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| Here is a look at the hits from today's Inside Cryptocurrency briefing: - DWS Group, Flow Traders, and Galaxy Digital's plans to issue a new euro-pegged stablecoin,
- The two-month extension of Terra co-founder Do Kwon's detention in Montenegro,
- Donald Trump's new mugshot-themed NFT collection, and more.
Enjoy your reading! Doğa
p/dogayurduneri | |
| 1 | | Largest German bank Deutsche Bank's asset management-focused subsidiary, DWS Group, German market maker Flow Traders Ltd., and the U.S.-based digital asset investment firm Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. have announced their plans to establish a firm to issue a new stablecoin pegged to the euro (EUR). The new firm, dubbed AllUnity, will be based in Frankfurt, Germany. More: - The company will be led by Seychelles-headquartered crypto exchange BitMex's former CEO, Alexander Höptner.
- Höptner said stablecoins need stability, trust, connection, and market power to become viable and usable.
- The trio will combine their resource access and experience in traditional finance and the crypto market to create a successful and viable stablecoin.
- AllUnity is expected to launch in Q1 2024 after receiving initial regulatory approvals.
- After the launch, the firm will apply to the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), the country's financial market regulator, to obtain an e-money license.
- The company plans to release its euro-pegged stablecoin within the next 18 months of the full approval.
- Several other mainstream financial services firms, including Société Générale and PayPal, have also launched their own stablecoins this year.
Zoom Out: - Stablecoins refer to the cryptocurrencies whose value is pegged to another reference asset, usually a fiat currency.
- These assets are generally used by customers to trade with different cryptocurrencies without converting their funds back into fiat currencies and by institutions to make faster cross-border transfers.
- The stablecoin market is currently dominated by dollar-pegged tokens, with the top three stablecoins by market cap, including Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), and Dai (DAI), pegged to the U.S. dollar (USD).
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What the numbers say: The data compiled by The Block has revealed the top five spot crypto exchanges of November by their monthly trading volume. In the ranking, Binance sat in the first spot by making up more than 37% of the total volume, with $310.13B. The exchange was followed by Upbit, OKX, Coinbase, and HTX, respectively. Relevance: On the other hand, Coinbase ranked fourth in the global ranking despite its first position among the U.S.-based crypto exchanges. Over the past year, the exchange has made several notable moves to rise to top spots in the international arena, too. Most recently, the platform has announced that it will start offering spot crypto trading services on its international exchange, which caters to institutional users outside its native U.S. The service will initially support only Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). Coinbase's head of institutional product, Greg Tusar, said hosting spot and derivatives activity on the same platform could boost the overall volumes. The global platform was originally designed to only offer crypto derivatives services and help Coinbase accelerate its global expansion amid heightened scrutiny by U.S. regulators. Brands that should care: Several other U.S.-based crypto exchanges, such as Kraken and Gemini, also had to intensify their global expansion plans and consolidate their roots outside the U.S. over the past year as U.S. regulators increased their crackdown on the crypto industry. | | | |
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| 3 | | A Montenegrin High Court has extended the detention term of Do Kwon, the co-founder of the collapsed Terra ecosystem, by two months to Feb. 15, 2024, at the request of U.S. and South Korean officials. Before the extension, the co-founder's term in custody was meant to end on Dec. 15. More: - Kwon was arrested at the Podgorica Airport in Montenegro in March with Han Chang Joon, the chief financial officer of Terraform Labs, while trying to fly to Dubai carrying falsified traveling documents.
- Both the U.S. and Kwon's native South Korea seek Terra co-founder's extradition, though neither has a direct extradition treaty with Montenegro.
- Last month, a Montenegrin court officially approved Kwon to be extradited to the U.S. or South Korea after serving his four-month prison sentence, leaving the final decision on the destination up to Justice Minister Andrej Milovic.
- A recent report from the Wall Street Journal pointed out that Milovic decided to extradite Kwon to the U.S. rather than South Korea.
- However, the approval for extradition is now under consideration by an appellate court since Kwon's defense team appealed the decision.
- The co-founder currently faces various charges in both countries, including fraud, securities law violations, deceiving investors, racket collecting, and building a Ponzi scheme.
Zoom Out: - The multibillion-dollar Terra ecosystem collapsed last year after the prices of its native tokens, Luna and TerraUSD, plummeted nearly to zero in May and lost all their value against the U.S. dollar (USD), triggering a prolonged crypto winter.
