Does Salame’s Plea Put SBF In a Bad Place? 👀

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What’s Poppin’?

Former FTX Exec Ryan Salame Pleads Guilty to Criminal Charges

by Kari McMahon

Former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets Ryan Salame pleaded guilty to federal charges including conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and to defraud the FEC.

LBRY Files Notice of Appeal Against SEC

by Samyuktha Sriram

The blockchain-based file sharing platform now intends to appeal a ruling that it offered unregistered securities.

MakerDAO Could Allocate $100 Million to Tokenized Treasury Bonds

by Samyuktha Sriram

The DeFi giant could soon begin testing tokenized versions of U.S. Treasury bills to push Asset-Liability management to the next level.

IMF and FSB Warn Against Blanket Crypto Bans

by Kari McMahon

A blanket ban on crypto is not an “easy option,” according to a new report from global standard-setting agencies the IMF and FSB.

On the Pod…

Earlier this week, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and four co-authors published a paper describing a smart contract protocol called privacy pools that would enable crypto users to associate their funds with those being used for legitimate purposes versus those being used in criminal activity such as hacks or money laundering. The protocol addresses one of the main shortcomings of coin mixer Tornado Cash, which has been sanctioned by the U.S. government. 

Chainalysis chief scientist Jacob Illum, one of those co-authors, discusses the impetus for the paper, the technology behind privacy pools and how they would work in practice, who would provide some of the necessary organization to operate the pools, and some of the early criticisms of the paper.

Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️

• 🏛️ The CFTC penalized three DeFi protocols - Opyn, ZeroEx, and Deridex - for offering unauthorized digital asset derivatives trading and failing to adhere to necessary regulatory compliance measures.

• 🕵️ The FBI attributed the recent $41 million theft from crypto sports betting platform Stake.com to the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group.

• 📢 CFTC Commissioner Caroline Pham suggested a pilot program to facilitate the regulation of crypto, aiming to maintain market integrity and prevent fraudulent activities.

• 🔒 Faruk Fatih Ozer, the founder of the defunct Turkish crypto exchange Thodex, was sentenced to 11,196 years in prison for crimes including fraud and money laundering.

• 🤝 Linus Financial settled with the SEC over allegations of failing to register its retail crypto lending product, with no civil penalties imposed due to the company's cooperation and swift corrective measures.

• 💼 Kraken's derivatives unit, Crypto Facilities, is negotiating with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to broaden its asset custody services, according to CEO Mark Jennings.

• ⏳ The UK's Financial Conduct Authority may grant crypto firms a three-month extension to adapt to new advertising regulations, initially set for October 2023.

• 🌞 Bitcoin mining and data center hosting company Riot Platforms curtailed its power usage by over 95% during peak demand in August, receiving $31.7 million in energy credits to assist the Texas energy grid.

• 🎙️ U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty urged the Senate Banking Committee to conduct more hearings scrutinizing SEC Chair Gary Gensler's approach to the crypto sector.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

• 🤝 Coinbase, Aave, and other industry giants established the Tokenized Asset Coalition to foster the growth of the tokenized asset sector.

• 🏦 JPMorgan is reportedly developing a blockchain-based payment and settlement system to enhance transaction speed and reduce costs, pending regulatory approval.

• 📱 Southeast Asian ride-hailing super-app Grab integrated web3 services, enabling users to set up web3 wallets and earn blockchain-based rewards, including NFTs.

The $$$ Corner…

• 💰 Pantera Capital led a $16.5 million funding round in decentralized exchange Brine Fi, elevating its valuation to $100 million.

• 🌏 Helix, a startup nurtured by Helicap in Singapore, secured $2 million in pre-seed funding to develop its real-world assets protocol.

What Do You Meme?

Recommended Reads

1. NYMAG: That’s What I Call Ponzinomics With SBF, Gisele, and Michael Lewis at Peak of Crypto Craze

2. Natia Kurdadze shares IMF’s working paper around a legal perspective on digital tokens

3. Darius Tabai on DAOs

📈 Your Market Update 📉

• BTC is down .3%, trading at $25,822

• ETH is down .1%, trading at $1,626

• BTC dominance: 46.51%

• Crypto market cap: $1.08 trillion

*All data as of today, 7:02 am ET

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