Is Gary Gensler Stuck on Replay? 🦜
In today's edition: ❌ Binance says 'dasvidaniya' to Russia, 🏃♂️ Do Kwon dodging extradition?, ⛏️ Marathon's mining blunder, and more.
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What’s Poppin’?
by Brandy Betz, and Samyuktha Sriram
SEC Chair Gensler Says Bitcoin Isn’t a Security
The comment came during an appearance before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.
Bitcoin Miner Marathon Confirms Mining Invalid Block
The Bitcoin mining firm said the invalid block was a result of an unanticipated bug from one of its experiments.
Terra Luna Founder Do Kwon Asks Court to Deny Extradition Request
The defense team for the Terraform Labs founder has asked a court to dismiss the request since Kwon is already in Montenegrin custody.
Binance Asks Users to Convert Euro Balances After Paysafe Cuts Services
Binance said the payments provider made a “sudden and inexplicable decision” to stop processing EUR deposits for the exchange’s users.
Binance Exits Russia, Says Market ‘Not Compatible’ with Compliance Strategy
The world’s largest crypto exchange is exiting the region through unit sale to CommEX on undisclosed terms.
On the Pod…
Bitcoin Ordinals have exploded in popularity since their launch by developer Casey Rodarmor in January, changing the NFT game with millions of inscriptions to date. But what comes next for Bitcoin-based digital artifacts? Danny Yang and Bill Tai, cofounders of Metagood and creators of NFT collection OnChainMonkey, discuss why they will move OnChainMonkey from Ethereum to Bitcoin, Rodarmor’s proposal to change the Ordinals inscription numbering system, and why they believe more creators should consider moving to Bitcoin.
Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
👩⚖️ The U.S. Department of Justice opposed the temporary release of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, questioning the necessity for his involvement in his defense.
👔 Bankman-Fried was granted permission to wear business attire during his upcoming criminal trial, as ordered by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan.
⏳ The SEC postponed its decision on proposed ARK 21Shares and VanEck Ethereum ETFs, setting a new deadline for Dec. 26.
🔍 Crypto exchange Kraken is considering adding stock and ETF trading, potentially launching the new service in 2024.
🚨 Jade Protocol faced internal demands to liquidate its $31 million treasury due to perceived investment risks and regulatory challenges.
💰 Curve founder Michael Egorov deposited $35 million in CRV tokens to clear his debt on DeFi platform Aave.
👨⚖️ Marco Ruiz Ochoa, an ex-IcomTech executive, pleaded guilty in a crypto Ponzi scheme case. Investor money was misused for other schemes and personal expenses.
📜 Hong Kong's SFC is set to release near-term guidance on tokenizing authorized investment products.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
⛓️🚀 Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) launched on Coinbase's layer-2 blockchain, Base, enabling secure cross-chain applications.
The $$$ Corner…
📊 Rated Labs secured $12.89 million in Series A funding to expand its blockchain infrastructure datasets to other blockchains, including Polygon and Solana.
💡 Bril Finance raised $3 million in seed funding, launching its product on the Sei Network blockchain.
🤝 Aptos Foundation and Thala Labs created a $1 million fund for new “Aptos-native” DeFi protocols.
💰 OKX Ventures, the investment division of crypto exchange OKX, funded 0xScope, a data intelligence platform focusing on Web2 and Web3 data.
What Do You Meme?
Recommended Reads
Adam Cochran’s on Binance’s exit from Russia and its relationship with CommEX
Balázs Némethi on identifiers and identities
CoinDesk: How Ethereum staking stacks up in the Proof-of-Stake landscape
📈 Your Market Update 📉
Bitcoin Retreats to $26.3K After Early Surge. Two Analysts See Upbeat Market Signals
by James Rubin
The analysts believe that catalysts over the next year trump the crypto regulatory uncertainty, including recent deferrals of spot bitcoin ETFs, and interest rate worries that have unsettled investors.
BTC is up .2%, trading at $26,411
ETH is up .6%, trading at $1,619
BTC dominance: 47.04%
Crypto market cap: $1.09T
*All data as of today, 6:15 am ET
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