000 BTC, the rules are the same, and you have the same benefits. There is no insider information – Bitcoin is open-source for all to review and see. Bitcoin does not discriminate by faith, sex, creed, gender – or anything.
“Reddit forum WallStreetBets has traditionally been standoffish toward crypto. It’s finally branching out into Bitcoin and beyond. The WSB forum was ground zero for GameStop stock purchases earlier this year. Its members now number close to 11 million.
In April, WSB made a small concession to its members interested in cryptocurrency, allowing discussion of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin—but no others—on a single thread. bawse1 wrote that the moderators didn’t want to “burden everyone with crypto spam.” That concession was reversed within 48 hours after Bloomberg ran an article titled “WallStreetBets Bows to Crypto.”
Now, crypto comments have their own home, with far fewer restrictions. The new subreddit, called WallStreetBetsCrypto, already has 14,000 members.”
“The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) announced tougher measures on crypto trading that, for the first time, makes illegal crypto-related transactions, including services provided by off-shore crypto exchanges.
The Sept. 24 notice bans banks and other financial institutions from offering services related to crypto, including transactions of fiat to crypto currencies, or from one crypto to another. Anyone facilitating trades is subject to legal prosecution.The involvement of law enforcement agencies, rather than civil entities, means crypto trading in China now has added a “financial crime aspect.”
This is certainly much bigger and more expansive than the destruction of the mining industry. It could easily be construed as making anything related to crypto possibly illegal under the menu of statutes the notice cites.
Despite the severity of the new language, some have remained positive about crypto’s future when it comes to China. Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron blockchain, pointed out the latest ban does not deny citizens’ “freedom of owning and exchanging virtual currency,” meaning there’s no clear ban on crypto possession.
Do not be too pessimistic about it. I think the biggest possibility in the future is that once major countries in Europe, North America as well as Japan, South Korea have come out with clearer regulatory policies on crypto, China will slowly introduce laws and regulations on crypto, too.”
“While each time this happens, the markets react with a price drop, each time the effect is smaller and more short-lived. The ‘China bans bitcoin’ story has gained almost a meme-like status in the bitcoin community because of this.
If China continues to enforce at this magnitude, crypto trading will shift to venues in countries with more stable regulatory environments, which means more predictable liquidity and healthier, more robust trading across the globe.
For the institutional crypto industry it won’t change much. The retail market most likely has gone under the radar and will continue to support market volumes.”
“After weeks of teasing the release on Twitter, Andre Cronje has launched Artion, an NFT marketplace on the Fantom blockchain. Artion appears to be a clear-cut vampire attack on OpenSea.
Artion sports a remarkably similar front end to OpenSea. Unlike OpenSea, Artion’s code is entirely open source, and the platform does not charge a fee for minting or purchasing NFTs. OpenSea charges a flat 2.5% fee on all purchases. OpenSea has no token, and has been continually raising hundreds of millions of dollars in private equity rounds throughout the last year.
Cronje revealed that Artion is preparing for a robust cross-chain market with a NFT token bridge, and that the platform will launch “on a new chain every week,” with Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche and Polygon as early targets.
We are open-sourcing it completely and encouraging teams to fork it. It’s about sending a message.”
“The U.S. regulator cited a law enforcement exemption in denying a Freedom of Information Act request about Tether. The SEC said it would not release records around Tether because they were collected for enforcement purposes, according to a FOIA response the SEC sent to The New Republic staff writer Jacob Silverman.
This exemption protects from disclosure records compiled for law enforcement purposes, the release of which could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement activities.
Any SEC investigation would have to have started recently. According to Bennett Tomlin, a data scientist, a similar FOIA request filed in February and returned in July found the SEC did not “locate or identify any information responsive to your request.”
The SEC response also said the withholding of records for the law enforcement exemption does not necessarily mean any charges or enforcement actions will be brought.”
