Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right! (weekly crypto updates)
Another apparently quiet week, as Binance is trying to fight against the food, and even play2earn games like Splinterlands slowed down their crazy updates schedule to enjoy the end of the year. The FTX Ex-CEO is still on the news, on his way to a cushy detainment at his home in the US. Twitter and Visa are one more step closer to the crypto market. What more? Read below:
Bitcoin: Starting from January 2019, Hamas asked its supporters to send funds using Bitcoin to combat sanctions and financial isolation, but Tel Aviv Court issued a ruling allowing Israel to seize all the crypto in more than 150 digital wallets that are blacklisted for allegedly funding this terrorist group. Funnier than this, more than 100 BTC tied to the defunct QuadrigaCX crypto exchange were moved out of the cold wallets, after sitting dormant for 3 years. Nobody should have the key to use these cold wallets, except the dead founder. Unless he was resurrected! Core Scientific, a miner accounting for about 10% of the computing power on the BTC network, filed for bankruptcy, with liabilities estimated between $1-10B. Grayscale may return capital to investors if SEC rejects the Bitcoin ETF.
Ethereum: You may have heard of MEV-Boost, next in line is the DVT (distributed validator technology), a blockchain middleware solution that can enhance the operation of an Ethereum validator, improving security, uptime, and profitability. Visa released a paper outlining how one day they could collaborate with the ETH network on automatic payments.
Altcoins: We got the Stablecoin TRUST act (Transparency of Reverses and Uniform Safe Transactions - they are bad at acronyms, isn't it? which is a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins and a 'path to sensible regulation of crypto'. Twitter added crypto price indexes, so if you write for example $SOL on your tweet with $ in front of your crypto, you will see a clickable link taking you to the price. Did you know that Venus is the leading algo money market protocol on BNB Chain, using a revenue-sharing model and the ability to mint VAI stablecoins? Talking about BNB, its Beacon Chain v0.10 was released, allowing users to stake their BNB to become validators or delegate their BNB to a trusted validator candidate.
Blockchain games and NFTs: Splinterlands relentless updates schedule seems to slow down a bit at the end of the year, but we were still promised the land update at the end of January, so, good luck to the owners, I hope we can lend them as soon as the update is operational and we can prospect the NFTs. Donald Trump NFT collection sold out early Friday, one day after its initial release. Holding a minimum number of 45 tokens guarantees a ticket to dinner with Trump, and 115 customers are apparently qualified for this one. Meta is not profitable, but they will continue to invest in VR and Metaverse. Some people never learn, isn't it?
Good news: Binance provided a bit more info about how they keep all of their clients crypto in segregated accounts, separately from any account used to hold crypto belonging to Binance (this being one of the main issues at FTX). Also, Binance uses Binance's own wallet infrastructure to safeguard user crypto and Binance's own assets. They are also using a mix of hot/cold wallets, periodically sweeping any considerable amount of crypto from the hot wallet. They are also entered into an agreement with Voyager Digital to buy their assets for $1B. Celsius attracted more than 30 potential bidders for its various assets, including its retail platform and mining business. Hope I'll get some of my funds back! Genesis and DCG, assisted by the global investment bank Houlihan Lokey, devised a plan to resolve their liquidity issues and let the Gemini clients recover assets owed to them by Genesis following the collapse of FTX. Brazil legalizes crypto as a legal payment method. Uniswap added a Debit and Credit card buying option, supported by Moonpay. The Marshall Islands recognizes DAOs as limited liability companies, in a try to boost their island state economy.
Bad news: Karl Sebastian Greenwood, the OneCoin scammer pleaded guilty to multiple charges and faces a maximum of 60 years in prison. His co-founder Ruja Ignatova is still evading the law, from what I know. Coinbase CEO pushed for stricter regulations for the centralized crypto actors, but he insists that the decentralized protocols should be allowed to develop without any government push. Investors organizing on Telegram got hacked as their API keys to the automated trading platform 3Commas were stolen through phishing, and $22M disappeared into the void. Solana decentralized exchange Raydium also suffered and exploit and the attackers managed to get control of some funds off of its pools.
Joke of the week: SBF, that FTX guy, was arrested and held at Fox Hill prison, in the Bahamas, but he complained about overcrowding, poor nutrition, inadequate sanitation, and inadequate medical care. Now he wants back in the United States, where all the political donations, made from its client's money, may buy some better treatment. For real. He even signed the paperwork necessary for his extradition to the US. It seems that a $250M bond, home detention, and location monitoring will be used, so this is the American Justice for a guy who defrauded millions but paid his dues and supported the right politicians. In New York, Gary Wang, the co-founder of FTX, and Caroline Ellison, ex-CEO of Alameda Research, are cooperating with the investigation, most probably pining on everything on SBF. The SEC is also building a case around the FTT token, which they say is an unregulated investment contract and a 'security'.
That's all for today.
All the best,
George
Why not...
...have fun and win rewards on my favorite blockchain games (Splinterlands- Hearthstone-like card game) (Mobox - GamiFI NFT platform) and (Rising Star - Music creators game).
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