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| Take a look at the hits from today's Inside Cryptocurrency newsletter: - Former FTX Group employee seeking to receive his $275,000 bonus from the bankrupt crypto exchange,
- OKX's plans to launch its own Layer-2 blockchain network in Q1 2024,
- Blockchain.com's new $110M funding, and more.
Enjoy your reading! Doğa
p/dogayurduneri | |
| 1 | | A former employee of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, Ross Rheingans-Yoo, has filed a new legal motion to receive the remainder of his 2022 bonus, which is worth $275,000, from the company. Rheingans-Yoo had been hired by FTX's former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), in early 2022 and worked for the exchange's charitable arms. More: - According to the court filing, FTX had paid Rheingans-Yoo $375,000 of the bonus two months before the bankruptcy.
- The former employee carried out the role of program officer at FTX's charity arm, FTX Foundation, and led a nonprofit affiliate dubbed Latona Bioscience Group.
- His role at the company had a base salary of $100,000.
- In the latest motion, Rheingans-Yoo also denied allegations brought by FTX's new management against him that he had any knowledge of or aided SBF's wrongdoing while working for the company.
- Earlier this year, FTX's new management accused the two affiliates of taking $71.5M in commingled customer and corporate funds under cover of charity giving, serving as sham companies to aggrandize SBF's wealth.
- However, Rheingans-Yoo said Latona Bioscience Group was not a sham company but a duly organized nonprofit firm capitalized through intercompany loan agreements with the sister company Alameda Research.
- In a previous court filing, FTX advisers pointed out that Rheingans-Yoo's claim that he is entitled to receive the $275,000 bonus has no merit and should be denied.
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 Alameda Research.
- SBF was recently found guilty of all the seven criminal charges brought against him by U.S. prosecutors, including money laundering and misappropriation of customer funds, after a month-long trial process.
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What the numbers say: The data compiled by BitInfoCharts has revealed that there are currently just 628 Dogecoin (DOGE) addresses with at least $1M of holdings in the world. Only 88 of these addresses possess more than $10M. The new figures represent a 66% decrease to 628 from the 1,046 millionaire addresses in November last year. Relevance: The decline in the number of Dogecoin millionaires was mainly associated with the price decrease experienced by the popular cryptocurrency over the past year. The token's value fell by more than 50% from $0.15 in November 2022 to $0.07. This price decline caused many addresses to be removed from the list of millionaires. On the other hand, BitInfoCharts' data for Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, recently pointed to an opposite trend. By contrast with Dogecoin, the number of Bitcoin millionaires increased by over 60,000 addresses since the beginning of the year. The trend appeared mainly due to the more than 120% price increase in Bitcoin since the beginning of 2023. Brands that should care: Despite the latest downward trend in price, Dogecoin's popularity has significantly surged over the last several years. This popularity increase was mainly triggered by the support the token saw from the worldwide-known CEO Elon Musk. The famous CEO's companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company, also supported Dogecoin by accepting it as a payment method for several commercial products and services. | | | |
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| 3 | | Seychelles-based crypto exchange OKX has announced that it would launch a new Polygon-based Layer-2 blockchain network dubbed X1. The testnet of the upcoming network recently went live. More: - The company started building X1 using Polygon's Chain Development Kit (CDK).
- The network will also use zero-knowledge technology that utilizes cryptographic techniques to verify transactions without revealing the underlying information.
- The new Layer-2 network is expected to go live in Q1 2024.
- Once X1 publicly rolls out, OKX's native token, OKB, will be used to pay gas fees on the network.
- OKX also previously developed an Ethereum sidechain dubbed OKT Chain that uses OKB as its native coin.
- Layer-2 networks aim to improve speed and reduce transaction fees by removing transaction data from the main blockchain, compressing it, and then re-posting it to the original chain.
Zoom Out: - OKX is currently the sixth-largest crypto exchange by trading volume.
- Some of OKX's rival crypto exchanges, such as Coinbase and Binance, also have their own blockchain networks.
- Besides, recent reports claimed that crypto exchange Kraken similarly started working on developing its own Layer-2 network, citing people familiar with the matter.
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| 4 | | Crypto exchange and digital wallet provider Blockchain.com has raised $110M in its latest funding round led by the U.K.-based investment company Kingsway Capital. However, the firm closed the round by being valued at less than half its $14B valuation in March 2022. More: - Other investors in the round include Baillie Gifford, Lakestar, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Coinbase Ventures.
- The company also announced that it would add two new board members from Kingsway Capital and Lakestar.
- The exchange again secured strategic financing from several high-profile investors, including Kingsway Capital, last fall.
- March 2022 similarly saw Blockchain.com completing a fundraising round at a valuation of $14B.
Zoom Out: - The decline in Blockchain.com's valuation was attributed to the challenges the firm faced after last year's prolonged crypto winter, which caused many crypto-related firms to go bankrupt and major cryptocurrencies to lose value.
- Blockchain.com had major exposure to the bankruptcy of the crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), and the firm had to conduct mass layoffs.
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| 5 | | Kazakhstan has officially launched its central bank digital currency (CBDC), or the digital tenge, during the XI Congress of Finance in Almaty. At the congress, the chairman of Kazakhstan's National Payment Corporation (NPC), Binur Zhalenov, made the first transaction with the digital currency. More: - Zhalenov made a payment through a debit card tied to his CBDC account during his speech.
- The chairman said they collaborated with payment processing giants Visa and Mastercard and local banks to integrate the digital tenge into the debit card.
- The NPC official also stated that Kazakhstan's CBDC development will focus on offline payments in 2024, and the digital currency will be adopted in international trade by 2025.
- Kazakhstan started the development of its CBDC in February this year.
- The country's central bank, the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK), expects to launch the CBDC to the public in 2025.
Zoom Out: - The move came nearly two months after the central bank established the NPC to oversee the national payment system and the digital financial infrastructure, which also covers the development and implementation of the CBDC.
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| 6 | | American fast-food chain Dairy Queen has recently opened a new pop-up NFT store in China in partnership with the Chinese NFT project Weirdo Ghost Gang (WGG). The "Ice and Snow Season" themed store will remain open until Dec. 31. More: - Visitors can access various co-branded merchandise in the store, including a joint Dairy Queen-WGG ice cream.
- Also, WGG NFT holders will be able to receive exclusive perks as part of the collaboration.
- The store is located in the Chinese city of Chengdu.
Zoom Out: - WGG also launched a City Party Map — Shanghai Station event in collaboration with Chinese food retailer Jiujiu Duck Neck in September.
- The event offered discounts to NFT holders at more than 500 of Jiujiu Duck Neck's retail stores.
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- A U.S. bankruptcy judge has ordered the end of an automatic stay, allowing bankrupt crypto firms FTX and BlockFi to start negotiating for their claims settlement.
- Aurelien Michel, the creator of the Mutant Ape Planet NFT collection, has pleaded guilty to organizing a rug pull, defrauding investors of $3M.
- The U.K.-based banking giant Standard Chartered's venture capital (VC) arm, SC Ventures, has launched a new tokenization platform dubbed Libeara.
- Hong Kong-based crypto custodian Hex Trust has obtained a virtual asset service provider license in Dubai to offer its digital asset custody services to institutional and high-profile investors in the city.
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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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