Will Tether Pump BTC? 📈

In today's edition: 💲1.33 billion repaid, SEC ❌ Filecoin, 💀 Binance Australia, and more!

May 18, 2023

What’s Poppin’?

by Samyuktha Sriram

Bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital will pay out $1.33 billion worth of crypto assets to customers with funds stuck on the platform.

Stablecoin issuer Tether’s new investment strategy involves adding Bitcoin to its reserves.

The SEC asked Grayscale to withdraw its application to make its Filecoin Trust a reporting entity on the grounds that the underlying asset qualifies as a security.

The crypto exchange told users that fiat to crypto deposits were unavailable following a decision made by a third party service provider.

On the Pod…

Bitcoin’s BRC-20 Mania: Is It Sustainable? - Ep. 493

Show highlights:

  • how BRC-20s work by relying on some off-chain mechanisms

  • why Bitcoin is not a “dinosaur chain,” according to Dan

  • why Trevor says BRC-20 memecoins are superior to those on Ethereum

  • what the practical utilities of BRC-20s are, if any

  • why transaction fees in Bitcoin rose so much and why it’s healthy for the network

  • whether innovation is coming back to Bitcoin

  • whether Satoshi Nakamoto would have approved of Bitcoin NFTs

  • why Dan says BRC-20s “absolutely” solve the problem with Bitcoin’s security budget

  • why it’s hard to determine an “appropriate” amount for the security budget of Bitcoin

  • how the NFT market could be shaped after the rise of Ordinals and BRC-20s

Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️

  • 💰 FTX's current management is suing ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and others, alleging they used FTX customer funds fraudulently for a $250 million purchase of insolvent Alameda Research's stock clearing platform, Embed.

  • 🏛️ Alameda Research and West Realm Shires, two FTX units, are suing to recover $6.9 million from Embed Financial shareholders, alleging misappropriation of funds before FTX's bankruptcy.

  • 🔄 The U.S. Trustee requested a Delaware bankruptcy court to reverse its earlier decision and appoint an independent examiner in the FTX bankruptcy case.

  • 💱 Circle restructured the reserves for USD Coin (USDC), moving $8.7 billion into overnight repurchase agreements to guard against potential U.S. government debt default.

  • ⚖️ Fahrenheit Consortium, featuring Arrington Capital and U.S. Bitcoin Corp, is the front-runner in the auction for bankrupt lender Celsius's assets, valued at around $2 billion.

  • 🔒 Citadel Securities filed a lawsuit against high-frequency crypto trading firm Portofino, accusing two former executives of stealing trade secrets during the establishment of their startup.

  • 💡 A Lido community member proposed a plan for LDO token staking and buyback, involving a 20-50% redirection of future Lido DAO revenues from the protocol treasury to LDO stakers.

  • 📊 A Uniswap Labs survey revealed that the complexity and expense of on-chain trading on decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms discourage occasional cryptocurrency users.

The $$$ Corner…

  • 💸 Ripple acquired Swiss custody firm Metaco for $250 million, signaling its expansion into providing crypto custody services for institutional investors.

  • 💻 Airstack, a Web3 developer platform using AI for cross-chain data interaction, secured over $7 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Superscrypt.

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📈 Your Market Update 📉

  • BTC is up 2.1%, trading at $27,409

  • ETH is up 1.3%, trading at $1,827

  • BTC dominance: 44.76%

  • Crypto market cap: $1.19 trillion

*All data as of today, 6:20 am ET

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