Monday August 8, 2022
◾ A member of Senator Lummis’ (R-WY) staff says the SEC has begun an investigation into every US-based digital exchange. (Forbes)
◾ The Central Bank of Nepal is ready top announced regulatory changes which will allow the monetary authority to issue a digital version of the country’s fiat currency. (News.bitcoin)
◾ Multiple class action lawsuits have been filed against Coinbase (COIN) accusing the leading US digital exchange of making “materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business, operations, and compliance policies.” (GlobeNewsWire)
Government & NGO Actions
◾ El Salvador’s President said his country’s recovery of the tourism industry to pre-pandemic levels is “mostly” due to “bitcoin and [surfing].” (Twitter)
◾ Authorities in Kazakhstan has arrested gang members accused them of forcing IT exports to operate underground crypto mining facilities. (News.bitcoin)
◾ The Director of the Central Bank of Brazil praised the technological innovation underlying bitcoin suggesting that this development has given new fundamental products for the population. (Finbold)
◾ The CFTC revoked the no-action letter allowing political-betting predictions market PredictIt to operate in the US. (CFTC)
Public Company Releases
◾ Core Scientific (CORZ) mined 1,221 bitcoin (10.0 EH/s) in July selling 1,975 bitcoin to to pay for capital investments related to increasing data center capacity and new mining rigs. (Businesswire)
◾ The NYSE warned Bit Mining (BTCM) that the crypto miner will be de-listed unless the company’s share price increases above the exchange’s minimum average closing price level of $1/ADS. (Cision)
◾ Galaxy Digital (GLXY) Asset Management reported preliminary assets under manager of $2 billion as of July 31, 2022. (Cision)
◾ Ebang International (EBON) is offering a new Mastercard crypto-link card. (Globenewswire)
◾ Hut 8 Mining (HUT) has filed a mixed securities-shelf offering for an indeterminate size. (SEC)
Restructuring, Losses and Legal News
◾ Asian exchange Zipmex plans to resume “a select amount of” bitcoin and ether withdrawals later this week. (Twitter)
◾ Celsius has withdrawn the motion to hire its former CFO. (CNBC)
Protocols, Applications & Business News
◾ Indian authorities have begun an investigation into the WazirX freezing 646 million rupee ($8.1 million) and accusing the digital exchange of predatory lending practices and misusing customer data. (Enforcementdirectorate.gov)
In response, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted that although his company announced that it had “acquired” WazirX in November 2019, the transaction was never completed and the company does not own any in the company or its parent. (Twitter)
◾ Crypto.com acquired South Korean payment service provider PnLink and virtual-asset exchange OK-BIT providing the digital exchange with registrations under the nation’s Electronic Financial Transaction Act and as a virtual-asset service provider in the country. (Bloomberg)
◾ North Korean’s hacking group Lazarus appears to be behind a recent email-based attack on cross-chain protocol deBridge Finance. (Twitter)
Market Data
◾ Messari and Dove Metrics H12022 Funding Reports says 30.3 billion was raised across 1,199 rounds during the first half the year. (Messari)
◾ Deloitte issued a report revealing how blockchain technology can impact commercial real estate including leasing, purchase and sales transactions, security, and time and cost benefits. (Deloitte)
Exchange, Custody and Product Updates
◾ BitMEX has launched perpetual FX contracts with up to 50x leverage. (BitMEX)
Thoughts on the Ecosystem
◾ Craig Wright says demonstrating he is the creator of bitcoin should not be proven with cryptographic keys saying “you can’t prove [anything] with keys. If I own your car keys, that doesn’t mean I own your car mean, honestly, that the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” (U.today)