Turmoil. Fraud. Run Risk 🪠
Fed Chair Jerome Powell wants crypto innovation, worried about the mess. Silvergate shuts shop. Binance.US gets a go ahead for Voyager Digital's assets acquisition. Normal business for Vitalik Buterin
Hello y'all. This is The Token Dispatch. Whenever someone asks us W<H>Y ... we go 🏃♂️ run run run 🏃♀️ … see ya tomorrow.
Over to Colonel Jerome Powell ✊
For the uninitiated, Mr Powell happens to the Federal Reserve Chairman. He had a testing time answering the Senate Banking Committee.
We focus on crypto. Hang in there.
We have to be open to the idea that – somewhere in there – there is technology that can be featured in productive innovation that makes people's lives better. We don’t want to stifle innovation.
That's what the promise of blockchain sounds like.
We've seen just a remarkable set of events in the crypto space. Quite a lot of turmoil. Lots of things that suggest that regulated financial institutions should be quite cautious in doing things in the crypto space.
FTX, Three Arrows Capital (3AC), Voyager Digital, Celsius Network, Silvergate … where do we stop here.
There are real concerns about permission less public blockchains, and the reason is that they've been so susceptible to fraud, to money laundering and all of those things.
The rug pulls, the wash trading, the manipulation, the hacks, the scams … where do we even start here.
People are going to assume when they deal with something that looks like a money market fund that that has the same regulation as a money market fund or a bank deposit. So stablecoins need some attention in that respect.
This one is for not-so-stable Do-Kwon and CZ’s BUSD.
In the backdrop of all that is happening globally, it's a tough time being Colonel Powell. Then there is the self implosion in crypto world, there is not much safeguard for that. Inflation is the white elephant in the room. No one quite knows how to deal with it. There is no easy way out. Slaps on both cheeks. No matter what.
TTD Sponsorship
Shop shut for Silvergate
Silvergate is liquidating. The press release has come. That's how it looks👇 … It's done.
Binance. Coinbase. OKX. All have assured they are all good and they have no exposure to the sinking ship. We safe. Nothing to worry.
What does that mean? The bank men will put their heads down and work out the nitty gritty of repayment of all deposits and claims. More pain to come.
California based Silvergate (over $11 Billion in assets) was at the heart of crypto industry, along with New York's Signature Bank (over $114 billion). FTX was a major Silvergate customer, and that broke its back. Silvergate lost more than $8 billion in deposits from its crypto customers in the closing quarter of 2022.
In other banking news, news is filtered in (not officially confirmed, yet) … that JPMorgan is divorcing crypto exchange Gemini.
The banks are tightening the screws. The warning was served long back. Not a happy time for crypto business.
TTD Blockquote 🔊
Michael Wiles, federal judge in the Southern District of New York
…. leave a sword hanging over the heads of anybody who’s going to do this transaction
The judge in charge of Voyager Digital's bankruptcy case just threw some serious shade at the Securities and Exchange Commission … the SEC.
Total #bossman … read on 🙏
"Bankruptcy code doesn't contemplate an endless period of time. Things have to be done. We have creditors who are waiting and who in the midst of all this uncertainty have no access to property in which they've invested in some cases their life savings, so we have to take some kind of action. We have to do something ...
We can't just put everything on pause just because we don't know for sure how the regulators will eventually make up their minds on points that they seem to have been debating for years."
And then the punch 👊
Binance.US can acquire Voyager Digital's Assets. The judge overruled the various objections by the SEC to the proposed acquisition. They may still have to clear certain regulatory hurdles before the deal can be finalised. The deal is worth over $1 billion.
TTD What the fuck
Jared loses $96,000. Coinbase says, not my fault. Jared sues Coinbase.
Crypto investor Jared Ferguson from New York lost his life savings of $96,000 to account draining, through an SMS prompt in May 2022. The hacker drained his Coinbase account 24 hours after Ferguson received a text message to change the password. Coinbase, on their part, sent an email to him saying, “Customers … are responsible for any activity that occurs when those devices or passwords are compromised. Please note, you are solely responsible for the security of your email, your passwords, your 2FA codes, and your devices.” Ferguson has filed a lawsuit against Coinbase. He says that Coinbase should bear responsibility for missing unauthorised transactions on both Federal and State Laws.
Vitalik Buterin has a NFT Collection?
Take 1: The Quadratic Funding Collection is, well 🚀… closing in on 7K ETH (as on March 9, 2023). Each NFT in the collection looks like an album cover and includes a digital version of the 2018 whitepaper “Liberal Radicalism: A Flexible Design for Philanthropic Matching Funds” signed by Buterin and his co-authors, economists Glen Weyl and Zoë Hitzig. Created by Metalabel and Web3 funding platform Gitcoin, the project celebrates the creation of the concept of quadratic funding, a model that seeks to maximise contributions to projects by providing matching funds to individual donations.
Take 2: The Balvi Filantropic Fund, directed by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, has donated $15 million in USDC to the University of California San Diego for research into airborne pathogens.
Take 3: Few days back, Vitalik sold 500 trillion SHIK for 380 ETH ($600,000), 50 billion MOPS for 1.25 ETH ($2,000), 10 billion CULT for 58 ETH ($91,000), and 3.4 million BITE for 5.9 ETH ($9,250). That's 444 ETH, approximately $700K. Then he, transferred the 214 ETH ($337,000) to an address labeled “EthDev,” that's half the dosh. Projects often send out free tokens to Vitalik, almost on daily basis, hunting for lime light … if SEC has its way, all of that could soon become illegal. Watch out them free airdrops.
Just normal business in the life of Vitalik 🔥
TTD Surfer🏄
Thailand waives crypto tax for companies that offer investment tokens, the government to forgo up to $1 billion in revenue over the next 2 years.
Coinbase starts wallet as a service, companies can use to build own apps. Robinhood too has launched its Web3 wallet for iOS, android to follow.
China’s WeChat Pay integrates digital yuan for faster and more convenient payments with the CBDCs.
The Indian government has decided to notify all interested parties of the obligation to comply with the national Anti-Money Laundering law.
The Russian Association of Crypto Industry and Blockchain (RACIB) have issued an open letter to Putin to stop regulatory hostility.
If you like us, if you don't like us .. either ways do tell us✌️
You can follow us on telegram to stay tuned to all crypto things 🤟
If you dig what we do, show us some love on Twitter & Instagram🤞
So long. OKAY? ✋