| SEC bans centralized staking; Paxos stablecoin is investigated; Bitcoin enters a new cycle (February 10)

Loopy Lu

读者

2023-02-13 00:06

This article is about 4222 words, reading the full article takes about 7 minutes

BAYC fake transactions; PayPal suspends stablecoin project.

headlines

Kraken Settles With SEC, Ends U.S. Crypto Staking Service, Pays $30M Fine

The SEC announced on Thursday that the crypto exchange Kraken will "immediately" end its crypto staking-as-a-service (staking-as-a-service) platform services to U.S. customers and will pay a $30 million fine to the SEC to resolve the charges against it. Allegations of unregistered securities. Kraken’s holding companies, Payward Ventures, Inc. and Payward Trading Ltd., will terminate staking services and projects, the U.S. SEC said. These projects have been offering staking services to the public since at least 2019.

Coinbase Chief Legal Officer: Coinbase Staking Program Unaffected by Kraken Termination of US Staking Services
Coinbase’s staking program is not affected by Kraken’s termination of its U.S. staking service, according to Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal. Kraken is essentially offering yield products, whereas Coinbase’s on-chain staking service is fundamentally different, not securities.

Coinbase shares tumbled about 14% at the close, their biggest drop since July 26, 2022. (Bloomberg)

secondary title

Regulatory Trends

US SEC Chairman: Pledge-as-a-service providers must register and provide information disclosure and investor protection measures

In response to Kraken’s settlement with the US SEC and the termination of staking services for US users, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler stated, “Whether through staking as a service, lending, or other means, cryptocurrency intermediaries provide investment contracts in exchange for investors’ staking services. Tokens are required to provide the appropriate disclosures and protections required by our securities laws. Today’s action should signal to the market that Staking-as-a-Service providers must register and provide full, fair and truthful disclosures and investor protections.”

Russia's central bank ready to allow use of cryptocurrencies in foreign settlements

Odaily News Russian Central Bank Governor Nabiullina said at a press conference that the Russian Central Bank has a negative attitude towards domestic cryptocurrency settlement and is ready to allow the use of cryptocurrency in foreign settlements.

New York's Department of Financial Services is investigating stablecoin issuer Paxos
The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) is investigating Paxos, the issuer of Pax Dollar (USDP) and Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoins, the scope of which is unclear. A NYDFS spokesman said the agency was unable to comment on ongoing investigations.

A Paxos spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment by press time. (CoinDesk)

Odaily News The encrypted lending platform Nexo announced that it will stop providing Earn Interest Product (EIP) to all US customers (including US citizens and US residents) on April 1, 2023. Nexo advises U.S. customers to withdraw funds by April 1.

Industry news

Pantera Capital: Bitcoin is already in the next bull cycle

Odaily News Pantera Capital, a hedge fund with $4.8 billion in assets under management, said that Bitcoin is already in the "next bull market cycle." (Bitcoin Magazine)

a16z Crypto General Counsel: Kraken and SEC Settlement Will Not Affect Other Exchanges

Odaily News In response to the settlement between Kraken and the US SEC, Miles Jennings, general counsel of a16z Crypto, commented that staking is very important to the ecosystem, and staking-as-a-service projects are both legal and allow more people to participate in blockchain technology. We do not believe this settlement will have any impact on exchanges that have made plans to avoid exposure to securities laws. As a significant investor in Web3 and the businesses that are building the next generation internet, a16z is disappointed that SEC Chairman Gensler continues to demonstrate that he only knows how to regulate through sporadic enforcement cases. It’s been four years since the U.S. SEC last issued guidance related to cryptocurrencies, and its chairman continues to focus on making headlines rather than protecting investors in line with the SEC’s core mission. Now is the time for him to prioritize rules and guidance that will bring greater clarity to the markets and proactively protect the public.

Odaily News The Ethereum Foundation stated in a newly released article that the Shanghai+Capella (Shapella) mainnet upgrade is entering the final pre-release sequence - the public testnet. Shapella includes many features, but most importantly for stakers and the consensus layer is support for withdrawals. Exited validators can withdraw the full amount, while active validators whose balance exceeds 32 ETH can partially withdraw. Separately, Sepolia, the first long-standing public testnet, is scheduled to undergo an upgrade on February 28.
On February 7th, the first public test network zhejiang of the Shanghai upgrade has successfully activated the Shanghai upgrade after reaching the predetermined height. Previously, the developer stated that after the upgrade of the Sepolia test network, it plans to release the Shanghai upgrade on the Ethereum Goerli test network at the end of February or early March. After the transition is successful, it will switch to the main network.

