KuCoin's Costly Exit 💸
In today’s edition: 💼 Binance disputes SEC, 💰 BlackRock's BTC ETF tweak, 🎨 Trump's new NFT release, and more!
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What’s Poppin’?
by James Rubin, Sage Young and Samyuktha Sriram
Crypto Exchange KuCoin to Pay $22M and End New York Services in Lawsuit Settlement
KuCoin will pay a total of $22 million in fines and refunds and cease operations in New York to settle a lawsuit brought by the state’s Attorney General.
Binance SEC Lawsuit Heats Up Despite DOJ Settlement
Binance doubled down on its motion to dismiss an SEC lawsuit on Tuesday in response to an opposing motion filed by the SEC last week.
BlackRock Updates Bitcoin ETF Filing to Make Access Easier for Wall Street Banks
A revised BlackRock spot Bitcoin ETF filing will allow large U.S. banks to act as authorized participants for the funds.
Donald Trump Peddles New ‘Mugshot’ NFTs
Prices of previous Trump NFTs rose in the immediate aftermath of the announcement.
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The record $4.3 billion settlement between Binance and the U.S. government over charges of money laundering and sanctions violations calls for the world’s largest crypto exchange to maintain an independent compliance monitor for the next five years. Michael Dawson, a partner at WilmerHale, and Dorothy DeWitt, founder and CEO of Tolt Strategies, a former director at the CFTC and former general counsel at Coinbase, dissect the intricacies of this arrangement, delving into the roles and responsibilities of the compliance monitor, the potential impact on Binance’s operations and the broader implications for the crypto industry.
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Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
🔓 Su Zhu, cofounder of the collapsed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, is scheduled for release this month and faces a two-day court hearing in Singapore to address liquidators' questions about the fund's failure and asset locations.
⚖️ The detention of Terraform Labs' Do Kwon in Montenegro was extended to mid-February, amid ongoing discussions about his extradition.
🔓 Aptos unlocked nearly 25 million APT tokens, valued at over $200 million, accounting for 8.9% of its total circulating supply.
🚨 The IRS Criminal Investigation division revealed its top ten notable cases from 2023, including four crypto-related incidents.
🌊 A significant mSOL token sale by a Solana whale briefly drove down prices before a rapid rebound.
💡 Polygon partnered with Celestia, providing a "data availability" solution for developers creating new layer-2 networks using Polygon's tools.
👨💻 StarkWare announced the distribution of $3.5 million in network fees to developers via the "Devonomics" program, fostering the growth of the Starknet ecosystem.
💱 Binance ceased ruble support on its peer-to-peer platform as it withdrew from Russia, directing users to the new owner, CommEX.
🌐 Q Protocol established a DeFi governance framework, integrating the International Chamber of Commerce's arbitration rules for dispute resolution.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
📈 SSV Network rolled out its permissionless mainnet, leveraging distributed validator technology to bolster Ethereum's security.
🔗 Swarm unveiled Open dOTC, a permissionless platform for trading tokenized assets, in line with the European Union's MiCA regulations.
The $$$ Corner…
📱 LINE, the Asian messaging behemoth, secured $140 million to augment its NFT initiative, eyeing a January 2024 launch for its DOSI platform.
What Do You Meme?
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📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is down 1.5%, trading at $40,978
ETH is down 1.8%, trading at $2,170
BTC dominance: 49.76%
Crypto market cap: $1.62T
*All data as of today, 07:00 am ET
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