Is Binance having an FTX moment? ??????; Do virtual worlds need virtual landlords? Decentraland thinks so ??

???Hey,?Linas here!?Welcome to a????weekly free edition????of my daily newsletter. Each day I focus on 3 stories that are making a difference in the financial technology space. Coupled with things worth watching & most important money movements, it’s the only newsletter you need for all things when Finance meets Tech.

If you’re not a subscriber, here’s what you missed this week:

1. Visa knows that Africa is the world's next superpower. You should pay attention too??
2. Walmart is going deeper into FinTech & bringing BNPL product in-house ??
3. Robinhood wants to be with you until your Last Dance??
4. RIP Marcus? Goldman Sachs’ FinTech ambitions are fading ??
5. Starbucks is the ultimate Web3 disruptor ????
6. Galileo's latest feature proves what many still ignore about BNPL??
7. Microsoft & London Stock Exchange — a marriage made in Heaven? ??
8. Mastercard & Marqeta are making a major push into B2B payments ??
9. Global venture funding is in freefall ??
10. PayPal + MetaMask ?? = ??

and more! Don't miss out and join the community here????

Last week (12-16 December) was a super intense week in the world of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency.?We will see whether Binance is having an FTX moment, question if virtual worlds need virtual landlords (Decentraland thinks so), and look at and other interesting news and developments.

Without further ado, let us dive into what happened in the Blockchain & Crypto sector last week. Let’s connect the dots.

Is Binance having an FTX moment? ??????

BREAKING: Binance????Since?FTX?went out of business, more and more attention and public spotlight have been put on?Binance, the dominant (a monopoly?) crypto exchange in the world. Even with FTX in place, it was already big, but now it’s an absolute beast.

So what’s happening with Binance ? Are fears that it might follow the path of FTX rational? What’s up with all the FUD? Let’s take a look at it and find out.

More on this ???Here are the most important developments and revelations about Binance that happened in circa one week.

• Let’s set some context first.?Since FTX filed for bankruptcy, over 80% of Bitcoin trading volume has consistently occurred on Binance. That’s how massive it is.

• Former paid spokesperson of FTX, Kevin O’Leary, blamed Binance for the collapse of FTX. That’s clear BS.

• PoR. Last week, to calm the market Binance released the long-awaited proof of reserves. It was performed by the global financial audit, tax, and advisory firm Mazars and showed that Binance's reserves are overcollateralized. Yet, today the same firm Mazars has deleted the proof of reserves from its website. In addition to that, Mazars is pausing all work with Binance and its other crypto clients. Seems like a major red flag to me ??
• See how their site looked before and after the?nuke:

• Although on-chain analysis indicates that the PoR data might be correct…

• You should still be cautious and take it with a grain of salt. Because at the end of the day, without proof of liabilities, this is rather meaningless. Michael Burry has a good analogy here:

• Withdrawals. Because of the above, lots of Binance users started to take their money off the exchange. Many speculated it could cause a bank run on Binance. But let’s look at the data.
• A few days ago, has been processing $6B in withdrawals per day. They also processed $6B in deposits from their wallets to pay everyone. Now that number is reportedly $8-10B:

• If that wouldn’t be enough, on Monday, Reuters reported that U.S prosecutors are considering criminal charges against crypto exchange Binance and individual executives, including founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao.
• The Department of Justice has also discussed possible plea deals with Binance's lawyers, the report added.
• Finally, Binance CEO CZ has been acting quite strangely on TV and on Twitter, showing similar traits to FTX’s SBF and Alex Mashinsky of Celcius. Here’s one interview that didn’t go very well:

?? THE TAKEAWAY

What does this tell us? ???Let’s be honest - there are a ton of red flags out there, and given all the circumstances and surprises that 2022 has brought us, you can never be too safe. Especially right now. So if there’s any advice I can give you it’s this - take your crypto off the exchange. Doesn’t matter which one is it, but you better be safe than sorry. Zooming out, we must note that Binance has just dealt with circa $10B withdrawal stress test in about a week and is still operating. This amount would have certainly put every single exchange out of business. That tells you something. BUT… When you really think about it, this situation still seems like a classic scenario for crypto exchanges: everything is fine, users and assets are safe until they are not. So, let’s watch this closely and be very careful. If Binance survives this (and I really hope so as they have onboarded more people to crypto than anyone else out there), they will definitely become even stronger.