“The U.S. House of Representatives has included a crypto provision in this year’s version of the annual defense budget bill. The defense bill generally receives wide bipartisan support and is seen as a must-pass bill.
The proposed legislation would require the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to clearly define which agency has oversight of which aspects of the crypto market. If the bill is enacted into law, Congress would create a working group within 90 days of the bill’s passage composed of SEC and CFTC representatives.
Over the course of a year, the group would then be required to analyze the current regulations and their impact on the primary and secondary markets while filing a report describing how current regulations affect the country’s competitiveness.”
“This will be the largest integration yet of crypto with an existing, mainstream digital service (aside from crypto features in financial apps like RobinHood and PayPal). And the fact that it’s Twitter making the first move could hardly be more bullish.
That said, I’m actually not certain the Bitcoin integration is the biggest part of the Twitter news. The friendly-looking Lightning interface is exciting, but Twitter has never prevented posting public crypto addresses to profiles, so in some sense it’s more an upgrade than an entirely new option.
NFT verification, however, will be a step change. The feature is still in development but it will provide some way of confirming and visually conveying that an NFT displayed in a Twitter profile is authentic, and that it is owned by the same person as the Twitter profile. This integration will make those claims vastly clearer and more powerful.“
“Securitize has signed on to provide a smart contract and issuance platform for the firm, starting with Arca’s tokenized fund dubbed the “Arca U.S. Treasury Fund,” which was launched in July 2020. Securitize is a registered transfer agent with over 200 clients and nearly a half-billion dollars in regulated securities issued in the past three years.
Arca touts the Arca U.S. Treasury Fund as the first treasury fund registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 to issue shares as digital assets via the blockchain. The fund meets the same regulatory requirements as a mutual fund, but differs by offering exposure via Ethereum-based digital asset security tokens called “ArCoin.”
Institutions have struggled to meet investor demand because few tokenization companies have met the rigorous regulatory and operational thresholds required by investors.”
“The Future of Life Institute, a charity and outreach organization, is launching two fellowship programs named after Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin. The Vitalik Buterin Ph.D. and postdoctoral fellowships are centered on “existential safety research” in artificial intelligence (AI).
The institute is ‘working to ensure that tomorrow’s most powerful technologies are beneficial for humanity.’ Specifically, the Future of Life Institute focuses on keeping artificial intelligence “beneficial,” while exploring ways of reducing risks from nuclear weapons and biotechnology.
The fellowship includes an annual $80,000 stipend and a fund of up to $10,000 that can be used for research-related expenses such as travel and computing.”
“Twitter users on Apple’s iOS will now be able to connect third-party tipping services to their profile on the social media site. That will include the ability to link both Bitcoin addresses and Lightning Network addresses. The “Tips” feature will roll out on Twitter’s iOS app today and will come to Android systems “soon.”
Twitter also announced today that it will add non-fungible token (NFT) verification features to the platform, a key step in the evolution of the booming trend for unique digital art, particularly as social media avatars. No specific timeline was laid out for the feature, which remains in development.
The feature is part of a broader push to increase the options for Twitter users with large followings to monetize their content.
The tipping feature will rely entirely on third-party payments services like Jack Mallers’ Strike app. Twitter is “not in the flow of funds” and won’t take a percentage of tipping proceeds, the company said.
There’s this great opportunity for us to choose global, barrier-less options.
Twitter’s addition of NFT verification is arguably just as significant as the new tipping feature. Over the past six months, the use of NFTs as avatars on the platform has exploded, with even celebrities like Jay-Z displaying multimillion-dollar CryptoPunks. A system for verifying the ownership and provenance of NFTs will likely add fuel to that practice and, in turn, reinforce the NFT ecosystem more broadly.”
“The startup said its “Strike API” – a payments plugin that processes bitcoin transactions over the Lightning Network – will roll out across a series of business partners.
Soon, any internet network, online marketplace, merchant, business, developer and more will have access to cheaper, faster, global payments of any size with the Strike API.
