| Here is a quick look at the hits from the week's latest Inside Cryptocurrency newsletter: - Celsius Network's approved restructuring plan,
- Binance's plans to terminate Russian ruble deposits by Nov. 15,
- JPM Coin's new programmable payments feature, and more.
Enjoy your reading! Doğa
p/dogayurduneri | |
| 1 | | U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn has approved the bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network's restructuring plan. The approval will see the collapsed firm repaying crypto funds to customers and transforming into a new crypto mining company owned by creditors. More: - The reorganized company will be managed by Fahrenheit LLC, a crypto consortium involving blockchain-based venture capital (VC) firm Arrington Capital and crypto miner U.S. Bitcoin Corp.
- The new firm will focus on mining Bitcoin (BTC) and earning fees by validating blockchain-based transactions.
- Celsius Network is expected to exit bankruptcy in early 2024, implementing the plan.
- As part of the plan, customers will receive equity shares from the new company and a partial repayment of the crypto assets they deposited on the platform.
- The bankrupt company will return nearly $2B in crypto to account holders.
- Celsius must also receive approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the plan since it will have to be liquidated otherwise.
Zoom Out: - Celsius offered loans and paid high interest rates on crypto deposits.
- The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2022 with more than $1B in debt, mainly due to its liquidity issues and the crypto market downturn triggered by the multi-billion-dollar Terra ecosystem's collapse.
- Alex Mashinsky, the company's CEO at the time of bankruptcy, was arrested by U.S. law enforcement agencies in July with charges of seven counts related to the collapse, to which he pleaded not guilty, and was released on bail pending trial.
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| 2 | | 
What the numbers say: The data compiled by The Block has shown that centralized crypto exchanges (CEXs) saw an increase in monthly spot trading volume in October for the first time since June. Until last month, the figure decreased for three consecutive months during Q3. However, last month, the volumes surged to $516.43B, up from $323.76B in the previous month. The jump represents a nearly 60% monthly increase. Relevance: The downward trend in spot trading volume on CEXs followed regulatory scrutiny by U.S. regulators on the crypto trading platforms, which heightened in June, especially with the lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase. Following the increased crackdown, the crypto exchanges experienced a strong decline in trading volumes due to a decrease in investor confidence. However, a price rally in Bitcoin (BTC), the largest crypto exchange by market cap, set the market in motion within October, causing the token to reach the $35,000 mark for the first time since May 2022. The upward trend in the popular cryptocurrency was mainly triggered by positive expectations around the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications. Brands that should care: Leading traditional financial firms waiting for U.S. regulators to approve their Bitcoin ETF applications include Grayscale Investments, BlackRock, WisdomTree, Invesco Galaxy, Valkyrie, and Wise Origin. Analysts believe that the approval of such applications could bring significant amounts of capital to the crypto market, causing a much stronger price increase in Bitcoin. | | | |
| 3 | | Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has announced that it would halt accepting deposits in Russian rubles (RUB) as of Nov. 15. The move came more than a month after the exchange officially withdrew from Russia by selling its local unit to a Seychelles-based crypto exchange dubbed CommEX for an undisclosed amount. More: - The firm also said it would not support RUB withdrawals after Jan. 31, 2024, advising customers to withdraw their funds in rubles from the platform.
- Besides, the company pointed out that users can transfer their funds to CommEX, underlining that the new exchange will not charge any fee for RUB withdrawals.
- The exchange has yet to disclose fees for other withdrawal options.
- Binance had to exit from the Russian market several months after it started being investigated by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the U.S. over potential violations of U.S. sanctions on Russia.
- Indeed, the platform began applying restrictions on Russian citizens, residents, and banks in 2022 after the European Union (EU) and the U.S. announced sanctions against Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine.
- However, several Russian users reported that they were able to access some Binance services despite the restrictions the platform began imposing last year.
- The company persistently denied any rumored ties with CommEX and said it has no plans to return to Russia.
Zoom Out: - On the other hand, Binance had to intensify its legal compliance efforts over the last months since it faced increased crackdowns by regulators in various countries, including the U.S., Australia, France, Belgium, and Brazil.
- The platform also recently withdrew from several markets in the West, such as Canada, Austria, the Netherlands, Cyprus, the U.K., and Germany, mainly due to compliance issues.
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| 4 | | JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank by assets, has integrated a programmable payment feature into its blockchain-based JPM Coin. The new feature allows users to program their accounts to make payments automatically based on preset conditions. More: - The integration will mainly enable payments to automatically kick in when the relevant criteria are met.
- Germany-based multinational tech firm Siemens AG has already used the new feature.
- Transport company FedEx and food corporation Cargill also plan to use the feature in the coming weeks.
- JPM Coin allows JPMorgan's institutional clients to move dollars and euros between their various accounts within the bank using a private blockchain network.
- The system processes payments instantly, differently from transactions on traditional payment rails that typically process payments only during business hours.
- The project, launched in 2019 to offer an alternative payment system on blockchain, recently reached the milestone of $1B in daily transactions.
Zoom Out: - On the other hand, JPMorgan has developed many high-profile projects so far, including JPM Coin and a separate blockchain-based deposit token, to bring blockchain technology to traditional finance, becoming one of the few companies that managed to put some of these projects to commercial use among its rivals.
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| 5 | | Poloniex, a crypto exchange acquired by the blockchain-based operating system Tron's founder, Justin Sun, in 2019, has recently experienced a cybersecurity incident. The breach caused the exchange to lose at least $100M in crypto from one of its wallets. More: - The amount of loss was initially estimated at $60M, though it was later determined to be around $126M.
- Blockchain security firm CertiK pointed out that the incident looked like a private key compromise.
- In response to the incident, the exchange disabled the breached wallet.
- Justin Sun said the Poloniex team has already started investigating the hack, underlining that they maintain a healthy financial position.
- Sun also stated that they would collaborate with other crypto exchanges to recover the lost funds and fully reimburse the users affected by the hack.
- Also, the exchange's owner offered a 5% bounty to the attackers, giving them seven days to return the funds before they start working with law enforcement authorities.
Zoom Out: - Seychelles-based crypto exchange HTX, where Justin Sun carries out an adviser role, was also hacked for nearly $8M of Ether (ETH) in September.
- At the time, the exchange, formerly known as Huobi, managed to claw back the stolen funds, issuing a 250 ETH white hat reward to the hacker.
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| 6 | | A recent court filing has revealed that Singapore-based bankrupt crypto lender Hodlnaut received approval for its application for liquidation. The winding-up order was issued by the High Court of Singapore. More: - The company's former interim judicial managers, Aaron Lee and Angela Ee, were appointed as liquidators.
- Liquidators will regularly provide updates to the firm's more than 17,000 creditors.
- In January, Hodlnaut creditors expressed their preference in favor of a potential liquidation, saying it would better serve their interests and rejecting a restructuring plan.
- Following the creditors' filing, the firm applied for a liquidation in May this year.
Zoom Out: - Hodlnaut filed for bankruptcy in November 2022 due to its exposure to the collapses of the previously third-largest crypto exchange, FTX, and the multi-billion dollar Terra ecosystem.
- The lender suffered around $189M in losses due to Terra's collapse and saw $13.3M of crypto stuck in FTX.
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Term of the Day Inferior good: Inferior goods are goods whose demand decreases when income increases, as opposed to normal goods whose demand increases when income increases. Question of the Week What perks would convince you to return to the office? Join the conversation |
 | 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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