Tuesday June 21, 2022

◾ HM Treasury has amended its money laundering and terrorist financing guidelines to omit the need for senders of digital assets to collect information about recipient’s unhosted wallet unless there is an “elevated risk of illicit finance.” (Gov.UK)

◾ The Bank of Israel believes regulators could protect investors by overseeing the text and code in smart contracts. (Bloomberg)

◾ Russian Ministry of Finance said that oil export volumes are too large to be paid in bitcoin.  (Finbold)

Government & NGO Actions

◾ Iran plans to cut power to all 118 legally licensed crypto mining operation starting tomorrow as the country enters a seasonally high spike in power demand. (Bloomberglaw)

◾ El Salvador’s President threw further support behind bitcoin by tweeting that people should “stop looking at the graph…your [bitcoin] investment is save and its value will immensely grow…patience is the key.” (Twitter)

◾ Republican Senators have written to SEC Chair Gary Genlser raising their concerns regarding the agency’s recent attempt to circumvent the rule making process by issuing staff guidance relating to the custody of digital assets. (Senate.gov)

◾ The Fed reported that “recent strains experienced” in stablecoin markets “have highlighted the structural fragilities in that rapidly growing sector.” (Federalreserve.gov)

◾ 14 members of Congress have asked EPA administrator Michael Regan to analyze the potential impact of crypto mining and wether mining could have a “substantial stabilizing effect on energy grids.” (Cointelegraph)

◾ As further repercussion from TerraUSD’s collapse, South Korean authorities are prohibiting “dozens” of former and current employees of Terraform Labs from leaving the country and have placed them on a no-fly list.  (FT)

◾ The FBI has issued a warning that fraudsters are using LinkedIn to scam crypto investors.  (CNBC)

◾ The BIS Innovation Hub has announced new projects including the analysis of “post-quantum cryptography for payment systems and climate-related disclosures.” (BIS)

Public Company Releases

◾ Bitfarms (BITF) has entered into a $37 million equipment financing agreement with NYDIG and announced it sold bitcoin to repaid $34 million against a $100 million bitcoin-backed credit facility with Galaxy Digital (GLXY). (Bitfarms)

◾ Voyager Digital (VOYG) has signed a non-binding term sheet to receive a $200 million revolver, payable at 5% APY, and a second 15,000 BTC line. (Investvoyager)

◾ ProShares is launching the ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITI) enabling investors with short exposure to bitcoin.  (Reuters)  

◾ Iris Energy (IREN) expects to increase its total hash rate at its Mackenzie, BC operation to 4.3 EH/s by the end of 2022. (Globenewswire)

Protocols, Applications & Business News

◾ FTX has acquired digital currency exchange Bitvo to expand its presence in the Canadian market.  (Businesswire)

◾ Tether (USDT) plans to conduct an audit of its USDT reserves by a top 12 accounting firm.  (Euromoney)

◾ Celsius has informed uses that the “process [to stabilize and re-open the platform] will take time” and the lending platform will pause its active communication strategy to focus on “[finding] a resolution.” (Celsius)

◾ Crypto lender Babel Finance suspended customer withdrawals and is working with counter-parties to repay debts and ease short term liquidity.  (Reuters)

◾ A class action lawsuit has been filed against Coinbase (COIN) alleging the digital exchange mislead investors by suggesting TerraUSD (USDT) was a “reserve-backed stablecoin.”  (Theblock)

◾ ByBit announced job cuts that could result in the loss of up to 750 positions with the crypto exchange.  (Coingape)

◾ Austrian crypto exchange BitPanda has become licensed as a digital currency exchange and custody service provider in Spain.  (Cointelegraph)

◾ Chinese messaging app WeChat has updated its guidelines to limit or  ban  all crypto-related accounts on its platform.  (Finbold)

◾ Crypto payments company MoonPay has partnered with Fox Corp., Universal Pictures, Creative Artists Agency and Death Row Records to create NFTs using the company’s minting platform:  HyperMint.  (Bloomberg)

◾ Michelle Bond, the CEO of the Association for Digital Asset Markets (ADAM) is running for Congress in the State of New York.  (Winred)

Metaverse Briefings & Activations

◾ Meta (META) is launching an avatar store on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger enabling users to buy clothing (skins) for their avatars. (Facebook)

Market Data

◾ Tomorrow’s upcoming bitcoin difficulty adjustment is expected to go down 0.40%. (BTC.com)

Exchange, Custody and Product Updates

◾ Binance has suspended deposits and withdrawals using the Brazilian governments Pix payment system citing instability issues. (Coindesk)

Thoughts on the Ecosystem

◾ Elon Musk says he “will keep supporting Dogecoin” (DOGE) because people have encouraged him to buy and support the digital asset.  (Bloomberg)