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| Take a look at the hits from today's Inside Cryptocurrency newsletter: - Binance's decision to halt support for all the services related to the BUSD stablecoin as of Dec. 15,
- Stablecoin issuer Paxos' two new in-principle approvals in Abu Dhabi,
- Cross-chain protocol Wormhole's whopping $225M of funding, and more.
Enjoy your reading! Doğa
p/dogayurduneri | |
| 1 | | Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has announced that it would end support for all the products and services related to its stablecoin, Binance USD (BUSD), by Dec. 15. The move came three months after the firm stated that it would gradually halt supporting BUSD before February 2024, urging users to convert their related funds into other available stablecoins on the platform. More: - The exchange said users should withdraw or convert their existing BUSD funds into other stablecoins on the platform before Dec. 15.
- The withdrawals for BUSD will also be permanently halted as of Dec. 31.
- After that point, all the remaining funds in BUSD will be automatically converted into the First Digital USD (FDUSD) stablecoin.
- However, the token will continue to be supported by Paxos and redeemable until at least February next year.
- The wind-down process for BUSD mainly stems from the legal challenges the issuer Paxos faced this year.
- Earlier in 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the U.S. labeled BUSD as an unregistered derivative and securities product.
- Following the move, Paxos had to stop minting new BUSD tokens as of Feb. 21, nearly three and a half years after the stablecoin's launch in 2019.
Zoom Out: - Over the past year, U.S. regulators have increased their crackdown on Binance, forcing the exchange to pay billions of dollars of fines, depart its ways with its CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), conduct mass layoffs, cut ties with its banking partners, and sunset some services.
- Before the termination of its issuance, BUSD was one of the largest stablecoins and reached a peak of $23B in market cap in November last year.
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| 2 | | 
What the numbers say: A recent research report from the crypto data website CoinGecko has shown that 2,127 Web3 games became inactive within the last five years. The figure represents 75.5% of the 2,817 Web3 games launched over the same period, meaning that three of every four new Web3 games have failed. In 2023 alone, 509 blockchain-based games became inactive, while 720 new Web3 games were launched. The report further revealed that the number of failed Web3 games surpassed the number of newly-launched games last year. In 2022, the failed games reached a peak of 742 in number, whereas developers released only 693 new games. Relevance: The record failure rate of 107.1% in 2022 was mainly attributed to the prolonged crypto winter shaking the industry that year. The collapses of the previously third-largest crypto exchange, FTX, and the multi-billion-dollar Terra ecosystem created a downward trend across the digital asset market. The high-profile downfalls also caused a massive price decline in major cryptocurrencies, paving the way for a loss of confidence in the industry among investors. As investors lost trust and interest in the Web3 space, many blockchain-based games also got their share of the crypto winter, being dragged to failure. Brands that should care: Amid a broader market downturn, some of the most well-known video-game companies, such as Sega and Ubisoft, partly abandoned their plans to develop blockchain-based games and pulled back their investments in Web3 games, citing low demand. However, those companies later continued to explore the opportunities in the market without totally losing interest. | | | |
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| 3 | | Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network has started opening withdrawals for some of its users to repay a certain portion of their funds stuck on the platform after the collapse. A recent court document has shown that customers of the custody program could begin withdrawing their funds from the platform on or around Nov. 29. More: - The eligible users will have until Feb. 28, 2024, to withdraw their funds.
- Custody program customers will be able to receive 72.5% of their funds in crypto back, except for transaction fees.
- Customers who previously participated in a custody settlement or voted to reject the reorganization plan will be excluded from the process.
- The funds of users rejecting the plan will be gathered within a separate wallet and managed by the litigation administrator over the next six months.
- In September, the court classified the funds of around 58,300 users as custody assets and valued them at about $210M.
- The opening of withdrawals came nearly 20 days after a U.S. bankruptcy judge approved Celsius Network's restructuring plan, allowing the collapsed firm to exit bankruptcy by repaying nearly $2B in crypto and transforming into a crypto mining company owned by creditors.