Bonus: Binance wants to be your Crypto Bank ??

Do virtual words need virtual landlords? Decentraland thinks so ??

The news ???The metaverse platform?Decentranland?announced a new platform feature that allows its users who own virtual LAND to essentially become landlords. Owners can now officially rent out their property to other users on the platform for predefined periods of time.

This allows users to earn passive income off of their metaverse assets.?

More on this ???Decentraland classifies LAND owners as accounts or wallet addresses that own the smart contract for LAND, whether it be “a Parcel, an Estate, or both.”

All LAND rentals are performed in Decentraland , the native token of Decentraland, and paid upfront in total. The platform gave examples of digital universities renting out land to build campuses or DJs renting space for a club or party.

Seems like a good deal for renters as MANA has lost nearly 90% of its value in 1 year…

?? THE TAKEAWAY

Looking ahead ???People are building new universes in Web3, and all we can think of is… landlords? While this is an obvious cash grab, this is a pretty disappointing development. Moreover, unlike owning real estate, which provides the owner with a physical location that they can occupy and use, virtual land only exists within a virtual environment and has no physical counterpart. This means that virtual land ownership does not provide the same benefits or protections as real estate ownership. Additionally, the value of virtual land can be highly variable and is often dependent on the popularity and success of the virtual environment in which it is located. On the other hand, if the popularity of the virtual worlds grows, so should the demand for virtual lands, hence, increasing their value over time. And having the ability to rent it is a first step towards leveraging that and earning some passive income. We live in an increasingly digital world, after all, and for the next generation, it'll become virtually second nature ?? ♂?

Extra Reads & Quick Bites for Curious Minds??

• Transaction business ???Crypto exchange giant Binance generates 90% of its revenue from transaction fees, CEO Changpeng?Zhao said in an?interview with TechCrunch. Zhao added that Binance had removed all ads from the data site?CoinMarketCap, which it acquired in 2020, to make for a cleaner experience. "We can turn that back on, that’ll give us $40M a year. But we don’t need to today," Zhao said. It is estimated that Binance had?about $20B?in revenue in 2021, according to a Bloomberg analysis.?So DeFi is the ultimate Binance killer then?????Read?this?and decide.
• Crypto, corruption & EU???? Eva Kaili, one of crypto's biggest fans in the European parliament, was arrested in a corruption probe involving Qatari influence peddling. Kaili, vice-president of the parliament, was expected to lead the European Parliament’s?report?on NFTs and contributed to the DLT Pilot Regime?project, launching in March, as per The Block. She has played a major role in shaping policy on crypto assets and blockchain since 2018.?Seems it’s always about the money…

Money Moves??

• Shibuya, a decentralized video platform co-founded by Emily Yang, aka. pplpleasr,?raised $6.9M?in seed funding.
• 9fin, an analytics platform for debt capital markets, has announced a $23M Series A+ led by new investor?Spark Capital.

Continue reading by subscribing to?Linas's Newsletter.?You will receive fresh news about FinTech, Blockchain & Crypto with hot takeaways every day.

P.S.?You might enjoy my earlier pieces as well:

?? The Perfect Pitch Deck: How Coinbase Raised Seed Capital and Began Journey Towards $100B Worth Public Company

???A Wise pitch deck that led to London’s biggest and most successful direct listing ever

?? Lessons FinTechs can learn from Spotify going into audiobooks ??

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About: I am?a business developer, sales professional, FinTech strategist, as well as Cryptocurrency and Blockchain enthusiast. I'm highly passionate about Financial Technology and Digital Innovation, and strongly believe that it will change the world for the better. Apart from my daily job at a global payments startup where I'm leading the company's expansion into Europe, I'm an active member of the FinTech community and a TechFin evangelist.

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