Citi: Tokenized Securities Market Could Reach $4 Trillion by 2030 (The Block)
"Tokenizing financial and real-world assets could be the "killer use-case" that blockchain needs to drive a breakthrough, with trillions of dollars worth of securities tokenized by the end of the decade, according to Citi's latest global perspectives and solutions report. "Almost anything of value can be tokenized," Citi wrote in its March report. The bank forecasts up to $4 trillion in tokenized digital securities and up to $5 trillion of central bank digital currency could be circulating in major economies in the world, half or which could be linked to distributed ledger technology."
Ex-CEO of Binance’s US Firm Has Enlisted Lawyer for US Investigations (Reuters)
"A former chief executive of Binance’s de-facto U.S. subsidiary has enlisted a former federal prosecutor and top cop at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to represent her in the U.S. government’s investigations into the giant cryptocurrency exchange, a person with direct knowledge told Reuters."
Circle’s USDC Stablecoin Sees Market Cap Plunge $10 Billion Over Past Two Weeks (The Block)
"Circle’s USDC continues to see redemptions en masse as the stablecoin's market cap fell to about $32.5 billion, a decline of roughly $10 billion over the last two weeks. "It appears that the events of early March have damaged the trust crypto investors and traders have in the reliability of the stablecoin, despite Circle offering full redemptions without delays for USDC," said Steven Zheng, director of research at The Block."
Tron Founder Justin Sun Reportedly Lost His Diplomatic Status (CoinDesk)
"Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain, is no longer a diplomat for Grenada. According to a report from the Grenada Broadcasting Network this week, Sun was stripped of his status as ambassador sometime after elections held in June 2022, when the New National Party, which granted Sun his position, was ousted by the National Democratic Congress. GBN reported that all ambassadors were recalled sometime in the "early months" of the now nine-month-old administration, though Sun hasn't publicly acknowledged the loss of his position. The report follows weeks of speculation on both social media and in the press that Sun may have lost his credentials."
Three Arrows Capital's Kyle Davies Ordered to Respond to Subpoena Within 2 Weeks (CoinDesk)
"Three Arrows Capital (3AC) founder Kyle Davies has two weeks to respond to a subpoena pertaining to the books and records of the bankrupt hedge fund, according to a ruling in U.S. bankruptcy court. Davies and fellow 3AC co-founder Su Zhu have previously been accused of refusing to engage in proceedings for the firm's bankruptcy. "[Davies and Zhu] have made only selective and piecemeal disclosures ... Refusal to cooperate violates their duties owed to Three Arrows," said the hedge fund's liquidators, Russell Crumpler and Christopher Farmer, in a court filing on Feb. 8."
Crypto Exchange Gemini Looking to Launch Overseas Derivatives Operation: The Information (CoinDesk)
"The U.S.-based crypto exchange Gemini founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss is reportedly looking to launch an international cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, The Information reported. The platform would specifically offer perpetual futures, a type of derivative that is banned in the U.S. for retail traders as it doesn’t have an expiration date and can be traded with sizable leverage, and is therefore considered a highly risky product."
OKX Says It's Turning Over $157M in Frozen FTX and Alameda Assets (CoinDesk)
"OKX says it has identified $157 million in digital assets belonging to the failed FTX exchange and sister company Alameda Research, and is turning them over to the bankruptcy estate for the former companies. The exchange did not specify what digital assets it had identified. In the wake of FTX's November 2022 collapse, OKX said in a release it conducted investigations to identify any FTX-related transactions on its exchange, and upon discovering assets and accounts linked to FTX and Alameda Research, the company moved to secure the assets and freeze the connected accounts."
SEC Chair Gensler: Existing Rules Regulate Crypto, Legislation Unnecessary (The Block)
"The Securities and Exchange Commission takes the lead in defining what a security is, not necessarily legislation, the regulator's Chair Gary Gensler said. After a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Gensler told reporters that existing securities laws "cover most of the activity that's happening in the crypto markets." “If Congress were to act, though I don’t think we need these authorities, not to undermine inadvertently through definitions of what’s in or out, or in essence allowing for conflicts that we don’t allow,” Gensler said."
Open Interest in XRP Surges to $800M as Crypto Traders Hope Ripple-SEC Verdict Will Bring 'Alt Season' (CoinDesk)
"Investors are looking again at the futures market tied to payments-focused cryptocurrency XRP amid hopes that Ripple Labs, which the U.S. argues issued the token, will win its legal battle against the Securities and Exchange Commission and spur more risk taking in the broader market. XRP has rallied 57% since March 22, reaching a 10-month high of about 58 cents, according to CoinDesk data. Since the rally began, the notional open interest, or the dollar value locked in unsettled and active contracts trading on futures and perpetual futures exchanges, has increased by nearly 90% to $843 million, the highest since December 2021, data from Coinglass shows."
