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| Here is a quick look at the hits from today's Inside Cryptocurrency newsletter: - Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao's resignation from the chairman role at Binance.US,
- Voyager Digital's $1.65B settlement deal with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission,
- Reddit user attempting to mine crypto through a 2017 Nintendo Switch game console, and more.
Enjoy your reading! Doğa
p/dogayurduneri | |
| 1 | | Binance's co-founder and former CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), has stepped down as chairman of Binance.US, the U.S. arm of the largest crypto exchange by trading volume. The move came a week after Zhao also resigned from the CEO role at Binance's global entity. More: - In an official statement, Binance said CZ will no longer be involved in Binance.US' governance, though he still has an economic interest in the company.
- Last week, Zhao pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering requirements and U.S. sanctions by allowing terrorist groups to make crypto transactions on Binance.
- As part of the plea deal, the co-founder was ordered to pay a $50M penalty, to resign from the CEO position, and not to engage in Binance's management for three years.
- The former CEO was later released from custody on a $175M bond.
- Under the same deal, Binance also agreed to pay a $4.3B fine, one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history, to settle money laundering, unlicensed money-transmitting business operations, and sanction violations charges.
- The settlement deal resolved multi-year investigations conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Treasury Department, and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Zoom Out: - Zhao currently faces up to 10 years in prison, though he is expected to get no more than 18 months under the plea deal.
- Binance and CZ are also under scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the U.S. through a lawsuit, which was not resolved with the latest settlement.
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| 2 | | 
What the numbers say: Data compiled by Blockchain.com has revealed the top five Bitcoin mining pools based on their market share in the total hash rate on the Bitcoin network. The two largest mining pools, AntPool and Foundry USA, currently make up over 55% of the total hash rate alone. In the top five, the two pools were followed by F2Pool, ViaBTC, and Binance Pool, respectively. The remaining of the list accounted for only 15.2% of the total combined. Relevance: The hash rate refers to the amount of computing power used by a network per second to process transactions and create new coins. A large market share in the total hash rate affects Bitcoin's decentralization negatively, forcing medium- and small-scale mining pools to leave the network. This dominance becomes even more clear when Bitcoin mining difficulty increases, requiring more hash rates to create new tokens. Meanwhile, the network becomes more centralized as the mining activity gathers in a handful of mining pools capable of offering higher computing power, different from the way Bitcoin's innovators initially envisioned. Brands that should care: As Bitcoin mining gets more and more centralized, decentralization of the network has become a hot topic for Bitcoin-advocate investors over the past few years. Most recently, Twitter founder and Block CEO Jack Dorsey invested in the U.S.-based mining software startup Mummolin to support the launch of its decentralized Bitcoin mining pool, OCEAN. The project aims to help miners regain autonomy and decision-making power over certain processes in mining operations through a non-custodial, transparent, and permissionless model. In the fundraising round led by Dorsey, the firm secured $6.2M in Seed funding in total. Other participants in the round included Accomplice, Barefoot Bitcoin Fund, MoonKite, NewLayer Capital, and the Bitcoin Opportunity Fund. | | | |
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| 3 | | Bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital has agreed to pay a $1.65B fine to settle the allegations of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) under a court order approved by Judge Gregory Woods. The settlement agreement will also see Voyager Digital being permanently restricted or prohibited from marketing or offering products and services related to digital assets. More: - As part of the settlement, the bankrupt crypto lender will have to cooperate with FTC officials on various occasions, including court hearings, trials, and discovery.
- The order will largely not impact Voyager Digital's ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.
- The FTC launched its investigation into the company, along with its employees, directors, and officers, over the allegation of deceptive and unfair marketing of cryptocurrencies to the public in February.
- Also, the agency claimed that Voyager Digital misrepresented the availability of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. protection to its customers.
- Following its bankruptcy, the firm was ordered to remove any statements indicating that customers' dollar deposits were covered by federal deposit insurance since they did not reflect the truth.
- The $1.65B fine will settle the allegations related to false statements about federal insurance coverage.