On February 7th, the first public test network zhejiang of the Shanghai upgrade has successfully activated the Shanghai upgrade after reaching the predetermined height. Previously, the developer stated that after the upgrade of the Sepolia test network, it plans to release the Shanghai upgrade on the Ethereum Goerli test network at the end of February or early March. After the transition is successful, it will switch to the main network.

On Friday, Ark Invest added 139,105 shares of Coinbase (valued at $7,941,504.45) to its portfolio, while adding 263,504 shares of Robinhood (valued at $2,629,769.92), Odaily’s transaction notification emails show.

Project News

CNN: Many Celebrities Didn't Really Pay for BAYC, Just Marketing MoonPay
Odaily News CNN released an in-depth investigation article "A Distorted Story About Celebrity Marketing, Black Box Trading, and Accusations of Racism". Data on the chain showed that MoonPay paid a high price for BAYC, and then transferred these NFTs to the so-called celebrity wallet for free, and then the celebrity They will "thank" MoonPay on social media to achieve marketing purposes.

According to several former MoonPay employees interviewed by CNN, many celebrities may not have actually paid for the purchase of BAYC, because there is no proof of chain. Instead, on-chain data shows that one of MoonPay’s wallets, “MoonPayHQ,” has spent at least $25 million on NFTs, with 60% (or about $15 million) of that spent on BAYC.

Uniswap DAO Votes to Proposal to Deploy Uniswap V3 on BNB Chain

Odaily News Uniswap DAO has completed the final vote, which will be used to implement the proposed deployment of Uniswap v3 on the BNB chain. According to the Tally voting page, voting closed on Friday, with 66% of DAO delegates backing the move. Major-voting delegates, including ethereum software firm ConsenSys and Compound Finance founder Robert Leshner, voted in favor of the proposal. Meanwhile, venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz voted against the proposal, casting 15 million votes.

Voyager Digital Plans to Allow Users to Reclaim Assets via Binance.US
Twitter Developer Edition App Update "Coins" Feature and How to Use It

Twitter Developer Edition App Update "Coins" Feature and How to Use It

Odaily News App developer Nima Owji tweeted that Twitter is still promoting the development of the virtual asset "Coins" in its app. Currently, the developer version of Twitter has updated the function and usage announcement of Coins, confirming that Coins are only used for rewards at this stage Function.

Genesis Unveils Proposed Asset Sale, Assets to be "Equity Equity"
Genesis Global Holdco (GGH), which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month, released final details of a proposed sale with Genesis Global Trading to help parent DCG repay some of the company's creditors. DCG will transfer its stake in Genesis Global Trading to Genesis Global Holdco and restructure existing loans, according to a proposal filed with bankruptcy court on Friday.

An important part of this is the "equitization" of Genesis' assets, which will be agreed between Genesis, GGC creditors, Ad Hoc Group Advisors and DCG. "Equityization" means that if all or a substantial portion of Genesis' assets fail to be sold, GGC creditors will receive 100% of the equity in a restructured GGH, subject to dilution from a management incentive plan that could be in place, the filing said. Implemented upon approval by the Bankruptcy Court. (CoinDesk)

Binance Announces Support for BinaryX (BNX) Token Swap and Increment
Binance released an announcement on supporting BinaryX (BNX) token swap and increment. The announcement stated that Binance will suspend BinaryX (BNX) related services, products and transactions at different times. After recovering all the old BNX of the user, new BNX will be issued to the user at a ratio of 1:100.

In addition, Binance will open BNX/BTC, BNX/BNB, BNX/BUSD, and BNX/USDT spot trading at 16:00 on February 24, while adding BNX to the list supported by Binance Pay.

