🕵️‍♀️ 3 More Investigations!?️

In today's edition: US authorities investigate DCG, subpoenas issued for Binance-associated hedge funds, Shanghai upgrade is coming, and more!

January 09, 2023

On the Pod…

Ram Ahluwalia, CEO and cofounder at Lumida, talks about the ongoing dispute between Gemini and Digital Currency Group (DCG), specifically focusing on the actions and statements of DCG CEO Barry Silbert and Gemini’s cofounder Cameron Winklevoss. Ram discusses various aspects of the conflict, including the potential commingling of assets between DCG and its subsidiary Genesis and the options available to Gemini if DCG does not cooperate.

What’s Poppin’?

U.S. authorities are looking into the nature of internal transfers between major crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group and one of its embattled lending subsidiaries.

U.S.-based investment firms have been directed by regulators to disclose their communications with the world’s largest crypto exchange.

A U.S. Trustee has opposed the planned sale of LedgerX, and FTX’s Japan and Europe subsidiaries, saying it could compromise an internal investigation into potential misconduct.

Huobi saw an increased pace of withdrawals last week after the crypto exchange confirmed it had planned to cut 20% of its workforce.

In Other News…✍️✍️✍️

  • Ethereum developers plan to release a public test network for the Shanghai upgrade, which will focus specifically on staked ETH withdrawals, by the end of February.

  • Former president of FTX U.S. Brett Harrison plans to disclose details about the operations of the crypto exchange.

  • The new management of FTX is requesting for the funds donated by Sam Bankman-Fried to be returned.

  • Wyre announced that it is limiting customers to withdrawing no more than 90% of the funds currently held in their accounts "to navigate the current market environment."

  • John Crain, the CEO of NFT marketplace SuperRare, announced that the company laid off 30% of its staff due to the ongoing market conditions.

  • DeLabs, the startup behind NFT projects DeGods and Y00ts, was paid $3 million in grants by Polygon to move to their blockchain.

  • The Solana Foundation's RPC endpoints were down on Sunday but that did not affect the ability of the network to produce new blocks.

  • Gary Harmon, a 31-year-old man from Cleveland, admitted to committing wire fraud and obstruction of justice after stealing 712 bitcoins from the IRS.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

  • Mastercard partnered with Polygon to launch the Mastercard Artist Accelerator, a program aimed at helping musical artists learn how to build their brand through NFTs.

  • OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, announced its support for Arbitrum Nova, a layer 2 blockchain designed to offer low-cost data availability.

What Do You Meme

📈 Your Market Update 📉

  • BTC is up 1.39%, trading at $17,243

  • ETH is up 3.61%, trading at $1,317

  • BTC dominance: 38.33%

  • Crypto market cap: $843 billion

*All data as of today, 5 am ET

Recommended Reads

  1. Carter Woetzel, author of “Building Confidence in Blockchain — Investing In Cryptocurrency and a Decentralized Future”, on information asymmetry in public blockchains

  2. charliemktplace on the differences between Curve and Uniswap:

  3. “Vitiligo” by Arthur Hayes

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