March 3, 2022       /       Unchained Daily       /       Laura Shin

Daily Bits ✍️✍️✍️

  • ConsenSys is facing a multi-million audit as a group of 35 former employees, who are also shareholders, seek to investigate irregularities with how two company entities were valued in previous transactions.

  • Treasure, an NFT marketplace on Arbitrum, was hit by a $1 million+ hack yesterday.

  • Cosmos-based DEX Osmosis launched a new staking service.

  • An anon DeFi borrower took out an $8 million loan by collateralizing their 101 CryptoPunks.

  • Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that recent events in Ukraine have underscored the “need” for Congressional action on digital finance, including cryptocurrencies.

  • UkraineDAO facilitated an NFT sale of the Ukrainian Flag that raised $6.75 million for the Ukrainian war effort.

  • LUNA surpassed Ethereum to become the second-largest staked asset.

  • EU lawmakers dropped a proposal that would have made it illegal for crypto exchanges to deal with PoW powered tokens.

Today in Crypto Adoption…

  • Ukraine’s Twitter account suggested that an airdrop is imminent for users who donated crypto to its addresses, leading to a spike in ETH donations.

  • Charles Schwab filed to create a “Crypto Economy” ETF yesterday.

  • Billboard and Universal Music Group have partnered to launch ChartStars, a Flow-based NFT collection.

The $$$ Corner…

  • Tenderly, a crypto infrastructure firm, raised $40 million in a Series B funding round.

  • Digital Currency Group announced a $250 million share buyback of several Grayscale crypto trusts.

What Do You Meme?

What’s Poppin’?

Are NFTs Securities? That’s What the SEC Wants to Know

 

According to a report from Bloomberg, the US Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing the creators of NFTs and crypto exchanges on whether certain tokens should be considered a security. SEC attorneys have reportedly sent subpoenas regarding NFT offerings.

Of particular interest to the SEC’s investigation, which Bloomberg describes as a “probe,” is whether fractional NFTs, where an NFT is broken down into multiple units and sold separately, are securities. Bloomberg cites anonymous sources familiar with the investigation.

Bloomberg points to comments from SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, a crypto-friendly regulator known as “Crypto Mom,” in December of last year, where she lent credence to the idea that the regulator could have jurisdiction of non-fungible tokens.

“Given the breadth of the NFT landscape, certain pieces of it might fall within our jurisdiction,” Peirce said. “People need to be thinking about potential places where NFTs might run into the securities regulatory regime.”

Recommended Reads

  1. Dragonfly Capital on the ~actual~ throughput capability of L1s:

  1. Vice on the fraught relationship between gaming companies and NFTs:

  1. Mitchell Hammer on getting started in crypto:

On The Pod…

Is Code Law? Should the Hacker Be Punished? The DAO Creators Disagree

During my research for The Cryptopians, I found information that I believe identifies the perpetrator behind The DAO hack on Ethereum. Three founding members of The DAO and Slock.it (Christoph Jentzsch, Lefteris Karapetsas, Griff Green) discuss how and why they created The DAO, how they helped save the funds being siphoned off by black hat hackers, their personal feelings about The DAO, along with their reaction to the news about who I believe was The DAO attacker. Show topics:

Part 1: Background on The DAO

  • Christoph, Lefteris, and Griff’s background and how they came to Slock.it

  • what Slock.it was and why the Slock.it team decided to create The DAO

  • what The DAO has to do with venture capital funding

  • why the Slock.it team did not cap The DAO sale

  • what made The DAO such a popular investment vehicle

  • why The DAO developers were scared at the amount of money they raised

Part 2:

  • what Christoph, Lefteris, and Griff’s initial reaction to The DAO was

  • saving funds from The DAO via a hard fork versus white hat hacking

  • whether they thought Ethereum Classic would survive a hard fork

  • how the Ethereum community has treated Christoph, Griff, and Lefteris in the wake of The DAO attack

Part 3:

  • why they disagree on whether code is law

  • their reaction to my naming Toby Hoenisch as The DAO attacker

  • which actor would play them in a movie about The DAO attack

Book Update

My book, The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze, which is all about Ethereum and the 2017 ICO mania, is now available!

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