Will Celsius Dump? 🥶

In today's edition: 🎙️New episode on BRC-20s, 🤑 Jump's $1 billion profit?, 💼 SEC vs. Coinbase, and more!

May 16, 2023

On the Pod…

Ordinal theory has unleashed a new wave of NFTs, memecoins and innovation on Bitcoin — but not without controversy. Bitcoin educator Dan Held and Bitcoin Frontier Fund Managing Partner Trevor Owens join the show to discuss the breakneck rise of BRC-20s and why they’re both bullish on what memecoins mean for the original blockchain.

What’s Poppin’?

by Samyuktha Sriram

Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius moved its stash of 428,000 stETH minutes before Lido Withdrawals were enabled.

New filings from the SEC suggest Jump Trading is the unnamed trading firm profited from its dealings with Terraform Labs.

The SEC argued that no statute or regulation requires the agency to respond to Coinbase’s rulemaking petition on a specific timeline.

Bitcoin-related investment products accounted for 80% of all outflows over the last month.

Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️

  • ⚖️ Criminal extortion charges against Steven Nerayoff, a former adviser to the Ethereum network, have been dismissed by a New York judge, concluding a lengthy legal dispute.

  • ✅ EU finance ministers approved the landmark Markets in Crypto Assets regulation (MiCA) and new anti-money laundering measures on crypto funds transfers, paving the way for the EU to become the world's first major jurisdiction with a crypto licensing system.

  • 💼 BlockFi has sought bankruptcy court approval to liquidate its lending platform and distribute the proceeds to its creditors. Also, the recovery of funds for BlockFi's creditors and clients heavily relies on its lawsuits against commercial partners like FTX and Alameda, potentially affecting over $1 billion in repayments, according to recent court filings.

  • 📉 Berenberg bank predicts that Coinbase is likely to face an enforcement action from the SEC, mirroring cases against rival exchanges Bittrex and Kraken, and initiates stock coverage with a hold rating and $55 price target.

  • 📈 Bitcoin wallets holding at least one Bitcoin reached a milestone of one million this week, indicating enduring sentiment despite overall market pressure on Bitcoin prices.

  • 🔍 Amid accusations of conflict of interest, ex-lawmaker Kim Nam-kuk's transfers prompted South Korean authorities to scrutinize accounts at major crypto exchanges Upbit and Bithumb, as well as messaging app Kakao's Klip crypto wallet.

The $$$ Corner…

  • 📈 Soluna Holdings (SLNH), a crypto mining data center company, secured $14 million in funding to complete the development of Project Dorothy 1B in Texas. 

  • ⏳ Crypto startup Hourglass launched the first-ever marketplace for trading Time-Bound Tokens (TBTs), enabling the exchange of ownership for assets locked in DeFi protocols based on their lock-up period, after raising $4.2 million in a seed round led by Electric Capital.

  • 🎓 Sandeep Nailwal, cofounder of Polygon, along with venture capital firm Symbolic Capital, launched the Nailwal Fellowship, investing $500,000 annually from his personal funds to support ten early-stage builders transitioning from Web2 to Web3.

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📈 Your Market Update 📉

  • BTC is down 1.2%, trading at $27,077

  • ETH is down .7%, trading at $1,815

  • BTC dominance: 44.7%

  • Crypto market cap: $1.17 trillion

*All data as of today, 6:30 am ET

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