October 20, 2022 / Unchained Daily / Laura Shin
What’s Poppin’?
Do Kwon Is Being Hunted Down by an Extra-Official Group
Do Kwon, the founder of the failed Terra blockchain, is reportedly being hunted down by a vigilante investor.
Binance Delegates 13M UNI to Uniswap DAO to Become its Second-Largest Voting Entity
by Samyuktha Sriram
Binance appears to have unintentionally delegated 13 million UNI tokens in custody to the Uniswap DAO. The centralized crypto exchange now holds 5.9% of total voting power, making it the second-largest delegate after a16z.
Fidelity Brings Ethereum Trading to Institutions
by Samyuktha Sriram
Fidelity plans to launch Ethereum trading for institutions on Oct. 28, according to a memo sent to clients on Wednesday.
$260,000 Gas Fees Stolen in Ethereum Alarm Clock Exploit
by Samyuktha Sriram
Exploiters manipulated a bug in the Ethereum Alarm Clock project’s Transaction Request Core contract to issue an oversized refund that let them pocket the difference in gas fees.
Does the New CFTC Draft Bill Spell the End of DeFi?
by Samyuktha Sriram
Regulators are said to be deliberating whether or not to exclude DeFi from the CFTC’s purview in its new draft bill on crypto regulation.
In Other News… ✍️✍️✍️
- The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) revealed a tax guide that puts stablecoins, cryptocurrencies, and NFTs under the same rules.
- Aaron Iovine, former executive at bankrupt lender Celsius, joined JPMorgan as head of crypto policy.
- Sam Bankman Fried, the founder and CEO of exchange FTX, published a regulatory manual for crypto.
- US authorities arrested two people who allegedly laundered profits from Venezuelan oil via crypto and purchased military equipment for Russia.
Today in Crypto Adoption…
- Japan to relax crypto rules through looser screening of tokens.
- Over 3 million Reddit users have created wallets to buy and trade NFTs.
The $$$ Corner
- The Celestia Foundation announced it raised $55 million from rounds led by Bain Capital Crypto and Polychain Capital.
- Audius, a decentralized music startup, acquired virtual music experience platform SoundStage.
- Arcade2Earn, a Solana-based gaming platform, closed a $3.2 million seed funding round.
- Helius, a Solana infrastructure startup, raised $3.1 million in a seed round.
What Do You Meme?
Recommended Reads
- Sam Kessler on censorship in Ethereum
- Jake Chervinsky on traditional finance vs. crypto
- Mario Gabriele on 10 projects in the Cosmos ecosystem
On The Pod…
Welcome to The Chopping Block! Host Haseeb Qureshi partnered with Zhuoxun Yin, cofounder of Magic Eden, to debate Unchained host Laura Shin and Li Jin, cofounder at Variant Fund, on the topic of NFT Royalties. Show highlights:
- What NFT royalties are
- Why Laura believes zero NFT royalties is a bad business decision prioritizing short-term needs over long-term ones and that it will turn creators off from the industry
- How charging royalties is not sustainable, according to Haseeb
- Why royalties are the best mechanism to align incentives between creators and holders, according to Li
- The technical limitations of NFT royalties on a general-purpose blockchain like Ethereum or Solana
- How to align incentives between NFT creators and holders
- Why the prices of NFTs would go up if royalties are not enforced
- Whether the NFT market will change in the future
- Whether it is possible to create a standard that enforces royalties in a smart contract
- The creators’ reaction to Magic Eden moving to optional royalties
- The possibility of a bifurcation of the NFT market
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
