Monday August 19, 2024

Yesterday in History

August 18th was the 16th anniversary of the bitcoin.org website. The site was launched on August 18, 2008, by bitcoin's anonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. He managed it for three years before passing control to the bitcoin community. Now, the site operates as an open-source project and is registered under the pseudonym Cobra Bitcoin. Bitcoin.org has over 140 million backlinks and receives more than 2.8 million organic visits each month.

◾ Greenidge Generation $GREE is suing the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for refusing to renew its air permits at its mining operations.  (FLTimes)

◾ Members of the House’s Financial Services Committee, asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to develop an AI focused regulatory sandbox.  (House.gov)

◾ The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and FinCEN are looking to redefine the meaning of “money” to include cryptocurrencies under the Bank Secrecy Act. (FederalRegister.gov)

Government & NGO Actions

◾ Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service plans to issue a bill to regulate cryptocurrencies.  (NationOnLine.NG)

◾ South Africa published a national AI policy framework aimed at propel the country’s economic growth, technological advancement, and societal wellbeing. (TechCentral.co.za)  

◾ Nigeria’s government froze $37 million in crypto wallets held by protestors. (PremiumTimesNG)

◾ Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security recommended using a cold hardware wallet over third-party custody, and phone or PC wallets for storing bitcoin.  (Cointelegraph)

◾ Worldcoin signed a partnership with the Malaysian Government to integrate its technology into the country’s digital infrastructure.  (Worldcoin)

◾ The UK’s National Crime Agency estimates that between $1.7 billion and $5.1 billion in illicit crypto transactions are linked to the UK each year. (NationalCrimeAgency.gov.uk)

◾ Australia’s Securities and Investments Commission has taken down 615 crypto scam websites over the past year. (ASIC.gov.au)

Financial Notices & Public Company Releases

◾ Advanced Micro Devices $AMD plans to acquire server maker ZT Systems for $4.9 billion in cash and stock. (Reuters)

◾ Griid Infrastructure $GRDI reported Q2 revenue of $2.2 million with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $5 million impacted by the extinguishment of $45 million in debt.  (SECFiling)

◾ Franklin Templeton $BEN filed to launch an ETF that tracks bitcoin and ether.  (SECFiling)

Restructuring, Losses & Legal News

◾ AI startup Anthropic requested a California federal court dismiss the copyright claims made by music publishers regarding its use of lyrics to train its AI chatbot. (Reuters)

◾ A US court will allow a class action lawsuit to proceed, accusing former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal of being a “control person” in the Astrals NFT project. (CoinDesk)

◾ Lawyers for the founder of the Bitcoin Fog mixer are arguing that the prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation of 20 – 30 years is “unwarranted.” (CourtFiling)

◾ French gaming company Ubisoft $UBSFY is cutting 45 jobs from its US operation.  (Bloomberg)

AI Announcements

◾ OpenAI blocked an Iranian group from using ChatGPT to target US accounts in the lead-up to the presidential election. (Reuters)

◾ South Korean private chip makers Rebellions and Sapeon Korea are merging. (Reuters)

Protocols, Applications & Business News

◾ Restaking developer Eigen Labs proactively provided a list of employee wallet addresses to ecosystem projects that were planning to launch crypto tokens. (CoinDesk)

◾ Apple $AAPL is opening the iPhone’s NFC (near field communication) chip to third-party apps. (PCMag)

◾ Flexa, a digital payments platform, introduced a suite of mobile-first features designed to simplify direct wallet payments with digital assets for in-person transactions. (Businesswire)

◾ UAE-controlled RAKBANK is partnering with BitPanda to offer a digital asset management platform for UAE residents. (X)

◾ A denominational church in Fort Collins, Colorado is tokenizing its building to sell fractional shares to purchase the property from its current real estate owner. (Forbes)

Metaverse & Gaming Briefings & Activations

◾ Epic games store returned to iPhones across the EU and is launching on Android.  (ArsTechnica)

◾ Roblox $RBLX is launching search ads to allow developers to promote their experiences.  (Roblox)

Market Data

◾ Analysts are suggesting that Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund gained exposure to bitcoin through an algorithm-based sector strategy, rather than by making a deliberate decision to purchase BTC. (X)

Exchange, Custody & Product Updates

◾ Crypto exchange ByBit registered as a Virtual Asset Service Provider and card operator in Argentina. (PRNewswire)