Mallers said a “select group” of businesses are preparing to integrate Strike API in the weeks ahead. That promise raises the prospect of massive new adoption of the Lightning Network, a layer 2 technology that allows users to make faster and lower-fee Bitcoin transactions.”
“Investment bank JP Morgan said Wednesday that investors are looking to Ethereum futures instead of Bitcoin futures—meaning there’s now more interest in the second biggest cryptocurrency among major investors.
This pivot in interest is a “setback for Bitcoin,” according to a Thursday Business Insider report. Bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) traded below the price of Bitcoin this month.”
“Enya’s Boba Network announced its public mainnet launch on Monday, adding to a small but growing group of layer 2 technologies working atop the Ethereum blockchain. Boba would allow users to withdraw funds in minutes, as opposed to days, while using Optimism, said Chiu.
The project, which was developed by OMG Foundation core contributor Enya, also announced it would be releasing a $BOBA token to support decentralized governance of the network. Existing $OMG token holders are expected to receive a one-to-one drop of $BOBA tokens “later next month” if they bridge their $OMG tokens to the new Boba network.
We have a feature called Hybrid Compute, which allows developers to build advanced algorithms that are too expensive to do on-chain.
Since its beta launch last month, Boba Network has partnered with several DeFi projects, including DODO, a decentralized exchange (DEX) with approximately $70 million in total collateral locked, and Sake, a protocol that allows users to buy perpetual contracts.”
“Snoop will have a custom-themed environment in the game featuring a mansion, playable Snoop avatars, and plenty of weed-themed imagery. Further NFT drops are planned, as well, along with an in-game concert.
All told, just 1,000 of the NFT party passes will be released, with 650 of them available for purchase from The Sandbox’s marketplace. Another 212 will be awarded to users who purchase LAND plot NFTs from the upcoming Snoop LAND sale, with the rest given away during airdrops.
I’m always on the lookout for new ways of connecting with fans and what we’ve created in The Sandbox is the future of virtual hangouts, NFT drops, and exclusive concerts.”
“Bitcoin hasn’t shown signs of weakness since Powell signaled the tapering at Wednesday’s press conference.
Tapering is a matter of when. I think that has already been factored in.
The Fed is now out of the way, and the Evergrande fears look to be subsiding with media reports stating that China may take over the cash-strapped property developer. However, regulatory risks linger and could play spoilsport.
Regulatory clarity is the main threat to crypto growth at the moment, I would say increased clarity will allow institutions into the market since they have a very stringent reg-stack to comply with.
While this will be an ongoing saga, we are also seeing some promising signs of regulatory development, including some fresh optimism that a physical or futures-based [exchange-traded fund] may be getting the green light soon.”
“OpenLaw, which aims to ‘automate the connection between the digital world and the real world using legal agreements,’ will soon be Tribute Labs.
OpenLaw automatically creates and executes legal contracts by using Ethereum. But now it will help new DAOs navigate the complex legal world in the U.S. So far, Tribute Labs is working with eight DAOs.
We found a spot, just really supporting and helping to build DAOs.”
“Netflix announced that the documentary Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King will premiere in 2022. The story, which follows “a group of investors turned sleuths,” will focus on the events around the death of Cotten, who reportedly died while doing volunteer work at an orphanage in India, leaving QuadrigaCX users out of pocket for roughly $190 million in crypto.
Cotten died in December 2018, reportedly due to complications from Crohn’s disease. At the time, he was the only person to have access to millions in crypto from more than 100,000 users with wallets on the QuadrigaCX exchange. This led many in the crypto space to initially suspect that Cotten had faked his death and absconded with the funds.”
“The U.S. Federal Reserve said it will keep interest rates near 0% and continue to purchase bonds at the same $120 billion-a-month pace it has been doing, but the market now has clarity on how the central bank will start to unwind, or taper, its stimulus program.
