Tuesday August 23, 2022
◾ The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation has gone live with its distributed ledger based alternative settlement platform in a parallel environment processing an average of over 100,000 bilateral equity transactions per day, with up to 160,000 transactions on peak days. (DTCC)
◾ Lawyers for the former OpenSea executive accused of insider trading and wire fraud are arguing for a dismissal of all charges claiming that their client is innocent because a NFT is neither a security or a commodity and therefore he committed no crimes as charged. (Courtlistener)
◾ Iran’s association of importers is calling for the establishment of a domestic regulatory framework for digital currencies to promote crypto’s use as a means of payment for imports. (News.bitcoin)
Government & NGO Actions
◾ Germany’s financial regulator warned that investors could lose all their money in crypto because it lacks state-sponsored protections. (Coindesk)
◾ Argentinian Presidential candidate Javier Milei is being sued for promoting a crypto ponzi scheme on Instagram. (Decrypt)
Public Company Releases
◾ Hut 8 Mining (HUT) has signed a partnership with distributed cloud service provider Zenlayer to bring industry-leading edge computing solutions to Web 3.0, blockchain, and enterprise customers. (Cision)
◾ Mawson Infrastructure Group (MIGI) mined 490 bitcoin to drive Q2 revenues up 236% on a year-over-year basis to $19.8 million. (Businesswire)
◾ BitNile (NILE) issued its 10-Q posting Q2 revenue of $17 million and a loss from operations of $23 million driven by a 138% increase in SG&A. (Bitnile)
Restructuring, Losses and Legal News
◾ The CEO of embattled South East Asian crypto exchange Zipmex is refusing to step down until new majority investors are brought in to save the company and repay all clients. (Bitcoinist)
Protocols, Applications & Business News
◾ South Korean securities companies, including Mirae and Samsung, are planning to set up their own digital asset exchanges by the beginning of 2023. (CryptoPotato)
◾ Ethermine, the world’s largest Ethereum mining pool with a 28% of Ethereum’s hashrate, has announce it will end ETH mining once the network transitions to proof-of-stake. (Ethermine)
◾ Coindesk is reporting that the acquisition price FTX agreed to pay for BlockFi could be as low as $15 million but increases to $240 million if the crypto trading platform and lender meets its operating targets. (Coindesk)
◾ PayPal (PYPL) has joined the Travel Rule Universal Solution Technology (TRUST) network, a global, industry-driven solution designed to increase compliance with a requirement known as the Travel Rule while prioritizing the security and privacy of customers. (Coinbase)
Metaverse Briefings & Activations
◾ Invesco is launching a $30 million actively managed metaverse-focused equity fund. (Citywire)
◾ The Metaverse has been added to the Garter Hype Cycle for Emerging Tech 2022 posting on an upward, early state trajectory towards the “peak of inflated expectations.” (Skarredghost)
Market Data
◾ Stablecoin issuers are holding over 2% of outstanding US Treasuries. (Cointelegraph)
◾ Nike (NKE) has generated 185 million in sales from NFTs since launching the digital tokens. (Finbold)
Thoughts on the Ecosystem
◾ Andreessen Horowitz believes web3 technologies and the advent of a decentralized community-led model can break the excessive concentration of the power held by a small handful of internet and social media companies. (FT)
◾ Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff thinks that lawyers suing billionaire Mark Cuban for promoting Voyager Digital will argue Cuban was an early critic of bitcoin and therefore knew it was a scam and “only flipped when he saw an opportunity to profit from the crypto mania.” (Twitter)