Friday August 18, 2023
◾ Bitcoin led a $250 billion crypto market sell off dropping to $25,400 before making a slight recovery overnight. (Coinmarketcap)
◾ FTX and Genesis settled a $3.9 billion disagreement that will allow Alameda to make a claim for $175 million on the Genesis estate. (Reuters)
◾ Bloomberg is reporting that the SEC is poised to allow ether future ETFs to trade. (Bloomberg)
Government & NGO Actions
◾ The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority set out expectations for how local crypto-asset businesses must comply with the Travel Rule. (FCA.org)
◾ Taiwan drafted an amendment to the Standards of Classification of Commercial Group regulations that will add a category for digital asset service businesses. (Theblock)
◾ A US judge ruled that the SEC can question Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin. (Bloomberg)
◾ The Federal Reserve issued an enforcement action against Farmington State Bank for improperly changing its business plan and directed it to wind down its operations. FTX made an $11 million investment in the bank prior to its downfall. (Federalreserve)
◾ Singapore Police arrested 10 people involved with forgery and money laundering, seizing $1.4 billion in cash and assets. (Police.gov.sg)
Public Company Releases
◾ Hive Digital (HIVE) announced an amended at-the-market equity program to sell up to $90 million in common shares. (Newsfilecorp)
Restructuring, Losses and Legal News
◾ A bankruptcy judge ruled that Celsius creditors can vote on a plan to sell its assets to a Fahrenheit consortium. (Coindesk)
◾ A federal judge denied a motion that the US Treasury Department exceeded its authority when sanctioning the Tornado Cash crypto mixing business. (Ctfassets)
◾ Australian crypto lender Helio has been fined $15,000 and sentenced to a non-conviction bond for falsely claiming that it held an Australian credit license. (Asic.gov)
AI Announcements
◾ Microsoft (MSFT) is partnering with Databricks to sell software that allows customers to create AI-backed apps. (Theinformation)
◾ Meta (META) is readying to launch free software to help developers automatically generate programming code. (Theinformation)
Protocols, Applications & Business News
◾ Mastercard (MA) is forming a CBDC Partner Program to foster collaboration with key players in the crypto space and drive innovation and efficiencies. (Mastercard)
◾ Securitize is acquiring Onramp Invest in an effort to provide new RIA distribution for its tokenized offerings. (PRnewswire)
◾ The WSJ reports that SpaceX wrote down the value of bitcoin held on its balance sheet by $373 million last year and in 2021 and has since sold the cryptocurrency. (WSJ)
Market Data
◾ Researchers found ChatGPT presents a significant and systematic political bias toward the Democrats in the US, Lula in Brazil, and the Labour Party in the UK. (Springer)
Exchange, Custody and Product Updates
◾ Coinbase’s (COIN) Canadian operations plan to halt trading for Tether (UDT), RAI and DAI at the end of the month. (Beincrypto)