| Here is a quick look at the hits from the week's latest Inside Cryptocurrency newsletter: - Binance.US' new chief compliance officer,
- Logan Paul's $2.3M buy-back program to refund the buyers of CryptoZoo NFTs,
- Top 10 cryptocurrencies with the highest price gains in 2023, and more.
Enjoy your reading, and have a great weekend! Doğa
p/dogayurduneri | |
| 1 | | Binance.US, the U.S. arm of the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has recently appointed Lesley O'Neill as its new chief compliance officer. As part of her new role, O'Neill will lead Binance.US' legal and regulatory compliance efforts, including identity verification measures, anti-money laundering procedures, and sanction programs. More: - Following the latest appointment, O'Neill has replaced Tammy Weinrib, who left Binance.US in November.
- Before Binance.US, O'Neill carried out the chief compliance officer position at Prove Identity, a digital identity verification platform catering to banks, financial services firms, and merchants on e-commerce platforms.
- The new compliance lead also has more than 15 years of work experience at several other well-known companies, including Ernst & Young, Milbank, and Bloomberg.
- The replacement came over a month after Binance and its former CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering requirements and sanctions in the U.S. by allowing terrorist groups to make crypto transactions on the platform.
- As part of a settlement deal with the regulators, the exchange agreed to pay a $4.3B fine to settle money laundering, unlicensed money-transmitting business operations, and sanction violation charges.
- Under the same agreement, CZ was also ordered to pay a $50M penalty, step down as CEO, and not engage in Binance's management for three years.
Zoom Out: - On the other hand, the latest settlement deal resolved a years-long investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Treasury Department, and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
- However, Binance also faces another lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the U.S., which has yet to be resolved.
- The heightened crackdown by regulators forced the exchange to increase its compliance efforts worldwide and cut ties with some of its senior executives.
|     | |
| 2 | | 
What the numbers say: Crypto data platform CoinGecko has recently analyzed the price gains of the top 100 crypto assets by market cap between Jan. 1 and Dec. 28, 2023, to determine the top gainers of last year. The results have shown that the popular dog-themed cryptocurrency Bonk (BONK) took the lead with a 7,302.9% price return. In the top five, the Solana-based token was followed by Injective (INJ), CorgiAI (CORGIAI), Kaspa (KAS), and Render (RNDR), respectively. Solana (SOL), Conflux (CFX), Wemix (WEMIX), Fetch.ai (FET), and Stacks (STX) also became the year's best-performing crypto assets, achieving to making the top 10 list. On the other hand, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, showed a relatively worse performance, with respective price gains of 162.5% and 98.6%. Relevance: The BONK token also recently hit the headlines when its trading volume reached as much as $1.72B in December, up from $18.7M at the beginning of the month. At the time, the massive increase in BONK's key metrics was primarily associated with the overall success of the Solana blockchain. Last year, the network became one of the most successful blockchains that have managed to exit from the downward trend created by the prolonged crypto winter in 2022. The network's native token, SOL, also outperformed many cryptocurrencies in 2023, gaining 973.9% in value throughout the year. Brands that should care: On the other hand, the Solana network partnered last year with some of the most well-known brands, such as Google Cloud, Shopify, and Visa, thanks to its rising popularity and improvement with essential upgrades. | | | |
| 3 | | The U.S.-based crypto mining firm Marathon Digital has announced that it broke a new record in December, mining 1,853 Bitcoins (BTC) in total. The firm defined its Bitcoin production last month as the highest monthly total ever recorded by a public mining company. More: - The 1,853 Bitcoins mined in December represent a 56% monthly increase and a 290% surge from the same month of the previous year.
- Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel said the massive jump in their Bitcoin production could be attributed to the 18.4% monthly surge in hash rate, which refers to the computing power used to mine new tokens.
- Thiel added that they aim to increase their current hash rate by 30% in 2024.
- The company CEO also underlined that their strategic expansion plans and operational efficiency played a key role in breaking the latest production record.
Zoom Out: - The previous record was set by Core Scientific in January 2023, when the company produced 1,527 Bitcoin in a single month.
- Marathon Digital's latest production surpassed this figure by over 300 Bitcoins.
| | | |
| 4 | | Famous YouTuber and wrestler Logan Paul has launched a buy-back program to refund those who bought NFTs for his CryptoZoo NFT game one year after he promised to do so. Paul also filed a countersuit against the project's two other co-creators, Eduardo Ibanez and Jake Greenbaum. More: - The famous YouTuber has opened a new website for buyers' claims and personally allocated $2.3M for the refunds.
