| |
| Hey Insider! Welcome back to the Inside Cryptocurrency newsletter! Today's issue again covers some of the most thrilling stories in the crypto market, including Bitstamp's ongoing talks with three large European banks, the former Alameda Research CEO's testimony against Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), a Chinese state-owned newspaper's plans to launch an NFT platform, 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 | | Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has recently helped Israeli police freeze crypto accounts linked to Palestinian militant group Hamas amid the ongoing war between the two, according to a recent report from Calcalist, an Israeli daily business newspaper. The seized funds will be added to the Israeli national treasury. More: - The cyber arm of the local police's Lahav 433 unit collaborated with the country's defense ministry and intelligence agencies in addition to Binance to detect suspicious accounts.
- A Binance spokesperson said the company has been working in real-time, around the clock, to support ongoing efforts to combat terrorism financing over the past few days.
- The collaboration between Binance and Israeli forces came shortly after Hamas conducted a multi-pronged attack on Israel, breaking into an all-out war.
- Following the attack, Israel's defense minister ordered a complete siege of the Palestinian enclave Gaza.
Zoom Out: - A lawsuit filed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in March against Binance also accused the platform's officers of knowing of Hamas-linked transactions on the exchange.
- Besides, Israeli authorities previously announced that it seized around 190 Binance accounts with alleged links to terrorist groups since 2021.
- In June, Binance also revealed that it worked with Israeli authorities to take down a terrorism financing operation linked to Iran's Quds Force and Hezbollah.
Q: What do you think about crypto exchanges collaborating with law enforcement agencies to detect illegal transactions? Join the conversation here. |     | |
| 2 | | 
What the numbers say: The data compiled by NYDIG has shown that Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has become the year's best-performing asset based on its value gain since the beginning of 2023, beating all other traditional wealth classes. The popular cryptocurrency increased its value by 63.3% year-to-date (YTD). In the top five, Bitcoin was followed by U.S. Large Cap Growth, U.S. Large Cap, U.S. Stock Market, and International ex-U.S. Value. Some of the other notable asset classes, such as the U.S. Stock Market, Commodities, Cash, and Gold, sat on the lower tiers of the list, with 12.2%, 6%, 3.8%, and 1.1% gains, respectively. Relevance: The relatively massive value gain in Bitcoin mainly stemmed from the bad beginning to the year experienced by the token after last year's prolonged crypto winter. The popular cryptocurrency entered the year with a lower value than its averages due to a broader market downturn. The crypto winter was first ignited by the multi-billion dollar collapse of the Terra ecosystem. Then, the bankruptcy of the previously third-largest crypto exchange, FTX, also contributed to the downturn, causing a strong decline in the prices of the popular tokens. However, Bitcoin managed to regain a significant portion of its value by reaching as much as $31,000 within the year, up from the $16,000 level at the beginning of 2023. Brands that should care: Last year's prolonged crypto winter forced many crypto-related firms, such as BlockFi, Celsius Network, Three Arrows Capital (3AC), and Voyager Digital, to go bankrupt, mainly due to significant liquidity issues. | | | |
| A message from our sponsor, Symon.AI. |  | | Fuel Your Startup’s Growth with No-Code AI Data Analytics! Symon.AI brings a no-code platform with AI analytics to your fingertips. We help propel your startup’s growth trajectory. Expand your growth with Symon.AI: - Dive deep into datasets & unlock growth-driven insights.
- Harness the power of machine learning, no data expert is required.
- Collaborate, share, and translate data into actionable strategies.
- Elevate your startup’s growth story, trusted by leaders in North America & Europe.
Eager to witness the transformation? See why companies like HID and KPN Ventures use Symon AI to level up their businesses.
Explore Symon.AI’s intuitive tools & experience growth like never before!
Get Started for Free | |
|
| 3 | | Alameda Research's former CEO, Caroline Ellison, has made her first public appearance since the crypto exchange FTX collapsed in court to testify in the ongoing trial against the former FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), over his alleged involvement in the downfall. In her testimony, Ellison said SBF asked and directed her to commit crimes that took the exchange to bankruptcy. More: - The former Alameda Research CEO stated that she first met SBF when they both worked at Jane Street Group, and they later dated.
- She also pointed out that Alameda Research took several billion dollars from FTX customer funds to compensate for its investments and pay off lenders.
- Ellison was already among the names who pleaded guilty to charges over their involvement in the collapse and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors, along with FTX's former engineering director Nishad Singh and former chief technology officer Gary Wang.
- In this testimony, Gary Wang also said FTX allowed Alameda Research to withdraw unlimited funds from the exchange by giving special privileges and lied about it.
- Adam Yedidia, a former FTX software developer, similarly testified that FTX customer deposits went to an account controlled by Alameda Research since the exchange was having trouble with opening a bank account.
- At the time, Yedidia stated that he resigned from FTX after learning that Alameda Research used FTX customers' deposits to repay its creditors.
