August 26, 2022       /       Unchained Daily       /       Laura Shin

Daily Bits✍️✍️✍️

• Alexey Pertsev, the arrested developer of Tornado Cash, was formerly employed by a Russian security agency.
• Thailand’s oldest lender, SCBX, abandoned a $500 million deal to buy crypto exchange Bitkub.
• Reddit airdrops NFT Avatars for some of its most avid users.
• Authorities in Afghanistan closed 16 cryptocurrency exchanges after a ban from the country’s central bank.
• The Ethereum Foundation will pay up to $1 million to anyone who discovers a critical bug prior to the Merge.
• FTX denied a report from Bloomberg that said it was merging its venture capital operations with Alameda Research.
• The SEC delayed its decision on VanEck’s Bitcoin ETF application.
• The offices of Andreessen Horowitz-backed CoinSwitch Kuber were searched by Indian authorities, alleging violations of forex laws.

Today in Crypto Adoption…

• Samsung may launch its own crypto exchange by 2023.
• Snoop Dogg and Eminem will perform a metaverse-themed song at MTV’s Video Music Awards.

The $$$ Corner…

• Polygon founder launched a crypto-focused VC firm with $50 million to invest in Web3.
• Bitcoin Depot plans to go public at an $885 million valuation.

What Do You Meme?

What’s Poppin’?

Voyager’s Distressed Assets Spark Industry Giants’ Interest

by Juan Aranovich

The assets of crypto broker Voyager Digital, which is going through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, are being closely monitored by the biggest names in the industry, like FTX and Binance.

Voyager had filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July, after halting withdrawals from its platform and suffering a $650 million loss in crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.

Yesterday, CoinDesk reported that crypto giants FTX and Binance are among many companies interested in acquiring Voyager’s distressed assets, which will go through a sale on September 6.

It is not the first time FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has shown interest in Voyager. In June, Voyager signed a $200 million credit line with Alameda Research, a company also cofounded by SBF.

However, the market doesn’t seem to agree with Coinbase. VGX, Voyager Token, spiked 70% following the news, from $.26 to $.44, according to CoinMarketCap. At the time of writing, it is trading at $.59.

“Someone is going to become a hero”, tweeted a pro-Voyager Twitter account, tagging Bankman-Fried and Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance.

Recommended Reads

1. CoinCenter on how Tornado Cash works
2. TokenBrice on Aave’s stablecoin GHO
3. The DeFi Investor on how to use options

On The Pod…

Travis Kling, Chief Investment Officer at Ikigai Asset Management, talks about how ETH changes after the Merge, what factors are going to affect its price action, and whether it can decouple from traditional assets. Show highlights:

• how the supply and demand dynamics of ETH will change after the Merge
• why he believes the Merge is the most significant catalyst in crypto history
• what the risks are in terms of price action
• whether there is an estimate of how much ETH will be locked up and how this lockup resembles Mt. Gox’s BTC
• the impact that being a deflationary asset will have on the price of ETH and whether it will actually become deflationary after the Merge
• how activity levels have been decreasing in the Ethereum network
• whether ether is underpriced or overpriced, and how to evaluate it
• how institutional money is sitting on the sidelines at the moment after all the de-leveraging events that happened this year
• how the Merge affects BTC’s narrative and value-proposition
• how institutions have never been more interested in ether
• what the futures market is saying about the price action of ether
• whether ETHPoW has any value and how to trade it
• how macroeconomics has been impacting the crypto markets and whether ETH can decouple from the macro setups

Book Update

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