- Users who purchased Base Egg and Base Animal NFTs for the game will be able to file their refund claims through the website until Feb. 8.
- The website will direct visitors to a form that requires some personal data, including names, phone numbers, crypto wallet addresses, and physical addresses, to be able to join the buy-back program.
- Besides, the claimants will have to agree to waive any other claims against Logan Paul under the form's terms and conditions.
- The program will not compensate traders who bought the CryptoZoo game's Ethereum-based token, ZOO, since the cryptocurrency was created to support the game and its players.
- On the other hand, the countersuit, which followed an extensive investigation of CryptoZoo, denied all the allegations and fraud charges against Paul in a class-action lawsuit, accusing the two other co-creators of stealing money from the project and betraying the team.
- In the suit, the popular YouTuber also claimed that his role in the project was to market and promote it, and he spent $400,000 of his own money on the game.
Zoom Out: - Paul, Ibanez, Greenbaum, and several other affiliates launched the CryptoZoo project in 2021, planning to debut an animal-themed game based on NFTs.
- However, the game never materialized, and the value of its affiliated token, ZOO, has plummeted to zero since then.
- In February 2023, the co-creators faced a class-action lawsuit seeking compensation for the alleged rug pull scam.
| | | |
| 5 | | The Bank of Spain, the Spanish central bank, has selected its partners that would participate in the pilot program of its wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC). The pilot phase will take place in the next six months. More: - The selected partners include Spain-based Cecabank and Abanca and the U.K.-based Adhara Blockchain.
- The three firms were chosen from the 24 applicants.
- The pilot program will simulate the processing and settlement of interbank payments with the wholesale CBDC.
- The program will also test exchanging several wholesale CBDCs issued by different central banks.
- Besides, Cecabank and Abanca will use the Bank of Spain's wholesale CBDC to settle a tokenized bond in another part of the experiment.
Zoom Out: - The Bank of Spain also published a text explaining the nature and the use cases of its own digital euro in October last year.
- The country's CBDC will be independent from the European Central Bank's (ECB) digital euro project, which is expected to cover all countries in the Eurozone if it is implemented.
| | | |
| 6 | | AI and metaverse company Futureverse has partnered with the author of the science fiction novel Ready Player One, Ernest Cline, and the producer of the film adaptation of the novel, Dan Farah. The partnership will see a digital version of the Ready Player One universe coming to the metaverse. More: - As part of the collaboration, Cline and Farah have jointly established a firm dubbed Readyverse Studios to launch a metaverse called Readyverse, together with Shara Senderoff and Aaron McDonald from Futureverse.
- Futureverse will serve as a platform for interconnected digital experiences.
- Readyverse Studios has also partnered with media conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery to bring the Ready Player One franchise to the metaverse and Web3 platforms.
- In addition, the firm will maintain exclusive Web3 rights to all future intellectual property from Ernest Cline.
- Besides, Readyverse will embrace all the principles of the open metaverse, including interoperability, security, decentralization, community-owned infrastructure, and provable digital ownership.
Zoom Out: - Ready Player One was published in 2011 and takes place in a dystopia in 2045, where protagonist Wade Watts searches for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality (VR) game to inherit the game creator's fortune.
- Many believe that the novel and the movie, directed by Steven Spielberg, offer a glimpse into life in the metaverse.
| | | |
| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Need to close more deals faster? See 6 tips on how Calendly helps sales & marketing teams automate the meeting lifecycle and grow revenue. Read the blog.*
- Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network has announced that it would unstake its existing Ether (ETH) holdings worth around $470M as part of the efforts to repay its creditors.
- A recent survey by the investment management firm Bitwise has shown that only 39% of U.S.-based financial advisers believe the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will approve a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) application this year.
- Crypto exchange ACE Exchange founder David Pan has been arrested in Taiwan with allegations of committing fraud using cryptocurrencies.
- Crypto-focused venture capital (VC) firm Polychain Capital has confirmed that the X account of its founder and CEO, Olaf Carlson-Wee, was hacked.
*This is a sponsored post. | | | |
| Upcoming Events | | JAN
30 | | Join TruEra for an expert discussion about the impact of the EU AI Act on US and Canadian firms | | | | | | * This is a sponsored event | | | |
 | 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 | |
| |
| |
Comments
Post a Comment