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| Hey Insider! Happy Friday! The week's last Inside Cryptocurrency newsletter covers some of the most prominent stories hitting the headlines in the crypto market today, including Celsius' former chief revenue officer pleading guilty to criminal charges, BitGo's plans to establish the U.S.' first Bitcoin-only custody firm in collaboration with Swan, the increase in the clean energy usage in Bitcoin mining, and more. Enjoy your reading, and if you find this newsletter useful, please do not forget to share it with your friends and colleagues! Doğa
p/dogayurduneri | |
| 1 | | Bloomberg analyst Jamie Coutts has stated that the rate of renewable energy used to mine Bitcoin (BTC) surpassed 50% by falling emissions, citing recent data compiled by Glassnode and Batcoinz.com. Coutts pointed out that the increase in the usage of energy from renewable sources in Bitcoin mining mainly stemmed from miners gravitating to other countries from China after the country banned crypto mining in 2021. More: - New countries investing in Bitcoin mining, such as El Salvador, Bhutan, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), also contributed to the rise in clean energy usage, taking crypto mining out of the monopoly of China.
- The new benchmark created an expectation that the electric vehicle (EV) giant Tesla could resume accepting payments with BTC for purchases.
- Tesla stopped accepting Bitcoin as a payment method in May 2021 due to its adverse environmental impacts amid the concerns around the use of fossil fuels for BTC mining and transactions, nearly three months after it bought $1.5B of Bitcoin as part of its new investment strategy.
- At the time, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company would again accept Bitcoin payments once miners use at least 50% of energy from renewable sources.
- However, the company has yet to make any public announcements about a potential move to resume Bitcoin payments.
Q: Do you think Tesla will again accept Bitcoin as a payment method for car purchases? Join the conversation here. |     | |
| 2 | | 
What the numbers say: A recent report from the blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis has pointed out that total crypto funds stolen by North Korean cybercrime groups decreased by 80% compared to last year. In 2022, North Korea-based organizations, including Lazarus Group, stole a record $1.65B of crypto. The figure was only able to reach $340.4M this year as of Sept. 14. Chainalysis said the decline is an indicator of improved security and reduced criminal activity. Relevance: Analysts stated that the downward trend could reverse in one night as Lazarus Group sped up its criminal activities within the past month. Over the last ten days alone, the most famous North Korean hacker group was identified as responsible for hacks targeting the largest crypto gambling site, Stake, and the crypto exchange CoinEx, which resulted in $41.3M and $55M of crypto loss, respectively. The latest two hacks represent about 30% of all crypto funds stolen in hacks this year. Brands that should care: On the other hand, Lazarus Group also previously attacked many other crypto-related platforms and protocols, including Ronin Network, Atomic Wallet, Alphapo, Horizon Bridge, and CoinsPaid, causing millions of dollars of losses. | | | |
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| 3 | | In a recent court filing, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claimed that Binance.US, the U.S. arm of the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, is not cooperating with it in the ongoing investigation against the platform. The agency said Binance.US' operating company, BAM Trading Services, provided only 220 documents during the discovery process, with many consisting of incomprehensible screenshots and documents without dates or signatures. More: - The filing pointed out that BAM Trading Services refused to produce documents kept in the ordinary course of its business, claiming that those documents do not exist.
- The SEC also stated that the company refused to produce essential witnesses for depositions, only agreeing to four depositions of witnesses.
- The latest filing came exactly one month after Binance.US filed a protective court order against the SEC, asking the court to limit the agency's requests for information since they were overbroad and unduly burdensome.
- At the time, the firm requested the court to limit the regulator to four depositions from employees of BAM Trading Services and to drop the deposition of BAM's CEO and chief financial officer (CFO).
- The legal tension between the SEC and Binance mainly started with a 136-page complaint filed by the agency against the company, CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), and Binance.US with 13 charges in June.
- The allegations in the complaint include mishandling customer funds, misleading investors and regulators, violating securities laws, creating an extensive web of deception, conflicts of interest, lack of disclosure, wash trading, and calculated evasion of the law.
Zoom Out: - The company is also under scrutiny by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and federal prosecutors in the U.S.
- Following the heightened regulatory scrutiny over Binance.US, the company experienced an executive exodus, with many senior executives, including the CEO Brian Shroder, departing ways with the firm.