- The downfall caused over $60B to be wiped off the crypto market.
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| 4 | | Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has announced that its peer-to-peer (P2P) trading platform will halt supporting Russian rubles (RUB) as of Jan. 31, 2024. The update will see the platform users becoming unable to trade with the ruble after the specified deadline. More: - Customers can withdraw their funds in RUB on the platform until Jan. 31 or transfer them to CommEX to continue trading.
- The move came nearly three months after Binance officially withdrew from Russia by selling its Russian unit to the Seychelles-based crypto exchange CommEX for an undisclosed amount.
- At the time, Binance's chief compliance officer, Noah Perlman, said operating in Russia is no longer compatible with their compliance strategy while explaining the decision.
- The exchange also halted accepting deposits in the ruble as of Nov. 15.
- The platform had to exit from the Russian market several months after 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, forcing the firm to leave Russia permanently.
Zoom Out: - On the other hand, Binance had to intensify its compliance efforts over the past year since it faced increased scrutiny by regulators in various countries, including the U.S., Australia, France, Belgium, and Brazil.
- Besides, the company recently withdrew from several other markets worldwide, such as Canada, Austria, the Netherlands, Cyprus, the U.K., and Germany, mainly due to compliance issues.
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| 5 | | Former U.S. President Donald Trump has recently released a new MugShot edition of his NFT collection, Trump Digital Trading Cards. The 100,000-card collection has been put up for sale for $99 each. More: - The collection's theme is centered around Trump's ongoing criminal indictments, which paved the way for the first-ever mugshot of a former U.S. President.
- The new collection includes 2,024 limited-edition physical cards that will be sent to anyone who purchases at least 47 cards in a single transaction.
- The limited-edition cards will feature Trump's mugshot from his arrest at Fulton County Jail in August, a piece of the suit he wore that day, and 25 hand-signed cards.
- The limited-edition collectibles will also offer an invitation to a dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
- Also, the first 200 people buying 100 cards using crypto will have the chance to access two tickets for a cocktail reception with Trump before the dinner at Mar-a-Lago, a second physical card featuring pieces of both the suit and tie, and two other commemorative cards.
- Users can buy the NFTs through credit cards or Wrapped Ether (wETH), but the digital collectibles will not be transferable until Dec. 31, 2024.
- The 45th U.S. President was arrested in Atlanta in August and released on bond after he was indicted on 13 felony charges for attempting to reverse his 2020 election loss in Georgia.
Zoom Out: - Trump dropped his first NFT collection in December 2022 with a floor price of $99, and the edition sold out within hours of its debut, reaching $4.4M in sales.
- The NFTs in the first edition feature illustrations of Trump in various poses.
- The former president also released a second edition of his NFT collection in April this year after the first collection saw a massive increase in sales amid his indictment.
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| 6 | | South Korean instant messaging app Line's Web3-focused arm, Line Next, has raised $140M in a funding round led by private equity firm Crescendo Equity Partners. The secured investment marked the largest fundraising round in the Asian Web3 industry this year. More: - The firm will use the new funding to launch a global NFT marketplace dubbed DOSI in January 2024.
- The platform will be integrated with Line's existing Japan-based NFT marketplace, Line NFT.
- The new marketplace will be released as a mobile app that is available to users all around the world.
- Line Next built the new NFT platform on the Finschia public blockchain network.
- A Line Next spokesperson said DOSI's top markets in active users were South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam, and India during the beta testing phase.
- A certain portion of the $140M funding will also be used to launch other new Web3-focused services.
Zoom Out: - Line launched its Web3 arm in December 2021, and Line Next released the beta version of DOSI in September last year.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Want to master Kubernetes? The Kubernetes Cookbook is a must-have guide to discover guidance on cloud architecture analytics, optimization, governance, and more.*
- Bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital's co-founder, Su Zhu, has recently faced questions over the firm's collapse for the first time in Singapore, where he is under arrest.
- Layer-2 blockchain network StarkWare has announced that it would distribute 10% of network fees to developers as part of a pilot program dubbed Devonomics.
- Speaking at a recent interview, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's chair, Rostin Behnam, has stated that most cryptocurrencies should be classified as commodities under existing laws.
- Bestselling book on alternative investing offers the first chapter free for a limited time. "Money Shackles" innovates the way you think about money.*
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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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