September 28, 2022       /       Unchained Daily       /       Laura Shin

Daily Bits✍️✍️✍️

• South Korean authorities requested two crypto exchanges to freeze 3,313 BTC (~$67 million) tied to Terraform Labs cofounder Do Kwon; but the Luna Foundation Guard denied ownership of a wallet said to have belonged to LFG and to have transferred funds to exchanges.
• The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank for International Settlements agree that DeFi and stablecoins need more regulation.
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) highlighted the centralization risks of a proof of stake mechanism.
• The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation accused eleven crypto and decentralized finance entities of operating like Ponzi schemes and violating state securities laws.
• The President of FTX US, Brett Harrison, will step down from his position and move to an advisory role.

Today in Crypto Adoption…

• Popular trading platform Robinhood announced the launch of its beta Web3 wallet and selected Polygon due to the network’s scalability and low fees.
• Christie’s launched Christie’s 3.0, a new NFT marketplace that will be anchored by an exclusive collection from Diana Sinclair.

The $$$ Corner…

• Crypto billionaire Jihan Wu, founder of bitcoin mining rig maker Bitmain, is reportedly setting up a $250 million fund to purchase distressed assets from mining firms.
• Strike, a Bitcoin payments company, closed an $80 million series B round.
• Asset manager Fasanara Capital established a new $350 million venture capitalist fund focused on fintech and Web3.
• Venture capital firm Liberty City Ventures led a $40 million series A round for MPCH Labs.
• Crypto lender Nexo bought a stake in US-based Summit National Bank.
• Space and Time, a Web3-native data platform, raised $20 million led by Microsoft’s M12 fund.
• Eclipse, a blockchain scaling project, garnered $9 million in a seed round co-led by Tribe Capital and Tabiya.
• Galaxy Digital and Polychain Capital led an $8 million funding round for solar-powered Bitcoin miner Aspen Creek.
• Decentralized exchange Krypton raised $7 million in a seed round led by Framework Ventures.

What Do You Meme?

What’s Poppin’?

Sam Bankman-Fried Won Voyager’s Auction and Is Now Considering Another Acquisition

by Juan Aranovich

FTX US, the crypto exchange owned by billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, won the auction for Voyager Digital assets yesterday and he is now considering bidding for the assets of Celsius, according to Bloomberg.

Voyager Digital and Celsius are two of the companies that went bankrupt during this crypto bear market. Both firms held millions of dollars in customer funds, which were frozen and are now under court custody.

Voyager announced that FTX had won the auction for its assets, with a bid valued at $1.42 billion comprising the fair market value of all Voyager crypto assets and an additional consideration of $111 million.

“FTX US’s market-leading, secure trading platform will enable customers to trade and store cryptocurrency after the conclusion of the Company’s chapter 11 cases,” Voyager wrote.

However, Bankman-Fried does not appear to be satisfied, as he is reportedly examining bidding for the assets of Celsius, even though he had previously rejected a bailout request from Celsius.

The news came hours after Alex Mashinsky, Celsius CEO and founder, resigned effective immediately from his role. “I regret that my continued role as CEO has become an increasing distraction,” he wrote in a press release. Mashinsky also said he is willing to collaborate with the company to “achieve a successful reorganization,” at a time in which some Celsius executives were planning a revival.

The crypto billionaire has been buying distressed assets of troubled crypto companies, and has been called “the lender of last resort” of the crypto industry.

In addition, FTX is reportedly trying to raise $1 billion for additional deal making, at a valuation of $32 billion.

Recommended Reads

1. Nikhilesh De on the lawsuit against Ooki DAO
2. Aleo on Zero-Knowledge
3. Sam Bankman-Fried on blacklisting vs. whitelisting

On The Pod…

Zack Guzman, journalist and Coinage host, and Jongbaek Park, partner specializing in blockchain and crypto assets at Bae, Kim & Lee, discuss how the case in South Korea against Do Kwon and TerraForm Labs will likely go, whether Do Kwon is on the run, and what his sentence could be. Show highlights:

• Jongbaek’s and Zack’s disclosures regarding Terra
• how big the Terra phenomenon was in South Korea and how Do Kwon was perceived in the country
• whether Do Kwon posed any conditions for his interview with Zack
• what Do Kwon is being charged with
• the colliding opinions on which tokens are considered securities
• whether the collapse of Terra had any negative impact on the South Korean President’s image
• whether Do Kwon feels like a charge for violating the capital markets law is unfair
• whether Do Kwon is “on the run,” despite his denials
• how the potential revocation of Kwon’s passport could make him go back to Korea
• whether Terra was a failure or a fraud, and how prosecutors are looking into it
• whether Terra was centralized
• the chance of prosecutors going after other people from Terraform Labs and the probability of the entity’s assets being frozen
• how much jail time Kwon could be facing and whether he is prepared to go to prison

Book Update

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