Powell told reporters during a press conference that the tapering process could end by the “middle of next year” if the economy continues to make progress toward maximum employment. Fed officials also raised their inflation expectations and moved the expected timeline for raising interest rates to 2022 from 2023.
‘We are seeing upward pressure on prices,’ he added, citing the impact of “supply bottlenecks.”
Prices for personal consumption expenditures, the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, could rise 4.2% this year, compared with a June projection of 3.4%. Federal officials’ median expectation for growth this year in gross domestic product dropped to 5.9% from the 7% expected in June. The median projection is now for two interest rate increases by the end of 2022.
Bitcoin’s price was little changed after the announcement, trading at around $43,200 – possibly a signal that traders remain unconvinced the Fed will turn hawkish anytime soon.”
“A spate of cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF) filings continued Tuesday after Amplify, Invesco and Galaxy Digital filed for a pair of such products. Invesco and Galaxy jointly filed a registration statement for a physically backed bitcoin ETF.
Meanwhile, Amplify has set its sights more broadly in filing for a decentralized finance (DeFi) and crypto ETF. The Amplify ETF application would allow the fund to invest in bitcoin futures, Canadian bitcoin funds and companies that hold more than 50% of their net assets in bitcoin, ether or another “liquid” cryptocurrency.
The SEC, which oversees ETFs within the U.S., is already reviewing over a dozen applications for various crypto-related funds, including bitcoin and ether ETFs that are based both on the actual digital asset (physically-backed) and the respective cryptocurrencies’ futures markets.”
“Robinhood revealed on Wednesday that customers will finally be able to move Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and other currencies off its app starting next month, a feature many users had long awaited. Until now, Robinhood users have only been able to buy and sell crypto.
The addition of a “wallet” puts Robinhood in better position to compete with Coinbase. Brown said the company views the wallets as a first step to help customers discover the broader world of crypto, including NFTs.”
“Rapper Snoop Dogg tweeted this week that he has been collecting valuable NFTs under the Twitter pseudonym, Cozomo de’ Medici. Earlier this month, Cozomo even tweeted about the value of supporting Ethereum developers.
The collection is headlined by nine CryptoPunks, with the most valuable of the profile picture NFTs estimated at $4.6 million based on current market prices. The wallet also has 10 Meebits NFTs—the 3D avatars created by CryptoPunks makers Larva Labs—as well as a bunch of different NFTs from the generative artwork series, Art Blocks.
Snoop isn’t alone as a celebrity NFT collector: NBA athlete Stephen Curry, social media star Jake Paul, and comedian and TV host Steve Harvey are among the notable owners.”
“1inch has deployed its Exchange Aggregator and Limit Order protocols to the Arbitrum layer 2 network. Aggregated exchanges will include Uniswap v3, Sushi, Dodo, Balancer, and Swapr.
The team claimed that they can add additional exchanges in under three days as more automated market makers (AMM) launch on Arbitrum.”
“Because its debt is held widely in China (and elsewhere), Evergrande could trigger much broader financial fallout if it defaults as the depth of its obvious insolvency becomes clearer. The situation has implications for the crypto ecosystem, both thanks to worries about Tether’s holdings of Chinese debt, and because crypto is clearly vulnerable to downturns in the broader market.
Evergrande’s troubles are also part of a much bigger set of issues with the Chinese equity market, and particularly with the sale of Chinese equities in international markets. Very broadly, Chinese stocks are often treated the same as American equity by investors, but it is still unclear that Chinese accounting, due diligence and regulatory practices are anywhere close to being on par with those in the United States. That means Chinese investments can look sound on paper while being far riskier in reality.
Tether recently denied that it holds Evergrande paper, but it has not denied that it holds Chinese paper more broadly. Even if Evergrande were the only patient in the intensive care unit, its debt could still trigger a default-driven unwind resembling the 2008 financial crisis, potentially destabilizing even completely above-board Chinese companies. Until Tether decides to actually implement some transparency, smart money might want to find a slightly more convincing safe haven.”
