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| Hey Insider! Welcome back to the Inside Cryptocurrency newsletter! Today’s issue again covers several of the biggest stories from the crypto market, including Coinbase’s new equity stake in Circle, Canadian musician The Weeknd’s plans to bring his Binance-backed world tour to new destinations, the jump in the newly-launched decentralized social network friend.tech’s 24-hour fees, and more. Enjoy your reading, and if you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues! Doğa
p/dogayurduneri | |
| 1 | | Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, has acquired an equity stake in Circle, the issuer of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, citing growing regulatory clarity for stablecoins in the U.S. The two firms have yet to disclose the financial details of the deal. More: - As part of the deal, Centre Consortium, jointly managed by Coinbase and Circle to govern the operations of USDC, will be shut down.
- The move will see Circle taking full control over the issuance and governance of USDC, while it was previously only responsible for the issuance of the stablecoin.
- The two companies will continue to share revenue from USDC based on the amount of USDC held on their platforms.
- The interest income generated from the broader distribution and use of USDC will also be equally shared between Coinbase and Circle.
- Coinbase has long shared the revenue from USDC, and the company lastly reported $151M in revenue from the popular stablecoin for Q2.
- Besides, Circle said it would add USDC support to six more blockchains, taking the total number of supported networks to 15.
Zoom Out: - Coinbase's move came nearly a month after the U.S. House Financial Services Committee advanced a stablecoin bill to establish a regulatory framework for the controversial asset class.
- A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to another reference asset, mostly a fiat currency.
- Customers generally use these assets to trade with different cryptocurrencies without converting their funds back into fiat currencies.
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What the numbers say: The recently-launched decentralized social network friend.tech jumped to the second spot among other decentralized crypto projects by 24-hour user-paid fees. The platform has generated more than $1.68M in protocol fees over the last 24-hour period. The increase in user-paid fees caused friend.tech to outperform some established players in the crypto ecosystem, such as Lido, Tron, Uniswap, Bitcoin, MakerDAO, and PancakeSwap. On the other hand, Ethereum still ranks first on the list, with its $3.45M of 24-hour fees. Relevance: friend.tech launched its beta version on Aug. 11. The platform integrated with X, formerly known as Twitter, allows users to tokenize their social network by buying and selling shares of their connections and social media profiles. In this way, the users can send private messages to other users and interact with each other by purchasing shares. The protocol charges a 5% fee on transactions. Over the 11-day period following its launch, the project attracted new high-profile members like NBA player Grayson Allen. Brands that should care: Besides, friend.tech was built on Coinbase's new Ethereum-powered Layer-2 blockchain network, Base. The rising popularity of the social network has also caused Base to experience a surge in network activity. With the increase in activity, the network has surpassed some rival Layer-2 solutions, including Arbitrum and Optimism, in daily transaction numbers. | | | |
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| 3 | | Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX's former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), has pleaded not guilty to the charges in the latest indictment. The move came nearly a week after U.S. prosecutors filed a superseding indictment against SBF, modifying previous allegations and bringing a new charge against the former executive over illegal campaign donations. More: - The first round of criminal charges against SBF consisted of eight counts, but the prosecutors added four new charges to the existing allegations in February and another one in March.
- SBF already pleaded not guilty to all the charges brought against him.
- However, the latest superseding indictment claimed that SBF donated more than $100M to political campaigns using customer funds to influence crypto regulations for the benefit of FTX.
- The recent arraignment saw the 31-year-old former CEO plead not guilty once more to all the fraud and money laundering charges in the latest indictment.
- SBF recently hit the headlines after U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan revoked his bail since he tried to influence two witnesses in his case by speaking to the press.
- Following Kaplan's decision, the former CEO was taken from house arrest at his parents' home in California to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn pending trial.
Zoom Out: - FTX, previously the third-largest crypto exchange, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2022, with all the 130 entities under the roof of FTX Group.
- The downfall followed the claims that SBF used customer funds in FTX to compensate for losses at the sister company Alameda Research.
- The 31-year-old former executive will appear in court in October to defend himself against a bunch of charges, including money laundering and misappropriation of customer funds.