- The new firm 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.
Zoom Out: - Celsius Network 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 later released on bail pending trial.
- The criminal trial for Mashinsky is scheduled for September 2024.
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| 4 | | Cross-chain protocol Wormhole has secured $225M in funding at a valuation of $2.5B, marking one of the largest fundraising rounds in the crypto industry in 2023. The round saw participation from many high-profile investors, including Brevan Howard, Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Jump Trading, ParaFi, Dialectic, Borderless Capital, and Arrington Capital. More: - Along with the new funding, the project also announced that it launched an independent technology company dubbed Wormhole Labs.
- In the announcement, the team behind Wormhole defined the new company as Wormhole's core contributor, specializing in building products, tools, and reference implementations that help grow cross-chain activity.
- The protocol serves as a crypto bridge that links different blockchains to make transactions easier and allows developers to build decentralized applications (dApps) covering the entire blockchain ecosystem.
- Since its launch in 2021, Wormhole has facilitated over $35B in transactions.
Zoom Out: - Wormhole was originally developed by the team of Certus One, a crypto firm acquired by the U.S.-based trading firm Jump Trading in 2021.
- However, Jump Trading recently decided to cut ties with Wormhole, making it an independent entity from its digital asset-focused arm, Jump Crypto.
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| 5 | | The U.S.-headquartered stablecoin issuer Paxos has recently obtained two in-principle approvals in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The approvals will allow the firm to issue stablecoins pegged to the U.S. dollar (USD) and offer crypto brokerage and custody services in the region after receiving full approval. More: - The preliminary approvals were granted to Paxos by Abu Dhabi's Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), the emirate's financial market regulator.
- The stablecoin issuer expects to receive full approvals for both operations in H1 2024 after demonstrating its commitment to meeting the regulatory requirements of the FSRA.
- Earlier in November, Paxos also obtained another in-principle approval in Singapore through its local entity as part of its global expansion plans.
- The approval in Singapore will also see Paxos issuing a USD-backed stablecoin in the city-state.
Zoom Out: - Stablecoins refer to cryptocurrencies 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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| 6 | | Singapore-based crypto payment provider Alchemy Pay has integrated new deposit options for euros (EUR) and British pounds (GBP) into its platform. The company said the new options will allow transfers to be processed in seconds to a few minutes. More: - The new payment infrastructures integrated into the platform include Europe's Single Euro Payments Area Instant (SEPA Instant) and the U.K.'s Faster Payments.
- The newly added options aim to simplify purchasing crypto on the platform with fiat currencies, speeding up the process.
- Customers in Europe and the U.K. will be able to buy up to €5,000 and £5,000 of crypto using new deposit options on Alchemy Pay, respectively.
- The two channels will be available to users across 30 European countries and the U.K. after meeting identity verification requirements.
- Alchemy Pay's infrastructure allows merchants and customers to make or accept payments in both crypto and fiat currencies.
- The platform currently caters to customers across 173 countries in partnership with 300 fiat payment channels.
Zoom Out: - On the other hand, Alchemy Pay has recently accelerated its global expansion efforts with two new licenses in the U.S. states of Arkansas and Iowa.
- The platform also plans to apply for a license in several other regions, including Hong Kong and the U.K.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Competitors are killing your efficiency. Read how Greenhouse gained $85mil in revenue from reps who used Klue over non-Klue users.*
- A U.S. bankruptcy court has approved the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX to sell its $744M stakes in digital trusts managed by Grayscale Investments to start repaying its creditors.
- A $1B class-action lawsuit has accused famous soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo of helping Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, in promoting unregistered securities.
- Online financial services firm SoFi Technologies has announced that it would halt offering crypto trading services by Dec. 19, urging its users to transfer their digital assets to Blockchain.com or liquidate them.
- The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned coin mixing service Sinbad, alleging the platform of laundering funds for North Korean cybercrime organization Lazarus Group.
*This is a sponsored post. | | | |
 | 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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