“The app offers customers the ability to manage all PayPal-related transactions from a single dashboard. The new app covers both crypto and non-crypto use cases with a wallet tab to manage cryptocurrency payments and high yield savings.
Indeed, the PayPal announcement included a partnership with online bank Synchrony Bank to provide a high yield savings account via the new app. Customers could receive up to 0.40% annual percentage yield on their savings with the new app.
PayPal also said it plans to add more features to the app in the coming months, including offline QR code payment and investment capabilities.”
“SEC Chairman Gary Gensler doubled down on his position that his agency has “robust” authority to regulate the cryptocurrency industry, stating in a conversation with the Washington Post on Tuesday that “most” cryptocurrencies have attributes of securities.
Gensler told the Washington Post that the SEC is currently putting together a report about stablecoins under the guidance of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. He also said the SEC is working with banking regulators in order to get expanded authority from Congress to regulate stablecoins.
We’ve got a lot of casinos here in the Wild West. And the poker chip is these stablecoins.
Gensler also said several times during the interview that he doesn’t see private forms of money as viable in the long term, comparing crypto to the Wildcat banking era of the 19th century when banks in remote areas of the U.S. distributed nearly worthless paper currency backed by bonds and other securities.
History tells us that private forms of money don’t last long. I don’t think there’s a long-term viability for 5,000 or 6,000 private forms of money.”
“The U.S. government has sanctioned a cryptocurrency exchange for the first time as part of its ongoing fight against ransomware attacks. The Deputy Treasury Secretary said Suex facilitated transactions from at least eight ransomware variants, and as much as 40% of Suex’s transaction volume was associated with addresses linked to known malicious actors.
Exchanges like Suex are critical to attackers’ ability to extract profits from ransomware attacks. Today’s action is a signal of our intention to expose and disrupt the illicit infrastructure used in these attacks.
We’re going to continue to look at [exchanges] within this ecosystem and also look at mixers and see whether and to look for other actions we can take for payments given the importance to protecting our national security.
Chainalysis said, the exchange has received over $480 million in bitcoin transactions since February 2018. The analytics firm was able to tie at least $160 million worth of that to illicit activities.”
“Banks including JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank oppose “overly conservative” proposals they say would prevent banks from getting involved in crypto asset markets.
The Basel Committee, which is a group within the Bank for International Settlements made up of global regulators and central bankers, suggested that banks with bitcoin exposure should set aside capital to cover losses in full.
We find the proposals in the consultation to be so overly conservative and simplistic that they, in effect, would preclude bank involvement in crypto asset markets.”
“The European fantasy soccer and digital collectible platform announced a $680 million Series B raise on Tuesday, the largest ever in the non-fungible token (NFT) space. The funding round values the company at $4.3 billion.
Sorare says it has traded over $150 million worth of digital cards on its platform since January and currently has over 600,000 registered users. The company is eyeing basketball, American football and baseball as the next targets for its current model.”
“Internet Computer will utilize its so-called chain key cryptography to integrate with Bitcoin, paving the way for smart contracts with native BTC addresses that are hosted directly on Internet Computer, Dfinity Foundation announced Tuesday.
Smart contracts on Internet Computer will feature associated BTC addresses, giving them direct access to transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Internet Computer smart contracts will gain access to bitcoin liquidity, and Bitcoin will gain powerful new smart contract functionality, without the need for insecure and cumbersome trusted bridging services.”
“Bitcoin dropped to one and a half-month lows Monday, alongside sharp losses in global equity markets and other growth-sensitive risk assets such as industrial metals, oil and commodity-dependent currencies. The broad-based risk aversion may have just begun as futures tied to the S&P 500 Index have convincingly breached the long-held 50-day moving average support.
Bitcoin, falling nearly 10% today, is suffering from the broader market pessimism fueled by reports of a debt crisis at China’s Evergrande Group.