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| 4 | | Thailand's Ministry of Digital Economy and Society has warned the U.S.-based tech giant Meta that it plans to take legal action against Facebook over crypto-related scam ads on the platform. The ministry said it would ask a local court to shut down Facebook in the country at the end of August if the company does not take an action actively to eliminate the scam ads involving digital assets. More: - The digital ministry reported more than 200,000 people affected by those scam ads.
- The government agency stated that it previously requested Facebook to eliminate the ads identified as scams several times, but the issue continued.
- A spokesperson for the ministry, Wetang Phuangsup, said they are actively collecting evidence of wrongdoing by Facebook to present to the court.
- Phuangsup added that if they take legal action and prove a large amount of wrongdoing, the court could shut down related pages and accounts or the entire platform in the country.
- An official statement pointed out that the ads under scrutiny entrap victims by guaranteeing high returns on fake investments, using images of celebrities, and imitating government bodies.
Zoom Out: - In June, the European consumer group BEUC also presented a joint complaint against social media giants, including Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter, that allegedly host misleading crypto ads.
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| 5 | | Canadian musician The Weeknd has announced that he would bring his Web3-integrated world tour dubbed After Hours Til Dawn to Australia and New Zealand in November and December. The tour, backed by the largest crypto exchange Binance, is regarded as the first worldwide concert tour to incorporate Web3 technology in order to improve the fan experience. More: - After the tour ends in Australia and New Zealand, Binance users will be able to access exclusive offers and participate in a unique ticket presale for a limited number of performances.
- Besides, the attendants will be able to receive a limited-edition Souvenir NFT (SNFT) as a memento.
- SNFTs will also offer admittance to exclusive events and a chance to meet The Weeknd.
Zoom Out: - The Weeknd's After Hours Til Dawn tour began in the summer of 2022 and already attracted 3 million audiences.
- Fans attending the tour across 14 countries have claimed more than 15,000 SNFTs so far.
- Besides, over 30,000 fans have joined Binance and The Weeknd's online challenges hosted on EnterTheDimension.com.
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| 6 | | British public research university Imperial College London has partnered with AI startup FluidAI to analyze and troubleshoot issues in the crypto market through AI. FluidAI said their top priority is to detect the liquidity aggregation issues in the digital asset industry. More: - As part of the collaboration, the university's AI lab, I-X, will work with FluidAI to improve the crypto market for institutions, trading platforms, and retail investors.
- FluidAI CEO Ahmed Ismail stated that solving the liquidity issues in the industry was their primary motivation while launching the company.
- Ismail added that the use of AI would help them eliminate the latency through prediction, assisting in providing the best bid and asking prices in the market.
- The company CEO also pointed out that traditional finance (TradFi) uses low-latency technologies while tackling market aggregation, but that does not exist in the crypto market due to its cloud-based and decentralized nature.
Zoom Out: - Liquidity aggregation refers to the process of gathering liquidity from different sources to facilitate efficient trading.
- Imperial College London, one of the top-ranking universities in the U.K., is also home to the Centre for Cryptocurrency Research and Engineering, which conducts research and application activity related to crypto and blockchain technology.
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- Indian crypto exchange CoinDCX has decided to reduce its headcount by 12% after experiencing a revenue drop due to a broader market downturn.
- Komainu, a joint venture of Nomura, CoinShares, and Ledger, has obtained a full operating license in Dubai from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) to offer its crypto custody services in the emirate in a regulated manner.
- Oman's Ministry of Transport, Communications, and Information Technology (MTCIT) has opened a new $350M crypto mining center in the Salalah Free Zone after launching the first mining facility in November 2022.
- Crypto exchange EDX Markets, backed by Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Charles Schwab Corp., has picked Anchorage Digital as its new custodial partner.
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 | Staff Writer | | Doga is a tech and science editor who has been writing news for nearly 10 years. She worked for leading tech platforms and mainstrem media channels as an editor and presenter throughout his career. Then, she carried her know-how to more than one platform. She is a part-time cat lover and binge-watcher, and also fond of science, space, and emerging tech. She always has a story to tell. She is a bit addict to the laughter and -unfortunately- the '90s culture. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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