Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, tweeted, "If you sell 75% of your Bitcoin, you will only have 25% of your Bitcoin left." The tweet was aimed at Elon Musk for selling 75% of Tesla's Bitcoin holdings this week after previously touting the cryptocurrency. More: - Tesla entered the crypto market last year with a purchase of $1.5B worth of Bitcoin. This Thursday, the company decided to sell 75% of its holdings, which added $936M to its balance sheet.
- Musk had also announced that customers would be able to buy a Tesla with Bitcoin but later retracted this statement, citing environmental concerns with Bitcoin mining.
- Musk also decided to sell 75% of Tesla's Bitcoin stash due to the ongoing uncertainty with COVID-19 lockdowns in China.
- MicroStrategy currently owns 129,699 Bitcoin, worth around $2.9B; the company faced a potential margin call In May; however, it has "structured its balance sheet" so that it can continue to hold Bitcoin, according to Saylor.
- Saylor reportedly advised Elon Musk to buy Bitcoin in Dec. 2020. In Feb. 2021, Musk tweeted an announcement of the $1.5B purchase of Bitcoin, causing the currency's price to skyrocket to $43,000.
Decrypt 
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Caisse de Depot Et Placement du Quebec broke its silence about investing $150M in Celsius Network LLC, the bankrupt crypto lender. Caisse has a $326B fund for pensions and will report its mid-year investment results next month. More: - Celsius first halted withdrawals on its network, followed by a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last week.
- Caisse made a $150M investment in Celsius and said it will "take time" to resolve claims as Celsius' equity holders may be wiped out in insolvency.
- The pension manager said in an email, "We understand that our investment in Celsius raises several questions, and the process will take time to resolve."
- The additional financing from Caisse gave Celsius a $3B valuation. Still, as of now, there remains a $1.19B deficit on its balance sheet and $5.5B in liabilities against $4.3B of assets.
Bloomberg
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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission argued that Coinbase listed 25 tokens that are unregistered securities. Paul Grewal, Coinbase legal counsel, argued that "instead of crafting tailored rules in an inclusive and transparent way," the SEC is trying to bring all digital assets into a jurisdiction, even the ones not classified as securities. More: - The SEC defines security as "an investment of money, in a common enterprise, with a reasonable expectation of profit derived from the efforts of others."
- Cryptocurrency is an unregulated market and therefore is not subject to the same rules as listing securities, which often involve rigorous disclosure and registration requirements.
- The SEC claims that nine of the 25 tokens are traded as securities. Coinbase's legal team pushed back by saying, "None of these assets are securities."
- Coinbase denies listing unregulated securities. However, the company might be forced to classify its crypto tokens as regulated financial instruments.
- Ripple was also sued by the SEC, which claims that the XRP should be treated as a security.
CNBC
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The SEC arrested Ishan Wahi, former product manager at Coinbase, on charges of insider trading. This marks the first insider trading case in the cryptocurrency industry. Wahi and two others were arrested in Seattle on Thursday morning. More: - The watchdog said in an announcement Thursday that Wahi, his brother Nikhil Wahi, and his friend Sameer Ramani had traded cryptocurrencies based on knowledge of upcoming announcements, making $1.1M in illegal profits between June 2021 and April 2022.
- Ishan Wahi had access to confidential information on direct listings that was only available to a small number of employees via a private message channel, and Coinbase warned its employees not to trade on the basis of this knowledge or share it with others.
- Lawyers for Ishan Wahi, 32, said their client is "innocent of all wrongdoing and intends to defend himself vigorously."
- Wahi also bought a one-way ticket to India after being questioned by the company's Seattle office, authorities said, but law enforcement officers barred him from leaving the country on the May 16 flight.
- The bail is set for $1M, and his passport was confiscated; the next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 2 in New York.
sec.gov
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Blockchain.com, a cryptocurrency exchange, will lay off 25% of its employees amid the crypto winter. The company is reducing its workforce and will lay off 150 staff members due to market conditions. More: - Blockchain.com, a London-based company, is affected by the collapse of Three Arrows Capital, a crypto hedge fund that recently filed for bankruptcy. The company revealed a $270M shortfall from 3AC.
- Blockchain.com is not the only company affected by the fall of 3AC, as crypto lenders Celsius Network and Voyager Digital were also forced to file bankruptcy this year.
- Blockchain.com experienced rapid growth last year that increased its staff headcount from 160 to more than 600 in less than 16 months.
- This year, the company was forced to close down its offices in Argentina; as a result, 44% of staff members will be affected in Argentina, 26% in the U.S., and 16% in the U.K. as the company cancels market expansion plans.
- The firm will also shrink its institutional lending business, cancel all planned mergers and acquisitions, and halt the expansion of gaming and the NFT marketplace.
- Executives at the firm are reducing their salaries as consumer revenue remains strong, but institutional revenue is flat and requires time to recover.
Zoom out: - Several crypto companies have been affected during the market downturn, with many forced to reduce their staff headcount. Some of these include:
- OpeanSea laid off 20% of its staff;
- Bullish.com laid off 10%;
- Compass Mining laid off 15%;
- Celsius Network laid off 150 staff members;
- Cosmos-Builder Ignite laid off 50%;
- Huobi Global Cloud laid off 30%;
- Banxa laid off 70 staff members;
- Bitpanda laid off 270 staff members;
- Coinbase cut more than 1,100 staff members;
- Crypto.com laid off 400;
- And more.
Coin Desk
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Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, received trillions of SHIB tokens to fund an AI research grant. Buterin launched the Vitalik Buterin Ph.D. Fellowship in AI Existential Safety designed for grad students researching AT existential safety for 2022 programs. More: - Universities in the U.S., U.K., and Canada will receive funding through this grant, which will cover up to $40,000 for the program and up to $10,000 for any travel-related expenses.
- Buterin expressed his gratitude for the donations from the SHIB community and said that the remaining 90% of tokens would be burned in his wallet, with 10% sent to a charity.
- He wrote in a statement, "Big thanks to the Shiba Inu community, whose cryptocurrency made these fellowships possible."
Crypto Potato
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- Terra co-founder Daniel Shin's home was raided by South Korean authorities.
- Curve Finance's token rose by 21% in the past 24 hours.
- OpenSea launched a Solana-based NFT project called Zoonies.
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 |  | Gia Mattu is based in Calgary, Alberta. She is an entrepreneur with experience in climate technology, drones, AI, machine learning, and blockchain technology. When she's not working, she loves to hike the Canadian Rockies, try new cuisine, and travel. | | | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
Few and Far, a new NFT marketplace which recently launched on NEAR. | |
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