Do Kwon to Face Montenegro Justice First as Us and Korea Vie for Extradition (The Block)
"Do Kwon will have his day in Montenegrin court — and potentially Montenegrin jail — before any international extradition process begins, according to Mark Kovac, the country's justice minister. The Terraform Labs founder was arrested in Montenegro last week after months of speculation about his whereabouts. Kwon was detained while trying to board a private jet with travel documents believed to be forgeries, according to local authorities. The initial detention has been extended to 30 days from 72 hours."
The Metaverse Is Quickly Turning Into the Meh-taverse (WSJ)
"The metaverse that was the hot thing in tech less than two years ago has cooled. Walt Disney Co. has shut down the division that was developing its metaverse strategies, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. Microsoft Corp. recently shut down a social virtual-reality platform it acquired in 2017. And Mark Zuckerberg, who renamed Facebook as Meta Platforms Inc. META to signal his seriousness about the metaverse, focused more on artificial intelligence on an earnings call last month."
Ethereum Core Devs Confirm April 12 Date for Shapella Upgrade (The Block)
"The Shapella network upgrade will be activated on the Ethereum mainnet on April 12, following an official consensus reached by core developers. The Shapella upgrade will happen at network epoch 194,048, according to a blog post by the Ethereum Foundation on Tuesday. An epoch in Ethereum is a bundle of 32 blocks on the network and this epoch is expected to happen at 6:27 pm EDT on April 12. Tuesday’s statement confirms previous estimates for the upgrade. Shapella is a portmanteau of Shanghai and Capella. These are two network upgrades that will happen simultaneously. The Shanghai upgrade is for the consensus layer and Capella is for the execution layer."
Sam Bankman-Fried Faces New U.S. Indictment Over Chinese Bribery Charge (CoinDesk)
"U.S. prosecutors unveiled a new indictment against FTX crypto exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried Tuesday, adding a bribery charge on top of the 12 other charges he already faces. The former FTX CEO faces charges of fraud, conspiracy and trying to evade U.S. campaign financing laws. Bankman-Fried was arrested last year but released on bond, although the specific terms of his release have been under discussion by both prosecutors and his defense team."
Fidelity Is Building Out a Crypto and Token Research Team (The Block)
"Asset management giant Fidelity is building out its crypto research chops, hiring for a lead for its crypto and token research development team. The newly created role would be a senior position that would join its existing quantitative research and investments technology team in its asset management business, as per a job advert posted to LinkedIn. "They will work on data and technical frameworks for the evaluation of tokens, and the associated blockchain protocols, that form the basis of the rapidly evolving Crypto and DeFi economy," the firm noted in the ad."
Chicago’s Radix Says It Is ‘Trading Firm A’ in Binance Lawsuit (WSJ)
"A Chicago quantitative trading firm has identified itself as one of the unnamed U.S. firms described in a regulator’s lawsuit against crypto exchange giant Binance Holdings earlier this week. Radix Trading, which is active in both traditional and crypto markets, was “Trading Firm A” in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s lawsuit against Binance, according to Benjamin Blander, Radix's co-founder."
U.S. CFTC Chief Behnam Reinforces View of Ether as Commodity (CoinDesk)
"With the ink still drying on its Binance action, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Rostin Behnam reiterated Tuesday at a congressional hearing he believes ether is a commodity – a potentially controversial assertion that differs from what his counterpart at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said. In the high-stakes CFTC action against Binance, the CFTC says several tokens – bitcoin, ether, litecoin and the stablecoins tether and BUSD – are commodities that Binance was illegally trading. A lawmaker on the House Appropriations Committee asked him during a budget hearing Tuesday whether he believes ether (ETH) should be on that list."
FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Charged With Bribing Chinese Officials (WSJ)
"Prosecutors accused FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried of conspiring to bribe Chinese government officials to regain access to more than $1 billion in frozen cryptocurrency, in a new indictment that charged him with violating U.S. anticorruption law. The indictment, unsealed Tuesday, is the third Mr. Bankman-Fried has faced since the collapse of the crypto exchange. It alleges that in 2021 he authorized bribing one or more Chinese government officials with at least $40 million in cryptocurrency to regain access to accounts that the country’s law enforcement had frozen as part of a continuing investigation into a party that traded with his crypto-investment firm, Alameda Research."
Tether Is Winning Stablecoin Battle Despite Looming Risks (WSJ)
"Tether is continuing to extend its lead in the battle for the stablecoin market. However, its growth isn’t without controversy. Already the world’s largest stablecoin by market cap, tether’s value has increased by more than $5 billion in the past two weeks to about $79 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data. That advance comes as its main competitors have faltered. The value of USD Coin, run by Circle Internet Financial Ltd., has shrunk by $5 billion to about $34 billion. The coin broke from its 1-to-1 peg to the dollar after Circle disclosed that it had $3.3 billion of the stablecoin’s reserves tied up in the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank."