Zoom Out: - Voyager Digital filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2022, nearly four years after its launch, citing volatility in the crypto market and its exposure to the collapsed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC).
- In October, the FTC also filed a separate lawsuit against Voyager Digital's former CEO, Stephen Ehrlich, jointly with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), accusing him of misleading customers about the safety of their assets.
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| 4 | | Troubled crypto exchange Zipmex has offered to repay its creditors around 3.35 cents per dollar of claims as part of its latest restructuring plan. In a recent court document, the firm pointed out that the amount of repayment could increase to as much as 29.35 cents based on its recoveries. More: - The plan aims to restructure Zipmex's $97.1M in debt.
- Sources familiar with the matter claimed that major creditors opposed the repayment proposal.
- The creditors have also reportedly requested an independent review since there are changes in Zipmex's assets and liabilities in recent documents.
- The latest repayment plan will be voted on in early December.
- The Southeast Asia-focused exchange was fully operational in Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, and Singapore before facing financial troubles.
- Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently ordered the platform to halt its trading operations in the country because of its insufficient net capital levels.
Zoom Out: - Zipmex filed for bankruptcy protection in Singapore in July 2022 due to last year's prolonged crypto winter that caused a massive decline in cryptocurrency prices.
- The firm's restructuring is currently overseen by a Singaporean court.
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| 5 | | The DOGE-1 mission, which aims to send a satellite entirely paid with the popular cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE) to the moon, has become one step closer to its launch after obtaining approval from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The approval has formed the final step before the ultimate Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license. More: - The move was announced by Samuel Reid, the CEO of Canada-based Geometric Energy Corporation developing the satellite.
- The DOGE-1 satellite would launch into space through Elon Musk-led space transportation company SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.
- The satellite would orbit the moon and display advertisements, images, and logos through a built-in miniature screen, which would be later broadcast to the Earth.
- DOGE-1 would mark the first satellite launch entirely paid in DOGE.
- The mission was first announced by Elon Musk in 2021, though its launch was postponed to January 2024 from the previous target of 2022 after several delays.
Zoom Out: - Earlier in November, the team behind Dogecoin also announced that Astrobotic, a U.S.-based private company developing space robotics technology for lunar and planetary missions, would send a physical DOGE memento to the moon.
- The token will be launched into space as part of Astrobotics' Peregrine Mission 1 (PM1) scheduled for Dec. 23.
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| 6 | | An anonymous miner has recently shared a picture on Reddit while mining the Monero (XMR) token using a 2017 Nintendo Switch console. The picture revealed that the console, once used to play Super Mario, produced 230 hashes of computing power per second (H/s). More: - RandomX, a Monero mining algorithm, allows for this type of experiment since it can work with simple central processing units (CPUs) or gaming devices.
- However, the crypto community defined a 230 H/s mining setup as inefficient and unprofitable.
- Media outlet Finbold pointed out that such a setup would result in losses for the miner and require nearly 770 months to mine a single XMR, costing $0.43 per month and around $331 in total.
- XMR is currently traded at the $166 level.
- Following the Nintendo Switch experiment, a pseudonymous account on X, formerly known as Twitter, has also done a similar experiment with the Steam Deck console.
- Steam Deck was able to produce 700 H/s while mining Monero.
Zoom Out: - In 2021, a YouTuber also attempted to mine Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, using his Nintendo Game Boy handheld game console.
- The 30-year-old console produced 0.8 hashes per second, meaning it would take more than 1 quadrillion years (and untold numbers of AA batteries) to mine one bitcoin.
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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.*
- Spanish banking giant Banco Santander has reportedly started working with Swiss crypto firm Taurus to safeguard Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) holdings of its clients in Switzerland.
- The Philippines' Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a warning against Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, stating that the platform is operating without necessary regulatory approvals in the country.
- Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee has stated that the government would actively cooperate with local regulators needing more powers to crack down on unlicensed crypto exchanges.
- Bankrupt crypto lender Genesis and its parent company, Digital Currency Group (DCG), have agreed on a repayment plan to end a $620M lawsuit.
*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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