Can Crypto Still Thrive in the US? 🧑⚖️
In today’s edition: 🚨 SEC demands $5.3 billion from Do Kwon, 🤓 A deep dive into Grayscale's mini Bitcoin ETF strategy, and more!
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Union is the first sovereign interoperability layer pioneering trustless bridging between appchains, L1s, and L2s without depending on trusted third parties, oracles, multi-signatures, or MPC. Looking to future-proof blockchain bridging, it is the only protocol that fully addresses the sovereign bridging trilemma, unlocking a horizontally-scaled future.
Jake Chervinsky, chief legal officer of Variant, discusses the current state of crypto regulation, touching on several ongoing legal and regulatory issues in the crypto space, including Uniswap’s Wells notice, the Coinbase case, the Tornado Cash case, the Ethereum Foundation investigation and more. Chervinsky argues that the government’s approach to these cases is often misguided, particularly in instances where they hold software developers liable for how third parties use their software. He also discusses the potential implications of the government’s case against Tornado Cash, suggesting that it could have far-reaching consequences for all open-source software developers.
Chervinsky also delves into the SEC’s ongoing investigations into the Ethereum Foundation, as well as the recent IRS draft form that lists unhosted wallets as a type of broker. He expressed concern about the potential impact of these investigations on the crypto industry, but remained optimistic about the future of DeFi in the US.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.
What’s Poppin’?
by Sam Sriram and Michael Bodley
SEC Seeks $5.3 Billion From Do Kwon and Terraform Labs
The SEC is ordering Do Kwon and Terraform Labs to pay a cumulative $5.3 billion in disgorgement and civil penalties after a jury returned a guilty verdict on all counts earlier this month.
Grayscale’s Cheaper Mini Bitcoin ETF May Become More GBTC Sidekick Than Off-Ramp
Grayscale’s mini bitcoin ETF (BTC), which is still pending regulatory approval, would impose a fee of just 15 basis points, the lowest amongst all its rivals. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to eat its predecessor’s lunch.
Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
🚨 Following harsh criticism from a Utah judge for "gross abuse of power," two SEC lawyers involved in the mismanaged DEBT Box case resigned, as reported by Bloomberg.
💰 Ripple Labs advocated for a maximum $10 million penalty, countering the SEC's request for a near $2 billion fine following a court ruling that found Ripple in violation of federal securities laws with certain institutional XRP sales.
🕒 The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is exploring the possibility of operating 24/7, similar to cryptocurrency markets, and has issued a survey to stakeholders regarding potential weekend and round-the-clock trading.
💲 The total supply of USD-pegged stablecoins reached $165 billion, marking the highest level in nearly two years.
🚫 The wife of Binance executive Nadeem Anjarwalla who had escaped Nigerian custody, disputed reports of his arrest and extradition from Kenya to Nigeria despite claims from Nigerian media and government sources.
🚀 cLabs, the key developer of the Celo blockchain, plans to develop a layer 2 chain on the OP Stack, opting for Optimism's toolkit after a thorough eight-month evaluation of various scaling solutions.
💼 Mt. Gox creditors have noticed updates in the rehabilitation claims system, showing the specific amounts of bitcoin, bitcoin cash, and fiat to be repaid, along with scheduled completion dates for these repayments.
🐳 Arkham Intelligence reports that significant amounts of cryptocurrency, including holdings linked to Vitalik Buterin, remain unclaimed on various blockchain bridges, urging whales and firms to check their bridge transactions and asset management.
The $$$ Corner…
🤝 Crypto trading software provider Talos, which is backed by Citibank and a16z, acquired Cloudwall, a crypto risk management platform, to help improve its existing crypto portfolio management system.
What Do You Meme?
Recommended Reads
NFT collector punk6529 on “Why All Memes are Memes but not All Memes are Memes”
Bitwise’s Matt Hougan’s three takeaways from the International Monetary Fund’s paper on cross-border flows in bitcoin
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is up .2%, trading at $66,167
ETH is down .8%, trading at $3,177
BTC dominance: 50.9%
Crypto market cap: $2.56T
*All data as of today, 07:19 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
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