The S&P 500 has pulled back more than 4% from its recent high of $4,540. Analysts at investment banking giant Morgan Stanley foresee an even deeper correction. ‘The typical mid-cycle ‘fire’ outcome would lead to a modest and healthy 10% correction in the S&P 500. However, the ‘ice’ scenario is starting to look more likely, and could result in a more destructive outcome – i.e. a 20%+ correction.’
The market may bounce back, restoring the risk appetite, if the Federal Reserve pushes plans to scale back its stimulus out to 2022. Some observers are worried Wednesday’s statement from the Fed’s Open Markets Committee may announce that the Fed will begin to taper its stimulus in October or November.
The 22 September FOMC will likely signal a tapering decision at the next meeting.”
“Because stablecoins serve as a bridge from the traditional financial world to cryptocurrencies, the amount of regulation could either add to investor comfort to using crypto or act to curtail the still-emerging industry.
That the mainstream Times with its paper-of-record reputation and deep D.C. connections saw fit to give it a full treatment indicates with near-certainty that such regulation is coming. The only remaining questions would seem to be how much regulation is coming, of what form it will take and which part of government will do the regulating.
According to the Times, here are the most likely options that regulators could use to corral stablecoins:
Designate them as a risk to the system.
Call them “securities.”
Treat them as money-market mutual funds.
Regulate them like they’re banks.
Issue a competing central bank digital currency (CBDC). However, given privacy concerns related to CBDCs, a U.S. CBDC is unlikely to substantially attract users away from stablecoins, the article observes.”
“The lending product was supposed to power a crypto savings account that would earn customers a 4% annual percentage yield (APY), a return that’s multiples higher than most savings accounts at traditional banks.
The SEC said Lend would violate long-standing securities regulations. Coinbase’s decision also comes on the heels of state securities regulators issuing warnings to crypto lending platforms BlockFi and Celsius, claiming these companies’ products violate state securities laws.”
“Security token specialist Polymath announced Monday its institutional-grade blockchain built specifically for regulated assets – Polymesh – will go live next month, with a target launch date of Oct. 13. Issuing tokenized assets on blockchains opens up a super-efficient realm of new possibilities.
Polymesh, a standalone blockchain built using Substrate, the same framework Polkadot is built on, will launch with 14 financially regulated entities acting as operators running validator nodes, including the likes of Entoro Capital, Tokenise and the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX).
Polymesh has a forkless architecture and also a concept of identity at the base layer, so you have to go through a KYC process.”
“So far, only four exchanges – Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit – have fully registered and satisfied the KFIU’s requirements.
According to Reuters, 40 exchanges have not registered at all and may cease operations on Friday. Twenty-eight other exchanges have registered with KFIU but have not yet secured bank partnerships. These will be allowed to continue operating partially, but will not be able to make settlements in won.”
“The new Fortune Journalism PleasrFund was launched on the Ethereum blockchain through Endaoment, a charity-focused decentralized autonomous organization. So far, the fund has been allocated 214.55 Ether (ETH), worth roughly $660,000 at current prices.
The first four beneficiaries of the fund are Report for America/The GroundTruth Project Inc., Institute for Nonprofit News, Committee to Protect Journalists Inc. and Reporters Without Borders.
Many existing nonprofits have also begun accepting cryptocurrency donations, as evidenced by recent efforts to help Afghans displaced by the Taliban takeover of the country following the United States’ withdrawal. To that end, New York-based grassroots organization Hearts & Homes for Refugees announced it was accepting donations in nearly a dozen cryptocurrencies. In January, the American Cancer Society launched the first-ever Crypto Cancer Fund, giving donors another avenue through which to contribute to the organization.”
“Today, we’re unveiling our most significant improvement to Optimistic Ethereum since its inception.
Anyone who has written code targeting Geth can now deploy without change — even for advanced features like traces and gas. The upgrade removes our custom compiler, and over 25,000 lines of other code, in favor of simply using what already exists.
