Binance's Historic Settlement: What You Should Know
In today’s edition: 💼 CZ's $175M bond release, 🏦 SEC, Grayscale's ETF chat, ⚖️ Genesis' $689M Gemini suit, 🚔 $9M Tether seized by DOJ, and more!
Unlock your application’s full potential with the LayerZero interoperability protocol. Connect to 40+ blockchains. Enable cross-chain contract execution and native asset transfer. Secure by Google Cloud, Polyhedra and more.
VaultCraft by Popcorn is your no-code, DeFi toolkit for building automated, non-custodial yield strategies. Learn more on vaultcraft.io about how you can supercharge your crypto portfolio!
What’s Poppin’?
by Juan Aranovich, James Rubin, and Samyuktha Sriram
Binance to Pay $4.3B Penalty to Resolve U.S. DOJ Criminal Investigation; Changpeng Zhao Resigns, Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering Charges
The DOJ charged the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange with operating as an unlicensed money laundering business and violating securities law. Richard Teng will replace Zhao as CEO.
Binance CEO CZ Released on $175 Million Bond
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was released from custody on a $175 million bond – the conditions of which permit him to leave the US until his February sentencing.
Grayscale Met With SEC to Discuss Spot Bitcoin ETF
Grayscale executives have sat down with the SEC to discuss the details around converting GBTC into a spot Bitcoin ETF.
According to surveys of financial advisors, only 12% are currently recommending that clients invest in Bitcoin, while 47% of advisors personally own Bitcoin and a whopping 77% say they are waiting for a spot Bitcoin ETF to become available so they can offer it to their clients.
On this episode of Unchained, Ric Edelman, founder of the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals and author of “The Truth About Crypto,” explains how this should all lead to high demand once the first spot Bitcoin ETFs become available, although it will take some time for them to allocate. Edelman also discusses how FTX’s implosion impacted advisor perceptions of crypto, why investors have not been that excited by crypto futures ETFs, and which Bitcoin ETF issuers he believes are likely to be the big winners.
Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
⚖️ Genesis sued Gemini to recover over $689 million in alleged preferential transfers.
🚔 The U.S. DOJ seized $9 million in Tether linked to a 'pig butchering' scam, following investigations and asset freezing by Tether.
🍰 PancakeSwap proposed introducing veCAKE to enhance governance influence and boost liquidity, with over 99% votes in favor so far.
🌉 Ethereum Layer 2 Kinto migrated to the Arbitrum ecosystem, aiming to bridge traditional finance with decentralized finance.
📱 Former Revolut employees are launching Zeal, a new crypto wallet backed by Galaxy, targeting a Q1 2024 launch.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
🔗 Wintermute Asia executed its first options block trade through CME Group, signaling growth in traditional and crypto market integration.
The $$$ Corner…
💡 Ethereum Layer 2 Blast, founded by Blur's Tieshun Roquerre, went live in early access after a $20 million raise, targeting native yield generation.
🌐 Paradigm led an $18 million Series A funding round for web3 infrastructure startup Privy, with plans for team growth and developer support.
💵 Colony Lab announced a $10 million investment in the Avalanche ecosystem, including setting up a network validator and an investment index.
What Do You Meme?
Recommended Reads
Argentina’s Elected President Javier Milei Is Not as Pro-Bitcoin as Most People Claim by Juan Aranovich
Marisa Tashman Coppel on the amicus brief in the 5th Cir appeal of Van Loon v. OFAC.
On Unchained Premium 💎
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is down 1.6%, trading at $36,587
ETH is up .6%, trading at $2,023
BTC dominance: 49.65%
Crypto market cap: $1.44T
*All data as of today, 07:57 am ET
👯♀️ Refer Unchained with a friend and earn a Premium subscription
⛓️ Join Unchained Premium to get access to:
🎙️ Behind-the-scenes interviews, in which I talk with crypto experts and entrepreneurs to learn all about the latest developments in the industry.
💬 A subscriber-only Telegram group, where you can talk with the other members of the Unchained community, build a network in crypto, and talk directly with me and the Unchained team!
📰 Transcripts of all the shows, for subscribers only.