Odaily news Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic said in an interview that he is exploring the introduction of zero knowledge (Zero Knowledge) technology into its main chain. Bjelic emphasized the importance of ZK technology to the project’s development roadmap, which could eventually include some ZK-based enhancements to Polygon’s main PoS chain to improve transaction security. “One of the things we are experimenting with is upgrading the Polygon PoS chain to include ZK technology so that zkEVM can be incorporated into the Polygon PoS chain itself.” (CoinDesk)

Polygon is exploring the introduction of ZK technology into its main chain

data

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Negative Premium Extends to 46.96%

According to the data on the Tokenview chain, the current total holdings of Grayscale have reached 18.95 billion US dollars, and the trust premium rates of mainstream currencies are as follows: BTC, -46.96%; ETH, -53.93%; ETC, -68.5%; LTC, -54.86%; BCH , -43.48%.

Data: The daily active users of the Damus client dropped by about 60% from the highest point

According to KingData data, Damus, an open social application based on the Nostr protocol, reached a peak of 84,700 daily active users on February 2, and then the daily active users began to decline. On the 9th and 10th, the daily active users were 36,000 and 29,000, respectively, a drop of 58.9 % and 66.8%. Among them, the number of high-quality daily active accounts has dropped to 4,000, a decrease of 85% from the highest point.

Odaily news Gabriel Leydon, CEO of Limit Break, the parent company of DigiDaigaku, posted on social media that NFT holders of the ecosystem (including Genesis, Heroes and Super Villains) will receive free airdrops of "Dragon Essence", which can help Baby dragons grow and evolve, but Gabriel Leydon says the snapshot date for the airdrop "Dragon Essence" is currently TBD.

Metaverse GameFi and NFT

DigiDaigaku will launch "DRAGON ESSENCE" free airdrop, snapshot date to be determined

Investment and Financing

Worldcoin, the encryption company founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is discussing a new round of financing with investors including sovereign wealth funds, according to people familiar with the matter. Worldcoin hopes to raise as much as $120 million at a $3 billion valuation — the same valuation as last year. The round will include both equity and token financing. (The Block)

Blockchain payment technology company Partior raises $31 million in Series A funding

Odaily News Blockchain payment technology company Partior has completed a round of financing of US$31 million.
According to previous reports, Partior announced the completion of the A round of financing in November 2022. Standard Chartered Bank led the investment, and JPMorgan Chase, DBS Bank and Temasek participated in the investment. However, the transaction amount was not disclosed at the time and it needs to wait for regulatory approval. (Dealstreet Asia)

According to previous reports, Partior announced the completion of the A round of financing in November 2022. Standard Chartered Bank led the investment, and JPMorgan Chase, DBS Bank and Temasek participated in the investment. However, the transaction amount was not disclosed at the time and it needs to wait for regulatory approval. (Dealstreet Asia)

Venom Foundation partners with DAO Maker to incubate Web3 startups
Web3 projects benefiting from the program will have access to industry-leading resources and guidance, leveraging the expertise of DAO Maker and the Venom Foundation to support teams through critical stages such as strategic planning and marketing.

Web3 gaming platform Ajuna Network completes $5 million in financing led by CMCC Global

Odaily News Web3 game platform Ajuna Network completed a financing of 5 million US dollars, led by CMCC Global. Separately, this Friday, Ajuna Network launched an NFT collection of Awesome Ajuna Avatars inspired by the company’s flagship game, BattleMogs.

Web3 incubator ManesLAB completes USD 1.8 million seed round financing led by YZB Investment

Odaily News ManesLAB, the parent company of Web3 incubator and NFT project Weirdo Ghost Gang, announced the completion of a $1.8 million seed round of financing, led by YZB Investment.

Crypto yield staking platform MoodMiner completes $3 million Series A funding

Odaily news MoodMiner, a cryptocurrency revenue pledge platform, announced the completion of a $3 million Series A round of financing. The investor information has not yet been disclosed. The company's CEO revealed that the new funds will be used to accelerate platform development and recruit talent.

Crypto exchange C 3 completes $6 million seed round led by Two Sigma Ventures

Odaily News Encryption exchange C 3 completes USD 6 million in seed round financing, led by Two Sigma Ventures, Jane Street Capital, Hudson River Trading, Flow Traders, Jump Capital, GoldenTree Asset Management, and encryption-native trading institutions CMS Holdings, AlphaLab Capital, Cumberland And C 2 Ventures participated in the investment. (Business Insider)

SushiSwap Acquires Cosmos Ecological Derivatives Trading Agreement Vortex Protocol

SEC

stable currency

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