Disney Eliminates Its Metaverse Division as Part of Company’s Layoffs Plan (WSJ)
"Mickey Mouse has left the metaverse. Walt Disney Co. has eliminated its next-generation storytelling and consumer-experiences unit, the small division that was developing metaverse strategies, according to people familiar with the situation, as part of a broader restructuring that is expected to reduce head count by around 7,000 across the company over the next two months. Headed by Mike White, a former Disney consumer-products executive, the division was tasked with finding ways to tell interactive stories in new technological formats using Disney’s extensive library of intellectual property, the people said."
Judge Puts Voyager Sale to Binance.US on Hold Pending Government Appeal (CoinDesk)
"A federal judge paused Voyager Digital's efforts to sell its assets to Binance.US in response to the U.S. government's filing for an emergency stay. District Judge Jennifer Rearden, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, granted the U.S. Department of Justice's application for a stay pending an an appeal of the sale, which was previously approved by a bankruptcy judge. The move puts the sale on hold until the appeal itself can work its way through the U.S. court system."
DYDX Set to Launch Private Testnet of Its Cosmos-Based Blockchain (The Block)
"DYDX is launching a private testnet of its Cosmos-based blockchain on March 28, and it will be open to some external parties for the first time. The decentralized exchange is in the throes of moving from StarkEx, a Layer 2 network on Ethereum built by StarkWare, to its own application-specific blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem. It's a five-stage plan that focuses on gradual testing before an eventual rollout."
Ticketmaster’s Latest Widget Gives NFT Holders Early Ticket Access (The Block)
"With a new feature launched by Ticketmaster this morning, artists can now relate to their fans in a new way — by providing NFT holders with special access to concert tickets and other rewards. The project was piloted in collaboration with heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold (A7X), which first requested the feature from Ticketmaster to reward holders of its Deathbats Club NFT collection. The collection consists of 10,000 unique NFT’s that act like the band's club membership cards."
Binance Sued by CFTC Over Evading U.S. Rules (WSJ)
"The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Monday sued Binance Holdings Ltd., alleging the operator of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange violated U.S. rules that require futures and other derivatives to be traded on regulated platforms. The CFTC’s lawsuit also named Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Samuel Lim, who the agency said was Binance’s first chief compliance officer, as defendants. The lawsuit seeks restitution and fines as well as an order that would prevent the companies from any continuing conduct that violates U.S. rules."
Nasdaq Eyes Crypto Custody Launch by End of Second Quarter (Bloomberg)
"Nasdaq Inc. expects its custody services for digital assets to launch by the end of the second quarter as it joins a growing pool of traditional financial firms that could fill the role of crypto middlemen following a spate of bankruptcies in the industry. The global exchange group is pushing ahead to get all the necessary technical infrastructure and regulatory approvals in place, Ira Auerbach, senior vice president and head of Nasdaq Digital Assets, said in an interview in Paris. Nasdaq has applied to the New York Department of Financial Services for a limited-purpose trust company charter, which would oversee the new business."
Chinese Banks Court Crypto Firms in Hong Kong After Mainland Ban (Bloomberg)
"Crypto firms rushing into Hong Kong after the city opened its doors to the battered sector are finding a surprising source of potential support: China’s state-owned banks. Chinese banks have been directly reaching out to crypto businesses over the past few months, adding to signs that the city’s push to become a major digital asset center has backing from Beijing, even though trading of crypto has been banned on the mainland for well over a year."
Euler Finance Hacker Sends 51,000 Stolen Ether Back to Protocol (CoinDesk)
"The hacker behind Euler Finance’s $200 million exploit earlier this month returned a majority of the stolen funds to the protocol Saturday. Euler's native EUL tokens were up 25% in the past 24 hours, with the majority of the move coming after the hacker returned tokens to the protocol, which may have fueled positive sentiment among traders. Data from blockchain explorer Etherscan shows over 51,000 ether, valued at nearly $90 million as of Saturday, was sent back to the Euler deployer contract in early U.S. hours."
Amazon's NFT Plans Teased in a Receipt Mailed Friday Afternoon (CoinDesk)
"On Friday afternoon, Nikhilesh De, CoinDesk's managing editor for global policy and regulation, received an email from an official Amazon account appearing to confirm the existence of digital tokens and a gallery on the e-commerce platform. The email was sent to De as a confirmation after a Amazon Prime Video channel subscription was renewed automatically. De had not purchased a non-fungible token (NFT) from Amazon and did not have any prior knowledge of the platform's integration of NFTs."
A Three Arrows Capital Founder Talks About His New Crypto Bankruptcy Exchange (CoinDesk)
"Less than a year after Three Arrows Capital (3AC) imploded along with $2.5 billion of clients' money, the hedge fund's founders, Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, are back with a new cryptocurrency exchange where people can trade bankruptcy claims – a hot area given all the distress in the industry. The Open Exchange (OPNX) was announced last month, garnering wry smiles and smirks. The crypto community hadn't always been so skeptical of the duo. Until the $60 billion Terra ecosystem collapsed last April, they were hailed as messiahs among their peers, touted for running the hottest hedge fund and often endorsed by trading firms and market makers."