Binance Expands Its Empire 👑
In today's edition: New Pod with Cobie and Chris Burniske, Binance to buy Voyager's assets, Grayscale's plan, BlockFi's request, and more!
New Pod Today!
2022 in Review + How Cobie and Chris Burniske Are Playing the New Year
What a year. Cobie, crypto investor and host of UpOnly, and Chris Burniske, partner at Placeholder Ventures, sift through 2022’s rubble for clues as to what lies ahead in 2023. The two bright lights of Crypto Twitter weigh in on SBF’s fraud, how to succeed through the bear market, and what remains promising despite the gloom and doom.
Show highlights:
why 2022 is “the hangover of 2021”
why this year’s big meltdowns were different and dispiriting
why it was actually a year to remind us of why we’re all here
how the underlying protocols didn’t skip a beat
how to survive the bear market
what Chris feels guilty about in the wake of Alameda’s collapse
why Cobie hopes SBF spends life in jail
whether people will actually use decentralized alternatives – or if banking-like relationships will prevail
what Chris sees as the 2023 version of proof-of-stake in 2017
why Cobie thinks bitcoin is an area of opportunity over the next few years
whether the multichain thesis (“Solunavax”) will ever rise again
whether the contagion is over
if disgraced figureheads deserve a second chance
a lightning round lookback on 2022
What’s Poppin’?
Binance.US Will Buy Voyager’s Assets for $1.02B
by Samyuktha Sriram
The U.S.-based subsidiary of crypto exchange Binance has agreed to acquire bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital’s assets.
FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Agrees to U.S. Extradition
by Samyuktha Sriram
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has agreed to be extradited to the U.S. after a confusing morning in a Bahamas court room.
Grayscale Weighs 20% GBTC Share Buyback if ETF Conversion Falls Through
by Samyuktha Sriram
Grayscale, the firm behind the world’s largest Bitcoin Trust, is considering a share buyback option if its plans to convert its flagship fund into an ETF are unsuccessful.
BlockFi Files Motion Requesting Client Withdrawals for Wallet Accounts
by Samyuktha Sriram
Bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi has filed a motion calling for withdrawals to be allowed for all wallet accounts on the platform.
Five QuadrigaCX Wallets Moved 104 Bitcoin
by Samyuktha Sriram
On-chain data shows that five cold wallets associated with defunct crypto exchange QuadrigaCX moved large amounts of Bitcoin for the first time in several years.
In Other News…✍️✍️✍️
Modulo Capital, an entity in which Alameda invested $400 million, was a multi-strategy hedge fund formed by three former Jane Street traders and based in the Bahamian condo community in which SBF resided.
Auros, a market making firm, filed to declare bankruptcy in the British Virgin Islands, with almost $20 million of its funds being frozen on FTX.
Binance revealed plans to take complete ownership of Indonesian exchange Tokocrypto.
The U.K. is set to pass the Financial Services and Markets Bill (FSMB) into law, granting more power to regulators over cryptocurrency.
The brother of former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson stepped down from his advisory role to Binance's subsidiary firm Bitfinity.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
Visa proposed a system known as “account abstraction” which utilizes smart contracts to facilitate automated payments via Ethereum.
CME Group and CF Benchmarks unveiled new DeFi reference rates and real-time indices for Aave, Curve, and Synthetix.
The $$$ Corner…
Foundation, a Bitcoin wallet maker, closed a $7 million seed round.
Decentralized market-making protocol Arrakis Finance garnered $4 million in a seed funding round.
What Do You Meme
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is up .53%, trading at $16,801
ETH is up 2.33%, trading at $1,208
BTC dominance: 38.55%
Crypto market cap: $840 billion
*All data as of today, 5 am ET
Recommended Reads
Crypto’s Onetime Fans Are Calling It Quits After FTX Collapse by WSJ’s Gunjan Banerji.
CNBC’s Ryan Browne on three ways the FTX disaster will reshape crypto.
Ian Wittkopp on the crypto credit bubble:
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