Monday June 27, 2022
◾ SEC Chair Gary Gensler is working on a “memorandum of understanding” with the CFTC to establish a “one rule book” overseeing all crypto trading pairs. (FT)
◾ The Central Bank of Iran intends to launch a pilot for the digital rial by the end of the summer. (News.bitcoin)
◾ International activist and hacktivist group Anonymous issued a message for Terra founder Do Kwon accusing him of “single handedly…scamming billions of dollars away from retail investors” and threatening to “hold [him] accountable and make sure that [he is] brought to justice.” (YouTube)
Government & NGO Actions
◾ Singapore’s Chief Fintech Officer complimented executives from leading crypto companies including Binance, Crypto.com and Ripple for being “fully committed to building a secure and sustainable innovation solving real problems, and identifying real-economy opportunities.” (Bloomberg)
◾ Albania plans to add a tax to income derived from digital asset trades by 2023. (Exit)
◾ French Central Bank Governor François Villeroy de Galhau says investors “have lost trust in cryptos” because there is no agency responsible for their value. (Finbold)
◾ British MP Matt Hancock called for a liberal regulatory oversight over digital currencies saying “no country can stop this revolution. We can only choose whether it happens on our shores or happens to us elsewhere.” (Nationworldnews)
◾ The Bank of International Settlements’ Asia chief warned the recent collapse of Terra UST shows that stablecoins are ill-suited as a form of money but “could be useful for the design of central bank digital currencies.” (SCMP)
Protocols, Applications & Business News
◾ FTX is looking to make a $250 million investment into BlockFi. (WSJ)
◾ Morgan Creek is reportedly looking to raise $250 million to make a counter-offer to FTX’s proposed investment into BlockFi. (Coindesk)
◾ European crypto exchanged BitPanda announced the decision to cut its staffing levels by approximately 25% lowering its headcount to around 730 employees. (BitPanda)
◾ Distressed crypto lender Celsius has hired Alvarez & Marsal to advise on a possible bankruptcy filing. (WSJ)
◾ Goldman Sachs (GS) is looking to raise $2 billion from investors to buy distressed assets from Celsius. (Coindesk)
◾ Celsius has basically taken down its website, adding a homepage message that the “website is currently being updated…[with] some products and services…temporarily unavailable.” (Celsius)
◾ Crypto trading and lending platform Nexo has issued a cease and desist notice in response to a series of tweets accusing the Bulgarian founders of using stealing funds from a charitable organization. (Nexo)
◾ Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao says his firm is looking at numerous acquisitions with the current number between “50 to 100.” (Yahoo! Finance)
◾ Hispanic grocery chain Cardenas Markets is installing crypto ATMs across its 59 locations in California, Arizona and Nevada. (Globenewswire)
Metaverse Briefings & Activations
◾ Italian fashion house Ferragamo has installed an NFT booth in its new Soho (NYC) store. (Vogue)
◾ Mars has applied to trademark M&M’s candies in the metaverse. (Twitter)
Market Data
◾ Purpose Bitcoin ETF (BTCC) had withdrawals totaling 51% of its assets under management on Friday. (Bloomberg)
◾ Crypto lending platform BlockFi has raised its lending rates for digital currencies increasing its tier 3 rate for bitcoin (BTC) from 0.1% to 2%. (Twitter)
◾ Coinmarketcap’s list of different digital currencies has surpassed 20,000 and is currently standing at 20,011. (6:19 EST) (Coinmarketcap)
◾ $4 billion in bitcoin miner loans is coming under stress. (Bloomberg)
Exchange, Custody and Product Updates
◾ Binance is introducing a new flagship platform for VIP and institutional users. (Binance)
Thoughts on the Ecosystem
◾ The Black Swan author Nassim Nicholas Taleb tweeted a warning that the current “crypto winter… may not be transitory, [and]… may degrade into a permanent [and] inescapable ice age fraught with extinctions.” (Twitter)