Prosecutors Seeking Arrest Warrant for Terraform Labs' Daniel Shin: Yonhap
South Korean newswire service Yonhap is reporting that prosecutors are seeking an arrest warrant for Daniel Shin, co-founder of Terraform Labs. Yonhap says prosecutors are charging Shin with taking illegal profits as he sold $105 million of LUNA at a market high without informing investors. He's also being charged with violating the Electronic Financial Transaction Act for using customer data from Chai, a separate firm he managed, to promote Luna. (Coindesk)
Miami's Mayor Says he's Still Taking Paychecks in Bitcoin
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said that he's still taking his paycheck in bitcoin despite the ongoing market volatility. Suarez, who leads the U.S. Conference of Mayors, first said just over a year ago that he’d become the first American politician to take his official salary in bitcoin, announcing the plan just days before the all-time high of $68,789. While the digital currency has declined about 76% since Suarez first announced the measure, he’s noted that his mayoral salary is not his only source of income as he also has jobs as a lawyer and with private equity. (The Block)
FTSE Russell to Introduce 8 New Digital Asset Indexes
Data and analytics firm FTSE Russell, which is owned by the London Stock Exchange Group, is rolling out a market cap index series covering the investable digital asset market. It includes eight indices from large to micro-cap, and monitors data and hundreds of exchanges constantly in order to "define the investable universe." (The Block)
Jack Dorsey's TBD Is Looking to Trademark 'Web5' to Deter Its Misuse
TBD, the bitcoin-focused subsidiary of Dorsey’s Block (SQ), is looking to trademark the Web5 name to prevent confusion over the meaning of the term and deter others from using it loosely. "We’ve recently noticed that the term 'Web5' is being applied to products and services diametrically opposed to the tenets of Web5 that we set out," TBD said in a tweet on Tuesday. (Coindesk)
New Crypto Fund of Funds May ‘Buy the Dip at Scale,’ Sources Say
A private equity professional, helming a new crypto fund of funds, appears to be gaining fundraising traction as investors hunt for opportunistic strategies primed for uncommonly volatile markets, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Managing Partner Joshua Manasseh previously spent more than six years at private equity firm Ardian. Manasseh’s London-based Arbury Advisors plans to launch in the first quarter of 2023. (Blockworks)
SBF Hid Republican Donations So Media Wouldn't 'Freak the Fuck Out'
"I donated to both parties," FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said in an interview with Tiffany Fong published Tuesday. "I donated about the same amount to both parties." Bankman-Fried says he donated dark money to avoid public scrutiny and have reporters "freak the fuck out if you donate to Republicans," calling them super liberal and saying he didn’t want to have that fight. Bankman-Fried also said that he gave in the primaries because that is where there are good candidates versus bad candidates—unlike in the general election. (Decrypt)
S. Korea Releases Ethical Guidelines for the Metaverse
South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT released a guideline of core ethical principles for metaverse application participants, which includes users and developers, at a ministerial meeting on Monday. The guidelines identify eight principles to support its core values: authenticity, autonomy, reciprocity, respect for privacy, fairness, data protection, inclusiveness and responsibility for the future. (forkast)
Coinbase Wallet Is Dropping Support For XRP, BCH, XLM And ETC
According to Coinbase, January 23 will be the deadline for users to view and transfer their tokens to another wallet provider. They will then have to import their recovery phrases to the new wallet to use their assets. The Coinbase Wallet comes preconfigured to work with the following networks: Arbitrum, Avalanche C-Chain, BNB Chain, Gnosis Chain, Fantom Opera, Optimism, Polygon, xDai, and Solana. In addition, it supports all Ethereum-compatible networks and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (PVM). (cryptopotato)
CrossTower to Acquire Institutional Prime Brokerage BEQUANT
Cryptocurrency exchange CrossTower Inc has agreed to buy digital asset trading platform BEQUANT, which comes after months of window shopping by CrossTower for crypto companies, including a recently revised offer for Voyager Digital's assets. The Nov. 28 acquisition will provide CrossTower with over 600 new professional exchange clients in addition to its existing clientele. The incoming clients are based across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America and are collectively making over $400 billion annually. (Cointelegraph)
IBM and Maersk Abandon Ship on TradeLens Logistics Blockchain
Maersk and IBM will wind down their shipping blockchain TradeLens by early 2023, ending the pair’s five year project to improve global trade by connecting supply chains on a permissioned blockchain. The idea was to save its member-shipping companies money by connecting their world. But the network was only as strong as its participants; despite some early wins, TradeLens ultimately failed to catch on with a critical mass of its target industry. (Coindesk)