It means one-click deploy is coming in October. Any tooling that can run on Ethereum will run identically on Optimistic Ethereum.”
“Maybe today and tomorrow, the metaverse is just an online virtual world – like Decentraland, Crypto Voxel and The Sandbox – where you play a quick game, browse NFTs in an art gallery or have an online meet-up. This is the metaverse’s infancy. But in five or 10 or 20 years, perhaps the metaverse replaces much of what you do online, or even offline. Instead of a Zoom with your parents who live across the country, you join them for a metaverse game of tennis. Or instead of consuming the news on Twitter, maybe you’re dropped into a metaverse simulation of what’s happening in Afghanistan.
What path will we take to arrive at this metaverse future? Through the centralized, big tech route of Facebook? Or through a new decentralized model?
What we are playing for is whether our children will be fully free or residents in a digital company universe – with the illusion of free, but not really free.”
“LayerZero will connect all chains seamlessly, having users unaware they are even using it. It will enable current and new Decentralized Applications to expand beyond the borders of EVM or Non-EVM, creating the world’s first omnichain applications. LayerZero enables cross-chain state sharing, bridging, lending and borrowing, swaps, governance, and much more!
SushiSwap exists on twelve different chains with each instance running in a siloed ecosystem. If they want to sync state with their main Ethereum instance, they’ll have to write code for using Wormhole, Rainbow Bridge, Polygon Network Bridge, Avalanche Bridge, etc. The end result is eleven sets of code, with eleven unique interfaces and eleven different security properties. Since the ecosystem of bridges and new L1/L2s is constantly in flux, this becomes an unmanageable proposition.
When using LayerZero, SushiSwap would have one single interface and code base for all cross-chain pairs.
Bridges today compete to attract liquidity providers (LPs), fragmenting liquidity between bridges and their individual pairwise pools. Instead of having one pool that provides liquidity for an asset to all connected chains, LPs must choose a single pool that connects to one chain. LayerZero enables the holy grail of bridging: unified liquidity across all chains with guaranteed finality on the source chain.”
“There are three basic ways crypto and space interact: crypto is a funding source for novel space programs and companies, space is a place to deploy infrastructure to improve crypto networks and crypto could become the monetary standard of future extraterrestrial settlements.
Yesterday, the Winklevoss twins led a $650,000 seed round into space trade publication Payload. Space is currently a $350 billion market. Some 400 space companies were founded in the first two decades of the current century. This capital expenditure is likely to continue, it’s almost assured crypto will play a role.
At the start of next year, for instance, Geometric Energy Corporation plans to launch a 40 kilogram cube satellite aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket headed towards the moon. It’s a trip that reportedly will be funded in full by dogecoin.
The DOGE-1 mission will demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit and set the foundation for interplanetary commerce.
Then there’s early Bitcoin Core engineer Jeff Garzik, whose SpaceChain corporation is working to integrate space and blockchain technologies. The whole idea is to take advantage of the trustless nature of blockchain to facilitate deep space communication and commerce.
Blockstream, the Bitcoin infrastructure juggernaut, plans to build a floating web of satellites that will make it possible to beam BTC payments across the world, without using the internet, and eventually wherever humans go. This strengthens the Bitcoin network, moving it beyond the reach of nation state attacks and other Earth-bound risks.”
“If lenders could rely on more than just collateral, they could make more informed credit decisions, and thus charge lower rates to borrowers.
Last year, Aave introduced credit delegation, which allows users who deposit collateral into the system to essentially rent their credit lines to someone they trust. The depositor earns extra yield, and the borrower gets an unsecured loan. Aave’s founder and CEO, described a future where credit delegation would allow people to borrow against their good names – not their government names, necessarily, but their Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain names.
This is the future of DeFi. If we make this work [at] scale … we have a lot of ability to empower communities in real life.
