Is crypto moving outside US? 🇺🇸 ✈️
Crypto's tussle with the authorities in the US. Yuga Labs scores another hit with TwelveFold. FTX is all debit, no credit. Nigerians don't want no CBDCs. Confessions of the crypto minds.
Hello y'all. This is The Token Dispatch. It's mid-week, time when the court battles and accusations heat up. It's don't matter to us, we want to go to the moon. Always dispatching, always working some ground 💪 😉
If you do crypto, and we know you do. It's tough life in the US. Scams, meltdowns and authorities with guns. What does that mean for the disruptive tech that finds itself caught in the middle of a Minority Report kind of storm?
We don't know. We wish we did.
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of the troubled blockchain-based digital payment network Ripple, is mincing no words in telling as he sees. In an interview to Bloomberg, he noted that SEC’s case against Ripple is the SEC simply playing “offense” and “attacking” the industry. He thinks that the crypto industry has “already started moving outside” of the US, given its crypto regulation process is “behind” other countries like “Australia, UK, Japan, Singapore and Switzerland.”
What's happening in the US?
Crypto is under choking pressure from the authorities. To the point it has been branded Operation Choke Point 2.0. It's been a coordinated effort by the authorities to implement more stringent crypto policies.
US banks serving crypto clients are being pressured to cut back or exit the business. SEC has discouraged banks from holding crypto assets or issuing stablecoins.
Silvergate, linked to the FTX collapse, has burnt all the chips. Then there was the Terra Luna crash that gobbled up Three Arrows Capital. All big ticket falls.
Kraken, the crypto exchange, has had to agree to pay a $30 million settlement with the SEC for offering its crypto asset staking-as-a-service program.
Paxos, blockchain infrastructure provider, is being scrutinised for its BUSD stablecoin for violation of investor protection laws.
Brian Armstrong, crypto's Captain America has been a consistent advocate of regulations, and bringing in the rule book.
“I think the best thing for us and for the whole industry would be—here's a clear rule book everybody has to follow it. If the rules change, give us a new rule book we'll follow that one. We've actually been requesting that, and we've filed a petition with the SEC on this,” Armstrong said on Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast.
In light of the way SEC is going about dealing with crypto, policy analysts reckon that the SEC should not be left to wage an unsupervised dirty war on crypto.
In middle of this perfect storm, Coinbase is holding fort. It has kicked off #Crypto435 to grow the crypto advocacy community.
US remains one of the driving countries for the crypto world, and the battle is on, and all it's saying is that - there will be repecurscsions, there will be fallouts; but it isn't about us and them, rather how can we co-exist.
TTD Sponsorship
Yuga Labs first Bitcoin NFT auction: $16.5M in 24 hours
It's controversial. It's big. It's Yuga Labs. What do you expect? TwelveFold, the company's first Bitcoin NFT auction was a hit. Just look at the numbers.
3,246 total bids during the 24-hour auction
288 successful bidders, combined spend of $16.49 Million worth BTC
Highest bid 7.1159 BTC, roughly $159,500
Lowest successful bid 2.2501 BTC, just over $50,000
The critics aren't happy, they reckon that it sets a bad precedent.
The $4 Billion Yuga is a NFT powerhouse. Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Otherside virtual land plots, CryptoPunks, and Meebits — they also were released on Ethereum. TwelveFold is their first collection on Bitcoin via Ordinals. The last 12 pieces of the 300-count limited series will be held for contributors and distributed as part of Yuga’s philanthropic programs.
TTD Number Picker 🔢
$38 Million
That's the January 2023 bill for the army of professionals working on the FTX bankruptcy case. FTX has a $8.7 Billion hole in their balance sheet. Lawyers make money, no matter what. Tis life 🫵
Try dodging this Doge 😵💫
As Elon Musk takes fancy to AI, Dogecoin gets back on the burner. O Papa Elon, Why?
TTD Who We Following🚶
Confessions of the crypto minds 🔥 by Alpha Illustrated. This one is right up our lane on them lonely days of crypto portfolio hibernation. Hope, laugh, fear, tragedy, tears … all rolled in one. Tis also life 🫵
TTD NFT Buzz 📯
Gordon Ramsay’s NFTs coming to the metaverse. The Sandbox is releasing 2,333 avatars players can use as their digital identity.
NFTs are coming to the Amazon app on your phone. They have been making them blockchain moves for some time now, and now it’s here.
Snoop Dogg has been named as the co-founder of Web3-powered livestream platform Shiller. Can't keep Snoop out of the game, can ya?
TTD Think About It 🧠
Is Nigeria a cautionary tale for other countries?
Nigeria citizens don't want the central bank digital currency (CBDC). They have taken to the streets to protest the nation’s cash shortage. In Nigeria, the government has been pushing for mass adoption of their CBDC. The cash restrictions aimed at pushing the country into a 100% cashless economy has led to a massive cash shortage. It has not gone down well with the citizens, and instead of adopting the CBDC, Nigerian protesters are demanding paper money be restored.
Across the world, central bankers have been pushing for CBDCs. But the risks to financial privacy, financial freedom and the stability of the banking system remain the thorny issues to address.
TTD Surfer🏄
SEC Shuts Down '$100 Million Crypto Fraud' in Miami for allegedly using customer funds to make ponzi-like payments.
Cryptocurrency scam in Egypt defrauds thousands of investors of $620K: 29 people have been arrested for the fraudulent network, "HoggPool."
Binance recommends P2P as Ukraine's central bank temporarily suspends crypto exchanges in the country.
Pakistan banks agree on blockchain-based KYC system development to strengthen anti-money laundering and counter terror financing.
Iran completes pre-pilot phase of central bank digital currency in anticipation of a visit by the Bank of Russia’s governor Elvira Nabiullina.
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