CEO Robert Gutmann and President Yan Zhao of NYDIG stepped down from their roles. The company's revenue increased by 130% in the second quarter, and its Bitcoin balance was up 100% yearly. More: - New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), a leading institutional player in crypto, announced that Gutmann and Zhao would step down from their current roles but remain with its parent company, Stone Ridge Holdings Group.
- Tejas Shah is taking over for the CEO role.
- Nate Conrad is the new president.
- The firm raised $720M for its Bitcoin fund last week.
- The firm raised $1B in December 2021 at a $7B valuation.
- Last year, the parent company purchased 10,000 Bitcoin.
- Several executives in the crypto space have departed from their roles, including:
- Kraken Founder Jesse Powell
- FTX US President Brett Harrison
- Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky
- Genesis CEO Michael Moro
- MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor
- Alameda Research co-CEO Sam Trabucco
- Market volatility has caused the removal of many prominent crypto industry figures, including Terra co-founder Do Kwon and Three Arrows Capital duo Su Zhu and Kyle Davies.
- Crypto is entering a pivotal moment as more retail investors drop interest in crypto and "larger market participants" enter the space, including politicians and regulators such as the SEC and CFTC.
Crypto Potato 
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 Mastercard launched a new product called Crypto Secure to help banks with risk management relating to crypto crime on its network. More: - Illicit crypto activity generated $1.6B, according to Chainalysis. In July 2022, there was more than $1.9B stolen in various crypto hacking incidents.
- As a result, Mastercard is launching a new piece of software on Tuesday that will help banks identify and stop transactions from fraud-prone crypto exchanges.
- The company acquired CipherTrace, a blockchain security startup, last year.
- CipherTrace, similar to Chainalysis and Elliptic, assists banks and government agencies with illegal crypto transactions.
- Crypto Secure analyzes data from the blockchain and public records of crypto transactions; its AI tool helps banks assess risks associated with crypto exchanges on its network.
- The platform offers a dashboard with color-coded ratings that highlight the risk of suspicious activity and severity of risk, from red for high to green for low.
CNBC
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 McDonald's is now accepting Bitcoin (BTC) as payment in Lugano, Switzerland. The city is also allowing its residents to pay taxes using crypto, which will extend to paying for parking tickets, public services, and tuition fees. More: - On March 3, the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland, Lugano, signed a memorandum of understanding with Tether Operations Limited for the "Plan B" project.
- Tether has two funds. The first one is a $106M crypto investment pool for crypto startups.
- The Second one is a $3M aimed at encouraging crypto adoption for shops across the city.
- Lugano's McDonald's is now accepting Tether (USDT), Bitcoin (BTC), and LVGA tokens as payment at the McDonald's location.
- More than 200 businesses are expected to start accepting crypto as a source of payment in the future.
Coin Telegraph
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Bitwise launched a new fund aimed at supporting 40 blockchain companies. The BWEB fund is the second fund launched by the asset management firm. Its crypto industry innovators ETF was launched in May 2021 with $64M AUM. More: - Bitwise Asset Management launched the BWEB Web3 ETF fund.
- The fund tracks a proprietary index of blockchain technology companies building Web3-based solutions.
- Some of the firm's top holdings include:
- Coinbase
- Roblox
- Equinix
- Meta Platforms
- Unity Software
- The Crypto Industry Innovators ETF (BITQ) fund, which was the firm's first fund, is down 67% year to date.
Blockworks
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 Bitcoin does not fall under any federal agency jurisdiction. As a result, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, and other regulators seek more power to oversee Bitcoin trading activities. More: - The crypto industry has noticed that the U.S. SEC considers a range of crypto assets to be securities, a move that many traders believe could be crippling for the industry.
- To determine if an asset qualifies as a security, it must pass the Howey Test.
- Classifying crypto as securities means crypto companies will face regulatory scrutiny, which could lead to fines, penalties, less investor money due to regulatory constraints, and in the worst case, prosecutions.
- The crypto industry is not opposed to regulations; crypto executives and Citadel Securities seek to push a bill by the Senate Agriculture Committee to give the CFTC more power rather than the SEC.
- The CFTC is seen as the less onerous regulatory agency.
- For example, the SEC views Bitcoin as a commodity and Ethereum as security since the merge event.
- The CFTC deems both Ether and Bitcoin as commodities.
- On Monday, a new report was released in which top U.S. regulators said they have limited power and want Congress to give them new powers over Bitcoin trading.
- Bitcoin, unlike other crypto, does not directly fall under any federal agency's jurisdiction.
- The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) includes the SEC chair and the head of the CFTC. The SEC wants jurisdiction over crypto assets considered securities, and CFTC wants to regulate derivatives on crypto.
- The regulators also want more power in the areas of conflict of interest, abusive trading, recordkeeping requirements, segregation of consumer assets, and cybersecurity.
Bloomberg
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 Gary Vee's VeeFriends NFT project will launch plush toys that will be available through Macy's and Toys "R" Us. More: - VeeFriends generated $300M in trading volume last year. The NFT characters are now available as toys that will launch in department stores.
- VeeFriends consists of plush and vinyl toy collections that were created in collaboration with Toikido, an entertainment startup.
- The toys will be available starting Oct. 17 on the VeeFriends website, Macy's, and Toys "R" Us.
- Gary Vee says, "if you asked me a year ago, I would say VeeFriends is an NFT company," but now it has pivoted to a transmedia or multimedia company through story-drive initiatives.
Decrypt
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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 and 1972 Fords. | |
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