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 CEO is currently being tried on seven charges, including money laundering and misappropriation of customer funds, to which he pleaded not guilty, facing a statutory maximum of 110 years in prison.
| | | |
| 4 | | Luxembourg-based Bitstamp, one of the oldest crypto exchanges, has announced that it is actively holding talks with three large European banks to help them start offering crypto services to their customers in Q1 2024. The announcement was made by the exchange's global chief commercial officer and U.S. CEO, Robert Zagotta. More: - The ongoing talks were considered a sign that the European Union's (EU) region-wide crypto regulations, Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA), help conventional financial institutions enter the digital asset space.
- Zagotta said they saw a lot of interest in Europe for the exchange's Bitstamp-as-a-service offering over the last six to nine months.
- The offering allows banks and other financial firms to offer crypto trading services through Bitstamp's established infrastructure.
- The company's senior executive also underlined that the number of corporations onboarded by Bitstamp increased by 36% in H1 2023 compared to the previous six-month period.
Zoom Out: - The lawmakers at the European Parliament (EP), the legislative body of the EU, approved MiCA in April with a final vote after three years of development, marking the first attempt to regulate the crypto industry on such a scale.
- In contrast, U.S. regulators increased their crackdown on crypto firms over the past year, causing the many local crypto exchanges, such as Gemini, Kraken, and Coinbase, to gravitate towards other markets with an established legal framework for the industry.
- This year alone, many crypto exchanges, including Binance, Bittrex, Coinbase, Gemini, and Kraken, came under heightened scrutiny by U.S. regulators.
- Bitstamp also recently had to halt offering its staking service and suspend trading for seven tokens in the U.S., citing regulatory dynamics in the country.
| | | |
| |
|
| 5 | | Payment protocol firm Ripple's chief financial officer (CFO), Kristina Campbell, has stepped down from her role nearly two and a half years after joining the company. On her LinkedIn profile, Campbell said she started working as CFO at the digital healthcare provider Maven Clinic as of this month. More: - The former CFO, who joined the company in April 2021, has stated that she had a memorable time at Ripple.
- A Ripple spokesperson also pointed out that the firm is grateful for Campbell's leadership over the past two years and her contributions to the company as it experienced strong global momentum, business growth, and regulatory headwinds.
- Before joining Ripple, Campbell worked as CFO at payments platform PayNearMe for four years.
Zoom Out: - Campbell's departure came at a time when a legal battle between Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) intensified.
- In December 2020, the SEC classified Ripple's native token, XRP, as a security in a lawsuit, accusing the company and some of its executives of the unregistered sale of nearly $1.3B of XRP tokens.
- U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP is not a security when sold to the general public in July and recently denied the SEC's request to appeal to the ruling.
- Campbell did not disclose whether her exit had anything to do with the regulatory challenges.
| | | |
| 6 | | China Daily, an English-language newspaper owned by the Chinese Communist Party's Publicity Department, has announced its plans to launch its own metaverse and NFT platform. The publication will award $390,000 to a third-party contractor to design the platform. More: - The contractor will be able to be either a Chinese or foreign firm specializing in blockchain technology.
- The newspaper will collect applications from contractors until Oct. 17, and the selected contractor will have three months to develop the platform.
- The winning contractor's network will have to be capable of handling 10,000 transactions per second.
- The platform will aim to improve the spread of the influence of the Chinese Civilization through emerging technologies, such as metaverse, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality, blockchain, NFTs, big data, and cloud computing.
- The new platform will also allow uploading, displaying, and managing digital collections, support various multimedia forms and multiple collection types, and feature pricing, bidding, multi-currency, and limited-time functions.
Zoom Out: - On the other hand, the Chinese Communist Party, the ruling political party of the country, has forbidden cryptocurrencies, any kind of crypto transactions, and all crypto mining activities in the country since 2021.
| | | |
| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Unlock your perfect customers using BiglySales.com's data solutions and AI emailer.*
- Ordswap, a marketplace that allows users to inscribe, auction, and trade Bitcoin Ordinals, has urged users to recover their private keys after it lost control of its website domain.
- Blocknative, a tool provider for transactions on the Ethereum blockchain network, has recently reduced its headcount by 33%.
- The U.S.-based crypto exchange Gemini has appointed Sachin Ranglani to lead its hub in India, overseeing a team of around 80 employees.
- monday.com and BILL drove acquisition, engagement, and retention by adding Cord's SDK to their product. You can, too.*
*This is a sponsored post. | | | |
| Upcoming Events | | OCT
16 | | Meet Our Fund 5, Building and Investing in AI | | | | | | | OCT
30 | | Discover the latest digital experience innovations, updates, and breakthroughs at Opticon Online.* | | | | | | | NOV
17 | | Join the Docker AI/ML Hackathon to help shape the exciting new frontier of AI and have a chance to win cool prizes!* | | | | | | * This is a sponsored event | | | |
Term of the Day Dogfooding: Doogfooding is an expression or term used when a company tests its own products. Question of the Week What perks would convince you to return to the office? Join the conversation Today's Knowledge Hub Is Brought To You By Symon.AI - The All-in-One Data Tool for Startups. Start your free trial here.* |
INSIDE CRYPTOCURRENCY LEADERBOARD (30 DAYS) |
 | 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 | |
| |
 | Symon.AI empowers you with predictive and prescriptive insights using a no-code, data prep and AutoML platform. | |
|
| |
|
| |
Comments
Post a Comment