Friday June 3, 2022
◾ Early this morning, New York State Senate passed a bill imposing a moratorium on new proof-of-work mining operations that rely on carbon-based power sources – the bill will now go to Governor Kathy Hochul for a final approval / veto. (NYstate.gov)
◾ Japan’s parliament has passed a stablecoin bill that introduces a legal framework defining the pegged tokens as digital money and establishing stablecoins can only be issued by licensed banks, registered money transfer agents and trust companies. (Bloomberg)
◾ The Biden administration is targeting its crypto policy efforts on crypto miner’s energy consumption and the total industry’s emission footprint. (Bloomberglaw)
Government & NGO Actions
◾ The CFTC has sued Gemini Trust accusing the company of making false and misleading statements concerning a bitcoin futures contract discussing in 2017. (CFTC)
◾ El Salvador’s Finance Minister said his country will further delay the issuance of the anticipated billion-dollar bitcoin bond citing price volatility and the impact of the war in Ukraine. (Cointelegraph)
◾ New York Attorney General Letitia James issued an alert warning New Yorkers about the “dangerous risks of investing in cryptocurrencies.” (NY.gov)
◾ Abu Dhabi has partnered with Unstoppable Domains to provide free crypto domains to all women residing in the UAE capital. (Cision)
Public Company Releases
◾ Riot Blockchain (RIOT) produced 466 bitcoin in May but sold over 50% to fund operations. (Riot)
◾ DMG Blockchain (DMGI) posted Q2 revenue of $11.9 million increasing their hash rate to 595 PH/s. (Globenewswire)
◾ CleanSpark (CLSK) increased its bitcoin holdings in May by 23% producing 312 BTC with a hashrate over 2.5 EH/s. (Globenewswire)
◾ Sphere 3D (ANY) minted 12.57 bitcoin in May and is operating 100 PH/s. (Businesswire)
Protocols, Applications & Business News
◾ Gemini announced a 10% reduction to its workforce to combat the “punctuated equilibrium” and “dramatic moments of hypergrowth, followed by sharp [market] contractions.” (Gemini)
◾ Coinbase (COIN) has announced a salary freeze and is rescinding employment offers. (Coinbase)
◾ 2TM, the parent company of Brazil’s largest crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin, has laid off 86 employees. (Coindesk)
◾ An anonymous source has published an alleged chat log between the Terra co-founder Do Kwon and network validators which if legitimate proves over 50 people “knew about the [network] halt before it happened.” (News.bitcoin)
◾ Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said his company is looking for “opportunities to grow through external acquisition.” (Dailyhodl)
◾ Kenya’s energy production company KenGen wants to offer its surplus geothermal power to bitcoin miners. (QZ.com)
◾ California-based 401(k) plan provider ForUsAll has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Labor claiming regulators breached their statutory purview by threatening “an investigative program” aimed at plan sponsors that offer digital assets. (Bloombergalw)
◾ European exchange Bitstamp has launched staking for US customers paying up to 5% APR on ether or algorand. (Blockworks)
◾ California-based Allrise Capital has received a permit to convert the shuttered Ponderay Newsprint mill in Northeast Washington into a crypto mining facility. (Spokesman)
◾ Digital exchange Cypto.com has received provisional approval from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority to offer a full suite of crypto exchange products and services. (Crypto.com)
◾ Crypto settlement and custody platform Fireblocks has been certified by the International Organization for Standards (ISO) in the categories of security (ISO 27001), cloud (ISO 27017) and privacy (ISO 27018). (Cision)
◾ Binance has been named the official sponsor of The Weeknd's "After Hours Til Dawn" global concert tour. (Cision)