Tuesday August 22, 2023
◾ Circle accepted a minority investment from Coinbase (COIN) and will be taking over the USDC governance authority from Centre. (Coinbase)
◾ To obtain UK regulatory approval for its acquisition of Activision (ATVI), Microsoft (MSFT) will restructure its deal and agree to sell the cloud-gaming rights to all existing and new Activision games for a 15-year period to Ubisoft. (Microsoft)
◾ British semiconductor and software design company Arm Holdings filed a public F-1 to list American depository shares on NASDAQ. (Sec.com)
Government & NGO Actions
◾ Thailand is threatening to block Facebook from operating in the country unless it takes action to prevent crypto scams. (Reuters)
◾ The Central African Republic passed regulations supporting the tokenization of real-estate, agriculture and natural resources. (X)
◾ Kenya’s Parliament formed an ad-hoc committee to investigate Worldcoin ‘s activities. (Star.co.ke)
◾ The SEC charged Titan Global Capital Management with using hypothetical crypto performance metrics in its marketing materials. (Sec.gov)
◾ Cheongju, South Korean plans to confiscate crypto assets from tax delinquents. (Coinmarketcap)
Public Company Releases
◾ Arisz Acquisition (ARIZ ) extended the time to close its acquisition of BitFuFu a fourth time. (Globenewswire)
◾ Mawson Infrastructure Group (MIGI) reported $10.6 million in revenue generated a net loss of $17.6 million in the second quarter. (Mawson)
◾ Mogo (MOGO) received approval to repurchase up to 10% of its common shares. (Businesswire)
Restructuring, Losses and Legal News
◾ Jury instructions have been released for Sam Bankman-Fried’s upcoming trial. (Courtlistener)
◾ A federal judge agreed to allow Sam Bankman-Fried one 7-hour day per week of access to a laptop and wifi device while meeting with his attorneys. (Cointelegraph)
◾ Glow Token filed a lawsuit against Crypto.com for breach of contract and unjust enrichment after sending $250,000 and 1 bitcoin to a fake wallet address in an attempt to have its token listed. (Cryptonews)
◾ Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX is cutting 12% of its staff. (CoinDCX)
AI Announcements
◾ YouTube and Universal Music Group are launching an AI music incubator and will explore, experiment and offer feedback on the AI-related musical tools and products. (Youtube)
◾ Online learning site Khan Academy is launching a AI-based tutor chatbot call Khanmigo. (Khanacademy)
◾ An International Labour Organization study on the impact of Generative AI on jobs finds that only 0.4% of jobs will be impacted in low-income nations while the impact will reach 5.5% in high-income nations. (Ilo.org)
Protocols, Applications & Business News
◾ Crypto advocacy group Coin Center provided six principles to the Senate Finance Committee on how crypto should be regulated. (Coincenter)
◾ Exahertz International is launching a $370 million crypto mining data center in the Arabian Peninsula-located nation of Oman. (Omanobserver)
◾ Terra froze its websites to protect against an ongoing attack of phishing scams. (X)
◾ A group of bitcoin developers told a British Court that Craig Wright never owned the 111,000 bitcoin he is trying to claim ownership to, (Coindesk)
Market Data
◾ Pitchbook’s Q2 Crypto Report expects VC crypto activity to rise in the second half of 2023 . (Pitchbook)
◾ Gallup finds that 72% of Fortune 500 Chief HR Officerss foresee AI replacing jobs in their organization in the next three years. (Gallup)
Exchange, Custody and Product Updates
◾ Digital asset custodian Komainu received a virtual asset license to offer services in Dubai. (PRnewswire)