Did Ledger Violate the Cypherpunk Ethos? 🤨
In today's edition: 📣 New podcast on the Ledger controversy, 🤑 FTX's $240 million clawback, ➡️ Coinbase expands, and more!
What’s Poppin’?
by Samyuktha Sriram
FTX Seeks to Claw Back $240 Million From Embed Acquisition
The FTX Bankruptcy estate is suing the exchange’s former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and other executives as it seeks to claw back funds from a “wildly inflated” acquisition of Embed.
‘Technically’ Possible to Extract User Keys? Ledger Addresses Deleted Tweet
Ledger addressed a now-deleted controversial tweet that said it has always been possible to facilitate key extraction.
Visa Deploys Paymaster Smart Contracts on Ethereum Testnet Goerli
Visa is experimenting with ERC-4337, or Account Abstraction, which offers an alternative solution to dealing with transaction fees.
Coinbase Expands Subscription Service Outside U.S.
Coinbase One, the crypto exchange’s zero-fee subscription model, is officially out of beta testing.
New Pod Today!
The Ugly Tradeoffs of Ledger’s New Recovery Service
Ledger, the crypto industry’s leading hardware wallet manufacturer, rolled out a new recovery feature this month that caused an uproar. The recovery service has dangerous implications for crypto self-custody, says Foundation Devices head of content “Seth For Privacy.”
He joins the show to discuss the downsides of closed-source code and the security risks that come with compromising for mainstream adoption.
Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
🚫 Despite growing local adoption, Pakistan's Minister of State for Finance and Revenue, Aisha Ghaus Pasha, reiterated a hardline stance, stating cryptocurrencies will "never be legalized" in the country.
📜 U.S. lawmakers at a House Financial Services Committee's digital assets panel hearing highlighted the ongoing partisan divide over the regulatory oversight of stablecoins, despite optimism for legislative compromise.
🚫💳 Worldcoin, cocreated by OpenAI's Sam Altman, is reportedly taking action against a rising black market for illegitimate purchases of its credentials before the token's official launch.
📉 Exchange trading volumes hit a yearly low, potentially due to a reduction in activity from trading firms Jump and Jane Street.
🏦 Custodia Bank is set to launch Bitcoin custody services for its clients, as announced by founder and CEO Caitlin Long at the Bitcoin 2023 conference.
💻 Ripple unveiled a proprietary platform designed to facilitate central banks, governments, and financial institutions in creating their own central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
🗽 After misleading customers about undisclosed fees, New York-based crypto trading platform Coin Cafe was ordered to repay $4.3 million to defrauded investors, the state's Attorney General's office announced.
🔍💰 Swaprum, an Ethereum Layer 2 decentralized exchange, is suspected of an exit scam after around 1,628 ETH ($3 million) disappeared from its liquidity pools, leaving its token holders with nearly valueless assets.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
🌍 Climate finance company Solid World partnered with Polygon to launch the first automated market maker pool for forward carbon credits, marking a step towards the financialization of carbon credits on the blockchain.
The $$$ Corner…
💰 Digital asset financial services firm, HashKey Group, is reportedly aiming to raise between $100-200 million at a valuation of $1 billion, taking advantage of Hong Kong's growing status as a potential cryptocurrency hub.
💸🌍 Block CEO and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey led a $6 million seed funding round for Azteco, a Bitcoin payments firm that offers Bitcoin purchasing via redeemable vouchers.
Unchained Daily is brought to you by ICON.
Bringing next-gen interoperability to multiple cross-chain protocols.
What are ICON's BTP and xCall service?
What Do You Meme?
Learn 🤓
What Does Non-Custodial Mean in Crypto—and Is It Important?
You may wonder what the renewed interest in ‘non-custodial’ crypto storage solutions is all about. This guide has you covered.
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is down 2.0%, trading at $26,833
ETH is down 1.1%, trading at $1,807
BTC dominance: 44.41%
Crypto market cap: $1.17 trillion
*All data as of today, 7:10 am ET
Recommended Reads
Justin Bons on why layer 2s ‘have become the greatest source of corruption’
Modular Media on roll-up multi sigs
CoinDesk: Elizabeth Warren's Bill Won't Stop Money Laundering, but It Could Ban Crypto
⛓️ 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.
Safeguard your crypto accounts and communications with Proton Mail. Join 100M+ people who secure their emails with end-to-end encryption and advanced tracking and phishing protections.
If You Like What You Read:
👯♀️ share Unchained with a friend
👍 follow Laura on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Mastodon and/or LinkedIn
🎧 subscribe to Unchained on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Pandora or wherever you get your podcasts
and/or 📚buy my book, The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze