Welcome back and thanks for joining us this week ??. First, just wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays!!! Ok, let’s get into it - I bet the biggest crypto news of the week for most people is that?SBF is back in the US?and under house arrest at his parents’ home after being released on?$250 million bail?(following arrest and extradition from the Bahamas). But for me the biggest crypto news this week (and maybe I can sway a few of you), is that a (supposedly) dead guy just moved some BTC out of a cold wallet. More on this interesting tale below:
- I feel like after that intro, it would be unfair to leave you hanging. More than 100 bitcoins tied to the?defunct Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX?were transferred out of cold wallets after?sitting dormant?for more than three years. If you don’t know the story watch?the Netflix documentary. Basically Gerald Cotten founded the Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, and then died under suspicious circumstances, and the private keys to all the customer funds “died” with him. Or did they… dun dun duuun!
- Ok, let’s talk about the crypto in payments trend (again) as Visa signaled its stronger, sustained interest in crypto by releasing a paper outlining how the firm could one day?collaborate with the Ethereum network?on automatic payments.?Here is the actual paper?– feed your brain!
- Speaking of crypto and payments, but kinda going in the opposite direction, Uniswap (the biggest DEX) made a?VERY big move?this week by partnering with fintech company Moonpay to allow users to?buy cryptocurrency on its web app using debit cards, credit cards, and bank transfers. When decentralized exchanges start making?moves like this?– pay attention.
- I held back as long as I could, but fine, here are some more updates related to FTX and SBF: Turns out that $250 million bail is?kind of a record?considering Madoff had a $10 million bail. Only Michael Milken had a higher bail of about $570 million –adjusted for inflation (congrats SBF, your parents must be proud… wait that may not even be a joke). Speaking of Madoff, here is how?FTX creditors could get their money back?(did you know that Madoff creditors recovered around 80%??!!). They’re off to a good start, as they said this week they had?over $1 billion in assets identified. Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang have?pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges?and are?cooperating with investigators?over their role in the fraud that contributed to FTX’s implosion. The SEC calls the FTT exchange token a?security.
- In related news, the SEC is?heightening the scrutiny of the work audit firms do?for cryptocurrency companies, a senior official of the regulator told the Wall Street Journal. Here’s more on this from?Coindesk.
- And speaking of the SEC,?Commissioner Hester Peirce?says the so-called Howey test, used to determine whether a digital asset should be classified as a security, has some limitations (love you “Mom”! No, she is not my mom, read the article…).
- They’ve been on a bit of a vacation so welcome back Nonfungible tokens (“NFTs”) and meta news!!!: World Cup fan tokens, NFTs see?heavy volume after Argentine victory?(congrats to Argentina btw, and yes, Messi get’s my vote for GOAT).?Amazon's new documentary series NFTMe?introduces NFTs and the world that has sprung up around them. I’m putting this here, but it is BIG enough to deserve it’s own bullet -?Daniel Alegre is the new CEO of Yuga Labs, he is the former President and COO of Activision Blizzard where he oversaw development of games like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, and Candy Crush. And he was high up at Google before that (that’s a big “score” for web3). And?Mercedes recently filed for five metaverse and NFT-related trademark applications?with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
- There’s been a lot of bad news for Bitcoin miners over the last few months (no surprise), but this week things seem to have come to a head: I would say the worst of the news is that Core Scientific, one of the world’s biggest bitcoin mining stocks,?filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday?after struggling under the weight of its debt. British Columbia became the third Canadian province to?impose restrictions on crypto mining, saying it will not approve new connections to its power grid for 18 months.?
- It’s not all bad news as a?special electricity tariff is being offered to crypto miners?by Arkansas’ biggest power utility. Kazakhstan legislators approved a bill last week that will introduce?corporate tax for bitcoin miners as well as restrictions?for the industry’s energy consumption nationwide. How bad is it for miners??According to this thread, they lose around $3,226 for every Bitcoin mined!!!
- In a motion filed Monday with the US bankruptcy court in New Jersey, BlockFi requested authority to?process withdrawals for crypto held in the platform’s wallet accounts. That could be a nice holiday surprise to some folks!
- This is a bit crazy: Turns out Tron’s Justin Sun was?secret top client of crypto asset manager Valkyrie. And when they say “top client”, they mean he was, at one point, over 90%?
- Looks like Binance may have benefited from the FTX collapse as they are now?back to holding about 80% of market share relative to 11 other centralized exchanges, up from a low of around 67%.
- Speaking of Binance, I guess congratulations are in order as they have?acquired the assets of Voyager Digital?(after FTX “bailed”).
- I’m closing this week with this pessimistic yet extremely entertaining deep dive into how Tether has been lying for years about its audits, appropriately named?“Tether transparency: A lesson in lying”.
That’s it folks! As always - thank you for reading! Have a great rest of your Friday, and an AWESOME weekend!!! ??
Editor in Chief @ TradeZero Crypto Newsletter
The information and opinions provided here are for general informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or a recommendation regarding any digital asset. Links to third-party sites are not under the control of TradeZero and TradeZero is not responsible for the accuracy of the content on such sites. The trading of digital assets involves significant risk.
