Top stories
SEC Charges Terraform Labs and CEO Do Kwon with Defrauding Investors in Crypto Schemes
From April 2018 until May 2022, Terraform and Kwon allegedly raised billions of dollars from investors by offering and selling an inter-connected suite of crypto asset securities, many in unregistered transactions.
NFT Marketplace Wars: Blur Tells Users to Ban OpenSea, OpenSea Drops Fee to 0%
NFT marketplace Blur encourages users to block its leading competitor OpenSea for full royalties. Following the news, OpenSea announced it will drop fee to 0% for a limited time and introduce a minimum of 0.5% creator earnings model for all collections without on-chain enforcement.
Binance US Reportedly Moved $400M to Trading Firm Linked to CEO CZ, Pulled Back on Potential Investments and Bids in US
Reuters reported Binance US moved more than $400 million from its account to a trading firm Merit Peak managed by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao over the first three months of 2021.
Binance.US admited Merit Peak operated on its platform, but has stopped all activity on the platform in 2021. It stated "Binance.US has never — and will never — trade nor lend out customer funds”.
CZ acknowledged that Binance has pulled back potential investments and bids on bankrupt companies in the US.
SEC To Sue Crypto Trust Co. Paxos, Paxos Will No Longer Issue BUSD
The SEC is alleging that stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD), the token issued by Paxos is an unregistered security. The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) ordered Paxos to stop issuing the BUSD
Global regulations
Bank of Russia to Pilot CBDC in April
The project will be launched for for peer-to-peer transfers between individuals and for retail purchases.
Japan Will Launch Pilot for Issuing Digital Yen In April
"We plan to develop a system for experiments," Bank of Japan (BoJ) Executive Director Shinichi Uchida said in remarks during the fifth meeting of the BoJ Liaison and Coordination Committee on Central Bank Digital Currency.
China Begins Hong Kong ‘Cross-Border’ Digital Yuan Pilot
The PBoC and Luohu are promoting the event with a token giveaway. Almost $1.5 million tokens will be given away in Luohu during the course of the event.
Hong Kong Scores HK$800M In Tokenized Green Bonds
The bonds were under the Government's Green Bond Program (GBP) and were underwritten by four banks and priced at a yield of 4.05%.
Brazilians Will Be Able to Pay Taxes With Crypto
Banco do Brazil, a mixed ownership bank, is launching the option of paying a set of taxes with crypto, using Bitfy, a Brazilian cryptocurrency startup, as a payment processor, exchanging the cryptocurrencies paid for Brazilian reals on the fly.
SEC To Target Crypto Firms Operating As ‘Qualified Custodians’
A five-member panel of the US SEC has voted 4-1 in favour of a proposal that may make it more difficult for cryptocurrency firms to serve as digital asset custodians in the future. Gensler stated that currently, some crypto trading platforms that are offering custody services are not actual “qualified custodians.”
Crypto weekly price action
Research and technology
Ordinal Theory and the Rise of Bitcoin Inscriptions
We will explore the fundamental properties of both Ordinal Theory, and Inscriptions, and then analyze how this trend is being expressed within the footprint of Bitcoin on-chain data.
Pig-Butchering Scams: An Emerging Crypto Threat Vector
Originating from China, this cyberattack was named after the similarities between pigs and the scheme’s victims. Similar to how pigs are dutifully raised as livestock, the victims in a pig butchering scheme are “fattened up” over a long period before they are slaughtered - or in this case, scammed.
How to Detect and Avoid Rug Pulls
117,629 rug pulls occurred in 2022, a 41% increase over the previous year, a sign that this type of scam is on the rise and has the potential to thrive.
Every trader, to a certain extent, has emotional triggers. The two primary emotions that affect traders are fear and greed — both can lead to poor decisions, such as going all-in on one asset or panic-selling out of fear.
Fundraising and investment
Romanian Social Media App TOKHIT Secures $100 Mln
The funding round comes on the heels of a preliminary $100,000 seed investment and three rounds dedicated to token sales. Capitalisation will be conducted through TOKHIT Holding Switzerland, part of ODAS Group, which will coordinate development and promotion activities globally.
Digital Asset Provider Taurus Raises $65M in Series B
The funding round was led by Credit Suisse, with participation from several other institutional investors, including Deutsche Bank, Pictet Group, Cedar Mundi Ventures, Arab Bank Switzerland, and Investis.
Microstrategy Has Raised $46.6M via Share Sales Since September
MicroStrategy, led by Michael Saylor, disclosed in an SEC filing that it has raised $46.6 million through the sale of shares since September 2022, when it entered into an agreement with underwriter Cowen and Co.for the sale of up to $500 million in common stock.
Blockchain Agtech GrainChain Raises $29M
Texas-based GrainChain announced a $29 million funding round. This includes $10 million from Overstock, which provided GrainChain’s Series A and B funding through Medici Ventures.
Former Jump Trading Developers Raise $19 M To Build Monad Blockchain
Monad Labs, a Layer 1 blockchain project co-founded by former Jump Trading developers, raised $19 million in funding led by Dragonfly Capital.
Viral Quotes
“The guy who made the correct decision on this is the Chinese leader. The Chinese leader took one look at crypto, and he says ‘not in my China,’ and boom … there isn’t any crypto in China. He’s right and we’re wrong.”
— Charlie Munger, Berkshire Vice Chair
“I don’t think he’s read the first page of the Bitcoin Standard, or whatever book you want to go to.”
— CNBC Anchor Joe Kernen pushed back against Charlie Munger’s latest tirade against cryptocurrency
“What’s the spirit behind Web3? People understand intuitively, you wrap things in a token, they can be easily transferred between parties. It’s great for financial products, but Web3 is much more than that. It really is about getting the internet back to a more fair, open and peer-to-peer interaction model. We moved away from that. ”
— Evan Cheng, co-founder of Mysten Labs
“Regulators in general failed to adequately address Celsius [Network], Terra and FTX, and are now going after any of the on-ramps they can to try to reduce access to the system.”
— Campbell, Professor at Columbia University's Business School
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