🚨🤔 Investors Bypass Vesting Schedule ?
In today’s edition: 📝 SBF lawyers dispute government's claim, 📈 Grayscale's staking plans, 📆 Ether ETF rejection in May ?, 🤝 Genesis, SEC reach settlement, and more!
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Few crypto figures have been as vilified as Kyle Davies, the co-founder, along with Su Zhu, of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, which imploded in mid-2022, losing $3 billion and bringing many pillars of the crypto industry down with it. Davies and Zhu have been accused of, among other things, lying about 3AC’s assets as the firm was imploding, trying to borrow money when the firm was insolvent, and seeking funding from the Mafia, all of which Davies denies.
But he remains unapologetic about 3AC’s demise, saying most, if not all, companies eventually go bankrupt, and that 3AC had a “pretty spectacular” ten-year run. He joined Unchained to explain why he and Su Zhu were ordered to prison in Singapore for non-compliance with the liquidation proceedings, Zhu’s “six weeks meditating” (in prison), where he’s living now, why he and Zhu went to Bali after the bankruptcy, his $25,000-a-month fee for consulting for crypto bankruptcy exchange OPNX, his and Zhu’s current work advising crypto derivatives platform OX.FUN, and what he wishes he would have done differently in terms of 3AC’s wind down.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, 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 Sage Young, Jacob Oliver, Nelson Wang, and Sam Sriram
EtherFi Investor Dodges Vesting Schedule and Offloads Freshly Airdropped ETHFI Tokens to Binance
Venture firm Arrington Capital’s token distributions were spread amongst several wallets in amounts just below the minimum threshold for locking the ETHFI tokens into vesting schedules.
SBF’s Lawyers Respond to ‘Disturbing’ 50-Year Sentence That Cast Him As ‘Depraved Super-Villain’
“The truth is, there were never losses. The money has always been available,” said Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers in a letter opposing the government’s proposed 50-year prison term for the former FTX CEO.
Grayscale Looks to Add Staking in Proposed Spot Ethereum ETF
Grayscale Investments plans to add staking to its proposed spot Ethereum ETF, following a similar move from Fidelity Investments earlier this week.
Bloomberg ETF Analysts Now Predict SEC Will Reject Spot Ether ETFs in May
Bloomberg analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas base their assessment on the lack of recent contact between fund issuers and the SEC.
‘Am I Not the Lloyd Blankfein of Crypto in 2022?’ Asks 3AC’s Kyle Davies
Kyle Davies, the much-criticized co-founder of the bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, thinks of himself as the crypto analogue to the former Goldman Sachs CEO.
Genesis and SEC Settle Unregistered Securities Lawsuit for $21 Million
The SEC charged bankrupt lender Genesis and its partner institution Gemini for failing to register the Gemini Earn Program before its collapse.
Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
☕ Polygon Labs provided Starbucks with a $4 million grant for the NFT loyalty program venture on the Polygon network that was later discontinued.
✅ Optimism commenced testing of "fault proofs" on Ethereum's Sepolia test network to bolster security for withdrawals and enhance network reliability.
🔐 Sygnum Bank tokenized $50 million in assets for Matter Labs on layer 2 blockchain zkSync.
🏦 Gyroscope introduced high-yield liquidity pools, promising mid-double digit returns through a strategy including asset rehypothecation and loyalty points.
📜 Several organizations, including the Crypto Council for Innovation and Paradigm, filed amicus briefs supporting Coinbase's request for the SEC to create regulations specific to the crypto industry, citing unclear regulatory guidance and the inapplicability of current securities laws.
💼 Goldman Sachs expressed interest in investing in crypto bankruptcy claims, exploring the market for opportunities amid the collapse of several major crypto firms.
🌐 Aave launched a new airdrop program, known as Merit, distributing $5 million in rewards to encourage beneficial actions for the Aave DAO and deter engagement with non-aligned protocols.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
🔐 BlackRock is set to introduce a tokenized private equity fund requiring a minimum investment of $100,000, in collaboration with Securitize, marking a significant step into digital asset integration.
The $$$ Corner…
🎮 Immutable, Polygon Labs, and King River Capital partnered to raise $100 million for the Inevitable Games Fund, targeting early-stage web3 gaming startups, with $30 million already secured.
🌍 MANTRA Chain secured $11 million to develop a network focused on tokenizing real-world assets, aiming for regulatory approval in the Middle East.
What Do You Meme?
Recommended Reads
What is crypto good for, anyway? By Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong
Blockworks: The institutions are paying attention. Now comes the hard part.
Unchained: What Is Dogwifhat (WIF) and Why Is It Up so Much?
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is down .4% trading at $62,927
ETH is down .2% trading at $3,226
BTC dominance: 49.73%
Crypto market cap: $2.49T
*All data as of today, 06:46 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
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