- The U.S. unit also recently decided to reduce one-third of its workforce, conducting the second round of layoffs in 2023 after the one in June.
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| 4 | | Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network's former chief revenue officer, Roni Cohen-Pavon, has pleaded guilty to four criminal charges brought by U.S. prosecutors against him during a recent court hearing in Manhattan. The former executive also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in their probe and to testify in court if needed. More: - The charges against Cohen-Pavon include manipulating the price of Celsius' native token, CEL, wire fraud, and cashing out his personal holdings before the company's collapse.
- The former administrator was abroad when the charges were first announced.
- The court released Cohen-Pavon, who is an Israeli citizen, on a $500,000 bond and approved him to travel between New York and Israel.
- Cohen-Pavon was arrested by U.S. law enforcement agencies in July with former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky.
- However, Mashinsky pleaded not guilty to charges against him on seven counts, including conducting fraud, misleading investors, and manipulating cryptocurrencies.
- The former CEO was also released on a $40M bail agreement while pending trial, though he was restricted from traveling and opening new bank or crypto accounts, and his assets were frozen through a court order.
Zoom Out: - Celsius offered loans and paid high interest rates on crypto deposits.
- The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022, mainly due to its liquidity issues and the crypto market downturn triggered by the multi-billion dollar Terra ecosystem's collapse that wiped over $60B off the industry.
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| 5 | | The U.S.-based crypto custody firm BitGo has announced its plans to establish a trust company that would offer custody services only for Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, jointly with Bitcoin-focused financial services company Swan. The joint venture will allow two firms to offer Bitcoin custody services without exposure to the rest of the crypto market. More: - BitGo and Swan still must obtain regulatory approval to form the new firm.
- If approved, the venture will become the U.S.' first Bitcoin-only trust company.
- The firm will combine BitGo's capabilities in custody services with Swan's expertise in fraud prevention and onboarding.
- Swan CEO Cory Klippsten stated that building a custodian without taking the risks of securing many altcoins within the same company as Bitcoin was very important to them.
- On the other hand, BitGo is already one of the custodians Swan has worked with for its Bitcoin custody needs, along with licensed trust company Fortress Trust.
Zoom Out: - The announcement came nearly a month after BitGo raised $100M in funding from entirely new investors at a $1.75B valuation.
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| 6 | | The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), one of Australia's biggest banks, has recently announced its collaboration with the Ethereum-based decentralized blockchain network Chainlink. The banking giant pointed out that it utilized Chainlink's infrastructure to simulate tokenized asset purchases. More: - The collaboration saw ANZ completing a test transaction using Chainlink's cross-chain interoperability protocol (CCIP).
- The transaction was facilitated through Australian dollars (AUD) and an ANZ-issued stablecoin denominated in New Zealand dollars (NZD).
- ANZ Portfolio Lead Nigel Dobson said the bank is actively exploring the use of decentralized networks, adding that Chainlink's CCIP solution allows financial institutions to link various blockchain networks.
- Dobson also underlined that connecting existing blockchain networks is critical for mass adoption.
- Besides, Dobson stated that institutional investors have confidence in the future of tokenized assets, citing a recent report showing that 93% of corporate investors believe in tokenized assets' long-term value.
Zoom Out: - Earlier in 2023, National Australia Bank (NAB), one of the biggest rivals of ANZ, also developed an AUD-pegged stablecoin dubbed AUDN.
- However, the country recently saw a more cautious approach to the crypto industry from banks.
- Over the last several months, many banking institutions and payment providers, including ANZ, NAB, Westpac, Bendigo Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), and Cuscal, have restricted their customers from making payments to crypto exchanges.
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- Binance.US' head of legal and chief risk officer have left the company, joining other senior executives departing their ways with crypto exchange Binance's U.S. arm amid a heightened regulatory crackdown.
- Meta has expanded its metaverse experience Horizon Worlds' availability from virtual reality (VR) headsets to smartphones and computers, rolling out the web and mobile app versions.
- Mining pool F2Pool has returned $510,000 mistakenly paid as a Bitcoin (BTC) transaction fee to stablecoin issuer Paxos.
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INSIDE CRYPTOCURRENCY LEADERBOARD (ALL-TIME) |
 | 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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