In this model, the borrower’s repayment history would be out there for all to see. But control of the borrower’s identity, the ENS domain name, would stay with the borrower. Compare this setup to the status quo, where the keys to your identity – your Social Security number, home address, date of birth – are entrusted to the provably porous Equifaxes of the world.”
“U.S. investigations into Binance now include an insider trading and market manipulation probe from the CFTC. The CFTC has also reportedly been investigating the exchange for allowing customers in the U.S. to trade derivatives products without oversight.
Binance already faced a probe from the U.S. Department of Justice and the IRS. The investigation reportedly focused on tax and money laundering claims.”
“Bakkt Holdings and VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings (VIH) have received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to complete their merger and push forward with plans to operate as a single publicly traded entity. VIH shareholders will meet on Oct. 14 to approve the merger.
We are excited about the unique growth opportunities ahead for our business, and are laser focused on furthering our vision of connecting the digital economy.”
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/64NBFDYQRNHRBFBWNMGZJXI5XA.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/SCWWO2UGVVEKDG26VXLA24LKSQ.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/M3QD5FQBH5BTDAJ2L3MGZZ5MLI.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/MZAGXWMTQFH6LAOBXW67BS2NRE.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/RJ4NOULPA5COPEW2NP3X5CQYDU.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/K7XJAOEEJJGOZEON6DGIC47UQ4.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/DR5PMJ3TDVCTHK4MII4AJJG7UA.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/LDRZAIQC3NE3RPNEXTTR6L3BBU.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/AMCUTHXKXBFXLM2DUE5FMHWVQA.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/POW4KMPDDVB5LB22Q6YFR5YD2E.jpeg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/HPJEMYIBRRAZXB5CIF36XZWLU4.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/7JU7773G6FFIHBYD75LYCCZTOI.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/BGBX3HHZAFCPPMK6TSWWKEPOEE.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/BKJIKTQFJZDYLH4TXO3HNKBBUM.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/BSJC7QO2RVAAVLFH6SNT64J62I.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/2BAB5FMT7BFXLLYBCMZOOZD2NY.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/PISR2HW5OJCK3JSCA6OMYNQUOI.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/5STHS7QJQFGJBP3TK23HIENQEY.jpeg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/5YDMEJABLBDHXIKBF4YMRKB37U.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/E3A7C3O4L5CUPC6RV653JPHZFQ.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/E6DYJLE5J5AJPCKRV3QYSAFYYA.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/NJBFUX5ADZEVTNFSDNAKA3UGKY.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/JI52ONJB7NGUVCZATNOE5GM4NA.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/WC6SPXQTZNAFVACTNZTGQJ2LBY.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/JVTSRS5VFFBOZCTLDWZ7PD5QP4.jpeg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/J64O34BPVNAG5DTTOQCS7MCD2I.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/RNJCCBAVQJBMNN4VZISEIJSUJQ.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/KSI3Z5GHCFGCTD7LEPA5XNWGOA.jpeg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/JJ26JEPUZ5FLFIKMQIJBHPBQO4.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/FLHUE74TWNBQJFJOOMZLQ6M6VE.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/ANZOLY7LG5HXZE6P2ZZM3LXCN4.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/EITYVHOZEFCQ7EU36NFGH343UU.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/NM3EUF53TJBA7H74AFRGSHJAKM.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/KIKXCVTYYVEX3PEZW5BUQ3NB7M.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/UYYB6IM5GBG2JENOBSEE3NCJ5Y.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/PM3Y3FIPAFFVTOJTZ4PNWSIFXQ.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/J374ZGCPK5FNLK2VH6SRNDYLGQ.png)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/ANDWTZ76EFGDJJGDP3UCVAFMEY.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/SVZQOWJYY5GLXOPLYHZ5Y6QZL4.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/YS2I3LR6MVE6FN5WQOCH4WHU44.jpg)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/GVNUFZTQE5A6NDWI5YKCGACQJI.jpg)
The Disrupt 