WuBlockchain Weekly:Binance sued by CFTC and Top10 News
Colin Wu . 2023-03-31 . Data
Top10 News

1. Yuga Labs’ weekly summary

a. Gucci teams up with company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club link

On March 27, Luxury brand Gucci has announced a partnership with Yuga Labs, and Gucci will play a role in Otherside and 10KTF, which will begin participating in Otherside this week.

b. Otherside has announced the launch of Legends of the Mara (LOTM) link

On March 28, Otherside has announced the launch of Legends of the Mara (LOTM), a 2D game available to Otherdeed holders, which is expected to launch in May. The game also introduces a new NFT line called Mara, which evolves into Kodamara.

c. BAYC released new information about the HV-MTL series link

On March 30, BAYC released new information about the HV-MTL series. There are 8 series of mechs: glitch, dynamic, bio, knight, celestial, reaver, holo and legendary. The total number of HV-MTL is 30,000, which are destroyed and summoned by the previously qualified Sewer Pass. The NFT is dynamic and will develop according to the holder’s decision.

2. The US and South Korea are seeking the extradition of Do Kwon link

Montenegro’s justice minister said a judge would decide how to proceed. “Consideration will be given to the gravity of crimes, location of committed offenses, sequence of requests, as well as citizenship”, he said that if the suspects are convicted in Montenegro, they’ll first have to serve time there. A criminal defense lawyer in Montenegro told Protos that Do Kwon will soon be transferred to a detention area with only 8 square meters, about 10 people and no beds; and it will take at least a year to reach an extradition agreement, and the probability of extradition to South Korea is higher.

3. MicroStrategy acquired approximately 6,455 bitcoins link

On March 30, MicroStrategy announced that between February 16 and March 23, 2023, MicroStrategy acquired approximately 6,455 bitcoins for approximately $150.0 million in cash, at an average price of approximately $23,238. As of March 23, 2023, MicroStrategy held 138,955 bitcoins, at an aggregate purchase price of $4.14 billion and an average purchase price of $29,817. MicroStrategy repaid its $205M Silvergate loan at a 22% discount with approximately $161.0 million and got approximately 34,619 bitcoins that was serving as collateral back.

4. Binance’s weekly summary

a. Binance opens a new regional hub in Georgia link

On March 27, Binance openned a new regional hub in Georgia. Binance’s Georgia team is 25 people and expects to add dozens more jobs by the end of 2023. In November 2022, Binance’s CEO CZ visited Georgia for the first time.

b. Binance and its CEO sued by CFTC over US regulatory violations link

Binance Holdings Ltd.and CZ were sued by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission for allegedly breaking trading and derivatives rules. The CFTC filed the lawsuit Monday in federal court in Chicago. The CFTC is asking the court to enjoin Binance from further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act, as well as civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, and disgorgement. The suit was likely expected by Binance. In February, the exchange’s CSO admitted Binance was being investigated by multiple regulators and expected to pay fines to “make amends” for past regulatory violations.

c. Binance publishes CZ’s response to CFTC complaint link

CZ’s response to the CFTC complaint: the CFTC filed an unexpected and disappointing civil complaint, despite our working cooperatively with the CFTC for over two years. The complaint appears to contain an incomplete recitation of facts, and we do not agree with the characterization of many of the issues alleged in the complaint.

Binance mentioned for the first time in this blog that they have affiliates that provide liquidity for less liquid pairs and prohibit employees from trading in Futures, and also emphasized that they have a 90 day no-day-trading rule for employees.

d. Binance to list Radiant Capital (RDNT) and initiate Launchpool link

Binance will list Radiant Capital (RDNT) in the Innovation Zone and will open trading for these spot trading pairs at 2023–03–30 07:30 (UTC). Radiant is currently Arbitrum’s leading lending agreement, but did not disclose financing and team information. Binance announced the 32st project on Binance Launchpool — Radiant Capital (RDNT). Users will be able to stake their BNB and TUSD into separate pools to farm RDNT tokens over 40 days.

5. BitDeer to be listed on NASDAQ with a valuation of $1.18 billion link

On March 28, SEC has declared effective the registration statement of Bitdeer on Form F-4. The valuation is approximately US$1.18 billion, and the NASDAQ ticker is “BTDR”. Bitdeer is a bitcoin mining company owned by Jihan Wu. The valuation in 2021 is 4 billion US dollars.

6. OKX to launch entity and apply for virtual asset licenses in Hong Kong link

On March 28, OKX Exchange said it has established a Hong Kong company and applied for a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license under the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Regulations 2022, which will come into effect on June 1 this year. Currently only OSL and Hashkey have obtained this license.

7. SBF’s weekly summary

a. US charges SBF with bribing Chinese officials link

SBF paid out tens of millions of dollars worth of bribes to at least one Chinese government official to unfreeze Alameda’s account in 2021, which contained around $1 billion crypto, federal prosecutors alleged in a new indictment Tuesday. A reporter asked the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs about SBF’s bribery of Chinese officials. A spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry said she was not aware of the incident.

b. SBF is expected to plead not guilty to new U.S. criminal charges link

On March 30, SBF is expected to plead not guilty on Thursday to new U.S. criminal charges, which include conspiring to violate campaign finance laws and bribe Chinese authorities. SBF faces a possible sentence of decades in prison if convicted at a trial set to start on Oct. 2.

8. Market cap of USDC drops 23% in 3 weeks link

USDC’s market cap has dropped 23% from $43.4 billion on March 10 to $33.3 billion on March 30. BUSD has dropped from $16.1 billion on February 13 to $7.67 billion, a drop of 52%. USDT has increased by $9 billion in the past 30 days.

9. FTX sends notice to creditors regarding claim submission deadline link

On the morning of March 29, FTX sent emails to creditors on a large scale, including client codes and claim assets, emphasizing that the court has not yet set a deadline for submitting claims or proof of interest against the debtor. When the court sets the deadline, all known creditors will receive a notice regarding the deadline and instructions on how to submit claims or proof of interest.

10. Ethereum developer: Testing of Shapella upgrade is entering its final stages link

Ethereum Developer Conference: Testing of Shapella upgrade is entering its final stages, with a last mainnet shadow fork scheduled next week and cross-client EVM fuzzing of the latest releases. The EVM Object Format (EOF) has been updated, but developers are skeptical whether it can be released in conjunction with the EIP-4844 in Cancun, or put into the next fork.

Fundraising

  • Solana-based derivatives protocol Cega raised $5 million in a seed extension round led by Dragonfly Capital link
  • Metaverse construction start up LandVault topped up its Series B round by $3 million link
  • Crypto infrastructure startup Conduit has emerged from stealth with a $7 million seed funding round led by Paradigm link
  • So-Col (Social Collectables), a web3 social platform founded by crypto influencer Irene Zhao, unveiled $4.5 million in fresh funding across in two rounds link
  • Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer has closed its $50 million Series A fundraising round led by Blockchain Capital link
  • Econia Labs, a startup developing an order book protocol for the Aptos blockchain, raised $6.5 million in a seed funding round led by Dragonfly link
  • Ledger, the largest hardware wallet maker, has completed a €100 million valuation at a €1.3 billion valuation link

Learn more, check out crypto-fundraising.info.

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