Another Short-Lived Venture for 3AC Founders 🙅♂️
In today’s edition: 🚨 FTX hackers possibly identified, 💰 Crypto PAC's big donors, 🤨 Criticism over Jupiter's airdrop, 📖 Review of new book Read Write Own, and more!
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While Solana DeFi protocol Jupiter staged what was by most measures a very successful airdrop launch on Wednesday, achieving a market cap of close to $800 million, the company’s critics pointed out numerous ways the company seemed to unfairly enrich itself in the process. While Jupiter’s founder, who goes by the pseudonym Meow, acknowledges he might have done some things differently, he finds the criticisms of the launch mostly based on “bad faith” and misinformation.
Meow joined Unchained to discuss the thinking behind the launch mechanics of JUP, how the prior launch of memecoin WEN served as a dry run for JUP, whether the aggressive pricing strategy of JUP was a mistake, and what he hopes to achieve with Jupiter next, including the possibility of enabling companies of all kinds to list themselves publicly on chain.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.
What’s Poppin’?
by Sam Sriram, Benjamin Powers, and Sage Young
3AC Founders’ New Crypto Exchange OPNX to Shut Down
OPNX, the crypto exchange and claims trading platform set up by the founders of Three Arrows Capital (3AC), will cease operations and shut down this month.
FTX Hackers Revealed? $400 Million Stolen From Crypto Exchange By Three SIM-Swap Scammers
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charged three co-conspirators with orchestrating a SIM-swap attack to drain $400 million from what appears to be crypto exchange FTX as it collapsed into bankruptcy.
A16z, Coinbase, Ripple Labs Lead Crypto PAC Donor List
Fairshake PAC has amassed $85 million in donations to elect crypto-friendly candidates in 2024.
Pro-Ethereum Crowd Slams Solana-based Jupiter Airdrop as ‘Absolute Trash’
Rival blockchain communities spar over how Solana-based decentralized exchange aggregator Jupiter allocated JUP tokens for its airdrop earlier this week.
Opinion: A16z’s Chris Dixon Makes the Definitive Case for Why Blockchain Networks — and Tokens — Really Matter
by David Z. Morris
Well-known venture capitalist Chris Dixon’s new book, “Read Write Own”, is probably the best guide for savvy, but non crypto-native, observers who want to follow (or invest in) blockchains, argues our columnist.
Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
🔌 The U.S. Energy Information Administration will initiate an emergency survey of crypto miners' electricity usage following bitcoin's (BTC) significant price increase.
🔒 Binance froze $4.2 million in stolen XRP tokens, following a $120 million exploit on Ripple Labs executive chairman Chris Larsen's wallet.
🚧 Binance faces regulatory obstacles in re-entering the UK market, struggling with compliance following the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) rule changes.
🚫 US lawmakers want to repeal the SEC's crypto asset custody accounting rule, challenging restrictions on companies holding customer crypto.
👁️ Hong Kong prepares to release a consultation for regulating over-the-counter crypto trading platforms amid increasing fraud concerns.
📊 Hong Kong-based financial services firm VSFG plans to apply for a spot Ethereum ETF in Q2, following the anticipated launch of a spot bitcoin ETF in Q1.
👤 The Reserve Bank of India explores privacy technology for its digital rupee and remains neutral on crypto taxation.
The $$$ Corner…
💰 Cube.Exchange, a hybrid crypto trading platform, raised $12 million in a Series A funding round with a $100 million valuation.
🚀 Pixelmon closed $8 million in a seed funding round, including from Animoca Brands, revitalizing its NFT project with LiquidX Studios after initial criticism.
🎮 Web3 gaming company Saltwater garnered $5.5 million in seed funding, as it looks to expanding operations and its tech stack.
💱 Velar secured $3.5 million to develop decentralized finance tools for Bitcoin, planning a perpetual swaps exchange.
⛏ Ionic Digital acquired Celsius' bankrupt Bitcoin mining assets, aiming to become a top miner in North America with plans to go public.
What Do You Meme?
Recommended Reads
Unchained: What Are Tokenized Treasuries?
CoinDesk: Blast From the Future: Can You Plagiarize Something Meant to Be Copied?
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is up 2%, trading at $43,049
ETH is up 1.9%, trading at $2,307
BTC dominance: 48.77%
Crypto market cap: $1.73T
*All data as of today, 06:17 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
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