Ethereum’s Move to Proof-of-Stake Hit a New Milestone Yesterday

July 23, 2021       /       Unchained Daily       /       Laura Shin

Daily Bits ✍️✍️✍️

• JP Morgan clients can now invest in Grayscale and Osprey crypto funds.

• Dfinity is facing a class-action lawsuit for selling ICP tokens as unregistered securities.

• Reddit to scale its Ethereum-based tokens using Arbitrum.

• Cryptocurrency miner operator Core Scientific is merging with Power and Digital Infrastructure Acquisition Corp — a SPAC — and will trade on Nasdaq.

• Rapper Busta Rhymes is a HODLer… thanks to Elon Musk.

• GlobalX has filed for a bitcoin ETF.

• Thesis, a crypto venture studio, raised $21M in a Series A.

• Immutable X announced $IMX, the native utility token of its NFT protocol.

• The National Credit Union Administration published a request for information on how DeFi could affect the credit union system in the US.

• The transition from Ethereum to Ethereum 2.0 finally has an official Ethereum Improvement Proposal.
• THORChain suffered an $8M exploit yesterday.

What Do You Meme?

What’s Poppin’?

New Jersey, Alabama, and Texas Regulators Warn BlockFi
On Monday evening, Forbes reported the New Jersey Bureau of Securities ordered crypto lender BlockFi to stop accepting new BlockFi interest account (BIA) clients in New Jersey. The report was later confirmed by BlockFi CEO Zac Prince.

New Jersey contends that BlockFi interest accounts are a form of unregistered securities, while BlockFi believes BIAs are “lawful and appropriate for crypto market participants.”

As of now, BlockFi has until July 29th to stop accepting new BIA clients. In his tweet thread, Prince assured current clients and other users that the order would not impact their experience.

On Wednesday, the Alabama Security Commission (ASC) joined New Jersey, claiming BlockFi has sold $14.7B worth of unregistered securities through its BIA program. The ASC took a slightly different approach by issuing a show-cause notice, ordering BlockFi to explain “why they should not be directed to cease and desist from selling unregistered securities in Alabama.”

BlockFi responded on Twitter, “We are aware of the show cause order issued by the Alabama Securities Commission…. Our stance hasn’t changed – the BlockFi Interest Account is not a security.”

And lastly, on Thursday, the Texas State Securities Board (TSSB) filed for a cease and desist against BlockFi, according to CoinDesk. For now, BlockFi is allowed to continue operations in the state, with the TSSB director noting: “This legal action affords BlockFi and its affiliates the opportunity to respond to our allegations and present admissible evidence.”

Bonus Rec. Read:

Recommended Reads

• Andrew Bakst on why Ethereum is the world’s most valuable asset:

• Brett Scott on the difficulty of describing Bitcoin:

• Everything you need to know about the prehistory of DAOs:

On The Pod…

MIT’s Neha Narula on Why Building DeFi on Bitcoin Is a Great Idea

Neha Narula, director of the Digital Currency Initiative at the MIT Media Lab, discusses Elon Musk’s appearance at ‘The B Word’ conference, along with a few current events in the Bitcoin world. Show highlights:

• her main takeaway from ‘The B Word’ conference

• why governance plays an essential role in Bitcoin’s block size arguments

• what Neha thinks of proof-of-work mining and Bitcon’s environmental concerns

• why Neha is skeptical of Dogecoin becoming a serious cryptocurrency

• why Jack Dorsey’s new Bitcoin platform business is a good idea

• what Bitcoin’s dip in hashrate due to China’s crackdown could affect network security going forward

• what questions Neha has about Bitcoin’s adoption in El Salvador

• why Neha thinks cryptocurrencies and CBDCs will coexist

• what DCI has planned for the rest of 2021

You can purchase it here: http://bit.ly/cryptopians