DCG Halts Quarterly Dividends in Last Ditch Effort
$90M FTX.US Funds Missing, Coinbase Exits Japan, Optimism Gains Over Arbitrum, DOJ Fud Scare
Daily Bullets - Wednesday, January 18th
Today highlighted for the nth time how FUD can move markets. The Departments of Justice and Treasury put out a cryptic notice that they would engage in a major joint international enforcement action which almost instantly spooked the market. After the fall of FTX and other prominent entities, what more bad news could we see? Something to do with Binance? As it turns out, the DOJ announced enforcement action against obscure Russian exchange Bitzlato. A nothingburger in the grand scheme of things. Could’ve been really bad if the Feds came down hard on Binance.. One of the last remaining big players.
Daily Bullet Highlights
- Digital Currency Group halted its quarterly dividend payments to conserve cash and strengthen its balance sheet
- $90M in FTX US assets were moved via 'unauthorized transfers' after bankruptcy
- Coinbase paused its business in Japan and has advised customers to withdraw their assets from the platform
- Polkadot released version 3 of its cross-chain messaging format Cross-Consensus Messaging (XCM), which enhances interoperability between different blockchains in its ecosystem
- Optimism transactional activity has steadily surged in the past weeks, crossing over rival Arbitrum’s activity, which has fallen nearly 50% since its November peak
- ConsenSys cuts 11% of the workforce which accounts for 96 employees
- Circle taps Deloitte as new auditor and doubles down on Proof of Reserves
- First National Geographic NFT Launch met with anti-NFT backlash
Analysis
The launch of the National Geographic NFT collection (along with other large established brands) paints an interesting picture. Most successful NFT projects really only gain popularity among the niche CT crowd. How does the mainstream public feel? Just observe the backlash and vitriol from regular users. Anti-NFT sentiment is strong and this poses a problem for going mainstream and adoption. Builders are going to need to innovate to overcome this psychological resistance. What will it take to win over hearts and minds? - source
Crypto News
- Another example of potential insider trading around Binance listing RPL
- Venture capitalist Tim Draper launching a web3 deals syndication platform called the Draper Round Table through the Draper Venture Network (DVN), a self-governing organization of independent venture funds that cooperate on investment diligence and co-investments
- Media start-up Semafor is exploring ways to buy out its biggest outside backer SBF
- Vauld has until Feb. 28 to figure out a revival plan. In early January, Vauld turned down Nexo's final acquisition offer
- Crypto lender Celsius is attempting to call in a more than $6M from an $8M investment commitment made by VC firm Fabric Ventures before going bankrupt
Crypto Exchanges
- Binance will list Rocket Pool (RPL) in the Innovation Zone
- Bitget $300M Protection Fund that includes auditable protection funds and beefed-up proof of reserves
- Binance’s entity in Poland is fully compliant with local regulatory standards for virtual asset service providers
DeFi
- Frax Finance gains momentum amid Liquid Staking narrative
- 21Shares new Staking Basket Index ETP – the world's first crypto staking index ETP offering diversified staking income, including BNB, ADA, Cosmos, Polkadot, Solana, and Tezos
- MakerDAO governance voting designed to limit exposure of DAI to Gemini as a result of the current liquidity crisis facing the exchange's lending platform called Earn
NFTs/Gaming/Metaverse
- Mobile payment firm Zebedee and mobile game studio Viker launch of two new play-to-earn games, Bitcoin Chess and Bitcoin Scratch, a digital scratch-card game
Early Stage Projects
- Decentralized cross-chain liquidity protocol Swing debuted a new widget and SDK to simplify cross-chain crypto deployments
- Vela Exchange - beta launch January 31st
- Introducing zkIgnite, Cohort 1 - 3-month program supports developers and entrepreneurs building zkApps and tooling on Mina Protocol
- Airdrop to $ATOM holders & Prism’s Cosmos validator
- Introducing Den: the fastest multisig for onchain teams, built on Safe
- Eagle: two-factor-authentication that plugs into your existing wallet
Economic/Government/Regulatory
- 196 members of the new US Congress, many of whom were just sworn in last week, received donations from SBF or other senior executives at FTX
- Nearly half of SEC crypto enforcement actions in 2022 were against ICOs
Fundraises
- Web3 gaming platform Intella X raised $12M ahead of an upcoming launch on Polygon. Type: Undisclosed. Sector: Web3 Gaming. Investors: Polygon, Animoca Brands, Magic Eden, Planetarium, Big Brain Holdings, Crit Ventures, JoyCity, Pearl Abyss, XL Games, Wemix and Global Coin Research - @TeamIntella
- pieFi raised $4.6M, launched Upside.coop, and co-published a White Paper on regulatory clarity in Web3. Type: Seed. Sector: Web3. Investors: Kickstart Seed Fund, Origin Ventures - @Upsidecoop
- Metahood raised $3M to build the Zillow of the Metaverse. Type: Seed. Sector: Metaverse. Investors: VC firm 1confirmation, Volt Capital, Flamingo DAO, and Neon DAO - @MetahoodXYZ
- Sleepagotchi, which launched a mobile app that helps gamify sleep via digital collectibles, raised $3.5M. Type: Undisclosed. Sector: NFTs. Investors: 6th Man Ventures, Collab+Currency, Shima Capital, 1kx, DeFi Alliance, Sfermion, Emoote, and LCA Game Guild - @sleepagotchi
- Fintech firm Arch launches crypto lending product and raises $2.75M to allow other alternative assets as collateral in the future. Type: Undisclosed. Sector: DeFi. Investors: Tribe Capital, Castle Island Ventures, Picus Capital and Global Founders Capital - https://www.archlending.com/
- Crypto content business Collective Shift raised $1.5M at a $15M valuation. Type: Seed Sector: Content. Investors: RNR Capital, Smorgon Family - @cshift_io
Research/Reads
- NFT Legal Issues: 2022 Overview - source
- 2022 Electric Capital Developer Report - source
- Crypto Report 2022 - TK Ventures & Coinwire - source
- SEC Cryptocurrency Enforcement 2022 Update - source
- The signs of economic stress are everywhere - source
- New cashflow protocols: A rising tide lifts all the boats - source
- How to Become a DeFiLlama Pro - source
- Innovations of On-Chain Perpetual Protocols Part 3 - source
SBF doubles down that FTX US is solvent. It was only FTX International that he robbed from:
FTX US is solvent, as it always as been.
— SBF (@SBF_FTX)
Jan 18, 2023
ETH as ultrasound money consideration:
The ultrasound money cult is missing the forest for the trees
Tx fees are a low quality demand driver - extremely volatile, very seasonal with unsustainable spikes in mania times (btw, manias diminish as protocols mature)
Further, it has a very limited TAM relative to...
— polynya (@apolynya)
Jan 17, 2023